Jews and Other Germans

by Van Rahden, Till; Brainard, Marcus

• ISBN13: 9780299226909
• ISBN10: 0299226905
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-07-01
• Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Pr

Summary

Jews and Other Germansis the first social and cultural history to probe the parameters of Jewish integration in the half century between the founding of the German Empire in 1871 and the early Weimar Republic. Questioning received wisdom about German-Jewish assimilation and the pervasiveness of anti-Semitism in Imperial Germany, van Rahdenrs"s prize-winning book restores some of the complexity and openness of relations between Protestants, Catholics, and Jews before World War I. Closely analyzing the political, social, and cultural life in a major German city, van Rahden shows that Jews were a part of a broad urban community that encompassed diversity within unity, at once offering them a large measure of equality while permitting them to remain meaningfully Jewish.Jews and Other Germansalso substantially revises the chronology of anti-Semitism in Germany, showing that Jews only began to experience exclusion from Breslaurs"s social world during World War I. Yet van Rahden not only illuminates Breslaurs"s multicultural fabric; he also tells the story of this remarkable city as one of cultural and religious conflict and coexistence. Recounting the experiences of Jews, Protestants, and Catholics within a single narrative, he offers a critical intervention into scholarship on liberalism and civil society in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe.

Author Biography

Till van Rahden holds the Canada Research Chair in German and European Studies and is associate professor in the department of literature and modern languages at the UniversitT de MontrTal. Marcus Brainard earned his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Osnabrnck, Germany, and is the editor and translator of numerous works of philosophy and history.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction	p. 3
The Social Structure of Jews, Protestants, and Catholics from the Mid-Nineteenth Century to the First World War	p. 21
The Strained Relationship between Status and Class in Modernity: The Bourgeoisie as a Status Group	p. 22
The Social Advancement of Breslau Jes, 1780-1870	p. 26
The Occupational Profile of Jews and Other Breslauers	p. 31
Income Stratification	p. 41
Embourgeoisement and the Jewish Bourgeoisie in Contemporary Perspective	p. 58
Crossing Boundaries: Jews in Bourgeois and Jewish Associations	p. 64
Early Bourgeois Anti-Semitism and the Jewish Subculture	p. 65
The Opening of Bourgeois Associations in 1848-1849	p. 68
Anti-Semitism as Cultural Code: The Anti-Semitic Mood in the Conservative Bourgeoisie	p. 77
Social Life in the Club	p. 83
Exceptionally Close: Friendships between Jews and Other Breslauers	p. 86
From Subculture to Situational Ethnicity	p. 89
Jewish-Christian Marriages, the "New Woman," and the Situational Ethnicity of Breslau Jews	p. 94
The Negative Image of the "Mixed Marriage" in Contemporary Debates and Historical Scholarship	p. 96
The Social History of Christian-Jewish Marriages	p. 100
Intermarriages and the "New Woman"	p. 110
Christian-Jewish Marriages and the Situational Ethnicity of Breslau Jews	p. 116
Unity, Diversity, and Difference: Jews, Protestants, and Catholics in Breslau Schools	p. 121
The Jewish "Educational Advantage": Jewish Students in Secondary Schools	p. 122
Pluralism in Municipal School Politics and the Limits of Tolerance: The Johannes-Gymnasium, 1865-1933	p. 134
The Denominational Character of the Elementary School System and the Status of Jewish Schoolchildren and Teachers	p. 158
Liberalism, Anti-Semitism, and Jewish Equality	p. 176
The Rise and Fall of Organized Political Anti-Semitism	p. 180
Local Boundaries: The Naturalization and the Expulsion of Foreign Jews	p. 192
Honored Jews: Ferdinand Julius Cohn, Breslau's First Jewish Honorary Citizen	p. 218
Conclusion	p. 231
List of Abbreviations	p. 243
Tables	p. 245
Notes	p. 281
Bibliography	p. 409
Index	p. 463
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