Jewish Assimilation in Germany

How assimilated were Jewish people into Weimar German society?

Introduction:

• More than half a million Jewish people living in Germany under Weimar Republic.

• More than 80% of Jewish people in Germany (400,000) lived in cities and were well-educated.

• Many felt much more German than Jewish and were intensely patriotic.

• Many believed in assimilation → keeping ethnic and cultural identity but becoming fully integrated and accepted in mainstream German society.

Achievements:

• Achievements of German Jews under Weimar Republic = remarkable.

• Jewish people represented only 1% of population but achieved a great degree of influence out of all proportion to their numbers.

• German Jews achieved prominence in politics and press, in business and banking, in universities and almost all aspects of Weimar culture.

• Huge influence in publishing of books and newspapers.

• Jewish musicians at forefront of musical life.

• Jewish producers and directors dominated theatre and new medium of cinema.

Politics and the Press:

• German Jews already well-established in world of politics before 1914.

• Jewish publishing firms had powerful influence in media, with two Jewish-run newspapers in particular, the ‘Berliner Tageblatt’ and ‘Frankfurter Zeitung’ promoting liberal political views.

• Theodor Wolff (1868-1943): liberal journalist from wealthy Jewish family. From 1887, worked for Mosse publishing house + in 1906 Mosse appointed him editor of liberal newspaper ‘Berliner Tageblatt’. From 1916, Wolff and his paper came under attack for urging negotiated peace and in 1918 was one of founders of DDP. Remained active and influential until 1933, when he went into exile after his books were burned by the Nazis. Was arrested in Italy in 1943 and sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he died.

• Like Theodor Wolff, Walther Rathenau, who became Foreign Minister in 1922, was also leading member of DDP.

• Jewish people were also prominent in the SPD and KPD ---> Rosa Luxemburg, Hugo Haase and Kurt Eisner, leader of revolution in Bavaria in Nov. 1918, all came from Jewish backgrounds.

• Kurt Eisner (1867-1919): journalist and leading member of SPD in Bavaria. Joined breakaway USPD Party in 1917 and imprisoned for treason. After release from prison in Nov. 1918, led revolt in Bavaria tht led to establishment of short-lived Bavarian Socialist Republic. Assassinated in Munich in 1919 by right-wing nationalist.

Industry and Commerce:

• German Jews achieved considerable wealth and influence in industry and connected, but extent of influence massively exaggerated by anti-Jewish propaganda, both at the time and afterwards.

• E.g. the Rathenau family controlled huge electrical engineering firm AEG until 1927 and Jewish firms dominated coal-mining, steelworks and chemical industry in Silesia but had v. little importance in western industrial areas of Rhineland or Ruhr.

• Jewish banking families e.g. Rothschilds, Mendelssohns and Bleichroders owned about 50% of public banks.

• But to make such a list of Jewish banking interests can be misleading → in the 1920s, the role of Jewish people in banking was actually declining.

• Banks owned by Jewish people made up about 18% of the banking sector in Germany, a considerably smaller proportion than in the years before 1914.

• Jewish people were particularly active and successful in retailing→ owned almost half of all firms involved in the cloth trade.

The Professions and Academia:

• Jewish people immensely successful in professions, especially law and medicine, making up 16% of lawyers and 11% of doctors in Germany.

• Especially high no. of Jewish professionals in Berlin: more than half of doctors there in 1930 were Jewish and of 3400 lawyers, 1835 were Jewish.

• Jewish people also had significant impact on academic life of Germany.

• Of 38 Nobel Prizes awarded to people working in Germany up to 1938, 9 (24%) awarded to Jewish people.

• Germany = world leader in physical sciences, not least b/c of Albert Einstein, who revolutionised theoretical physics with theory of relativity and quantum mechanics.

Extent of Assimilation and Anti-Semitism:

• Vast majority of German Jews wished to assimilate → in language, dress and lifestyle thousands of Jewish people looked and acted like other Germans.

• Many had married non-Jewish spouses, given up religious observance or converted to Christianity.

• By late 1920s process of assimilation = far advanced.

• But chief factor limiting degree of Jewish integration into German society = reluctance of many Germans to stop identifying Jewish people as somehow alien.

• Still a significant gap between wanting to be completely assimilated and feeling security of being completely accepted.

• In difficult early years of Weimar Republic, from 1918-24, there was a backlash against perceived threat of ‘Jewish Bolshevism’ as seen in response to events such as the Spartacist uprising in Berlin and breakaway regime of Kurt Eisner in Munich.

• Jewish Bolshevism: a term used by anti-Semites in the Weimar period to imply that Jewish people and communists were closely associated and represented a danger to German values.

• Anti-Semitism = part of violent nationalism behind right-wing movements e.g. Freikorps and NSDAP formed in 1920.

• Also surge of hostility against Jewish financiers at the time of hyperinflation crisis in 1923.

• Between 1924 and 1930 h/e as Weimar Germany entered its ‘golden age’ of economic recovery and political stability, anti-Semitism was pushed to the fringes of public and political life.

• But there was still fierce opposition to perceived Jewish influence, with frequent accusations of corruption and exploitation by Jewish bankers and businessmen.

Barmat Scandal, 1925:

• Some scandal in later 1920s provided ammunition for anti-Semitic attacks, with most sensational = Barmat scandal of 1925.

• Barmat brothers, Julius, Salomon and Henri, were Jewish businessmen who had emigrated from Galicia in Poland just after the war.

• After high-profile court case, they were convicted of having bribed public officials to obtain loans from Prussian State Bank and National Post Office.

• Julius and Salomon eventually sentenced to 11 months in jail.