In the decades between German unification and the demise of the Weimar Republic, German Jewry negotiated their collective and individual identity under the impression of legal emancipation, continued antisemitism, the emergence of Zionism and Socialism, the First World War, and revolution and the republic. For many German Jews liberalism and also increasingly Socialism became attractive propositions. Yet conservative parties and political positions right-of-center also held appeal for some German Jews. From Heimat to Hatred studies German Jews involved in ventures that were from the beginning, or became increasingly, of the Right. Jewish agricultural settlement, Jews' participation in the so-called "Defense of Germandom in the East", their place in military and veteran circles and finally right-of-center politics form the core of this book. These topics created a web of social activities and political persuasions neither entirely conservative nor entirely liberal. For those German Jews engaging with these issues, their motivation came from sincere love of their German Heimat-a term for home imbued with a deep sense of belonging-and from their middle-class environment, as well as to repudiate antisemitic stereotypes of rootlessness, intellectualism or cosmopolitanism. This tension stands at the heart of the book. The book also asks when did the need for self-defense start to outweigh motivations of patriotism and class? Until when could German Jews espouse views to the right of the political spectrum without appearing extreme to either Jews or non-Jews? In an exploration of identity and exclusion, Philipp Nielsen locates the moments when active Jewish members of conservative projects became the radical other. He notes that the decisive stage of the transformation of the German Right occurred precisely during a period of republican stabilization, when even mainstream right-of-center politics abandoned the state-centric, Volk-based ethnic concepts of the Weimar republic. The book builds on recent studies of Jews' relation to German nationalism, the experience of German Jews away from the large cities, and the increasing interest in Germans' obsession with regional roots and the East. The study follows these lines of inquiry to investigate the participation of some German Jews in projects dedicated to originally, or increasingly, illiberal projects. As such it shines light on an area in which Jewish participation has thus far only been treated as an afterthought and illuminates both Jewish and German history afresh.
Show moreIn the decades between German unification and the demise of the Weimar Republic, German Jewry negotiated their collective and individual identity under the impression of legal emancipation, continued antisemitism, the emergence of Zionism and Socialism, the First World War, and revolution and the republic. For many German Jews liberalism and also increasingly Socialism became attractive propositions. Yet conservative parties and political positions right-of-center also held appeal for some German Jews. From Heimat to Hatred studies German Jews involved in ventures that were from the beginning, or became increasingly, of the Right. Jewish agricultural settlement, Jews' participation in the so-called "Defense of Germandom in the East", their place in military and veteran circles and finally right-of-center politics form the core of this book. These topics created a web of social activities and political persuasions neither entirely conservative nor entirely liberal. For those German Jews engaging with these issues, their motivation came from sincere love of their German Heimat-a term for home imbued with a deep sense of belonging-and from their middle-class environment, as well as to repudiate antisemitic stereotypes of rootlessness, intellectualism or cosmopolitanism. This tension stands at the heart of the book. The book also asks when did the need for self-defense start to outweigh motivations of patriotism and class? Until when could German Jews espouse views to the right of the political spectrum without appearing extreme to either Jews or non-Jews? In an exploration of identity and exclusion, Philipp Nielsen locates the moments when active Jewish members of conservative projects became the radical other. He notes that the decisive stage of the transformation of the German Right occurred precisely during a period of republican stabilization, when even mainstream right-of-center politics abandoned the state-centric, Volk-based ethnic concepts of the Weimar republic. The book builds on recent studies of Jews' relation to German nationalism, the experience of German Jews away from the large cities, and the increasing interest in Germans' obsession with regional roots and the East. The study follows these lines of inquiry to investigate the participation of some German Jews in projects dedicated to originally, or increasingly, illiberal projects. As such it shines light on an area in which Jewish participation has thus far only been treated as an afterthought and illuminates both Jewish and German history afresh.
Show morePhilipp Nielsen is an Assistant Professor for Modern European History at Sarah Lawrence College and Associated Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. He received is PhD from Yale University. His research interests include Jewish German history, German political and architectural history, and the history of emotions.
This study fills an important gap in the scholarship by tracing the
positioning of...German Jews on the political right....Nielsen's
book is an important addition to our understanding of German Jewry
for its examination of a lesser-known dimension of their story that
is often left out of history books.
*Michael Brenner, American Historical Review*
An astute, well- researched study....Drawing on state and private
papers from numerous archives and libraries in Germany, Israel, and
the United States, Nielsen provides the granular details of the
social milieus, evolving value systems, and the political enclaves
that enabled Jews to embrace conservatism. His study injects a
poignant historicity into the question of how notions of biological
difference incrementally penetrated conservative practice.
*James M. Brophy, Central European History*
Between Heimat and Hatred...provides a novel and illuminating
analysis of the evolution of the political Right from the German
Empire to the early years of the Nazi regime through the eyes of
German Jewish conservatives. The book will be of great interest not
only to scholars of German and modern Jewish history but also to
those studying politics on the Right, racism and antisemitism, and
the evolution of political identities in other contexts.
*Berenike L. Firestone, Nationalities Papers*
It is almost common knowledge that the majority of German Jews
during the Empire and the Weimar Republic were politically liberal.
However, a significant minority held decidedly conservative or even
right-wing convictions. Philipp Nielsen's book is the first to
study this group. It adds an important element to our understanding
of German-Jewish history and provides fascinating new insight into
the fragility of the position of Jews within German society.
*Stefan Vogt, German History*
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