Germans, Jews, and Antisemites Trials in Emancipation

History of the Jews in modern Germany is usually told as the tale of outstanding individuals, completely immersed in German society and disproportionately contributing to its culture. This book focuses on the story of 'ordinary' German Jews, concerned not merely with being like other Germans, i.e. 'assimilated', but simply with upward social climbing and achievements. They did not seek to abandon Judaism in entering German society but to reformulate and reinvent it to fit their new standing. Despite continuous antisemitism, Germany seemed to have accepted them on these terms.

The ferocity of the Nazi attack upon the Jews took many by surprise. Volkov argues that a new look at both the nature of antisemitism and at the complexity of modern Jewish life in Germany is required in order to provide an explanation. While antisemitism had a number of functions in pre-Nazi German society, it most particularly served as a cultural code, a sign of belonging to a particular political and cultural milieu. Surprisingly, it only had a limited effect on the lives of the Jews themselves. By the end of the nineteenth century, their integration was well advanced. Many of them enjoyed prosperity, prestige, and the pleasures of metropolitan life. This book stresses the dialectical nature of assimilation, the lead of the Jews in the processes of modernization, and, finally, their continuous efforts to 'invent' a modern Judaism that would fit their new social and cultural position.

Part I. Interpreting the Danger-Signs: 1. Views from East and West; 2. On self-hatred and self-criticism; 3. Past shadows, present needs; Part II. Antisemitism as a Cultural Code: 4. Antisemitism Old and New; 5. Functions and meaning; 6. Norms and codes: two case studies; 7. Comparing Germany with the French Republic; Part III. The Jewish Project of Modernity: 8. On minorities in the nation state; 9. Climbing up the social ladder; 10. Paradoxes of becoming alike; 11. Jewish success in science; 12. On the ambivalence of Bildung; 13. Forces of dissimilation; 14. Inventing tradition.

History of the Jews in modern Germany is usually told as the tale of outstanding individuals, completely immersed in German society and disproportionately contributing to its culture. This book focuses on the story of 'ordinary' German Jews, concerned with being like other Germans, and with upward social climbing and achievements.

Shulamit Volkov is the Konrad Adenauer Chair for Comparative European History and Professor of Modern European History at Tel Aviv University. She was previously a fellow at St Anthony's College, Oxford, the Wissenschaftskolleg, and the Historisches Kolleg. Volkov is the author of The Origins of Popular Antimodernism in Germany: The Urban Master Artisans, 1873–1896 (1978) and the editor of Deutsche Juden und die Moderne (1994) and Being Different: Minorities, Aliens, and Outsiders in History (2000).