from:
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Germany, vol. 7
from: Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): History, vol. 8
<1914-1933.
The history of German Jewry in the interwar period is
sharply divided into two chapters: the period up to 1933,
which was a time of great prosperity; and the period which
began in 1933, a year which was to mark the beginning of
the tragic end of German Jewry. (Germany, col. 482)
[First
World War - Communist revolutionary movement with Jewish
cliques - Weimar constitution by Hugo Preuss - Jews in
high positions]
Over 100,000 Jews had served in the German army during
World War I, and 12,000 Jews fell in battle [[and
thousands of German Jews were awarded on all sides of the
war]]. At the end of the war, when the monarchy had fallen
and a democratic republic was established, it seemed that
the Jews had achieved full emancipation. Any restrictions
that were still in force were abolished by the Weimar
Republic, and Jews could not participate in every sphere
of public life. Their share and influence in the political
life of the country reached unprecedented proportions.
Many of the leaders of the democratic and socialist
parties were Jews, as were two of the six "people's
commissars" which made up the first post-revolutionary
German government (O. *Landsberg and H. *Haase).
In Bavaria, Jews played an even more significant role; the
head of the revolutionary government was a Jew, Kurt
*Eisner, and the majority of the Soviet-type government
set up after Eisner's murder consisted of Jewish
intellectuals (Eugen *Leviné, Gustav *Landauer, Ernst
*Toller, etc.). The inquiry commission which was to
determine the responsibility of the military leadership
for Germany's defeat had among its members Oscar *Cohn, a
Social Democrat and [[racist]] Zionist. The Weimar
Constitution was drafted by a Jew, Hugo *Preuss; another
Jew, Walter *Rathenau, first became minister of
reconstruction and later foreign minister; his murder by
young extremists was motivated largely by anti-Semitism.
[[The extreme presence of Jews in the Communist movement
and above all the Weimar Constitution which was named a
"Jewish" product lead to easy general agitation against
the Jews in the Weimar republic]].
Several Jews were appointed to high positions in the civil
service, especially in Prussia. The rise of Jews to
positions of political power, added to their economic and
social advance, increased hostility among the population,
and facilitated the growth of the Nazi movement.
Anti-Semitic propaganda exploited a series of financial
scandals and bankruptcies in which Jews were involved. The
background (Germany, col. 483)
to these events was the great social and economic crisis
which gripped Germany as a result of the terrible
inflation after the war. (Germany, col. 484)
[Jewish
welfare and Jewish organizations since 1917]
In 1917 a central welfare bureau for German Jewry was set
up, the *Zentralwohlfahrtsstelle [[central welfare
office]], whose membership consisted of the communities as
well as of many private institutions, trusts, and
societies. The bureau cooperated with the main non-Jewish
welfare agencies in the country, as well as with the
*American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and
published its own monthly. It supervised hospitals,
clinics, counseling centers, bureaus, and a variety of
other public institutions, and had some 2,000 welfare
agencies affiliated with it. (Germany, col. 485)
In addition to the organizations based on the communities,
there were also a large number of other societies, as well
as cultural and scientific institutions. Jewish life in
general was marked by the struggle between Jewish
nationalism and various degrees of assimilation.
[[Racist]] Zionism succeeded in revolutionizing the life
of the communities, and the councils, in addition to
"notables", now also contained democratically elected
members who represented national-Jewish interests.
The following were the main organizations of German Jewry
in the period:
-- Centralverein (C.-V.) deutscher Staatsbuerger
juedischen Glaubens ("Central Organization of German
Citizens of the Jewish Faith")
-- Zionistische Vereinigung fuer Deutschland (Z.V.f.D.;
"Zionist Organization of Germany")
-- Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden ("Aid Society of German
Jews")
-- the religious organizations - Agudat Israel, Ahdut
(Aḥdut), *Vereinigung fuer das liberale Judentum [[Liberal
Jewry Association]]
-- *B'nai B'rith
-- *Verband national-deutscher Juden ("Union of Jews of
German Nationality")
-- *Reichsbund juedischer Frontsoldaten ("Reich
Association of Jewish War Veterans")
-- the various rabbinical associations, and associations
of teachers and cantors; etc.
An important role in the cultural life of German Jewry was
played by the academic organizations:
-- *Kartell-Convent (K.-C.) deutscher Studenten juedischen
Glaubens ("National Fraternity of German Students of the
Jewish Faith"), affiliated to the Centralverein
-- Bund juedischer Akademiker (B.J.A. [[Jewish Academic
Association]], an association of Orthodox academics)
-- Kartell juedischer Verbindungen [[Jewish Connection
Cartell]], the [[racist]] Zionist student organization.
A substantial number of Jewish youth in Germany were
members of Jewish youth movements. Some of the youth
organizations were sponsored by the Centralverein, and
others by the Orthodox; a third type were the [[racist]]
Zionist youth organizations. The latter encouraged pioneer
settlement in Erez Israel (Ereẓ Israel), maintained
training centers, and supplied a (Germany, col. 486)
small but steady flow of immigrants. The Centralverein was
the largest and most important organization, which
published its own newspaper. It advocated a synthesis of
Judaism and "Germanism", emphasized defense of Jewish
civil rights, and regarded German Jewry as an integral
part of the German people. Other periodicals were
-- Der *Israelit
[[The Israeli]] (published by Agudat Israel)
-- Juedisch-liberale
Zeitung [[Jewish Liberal News]]
-- Der Schild
[[The Shield]] (published by the veterans' organization)
-- Der *Jude,
[[The Jew]] a [[racist]] Zionist monthly, edited by Martin
*Buber; and
-- Der Morgen
[[The Morning]], a monthly published by the Centralverein.
The official organ of the [[[racist]] Zionist movement,
*Juedische Rundschau, a weekly (which in its last years
appeared twice a week), eventually became the leading
Jewish paper published in Germany. (Germany, col. 487)
[Jewish
influx from eastern Europe]
Even in the best years of the Weimar Republic the Jewish
problem had not really been solved. Socially and
spiritually the German people had not absorbed the Jews.
Even the assimilationists among the Jews had to
acknowledge this fact, and some reacted by
over-emphasizing their German nationalism, thereby hoping
to set themselves apart from the rest of the Jews. As a
result of the large increase of Jewish immigration from
eastern Europe, the old difference between "Eastern" and
"Western" Jews became much more pronounced and had many
practical implications.
Jewish organizations did their best to facilitate the
absorption of the newcomers and created special
institutions (Germany, col. 484)
for this purpose, such as the Welfare Bureau for Jewish
Workers. (Germany, col. 485)
After World War I, when many Hebrew writers and publishers
fled from Russia and took refuge in Germany, the country
became a center of Hebrew publishing and Hebrew
literature. Some of the greatest Hebrew poets and writers
became residents of Germany, and Hebrew publishing houses
were established. This was in addition to the many books
published in German, on Judaism, [[racist Herzl]] Zionism,
and Jewish studies. In Berlin and (Germany, col. 487)
Breslau, the [[racist]] Zionist Organization founded
schools for the study of modern Hebrew by adults and the
youth. In 1920 Franz *Rosenzweig established the Freies
Juedisches Lehrhaus ("Free Institute of Jewish Learning")
in Frankfort, and it gained great prestige. Other cultural
institutions were
-- the Juedische Volkshochschule ("Jewish College of Adult
Education")
-- the Toynbee-Halls, which also served as centers of
social work;
-- and the Juedisches Volksheim (Jewish Social Center)
established in Berlin in 1916.
There were Jewish elementary schools in several
communities and Jewish teachers' seminaries in Wuerzburg
and Cologne. There were also Jewish secondary schools,
originally maintained by Orthodox Jews only, but in later
years also supported by the [[racist]] Zionists. (Germany,
col. 488)
[Rise of anti-Semitism]
<At the end of World War I there was a rise in
anti-Semitism. The defeat of Germany in war was
explained by the myth, propagated by extreme right-wing
elements, that circulated after 1918 of the "stab in the
back" that the victorious [[racist kaiser]] German army
had received from revolutionaries, pacifists, and
intellectuals under the influence of the cowardly
"Jewish spirit", as opposed to the heroic and creative
"German spirit";
[[Pacific and Communist Jewish circles had organized an
ammunition strike - and by this the German army had been
without ammunition at the front and had to give up the
war in France. Racist kaiser did not want a civil war
and could not do anything. The "Germanizers" of racist
kaiser Germany got a defeat and mostly Jewish Communist
leaders in the world played their extreme destructive
role also in Germany until 1933...]]
such accusations [[the generalization is wrong, but that
the Communists were Jewish circles is right]], combined
with resentment at Jewish commercial and financial
activity in Germany during the great inflation of the
early 1920s there, reinforced the old stereotype evil
image of the Jews. Fuel was added to the old hatred by
the preeminence of Jews in many scientific fields, and,
even more, their activity on the (History, col. 736)
liberal and left-wing side of German politics (Walther
*Rathenau, minister for foreign affairs of the German
republic, was assassinated in 1922; Kurt *Eisner, head
of the socialist republic of Bavaria in 1918, and Rosa
*Luxemburg, as the symbol of left-wing socialism, were
murdered).> (History, col. 737)
[[In the Weimar Republic criminals had more rights than
the honest people. This was one of the big reasons that
many Germans could not accept any "democratic"
structure, and not at all the stupid Communists with
their unrealistic Jewish circles. There were more
reasons to hate the Weimar Republic like the robbery of
all colonies by the racist "democratic" Empire states
(France and England), like the debts question for the
World War which was never solved, like the robbery of
industries and coal mines in the Saarland etc. Add to
this there was hyper inflation organized by striking
industrialists and stupid German and French government
fighting about the Ruhr Basin. By all this the rightist
press found the eastern Jews as a compensation for
propaganda against Jewry. After all, there was no reason
for the German population to trust into a "democracy"]].
[1923]
[[Racist German industrialists were supporting the hyper
inflation of 1923. They got rid of their depth and at the
same time the Jewish constitution of Weimar was put into
question. The inflation was a big German racist
manipulation. Germans and Jews were hit by the economic
crisis, but the Jews had the welfare organizations which
caused envy on the German side]].
Right-wing circles in Germany, anxious to divert public
attention from the real beneficiaries of inflation - the
"pure Aryan" industrial and financial barons and their
giant enterprises - were more than ready to use the
anti-Jewish propaganda for their purposes. The middle
class, heavily hit by the economic upheaval, the nobility
and the officer class who felt their honor besmirched by
the defeat [[of 1918]] and whose privileges were abolished
in the revolution [[of 1919, and by the Treaty of
Versailles of 1919]], were all easily swayed by the idea
that it was the Jews who were to blame for all of
Germany's misfortunes - that "the Jews had stabbed the
undefeated German army in the back", and thus forced it to
surrender;
[[there had been an ammunition production strike by the
Communists which hindered ammunition transports to the
front so the German front was without ammunition at the
end. Because of the Jewish leaders in the Communist party
the Jews were generally blamed having caused the German
defeat of 1918. This indication is missing in the article
of course. The general blame of the Jews is also wrong
because many Jews came also into poverty after 1923 and
after 1929]].
that Capitalism and "Marxism" (i.e., Bolshevism and
Socialism)were the result of the machinations of "World
Jewry". In the 1920s, however, the full implications of
this anti-Semitic mood had not yet become apparent, and
the situation of the Jews seemed satisfactory. (Germany,
col. 484)
[1925
census and professions]
According to the 1925 census, there were 564,379 Jews in
Germany, representing 0.9% of the total population.
One-third lived in Berlin, another third in the other
large cities, while the remaining third lived in 1,800
different places with organized Jewish communities and
another 1,200 places where there were no organized
communities. Most of the Jews made their living in
commerce and transportation and in the liberal
professions; in the large cities, one-third or even more
of the lawyers and doctors were Jews; they also played a
prominent role in the press, in literature, in the
theater, and in other forms of entertainment. In general,
the Jews belonged do the middle class and were well off.
Although many had lost their savings in the inflation,
they recovered from the effects of this crisis. (Germany,
col. 485)
The absorption of Jews into all spheres of German life was
accompanied by record numbers of mixed marriages and
conversions; in the period 1921-27, 44.8% of all Jewish
marriages were mixed, conversions took place at the rate
of 500 annually, and a similar number of Jews formally
"dissociated" themselves from the community. (Germany,
col. 485)
COMMUNAL ORGANIZATION.
[Jews
from eastern Europe - the "foreigners" - national union
of Jewish communities - collaborating agencies and
organizations]
Between the two World Wars, the Jewish communities
presented a model of organization. The Weimar Constitution
retained official recognition of the Jewish communities as
entities recognized by public law and their right to
collect dues. In general, a Jewish community had a
representative body, elected by the community members, and
an executive committee, elected in turn by the
representative body and consisting of three to seven
members. A point under dispute was the voting rights of
Jews of foreign nationality (the Ostjuden [[Jews from
eastern Europe]), who in some communities amounted to a
substantial proportion of the total membership. Although
the "foreigners" had equal rights to the religious and
social services provided by the community, in many places
they had no right to vote, or were given that right only
after long years of local residence. In the various states
of which the Reich was made up, there existed "state
unions" of Jewish communities.
For a long time the need was felt for a national union of
Jewish communities, but there were differences of opinion
as to the form this should take; some thought that it
should be a union of individual communities, others
preferred a national union of the state unions, while a
third proposal called for a kind of Jewish parliament,
elected by direct democratic vote (the last plan was
supported by the [[racist]] Zionists) [[with the aim of a
"Greater Israel" from the Nile to the Euphrates, see 1st
Mose, chapter 15, phrase 18]].
By the time a national union was finally established,
shortly before Hitler came to power, the organizational
form of the communities, and the tasks they faced, were
about to undergo a radical change. Apart from the
religious and cultural tasks they performed, the community
organizations were most active in social welfare; this was
true of the period preceding 1933, and became even more
important after that turning point. (Germany, col. 485)
In the large communities expenditure on welfare amounted
to as much as 30% of the total budget. Agencies concerned
with youth, and with immigrants passing through Germany on
their way overseas, also played an (Germany, col. 485)
important role. (Germany, co. 486)
Despite differences of outlook, there was close
cooperation between the various organizations. An
outstanding example was the establishment of the *Keren
Hayesod in Germany in 1922 which was based on cooperation
between [[racist]] Zionists and non-Zionists, and served
as a preliminary stage to the enlarged *Jewish Agency
(1929). The [[racist]] Zionist Organization included
Zionist party organizations (Mizrachi, *Poalei-Zion,
*Hapo'el ha-Zair-Hitahdut, etc.). (Germany, col. 487)
[1929:
stock exchange collapse and rise of the NSDAP]
[[Then came the stock exchange collapse of 1929 and only
since then the NSDAP had a significant part of votes. The
industrialists did not do anything, and the German
government was elected almost every year because it was
not possible to govern any more under the conditions with
a big Communist fraction on one side and with a big Nazi
fraction on the other side. The racist industrialists
wanted to have the Nazi government which gave them more
rights and less democracy for the workers. Germans and
Jews were hit by the economic crisis, but the Jews had the
welfare organizations which caused again envy on the
German side]].
<[Intellectual
achievement of German Jews - eastern Jews - inner
tensions]
Up to 1932 German Jewry was in the forefront of
intellectual achievement and the acquirement of free
professions, though it never achieved the type of social
acceptance found in other western societies. In Germany
too the development was away from the crafts and petty
trade to academic professions, medium and large scale
business enterprises, and public service. German Jewish
society experienced during this period a certain
undercurrent of tension between its acculturated strata
and the "Ostjuden" [["eastern Jews"]], who, whether as
immigrants or as transients, caused some offense by
their culture and way of life, in particular through
fear of the "bad impression" they could make on cultured
good Germans.> (History, col. 736)
It was not until 1933, when the Nazis came to power and
based their program upon the "doctrine of race" - i.e.,
hatred of Jews - that the role of the Jewish problem for
the internal historical development of Germany stood fully
revealed. (Germany, col. 484)
[[The NSDAP never had a majority. Hitlers manipulations
which mostly were financed from abroad were leading his
party to an absolute power, above all after the
liquidation of the Socialists (SPD). The Jews and other
races should be exterminated slowly by separation of all
men and women and forced labor]].
When the Nazis came to power, there was again a great deal
of capital in the hands of individual Jews and the Jewish
communities. (Germany, col. 485)
[[About the crash of the stock exchange in 1929 is nothing
reported in this article. The most important elements for
the rise of the Nazi party in Germany - the collapse of
the worldwide stock exchange and the wide unemployment -
are not mentioned in the Encyclopaedia Judaica article of
"Germany". Add to this it was the coward German police
which let Hitler's gangs do their "work". Principally
Hitler was an Austrian, a criminal foreigner which could
have been removed to Austria easily. But the coward German
police of Weimar did not do so..]]