Strange Encounter: The East European Jew in German and German Jewish Consciousness, 1800-1923

Abstract

This work examines the place of East European Jews (Ostjuden) in German and German Jewish consciousness from 1800-1923. A cultural and intellectual history, it attempts to locate the nature of discourse concerning the Ostjuden and to pinpoint its major changes and continuities. In many ways the Ostjuden represented the 'underside' of the German-Jewish dialogue. They were a key ingredient in the development of German anti-semitism and were critically implicated in German Jewish liberal self-definition. As 'authentic' Jews they were an essential part of German Jewish ideologies of Renaissance. East European Jews concretized the dialectic between liberalism, anti-Semitism and Zionism. Through an examination of these forces this study attempts to shed new light on the nature of the German Jewish experience. For the attitude projected onto East European Jewry was a sensitive measuring rod of German Jewish identity itself.The study traces the development of a general nineteenth century antipathy to the Ostjude. By the 1880's most German Jews viewed their East European brethren in distinctively stereotypical terms. They often used this negative image to symbolize rejection of their own ghetto past and to facilitate the contrast between modern Enlightened Jewry and its 'half-Asian' counterpart. Such dissociation, moreover, deflected onto unassimilated Ostjuden all the negative traits commonly ascribed to 'Jews'. Yet not all Jews shared these conceptions. Over the years a positive image emerged amongst certain post-liberal circles. This was the notion of the Ostjude as Jewish cultural hero, embodiment of a pure and ancient Volk, symbol and center of Jewish revival. The present investigation examines the genesis, functions and consequences of these changing images in their cultural and intellectual contexts.The negative image of the Ostjude was linked to the process of Emancipation and anti-semitic agitation. Celebratory conceptions were related to the rise of Zionism and neo-romantic ideology. These competing perceptions were crystallized in the context of increasing contact between Germans, German Jews and Ostjuden following the post-1880 mass migrations. With Germany's occupation of Poland this triangular encounter received its most intense expression during World War I. . . . (Author's abstract exceeds stipulated maximum length. Discontinued here with permission of school.) UMIThesis (Ph.D.)--The University of Wisconsin - Madison, 1982.School code: 0262