The Jewish Emancipation in 19th century Germany
Introduction
“[quote:9ac110ab46]Even more so will you have to ensure that in the midst of a tautly educated and bred race you won’t make yourself a laughing stock through walking about scruffily crooked and lop-sided? When, at last, you recognise your unconstructive build, the high shoulders, the clumsy feet, and the soft round overall build as signs of bodily ruin, you will for a few generations toil towards your outward rebirth.”# [/quote:9ac110ab46]Any reader of this text will automatically believe these are the words of an anti-Semite. They would be far wrong for this is taken from an article written by Walter Rathenau, a Jew, and later foreign minister of Germany during the Weimar Republic, who was assassinated in 1922 by anti-Semites. Walter Rathenau’s essay “Hoere Israel” is a good indicator of the problems of the integration of Jews into the German society, which was understood by many liberal Jews as the complete assimilation of Jews to the German way of life. This pursuit of assimilation is probably the most tragic event of Judaeo-German history after the holocaust. It goes hand in hand with the tragedy of the German Enlightenment which led to two world wars and the attempted annihilation of the European Jews. I will show in this essay how close German Enlightenment and the emancipation of the Jews are connected and how this led to severe problems in the Jewish population of Germany. Further I will try to evaluate the effect this had on post WW I Germany and the rise of national socialism.
The German Enlightenment and the emancipation of the German Jews
Already chronologically, there is a tight connection to the emergence of the German Enlightenment with figures like G.E. Lessing and Immanuel Kant and the emancipation movement of Jews with its archetype and figurehead Moses Mendelssohn, who was a contemporary of the above named. The 18th century saw a rise of rationalism which was the basis of the industrial revolution and civil revolutions in America and France. A strong emphasis was laid on the ability of the conscience to pursue moral integrity consequently moving away from any external moral authority. This sparked wishes for an enlightened emancipation of the lower classes from authoritarian rule across Europe, hence the French and American Revolutions and other uprisings of smaller scale.# This change of thought did not stop at the gates of the Jewish ghettoes and especially the higher strata of Jewish society...