Jews in Berlin by Andreas Nachama

Author:Andreas Nachama
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Berlinica Publishing LLC
Published: 2015-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

Magnus Hirschfeld (1868–1935), physician and sexologist who lived in Berlin after 1896, was a major force behind the academic-humanitarian committee to combat criminal prosecution of homosexuals. Hirschfeld died in exile in Nice.

Poster designed by Josef Fenneker in 1919 for a “social hygienic film” about prostitution supported by Hirschfeld.

Title page of a lecture by Hirschfeld about alcohol and sex, with an appendix on “animation-bars,” undated.

The Academy of the Science of Judaism on Luetzowstrasse was founded in 1919. It had been originally conceived—according to an open letter by Franz Rosenzweig to Hermann Cohen—as a place to teach Jewish teachers of religion. Its first director, the scholar of ancient history Eugen Taeubler conceived it to be a pure research institute, however. Taeubler stressed that the new academy should not neglect a single area of science: “The field is unlimited … it encompasses philosophy, law, linguistics, natural sciences, astronomy, learning Psalms, novellas, tragic verse and naive folk tales.” As many as 25 scholars were connected with the academy and many made important contributions and published rare source materials. Among them was Hermann Cohen who began in the 1920s to edit the complete writings of Moses Mendelssohn.

The Adult Education School opened its doors the same year as the Academy. This institution concerned itself with teaching adults only—it was in its concept closer to Franz Rosenzweig’s idea and affiliated with Frankfurt’s Free Jewish Teaching House, which was founded a few months later. Its courses covered everything from Bible science to modern Hebrew language, and there were as many as 2,000 registered students. It was the special achievement of the Adult Education School to introduce courses in Jewish sociology, Jewish art and Jewish music. Several courses concerned themselves with the position of women and with the migration of Jews. The School was not a place for scholarly research, but it made the fruits of Jewish scholarly research accessible to a much broader audience.

Not only was there a renaissance of works written in Hebrew and Yiddish. The Jewish renaissance begun by Martin Buber at the turn of the century, continued to flourish with works written and published in German. It was only after the war that the audience spread out to a broader audience beyond the Zionist camp. There were also many successful attempts in art and music to combine modern artistic forms of expression with Jewish themes.

The two bestknown Jewish expressionist painters, Ludwig Meidner and Jakob Steinhardt—known before the war as part of a group called the Patheten—concerned themselves more openly after the war with their Jewish heritage. Steinhardt presented scenes of east European Jewish life. Meidner portrayed himself in a tallis, a Jewish prayer shawl. Steinhardt’s Passover Haggadah and his illustrations of the Book of Jesus ben Sira are among the most remarkable examples of modern Jewish book art. Jewish book art became so popular that a Jewish bibliophile association was formed, the Soncino Society for the Friends of the Jewish Book. It managed to publish 82 works of Jewish literature before the Third Reich closed it down.

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