Scholems

Howard Geller Jay

Description

The evocative and riveting stories of four brothers-Gershom the Zionist, Werner the Communist, Reinhold the nationalist, and Erich the liberal-weave together in The Scholems, a biography of an eminent middle-class Jewish Berlin family and a social history of the Jews in Germany in the decades leading up to World War II.Across four generations, Jay Howard Geller illuminates the transformation of traditional Jews into modern German citizens, the challenges they faced, and the ways that they shaped the German-Jewish century, beginning with Prussia's emancipation of the Jews in 1812 and ending with exclusion and disenfranchisement under the Nazis. Focusing on the renowned philosopher and Kabbalah scholar Gershom Scholem and his family, their story beautifully draws out the rise and fall of bourgeois life in the unique subculture that was Jewish Berlin. Geller portrays the family within a much larger context of economic advancement, the adoption of German culture and debates on Jewish identity, struggles for integration into society, and varying political choices during the German Empire, World War I, the Weimar Republic, and the Nazi era. What Geller discovers, and unveils for the reader, is a fascinating portal through which to view the experience of the Jewish middle class in Germany.

Sujets

• Lettres et linguistique
• Jewish studies
• 20th century
• History of Europe
• Germany

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 mars 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781501731570
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 42 Mo

Extrait

THE SCHOLEMS

THE SCHOLEMS

A St o r y o f t he Ge r ma n J e wis h Bo ur ge o isi e f r o m E ma nci pa t i o n t o Dest r uc t i o n

J ay H o w a r d G e l l e r

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS Ithaca and London

Copyright © 2019 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu.

First published 2019 by Cornell University Press

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Names: Geller, Jay Howard, author. Title: The Scholems : a story of the GermanJewish bourgeoisie from emancipation to destruction / Jay Howard Geller. Description: Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018029901 (print) | LCCN 2018033456 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501731570 (pdf ) | ISBN 9781501731587 (epub/mobi) | ISBN 9781501731563 | ISBN 9781501731563 (cloth ; alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Scholem, Gershom, 1897–1982. | Scholem, Gershom, 1897–1982—Family. | Jewish scholars—Germany—Biography. | Jews—Germany— Biography. | Jews—Germany—History—20th century. | Middle class—Germany—History—20th century. Classification: LCC BM755.S295 (ebook) | LCC BM755. S295 G45 2018 (print) | DDC 305.892/40430922 [B]—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018029901

Cover images: Top: The Scholem family, courtesy of the National Library of Israel, ARC. 4*1599/10/08, 003800443 Bottom: The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, courtesy of the Library of Congress, LOT 14184, no. 257 (P&P)

Co nte nts

Map of the Scholems’ Berlin in the 1920s vii Members of the Scholem Family ix

Introduction 1 1. Origins: From Glogau to Berlin 14 2. Berlin Childhood around 1900: Growing Up in the Growing Metropolis 32 3. Things Fall Apart: The First World War 47 4. Life in the Time of Revolutions: The Early Weimar Republic 73 5. The GoldPlated Twenties and Beyond: Promise, Prosperity, and Depression in Interwar Germany 96 6. In the Promised Land: A New Home in Jerusalem 127 7. The Maelstrom: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany 142 8. Cresting of the Fifth Wave: Gershom Scholem’s Palestine in the 1930s 172 9. Afterlives: Sydney and Jerusalem 193 Conclusion 209

v

vi CONTENTS

Acknowledgments 219 Notes 223 Bibliography 291 Index 321

The Scholems’ Berlin in the 1920s

TI TLE

 vii

M e m b e r s o f t h e S c h o l e m Fa m i ly

Marcus Scholem: Born in Glogau in the late 1700s, moved to Berlin after 1812

Ernestine Scholem (née Esther Holländer): Wife of Marcus

Siegfried Scholem: Son of Marcus and Ernestine, born in Berlin in 1837, founder and owner of a printshop

Amalie Scholem (née Schlesinger): Wife of Siegfried

Arthur Scholem: Oldest son of Siegfried and Amalie, founder and owner of a printshop

Betty Scholem (née Hirsch): Wife of Arthur, devoted correspondent with Gershom

Reinhold Scholem: Oldest son of Arthur and Betty, coproprietor of the Arthur Scholem printshop, a German patriot and national liberal

Käthe Scholem (née Wagner): Wife of Reinhold

Erich Scholem: Second son of Arthur and Betty, coproprietor of the Arthur Scholem printshop, a liberal democrat

Edith Scholem (née Katz): First wife of Erich

Hildegard “Hilde” Scholem (née Samuel): Second wife of Erich

Werner Scholem: Third son of Arthur and Betty, a Communist politician

Emmy Scholem (née Wiechelt): Wife of Werner, nonJewish, a Communist

Gershom (or Gerhard) Scholem: Youngest son of Arthur and Betty, a university professor and scholar of Jewish mysticism, a Zionist

ix