Colonialism and the Jews in German History: From the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century

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Colonialism and the Jews in German History brings together new and path-breaking studies on the historical relationship between colonialism and the Jews in Germany. The book considers the mutual influences on the situation of the Jews in Germany, including attitudes towards Jews and anti-Semitism but also Jewish self-conceptions, and the ideology and politics of German colonialism. The contributors discuss the ways in which colonial ideology and practice have affected the position of the Jews in Germany, and the relationship between anti-Semitism and colonial racism. In doing so, the volume introduces German colonialism as a relevant context for German-Jewish history, and it expands the perspective on German colonial history significantly by considering Jews both as distinct objects and also as agents within the field of German colonialism. The volume includes studies on the pre-colonial era, the phase of active German colonialism since the 1880s, and the time after Germany lost its colonies in the First World War. All these studies testify to the fact that German-Jewish history takes on additional significance if seen as part of a global history of collective relationships.

Reviews

If there was a prize for the most outstanding anthology in Jewish Studies, German Studies, and history that outpaces all the earlier scholarship, Colonialism and the Jews in German History: From the Middle Ages to the 20th Century, edited by Stefan Vogt, would surely contend for top honours. This is a highly significant and unusually timely body of work. It is presented in a sophisticated yet accessible way. Vogts superb introduction, filled with deep insight, good sense, and informed by an unusual breadth and depth of scholarship, is followed by a series of masterful essays. A potential political minefield that is simply ignored by many, or dismissed in stark terms, has been treated with painstaking research and thoughtfulness. * Michael Berkowitz, Professor of modern Jewish history, University College London, UK *
Antisemitism, colonialism, race -- over many decades now those causal intimacies have been either postulated or presupposed. Now, for the first time, we have an ambitiously organized anthology of boldly conceived, impressively grounded, and strikingly original contributions that pin those interrelations down -- discursively, concretely, and entirely persuasively. * Geoff Elley, Professor of History and German Studies, University of Michigan, USA *

Author Bio

Stefan Vogt is Associate Professor of History and Research Coordinator at the Martin Buber Chair for Jewish Thought and Philosophy at Goether-University Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He is the author of two books and the co-editor of a further two books in German.