Contested Cultural Affiliations: Salman Schocken’s Novalis Collection and the Nuremberg Haggadot from the Germanisches Nationalmuseum

Abstract

Abstract ‘To trace the history of the Jewish people in its books but also by its books, was [...] for a long time the leading idea of the collector’, Salman Schocken noted in 1933. His personal Hebraica library developed into a semi-public research collection, and his extraordinary collection of German literature seems to reveal a similar approach—the use of books as objects and texts to reflect the historical development and intellectual scope of thought within literary tradition—although the latter collection appears to have remained private. The rise of National Socialism, Schocken’s migration to Mandatory Palestine, and the destruction of Jewish life in Europe had a strong impact on both collections. This article explores the joint history of Salman Schocken’s Novalis collection and two medieval Haggadot in order to identify some of the collector’s ideas on German and Jewish cultural property. This case study provides insights both into Salman Schocken’s collections and the ways in which he made use of his personal collection in order to engage with German and Jewish history.