Negative Identity: Mixed German Jewish Descent as a Factor in the Reception of Theodor Adorno

Abstract

Catholic mother, a half-Jew in the Holocaust, though not Jewish by Jewish criteria. This paper discusses how the reception of Adorno typifies the social response to people with one parent from an ethnic minority, and the extent to which his reaction still offers provocative insights and remedies. Detailed consideration based on new research will be given to Hannah Arendt's attacks on Adorno and their perpetuation in the academic world. It will be suggested that Adorno's failure to fit paradigms of Jewish identity whether religious or secular has repercussions more far reaching than have yet been acknowledged. The major problems encountered by children of mixed marriage re-allocation to a more amenable group, omission, and consistently negative representation are themes which dominate Adorno's work. Previous discussions of the relationship between Adorno's work and his Jewish descent have centered on the Nazi persecution which, in 1933, deprived him of his university teaching qualification, and, in 1934, forced him into a reluctant exile. Heinz Steinert suggested that Adorno reacted to the shock of being labeled Jewish in 1933 by throwing himself into hectic work on subjects which avoided his