The 'Jewish Question' in German Literature, 1749-1939: Emancipation and Its Discontents by Ritchie Robertson (review)

Abstract

Reviews 9o4 7heXewish Question' inGerman Literature, 1749-I939: Emancipation andits Discontents. BYRITCHIE ROBERTSON. Oxford: Oxford University Press.I 999. X + 534PP.£60. Although there havebeentomes written aboutthe'Jewish Question' inGermany andtheworld atlarge, Ritchie Robertson's bookisthefirst full-length study ofthe literary expressions ofthe Jewish question as itwasshaped inmyriad forms from the Enlightenment tothe rise ofNazism. Robertson doesnotseek toreveal howthe debateabouttheJewish question led totheHolocaust, as manyscholars have sought to do. Instead, he explores theproblematic natureofEnlightenment philosemitism andhowJewsand Gentiles in Germany andAustria reacted to emancipation through literature in their endeavour to define Jewishness inthe period from I 749 to I 939. Theresult isan erudite, original, andinsightful study. Robertson combines thorough research with sophisticated close readings ofselected texts, andinthe process hemanages tocapture aspects ofthe struggle about Jewish identity andself-identity without conforming toa Holocaust agenda, that is,without trying toshow howthe rise ofthe Jewish question historically ledtothe Holocaust. Robertson's bookis divided intofive chapters: 'Enlightenment', 'Liberalism', 'Antisemitism', 'Assimilation', and'Dissimilation'. Though hemoves chronologically from theI 7sostotheI g30s, Robertson isnot primarily interested incomprehensive historical documentation and chronology. Each chapter setsoutto examine a particular phaseofthe Jewish question, andhow Jewish identities were forged out ofmaterials that camefrom the Jewish tradition andtheGerman culture inwhich their writers grew up.Chapter I, 'Enlightenment', setsthestage byexploring in depth howtheprocess oftheemancipation of Jews wasa double-edged sword, for Jewsofthelateeighteenth century wereexpected toreform themselves and/or improve their moralcondition byconverting to Christianity ifthey weretobe emancipated andrecognized as Germans. Robertson provides a brief historical account ofGerman Jewry before emancipation andthen proceeds toexamine the reasons Germans sought to'emancipate' theJews: toleration, mercantilism, and rationality. Often these reasons weremixed andweredebated byGermans and Jewsalike.Robertson focuses on texts byGotthold Ephraim Lessing, Christian Wilhelm vonDohm, Wilhelm vonHumboldt, andMosesMendelssohn while also relating howthetraditional-minded Jews debated with theenlightened Jews about theessence ofJudaism andwhether they couldpreserve their valuesagainst the secularizing pressures inherent inpluralism. InChapter 2,'Liberalism', Robertson begins bysurveying theramifications thatgreater emancipation hadfor Jews in Austria andGermany inthenineteenth century, andhecomes totheconclusion that 'wehavea development inwhich emancipatory liberalism gradually losesout tofree-market liberalism andJews aregradually excluded from the political process. Theirentry intoGerman andAustrian society, outwardly successful, gavethem limited and decreasing power,whiletheycontinued, evenafterfullformal emancipation, tobeidentified asJews' (p.85).Robertson then studies three texts, Heinrich Heine'sDieBader von Lucca (I829),Berthold Auerbach's Spinoza (I837), andFanny Lewald's jFenny (I843),toreflect uponthemanner inwhich Jewish writers dealtwiththisdilemma. At theend ofthechapter he presents three engrossing casestudies ofthelives andkeyworks ofArthur Schnitzler, Sigmund Freud, andStefan Zweig todemonstrate their basicdiscontent with themanner in which the Jewish question undermined their faith inrational inquiry. In thenext chapter, Robertson shifts hisfocus byexamining the diverse forms ofanti-Semitism andtherepresentation ofJewsin selected texts byGentile writers. Herehe is concerned with theanti-modern mentality andthestereotypical images ofJews MLR,96.3,200I 9o5 projected inthe writings ofFriedrich Hebbel, Ferdinand vonSaar,Wilhelm Raabe, andThomas Mann. In Chapter 4 'Assimilation' Robertson investigates the Jewish responses tothe failure oftheir hopes for greater integration. Here,too,heprovides a large amount ofhistorical background that covers the period primarily from I870toI930,andhe emphasizes howJews hadbecome model Bildungsburger inGermany andAustria, onlyto encounter variousforms of subtleand vitriolic antisemitism. He is particularly incisive inexploring thetensions ofassimilation andacculturation as theyare depicted in theJewish family novelsof Ludwig Jacobowski, Jakob Wassermann) GeorgHermann, Arthur Schnitzler, Auguste Hauschner, Adolf Dessauer, andMaxBrod.Inaddition, there areexcellent sections onMaximilian Harden, KarlKraus, HansNatonek, andEliasCanetti that dealwith Jewish selfhateas wellas a general account ofthenationalism ofJewish writers andtheir friendships withGentiles. In hisfinal chapter, 'Dissimilation', Robertson argues that World WarI wasa turning-point inGerman-Jewish relations because Jews werecompelled torealize that, nomatter howthey might fight for andembrace German nationalism, they would always remain Jewish intheeyes ofGermans and thus identified according tocertain prejudices andstereotypes. Asa result, the Jews reacted byreinventing newwaysofbeingJewish and created various Jewish identities throughout theI920SandI930S.HereRobertson studies theambivalent attraction totheEastern Jew, Orientalism, andZionism andhowsuchwriters as Joseph Roth, Theodor Herzl, andArnold Zweig sought topresent alternatives to . . . . . . Demg Jewls z InAustrla or Jermany. Robertson's book ends abruptly without a conclusion. Itends with a comment on Arnold Zweig's novel De Vraendt kehrt heim, which Robertson believes adumbrates the political and moraldilemmas thatwouldarisefrom theJews'homecoming in Palestine. Thisisa curious andyet very appropriate 'ending' toRobertson's superb study. It iscurious becauseRobertson refrains from drawing together themany strands ofthe Jewish question asrepresented inthe literature of Jewish andGentile...