Wir Deutschjuden ” : 1 The Image of Germans and Westjuden in the German-Language Jewish Press of the First World War and the Interwar Period

The interwar period was a highly special time in reference to defining and constructing all kinds of cultural identities in Europe. One of the groups building their identity at the time were the so-called Westjuden, a Jewish community culturally defined as Ashkenazi assimilated under the influence of the Jewish Enlightenment (the Haskalah). In German territory, Westjuden considered themselves German citizens of the Jewish faith, thus separating themselves from the remaining groups of Ashkenazi Jews, i.e. the Ostjuden. Also describing themselves as Germans in the German-language Jewish press, Westjuden frequently characterized, analyzed, and searched for confirmation of their belonging to the German cultural circle. The aim of the article is to reconstruct the image of Germans and Westjuden themselves in the German-language Jewish press at the time of the First World War and in the interwar period.


Introduction
W ho are the German Jews of today? What should they be like? What is their status in today's Germany? -questions of this kind were often asked in the German-language press not only in the interwar period. This trend could be observed before (in the period from the Haskalah, when Jewish press increased in popularity, to the outbreak of the First World War), as well as after (in the time of National Socialism, or even the postwar period). Nonetheless, the peculiarity of the 1920s and 1930s demands deeper reflection, as it was then, historically speaking, that Deutschjuden, 2 who considered themselves to be "Deutsche Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens" (German citizens of the Mosaic confession), were deprived of their cultural heritage and identity. In other words, one can say that they were "driven from the Garden of Eden" they belonged to. Press discourse in the context of the issue of Ostjuden and Westjuden has been the object of many analytical studies. 3 It is worth taking a closer look at the image of Westjuden and Germans in the German-language Jewish press and asking the following questions: What were the outcomes and perception of the Jewish Enlightenment among German Jews? What was their role or status among the society of the German cultural circle? What was their perception of Germans? The article will attempt to reconstruct the cultural image of Germans and Westjuden in the German-language Jewish press.

German-Language Press as a Carrier of Media Image
The image of Deutschjuden and Germans in the Jewish press can be described as stereotypic. The understanding of a stereotype as "the image in a person's mind" is proposed by Lippmann -a precursor of research on stereotypes (Bartmiński, 2007a, p. 54). Stereotypes (both positive and negative) are collective images of people, things and events including their characteristic features from the point of view of properties, functions, behavior etc. (Bartmiński, 2007b, p. 20). An analysis of the linguistic aspect 2 The ethnonyms German Jews, Deutschjuden and Westjuden are applied interchangeably in the present article. A specific characteristic and analysis of the context of expressions applied requires deeper study, as the word Westjude does not always carry a broader European context of assimilation (including Jews populating other Western countries) -it often refers to the ethnonym Ostjude as its opposite. Similarly, the contexts of such expressions as emanzipierte / assimilierte Jude or Haskalajude in press texts are unclear; they refer not only to German Jewsfrequently the context is set outside Germany. 3 Cf. also numerous publications referring to the status of the Ostjuden in Germany and to the problem of Ostjuden and Westjuden in general: Aschheim, 1982;Haumann, 1998Haumann, , 2003Cohen/ Frankel/Hoffman, 2010;Saß, 2012;Olszewska, 2013aOlszewska, , 2013bOlszewska, , 2019Olszewska & Twardowska, 2019. enables these images to be reconstructed and helps to set a direction for the interpretation of reality, as stereotypes are absorbed together with language -they are a component of the linguistic and cultural image of the world (cf. Bartmiński, 2011, p. 34). Ethnic stereotypes play an important role in the way people perceive other nations. Jerzy Bartmiński claims that "the way in which one perceives members of various ethnic groups is determined by the cultural opposition "familiar vs. unfamiliar" as well as being connected with current relations and conflicts between these groups" (Bartmiński, 2007a, pp. 86 and 99). According to sociocultural theories of the direct influence of mass media on the audience, affiliation to a given social group and views on social opinion or specific social situations influence the communication process (the choice of information and its acquisition) between the sender (e.g. the press) and the audience. Media mainly propose a stereotypic image of a nation or a society and specific social roles, as confirmed by the relationships between images in media and society (cf. Fałkowski & Popko, 2006, p. 11).
The German-language press was not only one of the main arenas for the exchange of views on the place and role of the assimilated Jewish culture in interwar Germany, but also a carrier of specific stereotypic images of the German-language Jewish community.
For assimilated Jews, the German-language Jewish press became a platform for discussing their situation in Germany, for analyzing cultural, social and political problems. It was also in the press that people commented on the latest publications (books, leaflets, press articles) and quoted the views of German public opinion regarding both Westjuden and Ostjuden. Press discourse presented both assimilated and migrating Jews, and, as Andreas Herzog (1996, p. 4) rightly observed, was initiated in Germany long before the publication period of the press analyzed in the present article (cf. also the Compact Memory digital library for the first editions of the German-language press). The peak of press publications can be dated around the year 1900, when Judeo-German intellectuals, representatives of the arts and culture, took an interest in history and culture yet unknown to them: the culture of the Ostjuden. On the one hand, the authors of articles on history, philosophy, cultural studies or a field close to contemporary anthropology depicted or commented on Ostjuden, but on the other, they created their own stereotype of the Deutschjude (including the country where they lived, its inhabitants and, above all, the German culture they considered to be their own). Ost und West, Im deutschen Reich, Der Jude, Neue Jüdische Monatshefte, Die Welt -these press titles were particularly popular among the Westjuden in the interwar period.
As the first example let us take Ost und West, published between 1901 and 1923. This journal documented the academic and cultural life of European Jews, giving special consideration to the achievements of East European Jews. Im deutschen Reich (1895Reich ( -1922, a journal of the Central Association of German Citizens of the Mosaic Confession, focused on expanding knowledge about German and Jewish culture in order to increase the emancipation of Jews and their integration into German culture. Der Jude (1916)(1917)(1918)(1919)(1920)(1921)(1922)(1923)(1924)(1925)(1926)(1927)(1928) analyzed issues related to the social and cultural situation of the Ashkenazi Jews, but its main objective was to explain the culture and customs of East European Jews and improve their negative image among German Jews. Similarly, Neue Jüdische Monatshefte, published between 1916 and 1920 by Hermann Cohen and Franz Oppenheimer, among others, described political, economic and literary matters from the "Ost-West" viewpoint. The bimonthly Der Morgen, established by Julius Goldstein, was published in the years 1925-1938. The journal was considered a platform for modern Jewish science. Its discourse oscillated around current sociopolitical issues, special consideration being given to the problem of growing antisemitism. Die Welt (1897Welt ( -1914, founded by Theodor Herzl as a "Zentralorgan der Zionistischen Bewegung" [central organ of the Zionist movement], also discussed issues connected with antisemitism as well as Zionism and the assimilation of the German Jews. The need to discuss the identity and role of the Westjuden in the interwar reality increased steadily, starting from their situation in the First World War (cf. the press article "Wir Deutschjuden" mentioned in the present paper's title, whose author proposed "Auseinandersetzungen deutscher Juden mit ihrer inneren und äußeren Situation" [a discussion on the internal and external situation of German Jews]). This tendency is visible in the very titles of the articles: "Der heutige deutsche Antisemitismus" [German Antisemitism of Today], "Emanzipation und Enjudung" [Emancipation and Disposing of Jews], "Das kulturelle problem des modernen Westjuden" [The Cultural Problem of Contemporary West European Jews], "Die Grenzen der Assimilation" [Boundaries of Assimilation], and many others. The German-language press discourse in the interwar period was dominated by the following key expressions: Deutschjuden and Deutschland, Haskalah and Moses Mendelssohn, and Westjuden and Ostjuden. Let us move on to an analysis of the images hidden behind these terms.

The Image of Deutschjuden and Germans in the German-Language Jewish Press
In this group of texts one can primarily notice descriptions of the media image of Deutschjuden among German citizens. We find examples of selfdetermination, frequently strengthened by the ethnonym deutsch (German), the possessive pronoun unser (our, ours) and adjectives: assimiliert (assimilated), emanzipiert (emancipated), Wir Deutschjuden (we German Jews), typischer Deutschjude (typical German Jew), unser Deutschjudentum (our German Jewish character), emanzipierte Jude (emancipated Jew), Die Kinder der Assimilation (children of assimilation), or, as mentioned in the title of the present paper, deutsche Staatsburger jüdischen Glaubens (German citizens of the Mosaic confession).
The press offered many models of a Deutschjude, which is noticeable in the titles of articles, e.g. "Vom judischen Zwiespalt" [On Dilemmas of Being a Jew], "Wir Deutschjuden" [We German Jews]. Jewishness was often seen solely as a feature of character or mentality: "Jude sein ist vor allem ein Charakterproblem" [Being a Jew is mainly a problem of mentality] (Natonek, 1917(Natonek, -1918 or belonging to a purely spiritual sphere -the German soul, the so-called deutsche Seelensubstanz (Lemm, 1917(Lemm, -1918.
The majority of the models discussed mention a peculiar indifference characterizing Deutschjuden, i.e. "complete indifference, antipathy towards Judaism" in favor of German culture. This lack of concern for one's roots manifested itself in the rejection of religious tradition and a materialistic attitude to life, and had its origin in fear of contempt, cf.: Our times are dominated by marvelous discoveries in natural sciences and amazing technological accomplishments. Natural sciences and technology deal merely with matter, with things that can be understood and felt with our senses … Material things come to the fore and religiousness declines … Another reason for the indifference of the Jew is the fear of disregard for his religion. From childhood he hears that the expression Jew is a term of abuse, hears from his teachers and reads in hundreds of books … that Judaism is old-fashioned and that it has been superseded by its allegedly more noble and more perfect daughter -the Christian religion; he is hurt and put in an unfavorable social position by his state and his fellow citizens. (Philippson, 1901, pp. 892-894) In the interwar period, Deutschjuden wished to recognize the German identity as theirs. Positive features that the Deutschjuden had acquired from Germans after the Haskalah were underlined, such as industriousness, reliability, knowledge and science. As rightly pointed out by Jecheskiel Kaufmann (1916Kaufmann ( -1917): Language, out of all the moments constituting nationality, is especially vital, as it is language that makes a given nation a separate, independent community. Language is a stamp impressed by history, differentiating one nation from another. Language is the principium individuationis of a nation. 4 One of main elements of identity, the German language, which was so unreservedly accepted by the Deutschjuden, was depicted in a very positive manner, while the Jewish language was criticized: The aversion to Yiddish is not completely inexplicable. Many consider it typically representative of the Jewish exile and thus fight against it; frequently, however, anti-Yiddishism is a reaction to exaggerated actions of Yiddishists, who identify Yiddishist Judaism in reference to Jewishness as a whole. (Bergmann, 1914, pp. 175-176) 5 The German-language Jewish press called Yiddish a dialect, a jargon, and even the language of the lowest social classes.
The experience of the First World War and its consequences resulted in a more critical image of the Jewish-German coexistence. Disillusionment and doubt in the German character felt by the Deutschjuden led to a kind of dichotomy in the perception of German culture as their own, and contributed to successive analyses of the problem of identity in the German-language Jewish press: In recent years, significant German journals on their pages have repeatedly considered the internal and external situation of Jews … One such text is the article by Lemm. It contains an in-depth analysis of the situation of the German Jews, who … treat neither German nor Jewish culture as their own and who cannot decide which cultural circle they belong to. (Strauß, 1916, p. 59) 6 Over time, the awareness of being a stranger to the Germans became more noticeable in the Jewish press. Assimilation itself was considered unsuccessful, or even impossible, cf.: Today I have a different view of things. A Jew is not a German, in fact he has never truly been one, even this Jew who was assimilated to the highest degree. Similarly to a man who will never be a woman. Actually they live together, sleep together, believe that they know each other well and stand by each other. Through the years of a shared life they become more and more alike, but finally each of them goes their own way, have their own thoughts and feelings … We -highly assimilated Westjuden -were unaware of carrying a kind of balance inside us. On one pan, voneinander unterscheidet: sie ist das 'principium individuationis' der Nation. " 5 "Diese Abneigung gegen das Jiddische ist nicht ganz unverständlich. Vielen mag es als der typische Repräsentant des Galuth erscheinen und sie bekämpfen Letzteres im Ersten; vielfach aber ist der Anti-Jiddischismus eine Reaktion auf die maßlosen Uebertreibungen der Jiddischisten die das jiddische Judentum schlechthin identifizieren. " 6 "In den letzten Jahren haben große deutsche Blätter mehr als einmal Auseinandersetzungen deutscher Juden mit ihrer inneren und äußeren Situation veröffentlicht. Eine Arbeit dieser Art ist der Artikel Lemms. Er enthält ein gut und intensivgesehenes Bild der Lage des deutschen Juden […], der weder in der deutschen noch in der jüdischen Kultur ganz zu Hause ist und für seine Person auch die glatte Entscheidung für einen der beiden Kulturkreise kaum durchführen kann. "

COLLOQUIA HUMANISTICA
weighing heavy, lay the word Germanness, on the other, lifted high and light as a feather, was the word Jewishness. Now these proportions have started to change … We underwent deep disillusionment with Germany and we had been undergoing it all the time … (Hermann, 1919, p. 401) 7 The Image of Moses Mendelssohn and the Haskalah in the German-Language Jewish Press Three factors, namely the Haskalah, the person of its founder Moses Mendelssohn, and the very process of the assimilation of Jews in Germany, seem a good starting point for an analysis of the press discourse surrounding the image of Deutschjuden and Germans. There is a broad range of topics related to the above-mentioned issues to be found in this press discourse. Their popularity is manifested by an abundance of synonyms referring to the Deutschjuden themselves and to the process of cultural transformation constituting the cultural value of the Haskalah. Synonyms of the terms Haskalah, emancipation and assimilation are especially worth mentioning, referring to both the phenomenon and the participant: Emanzipationsperiode (the period of emancipation), Emanzipationskampf / Emanzipationskämpfer (the fight for emancipation), Emanzipationszeit (the time of emancipation), Emanzipationsbewegung (emancipation movement), Selbst-Emanzipation (self-emancipation), Emanzipationsjude / Emanzipationsjüdin (emancipated Jew / emancipated Jewess), Emanzipationsleugner (rejecting emancipation), Emanzipationsjubiläum (emancipation jubilee), Emanzipationsbestrebung (striving for emancipation), Haskalakampf (fight for the Haskalah), Haskalahbewegung (the Haskalah movement), and many others.
The above-mentioned Haskalah (Hebr. "teaching, education, enlightenment", i.e. the Jewish Enlightenment) was, as is commonly acknowledged, a turning point in the construction of the identity of European Jews. Initiated at the end of the 18th century, it was aimed at the modernization of Jewish life. The movement was seen as a form of resistance to the dominant 7 "Der Jude ist nicht Deutscher, war es nie ganz, auch der am meisten assimilierte nicht. Wie der Mann nicht die Frau ist. Sie leben zusammen, haben einen: gemeinsamen Haushalt, essen zusammen, schlafen zusammen, glauben sich auch zu kennen, treten füreinander und für das gleiche ein, werden sich wohl auch mit den Jahrzehnten ähnlich, aber zum Schluss geht jeder seine eigenen Wege, hat seine eigenen Gedanken, sein eigene? Fühlen, seine eigene Veranlagung […]. Auch wir stark assimilierten Westjuden trugen also von je, ohne uns noch dessen bewusst zu sein, -gleichsam eine Wage in uns. Auf der einen Schale, die schwer belastet tief unten hing, lag das Wort Deutschtum und auf der anderen, die federleicht oben schwebte, lag das Wort Judentum. Und langsam im Laufe von fünf Jahren mit jeder Enttäuschung, die wir an denen erlebten, die wir glaubten, bis in den letzten Winkel ihres Wesens zu kennen, stieg die Schale des Deutschtums und die Schale des Judentums sank mehr und mehr dafür. " orthodoxy, and its main objective was to eliminate the social and cultural isolation of Jews in ghettos by means of popularizing education among young Jews and separating them from the traditional cheder and yeshiva, cultivating exact sciences, and initiating a dialog with the surrounding European culture. Moral and cultural changes were suggested, for example learning foreign languages, modifying the external signs of Jewishness (caftan, beard, sidelocks) and changing the way Jews earned a living (crafts). Kaufmann (1916Kaufmann ( -1917) calls the Haskalah "the beginning of change," and claims that: "The aim of the Haskalah was certainly not only enlightenment in general, but the foreign culture prevailing in the country, and thus preparation for political emancipation." 8 As an example, he mentions "literary revival" and underlines that "the primary idea that revived the whole of literature was enlightenment in the language of the Reich." 9 In the press the Haskalah was commented on together with its symbolic figure: Moses Mendelssohn. 10 Described by Franz Rosenzweig as "the first German Jew" (1929, p. 374), he was depicted as a grand reformer and compared to Martin Luther. Mendelssohn's activity resulted in the acculturation and, over time, the assimilation of Deutschjuden into German culture. As noted by R. Salman (1916, p. 46), the Deutschjuden took on cultural substance different from that which stemmed from the heritage of Judaism: So it happened that Jewish emancipation in Europe proceeded under the banner of assimilation. It was not only the inner character of emancipation but also total rejection of the Jewish tradition by the participants of emancipation that brought about neglect of national Jewish pursuits. 11 Assimilation through the use of language, one of the main indicators of the cultural identity of Deutschjuden, is confirmed, for example, by Kaufmann (1916Kaufmann ( -1917: "The disappearance of the Jewish language among the nation was indeed the moment of assimilation, and the process of assimilation had to come." 12 8 "Der Zweck der ‚Haskala' war natürlich nicht die Aufklärung überhaupt, sondern die im Staate herrschende fremde Kultur , -eine Vorbereitung zur politischen Emanzipation. " 9 "Aber die Grundidee, die diese ganze Literatur belebte, war die ' Aufklärung' , und zwar in der Reichssprache. " 10 Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786), Jewish and German philosopher, writer, translator, biblist; supporter of the emancipation of Jews and their integration with non-Jewish citizens. 11 "So geschah es, daß die jüdische Emanzipation in Westeuropa unter dem Zeichen der Assimilation stand. Nicht die innere Natur der Emanzipation verursachte diese Vernachlässigung national-jüdischer Forderungen, sondern die völlige Entjudetheit der zu Emanzipierenden. " 12 "Freilich war das Verschwindender Sprache aus dem Munde des Volkes seinerzeit ein Assimilationsmoment, aber dieser Assimilationsprozeß mußte eintreten. " COLLOQUIA HUMANISTICA "Us and Them":

The Stereotype of Westjuden -Ostjuden in the Press
Reflecting on the image of Jews in Germany in the period under analysis, it is crucial to differentiate between the notions of Westjuden and Ostjuden. 13 Both coined by Nathan Birnbaum, they appeared in public space as designations of separate profiles of European Jews: Westjuden defines a Jewish "type" originating from Western Europe, including Germany and western Austria (cf. Acher, 1913, p. 372); Ostjuden refers to Jews inhabiting mainly Eastern Europe and living in line with the Jewish tradition. In interwar Germany, Deutschjuden were perceived as a link between the backward Jewish East and the modern German Western Europe. The reaction among Westjuden was twofold: either total criticism of Ostjuden (as threatening the actual status of Westjuden) and rejection of Jewish roots or, on the contrary, deep empathy towards their poor brothers from the East. Press texts, for instance Georg Hermann's "Zur Frage der Westjuden," painted an image of the true Westjude, who was German and whose first culture was German culture. Moreover, he demonstrated aversion to his "fellow brethren from the East" and contempt for religious rules typical of Judaism: I am a German Jew, as many thousands like me, "a German citizen of the Mosaic confession." As far as I recall, we have never obeyed the rules of religious life, and still we have felt Jewish, typical Westjuden … Yes, I have to admit that as a German Jew I have constantly felt strong aversion to the still uncivilized Ostjuden … As a typical Westjude, I considered myself deeply assimilated with the German nation, who endowed me with its culture and language. I had the impression, similarly to my brethren, that I didn't just lead the life of a German Jew among Germans but a life together with them. I believed myself to be not only equal to both Jews and Germans, but also to be German first and foremost. (Hermann, 1919, p. 400) 14 The discourse concerning Ostjudenfrage (the Ostjuden question), or rather Ostjudengefahr (the Ostjuden threat) or Ostjudenproblem (the Ostjuden problem), confirms a fear of losing the status of an assimilated 13 Cf. also an article by Izabela Olszewska, 2013a; 2013b. 14 "Ich bin wie viele Tausende meinesgleichen deutscher Jude, oder wie man sagt: deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens. Wie viele meinesgleichen habe ich mich, solange ich denken kann, von religiösen Formalien völlig fern gehalten, habe mich aber trotzdem stets der Rasse nach als Jude, als typischer Westjude gefühlt. Ja, ich muss bekennen, dass ich als solcher eine ziemlich heftige Abneigung gegen den noch unzivilisierten Ostjuden stets empfunden hatte … Als typischer Westjude galubte ich mich sehr stark innerlich dem Deutschtum assimiliert zu haben . . . dem Deutschtum, in dessen Schoss ich lebte und dem ich das Geschenk seiner Sprache und seiner Kultur dankte … Ich hatte doch mit vielen meiner Brüder das Gefühl, dass ich als deutscher Jude nicht nur zwischen den Deutschen lebte, sondern mit ihnen lebte. Ich glaubte beides, Deutscher und Jude nicht nur im gleichen Masse zu sein, nein ich meinte, dass ich zuerst Deutscher wäre …" Jew in Germany. The press quoted opinions that prevailed in Germany and defined Ostjuden as "Unglück für Deutschland" (a misfortune for Germany). These fears were accurately expressed by the editorial staff of Ost und West ([editors] 1916, pp. 73-112) in the title itself and in the lead of an extensive text on the front page: "Ostjudenfrage. How the issue of East European Jews became the issue of West European Jews. Defense against the threat of Ostjuden and its insufficiency. The most important proposal of a solution to the problem." The press discourse referring to cultural discrepancies between Ostjuden and Westjuden underlined the superiority of the culture of Westjuden over the tradition of Ostjuden. We frequently come across expressions like Hilfe (help) or Aufgabe (task), highlighting the duty of assimilated Jews towards their "brethren from the East": "The war has set German Jews an immense task as their right, as their duty: the solution of the Jewish problem in Poland" (Berger, 1916, p. 137). 15

Conclusions
The above survey of German-language press materials constitutes a contribution to the study of the full image of Deutschjuden in the German-language Jewish press, as well as of the Germans whose culture was assimilated by the Deutschjuden. Based on an analysis of selected key words in press texts, one can say that the interwar period offered a kaleidoscopic range of forms of self-perception and perception of the Germans -from glorification of the Haskalah and assimilation into German culture, through practically complete rejection of Judaism and its rules, to critical disillusionment with Germans and the total elimination of Jews from the social and cultural life of Germany. The stereotype of Germans and Westjuden in the German-language Jewish press creates an image of culturally separate societies in spite of their linguistic (although short-lived) community. The analysis demonstrates that for Germans, assimilated German Jews constituted a more familiar group than Ostjuden; nevertheless, despite using the same language, they were actually perceived as not belonging to the German cultural circle.