Jews and Other Germans: Civil Society, Religious Diversity, and Urban Politics in Breslau, 1860-1925 (review)

Van Rahden's book is many things. By focusing on the German city of Breslau, it falls into the category of urban history. By investigating the differences between male and female marriage patterns, it touches on gender history. With many individuals in its cast of characters largely forgotten today, it has roots in microhistory and the history of everyday. The sources that van Rahden consults and the methodologies that he employs are numerous and varied, ranging from the examination of diaries for hints of self-reproach to the application of statistical analysis to tax data to provide a picture of the class structure of Breslau's Jews. Likewise, the three big questions that he seeks to answer are just as diverse. The first is one of the major questions of the twentieth century: How did the relations between Jewish and non-Jewish Germans deteriorate and lead to Auschwitz? The second is one that certainly pertains to Breslau's mixed population in the nineteenth century and is sure to be one of the major questions of the twenty-first century: How do varied groups form a cohesive society while allowing for diversity?

Yet, the main question that van Rahden attempts to answer is the extent to which Jews were integrated into Breslau society, making the book a significant addition to the fields of both German and Jewish history. Though the book's analysis extends until 1925, the bulk of the research deals with the second half of the long nineteenth century, ending with World War I. Van Rahden begins his examination of the relationship between Jews, Catholics, and Protestants in Breslau with three heavily statistical chapters on social structure, associational life, and marriage patterns. In these chapters, the tremendous amount of research underpinning his analysis becomes evident. Van Rahden uses this numerical data to correct many misconceptions about nineteenth-century Jews, at least those who lived in Breslau. For example, although contemporaries often portrayed Jews as overwhelmingly bourgeois, and scholars have perpetuated this view, van Rahden's statistics show a different economic reality. Moreover, he also demonstrates that most Breslau Catholics and Protestants who wedded Jews were not recent converts from Judaism but lifelong Christians.

The second half of the book includes two mainly narrative chapters. One chapter examines the inclusion of Breslau's Jews in the educational realm. In episodes such as the conflict about what the religious character of the Johannes-Gymnasium should be, van Rahden shows the notable degree of Jewish integration in Breslau. The other chapter focuses on three different topics—the fate of political antisemitism, local and state attitudes to foreign Jews, and the city's efforts to honor notable Jews.

Throughout the text, van Rahden gives ample evidence of the many opportunities that Breslau offered for Jewish integration. Yet, although the book tends toward this perspective, van Rahden is also careful to indicate the limits to Jewish inclusion in Breslau society. He shows that opposition to it came from both non-Jewish and Jewish groups. No book about the long nineteenth century can possibly expect to have the last word about how Jews ended up in Auschwitz. But the fact that van Rahden's detailed descriptions of how Jews and non-Jews interacted in imperial Germany strongly diverge from the tenor of life during the Third Reich firmly supports his assertion that the path to Auschwitz did not begin in imperial Germany. Concerning the question of, as van Rahden terms it, multiculturalism, Jews could achieve considerable integration without necessarily giving up their faith and culture. Future research, however, might be able to offer a clearer picture of the extent to which this multiculturalism was connected to the remaining constraints on Jewish integration in Breslau and elsewhere.