Writing Lives: A Female German Jewish Perspective on the Early Twentieth Century by Corinne Painter (review)

In Writing Lives: A Female German Jewish Perspective on the Early Twentieth Century, Corinne Painter provides a thorough overview of the life and work of German Jewish writer, community leader, and Holocaust victim Clementine Krämer (1873–1942). The author hereby joins several voices from the recent past who have criticized the traditional focus on experiences of German Jewish men before and during the Third Reich. Studies on the German women’s movement, as Painter further argues, have also struggled to address the specific situation of Jewish women. Writing Lives makes a convincing case for revisiting largely forgotten contributions by women such as Krämer and the nuances gained by doing so, not just for our understanding of the German Jewish community between the two world wars but also for women’s history as a whole.

In seven chapters, Painter analyzes examples of Krämer’s expansive oeuvre (which spans over one hundred short stories, articles, poems, and letters) and repeatedly highlights Krämer’s deep understanding of the complex times she lived in. Among the topics Krämer frequently explored are ambivalences of German Jewish identity, social expectations for and discrimination against women, and experiences of anti-Semitism between the two world wars. Painter initially identifies the German women’s movement, the German tradition of Bildung, and Moses Mendelssohn’s philosophy as major influences in Krämer’s works. As an activist in her community in Munich, Krämer was also involved in different social projects, from education to anti-prostitution campaigns. The second chapter consequently focuses on Krämer’s engagement with the Jewish community and with Eastern European Jewish women in particular. In her insightful analysis of Krämer’s descriptions of these encounters, Painter concludes that Krämer’s writings repeat cultural stereotypes yet also include important moments of self-reflection. The third chapter dives deeper into Krämer’s double marginalization as a German Jewish woman. Painter emphasizes here that Krämer’s courageous participation in public life and her fight for gender equality also forced her to deal with criticism from within the German Jewish community.

Krämer’s writings often confirm the traditional roles of women as wives, mothers, and educators. Painter uses two of Krämer’s short stories to showcase in the fourth chapter how and why Krämer repeatedly chose to write about these topics. According to Painter, writing about women and education allowed Krämer to position herself as an unquestioned authority and, in the process, create a space in which she could imagine new possibilities for women in society. In the fift h chapter, Writing Lives continues the idea of Krämer’s parallel exploration of traditional and progressive perspectives by tracing her long engagement with war work. Painter’s close readings of both stories and private letters reveal that Krämer infused her writings during World War I with antiwar stances and ideas of pacifism.

Krämer’s Die Rauferei (1927; The brawl), a novella about the divisions of the Weimar Republic, is the main focus of chapter 6. As Painter shows, the continuous sense of chaos in the story exposes any belief in single ideologies as unsustainable. The last chapter discusses Krämer’s experiences of living as a Jewish woman in Nazi Germany, the difficulties of emigration, and the consequent fragmentation of the German Jewish community. Especially noteworthy is the fact that during the Third Reich, Krämer continued organizing social events for Jewish women, which provided chances for socializing and mutual support. Painter selects a manuscript of one of Krämer’s speeches about fashion from one of these events to demonstrate how Krämer used her seemingly mundane speech for a veiled commentary on the impermanence of everything, including National Socialism.

Painter’s study of Krämer’s largely forgotten oeuvre adds an important nuance to our understanding of Germany’s early twentieth century. Krämer...