Jews and the German State: The Political History of a Minority, 1848-1933 (review)

Book Reviews 141 knowledge that Rosenzweig's extensive correspondence with Margrit Rosenstock-Huessy is being prepared for publicationj but whether or not that kind of conclusion represents a fitting finish for this volume may well be a fitting question with which one takes leave of it. There is no question, however, that this issue of the Year Book represents an exemplary statement about how history should be written. Evidently, German historiography is being redirected in a manner that would finally undo what I have repeatedly referred to as the dialectic of Enlightenment or rather ofEmancipationj it will be undone once GermanJews have entered German history as Jews. Historians have become aware of this task and are to be congratulated for tackling it. In the larger and far more indistinct arena of German Studies, particularly pertaining to the fields of cultural and literary scholarship, this task has not yet been recognized. It is sincerely to be hoped that the efforts of the Leo Baeck Institute will soon have an effect on these disciplines as well. Geza von Molnar Department of German Northwestern University Jews and the German State: The Political History of a Minority, 1848-1933, by Peter Pulzer. Oxford: Blackwells, 1992. 370 pp. $49.95. Professor Pulzer has written a history of the political role ofJews in Germany during the eighty-five years of their emancipated existence. In some ways this is a unique contribution. Most scholars study Jews, Germans, or antisemites, sometimes in the political sphere, but few investigate Jews as political actors in either the Empire or Weimar. The author brings to his task enviable knowledge of the era, the sources, and the myriad individuals. Students and scholars alike will find]ews and the German State informative and useful for years to come. There are, however, some problems in this fundamentally strong work that need to be noted. To begin with, reading the various chapters is like meeting old friends, as almost all of the text has appeared already in one form or another. Chapter three, for example, appeared in two separate parts, but, despite that, constitutes a book in itself. In addition to its length, 250 pages, "Jews in German Politics" is made up of fourteen subsections , which interconnect relatively well. But the other chapters, while 142 SHOFAR Summer 1993 Vol. 11, No.4 interesting, insightful, and important, have a problematic connection to each other and to chapter three. In raising the issue of why there was a Jewish Question in Imperial Germany, chapter one ends by noting two aspects of this question, one constitutional and the other sociaVideological. But this book only deals with the political, and the reader is not told why. Instead, chapter two goes on to analyze the exclusion ofJews from the judiciary on religious grounds, telling us a great deal about this largely de facto practice within the state structure. Soundly grounded in the archives, it stands on its own, so much so that it has its own appendices at the end of the chapter. Chapter three is massive and encyclopedic (in a good sense) and shows remarkably thorough and detailed work on Jews in all forms of political life. Its most useful and provocative sections come toward the end where Pulzer argues persuasively that in late Weimar Jews left the Democratic party to vote for either the Catholic Centre party or the Social Democrats as better ways of combating Nazism. Brief as it is, chapter four is provocative. Here Pulzer contends that most Jews were not republican, that is, pro-Weimar, by conviction, remaining emotional monarchists after 1918. But this is not well substantiated and is open to serious question. Moreover, the author links Liberalism [sic] andJews too tightly together for someone who simultaneously argues that Jews were emotional monarchists. Of course, he says the same about Liberals, and that, too, is suspect. If he means the right-leaning German Peoples' Party, he might be right, but not if he means the German Democratic Party for which, he asserts, manyJews cast their votes. The fate of German Jews appears here too much as the consequence of Liberal failure than of Nazi growth. While Liberals must share some of the responsibility for...