Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Prologue: My Father Leaves His German Homeland
- PART I INTERPRETING THE DANGER SIGNS
- PART II ANTISEMITISM AS A CULTURAL CODE
- 4 Antisemitism Old and New
- 5 Functions and Meaning
- 6 Norms and Codes: Two Case Studies
- 7 Comparing Germany with the French Republic
- PART III THE GERMAN-JEWISH PROJECT OF MODERNITY
- Epilogue: Closing the Circle
- Index
5 - Functions and Meaning
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Prologue: My Father Leaves His German Homeland
- PART I INTERPRETING THE DANGER SIGNS
- PART II ANTISEMITISM AS A CULTURAL CODE
- 4 Antisemitism Old and New
- 5 Functions and Meaning
- 6 Norms and Codes: Two Case Studies
- 7 Comparing Germany with the French Republic
- PART III THE GERMAN-JEWISH PROJECT OF MODERNITY
- Epilogue: Closing the Circle
- Index
Summary
National Consciousness: The Jew as the Other
Despite the importance of the precise social context for the crystallization of modern antisemitism, it was no less dependent on that ongoing effort by Germans in the course of the nineteenth century to construct their collective self and define their national identity. Among the great nations of modern times, the case of Germany readily exemplifies the pattern according to which nationality has been consolidated before the formation of a nation-state. The contrasting pattern is the one that is typical of England or France, where presumably a modern centralized state preceded the emergence of national consciousness. Although historians often stress this distinction, it is only partially convincing. The study of nationalism has made considerable progress during the last two or three decades, and new approaches that set the historical research free of its long-standing ideological dependence on the presuppositions of nationalism itself now allow for a fresh look at the events. In Germany, solid nationalism coupled with a significant degree of social cohesion based on an explicit national awareness became in fact a reality only in the years following the establishment of the Imperial Reich by Bismarck. Despite Germany's “lagging behind” in this respect, nation building in Germany too had been a long and complicated process. While certain aspects of it were concurrent and unusually rapid, others were completed only gradually.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Germans, Jews, and AntisemitesTrials in Emancipation, pp. 91 - 118Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006