The Limits of Assimilation

In the historical literature about German Jews, especially in writings from the Zionist perspective, it is common to look for a dividing line between the “Era of assimilation” and the “Era of renewed self-consciousness.” Such a turning point can indeed be easily identified in the aftermath of the dream of perfect national solidarity during World War I. The daily encounter with antisemitism on the front; the “Jewish census” of 1916, which was allegedly designed to refute the accusation that Jews were dodging military service on the front while accumulating wealth at the rear; and the direct encounter with Eastern European Jews along the Eastern front – all of these, so the argument runs, enhanced Jewish self-consciousness and brought an end to the period of their unreserved assimilation.

Yet the enhancement of self-awareness among German Jews actually began before the war. By the later part of the nineteenth century, the yearned-for dream of full membership in Germany's civil society seemed to have lost much of its credibility. The earlier years, beginning in the late eighteenth century, were a time of struggle for full legal emancipation, prior to which assimilation would be inconceivable. Then, in the middle of the nineteenth century, it seemed for a while that there was a real chance for Jews to “enter.” But with the resurgence of antisemitism in the late 1870s, the enmity towards them and consequently their own doubts and alienation intensified.