The Berlin Jewish Museum Presents: Postcards from the Past

Post Cards from the Past

A culture of holiday greetings developed in Germany between 1890 and 1910. Hundreds of paintings and illustrations of Jewish life were reproduced as postcards which were then traded, collected and sent off to family and friends. Holiday cards are often sentimental, then and now. The historical motifs show scenes of family harmony, and they bestow a certain lightness on the Jewish holidays. The cards are characterized by memories of bygone times and images of Eastern European Jewish customs. They evoke religious traditions as they wane and change. But as collectibles, the cards also represent commitments to Jewish culture in the years of emancipation and assimilation before World War I.

Moritz Daniel Oppenheim (1800-1882), who was part of the late Jewish Enlightenment, from the years around 1875. It offers the viewers a glimpse into the living room of a German-Jewish family which has melded religious tradition with a bourgeois lifestyle.

Season's Greetings from Berlin Revival

Season's Greetings from Berlin Revival-


Throughout the year, we receive emails with questions about Jewish life in Germnay. This holiday season we encourage all those in Berlin area to explore your community and get plugged into your local history. 

The following a list of my favorite spots and activities. Comments and additional suggestions are warmly appreciated.

Chanukka/Weihnachtsmarkt at the Berlin Jewish Museum

For reform services, I  recommend the historic synoguage on Oranienburger strass in Mitte.

For Jewish tours and an interesting historical perspective, Sue Arns.

Here is a link to Berlin's Jewish Community Center, which also has a library for family research and an adult education center (they teach german, yiddish, hebrew etc.).

For a historical perspective on the city, in general, I recommend the Berlin Underground Tours.

There are also many political organizations that combat right-wing extremism and anti-Semitism in Berlin.

Thank you so much for your interest in the Berlin Revival project. Have a wonderful and safe holiday season.

Best,



Berlin Revival
berlinrevival@googlemail.com

BOOK RELEASE: Member of Berlin Revival, Martin Kowalski's "Aber ich will etwas getan haben dagegen!" (I wish I had done something).

"Aber ich will etwas getan haben dagegen!" – damit bezog sich Gudrun Ensslin auf den fehlenden Widerstand im Nationalsozialismus und rechtfertigte so ihren Kampf in der Stadtguerilla. Wie sehr die rebellierende Generation der 68er jedoch selbst immer noch dem faschistischen Denken verhaftet blieb und wie wenig Distanz sie zu ihren Eltern gewinnen konnten analysiert Autor Martin Kowalski genau. Aus einer Perspektive ist die RAF vor allem auch als ein postfaschistisches Phänomen zu sehen.

Fritz Kahn and the Man-Machine: The Inner Workings of the Human Body from a Jewish Intellectual in Prewar Berlin

Now showing at Charité's Berlin Medizinhistorisches Museum is an extraordinary exhibition about doctor and science writer Fritz Kahn. Searching for a way to make the mysterious inner workings of the human body understandable to a wide audience in the 1920’s, Kahn hit upon a perfect metaphor: modern-machines. Although he had no artistic ability, Kahn was able to hire a group of talented illustrators to complete his vision by giving them detailed instruction. The resulting five-volume series, Das Leben des Menschen, was an international hit, no doubt serving as inspiration for Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis as well as a groundbreaking album from influential German electronic band Kraftwerk many years later. Kahn’s book gave legions of artists and designers something to dream on, and educated future generations of doctors and scientists about the wonders of man.

Unfortunately Kahn’s success ended abruptly with the rise of the Nazis. He was expelled from Germany in the 1930’s due to being—you guessed it—a Jew. With help from fellow émigré Albert Einstein, Kahn was able to come to America to continue his career. Meanwhile, he had to look one while the Nazis first burned his books, and then appropriated them, adding anti-Semitic language and plagiarizing his ideas to serve their own purposes. Luckily, his worked lived on thanks to its playfulness, complexity, and originality. Forgotten for many years, Fritz Kahn is now celebrated in this exhibition and the book that accompanies it. His story of initial success, subsequent exile, and recent rediscovery is a perfect example of what Berlin Revival seeks to highlight and celebrate.

Read about Fritz Kahn and see some of his astounding illustrations here. If you’re in Berlin from now until April 11, 2010, see the exhibition here.

Photo courtesy of the National Library of Medicine (Dream Anatomy Gallery)

Illuminating Identities at an Untraditional Shabbat Dinner: Berlin Revival's First Meeting

In the 1920s, Yiddish was more than just a lingua franca for East European Jewish émigrés; it was also a language of high culture, as demonstrated by a brilliant new book, “Yiddish in Weimar Berlin: At the Crossroads of Diaspora Politics and Culture” (Legenda Books), edited by New York University Yiddish scholar Gennady Estraikh and University of Michigan professor Mikhail Krutikov.

Read more: http://blogs.forward.com/the-arty-semite/129788/#ixzz17rG06RLz

The first meeting of Berlin Revival took place around an untraditional potluck Shabbat dinner. Open to all faiths and nationalities, the dinner brought together Jews and non-Jews from Germany, France, Austria, and the US for a discussion on community organizing and how it can counter anti-Semitism, Jewish identity and what it is like to be Jewish in Germany today, and the future of Berlin Revival. Gathered around a table of Matzoh, Kugel, Mandelbrot, and Latkes, the meeting came to order with a reading of the mission statement (link to updated mission statement on website) by group founder Cora Weiss, and a reciting of the traditional Shabbat blessing by Shirley Rempe.

The discussion began aptly with a clear definition of the circumstances that make Berlin Revival necessary. Do we come together in response to a perceived threat, or in order to define and hence celebrate a common identity? Instead of answering either of those questions, we found that the questions themselves evoked so many different reactions, they had to be further defined before the discussion could continue. German Jews pre-WWII were highly assimilated. Therefore, perhaps due to the feeling that they were more German than Jewish, stayed in Berlin longer than they should have as other Jews fled the country, unable to believe what was happening to their once liberal, vibrant home city. Furthermore, the story of Jews and their attempts at or resistance to assimilation has always been complicated, simply because they were persecuted, segregated, or driven out of their homes so many times throughout history. Judith Aron pointed out the long history of “wandering Germans,” whose experiences of a “blood right” to their lineage versus a “land right” do not differ so much from the Jewish problems of identity today. Germany, pointed out the French Ms. Aron, is a relatively young country compared to many, and very often what makes someone identify as German is as complex as what makes someone identify as Jewish.

But how much about identifying as Jewish come from being forcefully separated from the reigning or mainstream culture? And what do we have to gain by putting ourselves back into that culture? Ms. Weiss likened a new movement among secular Jews to the gay rights movement: “outing” ourselves as Jewish can of course lead to positive and negative outcomes. While being more visible would lead to a higher level of education among Germany about secular Jews and Jewish heritage (we agreed that although Germany is a nation still rightfully occupied and concerned with its treatment of Jews, very few Germans would even know if they met one) it would also lead to Jews effectively labeling and segregating themselves further. Emily Deutchman spoke about her experiences identifying herself as Jewish in a non-Jewish community, commenting that very often, giving oneself the ethnic rather than the religious label of “Jew” can lead to confusion, sometimes even putting non-Jews on the offensive, since they simply do not know what the term “Jewish” is intended to mean.

Spurred on by this realization, the discussion turned to what it means to be ethnically Jewish—or Jewish by heritage and tradition—rather than a religious Jew, and whether definition is seen as better than another. Is the feeling that it is negative to describe someone as “ethnically” Jewish only a modern one? Is this feeling attributable to Nazi ideas of racial purity? If we say that we are “culturally” Jewish, we have to know what that means, and with what culture we actually identify. It may be difficult for Germans especially to understand this concept, because Germany is fairly homogenous in its Christianity, and Germans simply may not realize how much religion has impacted their culture. Berlin Revival sees itself as a secular organization, commented Weiss, but “we aren’t secular because we don’t believe. We are secular because we allow for a range of beliefs.” Martin Kowalski added, “The question is not ‘what is the culture?’ but ‘why do I [as a Jew] identify with that culture and fit in with it?’” Finally, the group as a whole recognized the importance of paying homage to their collective history. Weiss said it best when she commented, “If I don’t acknowledge my Judaism, how can I honor what they paid for?” Indeed, this may be the most lasting and important work of Berlin Revival: to honor the hard road our ancestors walked in order for us to get to where we are now, proudly proclaiming our Jewish heritage in modern-day Germany.