Stephan Braese, Daniel Weidner (ed./eds.)

Meine Sprache ist Deutsch
Deutsche Sprachkultur von Juden und die Geisteswissenschaften 1870–1970
[My Language is German. Jewish German Language Culture and the Humanities 1870–1970]

LiteraturForschung vol. 25
Kulturverlag Kadmos, Berlin 2015, 290 pages
ISBN 978-3-86599-286-4

Jewish scholars played an important role in the development of the “humanities” during the second half of the 19th century. As a German language culture developed by Jews over more than 100 years encountered a new formation of knowledge, Jewish scholars found themselves in an ambivalent situation. On the one hand, the understanding of spirit and culture seemed to open a path towards long-anticipated integration. On the other hand, this spirit itself often had nationalistic connotations and—latently or even manifestly—excluded a specifically Jewish language culture. In cultural and scholarly terms, this precarious situation facilitated an exceptional productivity. It even enabled the pivotal contribution of Jewish scholars to the historical success of the humanities. Not only does this history reveal the distinct issue of Jewish speech in Germany. It also offers new perspectives on the historical and current potentials and limits of the humanities.

 

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Event

International Conference
17 Jan 2013 – 19 Jan 2013

»Meine Sprache ist Deutsch«. Deutsche Sprachkultur von Juden und die Geisteswissenschaften 1870–1970

ZfL, Schützenstr. 18, 10117 Berlin, 3. Et., Trajekte-Tagungsraum

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Media Response

20 Apr 2017
Meine Sprache ist Deutsch. Deutsche Sprachkultur von Juden und die Geisteswissenschaften 1870–1970

Review by Cord-Friedrich Berghahn, in: Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift 67.1 (2017), pp. 116–121