Patriotism of German Jews

The Leo Trepp-Lehrhaus and the university are continuing their joint series of lectures on "Rabbis in Oldenburg in the context of religion, politics and society" today at 7.30 pm in the Oldenburg Synagogue (Wilhelmstraße 17) with a lecture on "Jewish patriotism and the First World War" and a biography of Rabbi David Mannheimer.

The advisor will be Oldenburg historian Christine G. Krüger, who is currently a visiting researcher at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS).
During the First World War, Oldenburg rabbi David Mannheimer wrote patriotic poems, was appointed a naval chaplain and honoured with two medals for his dedicated service. Three of his sons volunteered for the First World War, one of whom was killed. The Mannheimer family is thus a typical example of the patriotism of many German Jews in the 19th and 20th centuries. Today, with the knowledge of the expulsion and murder of European Jews during National Socialism, the nationalist attitude of German Jews is often dismissed as absurd or naive. This lecture explores the question of why these Jews held on to their patriotism despite discrimination and anti-Semitic hostility right up to the National Socialist era.