The Jews and German Literature
JUDAISM is a religion primarily; none the less, it contains within itself the record of a people since the dawn of history. Looking at the manifestations of the Jewish spirit from the former point of view, we find that its aspect is mainly theological. But in more than this, the latter theorem opens a long and interesting congeries of problems and conditions—social, economic, jural, political, scientific and literary—which invite the earnest attention of the historian, the philosopher and the man of letters.
A detailed study of the lives and works of those Jews, who have attained to some degree of distinction and reputation in German literature, needs no justification for itself at this time. Let me say, at the outset, that our only concern is with the Jews who have contributed to the belles-lettres of Germany and the German-speaking lands; with the publicists, the theologians, the scholars and the economists, who used German merely as the medium to convey their ideas to the outside world, we shall not deal.¹
Moreover, it should be understood that the purpose of the present discussion is not to determine how great was the Jewish influence on various Christian writers in Germany.² Such research has only literary and historical interest: the present paper gains a practical importance in showing what the Jews have done. The so-called “Jewish” problem is a question of humanity, about which men have entertained the most startling misconceptions. The generality of Jews is no more engaged in the practices of usury than the generality of Englishmen is concerned with the denial of Home Rule to Ireland.
What Professor Geiger has stated in his discussion of the influence of the Jews on German literature may serve as the thesis of the present paper.
“The purpose, which these [articles] subserve, is twofold. First, we have dealt with the matter to show what Gerinan writers thought” of the Jews, how the former represented the latter in the field of belies-lettres, that is to say, in novels and dramas, and how far, if at all, these authors canıe into personal relations with them. Secondly, our object has been to explain the services to German culture ‚of the Jews themselves, regardless of whether they remained firm in their ancestral faith throughout their lives or not, how they introduced new ideas into German literature, by reason of raciai peculiarities, [how they] were influenced by the notions of the times and swayed strangers änd contemporaries by their odd, although never-failing, originality.“ i A
Finally, it may be said, this study takes into account the Jewish attitude toward life. From this we learn what the Jew has thought of the problems which affected him at various times, what pressure the Gentiles brought to bear on the Jews and what the Jew thought was a relief from the monotony of every-day life.
¹Cf. my paper, “Some Minor Jewish Men of Letters in German Literature” (19th century).
2 This has been done, in the case of Goethe, with remarkable thoroughness and much learning by Professor Ludwig Geiger. Cf. Ludwig Geiger's "Goethe und die Juden," in Geiger's "Zeitschrift für die Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland," v. i, p. 320 ff. The reader who desires to work up this interesting field, in which so much is still terra incognita, will find an abundance of material in that storehouse of bibliographic information, M. Stern, "Quellenkunde zur Geschichte der deutschen Juden," Kiel, 1892, the 1st part and addenda.
3 Vide supra, preceding note.
“ . . . . Der Zweck, der mit denselben verfolgt wird, ist ein doppelter. Es handelt sich erstens darum, zu zeigen, wie die deutschen Schriftsteller über die Juden gedacht, wie sie dieselben, namentlich in den Werken der schönen Literatur, z. B. Romanen und Dramen dargestellt haben, ob und inwieweit sie in persönliche Beziehungen zu ihnen getreten sind. Zweitens ist darzulegen, wie die Juden selbst, mögen sie nun zeitlebens dem väterlichen Glauben treugeblieben sein oder nicht, an der deutschen Culturarbeit mitgewirkt haben, wie sie, vermöge ihrer Stammeseigenthümlichkeit neue Ideen in die deutsche Literatur eingeführt, die herrscheuden Ansichten in sich verarbeitet und durch Seltsames, aber immer Eigenartiges auf Zeitgenossen und Freunde eingewirkt haben.”—Ludwig Geiger, “Vorbemerkung” to “Die Juden und die deutsche Literatur,” in Geiger’s “Zeitschrift für die Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland,” v. i, at p. 320.