Fragile Belonging(s)

Following the epochal rupture of 1989/1990 and the social transformations this entailed, Jewish life in Germany was believed to be a welcome and growing phenomenon. After reunification, more than 200,000 Jews immigrated from the former Soviet Union, fundamentally revitalizing the numerically small and insecure Jewish communities of the old Federal Republic and former GDR in terms of demography, religious orientation, and public visibility. This development rendered Jewish life in reunified Germany self-evident in a manner that had otherwise appeared unthinkable after the Holocaust. Yet the hesitant reactions among the German public concerning the Hamas terror attack on 7 October 2023 and the subsequent manifestation of antisemitism in Germany, among other places, which were regarded by the Jewish population as a lack of solidarity, have put a damper on the positive impressions recounted above. This seminar offers a general outline of Jewish life after 1945 and discusses the question of how self-evident this is alongside the significance of 7 October for Jewish life in Germany.

Literature: Michael Brenner (ed.), Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland von 1945 bis zur Gegenwart, München 2012; Ulrike Offenberg, „Seid vorsichtig gegen die Machthaber“. Die Jüdischen Gemeinden in der SBZ und der DDR 1945‒1990, Berlin 1998; Richard Chaim Schneider, Wir sind da! Die Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland von 1945 bis heute, Berlin 2000.