Volume 3

Luftmenschen

Concept and discourse of the »Jewish Luftmensh« around 1900 functions not only as a metaphor for what the 19th century bequeathed to the 20th in form of the »Jewish Question«, but also as a critical comment on modernity as a whole, in which Jews were perceived and described as »rootless«. Bergs book analyses the cultural upspring, development and change of this metaphor with examples from economy, theology, philosophy, science and literature.