Jews in Leipzig - The University of Texas at Austin

Reich and the Communist state that followed it, the latter clearly represented a very
different time to be a German Jew than either the Republic or Nazi regime.
I argue that in each regime, the discussion among German Jews and between
German Jews and the state was driven by the same set of questions. Those questions
were posed in very different ways over time and were given different answers as
circumstances demanded. But the questions—in short, about identity—were largely the
same throughout. And, though the German states behaved in very different ways over
time, we can even point to a shared sort of strategy. In every case, the leaders of the
German state used Jews to make an argument for their own legitimacy and self-
definition. Whether a Republic devoted to civic equality, or a racial dictatorship defining
itself in opposition to Jews, or a communist regime building its legitimacy as a
representative of the victims and opponents of Nazism—and on the goodwill of the
Soviet Union—every German state had a discursive relationship with Jews that was
important to it. In turn, that discursive relationship did much to define the exercise of
concrete power in the lives of Jews.
A study that covers each of these regimes can be better placed to draw out such
continuities—when appropriate—than one that focuses on one, or even two periods of
modern German political history. Clearly, there is an ideological component to some of
this debate, centered on the identification of the middle classes with liberalism and
representative government. Some of this debate is outdated, as was made clear by
Peukert’s innovative work, which moves beyond issues of class into those of culture and
identity. Detlev Peukert’s work is an influence on this study in that shift of emphasis, but
where Peukert was drawn to examine a more general picture of German society, this
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