Antisemitism in the German Women’s Movement 1865-1933

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2011 in the subject Women Studies / Gender Studies, erg International School - Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism), course: Religious Studies, language: English, abstract: Beitrage zu Feminismus, Antisemitismus und Nationalsozialismus im 19./20. Jahrhundert: Vol 4. Antisemitism in the German Women’s Movement 1865-1933 fills a gap in the research on antisemitism, women’s movement and gender studies. The German women’s movement of today must confront the accusation that even in its own ranks anti-Jewish modes of thinking and behavior were present from the very beginning. They occurred not only in nationalist, conservative associations but also in progressive ones, and even among social democratic feminists. This antisemitism was distinguished not by open racism alone. Exclusion, enforced silence, marginalization - subtle forms of anti-Jewishness were found in virtually all associations belonging to the organized women’s movement of Imperial Germany and after. The author traces this phenomenon in her documentation of extensive archival materials in Germany, Israel, and the United States. This English edition is a translated, revised and extended version of the author’s dissertation Vaterland statt Menschenrecht, first published in Germany in 1999.