LemmyCaution
Master Poster
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2011
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Please show where, by citing examples of Nazi persecution of German Jews, ANTPogo made any claim that Jews had no influence in German life during the 1920s. In fact, he posted to a link on the emancipation, which enabled Jews to participate in German society - and thus, like others, have some influence.
At the time of the Weimar Republic, Jews (those who declared themselves to be Jewish) made up less than 1 percent of Germany's population, having declined from slightly over 1 percent in the late 1800s. By 1933, there were approximately 564,000 Jews in Germany, about 50,000 fewer than a quarter century prior. For one thing, the birth rate amongst German Jews fell off after the turn of the century. Also, German Jews, despite revisionist caricatures otherwise, were far from "cliquish": marriages of Jews and non-Jews were increasing so that about 40 percent of Jews married non-Jews by the end of the Weimar years. The Jewish population in Germany was disproportionately older, with 40% over forty compared to the general population in which less than 30 percent were over forty.
German Jews were highly urbanized, with about 70 percent living in cities; over a quarter of Germany's Jews resided in Berlin alone (even in Berlin, where so many of Germany's Jews lived, less than 4 percent of the city's population was Jewish).
Some 20 percent of Germany's Jews were Ostjuden, and Ostjuden were even more highly urbanized than so-called Reich Jews, with concentrations in Berlin, Leipzig, and Munich where some worked in factories (textiles, clothing, leather) and many worked as petty traders and as artisans (many Ostjuden were unable to obtain Reich citizenship). (mostly from David Kramer in Arnold Paucker, Sylvia Gilchrist, and Barbara Suchy, Die Juden im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland, 1933-1943)
The occupational distribution of German Jews in 1933 was distinctive. Over 60 percent worked in trade and transportation—against 18 percent of the general German population. Jews in commerce tended to be self-employed; large numbers of Jews worked in the retail trades. Some 12 percent of Germany’s worked in public and private services—a bit ahead of the 8 percent of the general population in this sector. Jews were by and large middle class, with many Jews working in medicine and law (about 3.5 percent of Jews were lawyers or doctors). Jews did not gain significant entry into the judiciary or civil service, however. During the years 1873 to 1929, between 1 and 3 percent of civil servants were Jewish. Sarah Gordon points out that Jews had to gravitate to these types of jobs because of their traditional exclusion from landowning.
On the other hand, Jews were underrepresented in industry and handicrafts—23 percent against 40 percent of the general population of Germany. The Ostjuden were more typically workers in these areas, many of them very poor. Jews, then, worked disproportionately in commerce, some smaller sized manufacturing sectors, and in professions. Jews owned stores as well as clothing and textile manufacturing shops in great disproportion to their numbers in the general population—for example, 40 percent of textile shops were owned by Jews. These shops tended to be small to medium size, with some notable and highly visible exceptions (such as the Tietz and Shocken department stores). The Mosse publishing company was another prominent, visible business. Jews also dominated in the wholesale of agricultural products. Jews ran many smaller, private banks—but not the larger credit banks which played an increasingly important role in the Weimar economy. Jews were not very prominent in big industry.
The inflation struck Jews very hard. In 1912 almost 11 percent of Germany’s Jews had taxable incomes of over 5,000 marks; by the mid-twenties this proportion had fallen to about 6 percent—whilst the percentage with incomes under 1,000 marks increased from 73 percent to 84 percent. Jews in professions were buffered to some extent from these effects, but Jewish incomes and living standards were damaged significantly.
Distinctively middle class, if tenuously so, and mostly assimilationist, Germany’s Jews did not generally vote for the SPD or KPD, even if these parties had some high profile Jewish leaders: before 1930, Jewish votes tended to go to the DDP or the DV. Under the polarization of the depression years, and with the rise of the NSDAP, the Jewish vote shifted, with historians arguing that it split between the SPD and the Zentrum, with a bit of an edge for the SPD. (much of this from Donald L. Niewyk, The Jews in Weimar Germany)
What is your problem with this? What is your problem with a country's citizens having influence and a voice in the country's politics, culture, and economy? Or are you arguing that most citizens of a country - but not, for example, Jews or other specially designated groups - should participate in civic life?
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