Syllabus for German Culture and Civilization course to be offered in the Department of Modern Languages at Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin. "German-Jewish Relations from the Age of Tolerance to Early Antisemitism" will be offered in the Spring Semester of 2001.

Peter R. Erspamer (Carroll College)

e-mail: Perspamer@yahoo.com

Course Proposal

German-Jewish Relations from the Age of Tolerance to Early Antisemitism

Text: The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History, edited by Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, 2nd Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995

Course Description:

An examination of the following aspects of German-Jewish culture: the movement toward Jewish emancipation during the Enlightenment (18th century), the emergence of political antisemitism (19th century), and the advent of early Zionism (early 20th century). During the course of this semester, we will also reflect on one of the major paradoxes of the modern age: why was Germany, the land of the poets and philosophers and of finely developed humanistic traditions also the land which perpetrated the Holocaust? By examining three centuries worth of debates on the proper status of Jews in German society, we will be in a better position to answer this question. Readings will include literary works, philosophical treatises, political tracts, and a wide array of historical and cultural documents thematizing German-Jewish relations at differing junctures of history.

1st Week:

1st Session: Introductory Discussion on Enlightenment and Haskalah

2nd Session: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, "The Jews," (1754), pp. 62-64

3rd Session: "Moses Mendelssohn Visits the Seer of Koenigsberg," (1777), p. 61

2nd Week:

1st Session: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, "A Parable of Toleration," (1779), pp. 64-67

2nd Session: Christian Wilhelm von Dohm, "Concerning the Amelioration of the Civic Status of the Jews," (1781), pp. 28-36

3rd Session: Johann David Michaelis, "Arguments against Dohm," (1782), pp. 42-44

3rd Week:

1st Session: Moses Mendelssohn, "Response to Dohm," (1782), pp. 44-47

2nd Session: Moses Mendelssohn, "Remarks Concerning Michaelis' Response to Dohm," (1783), pp. 48-49

3rd Session: Naphthali Hartwig Herz Wessely, "Words of Peace and Truth," (1782), pp. 71-74

4th Week:

1st Session: Moses Mendelssohn, "On the Curtailment of Jewish Juridicial Autonomy," (1782), pp. 87-90

2nd Session: Moses Mendelssohn, "The Right to be Different," (1783), pp. 68-69

3rd Session: David Friedlaender, "On Self-Development and the Abolition of Jewish Autonomy," (1792), pp. 90-91

5th Week:

1st Session: Saul Ascher, "Leviathan," (1792), pp. 99-103

2nd Session: Lazarus Bendavid, "Notes Regarding the Characteristics of the Jews," (1793), pp. 103-105

3rd Session: Solomon Maimon, "My Emergence from Talmudic Darkness," (1793), pp. 250-253

6th Week:

1st Session: Rahel Levin Varnhagen, "O How Painful to Have Been Born a Jewess," (1795), pp. 260-261

2nd Session: David Friedlaender, "Open Letter to His Reverence, Probst Teller," (1799), pp. 105-111

3rd Session: Introductory Discussion on the Science of Judaism and Reform Judaism

7th Week:

1st Session: Joel Abraham List, "A Society for the Preservation of the Jewish People," (1819), pp. 211-213

2nd Session: Eduard Gans, "A Society to Further Jewish Integration," (1822), pp. 215-219

3rd Session: Immanuel Wolf, "On the Concept of a Science of Judaism," (1822), pp. 219-221

8th Week:

1st Session: Ludwig Boerne, "Because I am a Jew, I Love Freedom," (1832), pp. 259-260

2nd Session: Leopold Zunz, "On Rabbinic Literature," (1818), pp. 221-230

3rd Session: Heinrich Paulus and Gabriel Riesser, "The Paulus-Riesser Debate," (1831), pp. 144-145

9th Week:

1st Session: Abraham Geiger, "Jewish Scholarship and Religious Reform," (1836), pp. 233-234

2nd Session: Introductory Discussion over early Antisemitism

3rd Session: Johann Gottlieb Fichte, "A State Within a State," (1793), pp. 309-310

10th Week:

1st Session: Jakob Friedrich Fries, "On the Danger to the Well-Being and Character to the Germans Presented by the Jews," (1816), pp. 310-311

2nd Session: Karl Borromaeus Alexander Sessa, "Our Visitors," (1815), pp. 311-312

3rd Session: Wilhelm Marr, "The Victory of Judaism over Germandom," (1879), pp. 331-333

11th Week:

1st Session: Karl Eugen Duehring, "The Question of the Jew is a Question of Race," (1881), pp. 333-334

2nd Session: Houston Stewart Chamberlain, "The Foundations of the 19th Century," (1899), pp. 356-359

3rd Session: Introductory Discussion over Zionism

12th Week:

1st Session: Moses Hess, "Returning Home," (1862), pp. 275-276

2nd Session: Theodor Herzl, "A Solution to the Jewish Question," (1896), pp. 533-538

3rd Session: Ahad Haam, "The First Zionist Congress," (1897), pp. 541-543

13th Week:

1st Session: Protestrabbiner, "Protest against Zionsim," pp. 538-40

2nd Session: Max Nordau, "Jewry of Muscle," (1903), pp. 547-548

3rd Session: Open Discussion