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Leon Pinsker's Autoemancipation! and the Emergence of German as a Language of Jewish Nationalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2017

Marc Volovici
Marc Volovici*
Affiliation:
Princeton University
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Abstract

This article examines the role of the German language in early Jewish nationalism. It focuses on the publication, reception, and afterlife of the pamphlet Autoemancipation!, published in 1882 by Leon Pinsker, a Russian Jewish doctor. The first Jewish nationalist pamphlet to be written in German by a Russian Jew, its rhetoric and terminology tapped into various Jewish and European discourses of emancipation. Pinsker not only challenged the legal-political conception of emancipation as it had been commonly used in German-Jewish discourse, but also mobilized its social and revolutionary connotations, which had been associated with radical European political movements since 1848. Moreover, Autoemancipation! marked a shift in Jewish political culture with regard to the potential function of the German language. Since the late eighteenth century and through the nineteenth century, German had a controversial status in Central and Eastern European Jewish societies given its association with Jewish Enlightenment, religious reform, secularization, and assimilation. Pinsker was the first to use German as a transnational language aimed at promoting the Jewish national cause. In this respect, Autoemancipation! set in motion a process whereby German became the chief language of Jewish nationalist activism.

Dieser Aufsatz untersucht die Rolle der deutschen Sprache im frühen jüdischen Nationalismus. Der Fokus liegt dabei auf der Veröffentlichung, der Rezeption und dem Nachleben des im Jahre 1882 von dem russisch-jüdischen Arzt Leon Pinsker publizierten Pamphlets Autoemanzipation! Es war das erste jüdische nationalistische Pamphlet, das von einem russischen Juden auf Deutsch geschrieben worden war, und seine Rhetorik und Terminologie griffen verschiedene jüdische und europäische Emanzipationsdiskurse auf. Pinsker stellte nicht nur das bis dahin im deutsch-jüdischen Diskurs gängige juristisch-politische Konzept der Emanzipation in Frage, sondern mobilisierte auch ihre sozialen und revolutionären Konnotationen, die seit 1848 mit den europäischen politischen Bewegungen assoziiert waren. Darüber hinaus stellte Autoemanzipation! im Hinblick auf die potentielle Funktion der deutschen Sprache eine Veränderung innerhalb der jüdischen politischen Kultur dar. Seit dem späten 18. Jahrhundert und bis ins 19. Jahrhundert besaß die deutsche Sprache innerhalb der zentral- und osteuropäischen jüdischen Gesellschaften eine kontroverse Stellung, da sie mit der jüdischen Aufklärung, religiöser Reform, Säkularisierung und Assimilation assoziiert wurde. Pinsker war der erste, der Deutsch als eine transnationale Sprache im Dienst des jüdischen Nationalismus benutzte. In dieser Hinsicht setzte Autoemanzipation! einen Prozess in Bewegung, durch den Deutsch die Hauptsprache des jüdischen nationalistischen Aktivismus wurde.

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Articles
Information
Central European History , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , March 2017 , pp. 34 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © Central European History Society of the American Historical Association 2017 

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References

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