Unlikely History

In the English-speaking world, it is generally believed that there are very few Jews living and thriving in Germany. Yet, there has been an unlikely postwar history 1945-2001 that has been somewhat repressed in North America and the United Kingdom. While most people are well-informed about the Holocaust and the consequences that this tragic event has had for the world, very few people know that there has been a steady increase in the population of Jews in Germany since 1945 and that there is a flourishing 'Jewish' culture, certainly a relatively strong Jewish presence, in Germany today. Does this development mean that Jews are playing a significant role in German social life? Does this mean that the great German-Jewish relationship, often referred to as a kind of symbiosis, has re-emerged despite the odds against it? The sixteen essays in this book written by the leading critics in the field cover the fascinating changes that have been made in German society since 1945 in the Jewish communities, literature, theater, film, architecture, and other areas of interest including an examination of the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Austria. For anyone interested in reading about the unpredictable transformations in German-Jewish relations since 1945, Unlikely History will provide information and insights into a history that needs to be told to bring about greater understanding of Jews and Germans in contemporary Germany.

'...this superlative book focuses on German-Jewish relations since 1945 by considering the idea and expression of symbiosis between German Culture and identity and that of the Jews who write from Germany and in German since the death camps were liberated. And yet, as the editors conclude 'this emphasis on the Holocaust oftern conceals the astonishing transformation of the realtions between Germans and Jews since 1945'. This riveting volume argues that such transformation is more accurately stated as plural, for it is constituted not only as a social and historical phenomenon but also as complex cultural realtions and debates.' - Modernism/Modernity

Autorentext
Jack Zipes is Professor Emeritus of German and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota, USA. He is the author, translator, and editor of dozens of studies and collections of folk and fairy tales. His recent books include "Why Fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre,"Relentless Progress: The Reconfiguration of Children's Literature, Fairy Tales, and Storytelling," and "The Enchanted Screen: The Unknown History of Fairy-Tale Films."

Inhalt
Preface: German and Jewish Obsession; L.Morris & J.Zipes Encounters Across the Void: Rethinking Approaches to German Jewish Symbioses; K.Remmler The Rift and Not the Symbiosis; K.Behrens A City of Bordercrossers: Jews in Occupied Berlin, 1945-49; A.Grossman The Transformation of the German-Jewish Community; M.Brenner Jewish Existence in Germany from the Perspective of the Non-Jewish Majority: Daily Life between Antisemitism and Philosemitism; W.Benz Austrian Exceptionalism: Haider, the European Union, the Austrian Past and Present: An Inimical World for the Jews; A.Markovits Anti-Semitism in East Germany, 1952-1953: Denial to the End; M.Kessler Reading 'Between the Lines': Daniel Libeskind's New Jewish Museum and the Shattered Symbiosis; N.Isenberg The Critical Embracement of Germany: Hans Mayer and Marcel Reich-Ranicki; J.Zipes Creating Address: Problems of Memory and Reference in German-Jewish Survivor Testimonies Fifty-five Years After; P.Bos The Janus-Faced Jew: Nathan and Shylockon the Post-War German Stage; A.Feinberg Fritz Kortner's Last Illusion; R.Shandley Comic Cognition and 'Negative Symbiosis in Maxim Biller's Harlem Holocaust and Rafael Seligmann's Der Musterjude; R.Bashaw Jewish Women's Writing at the Millenium; D.Lorenz Leslie Morris, University of Minnesota, 'Postmemory and Postmemoir'; L. Morris