Author: Carsten Schapkow

Carsten Schapkow is Associate Professor of History and Judaic Studies at the University of Oklahoma. He has obtained his PhD in 2000 at the Free University Berlin. Among his publications: Role Model and Countermodel. The Golden Age of Iberian Jewry and German-Jewish Culture during the Era of Emancipation (Lanham: Lexington Books 2015), Vorbild und Gegenbild. Das iberische Judentum in der deutsch-jüdischen Erinnerungskultur, 1779-1939 (Wien-Köln: Böhlau Verlag 2011) and “Die Freiheit zu philosophieren“. Jüdische Identität in der Moderne im Spiegel der Rezeption Baruch de Spinozas in der deutschsprachigen Literatur (Bielefeld: Aisthesis Verlag, 2001). Schapkow is the co-editor of Darkhei Noam. The Jews of Arab Lands: A Festschrift for Norman (Noam) A. Stillman, (Leiden/Bosten: Brill’s series in Jewish Studies, Volume 55, 2015) and Konversion in Räumen jüdischer Geschichte (Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag 2014).

German Jews and the Great War: Gustav Landauer’s and Fritz Mauthner’s Friendship during Times of War

ABSTRACT
The present paper examines the friendship of Fritz Mauthner (1849-1923) and Gustav Landauer (1870-1919) at the time of World War I. Mauthner’s and Landauer’s correspondence in wartime stimulated debate about the war, on the one hand, and German and Jewish identity, on the other.  Most significantly, both intellectuals perceived in Germany, as a place of culture, a profound transformation. This was particularly the case when they found themselves compelled to consider what Germany should look like after the defeat in 1918.  The debate between Landauer and Mauthner had a deep impact on their sense of general Jewish questions and their approach to the fate of Eastern European Jewry during the war.

issue 09 / October 2016 by Carsten Schapkow