An utterly absorbing account of German Jewry from the early 18th
century to the Holocaust as reflected in six individuals (five men
and one woman) who were ancestors of the author's. Blumenthal,
himself a German-Jewish refugee to the US via Shanghai, former CEO
of the Burroughs Corporation (now Unisys) and a former secretary of
the treasury, focuses almost exclusively on Prussia and in
particular on Berlin and its suburb of Oranienberg. He shows how
precarious the position of Prussia's small Jewish community was
until the second half of the 19th century. Yet once Prussia's Jews
were "emancipated" (granted basic civic and political rights) in
1867, an already existing assimilationist drive among them
intensified; Louis Blumenthal, an Oranienberg town councillor and
banker, posited that "emancipation and assimilation go hand in
hand." During the golden age of German liberalism (roughly 1848 -
1914) a confluence also existed between the values of successful
German Jews and their gentile counterparts; both were committed to
Bildung und Besitz (education and property). And while earlier
generations of German Jews, such as Rachel Vamhagen, hostess to a
widely attended early 19th century intellectual salon, and composer
Giacomo Meyerbeer were scarred by anti-Semitism, later 19th century
German-Jewish intellectuals often tried to be oblivious to it.
During the Weimar Republic (1919 - 33), when German society was
thrown into upheaval by the legacy of defeat in WWI, a new, often
chaotic experiment in democracy, hyperinflation, and depression,
the Jewish romance with things German would of course have fatal
consequences for those who chose to remain. Blumenthal beautifully
weaves together individual stories, the history of the Jewish
community, and developments in the larger German society. While
those who desire an in-depth scholarly history of German Jewry
might wish to turn elsewhere (though, as his extensive bibliography
reveals, Blumenthal has more than done his homework), this is the
book for those desiring a crisply written, personal, anecdotally
rich history of a glorious and ultimately tragic community. (Kirkus
Reviews)
The Invisible Wall is one mans quest to understand the failure of
the German-Jewish relationship and to explain the character and
attitudes of Germanys assimilated Jews over a three hundred-year
period.. The Invisible Wall is one mans quest to understand the
failure of the German-Jewish relationship and to explain the
character and attitudes of Germanys assimilated Jews over a
300-year period. Juxtaposing the broad picture of history and
politics in Germany against the stories of six of his own
ancestors, W. Michael Blumenthal explores the triumphs and
tragedies of Jews of successive generations, seeking the sources
and outcomes of the prejudices that separated them from other
Germans. Juxtaposing the broad picture of an evolving Germany
against the stories of six of his own ancestors, W. Michael
Blumenthal seeks to show how the unrequited love affair of Germanys
Jews with their native country contributed to the horrors of the
Holocaust. Born in Germany in 1926, Blumenthal escaped the Nazis as
a teenager with his family in 1939 and grew up with other Jewish
refugees in a Shanghai ghetto. When he arrived in the United States
in 1947, he had only sixty-five dollars in his pocket. From these
modest beginnings, he went on to a remarkable professional life in
business, government service, and education. Yet questions about
his past haunted him, and as the years went by, they occupied his
mind with greater urgency.Turning to his family tree for answers,
Blumenthal spent the better part of a decade learning the history
of his people. He found rich stories in the lives of six Blumenthal
ancestors--all of whom happened to be major figures in
German-Jewish history. *Jost Liebmann, an itinerant peddler of
trinkets and cheap jewels who became court jeweler to the
Brandenburg nobility; *Rahel Varnhagen von Ense, whose Berlin salon
w as the meeting place of Prussias intellectual elite; *Giacomo
Meyerbeer, a celebrated composer of grand opera who dealt with
antisemitism by ceaselessly striving for success; *Louis
Blumenthal, a respected businessman and founder of his towns bank;
*Arthur Eloesser, a scholar and literary critic in the heyday of
Weimar; *Ewald Blumenthal, the authors father. Once a decorated
soldier in the Kaisers elite guards, he was later a prisoner at
Buchenwald.. By recounting the stories of these remarkable
individuals within the historical context of three centuries,
Blumenthal presents a sweeping portrait of German Jews from the
birth of Christianity to the eve of the Holocaust, revealing how
Jews of various generations tried but failed to pierce the
prejudice that separated them from other Germans. A work of
tremendous scope and vision, The Invisible Wall presents a
fascinating perspective on one of the most difficult questions of
our time.
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