German-Jewish Cultural Heritage abroad: The material and intellectual legacy of the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Yfaat Weiss
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History ; Religious Studies and Jewish Studies
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 497123879

The proposed project will explore the intellectual and cultural legacy of the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (1872-1942) in the postwar period through the lens of material culture and critical heritage studies. At the centre of attention is the fate, meaning, function and impact of the Hochschule’s library, a remarkable library collection which consisted of about 60,000 volumes and was among the most comprehensive Jewish libraries in prewar Germany. The activity of the Hochschule in Germany ceased in the wake of Hitler’s rise to power. The institute was closed in 1942, and the vast majority of its scholars and students perished in the Holocaust. By transferring and further developing it outside Germany, the Hochschule’s legacy was kept alive against all odds. Firstly, it was upheld by its prominent personalities who managed to flee Germany and continue their intellectual work in new homelands. Secondly, it was preserved in the Hochschule’s library, although it fell prey to the Nazi plunder. Parts of the collection were destroyed, other parts survived the war and were disseminated between numerous countries in the postwar period. The proposed project will trace and map the legacy of the Hochschule as it was fostered in its new surrounding. It is exactly this geographical shift that reveals the innovative potential for the framework of the DFG’s priority programme, since it takes notions of dispersion, destruction, rupture and continuity as central reference points to think about the shifting qualities of German-Jewish cultural heritage in relation to its changing spatial frameworks after 1945. Material culture approaches will serve as a starting point for the interdisciplinary and international team of researchers whose aim is a) to identify new facets of the Hochschule’s legacy, significance and impact in the broader framework of German-Jewish cultural heritage and b) to highlight the potential of object- and materiality-related research for social, cultural and intellectual history. In order to achieve this goal, two research modules will be created. The first module works in a comparative perspective and aims to illuminate postwar initiatives at sustaining the legacy of the Hochschule that were undertaken by intellectuals and Jewish institutions in Israel, the United States and Great Britain. The second module follows the dispersed books from the Hochschule’s library. It examines their transfer to new destinations and discusses the socio-political conditions that influenced their changing status in the new surroundings.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 2357: Jewish Cultural Heritage
• International Connection: Israel
• International Co-Applicant: Dr. Irene Aue-Ben David