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Research Article

Vergangenheitsbewältigung and the limits of normalization: on the history and politics of Israel Studies in Germany

Johannes Beckea Ben Gurion Chair for Israel and Middle East Studies, Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg, Heidelberg, GermanyCorrespondence[email protected]
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Jenny Hestermannb Independent ScholarView further author information
Published online: 16 May 2024
 
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ABSTRACT

While Israeli academia houses numerous research centers that explore German history and culture, German universities stand out for the near absence of Israel Studies as an institutionalized discipline. At present, there is not a single permanent professorship for Israel Studies at Germany’s large research universities. The article analyzes this blind spot by contextualizing it within the unique nature of German-Israeli academic relations, established in the shadow of the Shoah. We argue that the attempt to recover and reclaim the German-Jewish past in the Federal Republic of Germany was accompanied by a systemic blindness vis-à-vis the Israeli present. By contrasting the German case to Anglo-Saxon academia, the article points out that the core components for institutionalizing Israel Studies as a scholarly field are missing in Germany so far – both in terms of means (public and private funding), motive (mobilization by pro-Israel actors), and opportunity (interest by neighboring fields). Following a historical overview of research on Zionism and Israel in German academia, the article discusses the slow emergence of Israel Studies in recent years: While small clusters of systematic research into Israeli history are developing, the research field of Israel Studies is facing an uphill battle in its struggle for academic institutionalization.

Acknowledgement

Research for this article was supported by the Volkswagen Foundation. The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful and critical comments. In addition, we extend our gratitude to everyone who granted us interviews in the course of our research or who commented on earlier versions of this article, including Anna Sunik, Derek Penslar, Shelley Harten, Frederek Musall, Amelie Smollny, Tom Würdemann and Selahattin Beşer. The article is dedicated to Doron Kiesel, a true friend of the research field of Israel Studies, on the occasion of his 75th birthday.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. “Normalization” was a term first used by the Willy Brandt government after 1969, when the Foreign Ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany sought to establish a more “balanced” (ausgewogen) policy in the Middle East. The discourse of “Normalization” aimed primarily at improving West German-Arab relations, which had suffered from West Germany’s close ties to Israel. Hestermann, Inszenierte Versöhnung, 149ff; Hestermann, Nathanson and Stetter, Germany and Israel today, 48.

2. Joachim Käppner et al.,“Israel ist unsere Lebensversicherung (Josef Schuster im Interview) [”Israel is our life insurance” Josef Schuster in an interview],” Süddeutsche Zeitung, February 9, 2018. Accessed February 24, 2024. https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/israel-josef-schuster-zentralrat-interview-1.5200923?reduced=true.

3. Interview with a Hebrew teacher within the German-Jewish school system, February 2019.

8. Michael Brenner, founding director of the Center for Israel Studies (Zentrum für Israel-Studien, ZIS) at the University of Munich, is also the director of American University’s Center for Israel Studies.

9. Daniel Mahla, the first coordinator at Munich’s Center for Israel Studies, graduated from Columbia; Johannes Becke, the first assistant professor for Israel Studies at the Heidelberg University of Jewish Studies (Hochschule für Jüdische Studien), was recruited during his postdoctoral fellowship at Oxford University.

10. For insights into the polarized debate over the rise of Israel Studies in Anglo-Saxon academia from both ends of the political spectrum, see Mari Cohen, “The Fight for the Future of Israel Studies,” Jewish Currents, 2022. Accessed February 24, 2024. https://jewishcurrents.org/the-fight-for-the-future-of-israel-studies. and Ari Blaff, “Israel Studies Has an Israel Problem,” Sapir, 2022. Accessed May 6, 2023. https://sapirjournal.org/education/2022/08/israel-studies-has-an-israel-problem/.

11. See the research grant program on antisemitism research worth 12 million Euros launched by the Federal German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in 2020, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, “Aktuelle Dynamiken und Herausforderungen des Antisemitismus [Current Dynamics and Challenges of Antisemitism],” 2020. Accessed September 14, 2023. https://www.geistes-und-sozialwissenschaften-bmbf.de/de/Antisemitismusforschung-2292.html.

12. The Minerva Foundation is an Israel-focused subsidiary of the Max Planck Foundation, Germany’s most prestigious state-funded research funding organization which operates an independent network of elite research centers outside of the university system, see https://www.minerva.mpg.de/. Accessed May 6, 2023.

13. The German-Israeli foundation is a co-financed research organization supported by both the German and the Israeli government, see https://www.gif.org.il/. Accessed May 6, 2023.

14. The German-Israeli Project Cooperation is directly financed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, see: https://www.dfg.de/en/research_funding/programmes/international_cooperation/german_israeli_cooperation/index.html. Accessed May 6, 2023.

15. https://koebner.huji.ac.il// Accessed May 6, 2023.

16. https://rosenzweig.huji.ac.il/. Accessed May 6, 2023.

18. https://bucerius.haifa.ac.il/. Accessed May 6, 2023.

21. https://hcges.haifa.ac.il/. Accessed May 6, 2023.

25. https://www.ifp.uni-mainz.de. Accessed May 6, 2023.

26. For a detailed overview, see Springborn, Jüdische Kinder- und Jugendbildung.

27. Martin Köhler, “Mehr als 70 Prozent Herz [More Than 70% Heart],” Jüdische Allgemeine, 2018. Accessed May 6, 2023. https://www.juedische-allgemeine.de/gemeinden/mehr-als-70-prozent-herz/.

28. Eyal Stern, “Ha-na’ar ha-dyslexi na’asah mekhanekh ve-melamed noar Germani-Yehudi lirkod et ‘Toy’ [The Dyslexic Teenager Became an Educator and Teaches the German-Jewish Youth to Dance to ‘Toy’],” Ynet, 2018. Accessed May 6, 2023. https://xnet.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-5328616,00.html.

29. Brumlik, “‘Wer je die Flamme umschritt….’.”

30. Interview with a Hebrew teacher in the Jewish school system, spring 2020. See also the Hebrew lessons on the ZWST website (entirely transliterated into the Latin alphabet), which point to language competences of a fairly recent immigrant to Israel, https://www.zwst-hadracha.de/de/schiur-be-iwrit/. Accessed May 6, 2023.

31. https://www.zwst-hadracha.de/de/israel/. Accessed May 6, 2023.

34. https://www.lavi-olami.org/hebrew. Accessed May 6, 2023.

35. Interview with teachers in the German-Jewish school system, spring 2020.

36. https://www.amichai.de/cms/amichai/amichai-hymne/. Accessed May 6, 2023. (typological errors in the original edited for clarity).

37. In survey from 2011, when asked about the German-Jewish education system, 19% of German Jews were interested in a stronger focus on Israel in activities for children – and 27% in a stronger focus on Israel in activities for adults, see Glöckner, “New Structures of Jewish Education in Germany”

38. Eugen El, “Bildung unter einem Dach [Education under one Roof],” Jüdische Allgemeine, 2021. Accessed May 6, 2023. https://www.juedische-allgemeine.de/politik/bildung-unter-einem-dach/.

39. Heinz-Peter Katlewski, “Wirklichkeit eines Traums [Reality of a Dream],” Jüdische Allgemeine, 2017, https://www.juedische-allgemeine.de/kultur/wirklichkeit-eines-traums/. Accessed May 6, 2023.

40. Elisabeth Hausen, “Wenn Wahrheiten sich widersprechen [When Truths contradict each other],” Israelnetz, 2018. February 27, 2024. https://www.israelnetz.com/wenn-wahrheiten-sich-widersprechen/.https://www.juedische-allgemeine.de/kultur/wirklichkeit-eines-traums.

41. Interview with Laura Cazés, ZWST, 9 June 2021.

42. For doubts on the meaningful presence of Jews in the German army, see Kersten Augustin and Yossi Bartal, “Mehr Rabbiner Als Soldaten? [More Rabbis than Soldiers?],” Taz, 2020. Accessed May 6, 2023. https://taz.de/Militaerrabbiner-bei-der-Bundeswehr/!5719845/.

43. https://marschdeslebens.org/ueber-uns/. Accessed May 6, 2023.

44. Armin Langer, “Der Antisemitismusbeauftragte unter Judenfeinden? [The Antisemitism Commissioner Among Jew-Haters],” Zeit, 2018. Accessed March 29, 2024. https://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/zeitgeschehen/2018–06/felix-klein-antisemitismusbeauftragter-bundesregierung-demo-evangelikale/komplettansicht.

45. Since 2014/15, the Christian Forum for Israel serves as the umbrella organization of Christian Zionist associations in Germany, https://cffi-deutschland.de/. Accessed May 6, 2023.

46. See for instance Christen an der Seite Israels [Christians at Israel’s Side], https://csi-aktuell.de/. Accessed May 6, 2023.

47. https://tos.info/tos-werk/music-arts/tanz/ycdance. Accessed March 29, 2024; for a dance performance in ultra-Orthodox costumes, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDwdfCRB8js. Accessed May 6, 2023.

48. https://www.israelheute.com/. Accessed May 6, 2023.

49. Cristina Hügli, “Das Phänomen des ‘Frajer’” [The Phenomenon of The “Frajer”], Israelnetz, 2022. Accessed May 6, 2023. https://www.israelnetz.com/das-phaenomen-des-frajer/. A frayer can be loosely understood as being a pushover, someone who follows the rules or another person’s wishes, instead of standing up (or even pushing) for one’s own interests, see Roniger and Feige, “From Pioneer to Freier.”

53. https://www.mjta.de/studieren/. Accessed May 6, 2023.

54. Tobias Krämer, “Ziemlich Beste Freunde? Wie Gemeinde und Israelfreunde doch noch zusammenfinden [Pretty Best Friends? How the Church Community and Friends of Israel Finally Come Together],” Institut für Israelogie, 2022. Accessed May 6, 2023. https://www.israelogie.de/dialog-zwischen-juden-und-christen/beste-freunde/. Accessed May 6, 2023.

55. Ofri Ilany, “Germany’s pro-Israel Left Has a New Target in the Crosshairs: Jews,” Ha’aretz, 2020. Accessed May 6, 2023. https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/2020-01-23/ty-article/.premium/germanys-pro-israel-left-has-a-new-target-in-the-crosshairs-jews/0000017f-e0d1-df7c-a5ff-e2fb8e8d0000.

57. Schorsch, “Jewish Ghosts in Germany,” 139–169, 155–156.

58. Weissberg, “Jewish Studies or Gentile Studies?” 101–10.

59. Zunz, Etwas über die rabbinische Literatur, 4.

60. Horn, People Love Dead Jews.

61. Dan, “Jüdische Studien,” 58–69, 61.

62. Heil, Krochmanik, eds., Jüdische Studien als Disziplin.

63. Zadoff, “Science and Politics,” 81–92.

64. Becke, Golinets, and Weber, eds., “Israel-Studien in Deutschland”

65. Becke and Hestermann, “Israel-Studien”

66. Brumlik, “Zionismus/Antizionismus/Postzionismus”

67. https://www.selma-stern-zentrum.de/. Accessed May 6, 2023.

69. http://www.crfj.org/. Accessed May 6, 2023.

70. https://www.deiahl.de/en/. Accessed May 6, 2023.

71. https://leobaeck.org/?lang=en. Accessed May 6, 2023.

72. https://studienjahr.de/. Accessed May 6, 2023.

73. https://www.oiist.org/en/. Accessed May 6, 2023.

74. https://www.orient-institut.org/. Accessed May 6, 2023.

77. Rohde, “Der Innere Orient”

78. Batnitzky, How Judaism Became a Religion.

79. Schäbler, “Historismus versus Orientalismus?”

80. In a public hearing on a DFG research project, one of the authors of this text was asked by a German professor of West Asian history if they were, in fact, a Mossad agent (personal experience, February 2020).

81. Daniel Gerlach, “Hofintrigen mit Krummdolchen [Court intrigues with curved daggers],” SPIEGEL, 2007. Accessed May 6, 2023. https://www.spiegel.de/lebenundlernen/uni/hamburger-orient-institut-hofintrigen-mit-krummdolchen-a-502318.html. See also “GIGA verliert Spezialbibliothek zum Nahen und Mittleren Osten, bleibt aber bedeutender Standort für gegenwartsbezogene Nahostforschung in Deutschland [GIGA loses specialized library on the Near and Middle East, but remains an important location for contemporary Middle East research in Germany],” DAVO-Nachrichten 25 (2007), 35.

82. Personal research in the former collections of the Orient Institute, Humboldt University. According to the library staff of Humboldt University, the books were transferred without an index.

83. Barthel, “Die Orientforschung in der DDR – Bedingungen und Resultate”

84. Rudolph, Bestandsaufnahme.

85. Ibid., 15.

86. “Institutionen mit politikwissenschaftlichem Bezug zum Vorderen Orient in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz [Institutions with a political science focus on the Middle East in Germany, Austria and Switzerland],” DAVO-Nachrichten 32 (2010), 62–68.

87. https://www.menalib.de/en/. Accessed May 6, 2023.

90. https://davo1.de/en/. Accessed May 6, 2023.

91. “Satzung der DAVO [DAVO statutes] (Stand 28.4.1993),” DAVO-Nachrichten 2 (1995), 21.

92. In the history of DAVO, the first “Israel Studies” panel might have been a 2011 panel on “Exploring Israel’s Others at the Margins of Zionism and the Jewish State,” Programm des 18. In. DAVO-Kongresses, October 6–8, 2011 in Berlin, 9. The authors would like to thank the organizer of the panel, Fiona Wright, for referring them to this panel.

93. Kramer, Ivory Towers on Sand, 37.

94. Benjamin Weinthal, “Germany: Israeli academic reinstated after ‘Post’ query, Jerusalem Post,” June 9, 2011. Accessed May 6, 2023. http://www.jpost.com/International/Germany-Israeli-academic-reinstated-after-Post-query.

95. Programm des 18. DAVO-Kongresses [Program of the 18th DAVO congress], October 6–8, 2011 in Berlin, 2.

96. “MemoranÜdum zum Nahost-Konflikt [Memorandum on the Middle East conflict],” DAVO-Nachrichten 15 (2002), 5–8.

97. Weber, “Israel-Studien im Dritten Reich”

98. Rürup, “Whose heritage?;” Aschheim and Liska, eds., The German-Jewish Experience Revisited; and Nattermann, Deutsch-jdische Geschichtsschreibung nach der Shoah.

99. Sholem, “Wider den Mythos des deutsch-jüdischen Gesprächs,” 229–232; and Benz, “The Legend of German-Jewish Symbiosis.”

100. Berg, Der Holocaust und die westdeutschen Historiker; Hestermann‚“Don’t mention the war.”

101. Jelinek, Deutschland und Israel.

102. Siegel, Rürup and Menny, eds., 50 Jahre − 50 Quellen.

103. Hestermann, “Israel-Studien in Deutschland nach 1945”

104. As the German-Jewish philosopher Martin Buber stated: “The reconciliation with the people of Israel is not a question of the German-Jewish relationship, but indeed a purely German problem! Reconciliation should not happen with the Jews, but with oneself.” Otto Schenk, “Was kann die Deutsche Jugend für die Aussöhnung mit Israel tun? Ein Gespräch mit Martin Buber [What Can German Youth Do for Reconciliation with Israel? A Conversation with Martin Buber], Manuskript, November 1963. Evangelisches Zentralarchiv (EZ), Bestand 97 Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste e.V., edited by Petra Giese 1999; 97/692, translation by the authors.

105. The historian Frank Stern wrote extensively on the topic of German Philosemitism: As a philosophy by and for the state, he declared it to be “a sort of security measure […], for the individual and collective moral backbone … ” Stern, “Entstehung, Bedeutung und Funktion”

106. Brenner, “Von den Hintertüren der Diplomatie auf die Bühne der Öffentlichkeit;” Tzuberi: “‘Reforesting’ Jews”

107. As one of many examples of the 1960s: Herbert Hupka, “Israel – ein Stück Europa im Orient,” in: Der Schlesier. Breslauer Nachrichten 1967; further publications by the Protestant organization Action reconciliation for Peace: Hammerstein and Türne, eds., 10 Jahre Aktion Sühnezeichen; Schenk, … und gruben Brunnen in der Wüste; Schlee, Begegnung mit Israel ; for Jewish perspectives: Karger-Karin, ed., Israel und Wir.

108. While there is a flourishing literature on the history of Zionism today even in Germany, the research was for first and foremost pioneered in the anglophone world or in Israel itself, see for examples: Laqueur, A History of Zionism. Research in the German academic context started thoroughly in the twenty-first century: Schatz and Wiese, eds., Janusfiguren. Most recently: Schoor and Tress, Juden und ihre Nachbarn.

109. Vogel, ed., Deutschlands Weg nach Israel; Vogel, ed., Der deutsch-israelische Dialog.

110. Dachs, ed., Mein Israel; Dachs, Ländtionbericht Israel; Schneider, Alltag im Ausnahmezustand; Schneider, Israel am Wendepunkt.

111. Lavy, Germany and Israel; Feldman, The special relationship between West Germany and Israel; Deutschkron, Israel und die Deutschen; Jelinek, Deutschland und Israel 1945–1965; Hansen, Aus dem Schatten der Katastrophe.

112. quoted in: Käpernick, “Die Studentenrevolte von 1968,” 462.

113. Wolfssohn, Israel.

114. Kloke, Israel und die deutsche Linke.

115. See the manifesto of Dieter Kunzelmann in support for Fatah (1968), quoted in Steinke, Terror gegen Juden, 68.

116. Kraushaar, Wann endlich beginnt bei Euch der Kampf gegen die heilige Kuh Israel?; Kraushaar, Die Bombe im Jüdischen Gemeindehaus.

117. Anders and Sedlmaier, “‘Unternehmen Entebbe’ 1976”

118. Grigat, “‘Projektion’ – ‘Überidentifikation’ – ‘Philozionismus,’” 472; Hanloser, Sie warn die Antideutschesten der deutschen Linken; Geisel and Bittermann, eds., Die Wiedergutwerdung der Deutschen.

119. Richard C. Schneider, “Babylon, Israel, Zion. Kleiner Schritt zur Selbstverständlichkeit: Die Zeitschrift ‘Babylon’ [Babylon, Israel, Zion. Small step toward self-evidence. The Magazine Babylon],” Die Zeit, Nr. 48/1991.

120. Goschler and Kauders, “Positionierungen”

121. A short selection includes: Zuckermann, Israels Schicksal; Zuckermann, Antisemitismus – Antizionismus – Israelkritik; Zuckermann, Zweierlei Holocaust; Zimmermann, Wende in Israel. Zwischen Nation und Religion (Berlin: Aufbau-Taschenbuch-Verlag, 1997); Zimmermann, Die Angst vor dem Frieden; Diner, Israel in Palästina; Diner, Rituelle Distanz; Brumlik, Kritik des Zionismus; Brumlik, Kein Weg als Deutscher und Jude.

122. Wolffsohn and Grill, Israel.

123. Herf, Undeclared Wars with Israel; Becke, “Undeclared Wars with Israel.”

124. Timm, “Israelwissenschaften an der Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin”

125. Timm and Timm, Westbank und Gaza, 7 ff.

126. Fink, Wie die Humboldt-Universität gewendet wurde.

127. Zimmermann, ed., Zweimal Heimat; Siegemund, ed., Deutsche und zentraleuropäische Juden in Palästina und Israel.

128. Peter Schäfer and Klaus Herrmann, “Judaistik an der Freien Universität Berlin, in Religionswissenschaft, Judaistik, und Neuere Philologien an der FU Berlin [Religious Studies, Judaic Studies and Contemporary Philologies at the Freie Universität Berlin], ed. Karol Kubicki et al. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ulbrecht, 2012) 53–74.

129. Schäfer and Herrmann, “Judaistik an der Freien Universität Berlin [Judaic studies at the Free University of Berlin]”

130. Timm, “Israel Turns Fifty: New Books Published in Germany,” 318–319.

132. https://www.igdj-hh.de/en/. Accessed May 6, 2023

133. https://www.mmz-potsdam.de/en. Accessed May 6, 2023

134. https://www.dubnow.de/en/. Accessed May 6, 2023

139. Brenner, Becke, and Mahla, eds., Israel-Studien.

144. https://ambivalentenmity.org/. Accessed May 6, 2023

148. Hausen, “Wenn Wahrheiten sich Widersprechen”

149. Katlewski, “Wirklichkeit eines Traums”

150. Munich’s Chair for Jewish History and Culture has traditionally included a focus on teaching Jewish and Israeli history in Bavarian schools, see https://www.jgk.geschichte.uni-muenchen.de/jued_gesch_im_schulunterricht/index.html. Accessed May 6, 2023

151. Interview, December 2021.

152. Wittstock, Israel in Nahost, Deutschland in Europa; and Wittstock, The world facing Israel – Israel facing the world.

153. Stellenausschreibung (Vacancy), Universität Mainz, 2017.

154. Micha Brumlik, “Ein Minimum an Distanz [A Minimum of Distance],” Taz, 2017. Accessed May 6, 2023. https://taz.de/Kolumne-Gott-und-die-Welt/!5378113/.

155. Lisa Maucher, “Vom Land versprochene Professur Isreal/Nahost [sic!] an der Uni Mainz seit zwei Jahren unbesetzt [The Isreal [sic]/Middle East Professorship promised by the the state at the University of Mainz has been vacant for two years],” Allgemeine Zeitung, 2017. Accessed May 6, 2023. https://www.allgemeine-zeitung.de/lokales/mainz/nachrichten-mainz/vom-land-versprochene-professur-isrealnahost-an-der-uni-mainz-seit-zwei-jahren-unbesetzt_17672272.

156. Paul Lassay, “Nach langer Suche: Yossi David besetzt Israel-Professur an Uni Mainz [After a long search: Yossi David accepts Israel Professorship at the University of Munich],” Allgemeine Zeitung, 2018. Accessed May 6, 2023. https://www.allgemeine-zeitung.de/lokales/mainz/nachrichten-mainz/nach-langer-suche-yossi-david-besetzt-israel-professur-an-uni-mainz_19109757.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Johannes Becke

Johannes Becke is the Ben Gurion Professor for Israel and Middle East Studies at the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg (Heidelberg University of Jewish Studies). He holds a PhD in Political Science from Freie Universität Berlin. His most recent books include Israel Studies. History, Methods, Paradigms (ed., with Michael Brenner and Daniel Mahla, Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2020) and The Land Beyond the Border. State Formation and Territorial Expansion in Syria, Morocco, and Israel (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2021).

Jenny Hestermann

Jenny Hestermann holds a PhD in Contemporary History from TU Berlin. She has worked as Head of Office in Tel Aviv for the Heinrich Böll Foundation. Prior to that, she taught as Interim Professor for Israel and Middle East Studies at the Heidelberg University of Jewish Studies. She is the author of two books: “Staged Reconciliation: Diplomacy through Travel and German-Israeli Relations from 1957 to 1984” (Campus 2016, in German), and “Don’t mention the war”. German-Israeli Academic Relations after the Holocaust (Campus 2024, in German).

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