Hidden in plain sight: advertisements for Jewish ritual objects in Germany, 1871–1933

ABSTRACT

Jewish ritual objects are rather niche products and yet, the advertisements, as well as other factors, indicate an industrial scale production during the German Second Empire (1871–1918) and the Weimar Republic (1918–1933). As I will argue, these advertisements provide us with intriguing insights into the Jewish community, and how German Jewry was perceived by the non-Jewish population. Especially when companies used methods of ethnic marketing, I surveyed how they addressed the different strata of the Jewish community. In addition, some company advertisements bear traces of an understanding of Judaism on equal footing with Christian denominations. Yet, I also find hints of industrial overproduction which, as I argue, might have been stimulated by stereotypes of Jews. Perhaps in response to the overproduction, some retailers advertised Jewish ritual objects as “decorative” rather than religious items, and therefore veiled their link to Judaism. While this might have been a protective measure against anti-Semitic slurs, it ties in well with the observation that producers and retailers might have expected higher sales. Overall, analysing advertisements for Jewish ritual objects helps us to develop a more nuanced understanding of the positioning of Jewish consumers within the market in Germany before the Shoah.

KEYWORDS:

• Jewish ritual objects
• silverware
• Jewish consumer culture
• advertisements
• German empire
• Weimar Republic
• Jewish Press

Acknowledgement

I am grateful for the generous support of the “Freundeskreis der Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg, e.V.”.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 See e.g. Heuberger, ed., Die Pracht der Gebote, 491, 492, 506, 514.

2 See however for notable exceptions: Friedlander, “Tradition as Commodity”; Michael, “Die Silberwarenfirma Lazarus Posen Witwe”; Weiser-Ferguson, Forging Ahead; Jüdisches Museum München and Museum für Franken, eds., “Sieben Kisten mit jüdischem Material.”

3 Probably, many Jewish ritual objects were melted down by the Nazi administration. They classified looted objects in the categories: “Schmelzsilber – silverware to be melted down,” “Gebrauchssilber – household silverware” and “Kunstwerke – artwork”; Banken, “Der Edelmetallsektor und die Verwertung konfiszierten jüdischen Vermögens im ‘Dritten Reich',” 147–9. While the report does not specifically mention Jewish ritual objects, a documentation of around 5,500 looted metal objects in Berlin by the Märkisches Museum supports the conclusion that Jewish ritual objects were systematically melted down. The inventory and index list several (non-Jewish) objects which are still in the collection today. Yet several Jewish ritual objects listed in the inventory and the index are missing from today's collection, Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin, S-Inventar (Documentation of looted silver with Jewish provenance). I would like to thank Martina Weinland for drawing my intention to it. See also: Augustin, “The object's afterlife” passim.

4 Of course, one may wonder how suitable the concept of “ethnic marketing” is to describe the historic situation of advertisements targeting German Jews. Yet, the concept has some merit by pointing towards some peculiarities of the marketing strategies.

5 E.g. Reuveni, Consumer Culture.

6 Cf. for a similar observation concerning food, Reuveni, “Advertising, Jewish Ethnic Marketing,” 131.

7 Sieg, “Das Judentum im Kaiserreich,” 122.

8 See ibid., 3.

9 Klose-Ullmann, Die Entwicklung des institutionalisierten Kapitalmarktes, 24 and 49.

10 Heitmann et al., Handwerk und Maschinenkraft, 12–13; see also on the industrial scale of productions Hennze, “Non cito sed certo,” 33–34.

11 Brenner, Kleine jüdische Geschichte, 364.

12 See Kaiserliches Statistisches Amt, Statistisches Jahrbuch des Deutschen Reiches, 1899, 1910; Statistisches Reichsamt, Statistisches Jahrbuch des Deutschen Reiches, 1932, 1933, and 1937.

13 Sänger, “P. Bruckmann & Söhne,” 11.

14 Hecht, Die Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik and www.wmf.com.

15 See Friedlander, “Tradition as Commodity,” 165.

16 Brenner, Prophets of the Past, 25, 33.

17 WMF, Musterbuch 1891, WABW, S 2 B 45, 99.

18 Cf. for a similar argument with regard to the advertisement of “Kaffee Hag” Reuveni, Consumer Culture, 37–39.

19 Kauffmann & Co was a specialized publishing house and bookshop in Frankfurt upon Main for Judaica books and ritual items run by a Jewish family from the 1830s until the 1930s, Oscar Lehmann, “Zur Geschichte der Firma J. Kauffmann Frankfurt am Main.” Neue jüdische Monatshefte 4, no. 2 (October 25/ November 25, 1919), 69.

20 Friedlander, “Tradition as Commodity,” 166.

21 Friedlander, “Tradition as Commodity,” 184.

22 Weiser-Ferguson, Forging Ahead, 190. According to her, the business was expropriated by Bruckmann but to be precise it was an affiliated company called Schober & Bruckmann.

23 Friedlander, “Tradition as Commodity,” 165.

24 E.g. the following companies exhibited at the Chicago World Exhibition; Wilhelm Binder (Schwäbisch Gmünd), Neresheimer & Söhne, Schleißner & Söhne (both Hanau), David Kugelmann, and Simon Rosenau (both Bad Kissingen), see Reichskommission, Columbische Weltausstellung in Chicago, 151–152, advertisements, 4.

25 Supposedly even during the Great War, see Rocke, “Leipzig als Metropole für Handel und Verkehr, Schrifttum, Kunst und Wissenschaft,” Deutsche Goldschmiedezeitung, no. 29–30 (July 13, 1918), 143–145.

26 Hecht, Die Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik, 80–81, 90; Dry, Art nouveau domestic metalwork, xxxiii. The Warsaw Catalogue includes Jewish ceremonial objects (Plewkiewicz, catalogue of 1900, WABW, S1 B277/1, 184) and there is an A. Köhler & Cie / WMF Seder compendium in the collection of the Jewish Museum in Vienna (IKG 15388), but there are no Jewish ritual objects nor church objects in the English Catalogue.

27 Hecht, Die Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik, 170.

28 Henny Henschel vom Hain, “Neupalästina als Exportgebiet für deutsche Edelmetall und Schmuckwaren.” Deutsche Goldschmiedezeitung, no. 1, January 3, 1925, 4. (All translations from German in this paper are mine.)

29 Reuveni, “Advertising, Jewish Ethnic Marketing,” 122.

30 Der Israelit, Vol. 52, no. 42, October 19, 1911, 15.

31 Der Sabbat, Vol. 9, no. 12, December 1909, [100].

32 CV-Zeitung, Vol. 3, no. 16, April 17, 1924, 210.

33 Arbeitsausschuss der Berliner Gewerbe-Ausstellung, ed., Berliner Gewerbe-Ausstellung 1896, 60.

34 Bayer, “Die Neue Synagoge in Charlottenburg,” 929–35, additional figures: 937, 939, 941.

35 Deutscher Reichsanzeiger, no. 95, April 22, 1882, 1.

36 Arbeitsausschuss der Berliner Gewerbe-Ausstellung, ed., Hauptkatalog der Berliner Gewerbeausstellung 1896, 127.

37 Ibid., 1, 33.

38 Modernes Verlagsbüro Curt Wigand, ed., Illustrierter Jüdischer Familienkalender für das Jahr 5668 [1907–1908], 2.

39 See Israelitische Wochenschrift, no. 51, December 22, 1905, 723; Sabbat Stunden, no. 36, 1900, 32.

40 Die Voss, October 15, 1921, no. 37, 16.

41 Lässig, Jüdische Wege ins Bürgertum, 481.

42 Rahden, “Situational ethnicity versus milieu identity,” 64–5.

43 Michael, “Die Silberwarenfirma Lazarus Posen Witwe,” 70.

44 Jacobson and Segall, Jüdisches Jahrbuch für Groß-Berlin auf das Jahr 1926, 31, 51, 58, 96, 118.

45 Monatsschrift der Berliner Logen, no. 10, January, 1927, 194.

46 Israelitisches Familienblatt, no. 47, November 22, 1934, 5.

47 CV-Zeitung, Vol. XIV, no. 50, December 12, 1935, 10.

48 Der Israelit, Vol. 79., no. 40–41, October 7, 1938, 16.

49 Michael, “Die Silberwarenfirma Lazarus Posen Witwe,” 64.

50 Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums, Vol. 59, no. 30, July 26, 1895, [482].

51 In later versions, this typo was corrected to כלי קדש, Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums, Vol. 59, no. 30, July 26, 1895, [20].

52 Der Israelit, Vol. 36, no. 49, June 20, 1895, 892.

53 WMF, Musterbuch 1891, WABW, S 2 B 45, 99.

54 Cf. for the use of the same illustration in different advertisements by different retailers, Der Israelit, Vol. 65, no. 10, March 13, 1924, 14 and 15; Israelitisches Familienblatt, Vol. 23, no. 10, March 10, 1921, 12; Israelitisches Familienblatt, Vol. 11, no. 12, March 25, 1908, 6 and 8.

55 Kaplan, Jewish Antiques, 69 with a huge thanks to Tsadik Kaplan.

56 Cf. for another version of this advertisement in the Israelitisches Gemeindeblatt of Cologne in the same year, Lerner, “Jewish Consumer Cultures,” 9. Especially the utility patent shows that this item was seen as a consumer good.

57 Kaiserliches Patentamt. Patentblatt, no. 5, February 3rd, 1904, 151.

58 Greven, 1904 Greven's Adreßbuch für Köln, 125; Greven, 1905 Greven's Adreßbuch für Köln, 135.

59 “Gesetz, betreffend den Schutz von Gebrauchsmustern.” Deutsches Reichsgesetzblatt, no. 18 (1891), 290 et seq.

60 “Doch wenn der Privatmann den Goldschmiedeladen betritt, er Kronen, Schilder und Zeiger, Becher, Leuchter und Riechdosen, Kannen, Becken und Schalen in reicher Auswahl, die wir einmal annehmen wollen (größtenteils sind es nur Kataloge) gezeigt bekommt, sieht er nur halbwegs so hübsch gearbeitete und gezeichnete Silberwaaren wie er bei jedem Gebrauchsgegenstand, jedem Geschenkstück profaner Art es sonst gewohnt ist?”. Eduard Joel, “Ueber jüdisches Kunstgewerbe und Synagogen,” Der Israelit, Vol. 6, no. 30, July 23, 1903, 9.

61 Israelitisches Familienblatt, Aus alter und neuer Zeit, Vol. 30, no. 38, September 20, 1928, 213.

62 Joel, “Ueber jüdisches Kunstgewerbe,” 9.

63 WMF, Entwicklung Hohlwarengeschäft im Jahre 1929, Vergleich zu 1913, WABW, S2 B70/1063.

64 Johannes Rominger and his son Nathanael ran an upmarket department store. The family was not a Jewish family, but members of the protestant Waldensians movement, see Unsere Geschichte – Stiftung Rominger (rominger-stuttgart.de); Lovisa, Italienische Waldenser und das protestantische Deutschland, 140. The model was produced by Lenkwerk formerly Wolkenstein & Glückselig in Vienna. It is also an interesting example of cross-border trade.

65 See Geschichte des Hauses Albert Rosenhain.

66 See Kreutzmüller, “Albert Rosenhain.”

67 Kaufhaus Albert Rosenhain, Katalog, 76. Auflage, 78.

68 Reuveni observes a similar usage of the Hebrew word “Pessach” in Jewish papers by the “Kaffee HAG” company (a non-Jewish company advertising their coffee to Jewish customers with a kashrut certificate), Reuveni, “Advertising, Jewish Ethnic Marketing,” 132; Reuveni, Consumer Culture, 63.

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Hannah-Lea Wasserfuhr

Hannah-Lea Wasserfuhr is a PhD candidate at the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien. She studied art history, history and Jewish museology at the University of Heidelberg and the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien. At the moment, she is working on her doctoral thesis about the industrial production and marketing of Jewish ritual objects during the Second Empire and the Weimar Republic supervised by Prof. Johannes Heil (Ignatz Bubis Chair at the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien).