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The Iron Shield of David: The First World War and the Creation of German-Jewish Markers of Patriotism and Memory

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The Jewish Experience of the First World War

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Abstract

Michal Friedlander examines various German-Jewish objects of remembrance, in particular commemorative plaques, as well as the ‘nailed’ emblems that highlighted Jewish military service and sacrifice during the war years. The making of such memorial objects, she contends, was motivated by an unbridled sense of commitment to the German state. Yet as objects of ritual mourning for Jewish communities and bereaved individuals, they also served as mirrors in which communities could reflect, within the apparent safety of their own walls, on their self-image as German-Jewish patriots.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Gemeindeblatt der Israelitischen Gemeinde Frankfurt am Main, Heft 7, March 1929, 224.

  2. 2.

    See Tim Grady (2008), ‘A Common Experience of Death: Commemorating the German-Jewish Soldiers of the Great War, 1914–1923’, in Alon Confino, Paul Betts, and Dirk Schumann, eds., Between Mass Death and Individual Loss: The Place of the Dead in Twentieth Century Germany (New York, Berghahn), 185–187.

  3. 3.

    Ulrich Knufinke concurs on the regrettable absence of a scientific overview in this research area and lists relevant, extant publications. See Ulrich Knufinke (27 June 2017), ‘Sie haben gestritten und sind gestorben fürs Vaterland und fürs Judentum’, in Friedhöfe für jüdische Gefallene des Ersten Weltkriegs im Deutschen Reich, RIHA Journal 0157, footnote 8.

  4. 4.

    Gerhard Schneider (2013), In eiserner Zeit: Kriegswahrzeichen im Ersten Weltkrieg (Rödelheim, Wochenschau Verlag), 5.

  5. 5.

    All German and Hebrew translations in this text are by the author.

  6. 6.

    The origins of this relic are discussed by the naturalist, Franz Unger (14 July 1859), the Wiener Zeitung, 13.

  7. 7.

    See Wyatt McGaffey (2000), Kongo Political Culture: The Conceptual Challenge to the Particular (Bloomington, Indiana University Press), 97.

  8. 8.

    For further discussion of this subject, see M. L. Gordon (1977), ‘Mezuzah: Protective Amulet or Religious Symbol?’, Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Thought 16:4, 7–40.

  9. 9.

    Michael Fischer and Aibe-Marlene Gerdes, eds. (2016), Der Krieg und die Frauen: Geschlecht und populäre Literatur im Ersten Weltkrieg (Münster, Waxmann), 298.

  10. 10.

    Gerhard Schneider (1999), ‘Zur Mobilisierung der ‘Heimatfront’: das Nageln von Kriegswahrzeichen im Ersten Weltkrieg’, Zeitschrift für Volkskunde 95, 37.

  11. 11.

    ‘Weich Holz zuerst // dann Eisenhart //so ward in Not //die deutsche Art’, 25 March 2017. http://www.ebay.de/itm/191992926985?clk_rvr_id=1110493900853&rmvSB=true.

  12. 12.

    Berliner Tageblatt und Handels-Zeitung, Berlin Mosse, 4 September 1915, 4.

  13. 13.

    Jesko von Hoegen (2007), Der Held von Tannenberg—Genese und Funktion des Hindenburg-Mythos, Stuttgarter Historische Forschungen, vol. 4. (Stuttgart, Böhlau), 143.

  14. 14.

    Schneider (2013), In Eiserner Zeit, 131.

  15. 15.

    Im Deutschen Reich: Zeitschrift des Centralvereins Deutscher Staatsbürger Jüdischen Glaubens, Heft 7–8, July 1916, 182.

  16. 16.

    A photographic series, documenting the dedication ceremony, is held in the collections of the Staatsbibliothek Bamberg, Sig. V Bxb 2–10a.

  17. 17.

    Hellmann held the title of ‘Kommerzienrat’, an honour awarded in the German Reich until 1919 to successful businessmen who were generous public patrons.

  18. 18.

    Regina Hanemann, ed. (2013), Jüdisches in Bamberg (Bamberg, Michael Imhof Verlag), 296.

  19. 19.

    Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, Beilage, 16 September 1910, 3.

  20. 20.

    Im Deutschen Reich, Nr. 10, October 1910, 692.

  21. 21.

    It should be noted that this was not an isolated case of Jewish involvement in creating local patriotic war emblems to help fund the war effort. For example, a Jewish factory owner, Karl Ullmann, donated 3000 Marks towards the construction of the Fürth nailing column that was installed in 1916 (see Simon Rötsch 2017), Spuren jüdischen Lebens in Fürth während des ersten Weltkriegs, 37, http://www.stadtheimatpflege-fuerth.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Fiorda-14-18.pdf.

  22. 22.

    Paul Arnsberg (1971), Die jüdischen Gemeinden in Hessen. Angang – Untergang - Neubeginn, vol. 1 (Frankfurt a. Main, Societäts-Verlag), 72. This type of social exclusion would surface again when nailing projects were revived in German schools to encourage membership in the Hitler Youth organization. Select (non-Jewish) school children would be told to buy a nail that they could then hammer into a Hitler Youth insignia. See Heinz ‘Coco’ Schumann’s description in Tina Hüttl and Alexander Meschnig (2013), Uns kriegt ihr nicht: Wie jüdische Kinder versteckt überlebten (Munich, Piper ebooks), 126.

  23. 23.

    Jüdische Turn- und Sportzeitung: Organ des Deutschen Kreises der jüdischen Turnerschaft, 2. Jahrgang, Heft 2, 1919, 19. Reprinted in Manfred Lämmer, ed. (1977), Jüdische Turnzeitung: 1919–1921. Jg. 20–22 (Walluf, Sändig Reprint Verlag).

  24. 24.

    Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, Beilage, Heft 51, 17 December 1915, 3.

  25. 25.

    The use of the Maccabees and the Chanukkah story to promote national military pride among Jews was not unique to Germany. The Rev. (rabbi) Francis L. Cohen had instituted a special, patriotic Hanukkah service for British Jewish soldiers in 1893. The London Borough synagogue was decorated with trophies and military memorabilia for the occasion (see The Graphic, No. 1256, vol. XLVIII, 23 December 1893, cover page, with ill.) and it became a regular event (see also ‘Chanucah Celebrations—Annual Military Service’, in The Jewish Chronicle, 10 December 1915, 21).

  26. 26.

    The Gasthof zum Mohren was located on 23 Weinhof, Ulm from 1600 until a bombing raid in World War II destroyed the building. The local Israelitische Lese-Verein, founded in 1855, convened here prior to 1920. One can therefore assume that this inn was a place that welcomed Jewish group gatherings. My thanks to Matthias Grotz, Stadtarchiv, Stadt Ulm, for this information.

  27. 27.

    Corporal Marx is most likely to have been Ernst Marx (1878–1917), son of the prominent Ulm industrialist Leopold Marx. He died in a military hospital in Belgium while on active service.

  28. 28.

    Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, Heft 16, 21 April 1916, 185, ill., 186.

  29. 29.

    For a number of examples see http://www.kriegsnagelungen.de/von-der-1-klasse-bis-zur-oberprima-schulnagelungen-im-deutschen-reich/, accessed 25 March 2017.

  30. 30.

    Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, 11 December 1914, 590: cites a report in the Berliner Tagesblatt: ‘A private survey on the participation of Jews in the War reveals interesting information. To date, 710 soldiers of the Jewish faith have received an Iron Cross, including three of the First Order.’

  31. 31.

    Reis’s mother immigrated to England in August 1939 at the age of 65, taking this cumbersome memorial stone with her. It is now in the collection of the Jewish Museum Berlin, inv. no. 2016/27/0.

  32. 32.

    Jewish pride in the Iron Cross decoration is reflected in a commentary from 1917 (Mitteilungen aus dem Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus, 7 February 1917, 24). The author remarked that some ‘Nörgler’ (whiners) were having difficulty with the fact that large numbers of Jews were in active military service and had been awarded the Iron Cross. He was incensed by ironic comments in the publication Auf Vorposten, suggesting that Jews should be awarded an ‘Iron Star of David’ in its stead, viewing such comments as both an insult to Jewish recipients of the Iron Cross as well as to ‘the most beautiful of all decorations.’

  33. 33.

    The dilemma as to whether or not a Jew should, or could, wear a cross symbol was not unique to Jewish communities in Germany. In Great Britain, the Jewish Chronicle reported a debate that transpired in (pre-war) 1914 concerning the wearing of the Red Cross by Jewish women in the military hospital corps and the related question of whether or not a Jew should wear a Victoria Cross that he had been awarded. See The Jewish Chronicle, 30 January 1914, 15.

  34. 34.

    Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, Beilage, Heft 51, 17 December 1915, 3.

  35. 35.

    Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, Heft 13, 31 March 1916, 147.

  36. 36.

    See footnote 24.

  37. 37.

    See footnote 35: AZJ, Heft 13, 31 March 1916, 148.

  38. 38.

    War symbols were held in extraordinarily high regard and any perceived abuse was found extremely offensive. The Berlin police, for example, stepped in to stop civilians and children from wearing Iron Cross replicas. See Bayerischer Kunstgewerbe-Verein. Kunst und Handwerk: Zeitschrift für Kunstgewerbe und Kunsthandwerk, vol. 65, 1914–1915, 55.

  39. 39.

    See a death notice from the Mannheimer family for their son and brother Max Mannheimer in Nachrichten für Stadt und Land: Oldenburger Zeitung für Volk und Heimat, Oldenburg, 17 September 1914.

  40. 40.

    Oldenburger Verein für Altertumskunde und Landesgeschichte Oldenburg, ed. (1915), ‘Unsern Helden zum Gedächtnis’ in the Oldenburger Jahrbuch für Altertumskunde und Landesgeschichte, Kunst und Kunstgewerbe, Stalling, vol. 23, 2–163. I thank Dr. Matthias Nidal of the Niedersächisches Landesarchiv for confirming this information.

  41. 41.

    A list of the first 22 postcards in this series can be found in Louis Lamm (1916), Verzeichnis jüdischer Kriegsschriften, vol. 1 (Berlin, Louis Lamm Verlag), 14.

  42. 42.

    Schneider (1999), Mobilisierung, 55–57.

  43. 43.

    For example, celebrations for returning soldiers were held in Düsseldorf and Hörde i. M, Beilage zur AZJ, Heft 4, 24 January 1919, 3; in Göttingen, AZJ, Beilage, Heft 7, 14 February 1919, 3; in Stettin, AZJ, Beilage, Heft 6, 7 February 1919, 3, etc.

  44. 44.

    Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, Beilage, Heft 6, 7 February 1919, 4.

  45. 45.

    Ibid.

  46. 46.

    The phrase is derived from Psalm 112:6. ‘For he shall never be moved; the righteous shall be remembered for eternity.’

  47. 47.

    For a biblical physical description of the Temple menorah, see Exodus 25:31–40.

  48. 48.

    Ya’akov Meshorer (2001), A Treasury of Jewish Coins: From the Persian Period to Bar Kokhba (Jerusalem, Yad Ben-Zvi 2001), 149–150, illus., 339–341, 347–348. The ‘year four’ coins have depictions of palm trees with nine branches (p. 339, no. 212), as found on the Augsburg plaque.

  49. 49.

    The most well-known biblical example is the blowing of rams’ horns at the battle of Jericho. See Joshua 6:4–12.

  50. 50.

    See Bernhard Gelderblom (1996), Sie waren Bürger der Stadt: die Geschichte der jüdischen Einwohner Hamelns im Dritten Reich: Ein Gedenkbuch (Hameln, C. W. Niemeyer), 14.

  51. 51.

    Diester- und Weser Zeitung, 12 December 1920, cited in Gelderblom (1996), Sie waren Bürger.

  52. 52.

    Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik. Ausgeführte Krieger-Gedenktafeln. Geislingen: Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik, 1926.

  53. 53.

    See Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik. Krieger-Gedenktafeln, 21 (Limburg a. d. Lahn) and 25 (Crailsheim).

  54. 54.

    Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, Beilage, Heft 2–3, 17 January 1919, 4.

  55. 55.

    Light or flames were recurrent motifs in Jewish war memorial plaques. The Hattingen Zeitung of 9 September 1926 notes that on the Hattingen Jewish soldiers’ memorial plaque the ‘… six small flames symbolically refer to the eternal light of the soul’. See also the eight stylized flames on the memorial plaque designed by Jewish sculptor, Arnold Zadikow, for the Jewish community of Würzburg: ‘Kriegertafel in Würzburg,’ photograph 5560 from the former Art Collection of the Jewish Community of Berlin, now in the collection of the Jewish Historical Institute (ŻIH) in Warsaw.

  56. 56.

    Collection of the Jewish Museum Berlin (inv. no. 2009/204/163) donated by descendants of the fallen soldier Sigmund Schlossberger, who is listed third on the plaque.

  57. 57.

    The Crailsheim memorial plaque is the only surviving remnant of the Crailsheim synagogue after its interior was destroyed in the pogrom of 1938 and the building bombed in 1945. The plaque is now situated in the local Jewish cemetery. A local initiative led to the renewal of the lamp in 2009, approximating the original form. It is no longer electrified and has bowl form candleholders once again. Karl W. Schubsky (1997), Jüdisches Leben in Crailsheim: Der jüdische Friedhof (Crailsheim, Hohenloher Druck), 104.

  58. 58.

    For example, a photograph of the Fulda synagogue interior, ca. 1926–1938, shows a pair of candleholders affixed to the foot of the black marble synagogue memorial plaque (Jüdisches Museum Frankfurt am Main, Sammlung Dr. Paul Arnsberg, Hessen, F87-G238). The plaque had gold Hebrew and German lettering, listing the names of eighteen fallen soldiers, and was dedicated in May 1926, Der Israelit, 1 July 1926.

  59. 59.

    For documentary photographs of the plaques see: Ichenhausen—Postcard of synagogue interior before 1922, reproduced in Juden auf dem Lande—Beispiel Ichenhausen (Munich, Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte), 41; Mathias Schafmeister (2014), Detmold 1918-1933 (Gilching, Sutton Verlag), 53; and Joachim Hahn and Jürgen Kruger (2007), Synagogen in Baden-Württemberg, vol. 2, Orte und Einrichtungen (Stuttgart, Konrad Theis Verlag), 219.

  60. 60.

    Theodor Harburger (1998), Die Inventarisation jüdischer Kunst- und Kulturdenkmäler in Bayern (Fürth, Jewish Museum Franken); Günter Birkmann, Hartmut Stratmann, and Thomas Kohlpoth (1998), Bedenke vor wem du stehst, 300 Synagogen und ihre Geschichte in Westfalen und Lippe (Essen, Klartext-Verlag), 242, with a sketch reconstructing the synagogue interior from memory.

  61. 61.

    Letter, Adass Jisroel Berlin to Rabbiner Dr. Kahlberg Halle, 9 March 1920, CJA, 2A2, Nr. 1214. Cited in Grady (2008), A Common Experience of Death, 188.

  62. 62.

    For a photograph of the memorial plaque from the Gelsenkirchen synagogue decorated with garlands and black ribbons, see Leo Baeck Institute, Gelsenkirchen Jewish Community Collection, AR 2424.

  63. 63.

    Der Israelit, 27 July 1922.

  64. 64.

    Drucker was Director of the Decorative Arts vocational training school in Limburg. See Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik. Krieger-Gedenktafeln, 21.

  65. 65.

    Limburger Zeiger, 29 September 1919.

  66. 66.

    The custom not to use base metals when making the holy Torah scroll may derive from an interpretation of Deuteronomy 27:5, where it is explicitly forbidden to use a base metal tool to create an altar: ‘There you shall build an altar for the Lord, your God, an altar of stones; you may not wield an iron tool on them.’

  67. 67.

    I would like to thank Dr. Christoph Waldecker, Director of the Limburg city archive, for kindly sharing information and documentary photographs with me.

  68. 68.

    Erich Maria Remarque (1980), Der schwarze Obelisk (Berlin, Aufbau), 119. First published in 1956. I am grateful to Dr. Christoph Kreuzmüller for introducing me to this novel and for his helpful comments.

  69. 69.

    ‘When building new monuments for those who fell in the world war, the names of Jewish front fighters should no longer be listed. However, if their names are found on monuments erected earlier, these need not be removed.’ 24.10.35 RMfProp in Joseph Walk, ed. (1996), Das Sonderrecht für die Juden im NS-Staat (Heidelberg, C. F. Müller Verlag), 137.

  70. 70.

    Vivian B. Mann and Joseph Gutmann (1980), Danzig 1939, Treasures of a Destroyed Community (Detroit, Wayne State University Press), 33. For an image of the memorial plaque, see the on-line collection of the Jewish Museum, New York (http://thejewishmuseum.org/collection/5816-memorial-plaque-of-the-great-synagogue-of-danzig).

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  1. Jewish Museum Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Michal Friedlander

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  1. Michal Friedlander
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Correspondence to Michal Friedlander .

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  1. Department of History, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, UK

    Edward Madigan

  2. Department of History, University of Sussex, Falmer, UK

    Gideon Reuveni

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Friedlander, M. (2019). The Iron Shield of David: The First World War and the Creation of German-Jewish Markers of Patriotism and Memory. In: Madigan, E., Reuveni, G. (eds) The Jewish Experience of the First World War. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54896-2_13

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