Kurt Singer conducts the Jewish Cultural League orchestra and chorus performing Handel’s Israel in Egypt, 1937, Berlin (Photo: Yad Vashem)
Decades before the rise of Nazism, German Jewish culture experienced a renaissance in such areas as education and the arts, but that growth quickly contracted under the severe restrictions initiated by the Nazi regime. Established in 1933, the Kulturbund (the Culture League of German Jews) featured prominently as an outlet where many artists expelled from German institutions could present theater, cabaret, concerts, opera, and lectures before exclusively Jewish audiences. The first play staged was Nathan the Wise, an Enlightenment-era classic that appeals for religious tolerance.
The Kulturbund’s activities brought both opportunities and dilemmas for a persecuted minority under an authoritarian regime. Did the work of the Kulturbund provide much-needed consolation for Jewish artists and audiences in a time of oppression? Or did its emulation of “normal” cultural life contribute to the false assumption that Germany might still hold a future for them?
Michael Brenner, Lillian and Seymour Abensohn chair in Israel studies at American University and professor of Jewish history and culture at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, explores the history of the Kulturbund and its impact on the German Jews under Hitler’s rule.
