Sebastian Panwitz. Die Gesellschaft der Freunde 1792-1935: Berliner Juden zwischen Aufklärung und Hochfinanz. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag - Weidmannsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 2007. 335 pp. ISBN 978-3-487-13346-1.

Reviewed by Sonja Mekel (Department of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Published on H-German (April, 2009)
Commissioned by Susan R. Boettcher

German-Jewish Philanthropy

Writing one's dissertation about an association in the absence of its records is almost a heroic endeavor. Sebastian Panwitz had to do just that, since in 1937 the National Socialists stole the entire archive of the Gesellschaft der Freunde, after which it disappeared. The likely reason for this most un-German sloppiness was that the archivist entrusted with processing the files was at the time embroiled in repeated prosecutions for "fornication with men" (p. 223) and committed suicide in 1941. As a consequence, Panwitz had to reconstruct the history of one of Berlin's most prestigious associations from sources such as legal records, letters, memoirs, and newspaper articles, which are widely scattered in archives, libraries, and even private households. Panwitz provides a detailed context of relevant aspects of Jewish life in Berlin to make up for missing pieces of the puzzle, devoting much space to its traditional background and its emerging associational scene. Because of this rich contextualization, the study does not suffer from the dryness of many associational histories. The author has also compiled a list of 650 from among the 2,300 members of the association, including their occupations, that impressively demonstrates the prominent role they played in German society.

Founded by a group of young Jewish bachelors in 1792, the motto of the Gesellschaft der Freunde, "Nach Wahrheit forschen, Schönheit lieben, Gutes wollen, das Beste tun," was based on a remark by Moses Mendelssohn. It announced both its enlightened ideals and its charitable purposes. Striving for independence from the Jewish communal establishment, the association placed itself under the authority of the Prussian police and state. One of the group's earliest successes was the introduction of late interment for its members, following a peculiar but widespread concern of the time, yet running counter to Jewish burial customs. Initially admitting only single Jewish men, who felt insufficiently represented and respected by the existing Jewish community and its various traditional benevolent societies, in 1807 the society adapted to its members' changing marital status by allowing married men to join. Adaptability was one of the reasons for the association's remarkable longevity. By opening up membership not only to married men, but also to the increasing number of converts to Christianity and even Christians without any Jewish background, it retained and attracted the very stratum of Berlin society that subsequently made for the association's wealth and influence: assimilated Jewish or formerly Jewish bankers, industrialists, and publishers. The latter were secure enough in their social standing not to eschew all contact with Jews, as some converts did, but rather enjoyed their position in between the wider gentile world and the Jewish community, to which they were still connected by sentimental and familial ties. This "Zwischengruppe," as Panwitz calls it, contributed greatly to the finances as well as the prestige of the society; however, because of the increasing exclusiveness of its members, the initially high visibility of the association was reversed during the course of the nineteenth century. Keeping a low profile was not just a consequence of the Friends' wish for exclusiveness; it was also a necessity in the face of the vigilance of Prussian officials. Unlike more political or otherwise activist societies, the group avoided a ban by emphasizing charity and sociability. This nonconfrontational course had two important effects, as Panwitz points out. The society remained an integrative rather than a divisive force for Berlin's Jewish community; neither Reform nor Orthodox Jews took offense from its existence. Moreover, members who saw that their particular interests would not be satisfied within it founded a variety of associations composed of Friends, but not formally affiliated with the group itself.

Though it had admitted Christians of non-Jewish origin throughout the nineteenth century, only in the twentieth century did gentiles begin to join in considerable numbers (one of them, to what will be many readers' astonishment, was Hjalmar Schacht). Despite the high proportion of "Aryans," the Friends could not avoid the dissolution of their association by the National Socialists in 1935 and the theft of their entire assets. (It is a laudable detail that Panwitz speaks of the "transfer" of power to the Nazis, instead of using the more common and exculpating term Machtergreifung or "seizure of power.") Some members were not persecuted, since they had too few Jewish ancestors to be classified as Jews according to the Nuremberg Laws; the majority of the Jewish Friends managed to emigrate; even so, twenty-four were murdered. Returning after the war, a small number of former Friends tried to revive the society and sued to reclaim its stolen property. To invalidate the claims of Jewish successor organizations, they asserted that theirs had never been a Jewish association. With the failure of this strategy before a German court in 1956, the history of the Gesellschaft der Freunde came to an end.

Thanks to Panwitz's painstaking research, a gap in German-Jewish historiography has been filled. A few points of criticism should therefore not detract from the many merits of his book. One shortcoming that is more annoying than grave is the fact that all words printed in Hebrew letters are misspelled. They are consistently written backwards, with one exception, in which the letters are simply scrambled, like in an anagram. This deficiency is quite surprising, given that Judaica and Hebraica are among the publisher's specialties. Another distracting detail is Panwitz's interpretation of Karl Streckfuss's purported change of mind regarding Jews. As a high Prussian official, Streckfuss had vigorously obstructed Jewish emancipation in the 1830s, but announced at a festivity of the society that he had revised his views. Even if we accept that this "conversion" was genuine and not merely opportunistic (Panwitz himself mentions that Streckfuss soon thereafter accosted Berlin's Jews for donations for the completion of Cologne cathedral, a Prussian prestige project), Panwitz's remark that Streckfuss probably came to champion Jewish emancipation because of his experience with the association may raise some eyebrows: are we to conclude from this statement that all Jews had to do in order to defeat antisemitism was to become "educated, noble, and well-meaning" (p. 138)? Such a conclusion implies that antisemitism is not caused by individual or collective psychopathology but by Jews themselves. Lastly, Panwitz alleges that the Jewish successor organizations acted in bad faith when claiming the assets of the society and other German-Jewish associations dissolved by the Nazis, since "in Deutschland sollte es in Zukunft keine Juden mehr geben" (p. 239). While it is true that Freemasons and other non-Jewish organizations succeeded in reclaiming their property, their members had not been dispersed or murdered; reestablishment of their organizations was therefore more likely to benefit former members than in the case of the Jews, who, if still alive, were not always willing to return to Germany.

Despite these minor issues, Panwitz's book opens up new vistas. In addition to its own accomplishments, this well-written work will advance future research.

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Citation: Sonja Mekel. Review of Panwitz, Sebastian, Die Gesellschaft der Freunde 1792-1935: Berliner Juden zwischen Aufklärung und Hochfinanz. H-German, H-Net Reviews. April, 2009.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=23952

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