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51猎奇 PR & Communication Department聽
Theodor-W.-Adorno Platz 1
60323 Frankfurt
presse@uni-frankfurt.de
Dec
16
2019
15:36
Dr Tobias Freim眉ller receives the Rosl and Paul Arnsberg Prize from the Polytechnic Foundation of Frankfurt am Main
The distinct history of Jews in Frankfurt聽
FRANKFURT. Dr
Tobias Freim眉ller, Deputy Director of the Fritz Bauer Institute at Goethe
University has been awarded the 2019 Rosl and Paul Arnsberg Prize from the
Polytechnic Foundation of Frankfurt am Main. The award, which is given every
three years, recognizes outstanding research on the history of Jewish citizens
in Frankfurt.
鈥淭he work paints a highly differentiated
picture of the complex relationships of Jews among themselves and with
non-Jewish German society after the Shoah," said the jury, chaired by Professor
Mirjam Wenzel, Director of the Jewish Museum and honorary professor at Goethe
University, in praise of the winner. Freim眉ller's work, furthermore, has the
potential of becoming a standard work.
Before 1933, Frankfurt am Main had the
largest percentage of Jewish citizens in Germany, and its Jewish community was
the second largest in Germany following Berlin. In finance, education, science,
and through numerous associations and foundations, Jewish citizens influenced the
city of Frankfurt in a distinct way. At the end of the war in the spring of
1945, the persecution, deportation and murder of Jews had completely destroyed
this diverse culture. Had there once been almost 30,000 Jewish citizens in Frankfurt,
now only 100 to 200 remained in the destroyed city.
A larger number of Jewish 鈥淒isplaced
Persons鈥� (DP) joined the few survivors who had quickly re-founded the Jewish
community after the war. These DPs were refugees from Eastern Europe who saw in
the American Headquarters in Frankfurt a gateway to their future lives. From
here, they hoped to be able to travel to America, Palestine or other countries.
But since this path was barred for the time being, thousands of Jewish DPs
lived for several years in a hurriedly set-up camp in Frankfurt-Zeilsheim. At
the same time, the first Frankfurt Jewish survivors began to return from exile,
having been expressly encouraged to do so by Frankfurt's Mayor Walter Kolb.
In his study, Tobias Freim眉ller depicts
how institutions and a social place for Jewish life were gradually able to be
established in Frankfurt in the following years. On the one hand, the city
serves as a typical example of Jewish post-war history in the Federal Republic
of Germany, as a place where the conflict situations of Jewish post-war history
can be seen under a magnifying glass. But Frankfurt was also an exception.
Under the protection of the American occupying forces, a network of Jewish
institutions was quick to form, later including an intellectual scene whose
lighthouse was the Institute for Social Research, which had returned from
exile. Nonetheless, the relationship between Jewish and non-Jewish citizens in
Frankfurt remained particularly conflictive. Highlights of these disputes were
the sensational blockade of the premiere of the play "Der M眉ll, die Stadt und der Tod" by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
by the Jewish community in autumn 1985, and the B枚rneplatz conflict in 1987.
Where, after the end of National
Socialism, and in what form did a memory of local Judaism still exist that
could be taken up? How should Jewish places of memory that still existed in the
city's topography be handled? How did the integration of the Holocaust survivors
who fled Eastern Europe after the end of the war succeed, and why did the
"second generation" of Jews since the 1960s articulate themselves so
clearly in Frankfurt in particular? German-Jewish post-war history appears in
the example of Frankfurt as a multi-faceted history of migration, conflict, and
new intellectual beginnings, out of which a new Jewish consciousness ultimately
developed in the 1980s.
The Rosl and Paul Arnsberg Prize from the
Polytechnic Foundation of Frankfurt am Main was created in 2008 and has now
been awarded for the sixth time. It is advertised internationally, and is
dedicated to outstanding research on the history of Jewish life in Frankfurt.
The prize is endowed with 鈧� 10,000.
Pictures may be downloaded here: www.uni-frankfurt.de/84238080
Caption: Tobias Freim眉ller was awarded the Rosl and Paul Arnsberg Prize from the
Polytechnic Foundation of Frankfurt am Main for his work on the history of
Frankfurt Judaism. (Credit: Polytechnic Foundation of Frankfurt am Main/Dominik
Buschardt)
Further information: Dr Tobias Freim眉ller, Deputy Director of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Goethe
University An-Institut, Westend
Campus, Tel- +49 69/798 322-31, E-Mail freimueller@em.uni-frankfurt.de, Homepage www.fritz-bauer-institut.de