German

Today, we associate German with the countries—Germany, Austria, and Switzerland among others—in which it is the official language.  However, until the end of the Second World War, German was also a widely used language in Eastern Europe.  In many ways, German served as a common language or lingua franca of commerce and high culture in/within the diverse societies of Central and Eastern Europe. 

In Jewish culture, the most well-known connection to German is Yiddish, a Germanic language that was the everyday language of Central and East European Jews for over a thousand years.  While German was a language of commerce and education for centuries including among Jews, it was not until the mid 1700s that Jewish elites expanded their use of German to become a vehicle for producing and expressing modern Jewish culture.  By the late 1700s, state authorities in the Germans lands and Habsburg Empire expanded public education and passed reforms that encouraged knowledge and use of German among its populations, including among Jews.  In Central Europe (today’s Germany, Austria, and Czech Republic), German became the everyday language of Jews while further East in Hungary, Galicia, and Russia’s western borderlands, German was mainly a language used by Jewish elites in commerce and as a sign of their education and social aspirations. For socially mobile Jews, German-language schooling opened doors to new educational and socio-economic opportunities. German-speaking Jews began leaving Europe after 1933 for Asia, the United States, and Palestine, most who stayed behind were murdered during the Holocaust. As a result of the Holocaust, German is now spoken mainly among Jews in Germany and Austria. In today’s Germany, many German-speaking Jews are originally from Poland, the former Soviet Union, and Israel.     

 At UT Austin, the Department of Germanic Studies offers German (and Yiddish, see above) courses at all skill levels, from beginner to advanced.  Courses on German literature, film, and theater will often include material relevant to students interested in Jewish Studies as do courses offered by the Department of History such as “Introduction to the Holocaust” and “Germany since Hitler.”

For research and education on the history and culture of German-speaking Jews, see: The Leo Baeck Institute, New York| Berlin

For German-Jewish history, see: Jewish Museum Berlin