Date of Award
Spring 4-17-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
History
First Advisor
Torsten Homberger
Committee Members
Torsten Homberger
Carol Lilly
Nathan Tye
Kurt Borchard
Hannah Lahti
Keywords
Germany, Jewish, Assimilation, Nationalism, Nazism, Antisemitism, Jewish identity, Nazi Germany, Verband nationaldeutscher Juden, Association of German National Jews
Abstract
The modern history of Germany’s Jews developed through two contemporaneous and parallel transformations across the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries: first, the development of the German national identity and creation of the German state; second, the gradual emancipation of Germany’s Jews and their integration into society. As a result of these two simultaneous developments, the majority of German Jews increasingly defined themselves through their German nature and connection to the state. Assimilation became not only a path to survival but also a sincere expression of ideological and cultural conviction.
Amid the social, political, and economic crises of the Weimar Republic, a minority of German Jews radicalized this earlier development of patriotic assimilation, primarily in the form of the Association of German National Jews (Verband nationaldeutscher Juden or VnJ). The members of the VnJ proposed continuing dedication to the German ideal through a radical program which sought to separate “national German” Jews from those deemed un-German: Zionists, Eastern Jews, Marxists, and anyone perceived as insufficiently dedicated to the good of Germany. In doing so, the VnJ aimed to redefine German-Jewish history through near-uncompromising loyalty to the German state and—eventually—to the Nazi Party and its vision of Germany’s future.
By exploring this development within the broader progression of German-Jewish history, the existence of Weimar-era radicals such as the Association of German National Jews appears not as an aberration but an intelligible result of long-term patterns of German-Jewish patriotic assimilation dating back to the early nineteenth century. These patterns fostered attitudes which could be—and were—radicalized into acute nationalist sentiment during the political and social crises of the Weimar Republic and Nazi era.
Recommended Citation
Dear, Yitzi, "Loyal Sons: German-Jewish Patriotic Assimilation in Modern Germany" (2026). History Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity. 47.
https://openspaces.unk.edu/hist-etd/47