From the Pulitzer Prize–winning bestselling author of Alexander Hamilton , the inspiration for the hit Broadway musical, comes this definitive biography of the Warburgs, one of the great German-Jewish banking families of the twentieth century. Bankers, philanthropists, scholars, socialites, artists, and politicians, the Warburgs stood at the pinnacle of German (and, later, of German-American) Jewry. They forged economic dynasties, built mansions and estates, assembled libraries, endowed charities, and advised a German kaiser and two American presidents. But their very success made the Warburgs lightning rods for anti-Semitism, and their sense of patriotism became increasingly dangerous in a Germany that had declared Jews the enemy. Ron Chernow's hugely fascinating history is a group portrait of a clan whose members were renowned for their brilliance, culture, and personal energy yet tragically vulnerable to the dark and irrational currents of the twentieth century.

A history of the anti-Jewish policies of Nazi Germany, focusing on the victims' attitudes, reactions, and fate. Describes discrimination against Jews (and "Mischlinge") in the economic, social, cultural, and legal spheres, and the gradual process of segregation, isolation, and compulsory emigration. Gives examples of specific cases of persecution, and of the Jews' reactions. Discusses the extent to which the German elites - Churches, universities, leaders in the economic, political, and cultural spheres - shared in the Nazi antisemitic ideology and condoned Nazi policies. Among the traditional elites and the general populace, there were varying degrees of compliance with anti-Jewish attitudes, but they shied away from violence. Describes the development of German racial antisemitism from the 19th century, which emphasized the mythic dimensions of race and the sacredness of Aryan blood. This fused with a religious vision of a German (or Aryan) Christianity, and led to what can be called "redemptive antisemitism". Emphasizes Hitler's role and the function of his ideology in the genesis and implementation of the anti-Jewish measures. In his worldview, the Jew was dehistoricized and transposed into an abstract principle of evil. In the confrontation between an immutable evil (Jews) and an immutable good (Aryans), the outcome could only be envisioned in religious terms: perdition or redemption. For Hitler, the struggle against the Jews was the basis of his understanding of history, politics, and political action. Yet, his ideological fanaticism was tempered by pragmatic calculation. It is the relationship between the uncommon and the ordinary, the fusion of the widely-shared murderous potentialities in the world and the peculiar frenzy of the Nazi apocalyptic drive against the mortal enemy, the Jew, that give universal significance and historical distinctiveness to the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question".

Explores the paradox inherent in the German fascists' rejection of the rationalism of the Enlightenment while fully embracing modern technology. By associating technology with the Germans rather than the Jews, with beautiful form rather than the formlessness of the market, and with a strong state rather than a predominance of economic values and institutions, right-wing intellectuals reconciled Germany's strength with its romantic soul and national identity. Includes discussion on the transformation of anti-capitalist rhetoric to anti-Jewish rhetoric. See the index for references to antisemitism, and especially ch. 6, "Werner Sombart: Technology and the Jewish Question".

A comprehensive historical survey of the Jewish presence in Central Europe from the seventeenth century to the Holocaust, German-Jewish History in Modern Times is a four-volume collective project by a team of leading scholars, offering a vivid portrait of Jewish History. The series is sponsored by the Leo Baeck Institute, established in 1955 in Jerusalem, London, and New York for the purpose of advancing scholarship on the Jews in German-speaking lands. Integration in Dispute 1871-1918 comprises the third volume and focuses on a period of political, economic, and social change that fundamentally transformed German Jewry. Eminent scholars consider a broad range of topics: religious and cultural life, demographics, political, legal, and socioeconomic status, relations between Jews and non-Jews, and Jewish participation in the larger context of European history. Volume 3 begins with the establishment of civil equality for Jews in Germany and Austria-Hungary and describes the complexities of their economic and social integration. The contributors explore the challenges that confronted Jews as they encountered both unprecedented opportunities and continued resistance to their full emancipation and participation in public life. The book discusses their standing as a minority group within German political and professional life and as a differentiated portion of the German middle class; how they coped with successive waves of political antisemitism; how they continued to adapt traditional religious practices to modernity; and how urban middle-class life transformed Jewish families as well as the role of Jewish women in the domestic and public spheres. The forces of social change, coupled with the persistence of antisemitism formed the context for the emergence of Zionism, which posed a powerful challenge to the dominant principle of integration. This volume also seeks to understand the nature and timing of the exceptional contributions of German Jews to the thriving modern culture of such cities as late imperial Vienna and Berlin as well as to the specific religious culture of Judaism. Each volume includes a bibliographical essay referring readers to the most important secondary literature, a chronology covering the major events discussed, and a series of maps and illustrations. Encompassing the most up-to-date research on the topic, German Jewish History in Modern Times is an achievement to be valued by historians, educators, and any reader seeking to understand the singular heritage of the Jewish people in Central Europe.

Examines the events of the Holocaust within the context of World War II and Germany's economic and political history, while highlighting the main figures of the time.

A personal memoir by Eizenstat, who served under President Carter in several capacities, including secretary of state on Holocaust issues, relating his experiences in negotiations with governments of and/or business representatives from Switzerland, Austria, France, and Germany to pay compensation to Holocaust victims or their heirs for looted property and for suffering (slave labor) under the Nazis. Swiss gold, stolen art, and other stolen property of individuals and communities were finally repaid through agreements reached or encouraged by U.S. class-action suits. In addition to the "imperfect justice" of financial recompense, notes the moral success of furthering the truth and inspiring international efforts at Holocaust education. also discusses the author's role in helping establish the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

A scathing expos of the link between major U.S. corporations and the holocaust makes sobering indictments about such companies as IBM, General Motors, and the Rockefeller Foundation, revealing how some of their mid-twentieth-century agendas directly or indirectly supported Nazi activities.

This respected Israeli scholar argues that fundamental ideological and political goals of Nazi leaders made them receptive to revolutionary economic theories such as those of J. M. Keynes. He examines how the economic system of the Third Reich was based on an anti-liberal philosophy that proved extraordinarily effective in bringing about the 'German Economic Miracle' by 1937.

The fullest account to date of German Jews' struggle for economic survival under the Third Reich.

Imperial Germany focuses on the domestic political developments of the period, putting them into context through a balanced guide to the economic and social background, culture and foreign policy. This important study explores the tensions caused within an empire which was formed through war, against the prevailing liberal spirit of the age and poses many questions among them: * Was the desire to unify Germany the cause of the aggressive foreign policy leading to the First World War? * To what extent was Bismarck's Second Reich the forerunner of Hitler's Third? * Did Bismarck's authoritarian rule permanently hinder the political development of Germany? Recent debates raised by German scholarship are made accessible to English speaking readers, and the book summarises the important controversies and competing interpretations of imperial German history.

The history of Jews in interwar Germany and Austria is often viewed either as the culmination of tremendous success in the economic and cultural realms and of individual assimilation and acculturation, or as the beginning of the road that led to Auschwitz. By contrast, this volume demonstrates a reemerging sense of community within the German-speaking Jewish population of these two countries in the two decades after World War I. The fresh research presented here shows that although Jews may have experiences a deepening sence of impending crisis and economic decline, a renewal of Jewish communal life was taking place, as new groupings sprang up, including organizations for youth, for rural Jews, and for political groups such as Zionists and Bundists. Several chapters consider the impact of economis and political crises on German Jewish family life. Together, these engrossing essays form a complex mosaic of German Jewry on the eve of its demise.

This book presents a comprehensive study of the most famous and spectacular instance of inflation in modern industrial society--that in Germany during and following World War I. A broad, probing narrative, this book studies inflation as a strategy of social pacification and economic reconstruction and as a mechanism for escaping domestic and international indebtedness. The Great Disorder is a study of German society under the tension of inflation and hyperinflation, and it explores the ways in which Germany's hyperinflation and stabilization were linked to the Great Depression and the rise of National Socialism. This wide-ranging study sets German inflation within the broader issues of maintaining economic stability, social peace, and democracy and thus contributes to the general history of the twentieth century and has important implications for existing and emerging market economies facing the temptation or reality of inflation.

This book illustrates the rise of modern Judaism through the social and intellectual history of the Jews in Germany. It covers three centuries, up until the violent suppression of the last spark of visible Jewish spiritual-intellectual life in Germany during the Second World War. As a background understanding of this intellectual development, the political, economic, and social events of this three-century-long development are repeatedly drawn upon. This book shows the significance of German Jewry in Jewish history.

"The work is primarily the story of a company. It traces the Deutsche Bank's evolution into a big bank, its positioning as a foreign trade and 'industrial' bank, and also its big international financing projects in East Asia, the Ottoman Empire and America, with all their foreign policy implications during the German Empire. It describes the bank's situation and business policy from the period of high inflation after the First World War to the world economic and banking crisis at the end of the Weimar Republic. The company's activities under the National Socialist dictatorship and the treatment of Jewish staff and customers are looked at in the same detail as banking business during the Second World War. The book documents the splitting-up of the bank and its reamalgamation after 1945 under Allied occupation policy and its emergence as today's international financial conglomerate. Furthermore, it portrays the leading bank managers, the changes in staff as well as the new directions in organizational structure, and shows the company's position in the banking landscape at different points in time."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The description for this book, Army, Industry, and Labor in Germany, 1914-1918, will be forthcoming.

International scholars and specialists in Jewish, German, British and European history offer this first comparative approach to the study of German and British Jewish history from the late 18th century to the 1930s. The volume's comparative dimension goes beyond a parallel exploration of the Jewish experience in the two societies by examining British and German Jewries in equal measure and discussing a broad spectrum of social, political, cultural and economic issues.

Few figures of interwar Germany were as influential as Leopold Schwarzschild, the brilliant editor of the liberal magazine 'Das Tage-Buch'. In the uncertain years of the Weimar Republic, Schwarzschild became famous for his perceptive political analyses and critique of the economic policies of successive governments in the twilight of Germany's first experiment with democracy. When he was forced to emigrate in 1933, following Hitler's rise to power, he pursued his analysis of developments in Germany from Paris, where he resumed publication of his journal under the new name 'Das Neue Tage-Buch', while also mounting a furious attack on the European powers taken by surprise by the Nazi ascendancy. 'One thing is already beyond question today...', he wrote in the spring of 1933, '...part of the new era is an unremitting descent into some kind of military conflagration'. Winston Churchill, a great admirer of Schwarzschild, made one of his later books required reading for the War Cabinet, yet his campaigning journalism has never before appeared in English. In bringing his writings to an English-speaking readership, Chronicle of a Downfall will restore Leopold Schwarzschild to his rightful place as one of the most poignant chroniclers of the fall of German democracy and the descent of Europe into World War II.

FOR SEVERAL decades German Labour was the pride and model of the international working-class movement. It led the nation out of the first World War and into the post-war period; it was the founder and...