Writing Lives

Corinne Painter

Writing Lives

A Female German Jewish
Perspective on
the Early Twentieth Century

Peter Lang

Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • New York • Wien

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Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

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ISSN 1094-6233

ISBN 978-1-78874-155-2 (print)  ISBN 978-1-78874-156-9 (ePDF)

ISBN 978-1-78874-157-6 (ePub)  ISBN 978-1-78874-158-3 (Mobi)

© Peter Lang AG 2019

Published by Peter Lang Ltd, International Academic Publishers,

52 St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3LU, United Kingdom

oxford@peterlang.com, www.peterlang.com

Corinne Painter has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this Work.

All rights reserved.

All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.

Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.

This publication has been peer reviewed.

About the author

Corinne Painter completed her PhD in the German Department at the University of Leeds. She is presently working on women’s life writing and the German Revolution of 1918/1919.

About the book

This book introduces the works of a German Jewish female author and provides a detailed analysis of the early twentieth century as she witnessed it. Although a prolific writer and leader in the women’s movement, Clementine Krämer (1873–1942) is relatively unknown today. Krämer’s life and works offer a fascinating insight into a challenging period for this community, as she experienced at first hand moments of enormous significance for Germany’s history: the First World War, the German Revolution of 1918, the polarisation of German political life and the growth of the far right, and the rise to power of the National Socialists in the 1930s. Rather than focusing on one period, this book examines the full range of Krämer’s writings to uncover continuities and changes over her lifetime.

The book explores the following questions: how did Krämer understand herself and her role in light of her German Jewish identity? How did she challenge societal expectations for women and what limits did she perceive? How did she respond to the violence facing German Jews during this time? This important contribution to the scholarship reveals a fresh perspective on this tumultuous time in German history.

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Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1

Who Was Clementine Krämer? Context and Concepts

Chapter 2

Encounters with Eastern European Jewish Women

Chapter 3

Contested Spaces

Chapter 4

Motherhood and Education

Chapter 5

The First World War

Chapter 6

Legacies of War

Chapter 7

Fragmentation: The Third Reich←vii | viii→

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index←viii | ix→

Acknowledgements

The publication of this book was made possible thanks to financial support from the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies at the University of Leeds. I would like to thank the following people for their help with proofreading and discussing ideas: Jo Gilbert, Benjamin Painter, Luke Postlethwaite and Hilary Potter. I am also very grateful to my PhD supervisors, Ingrid Sharp and Stuart Taberner, and my examiners, Matthew Stibbe and Alison Fell, for all of their support and guidance.←ix | x→ ←x | 1→