A Jewish Reclaiming of German-Jewish Women Thinkers

The following essay describes a typical uneasiness with regard to the reception of the intellectual legacy of German-Jewish women thinkers like Hannah Arendt, Bertha Pappenheim, Regina Jonas and Margarete Susman. The material reality of the large role played by such Jewish women thinkers may have vanished in the Shoah. Their Jewish intellectual descendants in Germany today have built upon their work, but that work takes place in contested territory, where other, non-Jewish scholars also lay claim to this legacy. In this personal reflection, I analyze the different motivations of non-Jewish and Jewish feminists in post-Shoah Germany to engage with Jewish thinkers. Certainly, the conflicts are also about academic power and the control of interpretation. Yet, they have a political quality that is interesting in and of itself, one that underlines the far-reaching impact of the intellectual legacy of Jewish women thinkers in societal discourse in Germany today.