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1916 is the key year in Germany

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failed offensive in Verdun

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Falkenhayn's failed attempt to bleed out the French to force a decisive victory

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counter offensive in the Battle of the Somme

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puts pressure on the Germans

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an increasing sense in Germany that the war cannot be won

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coupled with the consequences of the economic blockade

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on the home front a real shortage of food

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in German cultural and mental context

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internal divisions within German culture become much more pronounced

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they become another front in the war

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a reopening of the rift between German Jews, Germans, and the question of:

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what is it to be Jewish

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what is it to be German

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Hermann Cohen

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German Jewish philosopher

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founder of the Marburg School of Neo-Kantianism

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1915 essay on Judentum

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what it is to be a Jew

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1916 another essay, argues that being Jewish is reconcilable with the idea of Germany

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the debate is split between many dichotomies

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1916 text is centered around the problem of Versöhnung and Verständigung

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trying to find reconciliation between a series of polarities

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1. Christianity vs. Judaism

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have the same spiritual roots and foundation

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not necessarily an idea of God

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but a moral conception of humanity

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a humanistic conception of religion

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tries to reconcile the perceived difference and antagonism between Christianity and Judentum

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but without collapsing either of them

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some argued that to reconcile them, the Jews must fully convert

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2. full assimilation vs. Zionism

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Cohen is in the middle

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rejects Zionism but wants to retain a Jewish identity and contribution to German culture

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the war had the affect of polarizing these dichotomies

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a rise in Zionism

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3. German patriotism vs. Judentum

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Judenzählung

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Germany army wanted to know how many Jews were serving in the army and if they were patriotic

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contrary to what they discovered, they tended to report that Jews were not being patriotic

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he sees this converging in the figure of Lessing (1729-1781)

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"Nathan der Weise" (1779)

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A Parable of the Three Rings

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Weimar classicism is a cosmopolitan notion of Germany

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a reconciliation between being Jewish and being German

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it's not German idealism but classical Weimar

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4. German philosophy (idealism) vs. Judentum

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German philosophy not as the idealism of Fichte and Hegel, but of Kant

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a rational conception of religion, a notion of humanity

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Cohen argues this was the core philosophical insight of the Old Testament

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"prophetic messianism"

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the true realization of religion is a true relation of humanity and autonomy

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there is already a kind of Kantian idealism in Judaism

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Cohen is a Neo-Kantian

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this provokes on of the first vicious anti-Semitic attacks by the editor of Kant-Studien

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Bruno Bauch

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argues against Cohen that one could not be an interpreter of Kant and Jewish

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Cohen didn't respond to this, which set up a certain dynamic

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Davos debates

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Heidegger and Cassirer

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a conflict between Deutschtum and Judentum in the First World War

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parting of ways

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Cassirer was a Neo-Kantian follower of Cohen

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one sees that the First World War does not end intellectually in Germany in 1918

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events leading up to WWII have there roots in this conflict