"Sind wir denn nicht Brüder?": Deutsche Juden im nationalen Krieg 1870-71

This book looks at the effects of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) on German Jews that led Germany to unification. The decisions on how the newborn nation was going to define itself were crucial for the social and legal status that the Jews should hold in it. German Jewry placed vast hopes in the unification. They expected to be finally recognized as equal citizens. Unity, Right and Freedom – the goals of the war -- could equally be read as the aims that the Jews hoped to achieve in the future German state. Moreover, the war seemed to be an opportunity to refute one of the chief arguments voiced by opponents of emancipation. Those adversaries of emancipation questioned the Jews' loyalty to Germany, as they assumed all Jews were ultimately waiting to return to Palestine, their true homeland. FOr this other reasons, almost all German Jews– orthodox and reformists alike – favoured Jewish participation in the war to prove their loyalty to Germany and in the hopes of receiving full civic rights as a result.