German-Jewish Cultural Heritage abroad: The material and intellectual legacy of the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums

拟议的项目将通过物质文化和重要遗产研究的视角，探索战后时期司法智库(Hochschule für die Wisenschaft des Judentum，1872--1942)的知识和文化遗产。人们关注的中心是Hochschule图书馆的命运、意义、功能和影响。Hochschule图书馆是一个非凡的图书馆藏书，约有6万册，是战前德国最全面的犹太图书馆之一。在希特勒上台后，德国的Hochschule停止了活动。该学院于1942年关闭，其绝大多数学者和学生在大屠杀中丧生。通过将其转移到德国以外的地方并进一步发展，Hochschule的遗产在各种困难中得以保留。首先，它得到了它的杰出人物的支持，他们设法逃离德国，在新的祖国继续他们的智力工作。其次，它被保存在Hochschule的图书馆里，尽管它成为纳粹掠夺的牺牲品。这些藏品的部分被摧毁，其他部分在战争中幸存下来，并在战后时期在许多国家之间传播。拟议的项目将追踪和绘制Hochschule在新环境中培育的遗产。正是这种地理变化揭示了DFG优先方案框架的创新潜力，因为它以分散、破坏、破裂和连续性的概念为中心参照点来思考1945年后与其不断变化的空间框架相关的德裔犹太文化遗产不断变化的品质。物质文化方法将作为跨学科和国际研究小组的起点，其目标是a)在德裔犹太文化遗产的更广泛框架内确定Hochschule遗产的新方面、意义和影响，以及b)突出与实物和物质相关的研究在社会、文化和思想史方面的潜力。为了实现这一目标，将创建两个研究单元。第一个单元以比较的视角工作，旨在说明以色列、美国和英国的知识分子和犹太机构为维持Hochschule遗产而采取的战后倡议。第二个模块跟踪来自Hochschule图书馆的分散的书籍。它审查了他们向新目的地的转移，并讨论了影响他们在新环境中地位变化的社会政治条件。

The proposed project will explore the intellectual and cultural legacy of the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (1872-1942) in the postwar period through the lens of material culture and critical heritage studies. At the centre of attention is the fate, meaning, function and impact of the Hochschule’s library, a remarkable library collection which consisted of about 60,000 volumes and was among the most comprehensive Jewish libraries in prewar Germany. The activity of the Hochschule in Germany ceased in the wake of Hitler’s rise to power. The institute was closed in 1942, and the vast majority of its scholars and students perished in the Holocaust. By transferring and further developing it outside Germany, the Hochschule’s legacy was kept alive against all odds. Firstly, it was upheld by its prominent personalities who managed to flee Germany and continue their intellectual work in new homelands. Secondly, it was preserved in the Hochschule’s library, although it fell prey to the Nazi plunder. Parts of the collection were destroyed, other parts survived the war and were disseminated between numerous countries in the postwar period. The proposed project will trace and map the legacy of the Hochschule as it was fostered in its new surrounding. It is exactly this geographical shift that reveals the innovative potential for the framework of the DFG’s priority programme, since it takes notions of dispersion, destruction, rupture and continuity as central reference points to think about the shifting qualities of German-Jewish cultural heritage in relation to its changing spatial frameworks after 1945. Material culture approaches will serve as a starting point for the interdisciplinary and international team of researchers whose aim is a) to identify new facets of the Hochschule’s legacy, significance and impact in the broader framework of German-Jewish cultural heritage and b) to highlight the potential of object- and materiality-related research for social, cultural and intellectual history. In order to achieve this goal, two research modules will be created. The first module works in a comparative perspective and aims to illuminate postwar initiatives at sustaining the legacy of the Hochschule that were undertaken by intellectuals and Jewish institutions in Israel, the United States and Great Britain. The second module follows the dispersed books from the Hochschule’s library. It examines their transfer to new destinations and discusses the socio-political conditions that influenced their changing status in the new surroundings.