Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Jewish Identities in German Popular Entertainment, 1890–1933
- Introduction: Past and Present
- I “PONIM ET CIRCENSES”: JEWISH IDENTITIES IN CIRCUS ENTERTAINMENT, 1870–1933
- Introduction: A Conservative Utopia
- 1 The Circus in Time and Space
- 2 Family Bonds
- 3 Schein und Sein in the Circus
- 4 Losing Common Ground
- Conclusion to Part I
- II COMIC RELIEF: JEWISH IDENTITIES IN JARGON THEATER, 1890 TO THE 1920S
- III THE LONELINESS OF THE LIMELIGHT: JEWISH IDENTITIES IN REVUE THEATER, 1898–1933
- Conclusion
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
Introduction: A Conservative Utopia
from I - “PONIM ET CIRCENSES”: JEWISH IDENTITIES IN CIRCUS ENTERTAINMENT, 1870–1933
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Jewish Identities in German Popular Entertainment, 1890–1933
- Introduction: Past and Present
- I “PONIM ET CIRCENSES”: JEWISH IDENTITIES IN CIRCUS ENTERTAINMENT, 1870–1933
- Introduction: A Conservative Utopia
- 1 The Circus in Time and Space
- 2 Family Bonds
- 3 Schein und Sein in the Circus
- 4 Losing Common Ground
- Conclusion to Part I
- II COMIC RELIEF: JEWISH IDENTITIES IN JARGON THEATER, 1890 TO THE 1920S
- III THE LONELINESS OF THE LIMELIGHT: JEWISH IDENTITIES IN REVUE THEATER, 1898–1933
- Conclusion
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Jews played a significant role in the rise and success of circus entertainment in Germany. In fact, civic society, Jewish emancipation, and mass entertainment developed simultaneously and as will be shown, were not only parallel phenomena but also mutually dependent. After all, it was the circus that permitted the spectacular rise to respectability of many poor, largely rural, Jewish families, who worked as peddlers, cattle traders, or even fairground performers in nineteenth-century Germany. Circuses stood at the nexus of past and present. Clearly modern enterprises, they managed to harmonize democratic and autocratic elements in their organization and, most importantly, in their aesthetics. Circuses also promised acceptance for and gave agency to Jewish families who had not been at the forefront in modernizing Germany. These families were not protagonists of the “Jewish enlightenment”; they could claim no far-reaching connections in banking or manufacturing and could boast no academic distinction. They were, however, entrepreneurial, creators of a fascinating microcosm in which they hoped to find what Jews had been systematically denied for centuries: tolerance and respect from a diverse German population. Hence, Jewish families contributed significantly to the birth of the circus, a conservative utopia whose very ambiguity provided them with their greatest opportunities.
Today circuses have become nostalgic events for audiences of small children and accompanying parents, but at the turn of the last century they strongly influenced the press, the arts, and fashion.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006