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
4 - Losing Common Ground
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
In the summer of 1914, the outbreak of war took the Circus E. Blumenfeld Wwe. by surprise. The regular visit to Posnan was hastily ended in the middle of the season. Within days, seven sons of the family responded to the call to arms. The chapiteau and most of the horses were expropriated for army use. The rest of the company barely made it back to their home base. This moment seemed to mark the tragic death of a Jewish circus enterprise that could look back on a history of more than one hundred years. Indeed, when the Blumenfeld family temporarily went “off the ring,” it was more than doubtful that they would ever be able to return to it.
The Blumenfelds were hardly alone in facing difficult circumstances, and in comparison, the situation of some related enterprises seemed even grimmer. The Strassburger and the Lorch families, for example, struggled with even more desperate problems in the first week of August. They had become trapped abroad. When the battles began, the Strassburgers had been touring Sweden, and the Lorch family was engaged in England. These circus families were used to moving, albeit not without difficulty, certainly with determination, across national borders. Their seasonal staff was recruited from all over the globe, a fact that almost sealed their fate in 1914. The Strassburgers, for example, lost overnight all of their Austrian, German, and French personnel to the front lines, putting future shows in doubt.
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- Jewish Identities in German Popular Entertainment, 1890–1933 , pp. 82 - 113Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006