Becoming Bourgeois

From the perspective of the Weimar Republic, before the crises of the late 1920s and prior to the Nazis' rise to power, Jews were clearly full citizens of the new republic, enjoying equal rights and fulfilling all their civil duties. They were overwhelmingly urban dwellers who were occupied mostly in commerce with a small but prominent minority in the free professions, and it is often mentioned that they were over-represented in the scholarly, scientific, and artistic communities of Germany at the time. As a rule, Jews belonged to the more-or-less educated and affluent middle class – the somewhat feeble backbone of the new democracy. From this perspective, German Jews may be regarded as true Bürger according to both meanings of the term: They were now full citizens (Staatsbürger), secure as members of the Bürgertum.

Looking back in time to the Kaiserreich, prior to World War I, the picture appears similar, if by no means identical. Apart from some de facto restrictions, which obstructed Jewish entry into the top echelons of the state bureaucracy and the upper ranks of academia; apart from being precluded from any post in Prussia's military establishment, Jews were full citizens of the Kaiserreich, too. By the time of its foundation, many of them had already achieved a measure of both Bildung and Besitz (property), which were regarded as the minimum requirements for belonging to the bourgeoisie.