Aufbau (German for "building up, construction") is a periodical targeted at German-speaking Jews around the globe. Founded in 1934 in New York City as a newspaper for German Jewish immigrants, it was reinvented in 2004 in Switzerland as a glossy magazine for German-speaking Jews of the 21st century. Hannah Arendt, Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, and Stefan Zweig wrote for the original publication. Until 2004 it was published in New York City. It is now published in Zürich.
The Aufbau was founded by the German–Jewish Club, which was later renamed the New World Club. [1] The original purpose of the journal was as a monthly newsletter for the club, which included information and helpful facts for Jewish refugees.
In December, the first issue of the journal was published. [2]
In February 1935, the Aufbau released its third publication that highlighted the Heinrich Heine, later renamed the Lorelei, Foundation in New York City, New York. [2] Later that year in June, the Aufbau released an issue detailing pro-Nazi groups as a warning for readers in Yorkville. [2] The passing of the Nuremberg Laws prompted the Aufbau to respond by continuing to publish their content. [2] In November, the focus of the Aufbau changed. The focus of the journal shifted from primarily being about the club and community promotion, to depicting more of what was happening to Jewish people in German cities. The November issue was the beginning of the Aufbau's evolution and expansion to not only New York Jewish communities, but Jewish communities everywhere. [2]
In November 1938, the primary mission for the Aufbau continued to evolve. [2] This particular evolution in their mission was in response to Hitler gaining control of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. The Aufbau then began to strive for a greater sense of unity amongst the Jewish communities around the world by beginning to report on what the situations were like for those still in Europe as opposed to those who had immigrated to the United States. [2]
In February 1939, the Aufbau went through another transition. The general tone of the paper changed their design to focus more on the realities faced by the Jewish communities in Europe. [2] For example, a particular issue highlighted the story of how an SS officer beat, humiliated, and tortured a group of German Jewish people as well as other acts against German Jewish people in similar situations. This report was specific only to Aufbau because it did not meet American journalist standards because the source of the stories was anonymous. [2] August marked the beginning of a new featured segment in Aufbau, titled "March of Time". This addition to the paper served the purpose of creating a convenient list of news sources for Jewish communities. [2]
Manfred George was nominated as the new editor in 1939. [2]
The purpose of the publication changed markedly when, in 1939, Manfred George was nominated as the new editor. George took the journal from a monthly newsletter to one of the leading anti-Nazi publications of the German press in exile (Exilpresse). [1] George, within the first 5 years of his tenure, took the circulation of the journal from 8,000 to 40,000. [1] Before Manfred George became the editor of the Aufbau, he was a well-known editor of a Berlin daily, Tempo, [3] and a left-wing journalist in the Weimar Republic [1]
When George became the new editor, he added three major themes for the Aufbau. These three themes emphasized the connection between the German homeland and the newfound homeland of the United States. He encouraged a strong belief in Judaism and loyalty to the German culture. [2]
In one of the first issues with George as editor, he emphasized the uncertainty present in the futures of Jewish people at the time and encouraged sympathy and neutrality. This issue was released shortly after Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. [2]
In 1940, Aufbau faced backlash because they were reporting the violence and incidents occurring against Jewish people in Europe. The backlash revolved around people not approving of their content nor finding it to be credible. [2] The Aufbau editors responded by issuing a statement explaining that other publication's readers did not necessarily care as much about the suffering of Jewish people as the Aufbau readers did. Furthermore, editors explained that what the competing publications, like the New York Times, were currently publishing, the Aufbau had published weeks prior. [2]
As of February 1940, the Aufbau was continuing to promote club events for the German-Jewish Club. [2] In addition, throughout the summer, the journal highlighted various happenings and occurrences in American politics under the heading, “The Smoke-Filled Room”. The purpose of this was to educate Jewish immigrants in the United States on mainstream American culture and practices, like the presidential election between Franklin D, Roosevelt and Wendell Willkie. [2]
In an effort to continue the support for Americanization, the Aufbau published an Aufbau Almanac called, "The Immigrants Handbook". This “handbook” was used as a how-to guide for new German-Jewish immigrants within the United States. It included 192 pages detailing American life and everything that someone might need to know, like the political system or the lyrics to the “Star Spangled Banner”. [2]
All issued, from inception through 2004, are accessible online via The Leo Baeck Institute at archive
From September 1, 1944, through September 27, 1946, the Aufbau printed numerous lists of Jewish Holocaust survivors located in Europe, as well as a few lists of victims. [4] The data include information taken from lists which appeared between late 1944 and early 1947. The lists published in Aufbau were prepared by many different organizations, often by Jewish relief organizations or by officials in displaced persons' camps. [4]
The Aufbau Indexing Project (AIP) is an online database of names that appeared in announcements published in the Aufbau.
The goal of the Aufbau Indexing Project is to index all the announcements of birth, engagement, marriage, death and other special occasions that appeared in the pages of Aufbau between 1934 and 2004. This project will allow individuals researching their German-Jewish ancestry to easily locate announcements relevant to their research. ... To date the AIP has indexed more than 27,000 announcements, mostly from the time period 1975–2002. These records are now available as a searchable database on this site. However, a great amount of work remains. In the peak years 1940–1960, there were two to three pages of announcements in each issue. This translates to more than 150,000 announcements over the course of Aufbau's 65+ years. The Aufbau Indexing Project
Hannah Arendt was a German-American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century.
The Forward, formerly known as The Jewish Daily Forward, is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, The New York Times reported that Seth Lipsky "started an English-language offshoot of the Yiddish-language newspaper" as a weekly newspaper in 1990.
Leo Baeck was a 20th-century German rabbi, scholar, and theologian. He served as leader of Reform Judaism in his native country and internationally, and later represented all German Jews during the Nazi era. After the Second World War, he settled in London, in the United Kingdom, where he served as the chairman of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. In 1955, the Leo Baeck Institute for the study of the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry was established, and Baeck was its first international president. The Leo Baeck Medal has been awarded since 1978 to those who have helped preserve the spirit of German-speaking Jewry in culture, academia, politics, and philanthropy.
Samuel Abraham Goudsmit was a Dutch-American physicist famous for jointly proposing the concept of electron spin with George Eugene Uhlenbeck in 1925.
The Sternberg Centre for Judaism, in East End Road, Finchley, London, is a campus hosting a number of Jewish institutions, built around the 18th-century Finchley manor house.
Eva Gabriele Reichmann was an eminent German historian and sociologist. From 1945 on she conducted research on anti-Semitism. Reichmann was Jewish.
Ludwig Philippson was a German rabbi and author.
The Haavara Agreement was an agreement between Nazi Germany and Zionist German Jews signed on 25 August 1933. The agreement was finalized after three months of talks by the Zionist Federation of Germany, the Anglo-Palestine Bank and the economic authorities of Nazi Germany. It was a major factor in making possible the migration of approximately 60,000 German Jews to Palestine between 1933 and 1939.
Jüdischer Kulturbund, or Der Jüdische Kulturbund, was a cultural federation of German Jews established in 1933. It hired over 1,300 men and 700 women artists, musicians, and actors fired from German institutions. According to Jonathan C. Friedman, it grew to approximately 70,000 members, while Saul Friedländer tallies its roster as high as 180,000.
The Leo Baeck Institute, established in 1955, is an international research institute with centres in New York City, London, Jerusalem and Berlin, that are devoted to the study of the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry. The institute was founded in 1955 by a consortium of influential Jewish scholars including Hannah Arendt, Martin Buber and Gershom Scholem. The Leo Baeck Medal has been awarded since 1978 to those who have helped preserve the spirit of German-speaking Jewry in culture, academia, politics, and philanthropy.
Rachel Bernstein Wischnitzer, was a Russian-born architect and art historian.
Manfred George, born Manfred Georg Cohn, later shortened to Manfred Georg, was a German journalist, author and translator. He left Germany after the Nazis came to power, living in several different European countries and eventually emigrating penniless to the United States in 1939. He became the editor of Aufbau, a periodical published in German, and transformed it from a small monthly newsletter into an important weekly newspaper, especially during World War II and the postwar era, when it became an important source of information for Jews trying to establish new lives and for Nazi concentration camp survivors to find each other. George remained Editor in Chief of Aufbau until his death.
During the nine decades since its establishment in 1919, the Communist Party USA produced or inspired a vast array of newspapers and magazines in at least 25 different languages. This list of the Non-English press of the Communist Party USA provides basic information on each title, along with links to pages dealing with specific publications in greater depth.
The history of the Jews in Bolivia goes back to the colonial period of Bolivia in the 16th century. In the 19th century, Jewish merchants came to Bolivia, most of them taking local women as wives and founding families that merged into the mainstream Catholic society. This was often the case in the eastern regions of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and Pando, where these merchants came either from Brazil or Argentina.
The Shanghai Jewish Chronicle was a Jewish newspaper operating in Shanghai, China. It was a German language newspaper that was originally published daily and later published weekly.
The Leo Baeck Institute New York (LBI) is a research institute in New York City dedicated to the study of German-Jewish history and culture, founded in 1955. It is one of three independent research centers founded by a group of German-speaking Jewish émigrés at a conference in Jerusalem in 1955. The other Leo Baeck institutes are Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem and Leo Baeck Institute London, and the activities of all three are coordinated by the board of directors of the Leo Baeck Institute. It is also a founding partner of the Center for Jewish History, and maintains a research library and archive in New York City that contains a significant collection of source material relating to the history of German-speaking Jewry, from its origins to the Holocaust, and continuing to the present day. The Leo Baeck Medal has been awarded by the institute since 1978 to those who have helped preserve the spirit of German-speaking Jewry in culture, academia, politics, and philanthropy.
Margarete Kollisch was an Austrian writer and poet who fled from the Nazis and continued her artistic creation in the United States.
The Leo Baeck Institute London is a research institute dedicated to the study of German-Jewish history, politics and culture, founded in 1955. It belongs to the international Leo Baeck Institute with further research centres in New York City, Berlin and Jerusalem.
Lessie Sachs (1897–1942) was a German-born American poet and artist who was active during World War I and World War II.
Aufbau is a term which was used in publications from 1919 to 1947 in the German language. The term can be translated as "structure", "construction" or as "rebuilding", "reconstruction". Peter Galison advocated its use as a "keyword", in the sense used by Raymond Williams in Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society.
| Authority control databases: National |
|---|