Authors who fled Germany and France following the rise of National Socialism often found themselves stranded abroad without publishers, writing in a language foreign to their host countries. The exhibit “Publishing in Exile” brings together for the first time literary works published by these German-speaking exile publishers in the United States during the Third Reich.
World War I changed what was thinkable about human brutality and opened a door for the destruction of European Jewry only two decades later. At the beginning of the First World War, however, German and Austrian Jews were among the first to show their patriotism. Their initial patriotic fervor was put to a severe test as anti-Semitic incidents in the army accelerated.
Hermann Struck was known for his portraits of prominent Europeans as well as for landscapes and observations of his experiences in WWI. An early Zionist, Struck was among the first German Zionists to move to Palestine in 1923, settling in Haifa. This exhibit presents Struck’s work in the context of the emerging modern art movements in Germany and Palestine.
With a career that went from “discovering” Marlene Dietrich to representing young American actors Sylvester Stallone and F. Murray Abraham, Hanns Wolters was a theatrical agent and impressario who fled the Nazis, emigrated to Palestine, and ultimately arrived in New York – using his great dramatic flair to improvise productions all along the way.
The history of the Jewish Hospital Berlin is remarkable in that it was that it was the only Jewish organization in Germany that was permitted to operate throughout the Nazi years. The documents, photos, and objects on display document 250 years of social and medical history, from the times of Moses Mendelssohn to the 20th century.
In September 1937, the Düsseldorf gallerist Max Stern 1937 was ordred by the Nazi government to auction off the inventory of his Gallerie Stern. That November, Kunsthaus Lempertz in Cologne, sold the inventory of the Galerie Stern. The paintings went on the block by their lot number, “Auktion 392,” and the search for many of the lost treasures continues today.
From its own archives and art collection, LBI has put together an exhibit to showcase the countless musicians, composers and patrons who enriched European cultural life throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Many were Jewish, while others, like Mozart, received early and important support in the salons of cosmopolitan Jewish women.
This exhibit looks at the daily life of Jews across the expanse of Central Europe, from Alsace-Lorraine in the West to the mountains of the Bukovina in the East. There were regional borders to cross and taxes to pay; there were geographical variations in recreational activities, in apprenticeship options, and in community activities.
This exhibit traces the history of German-Jewish immigration to America, beginning with the quest for freedom from restrictive decrees and quotas in Europe in the early 19th century and continuing through the arrival of refugees from Nazi persecution. The exhibit includes a section on the history of the Leo Baeck Institute.
In April 1933, shortly after the Nazis came to power, Jewish lawyers, judges, law professors, and civil servants throughout the judiciary system were disbarred and stripped of their right to practice law. The wide-ranging contributions of Jewish jurists in the late 19th and 20th century were disregarded.
Leo Baeck Institute receives major support from the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany. More info...
