Abstract
This thesis examines the philosophical and aesthetic sources informing the emergence of late 19th century German-Jewish Körperkultur, specifically as it was iterated through the gymnastics movement. Our emphasis is upon ideas and iconography relating to the mind and the body, and their socio-political significances. An analysis of 19th century identity, both German and German-Jewish, we examine how the German-Jewish gymnastics movement responded to fin-de-siècle German anti-Semitism. \\tChapter One offers an overview of the key philosophical and aesthetic elements informing the development of a modern German, and German-Jewish, identity. Starting in late 18th century, this chapter considers the impact of Enlightement and post-Enlightenment thought upon German cultural perceptions of Jews and Judaism. We examine the role of Bildung in the formation of a modern German-Jewish iv identity, and consider the impact of a developing German art-historical discourse upon aesthetic perceptions of Jews and Judaism. \\tChapter Two examines how Richard Wagner radicalized, and aestheticized, the anti-Judaic elements present within Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment German thought. We analyze Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk, and how Wagner’s notion of performative art in the service of national regeneration informed 19th century völkisch nationalism. Finally, we examine selected works by E. M. Lilien, the first and most famous artist to explicitly tie his artwork to Zionism. These images are analyzed through prism of Wagnerism, in order to determine its relative impact upon Lilien’s vision of Zionism. \\tFinally, Chapter Three will consider the German-Jewish gymnastics movement itself. Specific attention will be paid to the ways in which, during its brief existence, the movement itself struggled with the very issues it sought to resolve. We will also examine how notions of performance and display in the service of nationalism were expressed through athletics. Our discussion will be contextualized through an analysis of fin-de-siècle German anti-Semitism, and how the intersecting discourses of science, medicine and aesthetics reinforced notions of immutable Jewish difference and inferiority vis-à-vis the German. Finally, we will see how these notions impacted German-Jewish gymnasts, and how these socio-cultural developments contributed to the fracturing of the Jüdische Turnerschaft between those committed to remaining German nationalists, and those who chose to embrace Zionism.