Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens

The Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith (also: Central Association, Central Society, CV, CV, CV Joint ) was established on February 5, March 1893, in Berlin. He represented the majority of assimilated bourgeois liberal Jews in Germany, stood up for their civil rights and their equality in society and tried to reconcile Judaism and Germanism with each other.

History

Main impetus for the founding of the Central Association was the 1893 published paper by Raphael Lowenfeld: Protection Jews or citizen. From a Jewish citizen. After initial 1,420 in 1926, the association counted already 60,000 members. The Central Association was the most important organization among the many Jewish organizations and associations that formed in response to the resurgent anti-Semitism in the German Empire. In 1929, the Central Association is the umbrella organization for a total of 31 national federations with about 500 local groups, 1938, he was banned.

The Central club saw its main role in the enforcement already achieved political rights and the defense of attacks on the civic and social equality of the Jews. The commitment to the German nation stood at the forefront. The members understood primarily as citizens of the German Reich with its own religion. The CV emphasized the German ethnicity and assumed that a synthesis of Germanness and Jewishness was possible. The Central Association was the Zionist opinion critical of that there is a Jewish nation with its own history, culture and future. The emerging national Jewish movement and the quest for a Jewish state was contrary to the efforts of the Central Association, who repeatedly stressed in public the loyalty of the German Jews to Germany. Through educational work he was trying to spread knowledge about Judaism and strengthen the Jewish self-confidence. A prominent member of the Central Association was the grandfather of Hannah Arendt, Max Arendt in Königsberg.

Through his legal work, since club inception focus of the activity, the CV tried generally to achieve the social equality of the Jewish population in Germany and especially to erstreiten the recovery of injured individual rights. The CV had its own legal office in Berlin, where consultations have been set up for members before 1900. In the last years of the Weimar Republic, the association engaged in particular in civil law protection against the anti-Semitic boycott.

The title of the CV organ in the German Empire was programmatically. From 1922, the Central Association of the weekly newspaper CV- issued. With memoranda, publications and discussions of the association's board tried to make the Reich President Paul von Hindenburg and the representatives of German business attention to the danger of anti-Semitism. For Central Association included the Berlin-based Philo -Verlag, besides shocking the most influential Jewish publishing before the war.

In 1928, the Office Wilhelmstrasse was built, which documented the activities of the Nazis and to 1933 anti-fascist reconnaissance operation, what Alfred Wiener was playing a leading role. After the " seizure of power" by the National Socialists put the Central Association continues its work first. The long-time club director Ludwig Dutch gave in a statement to Hitler's appointment as Chancellor, the "Parole: Quiet Wait " from (CV -Zeitung, CVZ from 02.02.1933 ). According to the "Jewish boycott " on April 1933 and the adoption of the 1st " Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service" of April 7, 1933, the Central club took part in the founding of the " Central Committee for relief and reconstruction ." This was the first sign of which was founded in the autumn of 1933 " Reich Association of German Jews ", in which both the Zionist ZVfD and the liberal CV as well as other, smaller Jewish organizations and associations, as well as the influential Berlin Jewish community came together ( CVZ from 20.09.1933 ). The Nuremberg Laws from 15.09.1935 managed the concept of " citizen " and replace it with the right terms " citizen of the Reich " or "Kingdom national". By an amendment moved the C.V. from this new situation, consequences and called himself temporarily after an extraordinary general meeting on 25 October 1935 " Central Association of Jews in Germany " ( CVZ, 26.10.1935 ). After the death of the CV Director Louis Dutchman on 02/11/1936 as well as the long-standing club chairman Julius Brodnitz on 06/17/1936 Ernst Herzfeld was from eating the last club chairman. To make a greater focus on the work of the Central Jewish Emigration Association and externally clear Herzfeld the club in August 1936 decided to rename again. The C.V. called now " Jewish Central -Verein eV ", other names should no longer be used from now on ( CVZ, 13.08.1936 ). After the Kristallnacht 1938, the CV -Zeitung had to cease publication, and the club was banned.

Chairman

• Martin Mendelsohn (1893-1894)
• Maximilian Horwitz (1894-1917)
• Eugen Fuchs (1917-1919)
• Julius Brodnitz (1920-1936)
• Ernst Herzfeld Salomon (1936-1938)

As well as

• Leo Catzenstein