Nicholas CourtmanKing’s College LondonSince 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany has allowed former citizens, whose citizenship was revoked by the Nazis due to their Jewish faith or ‘race’, to reclaim it. Yet, over the past 75 years, there have been significant changes regarding which German Jews – and which descendants – can enjoy that right. This talk tracks those developments, from the restrictive, often antisemitic decisions made in the 1950s, to attempts to uphold those regulations in the following decades, through to the 2021 reform of the German Nationality Act that finally redressed such exclusions.Nicholas Courtman is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in History and Languages at King’s College London, working on the Alfred Landecker-funded project ‘Citizenship after Hitler: Continuity and Change in German Citizenship Law’. He completed his PhD in German Studies at the University of Cambridge and previously worked at The Expert Council on Integration and Migration in Berlin, authoring a report on naturalisation practices for the German government. He has also served as an expert witness in two Bundestag hearings on reparative justice in citizenship law.Does belonging always require exclusion? This lecture series explores this universal question through the lens of the German-Jewish experience, a community deeply shaped by its complex relationship to inclusion and exclusion. Spanning key moments in modern history, these talks examine German-Jewish thinkers’ responses to the dominant ‘Protestant ethic’, debates over nationalism in interwar Germany and Austria, the warped ideology of Adolf Hitler, and the long struggle of German Jews to reclaim citizenship after the Holocaust. Join us as we situate these experiences within today’s urgent debates about identity and belonging.Lecture recorded at Senate House, University of London on Thursday, March 27, 2025Organised by the Leo Baeck Institute London in cooperation with the German Historical Institute London.Images from the lecture, and other streaming links, are available on the Leo Baeck Institute London website: https://www.lbilondon.ac.uk/courtman-25

Before the Holocaust: Antisemitic Violence and the Reaction of German Elites and Institutions during the Nazi TakeoverSpeaker: Hermann BeckHermann Beck has just been announced winner of the Yad Vashem Book Prize 2024 for his book Before the Holocaust: Antisemitic Violence and the Reaction of German Elites and Institutions during the Nazi Takeover.Historians have traditionally argued that antisemitic violence in Nazi Germany rose gradually, from low levels during the first years of Hitler's rule to a high point in the Reich-wide pogrom of November 1938. Before the Holocaust, based on research in more than twenty German archives, demonstrates that this long-held assumption is wrong. During the months-long Nazi takeover of power, beginning a mere five weeks after Hitler became Chancellor, waves of antisemitic violence engulfed large parts of Germany. Before the Holocaust examines the multitude of these hitherto unrecognized antisemitic attacks in the late winter and spring of 1933, as well as the reaction of German elites and institutions to this violence. Individual protests against violent attacks were already hazardous in March and April 1933, but established German elites were still able to voice their concerns and raise objections. By doing so, they could have stopped a radicalization that eventually led to the Kristallnacht pogrom and the Holocaust. But the elites chose to remain silent and even became complicit, if only passively, in the outrages perpetrated against German and foreign Jews in Germany. This online talk thus revises standard assumptions about antisemitic violence and it throws a powerful and revealing light on the reaction of the German elites.Hermann Beck is Professor of History at the University of Miami. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles after studying History and Literature at German universities (Mannheim, Freiburg, and Berlin), the London School of Economics, and the Sorbonne. He has been a Fulbright Scholar and a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. His publications include books on nineteenth-century Germany, The Origins of the Authoritarian Welfare State in Prussia, and the late Weimar and Nazi periods, The Fateful Alliance: German Conservatives and Nazis in 1933, and (co-editor), From Weimar to Hitler: Studies on the Dissolution of Weimar Democracy and the Establishment of the Third Reich, 1932-34 (with Larry Jones), as well as articles on conservatism, socialism, the Prussian bureaucracy, antisemitism, and the early Nazi period. These were published in British, German, and American journals and in edited collections.More information: https://www.lbilondon.ac.uk/beck-25This online talk was hosted in cooperation with the Wiener Holocaust Library and the British-German Association, and was recorded on Zoom on 20 February 2025

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More Light – Art Against Hate: Fighting Holocaust Denial and The Rise of Right-Wing Nationalism In Poland

Grzegorz Kwiatkowski

The ability to accurately describe the past is not confined to historians alone. Artists use their creative expression to explore the cruelties of history, aiming to shape a more ethical present and future. In the case of Grzegorz Kwiatkowski, art is also mixed with activism and active efforts to preserve the memory of the victims and their cultural heritage. Kwiatkowski, whose grandfather was a prisoner of the Stutthof concentration camp, and whose wife’s Jewish family hid during the war in a forest near Rzeszów, has been leading an artistic and activist battle to fight antisemitism, denialism and violence for years. He does this through poetry, music (as a member of the psychedelic band Trupa Trupa), and as a guest lecturer at many universities. Grzegorz Kwiatkowski will talk about effective ways to fight violence, oblivion and denial, using the example of his work and his family history and the history of the city of Gdańsk.

Grzegorz Kwiatkowski (b. 1984) is a Polish poet and musician. He is the author of several books of poetry revolving around the subjects of history, remembrance, and ethics. He is a member of PEN America and the European literature platform Versopolis. He is a member of the psychedelic rock band Trupa Trupa. Kwiatkowski co-hosts the workshop ‘Virus of Hate’ at the University of Oxford. Together with UCLA professor Vinay Lal, he created the series ‘Sangam and Agora: A Forum of Poets, Philosophers, Scholars, and Autodidacts’. Together with University of Oxford professor Paul Lodge, he launched the series ‘It Sings Therefore We Are: Philosophy and Music in Conversation’. He is taking part in ‘The Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador’ collaborative research initiative.

This season’s lecture series Outsiders in German-Jewish History seeks to uncover the shared experiences of individuals and communities who found themselves on the margins of society. Transcending both time and geography, talks will offer different perspectives on the resilience and tenacity of those who have grappled with the challenges of being outsiders. How have they found identity and a sense of belonging in societies that have not understood or even accepted them?

Organised by the Leo Baeck Institute London in cooperation with the German Historical Institute London. Recorded at Senate House, London on Thursday, November 28, 2024.

Images from the lecture, and other streaming links, are available on the Leo Baeck Institute London website: https://www.lbilondon.ac.uk/kwiatkowski-24