The Impact of the 1985 “Fassbinder Controversy” on Jewish Identity in Germany

Abstract

This article argues that the Fassbinder controversy, which took place in Frankfurt in October 1985, was a turning point in Jewish life in the Federal Republic. It was the first time Jews had taken to a public stage (quite literally) in order to demonstrate, in this case against a play they deemed to be antisemitic. This effectively put an end to the attitude of reticence and conformity that defined the initial post-war decades, in which Jews living in Germany sat on metaphorical “packed suitcases”, ready to move on at any moment. Although the demonstration united the generation of Holocaust survivors and their children’s generation, an analysis of the discourse used in the debate shows that the demonstration had different meanings for these two generations. As such, the Fassbinder controversy can also be seen as signalling a generational transition within Germany’s Jewish community.

Keywords:

• Germany
• Jews
• identity
• antisemitism

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Daniel Wildmann, Christina von Hodenberg and Rhodri Hayward for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

Notes

1. Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945–1982): German film director, screenwriter and playwright. Although more famous for his films, he was for a spell in the mid-1970s director of the Theatre am Turm in Frankfurt, during which time he wrote Der Müll, die Stadt und der Tod. The play caused a minor scandal at the time (1976), due to its allegedly antisemitic portrayal of a Jewish speculator. Its publisher, Suhrkamp Verlag, withdrew the volume and the play was never performed in Fassbinder’s lifetime.

2. A first-generation Jew, in this context, is somebody who lived through the Nazi persecution. A second-generation Jew is a child of first-generation Jews.

3. This was a psychological state in which Jewish immigrants to Germany after the Holocaust never considered themselves to have “settled” and were ready to move on at any point. See: Cohn (1994, 49).

4. Ignatz Bubis (1937–1999): Jewish leader in the Federal Republic. Bubis moved to Germany after liberation from the Nazi labour camp in Częstochowa. After relocating to Frankfurt in 1956, he established himself in the real estate business and became active in the Jewish community. As a property developer, he came into conflict with student activists who occupied his properties on several occasions in the 1970s.

5. First names are not provided, although it is likely that in the first case Bubis was referring to the Iranian businessman Ali Selmi.

6. In the late 1990s, Bubis described the circumstances which led him to consider leaving Germany in 1985: “That was a brief moment, but that was the moment where I thought [about leaving Germany] – when the phone rang at night and machine-gun fire came through the phone. Today that wouldn’t bother me, because I’ve gotten used to it – but at the time it was a shock” (Bubis 2000, 300).

7. Bubis wrote: “When I returned to Germany in 1945, I did not intend to stay there. I, too, sat on packed suitcases. In the course of the years, however, I grew to have confidence in German democracy” (Bubis 1995, 65).

8. Günther Rühle (1924–) was intendant at the Frankfurt Schauspielhaus where the play was due to be performed. He had commissioned the play, and on the night of the planned premiere, he made a statement in defence of the performance going ahead.

9. The phrase “coming out” appears in English in all of the quotes cited. Originally and primarily used to refer to gay people “coming out of the closet” (i.e. being open about their sexuality for the first time), it was considered applicable (although only by the second generation) to the expression of Jewish identity which occurred, for the first time in post-war Germany, during the Fassbinder controversy.

10. This is a reference to a notorious line from the play, in which the character Hans von Gluck rants: “And the Jew is to blame for making us guilty by being here. Had he stayed where he came from, or had they gassed him, I’d sleep better today. They forgot to gas him. This is no joke. This is how it [sic] thinks in me” (Fassbinder 1991, 696).