Süße weibliche Dominanz (German Edition)

Six ways are listed through which unstechecheit may reduce the human being to bondage, namely girscheit [greed], hohvart [pride or arrogance], versmacheit [a low opinion of other people], uppicheit [vanity], toerscheit [foolishness, stupidity] and lecherheit [lecherousness]. Although all six of these vices of unstaete are personified as women, or more exactly as vrouwen [courtly ladies], who in the best tradition of courtly love dominate 7 9Klaus Manger, Das "Narrenschiff: Ertrage der Forschung A lecherous man makes himself a slave not only of one, but of many ladies: Text and illustration are reminiscent of the classical motif of Aristotle and Phyllis, especially in their emphasis on uncontrolled male sexuality as the reason for a man's eventual downfall.

Being ruled by emotion rather than reason makes a man "closer to woman," as was already pointed out by Thomas Aquinas. Effeminacy is a trait of excessive male desire regardless of object of choice, be 8 2Lines Erich Schmitt Verlag, , Benzinger Brothers, , Sexually induced effeminacy is always primarily about the fragility of the male subject, and heterosexual relationships disordered by excessive passion prove effeminating for men because they disrupt the very groundwork of cultural conceptions that define the essence of masculinity in strict self-discipline and psychic disavowals.

Elaine Tuttle Hansen, in contrast, in her interpretation of Chaucer's Legend of Good Women, regards feminization as a positive rather than a negative feature of the true courtly lover: And the actual loss of gender differentiation that a successful heterosexual 8 6Gary Spear, "Shakespeare's 'Manly' Parts: Essays in Feminist Contextual Criticism, ed.

Sheila Fisher and Janet E. U of Tennessee Press, , Piramus and Thispe, who speak in one voice, both "wex pale" and are separated only by the cold wall their fathers have built apparently in vain to keep them apart. They rather represent ideal lovers, softened by courtly love, who must necessarily collide with the misogynous conventions of medieval patriarchal society.

Nevertheless, Hansen also shows that the possibility of feminization inherent in courtly love is regarded as dangerous by many of the male lovers. Almost all of the courtly lovers in the stories of Chaucer's Legend of Good Women seem to realize that the heterosexual union is "a dangerous state to settle down in, a place in which the manhood they are supposedly proving is in fact deeply threatened.

Basing her case on R F. Green's book Poets and Princepleasers, Hansen places the court poet in the position of woman: It is almost as i f literary etiquette demanded that the poet should conceal his own personality behind a series of socially acceptable masks. The claim that he was merely reporting what he had seen in a dream or what he had heard in the mouth of one of his characters allowed him to show suitable reticence, to avoid the social presumption implicit in setting himself up as an expert in the laws of love, and to defend himself against charges of impropriety or sacrilege.

The above observations lead us to two possible explanations for the negative picture offered in Thomasin's Der welsche Gast. The described encounter, although situated in the courtly context and indebted to the vocabulary of courtly love, might refer to the "everyday-" relationship between the genders outside the conventions of courtly love, or, alternatively, it could be regarded as a depiction of the courtly game of Minnedienst having "gone too far" by transgressing the boundary between courtly convention and actual, physical, societal gender 9 1Ibid.

U of Toronto Press, , The illustration of the young man sitting at the feet of the lady would befit the court poet or Minnesdnger much more than the young aristocrat playing the game of courtly love. The different use of the terms "frouwe" and "wib" in the text would speak in favour of both possibilities. As the whip or birch, one of the most important symbols of power and authority in the Middle Ages, indicates, Thomasin's illustration furthermore attempts to show the interdependence between reversed gender roles and a disturbed world order.

Especially the figure of the medieval teacher is often depicted with a birch or whip, symbolizing his profession and authority. This illustration shows a schoolmaster, who is equipped with the typical symbol of his occupation, the birch, and is threatening or beating a naked child. The child's nakedness enhances the impression of his vulnerability in the face of the "master's" dominant authority.

This connection between a man's personal freedom and his public power is emphasized in Thomasin's question in lines Barbara Brumm Reinbeck bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, , Berthold von Regensburg, who is regarded as one of the most liberal authorities on the question of conjugal relations in the Middle Ages, repeatedly implores the men in his audience to reduce physical violence against their wives. One can get a glimpse of medieval reality from Berthold's witty remark that Eve was not created from the bone of Adam's head, but neither was she created from the bone of his feet: Dar umbe solt du ir daz har alle zit niht uz ziehen umbe sus und umbe niht 9 5Lynn A.

Higgins and Brenda R. Rereading Rape," in Rape and Representation, ed. The act of a wife washing her husband's feet was not restricted to a specific social class. The wives of Tuscan notables, for example, assisted in their husbands "ablutions," even though they often had servants help them wash their own feet. Washing a husband's feet was not only a sign of a woman's subjugation to her husband, but was also of an intimate character, as might be seen from the following description of bedroom-activities among Tuscan notables: The husband instructed his young wife, who listened in deference and according to Sacchetti washed his feet.

Revelations of the Medieval World, eds. Philippe Aries and Georges Duby, vol. The description of debusing, however, seems to have been limited to peasants. Du solt ouch niht guotiu kleider tragen unde sie diu boesen unde diu smashen. Especially chilling in Marquard's work are two descriptions of a husband who strikes his wife in the face and thereby causes permanent disfigurement. The woman's deformed face makes her so hateful to her husband that he begins to look for sexual gratification outside of his home—an outcome for which the wife is blamed.

While the more liberally minded modern reader might experience uneasiness when faced with such obvious male cruelty and inequality between the genders as depicted in the above examples, the average medieval reader experienced a similar uneasiness when confronted with Thomasin's depiction of the subjugation of the "wrong," i. The impression that the inverted relationship between men and women was supposed 98Berthold von Regensburg, And you should also not wear the good clothes and she the bad and shabby ones. Erich Schmidt Verlag, , ; This built-in audience suggests the reaction expected from the text's male audience: In Thomasin's Der welsche Gast effeminacy is formally excluded from the sphere of masculinity, and the latter is "purified" by this act.

My notions on the concepts of purity and pollution or dirt, are based on Mary Douglas's Purity and Danger: Dirt, then, is never an unique, isolated event.

Where there is dirt there is system. Dirt is the by-product of a systematic ordering and classification of matter, in so far as ordering involves rejecting inappropriate elements. Der welsche Gast demonstrates that the young nobleman of the ruling class had a lot to lose if he left his assigned privileged place in the holy order of the medieval world and succumbed to his own appetites: Fiction a Nibelungenlied As in Sebastian Brant's Narrenschiff, clothing plays an important part in the Middle High German Nibelungenlied--'here specifically in the construction of the figure of Brunhild.

Do was komen Priinhild. Helmut de Boor, A l l quotations from the Nibelungenlied are taken from this text. Frakes, , offers a very recent selected bibliography that includes relevant literature on Marxist-feminist approaches and gender. Do kom ir gesinde, die truogen dar ze hand von alrotem golde einen schildes rant, mit stahelherten spangen, vii michel unde breit, dar under spilen wolde diu vii minnecliche meit. Der vrouwen schiltvezzel ein edel porte was. Nibelungenlied, stanzas [And now Brunhild had arrived, armed as though about to contend for all the kingdoms in the world and wearing many tiny bars of gold over her silk, against which her face shone radiantly.

Next came her retainers bearing a great, broad shield of reddest gold, with braces of the hardest steel, under which the enchanting maiden meant to dispute the issue. For its baldric her shield had a fine silk cord studded with grass-green gems whose variegated lustre vied with the gold of their settings. The man whom she would favour would have to be a very brave one Penguin, , In stanza , even Hagen, arguably one of the Nibelungenlied's strongest and most fearless characters, expresses second thoughts about Gunther's marriage plans: Also der starke Hagene den schilt dar tragen sach, mit grimmigen muote der helt von Tronege sprach: A "mannish" woman is no woman 1 0 4 On the various variants of the process of medieval Brautwerbung, see in detail Friedmar Geissler, Brautwerbung in der Weltliteratur Naumburg Saale: It is interesting, though, that Siegfried's equally "unnatural" strength casts no doubt on his masculine physical superiority — which demonstrates the extent to which the differences between men and women are a result of constructing "reality.

Therefore it is not surprising that later developments in the Brunhild-story make it clear that such a character has to be obliterated in order to maintain the traditional male-female gender system. How strongly clothing and weapons could influence the perception of a person's gender becomes even more obvious in another version of the Brunhild-story in the Old Icelandic "Sigrdrifumal" in the Elder Edda about In the scene describing SigurSr's first encounter with the Valkyrie Sigrdrifa or Brynhildr , the text offers the following description of the heroine: Hann tok fyrst hjalminn af 1 0 7The notion that female power is unnatural, since influenced by the devil, is famous or notorious in the Middle Ages.

It also appears for example in Berthold von Regensburg's already cited sermon "Von der E," where he explicitly condemns physical strength in women: M sa hann, at pat var kona. At first sight, SigurSr and with him the reader misinterprets the gender markers. However, after SigurSr takes off the warrior's helmet and detects not only a female face, but presumably also long "feminine" hair, he has to correct his first assumption, and subsequently switches from the male to the female personal and possessive pronouns.

The following lines relate how SigurSr with his sword cuts Sigrdrifa out of her armour, which is decribed as "fost sem hon vaeri holdgroin" ["as tight as if it were grown to the body"]. Thus, through the removal of the "wrong" male gender markers helmet and armour as well as through displaying the "right" feminine attributes hair and body-shape SigurSr figuratively "makes" the Valkyrie Sigrdrifa a woman. This episode demonstrates how gender markers function as gender "makers," and thus reveals the constructedness of the seemingly "natural" distinction between male and female. The "masculine" physical strength Brunhild demonstrates during the games on Isenstein makes it possible for her, at least for a short time, to take over the "male" role in her relationship with Gunther.

Unwilling to consummate her marriage, Brunhild on her wedding"Sigrdrifumal" in Eddukvcedi Scemundar-Edda , ed. Prentverk Odds Bjornssonar, , First he took the helmet off his head. Then he saw that it was a woman. Although both measures are primarily meant to ensure that Brunhild can spend the night undisturbed by Gunther's violent sexual advances, the fact that she is only defending herself against Gunther's assault is, nevertheless, easily overlooked.

Instead, the reader of this scene is left with the impression that it is actually Brunhild who is the violent party in the encounter, while Gunther appears as the victim of his wife's cruelty. This misleading impression is a result of the text's biased account. In contrast, Brunhild's violent response to the assault and Gunther's suffering at her hand are related in great detail and take up more than four stanzas.

This reluctance to dwell on Brunhild's rape is due less to a general unacceptability of rape in the Middle Ages than to the status of the rape-victim. Andreas Capellanus in his De Amore, a treatise on courtly love, depicts rape as socially acceptable if the rape-victim is a peasant girl. De Amore consists of three books which differ considerably in their evaluation of secular love: Men, Women and Rape New York: Bantam, , 8.

Book I of De Amove has elicited considerable discussion among critics, mainly centering around the question of the seriousness of Andreas's advice: But i f the love even of peasant women chances to entice you, remember to praise them lavishly, and should you find a suitable spot you should not delay in taking what you seek, gaining it by rough embraces. You will find it hard so to soften their outwardly brusque attitude as to make them quietly agree to grant you embraces, or permit you to have the consolations you seek, unless the remedy of at least some compulsion is first applied to take advantage of their modesty.

However, medieval literature, too, sometimes depicts the rape of peasant girls and women as permissible; specific examples in French literature have been analyzed by Kathryn Andreas Capellanus on Love, ed. Duckworth, , Criticism, Ideology and History, ed. Harvester Press, , The wish to obscure Brunhild's rape may to a certain degree be motivated by the knowledge of the illicitness of the act; yet, I would claim, the narrator's wish to turn his audience's eyes and ears away from Brunhild's suffering can be explained by his strategy of depicting her less as the victim than as the perpetrator.

It is the male partner, Gunther, who suddenly finds himself in the position into which he had tried to force Brunhild, namely the traditional position of medieval woman: Moreover, Gunther's reluctance to go public about his shameful experience can be regarded as a trait that he shares with the traditional rape-victim. The male reaction to this reversal of gender roles is, as expected, negative.

After all the lights have been extinguished, Gunther waits anxiously listening in the pitch dark bed-chamber, while Siegfried, pretending to be Gunther, makes the first sexual advances to Brunhild. After a fierce struggle, Siegfried eventually manages to get the upper hand and to subdue Brunhild. Brunhild's following words of submission re-affirm the traditional male-female gender order: The Nibelungenlied is not the only place where the wedding-chamber is the site of a woman's violent initiation into her sexual role a wife, as can be seen from the following story.

After her husband's death, an innkeeper's widow is married to a former guest whom she had once insulted with her grumbling.

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On their wedding-night, the groom ensures that his wife recognize her new master, "beating, brutalizing and otherwise insulting the unfortunate woman. Whipped, thrashed, and pummelled into obedience, the new bride swore in a broken voice that she would be an irreproachable spouse.

Gunther's fear of losing the respect of male courtly society leads him not only to confide in the only man he trusts to be able to "solve" his problem, namely Siegfried, but also to the statement that he would rather see his wife dead than endure any more humiliations stanza In a similar way, Siegfried regards his struggle with Brunhild as a symbol of the war between the genders and fears that a victory for Brunhild would set an example for other women and forever upset the traditional power im balance between the genders: As Susan Brownmiller in her classic study of rape points out, rape became not only a male prerogative, but man's basic weapon of force against woman, the principal agent of his will and her fear.

His forcible entry l l 6Ibid. Of course, Brunhild's treatment on her wedding-night has rarely been regarded as rape either in the Nibelungenlied itself or by most modern critics of the text, partly so, no doubt, because Brunhild is violated by her own husband and his friend. The concept of conjugal rape is relatively new and was certainly not known in the Middle Ages, yet the fact that the Middle Ages had no concept of conjugal rape does not mean that the act described in the Nibelungenlied might not be identified as such by modern readers.

Furthermore, Brunhild is victimized also on a second level. By presenting the rape scene partly from Siegfried's point of view and admitting the reader into the hero's secret thoughts and fears stanza , the text enlists, as Kathryn Gravdal in her brilliant essay " 7Brownmiller, 5. This same rhetorical strategy is also used in the description of the wedding feast and the first wedding night, where the reader is introduced into Gunther's thoughts and desires concerning Brunhild, related partly in indirect, partly even in direct speech: Er dahte, er lasge sampfter der schcenen vrouwen bi.

Through insight into the thoughts of only the male characters Siegfried and Gunther, the reader is led to an identification with the male point of view of the rapists. Hence, Brunhild loses the mental and moral support of those readers who do not make a conscious effort to resist the temptation of being drawn into the text's main- stream of thought, its ideology of male domination and female subordination. As Susann Samples formulates it in the context of a similar case, the rape of Ginover in Heinrich von dem Tiirlin's Diu Crone, "with this narrative device, Heinrich maintains his complete control of the audience's vision, and Ginover's experience, that is, her victimization, is suppressed.

Hugdietrich, who in stanza 2 is described as "klein an dem libe" [of small stature] and "wolgeschaffen" [well formed], obviously encounters little psychological or technical difficulty in changing his outer appearance, as well as his voice and habits, into those of the female gender: Do lernte Hugdieterich wol ein ganzes jar also washe wiirken, daz sage ich iu fur war: Nach wiplicher stimme so kerte er sinen munt; daz har liez er wahsen an der selben stunt, do wart er vii schoene unde ouch minniclich, mOrtnit und die Wolfdietriche, ed.

Arthur Amelung and Oskar Janicke ; reprint: My quotations from Wolfdietrich are taken from this edition. The epic Wolfdietrich exists in three different versions, which, however, are so different that they are usually regarded as three individual works. The Hugdietrich story is unique to the version Wolfdietrich B.

For an overview over the relatively sparse critical literature on Wolfdietrich, see Roswietha Wisniewski, Mittelalterliche Dietrich-Dichtung Stuttgart: Metzler, , Wolfdietrich stanzas [And I tell you the truth: He changed his voice to that of a woman and at the same time he let his hair grow. He then became very beautiful and also lovely; above the girdle he looked like a woman.

And indeed, his careful preparations and his natural physical propensities help Hugdietrich to "pass" as a woman in the eyes of Hiltburc's family, so that he is permitted to keep their daughter's company. For eight weeks, while living alone in the tower with Hiltburc, Hugdietrich performs his female gender-role so perfectly that he at no time arouses suspicion concerning his "true" gender.

Yet when one day Hugdietrich's desire overpowers him and he begins to make sexual advances to Hiltburc, the secret of his masculinity, quite literally, reveals itself: Wolfdietrich, stanza 87 [He took her into his arms and embraced her, and his kissing and hugging became very strong. When love could no longer hide herself his "companion " very soon began to stand up. Hiltburc's later pregnancy confirms Hugdietrch's masculine "potency," and the child that is born is a boy: Interesting about Hugdietrich's "cross-dressing" is that neither he himself nor others seem to have any objection to his temporary gender-role reversal.

Although Hugdietrich's transformation finds ample justification in his quest for the hand of Hiltburc, the reader is left with the feeling that Hugdietrich actually enjoys his female gender-role. This feeling is probably strengthened by the fact that Hugdietrich from the beginning is described as endowed with feminine traits, such as bodily grace and beauty.

Thus it is hardly surprising that there are no indications that Hugdietrich as a man would have "natural" problems in dealing with such female tasks as needlework or that he would feel humiliated by his role-a role which he himself has chosen without even considering any other option, such as, for example, abduction.

On the contrary, Hugdietrich even surpasses his teacher in specific female tasks, such as his needlework, and later is actually able to instruct other women. The reader only has to compare Hugdietrich with his son, Wolfdietrich, to realize the degree to which Hugdietrich from the beginning of the story appears inherently unaggressive, basing his survival on intellectual powers and diplomacy rather than on physical strength and violence. The haste in which Hugdietrich takes his farewell from the pregnant Hiltburc and leaves it up to her and her mother Liebgart to appease her father Walgunt, seems especially "unmanly.

For Bertold von Regensburg, a man like Wolfdietrich, who spins rather than fights, would certainly have constituted a prime example for the transgression of God-given gender boundaries, unworthy of ever entering God's Kingdom. For this reason, it seems even more surprising that other characters in the story do not offer any criticism when they finally learn about Hugdietrich's "true" gender. Hiltburc's father Walgunt expresses only admiration for Hugdietrich's successful disguise and gladly accepts him as his son-in-law.

Hiltburc's mother Liebgart alludes to Hugdietrich's unusual expertise when congratulating him on his skilful needlework to which he answers only with loud laughter, stanza , but does not seem to doubt his "true" masculinity. Hugdietrich's heterosexual drive, symbolized by his "geselle," causes him to endanger his own life to pursue a woman who otherwise would be lost to the marriage market and thus to exchange among males. Walgunt's "unnatural," latently incestuous, desire to keep his daughter for himself provokes Hugdietrich's equally "unnatural" reversal of gender roles, with the ultimate goal of restoring heterosexual "normality.

And as much as Hugdietrich seems to merge into his female gender-role and to manage to "pass" in the story, the medieval listener or reader is never totally deceived. Not only is she or he aware from the beginning that Hugdietrich is in reality a man, but through the almost exclusive use of the masculine personal pronoun "er" the text makes certain that this fact is never forgotten.

In Marjorie Garber's terms, the reader here is looking through rather than at the transvestite. Actions which to the modern reader will seem deceptive and unethical, such as the exchange of Isolde for Brangaene on King Marke's wedding night in Gottfried von StraBburg's Tristan or Siegfried's and Gunther's actions during the games on Isenstein and on Gunther's wedding night, are therefore legitimate and not at all dishonourable to the medieval audience or readership.

Hugdietrich's brilliant feminine skills might be interpreted as an assertion of superior masculinity even when in female disguise, symbolized by Hugdietrich's position as the "best" of all women. A man is thus superior to women not only as a man, but even when performing the role of a woman: The question one might still speculate about is, of course, whether Hugdietrich ever was a "real" man. Yet even though the modern reader might feel ambivalent about this beautiful young man who so easily transgresses the boundary between male and female, there are no indications in the text that the medieval author shared this feeling.

Frauendienst Diu werde kuneginne Venus, gottinne iiber die minne, enbiutet al den rittern, die ze langparten und ze friul und ze Kernden und ze Stir und ze Oesterrich, ze Beheim gesezzen sint, ir hulde und ir gruoz und tuot in kunt, daz si durch ir liebe zuo in varn wil, und wil si leren, mit wiegetanen dingen si werder frouwen minne verdienen und erwerben suln. Ulrich von Liechtenstein, Frauendienst, [The worthy queen Venus, the goddess of love, offers her grace and her greetings to all the knights who live in Lombardy, Friaul, Carinthia, Styria, Austria and Bohemia, and announces to them that she, because of her love, plans to travel to them; and she wants to teach them the kind of things with which they can earn the love of worthy ladies.

The account of the Venusfahrt presents the audience with a courtly knight carefully dressed up in selected female attire, donned in honour of his Minnedame, his courtly lady. In the disguise of Frau Minne, Ulrich travels through several countries, challenges nearly every 1 2 7 Ulrich von Liechtenstein, Frauendienst, ed. Franz Viktor Spechtler Goppingen: Quotations from Ulrich von Liechtenstein's Frauendienst are taken from this edition. Spechtler offers an extensive chronological bibliography for the period between to Further, and sometimes even older, critical literature may be found in John Wesley Thomas, ed.

The University of North Carolina Press, As Vern Bullough convincingly points out with respect to Ulrich's Venusfahrt, "apparently most of the people on his tour got into the act, and it seemed to be great fun. This rather surprising example of a positively received violation of gender norms may be explained in part by the frameworks in which the transgressive acts are embedded namely those of medieval Minnedienst and medieval theatre play and in part by Ulrich's way of undermining his own transgressions.

It is now widely agreed that the medieval concept of Minnedienst and the relationship between Minnedame and Minnediener have to be regarded as highly artificial constructs and should be clearly distinguished from the relationship between knights and ladies in everyday life. Kathryn Gravdal summarizes current questions about the relationship between courtly love and medieval society as follows: U of Minnesota Press, , The game of love did not disturb and in fact strengthened the social hierarchy, in which women were subordinate to men.

Once the game was over and everyone returned to serious business, the amie returned to the place God intended for her kind, her "gender," under the strict authority of the man on whom she depended as wife, daughter, or sister. As Duby points out: Thus "ladies" dames and "maidens" pucelles were sharply distinguished from peasant women vilaines , whom the men of the court could treat as brutally as they pleased.

But the ladies and maidens invited to join the game of courtly love were entitled to certain marks of respect and, while the game lasted, enjoyed some power over their male partners. While a palliative to the injustice of woman's social position, chivalry is also a technique for disguising it. One must acknowledge that the chilvalrous stance is a game the master group plays in elevating its subject to pedestal level. Historians of courtly love stress the fact that the raptures of the poets had no effect upon the legal or economic standing of women, and very little upon their social status.

The discrepancy between Minnedienst and everyday gender relations is made obvious in Ulrich's Frauendienst when Ulrich interrupts his Venusfahrt for his Minnedame in order to spend some days with his wife and family. The inverted gender relationship between Minnediener and Minnedame is put into perspective by the more traditional depiction of Ulrich in the role of the male head of his own family: Diu guot enpfie mich also wol also von reht ein frowe sol enphahen ir vii lieben man.

Ich het ir liebe dran getan, daz ich zuo ir was dar bechomen: Frauendienst, stanza [My good [wife] received me as well as it was a wife's duty to receive her beloved husband. I had done something good to her by visiting her, my arrival had taken her sadness away. Yet not only the conventions of medieval Minnedienst, but also those of the medieval stage allow Ulrich to picture himself in the most "unmanly" of roles, namely the role of woman, without incurring any criticism. As Vern Bullough points out, men One such place was on the stage, where for the most part proper women did not appear.

Thus we read about a barber's apprentice, who reaped great success in Metz at the performance of The Life and Sufferings of St Barabara Louise von Cossel, vol. Furthermore, the way in which Ulrich during his Venusfahrt travels from "stage" to "stage" reminds the reader of the wanderings of medieval minstrels, as they are described for example in E.

Chambers's The Medieval Stage: In little companies of two or three, they padded the hoof along the roads, travelling from gathering to gathering, making their own welcome in castle or tavern, or, i f need were, sleeping in some grange or beneath the wayside hedge in the white moonlight. Moreover, Ulrich manages to create his own appearance in a way which in its gaudiness again reminds the reader of medieval professional actors: Chambers, The Medieval Stage, vol.

Oxford UP, ; reprint London: Lowe and Brydone, , Yet even within the context of the courtly game of Minnedienst, Ulrich's Venusfahrt is meant to be an unheard-of "feat" in honour of his lady, comparable to, or even excelling, conventional deeds of prowess. Thus, in order to make his Venusfahrt as unambiguous as possible in the eyes of the judging male society, the Minnediener Ulrich undermines his female gender-performance by sending out signals to his audience emphasizing his male gender identity.

He not only makes his disguise easily penetrable for instance when in stanza he appears "in vrowen chleit nach riters siten" [in lady's dress yet behaving like a knight] , but also demonstrates his knightly virtues in numerous sword fights, and shows an especially conventionally masculine courtly treatment of the ladies he encounters. As June Hall Martin points out in a similar context, the Minnediener has to achieve a balance between knightly manliness and the softness of the courtly lover: The necessity of the militia element is evident.

The knight who proves himself to be totally equal to his manly duties in battle can perhaps afford any 1 3 9Ibid. Although it is certainly correct that, as for example Riidiger Krohn insists, Ulrich's combination of masculine and feminine gender markers serves to a certain degree to achieve a humorous effect, would claim that it also fulfills the function of an "emergency exit" which allows Ulrich to utilize the female gender role without manoeuvring himself into a position which could become dangerous to his masculinity.

This becomes especially obvious when examining the three opponents Ulrich initially refuses to fight against. In stanzas he rejects the challenge of a monk three times, and finally agrees to joust with him only because of the pressure his friends exert on him. Although Ulrich offers no reason for his rejection, except for his unwillingness to engage in combat with a man in a monk's habit, it is possible that the monk's "feminized" position owing to his celibacy is responsible for Ulrich's decision. This suspicion becomes stronger in the light of the other two examples. When in stanza Ulrich is challenged by the "windisch wip" here presumably meaning a "slavic" woman , he tries to "neutralize" her challenge by putting it into a sexual context: Tamesis Book LTD, , OdenseUP, , Whenever in my days I have jousted with women, my body was devoid of armour against all their fighting and still I survived them all.

Struggling with them feels good and nobody should be armoured for such a struggle. Paderborner Colloquium , ed. Klaus Grubmiiller et al. Paderborn, Miinchen, Wien, Zurich: Ferdinand Schoningh, , I 4 3"Der Frauen Turnei," in Gesammtabenteuer, ed. Heinrich Friedrich von der Hagen, vol. Cotta'scher Verlag, , The returning knights soon realize what has happened, but after some discussion refrain from punishing the women for their inversion of the world order: Hat sie der tiuvel daz gelert?

Has the devil taught them that? How the world has turned upside-down! Another, who was standing close, said: Der vrouwen turnei heizt diz maer'. Der Frauen Turnei, v. They can break hard lances, which is a great wonder: As Sarah Westphal-Wihl points out, the Middle High German word underligen in this context may be translated both by "to be vanquished militarily and to lie on the bottom" — which adds a second component to the maere's pointe.

Jackson points to another erotic component embedded in the description of the ladies being helped into their armour in lines Although this maere, too, connects the women's transgressive acts with fiendish influences by assuming that they were taught by the devil "Hat sie der tiuvel daz gelert? As it turns out, the brave female warrior, although no longer young, is still unmarried because of her poverty.

Her marriage serves not only to provide the maere with the above mentioned obscene pointe, but it also neutralizes her active masculine energy by re-channelling it into heterosexual intercourse. Thus the act of marrying off the successful female leader of the women's tournament serves primarily the interests of the knights and medieval society, while ignoring, and thereby undermining, the tournament's original aim, namely to let the women have their own part in the chivalric deeds and honour of their men.

Friedrich Heinrich von der Hagen, for example, expresses genuine admiration for the tournament's female leader, but at the same time regards her subsequent marriage as the ultimate prize to crown her efforts: This is achieved through the narrator's evocation of the hand's movements necessary for the tightening of the safety cushioning at thigh and hip. And yet, as Sarah Westphal-Wihl puts it: As it turns out, in this text, too, the personal is highly political.

Ulrich von Liechtenstein employs the same symbolism in order to express his disapproval of a "perverted" world in which women trespass on male territory. If one keeps in mind that, at the time of his rejection of the "windisch wip," Ulrich himself is dressed up as a woman who jousts, it becomes clear that he is not only aware of his underlying masculinity and at no time identifies with women or their situation, but also that he wants his audience to distinguish between a man who is playing the role of a jousting woman and a woman who actually jousts.

As Mary Daly succinctly defines this strategy of the typical drag queen, "like whites playing 'black face,' he incorporates the oppressed role without being incorporated by 6Friedrich Heinrich von der Hagen, Gesammtabenteuer, vol. March 26, Sold by: Share your thoughts with other customers.

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Get to Know Us. English Choose a language for shopping. Not Enabled Word Wise: By the turn of the century, antisemitic caricatures had become a strong weapon in influencing attitudes towards Jews. Authors such as Alfred Roth, who under the pseudonym Otto Armin wrote Die Juden im Heer , or in periodicals such as the Kreuzzeitung repeatedly accused German Jews of not having participated staunchly in the war as German Christian men had done. Routledge, , German Jews and Military Masculinity 29 Fig. Caricature, Wiener Arbeiterzeitung, March A scapegoat in the form of a backstabbing Jewish traitor was invented and was stubbornly kept alive by antisemitic demagogues until it found official sanction in the Third Reich.

The marginalization of Jewish men in the cultural-military realm, was, however, not a field left undefended by German Jews. Jewish men, in response to antisemitism prevalent in places such as universities, founded their own Jewish student fraternities such as the Viadrine and thereby carved out their own sites to perform military masculinity through the act of dueling, a highly-gendered practice that aimed at proving honor and status through physical strength, agility, discipline and bravery.

Liverpool University Press, , German Jews and Military Masculinity 30 opportunities for Jewish men to use gendered rituals to assert their own masculinity in a collective, group setting. Some Jewish writers like Walter Rathenau or Otto Weininger in his Geschlecht und Charakter internalized the gendered antisemitism and portrayed the Jewish man as a foil to the Germanic military hero. Nordau, however, saw it as imperative for Jews to physically and morally regenerate through athleticism. The discursive shift toward the world of militarized sports and athleticism Turnen was meant to form a new type of Jew who was able to successfully defend himself against antisemitic assaults.

Internalizing military values of mainstream society but also some of the antisemitic discourses like Jewish physical inferiority , Jews established their own clubs and chose names of Jewish war heroes from antiquity like Bar Kochba a Jew who had revolted against the Roman Empire. These male-exclusive associations were used for regenerating the Jewish body and cultivating a martial manliness characterized by the soldierly values of bravery, courage and aggression.

German Jews, Gender and History, eds. See also Ute Frevert, Men of Honour: Cambridge University Press, Why Jews and Sports? Jews and Sports in Europe, eds. University of Nebraska Press, , 4. Many German men, including Jewish men, had come to pride themselves on their participation in military training and service, even after the war was lost war in For an entire male generation, the military had become a school of life, a point of identification that men would carry with them in their post-military civilian lives including the Third Reich.

Nationalism and masculinity had become deeply entangled. They remembered having been treated as equals and perceived themselves as patriotic Germans who, like other men, had devotedly contributed to the German war effort. Like their gentile peers, Jewish men had praised the values that connoted militarism without reveling in violence for its own sake.

Instead, they viewed military accomplishments as proof of their manliness which in turn demonstrated their worth as Germans. German Jews and Military Masculinity 32 2. This is the newest catchphrase Suddenly, all Jews are frontline soldiers. We old war veterans know that the Jews The fact that a few Jews died at the front is certainly not an extraordinary merit of the Jewish race. After all, there was general conscription and not every Jew was able to shirk… Some even had the ambition to become an officer and then move up into a better position at home.

In this time, Jews did not only enjoy all the same rights as German citizens, but also procured additional major Fig. German Jews and Military Masculinity 33 privileges… But we will have even less use for the people of Moses in the defense of our German soil than in the world war These are Jewish frontline soldiers? Now they pride themselves in their war wounds and the dead in order to capitalize on them… It is impossible to determine who the few Jewish war veterans, based on Aryan blood mixing Blutvermischung , were… For fifteen years they have spit on bespieen war service, scorned it and dragged it into the mud.

The lack of military virtues made Jewish men into war shirkers, cowards and traitors. The tale that Jewish soldiers had spent most of the time in the war behind desks or even at home suggested that Jewish men had much in common with women and the domestic sphere. The desk was used as a metaphor for the non-physical, secretarial work that was a common vocation for women.

The metaphor alluded to the notion that war-making was a male honor and responsibility, while living a safe distance apart from military action was a privilege reserved for women, children and the elderly — one that was misused by the Jews. The Nazis chose to attack and degrade German Jews where Jewish men felt most emotional and were culturally most vulnerable, the cultural realm of military masculinity.

The marginalization of Jewish men occurred as part of a relational process in which German society witnessed a revitalization of military norms and values. Das Schwarzbuch — Tatsachen und Dokumente, ed. Ullstein, edition , German Jews and Military Masculinity 34 outlined how the Nazis constructed the image of a society at arms. The idealization of war itself and men as the role model soldiers were aggressively propagated. The Nazis perceived the years of the Weimar Republic as a time of chaos, instability and disorder.

It was seen as a time of political pacifism and perceived weakness in the international theatre of politics, of social immorality and cultural degeneration: The Nazi utopia of a well-functioning nation was thus militaristic in outlook and concomitantly heavily masculinized. The masculinization of social role models resulted in the construction of male soldierly heroes who were presented as the manliest of men. Judenfeindschaft in der Weimarer Republik Bonn: Peter Lang Verlag, , 38 1. German Jews and Military Masculinity 35 militarism.

The Nazis excluded Jews from all things military. In March , Hitler re-introduced mandatory conscription for men. With the founding of the Wehrmacht, German Jews were by law excluded. By being a warrior with the task of defending and securing the community body through the exercise of authority, assistance with education and the assumption of leadership and governing roles, the man experiences his natural precedence. The man forges the state, the hardness of which corresponds to the hardness of his own being, bears historical conflicts and wages war.

Geschlechterdifferenzen in der Moderne Munich: Beck Verlag, , University of Minneapolis Press, The promulgation of a new army was accompanied by the propaganda efforts of 1. German Jews and Military Masculinity 36 Nazi state remained steadfast in its attempt to thereby dishonor and emasculate Jewish men. Because the Nazis paid great attention to military traditions and symbols, the newly founded Wehrmacht was propagated with much medial fanfare and propaganda. The rejection of Jews was especially humiliating to Jewish men who had come to identify with and internalize the military values of Wilhelmine Germany.

Besides the ruling that German Jews — who were no longer German citizens following the Nuremberg Race Laws of — were not worthy of being part of a German national army, further discriminatory measures included prohibiting German Jews from possessing guns. Even sabers and rapiers had to be surrendered to the police eventually. While the new German hero was the young male in SA or Wehrmacht uniform, Jewish men were made to look weak and defenseless, antonyms to the German ideal of military masculinity.

In addition to the physical exclusion of Jews from the military and the prohibition for Jews to own weapons, the state used further symbolic ways to deprive German Jewish men of military creating a public image that saw military service as an honorable duty of every German man. Simultaneously, it excluded non-Aryan men from serving in the army and whose exclusion was defined by the Nuremberg Race laws. Suhrkamp Verlag, , German Jews and Military Masculinity 37 gender identity. During the Heldengedenktag, the annual commemoration of the fallen in World War I, Jewish participation was outright forbidden and the inscription of names of Jewish war casualties onto memorials was no longer allowed.

Hunting licenses were no longer issued, explosives such as fireworks no longer sold to Jews. They all had in common a strong anti-republican, anti-Zionist and anti-communist ideologies and endorsed the fascist ideal of the leadership principle with unconditional obedience and pledge for the fulfillment of duty for the Fatherland. These groups however, had significantly lower membership — typically in the low hundreds — compared to the RjF. German Jews and Military Masculinity 38 3. Military Masculinity in the Third Reich a Jewish collective responses In their diaries and memoirs, many German Jews perceptively observed social changes and commented on social life in the Third Reich.

Some testified to the perception of an increased militarization of society. Exercising and parading, this is the new time. Most Jewish war veterans accepted the Nazi renewal of soldierly masculinity because many could directly identify with such images through their own previous experience in the army and find a compatible solution to sustain their Jewishness and German patriotism.

Jewish Identities in Germany and Austria, , eds. In his memoir, the author reminisced that many German Jews had stayed in Nazi Germany because of their deep-rootedness in Germany which they and their ancestors had acquired and proven in military battle. Because of their identification with military and nationalist values, they simply could not leave Germany. Like their gentile counterparts, the Jewish ex-soldiers of World War I had been exposed to military values for years and they carried their caches of values and virtues into the postwar era. Military service had become a common experience that united men and set them apart from others.

It provided a set of criteria against which men could judge themselves and their peers. University of North Carolina Press, , German Jews and Military Masculinity 40 RjF, proclaimed that it was the highest goal to stand up as men to the challenge mannhaft die Stirn bieten and protect the honor of Jewish veterans.

Through public acts of commemoration and attempts to educate the general public about the Jewish contribution in the war, the RjF actively sought to defy antisemitic attacks and simultaneously construct an image of a Jewish soldierly masculinity. In the s, the RjF had started to promote military values within the sports and youth organizations that were attached to it. The RjF believed that the predicament that German Jews were in could only be solved through faith in military attitudes and virtues.

Droste Verlag, , German Jews and Military Masculinity 41 of associating German Jews with the fatherland and their contribution to the German military and to the war effort reflected a continuity of reactions to antisemitic agitation. The RjF printed letters from the front, for instance, in , following the establishment of the Wehrmacht and the concomitant exclusion of Jews from it. By publishing such works, the RjF and its members sought relief from their deprivation and perceived humiliation. Holding on to cultural reference points — soldierly duty and honor — helped them to preserve a sense of national as well as gender identity.

In them, the authors repeatedly referenced the military, World War I and the Jewish contribution to both. Through public acts, such as their own commemorative ceremonies for the fallen soldiers,57 the RjF constructed a German-Jewish identity 55 Though there was an increased output of such works in the s in response to Nazi antisemitism, it is important to note that such efforts represent a continuity and that efforts to counteract antisemitic allegations of Jewish war shirking were made in the s. See for instance Heinemann Stern, Angriff und Abwehr: Ein Handbuch der Judenfrage Berlin: Ich bin ein Jude!

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German Jews and Military Masculinity 42 that was meant to encompass and protect all Jews, but that was closely based on the gendered conceptions of the masculine military ideal. First pages of Fallen German Jews The efforts of the RjF shared many attitudes with other liberal and integrationist Jewish organizations and institutions.

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Influential liberal Jewish periodicals and newspapers with high print circulations, such as the C. Zeitung, echoed — albeit in a more muted tone and with less frequency — acceptance of military values. In an article of April 6, , the C. Zeitung asked its readers to remain steadfast and to persevere: Let us learn from them. The duty to serve Wehrpflicht was the noblest expression of citizenship.

In the postwar attempt of constructing a heroic memory, the RjF adapted to the Nazi approach of publicly celebrating the soldierly ideal of the young, healthy and strong male. As Derek Penslar has noticed, in the effort to create the ideal Jewish male, the wounded — physically through bodily disfiguration or mentally through war traumata — were never part of the narrative. Thus, the actual combat of Jews, with all the horrific details, the atrocities, the violence and injuries they had experienced and that were part of a military experience - were effectively marginalized and not part of the response strategy.

They did not fit the general, social trend of celebrating a military masculinity of dominant, strong and successful men. See Derek Penslar, Jews and the Military: German Jews and Military Masculinity 43 Strikingly, the language of German nationalism, patriotism and militarism was not a temporary phenomenon on the periphery of German-Jewish society but penetrated the mainstream of Jewish thought and social life. In the early years of the Third Reich, having served in the military was still considered an honorable, noble component that constituted Jewish masculinity.

Besides its media campaign to counter the increased marginalization of Jews from society, the RjF requested privileged treatment for its members by the German government. It directly advocated for its members by establishing a line of communication with German government offices and even with President von Hindenburg and Hitler.

Its three specific goals were: The law mandated the forced dismissal of Jewish and politically unreliable civil servants, but exemptions were made for any veteran and civil servant whose father or son had been killed in the war. Its intention was to dismiss Jewish state employees as well as so-called politically unreliable individuals. In practice, the law enabled the Nazis to dismiss Jews and politicians and members of the Social-Democratic and Communist parties.

Exemptions were made for anyone who had been in continuous employment since at least August , or who had participated in the war, or who had lost a relative son, father in the war. German Jews and Military Masculinity 44 To obtain such an exemption, was, however, a high hurdle to jump. Indoctrinated by their own propaganda, the Nazis probably anticipated that most applications for exemption would fail as they presupposed that most Jewish men had not been enlisted in the army and certainly did not participate in any frontline battle.

Harper Perennial, , Growing up in Nazi Berlin New Haven: German Jews and Military Masculinity 45 members of the Jewish communities in Germany rejoicing and giving ardent support. Hans-Joachim Schoeps, founder of another pro-military Jewish organization, stated with pathos: We young German Jews feel compelled to express our satisfaction with this step. Just as our forefathers fulfilled their duty to the Fatherland in , so are we prepared today for military service, in loyalty to our motto: Exclusion of Jews from the armed forces would deprive them of the greatest duty and the greatest right of the homeland, namely an education to toughness and readiness to put everything on the line for the fatherland.

After the subsequent exclusion of Jews from the military, a number of protests were drafted. Repeated calls to allow Jewish youth into the army for them to perform the highest honorable duty Ehrenpflicht and to have the honorable right Ehrenrecht fell on deaf ears. After the culmination of violence and aggression against German Jews during Kristallnacht in , however, most Jewish organizations and institutions were dissolved. German Jews and Military Masculinity 46 last ones permitted to exist, but, it was no longer allowed to engage in active politics or in the education of youth; as its last function, it was restricted to the care of war casualties and the maintenance of Jewish cemeteries, even after deportations had begun in It stated in With failure, an internal emigration now is recommended.

More than anything, the story of the RjF underscores how German Jews collectively — and initially quite successfully — negotiated with, protested against and resisted the new regime; it also provides insight into a gendered analysis of German Jews, both men and women, who used the gendered identities of Jewish males as self-understood patriotic military men, in the past and in the present, 70 Grady, The German Jewish Soldier of the First World War in History and Memory, German Jews and Military Masculinity 47 in order to maintain inclusion for themselves and their families and to resist their emasculation and marginalization.

While a collective organization such as the RjF could have a decisive impact on Jewish everyday life, and could use its power in the public sphere — through its own press office, for instance, as well as in the political domain by negotiating privileged treatment for its members — processing the changes in their lives and making sense of the new order under Hitler was first and foremost an individual act that each and every German Jewish person had to go through.

As discussed above, military virtues and values had mattered to several generations of German Jews who had grown up in the Wilhelmine period, who had become accustomed to military values and who had experienced war itself. The military identity German Jewish men cultivated was principally — while also affirmed collectively — an individual attempt to assign gender identity.

Jewish military masculinity, therefore, transcended efforts by the RjF to live up to the standards of the military. Military masculinity like 1. Starting in , it became an integral part of making sense of the Third Reich. According to the historian Judith Gerson, [Referencing] service mattered because it was the instrument on which men and their families depended to secure their rights to citizenship and to bestow honor on them and their families.

For these German citizens of Jewish faith, military service in World War I represented the pinnacle of acceptance as German men and German citizens — a definition of masculinity, which simultaneously linked national identity to gender identity. Firstly, German Jews made references to the military and military norms as part of a self-identification process. At a time of turmoil and uncertainty, many German Jews actively reminisced about their own military service and achievements as part of responding to and simultaneously defying Nazi threats and intimidations.

By trying to preserve military masculinity as part of their identity, Jewish men constructed a self-image that helped them fend off, even deny, the divergent identity that the Nazi state imposed on them. Honor, status and respect were often — as in the pre-Nazi years — assigned to individuals who had either served in the army or the war, or who had come to demonstrate and exhibit military virtues.

As displayed in letters, diaries and memoirs, assigning military masculinity to themselves and others was one of the most common and visible response strategies German Jews utilized in the Third Reich. German Jews and Military Masculinity 49 Self-Identifications In German society, it was considered normative for men to be the breadwinners and providers for their households see Chapter 3.

In Jewish families, particularly in the middle class, it was still uncommon for women to work, and if they did, it was rare that they did so outside the home or the family business. Female professionals, such as physicians and lawyers, still represented a small minority. The direct effects of Nazi intimidation and attack which in the early years of the Third Reich were still mostly contained to the public sphere — the workplaces, streets, and public institutions — were therefore felt first and foremost by Jewish men, who appeared more visibly in the public and who were first singled out and victimized.

As Holocaust historians Dalia Ofer and Leonore Weitzman recognized, there was an initial focus on Jewish men for arrest and incarceration. It was much more likely for men to be beaten, arrested, imprisoned and executed by the Nazis. On April 1, , the Nazis staged a nation-wide boycott as one of their first efforts to ostracize German Jews, intimidate them and hurt them economically.

Yale University Press, , 6. Oxford University Press, , 6. German Jews and Military Masculinity 50 and physically injuring Jewish store owners, were all part of the April boycott. The boycott was meant to be a defensive measure against anti-German propaganda from abroad, for which the Jews were held responsible. Others wore the war medals that they had been awarded in World War I, including the Iron Cross and other honorary military badges.

I took my war decorations, put them on, went into the street and visited Jewish shops where at first I was also stopped. But I was seething inside and most of all I 77Ibid. German Jews and Military Masculinity 51 would have liked to shout my hatred into the faces of the barbarians This land and this people that until now I had loved and treasured had suddenly become my enemy. So I was not a German anymore, or I was no longer supposed to be one.

My father went to our little store one morning… He saw trucks cruising through Constance After my father had arrived at the store, he saw a uniformed SA guard in front of the door. My father turned around, went back home and returned … with a little bag. This time he passed the Stormtrooper and unlocked the door. He took the shirts, socks and ties out of the shop window and spread out his World War I medals in their place.

He then stepped outside, stood next to the Stormtrooper and pulled up his right shirt sleeve, exposing his war injury. He did not have to wait very long. I outlined the patriotic services of generations of my family to their country…I [also] had put on my old uniform with my war medals… [H]ere is what the local newspaper [the following day] wrote: Anyone who insults a combat veteran in the Third Reich will be punished with imprisonment.

All three Leyens brothers served as volunteers on the front. DVA, , German Jews and Military Masculinity 52 and were decorated for courageous action. Their father Hermann Leyens had been a volunteer in the fight against the Spartacists. His grandfather was wounded at Katzbach during the wars of liberation. With such a record of past national service, do we now have to be subjected to public humiliation?

Is this how the fatherland today expresses its gratitude, by placing huge pickets in front of our door with the demand not to buy from our house? We regard this action which goes hand in hand with the dissemination of slanderous accusations all over town, as an attack on our national and civic honor as well as a desecration of the memory of 12, German front soldiers of the Jewish faith who have lost their lives in action.

Furthermore, we regard this provocation as an affront against every decent citizen. We do not doubt that, even today, there are citizens in Wesel who have the courage of their convictions, which Bismarck once called for, and exemplify German integrity which, especially now, stands steadfastly by our side.

The Breslau teacher and historian Willy Cohn confessed in his diary on May 1, , one month following the boycott, that going to work was unsettling for him because he did not know if he might not be sent home again. So he stuck the ribbon of his Iron Cross through the buttonhole of his jacket: In one of their many contradictory decisions, when the Nazi government decided in to introduce a further military decoration for World War I veterans, German Jewish veterans were not excluded. Cohn wrote in his diary: Northwestern University Press, , The Breslau Diaries, , ed.

Kenneth Kronenberg Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, , 7. Even the rabbi of Hannover, Emil Schorsch , deemed it important enough in his memoir to remember the same recognition he received by Hitler in Clearly, German Jewish men constructed a mental map consisting of what they considered as their previously established military honor, national citizenship and gender identity, and the current crisis that threatened to deprive Jewish men of their intersecting identities.

Triltsch Verlag, , German Jews and Military Masculinity 54 It is striking that this paradigm of similar reactions, though they took place all over the country and included Jewish men of all ages, of different class backgrounds and of different levels of religious observance, occurred spontaneously. There was no planning, no cooperation or coordination among German Jews on April 1. Public displays of military masculinity were not prescribed by an institution like the RjF. Reactions were typically single acts by individuals, which in their totality, however, constituted a pattern of gendered behavior.

Upholding military norms and referring to military achievements rendered German Jewish men and their families — in their own view — as honorable and respected citizens. While these cases exemplify specific intent with a desired outcome, and some did indeed generate positive results, Jewish men also made assertions of military masculinity — at the time and in retrospect — in more general contexts. Many still thought that as soldiers themselves they knew what it meant to face and endure danger.

Through evoking military virtues such as perseverance, discipline and stoicism, many Jewish men perceived the Third Reich as a storm to be weathered, a temporary predicament — similar to a war — which they would have to endure. War and inflation had passed. Juxtaposing past times when military service was performed and masculine honor and respect were gained to the present time with the military value system disintegrating for Jews, Jewish men and women voiced their disillusionment and incomprehension.

I compare this dread of death with that in the field. This here is a times more horrible. There it was at worst the field of honor, there I was certain of every assistance were I to be wounded… It is a thousand, a thousand times more horrible than all my fear in But here death threatens me in a more awful form. The Diaries of Victor Klemperer, trans. Martin Chalmers New York: Modern Library, , German Jews and Military Masculinity 56 my fatherland as a volunteer in the war, have endured all, but now I am not allowed to cast my vote.

I cannot understand this! As a man who had served for years in war and peacetime, Herzfeld considered himself an honorable German — a citizen-soldier of the type that had originated in the 19th century — who had fulfilled his duty and who deserved the full rights of any German citizen, including the right to vote. Max Cohnreich read: Houses and apartments that were destroyed by shell fire, burning, charred and scattered property, but such a picture of barbaric annihilation, I have never seen.

German Jews and Military Masculinity 57 German-Jewish men were products of their times, of the world they had grown up in. As a way of comprehending the violence they and their families were experiencing, many responded by making reference to military norms, norms that had previously guided their lives, provided orientation, and generated rewards in the forms of reciprocated honor and status in society.

This previously established frame of reference was used as a safety net, as a last means, by Jewish men and women to reverse unjust treatment and reinstall the previous status quo that had guaranteed at least some respect and sense of equality. If openly upholding military values no longer helped, then nothing else would. Juxtaposing the norms from a time when these norms had acquired social and cultural meaning to the current or subsequently remembered time of Nazi dictatorship allowed Jews, and men in particular, to express their protest and indignation.

Trying to justify their gendered identities as military men or men who adhered to military norms, Jewish men used diaries and memoirs to express their profound frustration over being ostracized from German society and its commonly shared values, and the vague, implicit hope to re-enter it.

Many sources describe how individual German Jewish men personally reacted to Nazi discrimination by recalling their personal military history, while other memoirs and family accounts describe a family member father, brother, son, husband, in-law or close friend who also was a war veteran. Typically, such references are made in the context of describing the perceived unjust treatment of these individuals.

German Jews and Military Masculinity 58 actual military merits and military identity. The referencing of military service and values was meant to return deserved honor and respect to the individual, a symbolic countermeasure to the attempted emasculation of Jewish men. In his meticulously recorded diary entries, Victor Klemperer, who was an outgoing, well-known intellectual in Dresden, frequently described his personal encounters with others.

Klemperer, who was a veteran but who as an intellectual had not associated with the military, sports, or even political organizations that celebrated military virtues, still habitually described the men he met based on the standards of military accomplishments. He labeled a Jewish physician in Dresden, Dr.

Katz, as someone who kept a World War I photo of himself in uniform, on horseback, wearing a monocle and the Iron Cross, First Class in his waiting room. On another occasion, he noted: There we met Bernstein, a scraggy man, in his 50s, corn merchant, ended up as a medical orderly in the war, now male nurse. Her father fell in August Already on the first page of his memoir, Ernst Hausmann b. We did not leave Germany because we were unpatriotic citizens. During World War, I my father had served four years at the front in the trenches around Verdun, France and received the Iron Cross in recognition of his service to his country.

The Diaries of Victor Klemperer, , 53, , , At the beginning of my memoirs, I would like to place the story of my father Arthur Abrahamson, who was a soldier in World War I. It is important for me to begin my memories this way After my father had committed himself to war and Kaiser for many years, as a sign of gratitude he received a kick in the butt Tritt in den Hintern. Once, his father even got involved in a pub fight in response to some antisemitic jokes. Lebensgeschichten deutscher Juden, ed. Aufbau Verlag, , Mein Widerstand im Berliner Untergrund, , eds.

Metropol Verlag, , 9. Clearly, the self-identification of Jewish men as war veterans and adherence to a military code of behavior in civilian life was echoed by others including the friends and families of veterans and soldiers.

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Various primary sources indicate that military masculinity — as a constituent element of masculinity — was not only performed and demonstrated by men, but also by women. Masculinity studies do not inevitably have to focus on men. Thus, Jewish women, too, used the military as a gendered reference point as a way of defining masculinity.

Lit Verlag, , I was engaged to be married in Two of my brothers, Max and Julius Cohn, were killed in frontline combat in and , respectively. My remaining brother, Willy, came back from the field, blinded in a hail of shrapnel… In , I married a disabled soldier with whom I live in a very unhappy union because of his handicap… All were decorated with the Iron Cross for service to the Fatherland. And now it has come about in our Fatherland that pamphlets are being circulated in the streets, demanding Juden raus.

There are public incitements to pogroms and acts of violence against Jews. We are Jews and did our unreserved duty for the Fatherland. Should it not be possible for your Excellency to bring some relief and to remember what the Jews, too, did for the Fatherland? Are these incitements against Jews courage or cowardice when the Jews constitute 1 percent of the 60 million inhabitants in the German state? German Jews and Military Masculinity 62 internalized, accepted and reproduced by some Jewish women who came to see an honorable man as someone who had succeeded in life.

To these women, the men to whom they referred were manlier as they had already proven their manhood in the past. Her actions implied that her husband, the patriotic German, had endured sufficient sacrifices during the war for his country and was therefore entitled to privileged treatment.