This issue of the journal Quest focuses on the Reflections, Experiences and Memory of Ger-man and Habsburg Jews during and after the Great War, but the contributions can, alas, ad-dress only some of the many aspects of this complex and disturbing history. The articles se-lected here concern different contexts, specific constellations, and diverse situations of central European Jewish history and culture. Hence, Carsten Schapkow presents the reflections of two German Jewish intellectuals during the War and the dialogue that took place between them. He considers Fritz Mauthner (1849-1923) and Gustav Landauer (1870-1919) Although they belonged to different generations, Mauthner and Landauer maintained a close friendship even through the war years, and they conducted a dense conversation reflecting on their own experiences of the war and the dramatic situation of Eastern European Jewry. Their dialogue, as Schapkow shows, provides new insight into central perspectives that shaped the course of 20th-century European Jewry.
Likewise focused on reflections and experiences, Ulrich Wyrwa examines the response of German Jewish intellectuals to the German occupation of Belgium, one of the first acts of war by the German army. He seeks to determine if and in which ways they all understood Ger-many’s violation of Belgian neutrality and the new feature of the war as one against a civilian population.
The year 1916 was a decisive turning point in the Jewish experience of the First World War for it was in that year that Germany and the Habsburg Empire witnessed the aforementioned resurgence of antisemitic agitation and propaganda as well as the first signs of extreme an-tisemitism. The initial policy of a Burgfrieden had by then clearly broken down. Peter Bihari examines this rise in antisemitism and its development during the war in the Kingdom of Hungary as well as Jewish responses to it. As Bihari shows, Hungarian antisemitism was fairly well organized and coordinated, mainly by ecclesiastical circles. He further shows how the First World War became the catalyst for this new antisemitic campaign.
Continuing the exploration of the Jewish experience, Ljiljana Dobrovšak and Filip Hameršak present the observations and perceptions of Croatian-Slavonian Jews during World War I. Drawing on a broad range of war diaries, memoirs, and other autobiographical sources, they explore, first, the religious and charitable activities of Jewish societies and, then, the bi-ographies of Jewish individuals of different orientations, including liberal Jews, Zionists, and converts of Jewish background.
Memory is also central to Gerald Lamprecht’s contribution, which scrutinizes the activities of the Austrian federation of Jewish war veterans, the Bund jüdischer Frontsoldaten, founded in 1932. It was this institution that initiated the erection of Jewish war memorials in several Austrian cities. Lamprecht analyzes the ways that Austrian Jews commemorated the war and their fallen.
In addition to the focus of this issue, Steven Schouten presents in a review essay the new historical-critical edition of the works of the German Jewish author Ernst Toller (1893-1939).