ISBN: 3851450264 9783851450262

Category: Unavailable

Page count: 203

Deals with Paul Kornfeld's mise-en-scène of the "Jud Süss" tragedy, presented for the first time on 7 October 1930 in Berlin. The plot centers around the historical figure of Joseph Süss Oppenheimer, who was promoted from a simple "ghetto" Jew from Heidelberg to the position of a "court" Jew, officiating as ducal secretary to the Treasury in Württemberg in 1734. After the sudden death of his patron, Duke Karl Alexander, in 1737, he was accused of high treason and executed. Questions Kornfeld's motives for choosing the "Jud Süss" material, claiming that he used antisemitic events of the past in order to allude to similar situations in his time. Deals with stereotypes and antisemitic perceptions which characterized German society in the early 1930s, and which are expressed in the drama, especially in group scenes. Argues that a lack of feeling on Kornfeld's part led to his production of "Jud Süss" during the rise of Nazism, thereby providing more substance for antisemitism.