Ruth Nattermann - Böcker

Since the end of the nineteenth century, traditional historiography has emphasized the similarities between Italy and Germany as “late nations”, including the parallel roles of “great men” such as Bismarck and Cavour. Rethinking the Age of Emancipation aims at a critical reassessment of the development of these two “late” nations from a new and transnational perspective. Essays by an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars examine the discursive relationships among nationalism, war, and emancipation as well as the ambiguous roles of historical protagonists with competing national, political, and religious loyalties.

Since the end of the nineteenth century, traditional historiography has emphasized the similarities between Italy and Germany as “late nations”, including the parallel roles of “great men” such as Bismarck and Cavour. Rethinking the Age of Emancipation aims at a critical reassessment of the development of these two “late” nations from a new and transnational perspective. Essays by an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars examine the discursive relationships among nationalism, war, and emancipation as well as the ambiguous roles of historical protagonists with competing national, political, and religious loyalties.

This book is the first epoch-spanning study on Jewish participation in the Italian women’s movement, focussing in a transnational perspective on the experience of Italian-Jewish protagonists in Liberal Italy, during the First World War and the Fascist dictatorship until 1945.

This book is the first epoch-spanning study on Jewish participation in the Italian women’s movement, focussing in a transnational perspective on the experience of Italian-Jewish protagonists in Liberal Italy, during the First World War and the Fascist dictatorship until 1945. Drawing on ego-documents, contemporary journals and Jewish community archives, as well as records by the police and public authorities, it examines the tensions within the emancipation process between participation and exclusion. The book argues that the racial laws from 1938 did not represent the sudden end of an idyllic integration, but rather the climax of a long-term development. Social marginalization, the persecution of Jewish rights, and the assault on Jewish lives during fascism are analysed distinctly from the perspective of Jewish women.  In spite of their significant influence on the transnational orientation of the Italian women’s movement, their emancipation as women and Jewsremained incomplete.

Die Studie widmet sich erstmals epochenübergreifend der jüdischen Beteiligung in der italienischen Frauenbewegung. Aus einer transnationalen Perspektive und auf der Basis neu erschlossener Egodokumente, zeitgenössischer Zeitschriften, den Archiven jüdischer Gemeinden sowie der Überlieferung von Polizei und Behörden richtet Ruth Nattermann den Fokus auf die Erfahrungen italienisch-jüdischer Protagonistinnen im liberalen Einheitsstaat, während des Ersten Weltkriegs und der faschistischen Diktatur bis 1945. Das Ziel besteht darin, die Spannungen des Emanzipationsprozesses zwischen Partizipation und Abgrenzung herauszuarbeiten sowie die Marginalisierung und Verfolgung während des faschistischen Regimes aus dem Blickwinkel jüdischer Frauen zu betrachten. Dass die faschistische Rassengesetzgebung des Jahres 1938 nicht das Ende einer idyllischen Integration, sondern den Höhepunkt einer langfristigen Entwicklung bildete, wird anhand der Untersuchung italienisch-jüdischer Akteurinnen in ihren Beziehungen zur nicht-jüdischen Mehrheitsgesellschaft eindrücklich demonstriert. Trotz ihres bedeutenden Einflusses auf die transnationale Orientierung der italienischen Frauenbewegung blieb ihre Emanzipation als Frauen und Jüdinnen unvollkommen.

The study explores the experiences of Italian Jewish women in the context of Italian politics and society since the inception of the liberal unitary state, during the First World War, and under the fascist dictatorship through 1945. Using sources accessible for the first time, the study casts new light on 19th- and 20th-century Italian and Italian-Jewish history and its European and international connections.