Politization through Pioneers? the Historization of the German-Language Weekly 'orient' (1942-1943) in Israel and in the GDR

The German-language magazine Orient was published in Palestine/Israel between 1942 and 1943.[1] The Orient was a magazine by German exiles, who fled Germany in 1933. The first issue stated that the magazine was in favor of democratic principles and freedom of expression. Despite the seemingly uncritical nature, the first magazine already provoked a vehement reaction in the form of violent attacks on the staff - not only because of the German language, but also because of this political agenda. The editors initially decided to continue publishing. Ten months later, however, the Orient gave up - after a bomb attack on its printing house on Tuesday 2 February 1943 by revisionist Zionists.

The Orient shows how Israeli historical and sociological scholarship on primary sources relies heavily on the analysis of the pioneers that distort our perspectives on the past: As a sociologist, I will show how the history of the Orient and the source itself has been interpreted, politicized and possibly instrumentalized in several ways – not only in Israel, but also in the GDR, where some of the Orient's contributors, such as Arnold Zweig and Louis Fürnberg, moved after the end of the Second World War. In the second, I will prove my point by presenting my findings on the “political program” of the Orient: The staff called for values such as tolerance of ambivalence and democracy for Palestine/Israel and published "post-Zionist" voices calling for a secular state of "Israel".

[1] My paper will give an insight into the results of my dissertation, which was submitted in August 2024.