Ohne Grenzen – (Deutsch-)Jüdische Geschichte transnational

In his essay, the author discusses the potential of transnational approaches in German-Jewish history and advocates for establishing such approaches more firmly in German-Jewish historiography. He supports the thesis that Jewish history in general, and German-Jewish history in particular, are prime examples of transnational ties and that these ties are scarcely researched. One of the central reasons for this national limited perspective lies in the historio- graphical significance of the Holocaust. By linking German-Jewish history to the Holocaust while at the same time emphasizing its historical singularity, German-Jewish history, too, is understood as something unique and singular and is thus separated from its transnational references in historical research. He exemplifies this thesis by looking at the developments of German-Jewish historiography after 1945 up to the present generation of researchers. This includes some promising approaches to a transnationalization of German- Jewish history (spatial turn, postcolonial studies, German-Jewish diaspora, etc.), which have not yet been developed into a comprehensive research context or approach. He concludes in making a case for researching German- Jewish history as a transnational one and thus freeing it as much as possible from national restrictions in research practice.