This article will describe the role the CV played from its founding until 1933 in the development of the Jewish sphere. Different periods will be examined: the Kaiserreich, the Weimar period, and the last years of the Weimar Republic. It will discuss the causes of the growth of the Jewish sphere and the reasons behind the CV’s involvement in it, mainly the attempt to keep the Jewish public – and especially the youth – within the ‘right’ kind of social and ideological framework, in the face of growing competition from other groups, both within and outside of Jewish society.

More than 80 years separate us from 1938, a year that marks a caesura, the definitive end of any hope for German-speaking Jews. After eight decades, the transition from ‘communicative memory’ to ‘cultural memory’ (Assmann) is underway; personal experiences, which were handed down orally, are being superseded by an ‘objectified culture’. At this significant time, long-term preservation as well as safe keeping of archival material gains importance. Modern technology facilitates access to fragile materials without jeopardizing their physical integrity. Archives, museums, and research institutions are increasingly using these options to bring their holdings to a wider audience.
This paper addresses some of these different approaches and possibilities for interaction with source materials. Using the Leo Baeck Institute’s 1938Projekt– Posts from the Pastas an example, it describes the challenges associated with digitization and putting materials online, as well as the additional tasks that go along with these processesin the digital age.

Fritz Friedländer was one of the last active members of the Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith. From 1933 to 1938 he was a teacher for the organization at the Jewish Boys’ School for the district of Berlin[CS1] . Based on this activity he developed a specific teaching method focused on emigration for the Jews who were excluded in Germany. Friedländer himself left with his wife Germany at the beginning of 1939 for Shanghai, whence he was finally able to emigrate to Australia after the Second World War. This article outlines his life in the light of the dramatic worldwide events in the first half of the twentieth century.