Departure of Jewish Volunteers (c. 1813)

Jewish men volunteered to fight for Prussia against France. In doing so, they satisfied an essential requirement of Germanness and masculinity—even if soldierly masculinity was not yet the sole or even the dominant ideal at this time. Over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries, however, Jewish Germans placed increasing importance on the performance of military service, which they viewed as critical to their sense of self. This was because questioning Jewish Germans’ courage or their ability to fight—and thereby questioning their Germanness—was a perennial anti-Jewish tactic.