German History: Not So Different

From chapter two of Germany: A New History, there were various topics that were fairly important, however, I had a heightened interest in two very different images on page 34 and 35.

Jewish moneylender (on right)

One image that struck my interest was the "Jewish Moneylenders". Similar to the photo on the right, the picture in the book depicted various Jewish individuals who lent money and performed financial transactions because it was one of the few ways for them to make a living in the Middle Ages. This caught my eye because it is a stereotype that still is around today. I have heard jokes before regarding Jewish people being trustworthy with money and in financial discussions and this image makes me wonder if this is where the stereotype began.

Regardless of this observation, the way that Jews were persecuted at these early times foreshadows later patterns that developed in Hitler's period of power. Germany often receives a great deal of attention to this area of its history because of persecution and discrimination. However, these discriminatory elements are found in  American history with African Americans suffering through slavery. Even after slavery, African Americans struggled with acquiring equal rights and the same may even be said about women as well. These similarities demonstrate that as civilizations develop, whether it be America or Germany, groups of people are often treated differently, resulting in discrimination and unequal rights.

Another image that drew my attention was the picture on the very next page. The image (found below) is a snapshot of the picture titled "A Village is Founded," which portrayed colonization of German territory that occurred during the late middle ages. The interesting point about this colonization process was that it was primarily peaceful where the native people (e.g. Slavic) were not driven out of their homelands, but rather participated in the process and allowed for the settlement. These native people still gave up parts of their land and lost much of their language influence, but it is described as nonviolent.

German colonization during the Middle Ages

This then made me think about American history in regards to our colonization process which may have been a bit more difficult comparatively. History books inform us that many of the native people were largely treated unfairly when first settlers came to America. Early settlers of our country called natives "savages" and often the main focus of these settlements was the attainment of gold and land. Even today, there continues to be questions about land rights for natives in America, but not so much in Germany.



The story that these two different images tell about German history is that it is not as different from American history as it may seem. The main assumption that may come from old images such as the "Jewish Moneylenders" is that Germans have a tainted history of persecution of Jewish people but when one looks at American history, Americans have committed similar patterns of discrimination. The second image might even suggest that Americans had an ethically questionable approach to early settlement and interacting with native people. Germans might be the more civilized settlers in that area of history. These points just exemplify how important it is to look at all the different sides of the story when trying to understand a different group of people, whether it be nationality, race, religion, or financial background.

WORD COUNT: 544