Trials and Tribulations on Mt Scopus: the Auguste Victoria Foundation from 1898-1939 E-Book

Heidemarie Wawrzyn

• Herausgeber: GRIN Verlag
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2015 in the subject History of Germany - National Socialism, World War II, , language: English, abstract: Beiträge zu Feminismus, Antisemitismus und Nationalsozialismus im 19./20. Jahrhundert: Vol. 10. The monograph "Trials and Tribulations on Mt Scopus" offers an introduction to the origins, work and goals of the Auguste Victoria Foundation, a German Protestant institution in Jerusalem, whose base was in Potsdam, Germany. It describes the eclectic range of visitors, guests and workers attending the Foundation and looks at members' attitudes towards local Jews and Arabs from the time of the Kaiser's visit in 1898 to the outbreak of the Second World War. The work provides insight into how these attitudes and relationships changed, especially in the 1930s when National Socialism was espoused by Germans living in British-ruled Palestine.

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Cultural and Religious Variety?

a) Craftsmen and Employees on the Mount of Olives

b) The Guests of the Auguste Victoria Foundation

3. Changing Relationships

4. National Protestant Chauvinism

5. A Glimpse into the Thirties

Abbreviations

Bibliography

Literature:

Statue of Empress Auguste Victoria,

Auguste Victoria Courtyard, Jerusalem

(M. Trensky, Evangelische Himmelfahrtkirche …, p. 13)

1. Introduction

"Every enterprise and organization has its own story, generally motivated by an idea, unfulfilled needs, or a certain occasion. The story of the Auguste Victoria Foundation (= AVF) began with the German Emperor’s journey to Jerusalem at the end of the 19th century."[1]

Wilhelm II visited Jerusalem on the occasion of the opening of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem's Old City on October 31, 1898. Two days later, the Emperor received visitors, deputations, and petitioners in his tent next to Damascus Gate. Among the many groups were members of the German Protestant community in Jerusalem. They represented the approximately 120 to 200 Germans living in Jerusalem, mainly working for different Christian welfare organizations. They approached the Emperor to request his support for the construction of a German Protestantcenterfor relaxation and recuperation on the Mount of Olives.[2]It is not clear if this location was the choice of Jerusalem's German Protestants, or of the Emperor’s wife Auguste Victoria, or of William II himself, who had taken an inspiring ride on the Mount of Olives to the north where the mountain becomes the Mount Scopus.Geographically, the AVF complex is not located on the Mount of Olives, but is part of the foothills of Mount Scopus. However, German Protestants called that hilltop "Mount of Olives" since the building complex includes the Church of Ascension - according to Christian tradition the ascension took place on the Mount of Olives.[3]

Likethe local inhabitants, the Germans suffered from the heat, the desert storms, and from diseases such as malaria and cholera. They felt a health resort was needed where they could escape the heat and dust of the city and recuperate from any illnesses contracted. It would have to be in beautiful surroundings, suitable for the celebration of the Christian and German national holidays.[4] William II agreed to support the new German project in Jerusalem and to help the idea become a reality. However, it took almost five years before a fitting place was found with the help of the German Consul in Jaffa on the Mount of Olives. Land was purchased from Arab families in 1903, 1904, and 1905/06. Generous donations from the imperial family and fundraising by the Oelberg-Verein (Society of the Mount of Olives, an auxiliary committee of the AVF project) helped facilitate the purchase and the initial construction of the new complex in Jerusalem. Furthermore, the generous gift of one million gold marks by Laura Oelbermann (1846–1929), president of a Protestant women's in Cologne, considerably helped the project get underway.[5]

Following the request by Wilhelm II, the Kaiserin Auguste Victoria Pfingsthaus-Stiftung[6]in Potsdam (Germany) committed itself to carrying outthe venture in January 1904. Its board members named the future building complex after its patroness: Kaiserin Auguste Victoria Stiftung auf dem Oelberge (Empress Auguste Victoria Foundation on the Mount of Olives).[7] "Once the project was taken over by the Pfingsthaus-Stiftung, the plan to establish a German Protestant meeting place and recreation home for deaconesses and missionaries was extended to include a guesthouse for German tourists and pilgrims as well a church."[8] "Construction proved very difficult as except for the lime and stone almost everything was imported from Germany. Long distances, time-consuming transportation from Germany, bad road conditions in the region, stormy weather in winter, and lack of water in summer all made the construction work tremendously complicated."[9]

In spite of these difficulties, the opening of the AVF building took place as planned on April 9, 1910, followed by afestive banquet on April 11.Important and high-ranking guests from Palestine and abroad attended the opening.[10] Once the celebration was over, the construction work continued with the interior still unfinished and some improvements yet to be made.[11] It was not until July 1914 that the last worker left the site. At that time the guesthouse, including its interior, was finally complete.[12] "The total sum spent in construction was 2.992.575 gold marks including land, furniture, paintings, transport from Germany and roads for the transit of the church bells."[13]

The new building complex significantly changed Jerusalem's skyline; its bell-tower was visible from almost every location in and around Jerusalem.The AVF's purpose and goal was defined by the board of trustees in Potsdam: The building was to serve as a meeting place and recreation home for deaconesses, clergymen, missionaries, and other Germans living in Ottoman Palestine, Syria and Egypt. It was also meant to serve as a Christian guesthouse for thirty tourists. Six luxurious rooms, called the Herrenmeister-Apartment, were established and reserved for royalty and other high-ranking guests.[14] The deaconesses of the Protestant Order in Kaiserswerth[15] were asked by the AVF board to take over the management of the guesthouse. Four deaconesses worked at the AVF under the guidance of Sister Theodore Barkhausen. They devoted all their time and energy to the new project, their efforts intended to create a comfortable German guesthouse with a homey atmosphere and Christian Protestant values.[16]

Auguste Victoria Building, ca. 1910

(E. Meyer-Maril, "Das Gebäude der Auguste Victoria Stiftung …," pp.51-62)

Place Card, Banquet, Auguste Victoria Foundation, April 11, 1910

(Die deutschen Festtage, 1912, picture 73)

AVG Ground Plan

(Die deutschen Festtage, 1912, picture 12)

2. Cultural and Religious Variety?

a) Craftsmen and Employees on the Mount of Olives

After the AVF board of trustees had agreed to the draft of the German architect Robert Leibnitz, Arabs were hired to work on the construction of the AVF in 1906.[17] Cooperation with the Arab workers proved difficult and different from working with German craftsmen. Otto Hoffmann, site manager from 1909/10,[18] described the Arabs’ working methods as unreliable and erratic. He praised their good spirits - they sang, laughed, talked and even prayed at work. At the same time, Hoffmann criticized their slow work habits and their cruelty to the children who carried sand and mortar to the site. Up to 100 children, aged six to ten, worked at the construction site every day supervised by an adult who sometimes beat them. Hoffmann also complained about Arab brutality to donkeys.[19] However, according to his report, it was the Arab laborers who did most of the construction work. Among them were many untrained men who carried the water and heavy building material. Stonemasons, bricklayers and sculptors also came from the Arab population. Hoffmann praised their skill and their willingness to learn new techniques. He pointed out that some were expert in building arches, surpassing even the German craftsmen in this field. He also reported that one skilled and ambitious man actually built the entire church alone.[20] Only at the very end of his report did Hoffmann mention that Jews had also been employed at the site.[21] Additional information about the Jewish contribution to the AVF building was contained in German Jewish newspapers. There readers learned of Jewish sculptors and craftsmen working for the Auguste Victoria Foundation.[22] The jeweler M. A. Sozolska, who lived in Jerusalem, created a silver key for the guesthouse. The German Emperor thanked him for his marvellous work by awarding him the decoration "Goldene Adlernadel."[23] The work of the glaziers and carpenters was done mainly through Jewish companies in Jerusalem.[24] When Prince Eitel Friedrich arrived in Jerusalem for the AVF's festive opening in 1910, clergymen of all religious traditions came to welcome him at the Jerusalem train station.[25] The Arab mayor of Jerusalem gave a speech at Jaffa Gate and a Jewish girl presented flowers to the German princess.[26]

After the official opening of the AVF guesthouse, Deaconess Theodore Barkhausen, chief sister of the AVF, employed Arab servants, an Arab coachman (Kutscher Mosle) and a Nubian doorman (Hadsch Abdallah), the latter described as loyal and of very special character.[27] The gardener of the AVF complex was a German called Schauwecker. Pleased with his work and family, Sister Theodore wanted to extend his contract and raise his salary in 1911. Writing to the board of trustees, she spoke of Schauwecker’s German nationality and his "orderly wife and well-behaved children." It was important to Sister Theodore to have such an employee among the Arab workers, someone who spoke Arabic and knew how to interact with the "notorious inhabitants on the Mount of Olives," as she put it.[28]

b) The Guests of the Auguste Victoria Foundation

From its opening in April 1910 until July 1914 there were generally few guests staying at the AVF guesthouse. The head of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer and Sister Theodore reported on several occasions that the number of visitors was small and that the guesthouse was not being used to its full potential because of the inconvenience caused by ongoing construction work.[29]In 1912 Sister Theodore reported that the British appreciated the AVF's comfortable accommodation more than the Germans. As the guests comprised mainly Jews, Arabs, and the British, she came to the conclusion: "… foreigners trust us more than the Germans who do not react in a very friendly manner towards us, excepting a few."[30]In January 1913, she interpreted the hesitation and resentment of the Germans as mistrust of the new Protestant Foundation.[31]Competitiveness between the different Protestant organizations in Jerusalem might also have been a cause. Gradually the German Protestants of Palestine came to accept the new institution on the outskirts of the city. Deaconesses came for relaxation and recuperation. Groups from the Syrian Orphanage and members of the Temple Society[32] took day trips there.[33]

All in all, the guests at the AVF were a colorful bunch. Arabs, Jews, Turks, Americans and British liked to lodge and celebrate there.The visitors represented many different religions and nations and professions:an English minister, two English archaeologists, a pastor’s wife from Bethlehem, a German lady recovering from a serious disease, deaconesses from Jerusalem, an elderly English bishop, the American Consul and his wife, the director’s wife from the American Colony[34] and the Provost’s wife Mrs. Jeremias.A Jewish lawyer and his family also stayed at the guesthouse. A malaria committee from Germany was scheduled to come for a certain period of time.[35] In 1912 a Turkish doctor from Constantinople intended to visit the AVF guesthouse with his two wives. In the end he cancelled his trip, relieving Sister Theodore of a moral dilemma; a husband with two wives would have disturbed the European ambience.[36]

Various festivities took place at the AVF including the wedding of Jerusalem’s mayor in 1912. The majority of the wedding guests belonged to government circles. After the wedding ceremony, a banquet was held with many European ladies in attendance; however, the mayor’s wife, his sister, his sister-in-law, and about twenty women friends had to eat separately in the reading room as Arab women were not allowed to participate in mixed festivities. Sister Theodore was charged with meeting visitors' expectations and making suitable arrangements.[37] In 1915, the anniversary of the Sultan’s accession to the throne was celebrated in the garden of the Foundation.[38] On another occasion the Governor of Jerusalem gave a banquet in the AVF's banquet hall with one hundred and fifty guests in attendance, including the Governor’s employees and friends, consuls of different nationalities, and Arab sheikhs. It was reported to be an amazing sight, with guests arriving at the main entrance and being welcomed by the Governor. The sheikhs, wearing beautifully decorated clothes and bearing weapons, arrived at the Mount of Olives on horseback.[39]

While German Protestants were initially hesitant about the new resort on the Mount of Olives, Arabs and Jews liked to lodge there from the very start.[40] In the summer of 1913, Sister Theodore wrote that she could easily fill the entire house with Jews. She even wondered if she should offer kosher food but assumed that the board of trustees would not agree. Only a few days later, Baron Mirbach, the first trustee of the Foundation, assured her that the establishment of a Jewish kosher kitchen was not to be discussed. The guesthouse was meant for Christians.[41] That same year the deaconesses began breeding pigs on the Mount of Olives. This probably ended the discussion.[42]

3. Changing Relationships

The AVF’s relationship with the Jews in Palestine altered during World War I. After 1917 Palestine’s Germans described their connections to Jews as rare, complicated, and negatively influenced by a Jewish suspicion that every German might be an antisemite. In his annual report on the events of 1917, the Foundation’s first trustee, Baron Mirbach, wrote a detailed paragraph on Zionists in Palestine. He called Herzl’s request to support the establishment of a Jewish state ‘an imposition’. Herzl had addressed his request to the German Emperor in 1898. In his description of the conditions under which the Jews lived, Mirbach resorted to many antisemitic[43] stereotypes, describing Jews as lazy while living in filth and poverty. Many Jews – according to Mirbach - earned their income by haggling and retail trading. Mirbach believed the Zionists had gained power in Palestine through the financial support of the Americans and British. Helabeledthe Jews from Eastern Europe bad ‘elements’ that had to be kept away from German organizations in Palestine. He also claimed that Jews hated the Germans and were a danger to Germany and its Turkish ally.[44] The journal of the Jerusalem Society[45], Neueste Nachrichten aus dem Morgenlande, kept its readers updated regarding the AVF. These newsletters described the members of the Jewish community as non-religious Zionists or Communists, dangerous to society. It was thought they would "flood" the country by arriving in Palestine en masse. It was said they would change the country profoundly and that the Arabs would not be able to keep up with Jewish achievements.[46]

It can be assumed that the so-called language conflict had also influenced the Germans’ attitude to Jews in Palestine. In the years 1913-1914, a dispute about the language of teaching took place within the Jewish educational system resulting in Hebrew being the main language used in Jewish schools and kindergartens. German politics had supported the immigration of European Jews to Palestine from the middle of the 19th century. Germans had hoped to spread their language and culture in Palestine through Yiddish and German-speaking Jews, but the acceptance of the Hebrew language and the growing economic strength of the new Jewish immigrants destroyed the Germans’ hopes and dreams.[47]

Resentment towards the Jews became more outspoken in the 1920/30s when rising German National Socialism had an impact on Palestine-Germans[48] and especially after the Jerusalem earthquake of 1927 which caused damage to many buildings, including the AVF church tower and main building.[49] In order to finance the repair and future upkeep of the AVF, a financial solution had to be found.

AVF after the Earthquake, 1927

(M. Trensky, Evangelische Himmelfahrtkirche …, p. 15).

For almost ten years AVF trustees, Protestant church leaders in Germany, the Order of Kaiserswerth, the Jerusalem Society, and numerous German officials in Palestine tried to find an affordable solution to the future of the AVF on the Mount of Olives. Meetings were held in Germany and Palestine and numerous letters were written exchanging ideas and opinions. Resentment towards the Jews became even more vocal when, besides members of the Catholic Church, Jews from Germany and Palestine came forward as potential buyers of the AVF property. Their number included lawyers, physicians, and members of the Hebrew University.[50] Their efforts to buy the complex were consistently rejected by the Foundation’s board of trustees who insisted that the AVF complex was built to uphold German Protestant culture and power in Palestine, a symbol of German Protestantism. Selling it to non-Protestants was seen as shameful, harmful to German prestige and reputation.[51] Count Lüttichau, head of the Protestant Order of Kaiserswerth, expressed what many German clerical and government officials thought at the time - the AVF should rather find a solution to the question of the upkeep of the complex and its German Protestant character than lose it to "Romans[52] or Jews."[53] Professor Moritz of the German Foreign Ministry warned of selling the buildings on the Mount of Olives to Zionists which would hurt German national and religious feeling. Zionists would not take Christian sensibilities into consideration and would make it impossible for Christian services to continue at the Church of Ascension.[54] At the beginning of 1930, the German Consul General in Jerusalem, Dr. Erich Nord, articulated German misgivings about the future of the AVF building in the following way: "The symbol of Protestantism should be rebuilt … I prefer to leave the beautiful property to the Catholics rather than giving it to foreigners or even putting it into Jewish hands."[55]

In contrast to these hostile remarks about Jews, German Protestants in Palestine often emphasized their good relationship with Christian and Muslim Arabs.[56] Until the British occupation in 1917, grand celebrations were often held for Turkish and Arab officials on the Mount of Olives.[57] In the 1920s, Provost Hertzberg reported that the Germans were popular among Arabs, but Jews were friendly to them only in rare cases, while the Jewish press wrote very hostile things about Germans.[58]

In 1923/24 approximately fifty Protestant Christian Arabs regularly attended services and meetings at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem. At this time the German Protestant Community numbered 110 members, comprising sixty women and fifty men. Seven German Protestant women were married to Arabs and one German man had an Arab spouse. Margot Canaan, a Protestant Arab, was an active member of the German Lutheran Church in Jerusalem where from 1920 on she was on the church council.[59] Her husband, Dr. Taufik Canaan, worked as a physician at the German Deaconesses’ Hospital in Jerusalem.[60] He was a strong Arab nationalist who had written well-received books, The Arab Palestine Cause and Conflict in the Land of Peace.[61] Canaan also worked in the malaria department of the International Health Bureau in Jerusalem in cooperation with the German Society for the Control of Malaria. All in all the connection to the Protestant Christian Arabs was considered strong.[62]

Many articles in the German Protestant Community's newsletter (Jerusalem, 1927-1938) described Jews as playing a minor role in Palestine and having no relationship or friendships with Christian Protestants.[63] Indeed, contact between Protestants and Jews was generally very limited. From time to time, a few German-speaking Jews attended the archaeological lectures of the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology[64]. There was some interaction in the workforce, with Jewish physicians employed at the Deaconesses’ Hospital and occasionally the Provost attended a reception at the Hebrew University.[65] In general, Palestine-Germans' connections with locals (both Jew and Arab) centered mainly on economic matters.[66]

The Arab-German connection was generally described as positive; however, in reality these relationships created problems and differences in day-to-day life as mentioned above. Local AVF members, its architects and site-managers, had difficulty in accepting the Arab way of life. They often called the Arab workers slow, inefficient, and unreliable.[67] During land purchasing process for the AVF project, members of the Foundation and the German Consulate referred to the Arabs’ hesitation in selling land as "harassment, greedy behavior, an attempt to get more money."[68] In 1928, an international mission conference was held at the AVF compound. Muslims reacted strongly by calling it a provocation and a Christian attack on Islam. Protestants were blamed for sowing discord and creating conflict between Muslim and Christian Arabs. Muslims even asked both the Palestine government and European consuls to stop the conference and expel its president.[69]

Summarizing archival material, newsletters, and correspondence, German-Arab relations were ambivalent but officially summarized as good and friendly. It seems that German Protestants made a conscious decision to see their Arab relationships in a positive light in spite of their problems and differences.

4. National Protestant Chauvinism

As the number of immigrant Jews increased, anger, protest and riots erupted periodically in British-ruled Palestine; this in time became known as the "Jewish-Arab conflict." German Protestants emphasized their neutrality towards the Jewish-Arab conflict, but archival material suggests their thinking was far from neutral.

Letters, articles, and sermons show them siding with the Arab population. From the German Protestant point of view, the Arabs were the real inhabitants, the 'natives' of the region. They had gained the right to live in Palestine because they had been living in the country for more than 1,300 years after Mohammed’s successors captured Jerusalem and the entire region in 638/42 C.E. Arabs had brought their culture and language to the region and had "Arabicized" it. Their demonstrations against Jewish immigration were interpreted as a defence of Arab national rights and a struggle for their own 'Lebensraum'. The Jews of Palestine were pictured as foreigners and enemies of the Arabs. German Protestants described European Jews as intruders who profoundly changed the country by bringing Western civilization to the region and who destroyed Arab culture. They claimed that immigrant Jews purchased all Arab lands and dominated the local market, reducing many Arab families to poverty. The immigrant Jews were seen as part of "World Jewry" - Zionists plotting with the support of wealthy Americans and British. As a result, all achievements, all improvements, and all technical changes made by Jews were given a negative connotation.[70]

It is conspicuous how German Protestants quickly altered their point of view with regard to Palestine. In February 1914, Friedrich Hoppe, editor of the Neueste Nachrichten aus dem Morgenlande, praised European and particularly German achievements in the country (churches, hospitals, schools). He called the improvement in Palestine’s standard of living, culture, and agriculture a 'nonviolent invasion and a peaceful crusade'.[71] He expressed his pride that the western world, and especially Germany, had done great things for the Holy Land.[72]

However, in 1929/30 the same journal with the same editor harshly criticized the western civilization heralded by immigrant Jews: Western civilization was now perceived as flooding the country, whereby its products and technology would slowly drive out the simple character of Arab tradition and culture. Western fashion, music, and newspapers were changing the Arab culture to its detriment. Hoppe judged this entire development as shallow and soulless.[73] What made it possible for German Protestants to change their perspective within two decades? Was there a tendency to put Jews down? If so, where did it come from and on what was it based?

German Protestantism of the 19th and early 20th century displayed strong nationalist tendencies. Christianity and patriotism were seen as a single unit; each individual was considered a member of a people that God had created for a certain purpose. Some Protestant theologians and philosophers even expressed the idea that the German people were God’s chosen nation. At the beginning of the 20th century, some Protestant theologians preached in their sermons that the existence of different nations and races derived from divine order. Associated with this idea was the acceptance of hierarchies, and an uncritical attitude toward any kind of nationalism. In general, German Protestants at this time were monarchic, conservative, strongly engaged in charitable works and unsympathetic and even opposed to democracy.[74]

Germans living in Palestine were influenced and formed by the same national-religious background described above. They 'imported' German-Protestant values and ideas to a region where Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived together. Their articles, letters, and speeches mirrored their Protestant values and thoughts, which were mainly dominated by a national Protestantism, combined with a cultural arrogance and an anti-Jewish chauvinism, as the following examples illustrates:

At the opening of the AVF in Jerusalem in 1910, Chief Consistorial Councilor P. Lahusen gave a speech indicating that the new guesthouse was meant to host Christians and provide a home for Germans in a foreign country. It would be the task of Germans to bring their culture to the Holy Land. The Foundation was intended to remind people that the Kingdom of God and the German Reich belonged together. It would pave the way to bringing the Gospel of German faith and charity to the Holy Land. In his opening words he praised Jesus Christ, a figure rejected by the Jews.[75]

In April and May of 1913 the German minister Alberts went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and other holy sites. At the AVF on Mount Scopus, he enjoyed a meeting with German Protestants. In his report, published in the Neueste Nachrichten aus dem Morgenlande, Alberts wrote that Christian faith and love had been entrusted as a treasure to the German people. Spending some time as a pilgrim at the Western Wall, he felt embarrassed and shocked by the poverty and filthy appearance of Jews in the Old City. He explained their desperate situation by quoting biblical words of judgement, "Jerusalem will be crushed by pagans."[76] These remarks were probably based on the idea that Jews had not recognized the Messiah and subsequently had lost their position as God’s chosen people and now deserved God’s punishment.[77]

In 1914, on the occasion of a mission conference in Germany, Friedrich Hoppe gave a speech on “Germany and the Gospel in the Holy Land”. In his lecture Palestine was called the region of Christians and Muslims. European nations had established schools, hospitals, and churches in Palestine. They had brought machines, trains, cars, ships, etc. into the region. Germany participated in this process and could be proud of its achievements, especially in the field of agriculture. German imported products were increasing and the national influence was spreading through the German language. According to Hoppe the entire process could be called a peaceful invasion of the Holy Land with the motto, “The cross for the land of the cross!" He pointed out that Christianity had two aims, supporting European Christians in an Islamic country and engaging in missionary and social work among the "native" population by establishing schools, hospitals, and vocational training programs. Hoppe emphasized that German Protestants would not want to turn Arabs into Germans, but Arab children who were receiving a Protestant education in German schools would probably spread the German Protestant religion.[78]

Gustaf Dalman (1855-1941), the first director of the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology and temporary head of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in 1921,[79] published an article on "What’s Palestine got to do with us?"(Was geht uns Palästina an?).Writing about the Hellenistic and Roman influence on Palestine‘s architecture, he elaborated that Christianity had not been brought to “us” as a variation of the Jewish religion, but as a part of Greek-Roman culture. At the center of the Christian religion was the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The history of the German people, its culture and education was to be seen in this context. German ties to Palestine were indissoluble. Presenting an overview of the history of the German population in Palestine, Dalman mentioned with some pride that evidence of German work and German Christianity could be seen everywhere in Palestine.[80] In a previous article (1917) on Palestine’s future, he showed a strong tendency towards anti-Judaism writing that although Jews had received the right to live in the Holy Land and been invested with the task of fulfilling God’s will, when they left the region they lost that right. He envisioned Palestine as an open-air museum which would commemorate God’s plan for the Holy Land in which Jews, Muslims and Christians, Turks and Germans would work together to achieve this goal.[81]

German Protestantism provided its members with the positive values of education (Bildung), spiritual freedom and charity. For example, the deaconesses at the AVF always attempted to fulfil the aims of their Order: to care for the poor, sick, and needy. Sister Theodore and her co-sisters were especially helpful to the poor during the war.[82]On the other hand, German Protestantism was also connected with national chauvinism, culturalarrogance, and anti-Judaism. As the German Protestants resided in a foreign country with a foreign culture, traditions, and religions, these values became very important to them and affected their relationships with their Arab and Jewish neighbors.Germans abroad tended to live in close-knit units with their own German clubs and schools.[83] The German Protestantcommunityin Palestine was no different. Its relations with Jews and Arabs were minimal and centered on economic affairs.[84]Reading the archival material, one senses a perceived superiority among members of the community, although the deaconesses themselves apparently did not display arrogant behavior or pride.[85]

It can be concluded that although members of the Auguste Victoria Foundation in Jerusalem had a range of relationships with the local Jewish and Arab populations, they nonetheless displayed the same German Protestant attitude as described above.While German Protestants recognized Palestine as a country of Muslims, Jews and Christians, they often pointed out their common identity with Christian Arabs. Christianity was the common ground, the strong tie to their Arab "brothers and sisters." There is no doubt that this bond influenced their political viewpoint and shaped their relationships.

5. A Glimpse into the Thirties

After the 1927 earthquake, almost all activity at the AVF compound came to a halt. One could easily conclude that the thirties were a quiet period for the AVF and that there was no involvement among its members and the local branch of the Nazi Party in Palestine, set up by Palestine-Germans in the early 1930s.Archival documents, however, prove the opposite - members of the AVF were in fact actively involved in the Nazi movement in Palestine.[86]

German Protestants in Palestine followed the political events in Germany in 1933 with great interest. They often gathered to listen to Hitler’s speeches on the radio and felt deeply touched when the swastika flag was raised at the German Consulate in Jerusalem. All in all, they displayed "youthful energy" and renewed German pride in the early 1930s.[87] At least one third joined the local Nazi movement and almost every German Protestant admired Hitler as Germany's new Führer.[88]

From 1930 to 1936, Ernst Schneller was the representative of the AVF in Palestine. He was authorized by the German board of trustees to look after the AVF’s affairs with banks, offices, and officials in the region.[89] He strove to find a solution to the financial distress and rebuilding problems of the AVF, resulting from the earthquake mentioned above.[90] Born in Jerusalem, Ernst Schneller belonged to the religious Protestant Schneller family. His grandfather Johann Ludwig Schneller had founded the Syrian Orphanage after the persecution of Christians in Syria and Lebanon in 1860. Together with his brother Hermann, he was in charge of the orphanage workshops, which were built to train residents for a profession.[91] Ernst was also responsible for the print workshop. Furthermore, there was a bookstore run by the Syrian Orphanage located on Mamilla Road in Jerusalem. National Socialist literature was disseminated throughout the whole of Palestine by Schneller’s organization. Members of the Nazi Party got a 10% reduction if they ordered their books and pamphlets from the Syrian Orphanage bookstore. The sheets and letterheads of the local NSDAP were printed at Schneller’s print workshop.[92] There is unmistakable proof that relatives of the Schneller family were active members of the Nazi Party.[93]

In October 1936, Walter Hoffmann replaced Ernst Schneller. The new spokesman of the AVF was a member of the Temple Society which had been founded in Wuerttemberg, South Germany, in 1861.[94] In 1937/38 Hoffmann was responsible for the Winter Relief collections in Palestine.[95] Established by Hitler in 1933, the Winter Relief Committee collected money for unemployed and needy people. Donations came from businessmen and private individuals.

At the end of 1930, Ernst Rhein came to Jerusalem to head the German Lutheran Church of the Redeemer and remained its Provost until 1938. [96]As the AVF guesthouse belonged to his parish, he was also engaged in its activities. He offered numerous ideas to the board of trustees to help resume activities on the Mount of Olives. Several years after the earthquake, he wrote a strong letter of concern to the board of trustees urging its members to find a solution quickly, otherwise "groups in Jerusalem would turn to the German Nazis and their leaders in order to get financial help."[97] Ernst Rhein never joined the NSDAP in Palestine, but most of the members of his parish council did.[98] In January 1934, Provost Rhein wrote to Privy Councilor Gröning in Potsdam, a member of the AVF’s board, in which he opposed the idea of renting or selling the AVF buildings to Jews or Muslims. Rhein rejected any plan to rent the AVF facilities to Jewish physicians for the opening of a hospital. He could not understand how anyone could conceive of renting to Jews or Muslims which would damage the reputation of German Protestantism and make the Auguste Victoria Foundation a laughing stock among locals.[99]

Though the activities of the AVF on the Mount of Olives had come to a sudden halt in 1927, several individuals were still working for the AVF’s future on the Mount of Olives. Representatives of the AVF, council members of the German Protestant parish in Jerusalem, and members of the Order of Kaiserswerth all displayed a degree of closeness to the NSDAP branch in Palestine - from cooperation and friendly contact to playing an active role in the local Nazi Party or affiliated NS group. German national pride, conservative anti-democratic attitudes, Protestant beliefs, and a religious family background united them and preparedthe ground for National Socialism. As strangers in a foreign country, they felt the need for togetherness. The Nazi ideology met this need and reflected their general perception of Jews and Arabs.[100]

AVF Building, Jerusalem 1990

(M. Trensky, Evangelische Himmelfahrtkirche …, p. 15)

Chronology of the Auguste Victoria Foundation in Jerusalem

[101]

German Protestant Ministers / Provosts

in Jerusalem (1898-1939)

Auguste Victoria (1858-1921):

German Empress and Queen of Prussia

Abbreviations

Bibliography

Archives:

Altregistratur der Kaiserswerther Diakonie (ARKD):

Oelberg-Stiftung. Weitere Verwendung, 1925-1934.

Oelberg-Stiftung. Briefwechsel, 1926-1937.

Berliner Missionswerk, Archiv des Jerusalemsvereins:

Nachlass Propst Carl Malsch.

Unpublished manuscript by Günther Nieren (1967).

Evangelisches Zentralarchiv, Berlin:

 EZA 5, EZA 7 and EZA 56: Records on the Auguste Victoria Foundation, German Protestant Community and Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem.

Fliedner-Kulturstiftung Kaiserswerth, Düsseldorf:

AKD: Korrespondenz: Mirbach, Barkhausen et al.

AKD: 274/II: Jerusalem-Hospital. Oelberg-Stiftung. Bau-Angelegenheit.

AKD 274/III: Jerusalem-Hospital. Oelberg-Stiftung. Bau-Angelegenheit, 1938-1939.

 AKD 274/V: Oelberg-Stiftung. Briefe mit Theodore Barkhausen, 1909-1913.

AKD 1049: Oelberg-Stiftung.Devisen-Angelegenheit (foreign currency affairs)

 1.-7. Bericht des Ordenshauses Kaiserin Auguste Victoria Stiftung auf dem Oelberge bei Jerusalem (Oelberg-Stiftung) für die Jahre 1903-1909 (Annual Reports 1903-1909)

 9.-13.Bericht des Ordenshauses Kaiserin Auguste Victoria Stiftung auf dem Oelberge bei Jerusalem (Oelberg-Stiftung) für die Jahre 1911-1915 (Annual Reports 1911-1915).

 14.-18. Bericht des Ordenshauses Kaiserin Auguste Victoria Stiftung auf dem Oelberge bei Jerusalem (Oelberg-Stiftung) für die Jahre 1916-1920 (Annual Reports 1916-1920).

 Jahresberichte der Auguste Victoria Pfingsthaus Stiftung, im Sonderdruck (Annual Reports, offprints).

Israel State Archives, Jerusalem:

Record 67: The German Consulates in Palestine 1842-1939:

437/306פ: Grundstück auf dem Oelberg (Plot on Mt. Olives) 1903-05.

437/307פ: Grundstück auf dem Oelberg (Plot on Mt. Olives) July 1906-1907.

438/308פ: Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria Stiftung.

438/309פ: Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria Stiftung.

486/918פ: Malariabekämpfung (malaria control).

486/920Aפ: Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria Stiftung.

497/1049פ: Feierlichkeiten (celebrations).

 528/1423פ: Oelbergstiftung.

 528/1424פ-: Oelbergstiftung.

YadVashem Archives, Jerusalem:

Record R 3.

Yearbooks, journals, periodicals, newspapers:

Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums. Supplement "Der Gemeindebote," Berlin, May 6, 1910.

Evangelisches Gemeindeblatt für Palästina, Jerusalem, 1927-1938.

Das Heilige Land. Organ des Deutschen Vereins vom Hl. Lande, Cologne 1904, 1906, 1911-1913, 1920, 1926-1927, 1931-1938.

Israelitisches Familienblatt, Hamburg, 1910, 1919-1921.

Nachrichtenblatt fuer die Teilnehmer und Foederer des Deutschen Vereins vom Hl. Land, Cologne, July 1928.

Neueste Nachrichten aus dem Morgenland. Vereinsschrift des Jerusalemsvereins, Berlin, 1898-1937.

Palästinajahrbuch des Deutschen evangelischen Instituts für Altertumswissenschaft des Heiligen Landes zu Jerusalem. Ed. Gustaf Dalman. Vol. 16/1920. Berlin, 1921.