Some of the Israeli public opposed the establishment of relations
Marcel Reich-Ranicki and the German Literature
Reich-Ranicki (1920-2013), a Polish-born Jew and Holocaust survivor, was the preeminent authority in modern literary criticism in Germany
David Ben Gurion Meets Conrad Adenauer in New York, 1960
At the beginning of 1960, Israeli and West German leaders decided that it was time for a certain détente. This took the form of an official meeting between the two head statesmen: David Ben Gurion and Konrad Adenauer
Postcard from Curt David Wormann to Felix Weltsch, 1955
Who was Curt Wormann? What was he doing in Germany just ten years after the end of the war? And who was Felix Weltsch?
Erich Kästner’s Poems in Hebrew, 1965
Kästner sympathized with the Zionist idea and even visited Israel a number of times. Some of his books were translated into Hebrew already in the 1930s
Theodor Heuss in Jerusalem
“The Germans must not forget what was done during these shameful years. […] Nobody, absolutely no one, will relieve us from that shame.”
Letter of the Author Moshe Yaakov Ben Gavriel to His Friend in Germany regarding the Future German Ambassador to Israel, 1963
Among the letters preserved in his personal archive in the National Library one can find correspondences with individuals in Germany discussing the question of establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries
Munich Olympics
Massacre of the Israeli Athletes on German Soil
The Reparations Agreement of 1952 and the response in Israel
Not only did many German citizens have reservations about the agreement-in-process. Considerable portions of the Israeli public were also unprepared to accept neither the very concept of negotiations with Germany nor the funds from the “land of the murderers,” which was defined by opponents as “blood money.”
Peace Prize of the German Book Trade Awarded to Martin Buber, 1953
Buber’s winning the prize made many waves in the German media, and it can be assumed that the event was a paving stone in the path to the establishment of official relations between West Germany and Israel
