Charlotte Knobloch

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Charlotte Knobloch in January 2019

Charlotte Knobloch (nee Neuland ; born October 29, 1932 in Munich ) has been President of the Israelite Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria since 1985 . From 2005 to 2013 she was Vice President of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), and since 2013 she has been the Commissioner for Holocaust Memory. From 2003 to 2010 she was Vice President of the European Jewish Congress (EJC). From June 7, 2006 to November 28, 2010 she was President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany . Before that, she had been its vice-president since 1997. Charlotte Knobloch is the patron of the Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Studienwerk for the promotion of talented Jews.

Live and act

Knobloch is the daughter of the Jewish lawyer and later Bavarian Senator Fritz Neuland . Her mother Margarethe - of non-Jewish descent - converted to Judaism. After her parents divorced in 1936, Charlotte was raised by her grandmother Albertine Neuland, who was murdered in Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1944 . Her uncle's former domestic servant, Kreszentia Hummel , saved Charlotte from deportation to the Theresienstadt ghetto concentration camp - she took the girl up in the summer of 1942 on her parents' farm in Arberg in Central Franconia and gave her up as an illegitimate child of her own; In 2017 she was posthumously awarded “ Righteous Among the Nations ” for salvation . Charlotte stayed in Arberg for three years, and in 1945 she returned to Munich with her father.

In 1951 she married Samuel Knobloch (1922–1990), a survivor of the Krakow ghetto . The marriage resulted in a son (the later bank manager Bernd Knobloch ) and two daughters (Sonja and Iris). Samuel and Charlotte Knobloch originally wanted to emigrate to Australia. After the birth of their first children, they made a different decision and the family stayed in Munich.

Knobloch co-founded the German section of the Women's International Zionist Organization (WIZO) and was treasurer of the Jewish Women's Association in Germany.

In 1985 Knobloch became president of the Jewish Community in Munich and Upper Bavaria . After the death of her husband in 1990, she devoted herself entirely to her offices and her commitment to the Jewish community. From 2004, the new Jewish Center was built in Munich for the town's community, which had grown to around 9,500 members. It consists of a new main synagogue, a parish hall and a Jewish museum . The synagogue was opened on November 9th, 2006, the Jewish Museum built and operated by the City of Munich and the community center followed in March 2007.

She described her goals in the World Jewish Congress as follows: “The focus of my work in the World Congress will be the further networking of the German-speaking Jewish communities in Europe and the building of bridges with the Jewish community in the United States. The fight against growing anti-Semitism, especially in Eastern Europe, has a high priority. "

The efforts of the Union of Progressive Jews in Germany and the liberal Jewish community Munich Beth Shalom, which is part of it, for public recognition and better integration into the structures of the Central Council did not always find the undivided support of Charlotte Knobloch at the beginning. At the opening of the new liberal synagogue in Munich in December 2011, however, she noted that the "years of coexistence [...] had become a coexistence of both Jewish communities" and called for them to continue on this good path together.

On June 7, 2006 she was elected President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany to succeed Paul Spiegel . On February 7, 2010, she declared that she did not want to run for this office again in order to enable a generation change. On November 28, 2010, Dieter Graumann was elected her successor.

Knobloch was a member of the 13th Federal Assembly on May 23, 2009 , to which she had been elected on the CSU electoral list .

Positions

Charlotte Knobloch, 2005

In addition to numerous calls to fight against extreme groups attached to a new nationalism, Charlotte Knobloch expressed in the Tagesspiegel on June 11, 2006 the desire to allow more patriotism for Germany: "Why shouldn't the Germans be proud of their country?" Germany could be proud of how they “built this country with their hands” after the war. In the same argument, she also warned against feelings of guilt, which in the young generation unjustifiably existed because of the German past: "We must do everything we can to ensure that young people do not feel that they are guilty of the past." Knobloch to more resolute action against anti-Semitism : "Anti-Semitic and right-wing extremist attacks have achieved an obviousness and aggressiveness that are reminiscent of the time after 1933."

In February 2007 Knobloch called on the federal government to take a clearer stance against Iran . As a first step, Chancellor Merkel must introduce German economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Due to the EU Council Presidency, Germany has a special role to play here.

In May 2007 she rejected the participation of German companies in the construction of a planned Transrapid line in Iran as a “fatal political signal”. Knobloch said, "in view of the nuclear ambitions and the inhuman remarks of the Iranian ruler, it is scandalous to do business with this regime".

According to Pope Benedict XVI. In the amended version of the Good Friday Prayer , in March 2008 she demanded the withdrawal of passages that were perceived as discriminatory and made the resumption of the dialogue with the Catholic Church dependent on this. Many Jews interpreted the new version ("Let us also pray for the Jews so that God, our Lord, enlightens their hearts so that they may recognize Jesus Christ as the Savior of all people ...") as an indirect call to mission to the Jews . Charlotte Knobloch explained: "Especially this German Pope ... I would have expected that because of his age he got to know the discrimination of Judaism, the exclusion of Judaism."

In October 2012, Knobloch said of the circumcision debate that she was "very sad about the supposedly fanatical experts who are not discussing legal or medical issues, but rather are clearly looking for anti-Semitic and anti-religious argumentation models" and the discussion about whether circumcision - mostly religiously based - is Assaulting young boys or causing trauma was "extremely superfluous" and "has not done our country any good in the world either". She now hopes "that this topic will finally disappear from the public discussion". What was presented in this debate was "pure anti-Semitism".

Knobloch further argued against criticism of religious circumcision: “The effects are more like a vaccination than an amputation, with which the rudest critics like to compare circumcision. In view of the elementary religious relevance, in the weighing of interests, the factual bodily harm fulfilled as in any operation appears marginal. [...] I'm not ready to give up even an iota of Jewish identity. We want what is best for our children as we initiate them into the covenant with God and root them in our faith. I demand that we can live Judaism as we understand it, not as others would like to. Tolerance and acceptance require respect and consideration. These free-democratic basic ideas must remain untouched. "

Her long-term vehement engagement against the art project Stolpersteine as a ground-level memorial on sidewalks, which she in contrast to other prominent Jews, such as B. the Vice President of the Jewish World Congress Dieter Graumann and the President of the Central Council of Jews Josef Schuster , regards as an unworthy form of commemoration.

On January 23, 2019, Knobloch gave a speech in the Bavarian state parliament during the commemoration ceremony for Nazi victims in which she criticized the AfD as anti- constitutional and accused it of despising democratic values ​​and maintaining close ties with right-wing extremists . A large part of the AfD parliamentary group then left the state parliament. Knobloch then said to the Augsburger Allgemeine that the danger "which the party and its supporters pose for our liberal democracy [...] is becoming so clear". In an interview with Cologne Cathedral Radio , she affirmed that it was important to her to have taken a position in commemorating the victims of the time, because that also means standing up for democracy.

Others

In 2020, Knobloch obtained the change from the original exhibition title "City air makes free - Wittelsbach city founder" of the Bavarian State Exhibition 2020 , which reminded you of the Nazi slogan "Work makes you free", to "City liberated - Wittelsbach city founder".

Controversy

Knobloch was widely criticized after giving a full-page interview to Junge Freiheit, classified as the mouthpiece of the New Right , in October 2000 . The President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Paul Spiegel , said that one had to think very carefully about which organ to make available, because one was "all too easily abused". As a result, the directorate, the second highest body of the ZdJ, decided that the Central Council would no longer be a discussion partner for right-wing media in the future.

honors and awards

In 2005 Knobloch was made an honorary citizen of Munich for her outstanding commitment to the reconciliation of Jews and non-Jews and her many years of work for the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Munich and Upper Bavaria . In 2008 she received the Georg Meistermann Prize from the city of Wittlich . In 2008 she was awarded the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and in 2010 the Grand Cross of Merit with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany. Knobloch received the highest civil award in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2010 she received the Eugen Bolz Prize . In May 2009 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Tel Aviv University . In January 2011 she was made an Honorary Senator of the University for Jewish Studies Heidelberg .

In 2016, the Eugen Biser Foundation awarded her the Eugen Biser Prize for her work for Judeo-Christian understanding .

Voluntary work and memberships

Charlotte Knobloch is involved in various voluntary activities around the world and is a member of various Jewish and non-Jewish organizations. Among other things, she is a member of the following bodies:

Autobiography

literature

  • Rita Kohlmaier: Charlotte Knobloch. In: women 70+. Cool. Rebellious. Wise. Elisabeth Sandmann Verlag, Munich 2020, ISBN 978-3-945543-76-4 , pp. 22-27.
  • Wilfried Köpke : If not now, then when? On the future of German Jewry. Charlotte Knobloch, Micha Brumlik and Gesa S. Ederberg in conversation with Wilfried Köpke. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau a. a. 2007, ISBN 978-3-451-29395-5 .
  • Michael Schleicher: Charlotte Knobloch. München-Verlag, Munich 2009 (= MünchenPortrait. Volume 2), ISBN 978-3-937090-32-0 .

Web links

Commons : Charlotte Knobloch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Charlotte Knobloch  - Quotes

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Show your attitude", a conversation with Dr. H. c. Charlotte Knobloch on the importance of commemorating November 9, 1938 . In: IKG Munich and Upper Bavaria (ed.): Jüdische Gemeinde Aktuell . No. 11/2018 , p. 21 .
  2. ^ Albertine Neuland. In: yvng.yadvashem.org. Documentation center Yad Vashem, accessed on February 14, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Knobloch is elected - she is the last survivor at the head of the 'Central Council of Jews in Germany' - and she knows the dark and light sides of her fatherland. ( Memento from December 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Anna Hoben: Honoring Kreszentia Hummel. Süddeutsche Zeitung , October 25, 2017, accessed on October 25, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Louis Lewitan: That was my salvation: "It happened on Purim in 1948, I was fifteen and a half years old" | ZEITmagazin . In: The time . November 21, 2016, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed November 21, 2016]).
  6. ↑ Alice Schwarzer, Ellen Presser: Charlotte Knobloch: I am not a fellow citizen. In: emma.de. March 1, 1999, accessed February 14, 2019 (EMMA, January / February 1999).
  7. ↑ Central Council of Jews in Germany : ... and another top office. Vice-President of the Central Council, Charlotte Knobloch, is the new Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress. in: Future 5th year, issue 1 from January 28, 2005 / 18th Schwat 5765
  8. ^ Katrin Diehl: Munich: New cooperation. In: juedische-allgemeine.de. December 15, 2011, accessed July 29, 2015 .
  9. ↑ Generation change at the Central Council of Jews: Knobloch will no longer run in November. Tagesschau.de, February 7, 2010, archived from the original on February 9, 2010 ; Retrieved February 7, 2010 .
  10. ^ Graumann new President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany. Archived from the original on December 1, 2010 ; Retrieved November 28, 2010 .
  11. ↑ Central Council of Jews calls for economic sanctions against Iran ( Memento of October 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ Klaus Ott: Billion project - Transrapid so far nicely calculated. In: sueddeutsche.de . December 8, 2008, accessed July 29, 2015 .
  13. ^ Jewish community in Germany calls for withdrawal of the controversial Good Friday prayers. In: The Standard of March 21, 2008
  14. ↑ dpa: Knobloch calls the bill on circumcision important and balanced. In: fnp.de. October 4, 2012, accessed July 29, 2015 .
  15. ↑ Knobloch calls the bill on circumcision important and balanced. In: ZEIT ONLINE . October 4, 2012, archived from the original on October 21, 2014 ; accessed on February 14, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Charlotte Knobloch sees long-term damage from the circumcision debate. In: de.nachrichten.yahoo.com. October 25, 2012, archived from the original on December 8, 2015 ; Retrieved July 29, 2015 .
  17. ↑ Charlotte Knobloch: Comment: The Brit Mila stays! In: juedische-allgemeine.de. July 12, 2012, accessed July 29, 2015 .
  18. ↑ Jakob Wetzel: Debate about stumbling blocks - commemoration that divides. In: sueddeutsche.de . October 13, 2014, accessed July 29, 2015 .
  19. ↑ Claudia Keller: Stumbling block ban divides Munich. In: tagesspiegel.de . October 28, 2014, accessed July 29, 2015 .
  20. ^ Anti-Semitism: Charlotte Knobloch threatened after AfD scandal. In: faz.net. January 24, 2019, accessed January 25, 2019 .
  21. ↑ Bavarian State Parliament: AfD MPs leave memorial service for Nazi MPs. In: faz.net. January 23, 2019, accessed January 25, 2019 .
  22. ↑ State Exhibition 2020: "City Liberated - Wittelsbach Founder Cities". In: wk.bayern.de. April 2, 2019, accessed June 18, 2020 .
  23. ↑ Marlies Emmerich: No more interviews for right-wing newspapers. ( Memento from April 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) www.berliner-zeitung.de, October 30, 2000
  24. ↑ Honorary doctorate for Charlotte Knobloch. In: hagalil.com. June 8, 2009, accessed February 14, 2019 .
  25. ↑ Michael Stork: Dr. hc Charlotte Knobloch. In: hfjs.eu. January 12, 2011, accessed February 14, 2019 .
  26. ↑ Eugen Biser Prize - Eugen Biser Foundation. In: www.eugen-biser-stiftung.de. Retrieved September 13, 2016 .
  27. ↑ Eugen Biser Prize for Charlotte Knobloch. domradio.de, September 13, 2016, accessed on September 13, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Knobloch, Charlotte
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Neuland, Charlotte (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German President of the Jewish Community in Munich and Upper Bavaria
DATE OF BIRTH October 29, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich