Hollaender, Ludwig
HOLLAENDER, LUDWIG
HOLLAENDER, LUDWIG (1877–1936), lawyer; from 1921 to 1933 leader of *Centralverein deutscher Staatsbuerger juedischen Glaubens, the largest Jewish organization in Germany. From 1909 he edited the Centralverein's organ Im Deutschen Reich, and in 1919 he founded the *Philo Verlag publishing house. Hollaender also took a prominent part – from his student days in Munich – in the affairs of the *Kartell-Convent, Deutscher Studenten Juedischen Glaubens, as well as in those of the Grand Lodge of B'nai B'rith. A man of strong personality and idealism, he used his considerable intellectual and political abilities to promote German-Jewish national consciousness and to defend the equality of German Jews against the rising tide of German and eventually Nazi antisemitism. He intended to organize the whole of German Jewry within the ranks of the Centralverein, whose aim was to expose to non-Jews the irrationality and injustice of antisemitism. Hollaender engaged in a running debate with Zionists who disdained the apologetic tone of his statements. The advent of Hitler destroyed the foundations of Hollaender's work. Apart from numerous articles published in the German-Jewish press, he wrote Deutschjuedische Probleme der Gegenwart (1929).
bibliography:
Unser Ludwig Hollaender (1936), contains bibliography; ylbi, 7 (1962), 39–74; A. Pancker, Der juedische Abwehrkampf (1968); Wiener Library, German Jewry (1958), index. add. bibliography: ndb, 9 (1972), 537f.
[Alexander Carlebach]