Tietz Lecture on Addressing Antisemitism

Senior Fellow Alexander Busold and his colleagues from the Her.Tietz Initiative organized a webinar on the topic “Addressing Antisemitism One Year After the Attack in Halle.”

Antisemitism never went away in Germany. Now it is resurging – both covertly and increasingly in public. Intensifying Antisemitic hate speech is also followed by acts of violence: in Germany, between 2017 and 2019, Antisemitic acts of violence doubled (Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution; 2020). In this webinar, pianist Igor Levit and author Lena Gorelik discussed Antisemitism in Germany today – and the actions that need to be taken now.

On the event „Tietz Lecture on Addressing Antisemitism“
The annual lecture series is named after the Jewish merchant Oscar Tietz, founder of the department store chain “Hermann Tietz” (whose name was later changed to “Hertie”). In the 1930s, the Nazis forced the Tietz family out of their company through a combination of antisemitic repressions. The assets of the charitable Hertie Foundation, that, among others, provides funding to the Hertie School, originate from the sale of the Hertie department store chain.

The event was held in German, with a professional English live translation. The discussion was followed by a Q&A session, during which the webinar participants had a chance to ask questions to Igor Levit, Lena Gorelik, and Dalia Grinfeld. You can re-watch the whole event here.

The Her.Tietz Initiative initiative raised a lot of attention in the German press:

• The Anxious Elite (Zeit Online, December 10th, 2020 – in German)
• I should have been more aware of the subject of Aryanization (Spiegel, December 2nd, 2020 – in German and by subscription only)
• It’s about keeping alive the memory of the Tietz family (Deutschlandfunk, November 30th, 2020 – in German)
• The economic talk: Processing the Aryanization Heritage of the Hertie-foundation (Deutschlandfunk, November 30th, 2020 – Radio feature in German)
• Hertie Foundation faces “Aryanization” history (Tagesspiegel, November 30th, 2020 – in German)
• Hertie Foundation Commissions Scientific Research into the History of Wealth (Hertie Foundation, November 27th, 2020 – in German)
• Hertie Foundation under criticism: A historical trademark (FAZ, November 26th, 2020 – in German)
• Hertie remembers too late (Taz, November 12th, 2020 – in German)
• “Aryanization” history catches up with Hertie-School (Tagesspiegel, November 9th, 2020 – in German and by subscription only)
• History of the Hertie Foundation: Confronting it – yes, Transparency – no (Süddeutsche Zeitung, October 25th, 2020 – in German)
• Hertie and the Nazi dictatorship: Was there something? (Süddeutsche Zeitung, October 16th, 2020 – in German)
• To read more about the Initiative, here is an article in English from the Financial Times (Financial Times, October 31st, 2020 – in English and by subscription only)

This project was funded through the 2019 Grant Competition on the topic “Addressing Antisemitism in Germany, Poland, Ukraine, the United States and online.” Due to generous support from the Foundation EVZ, Humanity in Action is in a position to financially support such projects.