LBI Lecture Series 2024 - Prof. Kay Schiller

LBI Lecture Series 2024 - Prof. Kay Schiller

A German-Jewish Athlete during the Age of Extremes: Alex Natan (1906–71)

By Leo Baeck Institute London

Date and time

Starts on Thu, 10 Oct 2024 18:00 GMT+1

Location

Senate House

University of London Malet St London WX1E 7HU United Kingdom

About this event

  • 1 hour 30 minutes

As a gay high-performance runner, antifascist intellectual and sportswriter, Alex Natan was a quintessential outsider in Weimar Berlin. His marginal status also remained a constant during his forced emigration to Britain, as a precarious refugee in pre-war London, as a long-time internee during World War II, as well as a schoolteacher in the Midlands and author and journalist in post-war Britain and West Germany. This lecture will demonstrate how an unusual German Jew was affected by the ‘age of extremes’, making his life story quite typical of the predicaments of the 20th century.

Kay Schiller is Professor of Modern European History at the University of Durham. He has published articles and books on German cultural and sports history, including on the history of the Olympics, on football history, on modern German-Jewish history and on the history of the Federal Republic and the GDR. He is currently researching (with Udi Carmi) the influence of German sports models on sports in Palestine and Israel, with a special focus on the activities of the Zionist functionary Emmanuel Ernst Simon (1898–1988).


This season’s lecture series Outsiders in German-Jewish History seeks to uncover the shared experiences of individuals and communities who found themselves on the margins of society. Transcending both time and geography, talks will offer different perspectives on the resilience and tenacity of those who have grappled with the challenges of being outsiders. How have they found identity and a sense of belonging in societies that have not understood or even accepted them?


More information about this lecture: https://leobaeck.co.uk/schiller-24

More information about the 2024 Lecture Series: https://www.leobaeck.co.uk/LS-2024

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Leo Baeck Institute London

The Leo Baeck Institute London, founded in 1955, was named after the last public representative of the Jewish community in Nazi Germany. Its members conduct and support research into the history and culture of German-speaking Jewry from the 17th century to the present day. The Institute aims to facilitate academic exchange among all of those engaged in understanding the history and culture of German-speaking Jews in Europe and throughout its diaspora. The LBI London also encourages the study of the German and European Jewish experience from the 17th to the 21st centuries to help understand contemporary socio-political debates concerning immigration, minorities, integration, and civil rights. Teaching and research capacities expanded significantly with the move in 2011 from its historic home in central London to Queen Mary, University of London. Since then the LBI London has established German- and European-Jewish History and Culture as a teaching and research field at the School of History at Queen Mary. The LBI London remains an independent institute and is a registered charity under English law.

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