Alfred Wiener | Granta

Alfred Wiener

Alfred Wiener (1885-1964) was a German Jew who dedicated much of his life to documenting antisemitism and racism in Germany and Europe, and uncovering crimes of Germany’s Nazi government. He trained as an Arabist and spent 1909-1911 in the Middle East. He is best known as founder and long-time director of the Wiener Library.

Publications

The Fatherland and the Jews

Alfred Wiener

The inaugural title in a collaboration between the Wiener Library and Granta Books.

These two pamphlets, ‘Prelude to Pogroms? Facts for the Thoughtful’ and ‘German Judaism in Political, Economic and Cultural Terms’ mark the first time that Alfred Wiener, the founder of the Wiener Holocaust Library, has been published in English. Together they offer a vital insight into the antisemitic onslaught Germany’s Jews were subjected to as the Nazi Party rose to power, and introduce a sharp and sympathetic thinker and speaker to a contemporary audience. Tackling issues such as the planned rise of antisemitism and the scapegoating of minorities, these pamphlets speak as urgently to the contemporary moment as they provide a window on to the past.