"Now, what chance would a boy like me have had in the old country?" Governor Simon Bamberger of Utah wondered in the spring of 1918. Born in Hesse, Germany, Bamberger was the second elected Jewish governor in US history and the first non Mormon governor of Utah. As a Jew, would he have had the same opportunities in Germany? Would he have been able to become premier of of his native Hesse, for example? Being both an immigrant and Jewish, was it easier for German Jews like Simon Bamberger to enter US rather than German politics? Was his Jewish identity a factor during his election and his term in office?
These are some of the questions this comparison of the role and work of Jewish-German immigrants in US politics with Jewish politicians in Germany seeks to answer. A main achievement of this thesis by Sven Stromann-Bräuer is that all German-Jewish politicians in the United States are gathered here for the first time. In US cities alone, there were almost 100 Jewish immigrants from Germany who had become mayor. In addition to this, numerous members of the state legislatures and the US Congress, governors, ambassadors and cabinet members are represented here. The most important achievement of this thesis lies in the surveying of the German Jewish participation in the political life of the United States.
