Sociability and Acculturation in German Spas

This chapter assesses an unexamined aspect of the process by which enlightened Jewish women became integrated into non-Jewish European culture and society: the practice of visiting spas. Their letters reveal that these women often chose to spend the summer months at one of the spa centres of central Europe. The spas offered many advantages alongside their original function as places of healing and recuperation: the semi-urban way of life which developed in these resorts over the course of the eighteenth century offered visitors a wide array of pastimes and enjoyments, such as musical and theatrical performances, parties, and walks along the main boulevards and in more rural surroundings. For Jewish women in particular, the unique, liberated atmosphere of the spas offered a space in which they could widen their circle of acquaintances, integrate themselves into non-Jewish society, and take an active part in discussions on cultural and other issues. Thus, the annual visit to one or more spas, which became a notable feature of bourgeois life, constituted an important component in the acculturation of the modernizing Jewish women discussed in this book.