On the correlation between research strategies and socio-political bias in German genealogy, 1898-1935

Around the beginning of the twentieth century, German genealogists shifted their disciplinary focus to a particular type of genealogical investigation known as the ancestors' chart (Ahnentafel). This research tool gradually rose in importance, supported by a variety of internal academic motivations, nationalistic educational agendas and business interests. At the same time, parish registers became the major source for retrieving genealogical information on the rural population. The paper examines the way in which these research practices turned into means of social discrimination against Jews, both on the disciplinary level and in the national arena in Germany during the first third of the twentieth century.