ABSTRACT
Jews were a significant and well-established element in Prague by the middle of the nineteenth century, where in fact they had enjoyed a permanent settlement along with a developed communal life since the eleventh century. The chapter analysis of Jewish participation in the German liberal politics of Prague, with some comparisons to other cities in Central and East Central Europe in the half century prior to World War I. Similar conditions prevailed in a number of other German cities where deferential politics operated, and Jewish middle-class notables were elected to various German municipal councils in the 1850s and 1860s. As in a number of cities in Germany, so in Prague middle-class Jews began their involvement in public life even before 1848. In many, but not all German middle-class circles, Jews found new barriers to their participation in public life. Jewish middle-class notables had no trouble commanding respect from both Jews and Christians in the local liberal associations.
