ABSTRACT
Returning to 20th-century discussions of empathy in the German language, especially as developed by Edmund Husserl, reveals a much more complex and nuanced experience of intersubjective connection. On this basis, this chapter examines Holocaust education in Germany and the conceptualization of empathy that constitutes it. Arguably, empathy has become the most celebrated political emotion of the 21st century. The first German philosopher who engaged with the concept Einfluehlung was the 18th-century Romantic Johann Gottfried Herder, who talked about the connection between feeling and knowing. Since the author finished her research, Islamophobic attacks have increased dramatically in Germany. In the first official report of anti-Muslim hate crimes in Germany, the German Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that close to 1,000 hate crimes committed against Muslims and mosques were reported in 2017, which left 33 people injured. These attacks intensify feelings of fear among the Muslim minority.
