"Der Phönizier-Mythos im deutschsprachigen Zionismus"

Résumé En

This paper foregrounds the way German Zionists used the enigmatic and mythicized Phoenicians of ancient times in their writings on Jewish colonization in Palestine. Building on conceptions that had crystallized into a stereotype since the Enlightenment, Zionists developed a complex relationship to the Phoenicians as a historical reference. Of crucial importance was the question of affinity. In the common imagination, the Phoenicians of the distant past and the Jews of modern times bore obvious resemblance. But were those shared features reasons for hope or did they call for change? The answer to that question ultimately depended on whichever vision of Zionism was given priority: while authors who were enthusiastic about progress tended to see the Phoenicians as a model to emulate with up-to-date technology, those who focused on the struggle for land were loath to identify with a people of civilized merchants who apparently had dissolved away without a fight.