The Berlin Boxing Club

“I longed to confess that not only did I not consider myself Jewish, but I disliked Jews as much as they did.”

Until he is targeted as a Jew by a group of school bullies, Karl does not think very much about his Jewish identity. He has even absorbed some of the stereotypes that surround Jewish people—that they are avaricious and religious and keep to themselves—stereotypes that seem to Karl to have little to do with his own worldly and cultivated family. This sense of his own individuality is one legacy that has been handed down to him by his family and is under attack in the Nazi regime, which sees people only in herds.  

“The word ‘fight’ stung my ears almost as badly as the word ‘Jew.’”

Karl learns how to fight the hard way: by being attacked. His new passion for boxing arises out of a desire to defend himself against bullies, on the one hand, and to emulate these bullies, on the other. The appearance of toughness and masculinity is very much valued among Hitler and his followers; Karl wishes to beat boys like Gertz Diener at their own game. 

“‘The time for pretty pictures of flowers and kings has passed,’ my father explained. ‘Art needs to show life, real life, in all its wonders and horrors.’”

Karl’s father’s idea of great art has been formed by his experience in World War I, and is at odds with his fastidious persona. While he appears refined and civilized, he most values art that is blunt and impolite: art that shows “real life.