The review essay discusses recent publications (1981-1991) on the history of the Jewish minority in Germany and specifically considers religious life, education and other institutions of acculturation, the economic development and way of life in town and in the countryside, the participation in German political life and the internal ideological development of German Jewry as well as women's and family history. The author concludes that in the process of acculturation the Jewish minority, being only partially integrated into German society, developed a specific subculture which allowed for the preservation of a Jewish identity, and , what is more important, led to its redefinition.