Starting with S. M. Dubnov’s “Geschichte eines jüdischen Soldaten” (1918), the article focusses on (a) the “Judenpolitik” of the German military authorities in Eastern Europe during the First World War as expressed in the “Appeals to the Jews in Poland and Russia”, (b) the activities of German rabbis and religious teachers in the service of the German military authorities in the district of Ober Ost, and (c) the “positive” consequences of this “Judenpolitik”, particularly for the Jews in Vilna, which include the foundation of Jewish schools on the German-Jewish pattern, the foundation of the – later famous – Jewish theatre Vilner Trupe, and the revitalization of the Yiddish press.