German Anti-Semitism In The 19th Century

Anti-Semitism in the second half of 19th century: origins of prejudice

Introduction

Second half 19th century has become a revival of anti-Semitic prejudices in Europe that seemed to be regressive for a long time. Back then persecution of Jews had been going on for decades but to the same extent as any other racial, political or religious discrimination. However, within a short period of time, the ideas of modern era and Industrialization reinforced existing misconceptions. During my research I found out that besides some common ideas emerging in Europe in the second half of 19th century, every county had its own special character of anti-Semitism. However, all taken cases had a feeling of hostility towards the Jews based on Christian tradition

At that time nobody would consider Germany as a principle ideological anti-sematic country. Moreover, many social scientists believe that the German Confederation was less prejudiced towards Jewry than other European state at that time. German anti-Semitism had very distinctive features and reflected political diversity and territorial fragmentation of the country. The author argues that German anti-Semitism referred to cultural code and socio-economic situation. The last supports the arguments of Robert S. Wistrich. From one side there was frustrated and vulnerable middle class indignant about inequality associated with capitalism. As I’ve mentioned before, Germany was very fragmented and peasants in some parts favoured from industrialization. But outbreaks of hostility frequently connected with concrete events or laws. For example, from 1890th onwards the government raised taxes in an attempt to increase budget for further industrialization and military expenses. That was a step towards keeping pace with France. Middle- and low- class groups in the central Germany used anti-Semitism as a great channel for realising they anger. What personally surprised me is that Marx in his early essays described an ambiguous meaning of Juventum that meant both commerce and Jewry . A new idea that the author puts forward is aristocratic

That explains why anti-Semitism was a peripheral concept prevailing among certain groups of people (i.e. working class and/or bourgeoisie). “A German peasant could at one and the same time buy from a Jew and vote for an antisemitic party, and a few years later support the socialists and participate in social activities organized by the antisemitic Agrarian League.