Political anti-Semitism in Germany, 1871-1914 (3 of 5): "racial" anti-Semitism

Otto Boeckel, the "peasant king of Hesse"

Paul Massing, Rehearsal for Destruction: A Study of Political Anti-Semitism in Imperial Germany (1949)

Political and racial anti-Semitism were real phenomena in late 19th-century Germany and had a significant impact on politics. But they were largely a side-show to the Conservative Party of Prussian Junkers, other big landlords and the conservative Protestant hierarchy. The political anti-Semites had some success in making "the Jews" a bogeyman for an array of social problems, especially during periods of harder economic times. In periods when the Conservatives were outside the government coalitions, they found it convenient to make use of the anti-Semites, not so convenient when they were in the government coalitions. Especially among the leaders of "racial" anti-Semitism, there was genuine fanaticism and a keen desire to suppress or even expel Jews from Germany. But these elements never had the political clout to force significant governmental measures against Jews:

Theodor Fritsch and his Anti-Semites' Catechism; Fritsch eventually wound up in prison for blackmail

Neither the anti-Semitic movement of the eighties nor of the nineties succeeded in bringing about any changes whatsover in the legal status of the Jewish group. Not a single law was passed that infringed upon the emancipation act of 1869. This in a country in which there was at the time considerable discrimination against Catholics, Socialists, and Poles. The demands of the racial anti-Semites that the Jewish group be put under legal restrictions never had the slightest chance. When, at the first "International Congress of Anti-Semites" at Dresden (1882), Ernst Henrici moved that all Jews be expelled from Germany, no other than Adolf Stoecker assured him that, in a contest as to who should be expelled from Germany, the Jews or the anti-Semites, the decision would most certainly go against the anti-Semites.' Stoecker's biographer, Nazi professor Walter Frank, agrees that "the whole anti-Semitic movement which, between 1876 and 1900, had such a wide appeal, did not noticeably change the nature of the Jewish problem one way or the other. The situation in the Prussian-German state continued to be such that by and large Jewry's economic, social and cultural power was left untouched, whereas Jews were, on the whole, excluded from the administrative apparatus."' [my emphasis] (p. 107)

Political anti-Semitism faded considerably in importance during the period 1895-1914, as a strong recovery from the international economic Crisis of 1893 took hold. The anti-Semitic voting base in rural areas dropped off as agricultural prosperity returned. Massing quotes Willi Buch saying, "By 1911, anti-Semitism with a political party organization had actually ceased to exist." And Massing summarizes the passing from the scene of the old guard anti-Semitic leaders like this:

Among the apostles of "pure," "radical" anti-Semitism Ernst Henrici gave up early and withdrew so completely from the political scene that his name was soon all but forgotten. Even standard works on the history of anti-Semitism contain no reference to his further fate. Buch mentions that its erstwhile hero had turned out to be an embarrassment for the anti-Semitic movement. Henrici had gone to the United States from which he returned with a spouse of "mixed blood." Bernhard Förster and his wife Elizabeth Förster-Nietzsche, Friedrich Nietzsche's sister, left Germany in 1886 and founded a judenreine colony, Neu-Germania, in Paraguay. In 1889 Förster, despairing of the success of his project, committed suicide. Karl Paasch, pamphleteer and contemporary of Henrici and Förster, went to Switzerland where he died, a victim of persecution mania. Otto Boeckel, "peasant king of Hesse," lost his Reichstag seat in 1903, withdrew from political life "completely impoverished, bitter and withdrawn," and died forgotten in 1923. Hermann Ahllwardt, "Rektor of all Germans," fared even worse. Although reelected to the Reichstag in 1898, he found himself in complete isolation and stopped attending parliamentary sessions. By the turn of the century he had practically disappeared from the political scene. After an unsuccessful trip to the United States where he tried to organize the fight against "the Jewish rabble that does not want to work," he opened a cigar store in Berlin which he soon gave up again. For a while he sold mining stock in the German-speaking parts of Bohemia. In 1907, "having completely turned his back on anti-Semitism," he approached Theodor Fritsch with a suggestion to take up the fight against the Jesuits and Free-Masons. In 1909 he was sentenced for blackmail. His family was impoverished and sunk to the level of the Lumpenproletariat; Ahlwardt himself died in 1914 from injuries he suffered in a traffic accident in Leipzig. (pp. 113-114)

During the two decades leading up to the First World War, organized anti-Semitism faded in importance, although it didn’t disappear. But its political position was in practice subordinated to the Conservatives:

During the years of prosperity the two occupational organizations, the Agrarian League and the Federation of Commercial Employees, well managed, solidly financed, and going about their business in a rational way, proved to be far superior to the parties which had nothing to sell but anti-Semitism. The anti-Semitic parties became financially dependent on them and were accordingly treated. (p. 139)

But this was also the era in which Germany started playing the imperialist game in a major way, competing with Britain and France for colonial acquisition and influence. And along with that mission came racist ideas. The Pan-German League (Alldeutsche Verband) was the major private organization devotedly specifically to promoting German colonialism. (See pp. 142ff)

Massing's book is especially helpful in showing how anti-Semitism was more typically linked to conservative politics, but not always. Some of the anti-Semitic groups favored social reforms that would benefit labor and small farmers. But it was generally clear that the anti-Semites hated organized labor, whether in the form of unions or the Social Democratic Party. Stoecker's Christian Social Party had a significant wing of Protestant unions.

Continued in Part 4

Tags: anti-semitism, deutsche politik, frankfurt school, frankfurter schule, german politics, paul massing, rehearsal for destruction