From antisemitic peripheries to antisemitic centres: The place of antisemitism in modern German history

Journal of Contemporary History

Volumn 35, Issue 4, 2000, Pages

  Heilbronner, Oded ^a  

^a HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM   (Israel)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 34247314941     PISSN: 00220094     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/002200940003500403     Document Type: Article

References (101)

1. On the debate about the German 'Sonderweg' see Jürgen Kocka, 'German History before Hitler: The Debate about the German Sonderweg', Journal of Contemporary History, 23, 1 (January 1988), 3-16
2. On the English 'Special Path' see E.P. Thompson, 'The Peculiarities of the English' in idem, The Poverty of Theory and Other Essays (London 1978), 35-92;
3. Geoff Eley, 'The British Model and the German Road: Rethinking the Course of German History before 1914' in David Blackbourn and Geoff Eley, The Peculiarities of German History. Bourgeois Society and Politics in Nineteenth-Century Germany (Oxford 1984), 18-155
4. See Shulamit Volkov's note in her article 'The Written Matter and the Spoken Word. On the Gap between pre-1914 and Nazi Anti-Semitism' in F. Furet (ed.), Unanswered Questions (New York 1989), 43ff
5. M. Zimmermann, Wilhelm Marr. The Patriarch of Antisemitismus (Oxford 1986), vii
6. On English antisemitism in the late nineteenth century see Frank Felsenstein, Anti-Semitism Stereotypes. A Paradigm of Otherness in English Popular Culture, 1660-1830 (Baltimore 1996);
7. on French antisemitism see Vicki Caron, 'The Antisemitic Revival in France in the 1930s: The Socioeconomic Dimension Reconsidered', Journal of Modern History, 70 (March 1998), 24-73;
8. on eastern Europe see William Hagen, 'Before the "Final Solution": Toward a Comparative Analysis of Political Anti-Semitism in Interwar Germany and Poland', Journal of Modern History, 68 (June 1996), 351-81
9. Paul J, Waller, Town, City and Nation, England 1850-1914 (Oxford 1991), chap. 2
10. Harold James, 'Germans and their Nation', German History, 2 (1991), 140ff; for the meaning of ideology formed in the 'Provinces' and its significance for the 'Centre
11. ' see Jürgen John (ed.), Weimar 1930. Politik and Kultur im Vorfeld der NS-Diktatur (Köln and Weimar 1998), VII-XXXVIII;
12. Wolfgang Bialas and Burkhard Stenzel (eds), Die Weimarer Republik zwischen Metropole und Provinz (Weimar and Köln 1996), 1-9
13. The problematic nature of the study of German antisemitism in the Second Reich and the question of continuity is also evident from the historical writing point of view. Since 1945 only three monographs have been published dealing with all aspects of this phenomenon. See especially P. Pulzer, The Rise of Political Anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria (New York and London 1964)
14. and R. Levy, The Downfall of the Anti-Semitic Parties in Imperial Germany (New Haven, CT 1975);
15. also P. Massing, Rehearsal for Destruction (New York 1949). The small number of works in my opinion demonstrates the difficulty in writing about the German anti-Semitism which perhaps did not exist in the Second Reich. Many articles about German anti-Semitism have been published, some of which are too general. Those of Zimmermann, R. Rürup (see note 9) and Jochmann (see note 12) are the best known. Most studies tackle the problem from regional and personal aspects, which seems to confirm the argument that the nature of German antisemitism is complex, especially with regard to the question of continuity up to 1933
16. T. Nipperdey and R. Rürup, 'Antisemitismus' in O. Brunner et al. (eds), Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe, I (Stuttgart 1972), 129-53;
17. R. Rürup, Emanzipation und Antisemitismus. Studien zur Judenfrage der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft (Göttingen 1987).
18. In these works, a distinction is made between social and religious antisemitism. The decline of the social function of religion contributed to the rise of new ideologies, some of them related to old traditions. Social antisemitism is one of those new ideologies. See G. Langmuir, History, Religion, and. Antisemitism (Berkeley, CA 1990)
19. Shulamit Volkov, The Rise of Popular Antimodernism: The Urban Master Artisans 1873-1896 (Princeton, NJ 1978)
20. James Harris, The People Speak! Anti-Semitism and Emancipation in Nineteenth-Century Bavaria (Ann Arbor 1994);
21. Stefan Rohrbacher, Gewalt im Biedermeir. Antijüdische Gewaltausschreitungen in Vormärz und Revolution (Frankfurt 1993)
22. Wener Jochmann, 'Struktur und Funktion des deutschen Antisemitismus 1878-1914' in idem, Gesellschaftskrise und Judenfeindschaft in Deutschland 1870-1945 (Hamburg 1988)
23. Robert von Friedeburg, 'Kommunaler Antisemitismus. Christliche Landgemeinden und Juden zwischen Eder und Werra vom späten 18. bis zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts' in Monika Richarz and Reinhard Rürup (eds), Jüdisches Leben auf dem Lande (Tübingen 1998), 168
24. For the failure of the Badensee antisemitism see Stefan Wolf, Für Deutschtum, Thron und Altar. Die Deutsch-Soziale Reformpartei in Baden (1890-1907) (Karlsruhe 1995)
25. H.W. Smith, German Nationalism and Religious Conflict. Culture, Ideology, Politics, 1870-1914 (Princeton 1995)
26. A key article on this is S. Volkov, 'Antisemitism as a Cultural Code. Reflections on the History and Historiography of Antisemitism in Imperial Germany', Leo Baeck Institute Year Book, XXIII (1978), 25-46;
27. see also W. Jochmann, 'Akademische Führungsschichten und Judenfeindschaft in Deutschland 1 866-191 8' in idem, Gesellschaftskrise, op. cit
28. U. Frevert, Women in German History (Oxford 1989), 107-38;
29. C. Huerkamp, Bildungsbürgerinnen (Göttingen 1996)
30. Karin K. Hanisch, 'The Titled Businessman: Prussian Commercial Councillors in the Rhineland and Westphalia during the Nineteenth Century' in David Blackbourn and Richard Evans (eds), German Bourgeoisie (London 1992)
31. F. Naumann, National-sozialer Katkechismus (Berlin-Leipzig 1 897), 1 8
32. Smith, German Nationalism, op. cit.
33. idem, 'Religion and Conflict: Protestants, Catholics, and Anti-Semitism in the State of Baden in the Era of Wilhelm II', Central European History, 3 (1994), 283-314;
34. T. Klein, Der preussisch-deutsche Konservatismus und die Entstehung des politischen Antisemitismus in Hessen-Kassel (1866-1893) (Marburg 1995);
35. G. Eley, 'Anti-Semitism, Agrarian Mobilization, and the Conservative Party: Radicalism and Containment in the Founding of the Agrarian League 1890-1893' in L.E. Jones and J. Retallack (eds), Between Reform, Reaction and Resistance: Studies in the History of German Conservatism from 1789-1945 (Providence 1993), 187-228
36. Geoff Eley, 'State Formation, Nationalism and Political Culture in 19th-century Germany' in idem, From Unification to Nazism. Reinterpreting the German Past (London 1988), 61-84
37. Smith, Religion and Conflict, op. cit
38. Nationalliberale Blätter, 15 January 1907
39. In 1919 the Prussian envoy in Karlsruhe reported that 'Pru ssia ... is hated here in all circles'. Akten zur auswärtigen Politik 1918-1945. Aus den Archiven des Auswärtigen Amtes. Series A: 1918-1923, vol. II (Göttingen 1984), 135
40. T. Mann, The Buddenbrooks (New York 1954), 322ff.;
41. S. Spier, Vor 1914. Erinnerungen an Frankfurt geschrieben in Israel (Frankfurt 1968), 39, 56-7, 83
42. H. Baur, Mein politischer Lebenslauf (Konstanz 1929), 38
43. D. Blackbourn, 'Roman Catholics, the Centre Party and Anti-Semitism in Imperial Germany' in idem, Populists and Patricians (London 1987), 182-3
44. Robert von Friedberg, Ländliche Gesellschaft und O brigkeit. Gemeindeprotest und politische Mobilisierung im 18. und 19. Jh (Göttingen 1997), chap. 3.3
45. Robert von Friedberg, 'Dörfliche Gesellschaft und Integration sozialen Protests durch Liberale und Konservative im 19. Jahrhundert', Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 17 (1991), 311-43
46. von Friedeburg, 'Kommunaler Antisemitismus', op. cit., 168
47. von Friedberg, Landliche Gesellschaft, op. cit., chap. 3.3
48. James Harris, The People Speak!, op. cit., chap. 5
49. ; Kim Holmes, The NSDAP and the Crisis of Agrarian Conservatism in Lower Bavaria, PhD thesis, Georgetown University 1982, 120-39. From the mass studies on Franconia before and after 1933,
50. it is worth pointing out the article by Falk Wiesemann, 'Nationalsozialismus und ländlicher Antisemitismus. Eine Ritualmordbeschuldigung in Franken 1929-1937' in Volker Ackermann et al. (eds), Anknüpfungen. Kulturgeschichte-Landesgeschichte-Zeitgeschichte (Essen 1996), 221-34
51. Justus H. Ulbricht, '"Wege nach Weimar" und "deutsche Wiedergeburt": Visionen kultureller Hegemonie im völkischen Netzwerk Thüringens zwischen Jahrhundertwende und "Dritten Reich"' in Bialas and Stenzel (eds), Die Weimarer Republik, op. cit., 23-35
52. Ulrich Pfeil, 'Partikularismus, Sonderbewusstsein und Aufstieg der NSDAP. Kollektive Denkhaltungen und kollektive Erinnerung in Dithmarschen 1866-1933' in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft f. Schleswig-Holsteinische Geschichte, 124 (1999), 135-62 (esp. 150-1)
53. Deutsche Stimmen. W'ochenblatt f. die Nationalliberale Partei, 9 June 1906
54. D. Düding, Der Nationalsoziale Verein 1896-1903 (München 1972);
55. M. Zimmermann, 'A Road not Taken. Friedrich Naumann's Attempt at a Modern German Nationalism', Journal of Contemporary History, 17, 4 (October 1982), 689-702
56. F.G. Schulte, Der Publizist Hellmut von Gerlach (1866-1935) (München 1988), 59
57. D. Peal, 'Antisemitism by Other Means? The Rural Cooperative Movement in Late Nineteenth-Century Germany', Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook, XXXII (1987), 135-53
58. Pulzer, The Rise of Political Anti-Semitism, op. cit., 108-17
59. Levy, The Downfall of the Anti-Semitic Parties, op. cit., 55-60
60. R. Mack, 'Otto Böckel und die antisemitische Bauernbewegung in Hessen 1887-1894' in 900 Jahre Geschichte der Juden in Hessen (Wiesbaden 1983)
61. Klein, Der preussisch-deutsche Konservatismus, op. cit.
62. R. Koshar, Social Life, Local Politics and Nazism. Marburg 1888-1935 (Chapel Hill, NC 1986);
63. E. Schön, Die Entstehung des Nationalsozialismus in Hessen (Hain 1972)
64. Schulte, Helmut von Gerlach, op. cit., 49; (Hessische Landeszeitung, 23 June 1903)
65. H. von Gerlach, Von Rechts nach Links (Berlin 1912);
66. Schulte, Hellmut von Gerlach, op. cit., 48
67. 'Landwirtschaftliche Interessenvertretung und völkisch- antisemitische Ideologie. Der Bund Landwirte/Bauernbund in Wurttemberg 1893-1918', Zeitschrift f. Württembergische Landesgeschichte, 53 (1994), 263-300
68. L. Curtius, Der politische Antisemitismus von 1907-1911 (München 1911)
69. ; F. Lorenzen, Die Antisemiten (Berlin 1912);
70. Hans Maier, Die Antisemiten (München 1911)
71. Karl Holl, 'Antisemitismus, kleinbauerliche Bewegung und demokratischer Liberalismus in Hessen. Drei Briefe Philipp Köhlers an Adolf Korell' in Archiv f. hessische Geschichte und Altertumskunde, 30 (1967), 150-9;
72. for similar cases see M. Zimmermann, 'Antisemitismus im Kaiserreich zwischen Modernität und Antimodernismus im Urteil der Renegaten' in P. Freimark et al. (eds), Juden in Deutschland (Hamburg 1991), 196-206; see also the case of Karl Bähme who abandoned the antisemitic Social Reform Party and joined the Liberals. Friedberg argued that Böhme was not an antisemite like Marr, Böckei or Ahlwardt. Friedberg, Ländliche Gesellschaft, op. cit., 265
73. G. Vascik, The German Peasant League and the Limits of Rural Liberalism in Wilhelmine Germany', Central European History, 24 (1992), 147-75; idem, 'Rural Politics and Sugar in Germany: A Comparative Study of the National Liberal Party in Hannover and Prussian Saxony, 1871-1914', PhD thesis, University of Michigan 1988; Friedberg, Ländliche Gesellschaft, op. cit., 265ff
74. G. Vascik, 'Agrarian Conservatism in Wilhelmine Germany: Diederich Hahn and the Agrarian League' in Jones and Retallack, Between Reform, Reaction and Resistance, op. cit., 229-60
75. T. Weidemann, 'Politischer Antisemitismus im Deutschen Kaiserreich. Der Reichstagsabgeordnete Max Lieberman von Sonnenberg und der nordhessische Wahlkreis Fritzlar-Homberg-Ziegenhain' in H. Bambey et al. (eds), Heimatvertriebene Nachbarn (Marburg 1993), 1 13-83;
76. Lorenzen, Die Antisemiten, op. cit., 50ff
77. Hans Peter Müller, 'Wilhelm Vogt. Württembergischer Bauernbundpolitiker und bauerlicher Standesvertreter im Kaiserreich und in der Weimarer Republik' in G. Taddey and J. Ficher (eds), Lehensbilder aus Baden-Württemberg (Stuttgart 1994), 395-417:
78. Manfred Kittel, 'Zwischen völkischem Fundamentalismus und gouvernementaler Taktik. DNVP-Vorsitzender Hans Hilpert und die bayerischen Deutschnationalen', Zeitschrift f. bayerische Landesgeschichte, 59, 3 (1996), 849-902
79. E. Sunkel, Nationalliberal. Ansprache an die nationalliberale Jugend Cassels (Cassel 1907), 52. Despite the use of the word Vernichtung, I do not think the writer really meant physical extermination
80. Y. Borut, 'New Spirit among our Brothers in Ashkenaz'. The Turning-Point in the Path of German Jewry at the End of the 19th Century (Jerusalem 1 999)
81. S, Suval, Electoral Politics in Wilhelmine Germany (Chapel Hill, NC 1985)
82. B. Fairbairn, 'The German Elections of 1898 and 1903', PhD thesis, Oxford 1988
83. idem, 'Interpreting Wilhelmine Elections: National Issues, Fairness Issues and Electoral Mobilization' in L.E. Jones and J. Retallack (eds). Elections, Mass Politics, and Social Change in Modern Germany (Cambridge 1992), 17-48
84. James Retallack, Notables of the Right. The Conservative Party and Political Mobilization in Germany 1876-1918 (London 1988), chaps 13-14
85. H. Hagenlücke, Deutsche Vaterkmdspartei. Die nationale Rechte am Ende des Kaiserreiches (Düsseldorf 1997);
86. Retallack, Notables, op. cit., chap. 15
87. Jürgen Bergmann and Klaus Megerle, 'Protest und Aufruhr der Landwirtschaft in der Weimarer Republik (1924-1933). Formen und Typen der politischen Agrarbewegung im regionalen Vergleich' in idem et al. (eds), Regionen im historischen Vergleich. Studien zu Deutschland im 19. und 20. Jh. (Opladen 1989), 200-67
88. In a recent article, Hans Medick traced the rise of mass antisemitism in Germany up to the first world war. In a small village in south Württemberg, Medick found a document written in 1913 about starvation in the village 100 years before during the years 1816-17. Antisemitic expressions were absent from the document. However, three years later during the first world war the author re-wrote the document, this time in antisemitic tones, influenced by the strong antisemitic feelings among local farmers in the starvation years of the war. See Hans Medick, The So-Called Laichingen Hunger Chronicle: An Example of the Fiction of the Factual, the Traps of Evidence, and the Possibilities of Proof in the Writing of History' in Gerald Sider and Gavin Smith (eds), Between History and Histories. The Making of Silences and Commemorations (Toronto 1997), 284-99
89. Two examples of works pointing to the process of the dehumanization of Weimar society are G. Feldman, The Great Disorder (Oxford 1994)
90. and N. Ferguson, Paper and Iron (Cambridge 1995)
91. Daniel Y. Goldhagen, Hitler's Willing Executioners (New York 1996)
92. This is my main argument in 'The Role of Nazi Antisemitism in the Nazi Party's Activity and Propaganda', Leo Baeck Institute Year Book, XXXV (1990), 397-439
93. and 'Wohin verschwand der nationalsozialistische Antisemitismus? Zum Charakter des Antisemitismus der NSDAP vor 1933', Menora, 6 (1995), 15-44. A new study which stressed nazi antisemitism before 1933 has appeared recently
94. Walter Dirk, Antisemitische Kriminalität und Gew alt: Judenfeindschaft in der Welmarer Republik (Bonn 1999)
95. Donald Niewyk, The Jews in Weimar Germany (New York 1980), 78-81. This claim is in opposition to Volkov's argument in her article, 'The Written Matter and the Spoken Word', op, cit
96. Henry A. Turner, Hitler's Thirty Days to Power (London 1996); William Patch, 'Heinrich Brüning's Recollections of Monarchism: The Birth of a Red Herring', Journal of Modern History, 70 (June 1998), 340-70
97. Two recent studies put forward this argument: Peter Fritzsche, Germans into Nazis (Berkeley, CA 1998), chap. 4;
98. Oded Heilbronner, The Rise of the Nazi Party in South Germany (Ann Arbor, MI 1998)
99. I should like to thank Dr Y, Borut for drawing my attention to this strange event. See E. Mais, Die Verfolgung der Juden in den Landkreisen Bad-Kreuznach und Birkenfeld 1933-1945 (Birkenfeld 1988), 328
100. See J. Noakes and G. Pridham, Nazism 1919-1945. A Documentary Reader. Vol. 2: State, Economy and Society 1933-1939 (Exeter 1984), 558;
101. Uwe D. Adam, 'How Spontaneous was the Pogrom?' in Walter H. Pehle (ed.), November 1938 (New York and Oxford 1991), 73-94, esp. 87ff