The Rise of Political Anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria PDF
Preview The Rise of Political Anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria
The Rise of Political Anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria (Text not proofed) NEW DIMENSIONS IN HISTORY Essays in Comparative History Series Editor: Norman F. Cantor John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York • London • Sydney (Text not proofed) T HE R I SE OF P O L I T I C AL A N T I - S E M I T I SM IN G E R M A NY A ND A U S T R IA P.G.J. PULZER (Text not proofed) Copyright © 1964 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All Rights Reserved This book or any part thereof must not be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 64-23858 Printed in the United States of America (Text not proofed) For my MOTHER and FATHER (Text not proofed) (Text not proofed) PREFACE I have tried to show in this book that modern political anti- Semitism is different from any earlier, sporadic outbreaks of Jew- baiting. It was brought about by conditions which had not existed before the last third of the nineteenth century; only then was it possible to organize political movements wholly or partly on the basis of anti-Semitism, and to make anti-Semitism part of a coherent set of ideas. Indeed, the word anti-Semitism itself— with its attempt to draw on the support of science—made its first appearance in 1879. To achieve this I have used two approaches. In the first place I have traced its theoretical and doctrinal background in the second half of the nineteenth century, especially in Germany and German Austria. In choosing my illustrative examples I have necessarily had to be selective: if I have devoted more space to Dühring or Langbehn than to Hegel or Schopenhauer, this is not because I consider them better or more important thinkers, but simply because they had a more immediately measurable impact on anti-Semitic politics. In addition, where an illustration from the experience of some other country has seemed apposite, I have not hesitated to use it. Second I have tried to trace the impact of anti-Semitic ideas on the everyday politics of the two Empires. Viewed from 1914 this history must seem dismal and unimportant, certainly less noteworthy than that of Russia or France. If the anti-Semitism of those years had been nothing more than the last convulsions of an ancient prejudice—as Marxist critics interpreted it—my research might have been at best of mild antiquarian interest. Viewed from the present day, this choice of countries needs no defense, for we know that within a decade of 1914 these mil dewed controversies were resurrected as the prophecies of a new vii (Text not proofed) civilization. The period of 1867-1914 becomes important because during it the movements and ideologies developed which matured after 1918. Side by side with the lack of outward success we must observe the extent to which anti-Semitism penetrated the general stock of political thinking and under mined the acceptance of the liberal values of the nineteenth century. The Age of Reason laid many old ghosts, the twentieth- century Age of Unreason has conjured many new ones. The period of our studies is that of hibernation and underground survival. For this reason I have added an Epilogue showing the course of this revival, and how dependent it was on develop ments before the First World War. For the same reason I have deliberately not attempted to write a general history of anti- Semitism, or of such special topics as the Ritual Murder Con troversy, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, or the Dreyfus Case, which—fascinating stories on their own merits—have been written about elsewhere. I have had access to the papers of Eduard Pichl in the Verwaltungsarchiv of Vienna, containing a mass of letters, post ers, manifestoes, minutes, and clippings which relate not only to Schönerer (whose friend Pichl was) but to the Austrian anti- Semitic movement in general. I have also seen the papers of the Austrian Liberal leaders, Ignaz Plener and Gustav Grosz, in the Haus- Hof- und-Staatsarchiv of Vienna. Where I have had to rely on secondary sources, this is indicated. All translations are my own, unless otherwise indicated. I have been helped by the only other works which, to my knowledge, refer directly to my subject: Paul Massing's Re hearsal for Destruction, published in America in 1949; Dr. Kurt Wawrzinek's paper in Historische Studien (1927), a scholarly and detailed chronology of the first phase of German anti- Semitism; Dr. Martin Broszat's unpublished Cologne disserta tion Die antisemitische Bewegung im wilhelminischen Deutsch land; and Dr. Eva Richmann's stimulating attempt to analyze in general terms the failure of the "German-Jewish symbiosis," Hostages of Civilisation, published in 1950. I am also most grateful to Professor G. L. Mosse, of the University of Wisconsin, for permission to read the manuscript of his paper, The German viii (Text not proofed) Right and the Jewish Question, 1918-1933. All these works have been helpful to me. They refer to Germany only, however; no comparable books exist on Austria. For this reason the Austrian chapters go into rather more detail than the German ones, while the German chapters concentrate on filling the gaps left by existing literature, which lie mainly after 1890. When I began my study almost no serious work existed on the intellectual and cultural roots of modern German anti- Semitism, but in the meantime a number of good studies have appeared, notably Fritz Stern's The Politics of Cultural Despair and Professor Rotenstreich's The Recurring Pattern. The origin of this book is in a Ph.D. thesis which I wrote under the supervision of Professor Hugh Seton-Watson while I was a research student at King's College, Cambridge, and which was accepted by the University of Cambridge in 1960. I wish to record my thanks to the successive Provosts and Fellows of King's College, Cambridge, for enabling me to undertake most of the research necessary for this book. Inevitably I owe a great debt to the staff and resources of the Wiener Library, London, as well as of the Viennese Archives and the Hauptarchiv in Berlin. I should also record my debt to the many friends, too numerous to list, who have read some or all of the manuscript (but cannot, of course, be held responsible for any errors or misjudgments which remain) and who have given me advice or encouragement at various stages of writing. I acknowledge with gratitude permission from the following publishers to quote their books: Tavistock Publications (Lon don) to quote from Working-Class Anti-Semite by J. H. Robb; Columbia University Press (New York) to quote from Pietism as a Factor in German Nationalism by K. S. Pinson; Harper & Row, Inc. (New York) to quote from Rehearsal for Destruction by P. Massing and Dynamics of Prejudice by B. Bettelheim and M. Janowitz; George Allen & Unwin Ltd. (London) and Har court, Brace & World, Inc. (New York) to quote from The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt; and the Macmillan Company (New York) to quote from The Idea of Nationalism by H. Kohn. PETER G. J. PULZER Oxford, England June, 1964 ix (Text not proofed)
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