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> Heinrich von Treitschke and the Jewish Question, Between rejection and integration
     
paulus
 

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post 24/08/2010, 17:47 Quote Post

By the time Bismarck finally brought about the unification of Germany in 1871 the Jewish communities residing in German territories had attained their final emancipation.(1) The post-unification years, therefore, saw the Jews leaving rural areas for big industrial conurbations where, for the first time, they began to fully participate in the political and cultural life of the Imperial Reich. Ironically, for the Jews emancipation proved a double-edged sword: as they gradually moved up the social ladder pursuing their life ambitions, they became, at the same time, ‘too visible, too upwardly mobile, too modern and too prosperous’. Thus, the Jewish emancipation can be seen as the first factor that contributed to the anti-semitic feeling of the 1880s. (2) The second factor was the economic downturn that set in after the crash of 1873. The great depression of the ensuing years particularly hit two groups of the German society: the lower middle classes and the peasantry. These two groups, allied perhaps by the difficulty of readjustment to the new and more volatile market economy, turned the Jew into the scapegoat embodying all the evils and disasters of their times. (3) German anti-semitism, therefore, can be seen as a by-product of Jewish emancipation and economic downturn after the crash of 1873 as both of these factors created the resentment pervading Treitschke’s article ‘Our Providence’ (Unsere Aussichten), published in 1879.

Primarily, the purpose of Treitschke’s article was both to voice the feelings of the disillusioned groups within the German society and to warn against the threat posed by the Jews to the young and vulnerable national identity of the Second Reich. (4) In the defence of his countrymen, Treitschke argued that Germany, in contrast to England and France, lacked the national pride that would protect it against the Jews. Furthermore, he clearly perceived the Jews as ‘foreign nation’ and the Jewish immigration from the ‘inexhaustible Polish cradle’ into Germany as an invasion of ‘industrious trousers selling youths’ that threatened the unity and strength of the native population. (5) The alien character of the Jews was, Treitschke charged, particularly visible in the materialism his ‘Isrealite fellow citizens’ introduced to Germany, and which disrupted and suffocated the ‘quiet joy of work’ of the pre-1871 days. Usury, in particular, was another Jewish practice which was not only totally alien to the German culture but it also posed an economic threat as the ‘cheeky, greedy and deceptive Jews’ bought out ‘their (read German) neighbours’. The stock exchange and the newspapers, according to Treitschke, were taken over by the Jews as well. So how could this situation be possibly remedied?

Treitschke’s solution to the problem was to demand that the Jews ‘should become German’, yet his outright rejection of a ‘German-Jewish mixed culture’ raises an important question as to how such assimilation could possibly be brought about. True, he wanted the Jews to become and feel German, but could such assimilation have ever been achieved considering the ‘alien’ character of Judaism of which Treitschke spoke about? (6) More multicultural approach would perhaps be more desirable, yet, to Treitschke and his supporters, such a solution would amount to doing the unthinkable, that is, creating conditions for peaceful coexistence between the two groups. For this reason, Treitschke’s calls for turning the Jews into German citizens ’irrespective of their holy traditions’ seem to contain a irreconcilable contradiction. Unfortunately, Treitschke failed to resolve this puzzle or suggest a possible blueprint for greater assimilation. This state of affairs, needless to say, bode ill for the future of the Jews in Germany and such ambiguities perhaps help to explain why the German Jews were doomed to exist between ‘integration and rejection’. (7)

Given the above short introduction, I would be very interested in hearing comments from those who can contribute to the debate through informed opinion and constructive criticism.

Best wishes
paulus



Notes:
1. G. J. P Pulzer, The Rise of Political Anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria (Wiley, 1964). For a good introduction to the political, religious and social background of the issues discussed here see H. U. Wehler, Deutsche Geschichte: Das Deutsche Kaiserreich 1871-1918 (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1994)
2. S. R. Levy, ‘Anti-Semitism’ in: D. K. Buse and J. C. Doerr (eds), Modern Germany: an encyclopaedia of history, people and culture, 1871-1990 (Garland, 1998) p. 34.
3. D. Blackbourn, History of Germany 1780-1918. The Long Nineteenth Century (Blackwell, 2003)
4. R. S. Levy, ‘Anti-Semitism’ p. 34.
5. A. Dorpalen, Heinrich von Treitschke (London, 1973) p. 242.
6. ibid., p. 243
7. C. Hoffmann, ’Between integration and rejection: the Jewish community in Germany, 1914-1918 in: John Horne (ed), State, society and mobilization in Europe during the First World War (Cambridge, 1997) p. 102.
 
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