Language:
German
Year of publication:
2011
Titel der Quelle:
Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft
Angaben zur Quelle:
59,11 (2011) 897-919
Keywords:
Jews History 1800-2000
;
Antisemitism History 1800-2000
;
Youth movements, Jewish
Abstract:
Discusses antisemitism as an integral part of the German youth movement in the early 20th century, its contemporary theoretical sources, and Jewish reactions. Argues that the Wandervogel movement and its heirs and offshoots where not characterized by self-critique or radical critique of prevailing circumstances, but by their efforts to outdo their parents in the area of antisemitism. Antisemitism had escalated within the Wandervogel movement already before World War I, as exemplified by the "Aryan paragraphs" introduced in some groups already in 1914. The youth movement was ideologically influenced by Ludwig Klage, who developed Alfred Schuler's antisemitic philosophy of history even further and made it part of his dualistic worldview, which pitted the "destructive Jewish spirit" and the "creative German soul" against each other. Discusses the process by which antisemitism became part of the German social order, and the roles of Adolf Stoeckler, Wilhelm Marr, Eugen Duhring, and especially Heinrich von Treitschke, who made its socially acceptable. Mentions Walter Benjamin as one the few who saw that antisemitism was taken for granted in the youth movement. With regard to Jewish responses, condends that they were limited to assimilation, which became increasingly difficult, and Zionist involvement. Concludes that antisemitism was the reverse side of the German youths' longing for an ideal world in harmony with nature. Warns of the danger of giving up measured reflection for the benefit of wild reflexes.
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