Language:
German
Year of publication:
1995
Titel der Quelle:
Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht
Angaben zur Quelle:
46,3 (1995) 167-178
Keywords:
Treitschke, Heinrich von,
;
Mommsen, Theodor,
;
Antisemitism History 1800-2000
;
Jews Historiography
Abstract:
Describes the upsurge of popular antisemitic agitation in Germany in 1879 as background for the antisemitism debate of the Berlin intellectuals. Suggests that the debate had a strong impact because the protagonists, Treitschke and Mommsen, both belonged to the elite, were liberals, and had previously been friends. Treitschke presents himself as objective, not an antisemite; he demands the integration of the Jews, but denigrates their character and warns of their growing influence on German culture, in a way that must lead to their exclusion. The student fraternities, under his influence, began to exclude Jews. Treitschke justified the "instinctive antipathy" of the German Volk to the "German-speaking Orientals"; he made antisemitism respectable so that it could become part of the culture of the educated German bourgeoisie. Mommsen was not a philosemite, and he too demanded of the Jews that they become Germans. But he was sensitive to the responsibility of the intellectual elite for the effects of their pronouncements, and criticized Treitschke for misusing his scholarly authority to stir up the lowest instincts of the mob.
Note:
Appeared also in "Vorurteil und Völkermord" (1997).
URL:
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