Language:
English
Year of publication:
2009
Titel der Quelle:
Leo Baeck Institute Year Book
Angaben zur Quelle:
54 (2009) 151-170
Keywords:
Antisemitism History 1800-2000
Abstract:
Argues that the Social Democratic left in Wilhelmine Germany was less concerned with antisemitism than could be inferred from the anti-antisemitic rhetoric in their papers. Both antisemites and those claiming to be anti-antisemites shared the same anti-Jewish stereotypes, and only their assessment of them was different. The term "antisemite" was mainly used not to denote someone holding anti-Jewish attitudes, but someone who was affiliated with the self-avowed antisemitic movement. The Social Democratic Party was more concerned with distancing itself from "philosemitism", as the polemics of 1893 between Franz Mehring and Eduard Bernstein shows. Discusses the dispute between the two competing unions of shop assistants: the self-avowed antisemitic Deutschnationaler Handlungsgehilfen-Verband and the Social Democratic Zentralverband der Handlungsgehilfen und -gehilfinnen Deutschlands. The publications of the Zentralverband, like most socialist publications, used the term "antisemitic" primarily to signify party-political affiliations; no genuine concern regarding the antisemites' anti-Jewish orientation and its impact on Jewry was displayed in them.
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
