Anti-Semitism and Social Democracy
On October 27, 1893 , August Bebel gave a keynote address on the party's position on anti-Semitism at the Social Democratic Party's congress in Cologne under the title “Anti-Semitism and Social Democracy” . The party congress took this opportunity to adopt a resolution on the subject that had already been passed in a similar form at the previous party congress in 1892. At the request of various delegates, August Bebel's speech was published in a revised form as a brochure.
The report represents the first official discussion of the Social Democrats with the anti-Semitism, which has been growing since the mid-1870s. Bebel cites one of the reasons for his report, "that there is a certain lack of clarity about the meaning of this movement in our own circles." He is looking for anti-Semitism to explain for religious, economic and social as well as racial reasons. Even if the anti-Semites pursued reactionary goals, they would be pushed towards socialism and thus unwillingly to pave the way for social democracy.
prehistory
First wave of anti-Semitism in the German Empire (mid-1870s to early 1880s)
From the mid-1870s onwards there was growing anti-Semitism in Germany with articles in the Germania newspaper, which is close to the Catholic center . This became socially acceptable in 1879, when Heinrich von Treitschke published his essay “Our Prospects” in the Prussian Yearbooks (see “ Berlin Antisemitism Controversy ”) and the court preacher Adolph Stöcker and his Christian Social Party shifted to inciting Jews.
Resistance to this was offered by representatives of the German Progressive Party and the left wing of the National Liberals , which split off as a Liberal Association in 1880 (see: " Shame for Germany ", " Notabeln Declaration ", " Interpellation Hänel "). During the election campaign for the Reichstag elections in 1881 , an alliance of conservatives and anti-Semites formed as the " Berlin Movement ", which tried to force the Progressive Party out of the capital. When the “Berlin Movement” suffered a crushing defeat against the Progressive Party in the election, the anti-Semitic movement subsided somewhat. In a libel suit brought against the Freie Zeitung by Adolph Stöcker , the court preacher was proven to have various untrue assertions, which, for example , was made public by Eugen Richter in the text Witness Stöcker, a picture from 1885 . Under public pressure, Stöcker was removed from his position as court preacher in 1887 and was ordered not to comment on political issues.
The attitude of the Social Democrats at this stage was mixed. While social democratic and progressive workers met at a meeting in the Reichshallen on January 11, 1881 and condemned the anti-Semitic movement as “ democrats ”, there were also attempts to get closer to the anti-Semites. For example, the former party chairman of the SPD Wilhelm Hasenclever published the book The Truth, Honor, under the pseudonym Wilhelm Revel . A contribution to the Jewish question in Germany , in which he criticized the anti-Semites, but accepted their theses benevolently. In the party organ Der Sozialdemokrat , anti-Jewish passages of Karl Marx's early writing on the Jewish question were demonstratively reprinted to show that the SPD did not need any tutoring from the anti-Semites. When the anti-Semites made the Social Democrats an offer to support them in repealing the Socialist Law if they renounced a revolutionary reorganization, negotiations came about, which the party leadership then broke off in favor of a neutral stance in the struggle between the Progressive Party and the anti-Semites.
In retrospect, the social democratic party historian Franz Mehring justified this attitude in 1913 with the words:
“By rejecting the false brother socialism [the Bismarckian state socialism ], they [the SPD] could not allow themselves to be ensnared by the false brother Manchestermann [the German Progressive Party]. Even in the anti-Semitic- philosemitic frog mouse wars, in which the workers were most likely to remain neutral, they immediately took a decisive and clear position on the parties. You had not the slightest reason to be enthusiastic about monetary Jewry, but were you allowed to be infatuated by the Christian-Germanic haggling policy, which was nothing but monetary Jewry in the highest potency and was defended by Stöcker through thick and thin? "
Second wave of anti-Semitism in the German Empire (from the end of the 1880s)
After Stöckers was put out of action at the end of the 1880s, Otto Böckel and Hermann Ahlwardt , a new generation of anti-Semites emerged, which increasingly took critical positions towards the conservatives. This was expressed in the slogan "Against Jews and Junkers!" In by-elections and the general election in 1890 , the anti-Semites were able to win five seats in Hessen-Nassau and the Grand Duchy of Hessen .
Again the resistance came from the ranks of the German Freedom Party , the merger of the Progress Party with the Liberal Association. Such was Heinrich Rickert instrumental in the founding in 1890 of the " Association for the Defense of anti-Semitism involved." Together with Eugen Richter , he presented Hermann Ahlwardt in the Reichstag with his unproven claims. This was flanked by press work, for example, in the " Freinnige Zeitung" , which reported in detail on the anti-Semitic slander and took a position in editorials such as "Down with the anti-Semites!"
The attitude of the Social Democrats, however, was unclear. In 1891 and 1892, the social democratic joke paper Der Wahre Jacob repeatedly illustrated the slogan “Against Junkers and Jews!” On its front page and in other articles. In 1892 a resolution against anti-Semitism was adopted at the party congress, but an open discussion was avoided because it was feared that the different opinions would emerge. August Bebel sought contact with Hermann Ahlwardt, but was disappointed with his personality. When Ahlwardt wanted to apply to the Reichstag for a commission to examine his allegations, but had too few MPs, he was supported by leading Social Democrats, including August Bebel. In the Reichstag elections in June 1893 , the anti-Semites were able to win additional seats in other parts of the country (Brandenburg, Pomerania and, above all, Saxony) and now achieved 16 members in the German Reichstag.
content
[Summary according to the protocol on the negotiations of the party congress of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, held in Cologne a. Rh. From October 22nd to 28th, 1893. Verlag der Expedition des “Vorwärts” Berliner Tageblatt, Berlin 1893. P. 223 ff. Subtitles not in the original, only for structuring. The report was later revised, with some significant changes.]
Reason for the presentation
In August Bebel's view, anti-Semitism is not new in itself, only that it appears as a political movement. With the Social Democrats there is "a certain lack of clarity". The anti-Semitic movement is dismissed as a “product of catchphrases”. That is wrong, because it “has an echo in the masses”, and therefore the “evils which produced that phenomenon” must be recognized and eliminated. The Social Democrats could do this.
Historical digression on anti-Semitism in history
In history, anti-Semitism emerged mainly as a racial antagonism:
"It is just a matter of two races, fundamentally different in their character and their whole being, whose fundamental difference has been maintained for 2000 years until today."
While Jews were originally active in agriculture and trade and still in Eastern Europe, "Christian workers in Christian Europe are exploited by Christian and Jewish exploiters". This is mainly done through trade, for which "the Semitic race has undoubtedly always had a great natural disposition". The fact that the Jews can be recognized by their physiognomy - to the amusement of the audience, Bebel alludes to the hooked nose, a supposedly Jewish attribute from an anti-Semitic point of view - encourages the “racial hostility”. In addition, there were religious motives, namely the "deep hatred" of the Jews against the Christians and the reproach of Christ's death on the cross , "caused by the Jews". The Jews were made into "usurers" by the secular princes in the Middle Ages. They were persecuted for racial and religious reasons, but also to rob them.
"The anti-Semites seem right to accuse the Jews of being a race that is particularly hostile to the Germans, with particularly unpleasant racial peculiarities, [...]."
But this is also the result of the persecution of the Jews in the Middle Ages: "And this thousand-year pressure has extraordinarily promoted the close association among them."
“I confess that I cannot suppress a certain admiration for a race that, despite all these terrible persecutions, has nonetheless developed and maintained its kind independently; a phenomenon which, apart from the Jews, only appeared in one people in history, the gypsies. (Laughter.) "
In the 19th century, the Jews were gradually given equal rights. History shows that persecution and legal repudiation of the Jews are ineffective:
"If the thousand-year-old legislation against the Jews and their constant reprimanding have not achieved what they were supposed to achieve, this would have to be proof for the anti-Jews that their endeavors are not feasible, even if they should come to power one day, and why not at all is to be thought. "
Declaration of the anti-Semitic movement in the German Empire
August Bebel then turns to the analysis of the anti-Semitic movement in the German Empire. The Jews had been in the foreground "as traders and wealthy people" in the early days of founding "giant companies".
"Many Jewish capital magnates have created the basis for their current position either personally or through their last ancestors through this kind of haggling."
Craftsmen and traders began an unstoppable decline with the great crash of 1873. "All these circumstances in connection with the mentioned tribal peculiarities of the Jews" had ensured that anti-Semitism first arose in these circles "against the Jews as a competitor".
The Jews dominated almost all branches of the economy, so "a large number of branches of trade", especially the trade in agricultural products. For the peasants, who are also relegating inexorably, capitalists and Jews are the same thing.
“When the farmer sells his products today, potatoes, grain. Hops, tobacco, wine, who are the buyers? Jews. Who lends him the capital, who buys and sells his cattle? Jews. Anti-Semitic phenomena must come to light. "
The peasants would fall for the slogans of the “anti-Semitic demagogues”, while the social democrats in the existing system could not raise their hopes. It is similar with trade and industry:
“Factory-made shoemaking, tailoring, trade in clothes, new and old, cloth factories, etc., are more or less in the hands of Jews. The Jew, who as a wholesaler employs a large number of small craftsmen, who appears as a capitalist on a large scale, as an exploiter also in this field, must of course also arouse anti-Semitism among his competitors. "
Even with government contracts - Bebel expresses this in the context of Hermann Ahlwardt's allegations against the Löwe company because of the "Jewish shotguns" - the Jews are mainly involved:
“Who can deliver cheaply, quickly and in large quantities alone, who can buy the raw material cheaply because he has the capital in abundance at his disposal? Often enough they are only Jews! Of course you get the deliveries transferred. "
Officials and officers owed themselves "to the usurer, to the cutthroat" at "usury rates". "The usurers are again largely Jews." They acted as what the anti-Semites call "goods butchers", although Bebel does not use the term himself:
“First the Jew borrows. then he appears as a buyer of the manor, often he becomes the owner himself and thus increases the reasons that the feudal nobility is in the anti-Semitic camp. "
The anti-Semitism among the students can be explained by an overproduction of academics who feared the often more industrious Jewish competition. There are now hardly any positions for pastors.
Current development and forecast
August Bebel then analyzes the current situation and makes predictions. The anti-Semites were successful in Saxony with a very low Jewish population, because the only thing that mattered was "whether he [the Jew] makes himself noticeable as an unpleasant competitor." The conservatives had also failed in Saxony, and the anti-Semites could appeal to petty bourgeoisie, for which there is no democratic party, but which liberalism as "representative of the bourgeoisie" has forced into "its spell". The worse the struggle for existence among the middle classes becomes, the greater the influx of anti-Semites will be.
“We only get our turn with these strata when anti-Semitism has come to an end, when they recognize through experience and the behavior of their anti-Semitic representatives in the Reichstag and elsewhere that they have been deceived. Then the hour of our harvest will come, not earlier. (Very correct.) "
The anti-Semites are not as consistently against Jews as they claim, which Bebel explains using the example of an anti-Semite who was convicted by social democrats of having bought from a Jew. The anti-Semitic program is to a large extent reactionary, but already contains "some demands that are in line with our program". The demand to nationalize the land debts was already made in the Communist Manifesto, but only by the socialists in the right sense. This is how anti-Semitism is preparing the way for social democracy:
“In its struggle for rule, anti-Semitism will be compelled to overshoot its own goal against its will, as has already been shown by Mr. Ahlwardt, who first entered the struggle arm in arm with Junkertum and often by his mood Voters were forced to use the slogan: Against Jews and Junkers! Even for the Hessian movement it is no longer sufficient to attack the Jews alone; it must already turn against capital in general; If this moment is there, then there will also come the time when our views fall on fertile ground and where we will gain the following, which we are currently striving for in vain. "
Much of the anti-Semite program is “demagogy”. From history, however, it is clear that persecution of the Jews does not promise success. In doing so, August Bebel supports the factually false claim that the anti-Semites have made and that has been refuted by Salomon Neumann for years that the Jewish population is growing rapidly:
“Finally there is a demand for the abolition of the emancipation of Jews and for the Jews to be placed under aliens law. With this one will not get very far after the experiences made in the Middle Ages; because in the point of the warning: Be fruitful and multiply like sand on the sea! the Jews strictly obeyed the command of their fathers and still obey it. (Laughter.) "
August Bebel then draws the conclusion of his remarks:
“In short, this mixtum compositum of one program corresponds entirely to the contradicting nature of anti-Semitism. What I have said to you about the likelihood of its further expansion, yes, about the necessity of it, leads to the fact that it finally has to become revolutionary against its will, here we, the Social Democrats, have to take action. "
Resolution of the party congress
The resolution read out by August Bebel at the beginning of his presentation was subsequently adopted. It read:
"Anti-Semitism arises from the dissatisfaction of certain bourgeois strata, who find themselves oppressed by capitalist development and are in part doomed to economic decline as a result of this development, but in misunderstanding the actual cause of their situation, the struggle not against the capitalist economic system but against an in judge the emerging phenomenon that becomes uncomfortable for them in the competitive struggle: against Jewish exploitation.
This origin, which is its origin, forces anti-Semitism to make demands which are in contradiction with the economic and political development laws of bourgeois society, i.e. are hostile to progress. Hence the support that anti-Semitism finds primarily among Junkers and priests.
The one-sided struggle of anti-Semitism against Jewish exploitation must necessarily be unsuccessful, because the exploitation of people by people is not a specifically Jewish form of acquisition, but one peculiar to bourgeois society, which only ends with the fall of bourgeois society.
Since social democracy is now the most resolute enemy of capitalism, regardless of whether Jews or Christians are its bearers, and since it has the goal of eliminating bourgeois society by bringing about its transformation into socialist society, whereby all human domination over it People, just as all exploitation of people by people is put to an end, social democracy refuses to split up its forces in the struggle against the existing state and social order through false and therefore becoming ineffective struggles against a phenomenon that is with bourgeois society stands and falls.
Social democracy combats anti-Semitism as a movement directed against the natural development of society, which, however, despite its reactionary character and against its will, ultimately has a revolutionary effect, because the petty bourgeois and peasant strata incited against the Jewish capitalists by anti-Semitism must come to the realization that that not only the Jewish capitalist, but the capitalist class in general is their enemy and that only the realization of socialism can free them from their misery. "
reception
According to Reinhard Rürup , "[...] Bebel's speech at the party conference [...] became the second classic text in the Marxist anti-Semitism discussion alongside Marx's essay 'On the Jewish Question." Rosemarie Leuschen-Seppel sees the central role of the speech in a similar way:
"In addition, August Bebel did not provide a detailed analysis of the social composition of the anti-Semitic movement in his party conference lecture in 1893, to which the future social-democratic confrontation with anti-Semitism hardly had any new arguments to add."
Lars Fischer is skeptical of the praise from Rürup and Leuschen-Seppel for the speech:
"This already demonstrates that we may be well advised not to get unduly carried away by the anti-antisemitic credentials of Bebel's speech, its 'still valid' analysis notwithstanding."
"This already shows that we should be well advised not to get inappropriately carried away by the anti-anti-Semitic references for Bebel's speech, despite his 'still valid' analysis."
He points out that in the revision of the speech made by Bebel for the 1906 edition, the characterization of modern society was changed from “Jewish” to “Judged”.
"In so doing he finally erased the last remnant of conceptual ambiguity. This was a term straight from the unambiguous vocabulary of the antisemites. It was a term that could never be neutral, let alone have a positive connotation, not even in theory. It described a form of contamination and made it quite clear that the problem at hand was not one that society had with itself but one that it had with an alien entity in its midst "
“In this way, he eliminated the last bit of conceptual ambiguity. This was an expression straight out of the unambiguous vocabulary of the anti-Semites. It was a phrase that could never be neutral, much less have a positive connotation, even in theory. He described a type of pollution and made it perfectly clear that the problem under consideration was not one that society had with itself, but one that society had with an alien entity in its midst. "
literature
- August Bebel: In: Protocol on the negotiations of the party congress of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, held at Cologne a. Rh. From October 22 to 28, 1893. Verlag der Expedition des "Vorwärts" Berliner Tageblatt, Berlin 1893. P. 223 ff. (Online)
- August Bebel: Anti-Semitism and Social Democracy. Publishing house of the expedition of the "Vorwärts" Berliner Tageblatt, Berlin 1893.
- August Bebel: Anti-Semitism and Social Democracy - with two addenda. Vorwärts bookstore (H. Weber), Berlin 1906.
- Reinhard Rürup : Emancipation and Anti-Semitism. Göttingen, 1975, ISBN 3-596-24385-8 .
- Rosemarie Leuschen-Seppel: Social Democracy and Anti-Semitism in the Empire. The party's clashes with the conservative and nationalist currents of anti-Semitism 1871-1914. Verlag Neue Gesellschaft GmbH, Bonn 1978 (also dissertation at the University of Bonn 1977); Dietz 1989, ISBN 3-87831-281-4
- Lars Fischer: The Socialist Response to Antisemitism in Imperial Germany. Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Individual evidence
- ↑ See the minutes of the negotiations at the congress of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. P. 224.
- ↑ "Nobody is to blame.", In: Der Wahre Jacob - illustrated magazine for satire, humor and entertainment. Number 137, August 1891 edition, Dietz, Berlin 1891, title page, Der Wahre Jacob, (online) ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Eugen Richter (without naming names): Zeuge Stöcker, a picture of the time from 1885. Verlag "Progress, Aktiengesellschaft", Berlin 1885.
- ↑ See “Der Umschwung in Berlin”, in: Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums , Issue 4 (January 25, 1881), p. 57.
- ↑ See Lars Fischer: The Socialist Response to Antisemitism in Germany , p. 46 ff.
- ↑ In: Sozialdemokrat, No. 27, edition of June 30, 1881 and Social Democrat, No. 28, edition of July 7, 1881. Cf. Lars Fischer: The Socialist Response to Antisemitism in Germany , p. 57 ff.
- ^ Cf. Franz Mehring: History of the German Social Democracy. Volume 4 (until the Erfurt Party Congress), p. 190. (online)
- ↑ See for example: Reichstag protocols, 1892/93, 3, 70th session, March 18, 1893 , Reichstag protocols, 1892/93, 3, 71st session, March 20, 1893 or Reichstag protocols, 1892/93, 3, 73rd session, March 22, 1893
- ^ Liberal newspaper. Issue dated June 1, 1892, title page.
- ↑ Cf. “Nobody is to blame”, in: Der Wahre Jacob - illustrated magazine for satire, humor and entertainment. Number 137, August 1891 edition, Dietz, Berlin 1891, title page, (online) ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. or "The last general meeting." In: Der Wahre Jacob - illustrated magazine for satire, humor and entertainment. Number 153, edition September 1892, Dietz, Berlin 1892, p. 2, (online) ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ See Lars Fischer: The Socialist Response to Antisemitism in Germany, p. 78, which refers to: Werner Blumenberg (ed.): August Bebel's correspondence with Friedrich Engels. 1969, p. 679.
- ↑ See Lars Fischer: The Socialist Response to Antisemitism in Germany, pp. 78–79. See also: Reichstag protocols 1892/93, 5, p. 1147, Annex 200.
- ↑ Reinhard Rürup: Emancipation and anti-Semitism. Göttingen, 1975. S. 118. Quoted from: Rosemarie Leuschen-Seppel: Social Democracy and Anti-Semitism in the Kaiserreich. Verlag Neue Gesellschaft GmbH, Bonn 1978. p. 77.
- ^ Rosemarie Leuschen-Seppel: Social Democracy and Anti-Semitism in the Empire. Verlag Neue Gesellschaft GmbH, Bonn 1978. p. 77.
- ^ Lars Fischer: The Socialist Response to Antisemitism in Imperial Germany. P. 71.
- ^ August Bebel: Anti-Semitism and Social Democracy. 2nd edition, Vorwärts, Berlin 1906.
- ^ Lars Fischer: The Socialist Response to Antisemitism in Imperial Germany. P. 80.
