International anti-Jewish congresses

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An “International Anti-Jewish Congress” took place for the first time in Dresden in 1882 , and another in Chemnitz in 1883 . The congresses were part of German anti-Semitism , which began to organize politically from 1879 in the Berlin anti-Semitism dispute and the anti-Semitic petition of 1880/81. They did not have any lasting effects on its development.

First Congress, Dresden 1882

Attendees

The "International Anti-Jewish Congress" was organized by the Dresden-based German Reform Association , which was founded in 1879. Its magazine was called Deutsche Reform . According to the early anti-Semitism researcher Kurt Wawrzinek, the supporters of this “petty-bourgeois reform party” under Alexander Pinkert came to the party less because of the “ Jewish question ” but because of their oppressed social situation. Of 14 program items, only one referred to Judaism (only “Christian-religious men” should be able to be elected to public offices), and the party's hostility towards Jews was shown rather in the agitation.

In addition, a number of Berliners came to the congress, including supporters of Adolf Stoecker's Berlin movement and the “moderate” Max Liebermann von Sonnenberg , but also “racial anti-Semites” around Ernst Henrici . At least thirty participants from Berlin are said to have been to Dresden.

Thirty participants were registered from Hungary, the most prominent of whom were the three MPs Gyözö Istóczy , Iván Simonyi and Géza Ónody . Istoczy in particular had distinguished himself as a radical; the former member of the ruling liberal faction in the Hungarian Chamber had proposed measures against Jewish immigration and violence against Jews.

In total, the congress had around 300 to 400 participants.

Procedure and results

The congress began on Saturday, September 9, 1882 in the Helbigschen Etablissement in Dresden, the Great Hall of which was adorned with the busts of the German Emperor, the Austro-Hungarian Emperor and the Saxon King. In addition, a picture of Esther Solymosi was presented, who allegedly fell victim to a " ritual murder " on April 1, 1882 in the said eastern Hungarian town , from which the Tiszaeszlár affair developed. The police were monitoring Congress.

On Sunday afternoon, the congress company and women sailed the Elbe on a steamboat. “In Blasewitz a deposit was made and a deputation was sent to the landlord of the Schiller Garden, whose owner, out of consideration for a single Jewish family, did not present his guests with an anti-Semitic paper - with the request whether he had subscribed to the 'German Reform'. When the deputation came back with a negative decision, the host was brought a pereat [Latin: he may perish] and to the sound of 'Deutschland, Deutschland [about everything] ' the ship was pushed off again [...]. "

At the congress itself, eight theses of the Berlin court preacher Stöcker were discussed on Monday and thereby intensified in a racial anti-Semitic way.After all, the unanimously adopted theses said, among other things, that the Jews are a nationality due to their origin, language and culture and cannot be part of a Christian people. Jews are not allowed to have any offices, the legislation is supposed to restrict Jewish capital power. The “reformers” thus prevailed, between the more moderate Christian-Social and the more radical racial anti-Semites.

On Tuesday, von Simonyi spoke about the Tiszaeszlár affair and not only repeated the legend of the ritual murder , but also claimed that all of Judaism identified with the journeymen. A number of telegrams from Europe and America were also read that day.

In addition to the resolutions, the most important result of the conference was a resolution on a “permanent committee of the international anti-Jewish congress”. It should publish the congress resolutions, create a press without Jewish influence and convene a second conference.

Second Congress, Chemnitz 1883

prehistory

Although a representative of the committee was elected in Dresden, the chairman of the Chemnitz reform association Ernst Schmeitzner , the committee was never constituted. Schmeitzner wanted to turn the committee into an anti- Jewish alliance with a sharply anti-Jewish group from the Dresden Reform Party and with the approval of the Berlin extremists , alluding to the Jewish Alliance Israélite Universelle .

As a result, some German and Austro-Hungarian anti-Semites met in Chemnitz on February 5, 1883 to found this alliance, which was supposed to "educate" the population about Judaism, create a non-Jewish press and regulate the "Jewish question" by law. This must be regulated internationally, otherwise the Jews would move from one country to another. The non-partisan alliance should only accept invited people as members; Schmeitzner's international monthly is the organ .

Discussion and demands

The congress itself met on April 27th, after there had already been a closed meeting of alliance members on the 26th. The journalist Otto Glagau from Berlin and Iván von Simonyi were the congress chairs; Glagau welcomed forty attendees, including allegedly gentlemen from Germany, Russia, Romania, Serbia and France. The only request to speak from abroad, apart from von Simnoyi, was a German-Russian from the Vistula region. Max Liebermann von Sonnenberg claimed that several of those present from Russia would have liked to take part in the debate if they had spoken better German.

It is not about "massacre" the Jews, but to put them in "appropriate limits" and thus to protect them from popular anger, said Glagau. He also emphasized the anti-Semitic currents that reconciled people. Once again the anti-Semite congress tried - without further explanation - to “limit” the Jewish influence, this time in a petition to Bismarck , while the demands of the racial anti-Semites were rejected. Amman from Berlin wanted to keep “racial Jews” away from newspapers and public employment and demanded expropriation.

Aftermath and Research

The two anti-Jewish congresses in Saxony are only a brief episode of the German anti-Semitic movement. But they impressively show their problems:

  • The internationality of these encounters must be put into perspective. All speakers were Germans or Hungarians, the latter emphasizing their Germanophilia. The lack of strong Russian participation is astonishing, despite the pogroms at the time in southern Russia and Russian Poland. The choice of topics also shows the international standard as being too high. A meeting in Kassel in 1886 and the Bochum Anti-Semite Day of 1889 were realistically no longer mentioned internationally.
  • The participants were not delegates from an umbrella organization; the delegates of the reform associations in Dresden in 1882 had their own meetings. The congress only resulted in the establishment of a committee to prepare another congress. The Congresses in Dresden and Chemnitz had no broad impact and did not determine the further development of German anti-Semitism.
  • Many of the anti-Semites were politically liberal and economic issues dominated. This led to a dispute with the more Christian “moderates” around Stöcker, including Pinkert, but also with the (even more radical) anti-race anti-Semites such as Henrici or Amman. Liebermann von Sonnenberg addressed the latter in 1883 with the words that he should "come back after 50 years with such proposals, then they will perhaps be able to find acceptance, and probably not entirely".
  • The petition to Bismarck and the general monarchist mood show that the anti-Semites hoped for their - often imprecise - ideas of premodern institutions to be fulfilled, bypassing parliaments. The anti-Semitic movement itself remained weak.

There is hardly any mention of the two congresses in the literature; they are mentioned in passing in anti-Semitism books.

literature

swell
  • General Association for Combating Judaism, Alliance universelle antijuive (Ed.): Manifesto to the governments and peoples of the Christian states endangered by Judaism according to the resolution of the First International Anti-Jewish Congress in Dresden on September 11th and 12th, 1882. Chemnitz 1883 (printed brochure , Copy available in: Freiburg State Archives, holdings B 715/1, District Office Konstanz, order no.2409)
  • German reform. Organ of the German Reform Movement. Advocate of the working people against international Manchesterism and stock market liberalism. Daily newspaper for politics, honest business and entertainment , Dresden, 10. – 20. September 1882
  • Simonyi, Iván von: Judaism and parliamentary comedy. Speech about the deceptions and the necessary reform of our modern representative system, given on the occasion of the budget debate on February 7, 1882 in the Hungarian House of Representatives. With an introduction to the Jews and the hollowness of our modern politics and constitution , Pressburg and Leipzig: Verlag von Gustav Hechenast's successors, 1883
  • Stenographic report on the II. Anti-Jewish Congress, convened by the General Association for Combating Judaism (Alliance antijuive universelle) in Chemnitz on April 27 and 28, 1883, in: Schmeitzner's international monthly. Journal for the General Association for Combating Judaism (Alliance antijuive universelle) , edited by CH Rittner, 2nd volume, May 1883, 5th issue, pp. 255–322
Secondary literature
  • Hans Engelmann: The development of anti-Semitism in the 19th century and Adolf Stoecker's 'Anti-Jewish Movement' , Diss. Erlangen, 1953
  • Peter GJ Pulzer: The emergence of political anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria 1867 - 1914. With a research report by the author. Series: Erich Maria Remarque Jahrbuch-Yearbook. V&R, Göttingen 2004 ISBN 3525369549
  • Kurt Wawrzinek: The emergence of the German anti-Semite parties 1873 - 1890 , Dr. Emil Ebering, Berlin 1927; Reprint Kraus Reprint, Vaduz 1965

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kurt Wawrzinek: The emergence of the German anti-Semite parties (1873-1890) , Berlin 1927, p. 48.
  2. ^ German Reform , September 10, 1882, p. 2.
  3. ↑ Jakob Katz: From prejudice to destruction, Munich 1989, pp. 230-234.
  4. ^ German Reform, September 12, 1882, p. 1.
  5. ^ German Reform , September 13, pp. 1 and 2.
  6. ↑ Wawrzinek: Anti-Semite Parties , p. 52.
  7. ↑ See Peter Pulzer : The Rise of Political Anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria , John Wiley, NY 1984, pp. 103 and 104; deutsch The emergence of political anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria 1867 - 1914. With a research report. Series: Erich Maria Remarque Jahrbuch-Yearbook. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht , Göttingen 2004 ISBN 3525369549 (in the foreword, note on the various German / English editions of the book); and Wawrzinek: Anti-Semite Parties , p. 52.
  8. ↑ Stenographic report on the II. Anti-Jewish Congress, convened by the General Association for Combating Judaism (Alliance antijuive universelle) in Chemnitz on April 27 and 28, 1883, in: Schmeitzner's international monthly. Journal for the General Association for Combating Judaism (Alliance antijuive universelle) , edited by CH Rittner, 2nd volume, May 1883, 5th issue, pp. 255–322, here pp. 262, 268, 270.
  9. ↑ Sten. Report, p. 318.
  10. ↑ Sten. Report, pp. 255/256.
  11. ↑ Sten. Report, pp. 278–282.
  12. ^ Sten. Report, p. 285.
  13. ↑ One sentence each from Arendt and Poliakov. Hannah Arendt: Elements and origins of total rule , Frankfurt am Main 1955. Léon Poliakov : History of Antisemitism , Frankfurt am Main 1988. Günther B. Ginzel (Ed.): Antisemitism. Manifestations of hostility towards Jews yesterday and today , Bielefeld 1991.