Philosemitism

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Philosemitism (from the Greek philos - "friend" - and Semitism ) has been a collective term since around 1880 for a well-meaning attitude towards Jews , Judaism or its cultural achievements , the concrete contents and motivations of which are diverse. It was originally used as a derogatory catchphrase , especially by anti-Semites .

term

The expression was originally a battle term for German opponents of the Jews against their non-Jewish opponents. It assumes the concept of anti-Semitism , which emerged in Germany and Austria around 1865.

Heinrich von Treitschke spoke for the first time of the "philosemitic zeal" in connection with the Berlin anti-Semitism dispute he initiated in 1880. He attributed this to the German Progressive Party , which opposed the demands of the anti-Semite petition at the time. His opponent Theodor Mommsen had previously spoken of “pro- and anti-Semitic moods”, and Wilhelm Endner had devalued non-Jewish Germans who, in his view, had acquired “Jewish principles”, as “fellow Jews”. Until 1912, the term philosemitism was mainly used in this sense for polemics against left-wing liberalism .

In 1884 the Jewish missionary Johann FA de la Roi described Christians as philosemites who, in the necessary "extermination struggle" between Jews and Christians, "demand a love that no longer wants to lead the truth to victory", that is, the goal of converting all Jews to Jesus Christ give up.

The socialist Franz Mehring used the term since 1890 as a polemic against conservative and liberal publicists: Their philosemitism was "nothing but the last ideological disguise of capitalism "; the socialist press must fight “capitalist philosemites” as well as “philosemitic capitalists”. If liberal Jews get upset about anti-Jewish attacks like in 1891 about the Xanten case of an alleged ritual murder , that is hypocritical:

“In Judaism the Mosse and comrades defend the possibility, the prerequisites of haggling on which the glory of the capitalist world rests; that's why they turn a blind eye with a smile when a Jew is trampled because his Judaism somehow gets in the way of capitalism, but that's why they also raise a cry of lamentation when an anti-capitalist movement comes too close to a Jew for the sake of his Judaism. Anti-Semitism is an anti-capitalist movement. "

This attitude met with criticism from Eduard Bernstein within the Social Democrats , who warned in the Neue Zeit that the use of the ambiguous catchphrase “philosemitism” in the labor movement would justify the anti-Semites. Because of these and similar statements, Mehring is now considered anti-Semitic by historians Robert S. Wistrich and Götz Aly .

In his 1897 essay, Hear Israel, Walter Rathenau described as philosemites those who disputed the existence of a Jewish question in the German Empire . He also meant liberals who allegedly did harm to the German nation, not all but individual Jews and who only demanded the application or at best moderate tightening of existing laws. Rathenau agreed with them.

Enemies of Jews of the late 19th century also called the representatives of the Enlightenment of the 18th century "philosemites" who did not know this term: for example John Toland with his writing Reasons for the naturalization of Jews in Great Britain and Ireland under equality with all other nations (1714 ), Gotthold Ephraim Lessing with his drama Nathan the Wise (1779) or Christian Konrad Wilhelm von Dohm with his program publication On the bourgeois improvement of the Jews (1781–1783). The anti-Semitism researcher Alex Bein rejects this reference to the term as an ahistorical back-projection, since many enlighteners considered the peculiarities of the Jewish religion as obstacles to be overcome and consequently rejected the adherence of believing Jews to it as a problem and stubborn inaudibility or would have favored this rejection.

Since 1945, the term has generally been understood as a benevolent attitude by non-Jews towards Jews or towards what non-Jews consider a typical and valuable concern of the Jews. In this sense, philosemitism has often been interpreted and criticized as "reverse anti-Semitism", which only accepts that which non-Jews find sympathetic to Jews. Like anti-Semitism, it is a perspective from which Jews are in some way exceptional.

Typing attempts

Hans-Joachim Schoeps understood philosemitism since 1952 as a Jewish-friendly attitude with very different motives. He distinguished five types:

  • a religious type that comes closer to Judaism based on a religious decision. This applied to the non-Jews, referred to as “God-fearing” in Hellenism , who tended to convert to Judaism without strictly following all the commandments of the Torah .
  • a Christian- chiliastic type: This let the Jews exist because they would play a role “in the last act of the world drama” before the expected return of Jesus Christ . Representatives of this type are spiritualists and enthusiasts of the 17th century such as Paul Felgenhauer and Andreas Kempe, as well as communities that emerged later such as the Adventists and Mormons .
  • The Christian missionary type is not sharply demarcated from this: it respects Judaism with its peculiarities and emphasizes positive traits in order to prepare the ground for a successful mission to the Jews . According to Michael Brenner , "Jewish friends" of this type defend Jews against their enemies, tried to ward off theological prejudices about them and to awaken and strengthen understanding among Christians for them, but always aimed at their conversion. During the Reformation, for example, Johannes Reuchlin , Christian Kabbalists such as Christian Knorr von Rosenroth , representatives of Pietism such as Johann Christoph Wagenseil , and later liberal Protestantism such as Franz Delitzsch and Hermann Strack would have represented this position.
  • The utilitarian type cannot be clearly defined from this : He advocates the settlement of Jews in a country because he expects political and / or economic advantages from it. Schoeps named Hugo Grotius , who welcomed the admission of Jews to the Netherlands in 1615 , and Oliver Cromwell , who allowed Jews to immigrate to England in 1655, as examples . Brenner counts Christian Zionism because it supported Zionism and a non-European Jewish state in order to achieve the “solution to the Jewish question” by excluding Jews from Europe. Political liberalism in the 19th century also saw a Jewish group consciousness as a danger to the unity of the nation.
  • a liberal-humanitarian type “who wants to prove to the Jews his principles of tolerance and equality” and therefore demanded Jewish emancipation as a necessary contribution to the implementation of general human rights . The humanism of the Renaissance was therefore interested in Judaism. The classic document of this enlightened tolerance towards Jews is Lessing's Nathan the Wise .

German Philosemitism of the Post-Nazi Era

As the sixth type, Brenner complements a philosemitism that emerged after 1945, which is borne by a feeling of guilt towards survivors of the Holocaust, which is why it deals intensively with Jewish culture and emphasizes solidarity with the State of Israel , whereby personal interests are also influenced. Following on from this, Henryk M. Broder criticized a kitschy, unrealistic conception of Judaism among philosemites on the occasion of the film A Quite Ordinary Jew, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel in 2005 . Back in 1991, Broder had in an article in the daily paper notes that " do-gooders " their philo like a monstrance hertrügen on. According to Claudia Curio , in the post-war period a philosemitic discourse often served to grant oneself absolution for being a perpetrator or follower after the Nazi era , or to gain advantages over the occupying power. Anti-Semitic attitudes were retained, but were then directed more towards Eastern European Jewish displaced persons , whereas the German Jews, who were hardly to be found in Germany after National Socialism, were exaggerated philosophically. According to Curio, a simple reversal of anti-Semitic prejudices promised material advantages in reconstruction due to an economic talent attributed to the Jews or their supposedly easy access to capital. However, this had no effect on the concrete dealings with Jewish returnees, nor had there been any increased efforts to return Jewish expellees. In the philosemitic abstract stylization and idealization of Judaism within Christian circles of post-war society, Christian anti-Judaism was not called into question and the murder of European Jews was given a place in the plan of salvation history . At the same time, Jews were declared to be moral authorities for which higher standards than other people had to apply. Examples of efforts to improve mutual relations without philo-Semitic exaggeration are the societies for Christian-Jewish cooperation founded by the occupying powers .

literature

term

  • Wolfram Kinzig : Philosemitism. In: Journal for Church History (ZKG) Volume 105, 1994; Part I: On the history of the term , issue 2, pp. 202–228; Part II: On the historiographical use of the term , booklet 3, pp. 361–383.

overview

  • Irene A. Diekmann, Elke-Vera Kotowski (ed.): Beloved enemy - hated friend: anti-Semitism and philosemitism in the past and present. Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, 2009, ISBN 3-86650-334-2 .
  • Philipp Theisohn, Georg Braungart (ed.): Philosemitism. Rhetoric, poetics, history of discourse. Wilhelm Fink, Paderborn 2017.
  • David S. Katz: The Phenomenon of Philo-Semitism. In: Studies in Church History , Oxford 1992, pp. 327-361.

Early modern age

  • Hans-Joachim Schoeps : Philosemitism in the Baroque. Religious and intellectual history studies. Mohr / Siebeck, Tübingen 1952.
  • Peter Vogt (ed.): Between zeal for conversion and philosemitism: texts on the position of Pietism on Judaism. 1st edition. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2007, ISBN 3-374-02456-4 .

German Empire 1871–1932

  • Michael Brenner : God protect us from our friends. On the ambivalence of philosemitism in the empire. In: Jahrbuch für Antisemitismusforschung 2 (1993), pp. 174-199.
  • Alan T. Levenson: Between Philosemitism and Antisemitism: Defenses of Jews and Judaism in Germany, 1871-1932. Lincoln / London 2004.

Nazi era

  • Alan Edelstein: To Unacknowledged Harmony. Philo-Semitism and the Survival of European Jewry. Westport, Connecticut / London 1982.

After 1945

  • Wolfgang Benz (Ed.): Between anti-Semitism and philosemitism. Jews in the Federal Republic. Metropol, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-926893-10-9 .
  • Frank Stern , Shulamit Volkov : In the beginning there was Auschwitz: anti-Semitism and philosemitism in post-war Germany. Wallstein, Göttingen 1991, ISBN 3-89244-540-0 .
  • Frank Stern: Evangelical Church between Anti-Semitism and Philosemitism. In: Geschichte und Gesellschaft No. 18/1992, ISSN  0340-613X , pp. 22-50.
  • Hanno Loewy (ed.): Rumors about the Jews: anti-Semitism, philosemitism and current conspiracy theories. Klartext-Verlagsgesellschaft, Essen 2005, ISBN 3-89861-501-4 .
  • Ulrike Zander: Philosemitism in German Protestantism after the Second World War. LIT Verlag Dr. W. Hopf, Berlin 2007, ISBN 3-8258-0359-7 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Philosemitism  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Single receipts

  1. ^ Franz Mehring, Anti- und Philosemitisches , in: Die Neue Zeit No. 45 (1891), p. 586 ( online , accessed on October 20, 2010); also on the following see Matthias Vetter: Franz Mehring . In: Wolfgang Benz (Ed.), Handbook of Antisemitism . Hostility to Jews in the past and present. Vol 01.02. Persons L-Z . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2009, p. 536 f.
  2. ^ Franz Mehring: Capitalist agony. In: Die Neue Zeit Volume X (1891-92), Volume 2 (1892), No. 44, p. 546 ( online , accessed on January 2, 2013.
  3. ^ Eduard Bernstein: The catchphrase and anti-Semitism . In: Die Neue Zeit , XI. Volume, 2nd volume (1893), No. 35, p. 233 ( online , accessed on January 2, 2013); see. Robert S. Wistrich: Anti-capitalism or antisemitism? The case of Franz Mehring . In: Leo Baeck Institute Year Book 22 (1977), p. 47.
  4. ^ Robert S. Wistrich: Anti-capitalism or antisemitism? The case of Franz Mehring . In: Leo Baeck Institute Year Book 22 (1977), pp. 35-51; Götz Aly: Why the Germans? Why the Jews? Equality, envy and racial hatred 1800–1933 . S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2011, p. 127 f.
  5. ^ Friedrich Niewöhner: Philosemitism. In: Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1992, Sp. 1191
  6. ↑ Alex Bein: The Jewish question. Biography of a world problem , Volume II, Stuttgart 1980, p. 109
  7. ↑ Alex Bein: The Jewish question. Biography of a world problem , Volume I, Stuttgart 1980, p. 169ff
  8. ↑ Michael Brenner: Philosemitism , in: The religion in history and present , 4th edition, Tübingen 2003, volume 6, column 1289
  9. ^ Claudia Curio: Philosemitism. In: Wolfgang Benz (ed.): Handbook of Antisemitism. Hostility to Jews in the past and present. Vol. 3 concepts, theories, ideologies. De Gruyter, Berlin, 2010, p. 266 f.
  10. ↑ Hans-Joachim Schoeps: Philosemitism. In: The religion in history and present , 3rd edition, Mohr / Siebeck, Tübingen 1961, Volume V, Sp. 348
  11. ↑ Michael Brenner: Philosemitism , in: Religion in Past and Present , 4th Edition, Mohr / Siebeck, Tübingen 2003, Volume 6, Sp. 1289-1290
  12. ↑ Henryk M. Broder: The Eternal Good , article from January 19, 2006 in the Spiegel Online portal , accessed on December 27, 2011
  13. ↑ Hannes Stein: Satanischer Wallraff , article from July 12, 2007 in the portal Welt Online , accessed on December 27, 2011
  14. ↑ Curio, p. 267 f.