Trudy Gold
Jews in Bismarck’s Germany, Part 1

Trudy Gold - Jews in Bismarck’s Germany, Part 1

- Evening from London. Good afternoon to all of you. And today, I’m going to be looking at the Jews in Bismarck’s Germany. And as I mentioned right at the beginning, yesterday, William looked at the extraordinary career of Otto von Bismarck. Now, I’m going to give you a few quotations because, of course, the role of the Jews in Germany, 1871 to 1939, or let’s say 1933, is absolutely extraordinary. And what we looked at last week was how the Jews first became part of German society, the career of Moses Mendelssohn who followed him. And then that terrible chewing and throwing, because one of the problems was that the Jews in Prussia were emancipated in 1812. When Prussia was extended in 1815, the Jews in New Prussia were not emancipated, and each state made up its own rules. And because Napoleon, when he conquered the Rhineland, he had freed the Jews, many of the princes who wanted to push back the ideas of the French Revolution pushed the Jews back into the ghettos. And the point was that between 1815 and 1871, there was a huge mass of conversions into Germany. Why? Well, maybe Heiner said it. “Baptism is the passport to European civilization.” It was almost… I’m going to read you a couple of quotes because it’s very, very important.

This is actually from a very good historian called Richard Grunberger. “For well over half a century, the confluence of these two ethical traditions produced an outpouring of literature, music, and ideas that if it hadn’t been for the infamous finale, would be regarded as a Golden Age. Einstein, despite all the difficulties, he called it a time of undreamed of possibilities. He described the burning enthusiasm with which so many Jews joined the Russians the arts of science.” Again, this is Richard Grunberger. They may have been newcomers to the German universities, but it seems as though they’ve been preparing for the entrance examinations for over 1,000 years. And let me go look at the problem with you because it will take… Heiner, what did Heiner say? “The two ethical nations, the Jews and the Germans, will create a new Jerusalem.” There was something in German scholarship in Germany that when it fused with Jewish culture, produced like an extraordinary explosion, the like of which I don’t think the world has seen since the Italian Renaissance. So you are looking at a people. And remember, it’s only a small percentage of the population. There were only about 4,000 Jews in Berlin in the 1850s. And they were never more than 1% of the population of Germany. And yet, it was almost as though the modern world was made for them. And of course, with Bismarck, as you were told yesterday, Bismarck was in a hurry. Bismarck wanted to make Germany under him through Prussia into the great power in Europe.

And this is what John Rohl, in his brilliant book, “The Kaiser and his Court” had to say, because on one level, it’s going to be modernity, and on the other level, you’re going to see a lot of problems. So this is what John Rohl said. “The Second Reich of Bismarck represented the most determined effort in Europe to uphold the feudal principles of personal monarchy by divine rights, a military code of honour, and a social hierarchy dominated by the aristocracy. And to rescue the outdated institutions and values into a world increasingly characterised by trade and industry, burgeoning cities, mass mobility, democracy and socialism, and freedom of expression in the press and in the arts. Nowhere, and this is important, was the clash between ancient and modern attitudes and beliefs more intense than in Imperial Germany.” And I need to repeat that to you because if you could… I’m sure many of you understand already, but if we can get this inside ourselves, we understand what went right and what went wrong. The Jews fall in love with German culture. They fall in love with the German Gymnasium. They fall in love with the new universities. Remember, the University of Berlin had owned the Humboldt University, the liberal arts university, had only been created when? In 1810.

And of course, it’s faculty, it’s the new sciences, they explode into it. So let me just repeat this. “The Second Reich of Bismarck represented the most determined effort in Europe to uphold the feudal principles of personal monarchy by divine right, a military code of honour, and a social hierarchy dominated by the aristocracy. And to rescue these outdated institutions and values into a world increased…” So this is the old world. “Increasingly characterised by trade and industry, burgeoning cities and mass mobility, democracy and socialism, and freedom of expression in the press and the arts. Nowhere was the clash between ancient and modern attitudes and beliefs more intense than in Imperial Germany.” Now, by 1900, the Jews made up 8% of the population of the capital. And you have a success story, as I said, and I cannot keep on about this. It’s so important that it’s probably without, it is without rival, it’s Jews working in the German language. It also applies to Vienna, it applies to Prague. They exploded into modernity. And may I just mention to you, on Sunday night, there was a brilliant film by Christopher Nupen called, “Why the Light?” And it’s the story of Jews, Germany, and music with some incredible interviews and it’s on BBC Four. And you can get it… If you live in Britain, and those of you who live in Europe who can get BBC, it’s BBC Four, and it’s catch up from Sunday.

Because the point is it beautifully illustrated so many of the things that I’m talking about, it’s almost as if it was made for this. And in fact, people that you know, people like Anita Lasker-Wallfisch are interviewed, and it’s a very, very special programme. And it tries to, as I’m trying to do now, it tries to unlock the riddle. Why was it? And so let’s say they’re 8% of the population, but the role of the Jew is going to be out of all proportions, there are numbers, and more important, visible. For example, yesterday there was a question to William, what about Bismarck’s banker, Bleichroder? Well, I’m going to be talking a lot about Bleichroder. He was ennobled. He is the most important banker in Germany. And if you look at the success story, the three leading private banks: the Mendelssohn Bank, the Bleichroder Bank, and the Schlesinger Bank, were Jewish. 80% of businesses in the department stores were in Jewish hands. And I’ll be looking on Thursday with you at all the department stores like Tietz, Wertheim, KaDeWe. And then think about the press, the two great press barons, out of which 85% of the newspapers and magazines came were both Jewish, the Elshtain and Mosse Empires.

If you look at the shoe stores, manufacturing, if you look at Salamander chain, most of these shoe chains were in Jewish hands. Rathenow, AEJ, one of the largest industrial complexes in the world. Other aspects of modernity: self-service restaurants, the railways. Much of the finance for the railways was from Jewish bankers. Every aspect of modernity. In the universities, particularly in the new sciences, in the faculties of physics and chemistry, in the faculties of law and medicine, by 1900, 50% of the doctors and 50% of the lawyers in Berlin were Jewish. And throughout the whole country, it was 22% of the doctors and 15% of the lawyers. So it’s an extraordinary story. And don’t forget also, between 1815 and 1871, emancipation given, emancipation taken away. Revolutions of 1848, emancipation given, emancipation taken away. It is Bismarck who fully emancipates every Jew in Germany under the law. The other point, if you turn to the world of the theatre, Max Reinhardt, the extraordinary Max Reinhardt, who was actually born in the Habsburg Empire, he controlled the largest chain of theatres in Vienna and in Berlin. He put on all the new plays, and so many of the people he later trained finished up in Hollywood. So many of the musicians he trained finished up in Hollywood.

If you also think about left wing movements, Bamba, Lasker, and, of course, Ferdinand Lassalle virtually created the German Social Democratic Movement, which became the largest in Germany. So you have Jews on the left, you also have Jews as a symbol of communism. Jews were loyal Germans. They saw themselves as Germans of the Mosaic Persuasion, and fewer and fewer of them were actually religious. And I think this is very, very important. And it’s no accident that reformed Judaism comes to the fore in Germany. And I’m glad to tell you that Rabbi Rosen has actually decided he’s going to give a lecture on reform Judaism because it’s a subject he knows an awful lot about and I feel far more comfortable that he do it than me. But obviously, because reform in its infancy was to prove to the outside world that Jews could be Europeans. So you’re going to have a lot of decorum in the service, there’s much of it in the vernacular, you’re going to have the organ. It’s going to try and have the pomp and ceremony of a church. They are now, those who are still Jews are Jews of the Mosaic Persuasion becoming… But they are German first, and that’s the important thing. Germany is their Fatherland. And of course, when we looked at Heiner with you, both myself and Professor Pima, what you saw was that incredible ambivalence. And another point to remember, we are going to see, of course, in the next few weeks, terrible tensions in Germany.

You’re going to see the rise of a terrible anti-Semitism. Yet, I want you to remember that if you were sitting in a drawing room in 1890, the Hep-Hep riots of 1819 were a long time ago. What you’re going to think is, “It’s going to get better. It’s good here.” You see, Jews could go to the theatre, they could go to the opera. And they were quite often at the openings of all the new shows, art galleries. There wasn’t such a preponderance of Jews as artists. But most of the gallery owners who brought to the public modern art were Jewish. You could make the case that they were outside the old traditions. Do we have to go back to Isaiah Berlin and what he said? Imagine a people from another planet who land on planet Earth, and they fall in love with the planet. And because back on their own planet, they had this incredible tradition of learning, and because they are outsiders, they plunged in and they took modernity by the throat and they pushed it and they pushed it as loyal German citizens. And that is the point. And if they encountered hostility, and you’re going to see next week just how much hostility they did encounter, in the main, they believed it would get better.

Now, could we turn to the next slide, please? Now, there you see Kaiser Wilhelm I, of course, who ruled for such a, such a long time. He was a very austere, very right-wing kind of character, very, very traditional. And, of course, although he didn’t like Bismarck much, he had to decide the most brilliant chancellor blood… Of course, Blood and Iron. Never forget that Bismarck had managed to unify Germany through three wars. And in this new militarised state, he is an incredibly important figure. But I want to just refer to one or two other aspects to Bismarck’s character, which I think are quite important. Although he was a Prussian Junker, he came from the Prussian Junker class, he was a landowner, he was an aristocrat, as was his father, of course. His father was a former military officer. Can we see Bismarck’s face, please, if you don’t mind, Emily? Can we? Yeah. His mother was a very well-educated daughter of a senior government official. And it’s A. J. P. Taylor, who was a brilliant British historian. He said, “You can never forget there are two sides to Bismarck. On one side, he had his father who was a Prussian military officer and a Junker. And from him, his tradition of authoritarianism, Bismarck was horrified by the revolutions of 1848. He was prepared to take his peasants from his estate to march on Berlin to rescue the Kaiser. He was no Democrat. He didn’t believe in democratic traditions. What he did believe in was the power of the Kaiser.

But he also believed he had to make Germany into the most modern strong nation in the world. And consequently, he needed all the aspects of modernity at his side.” But from his mother, he got a very different kind of background. She was very cosmopolitan, she was highly educated. She went to the best schools in Berlin. She went to the University of Gottingen. She spoke and wrote in English, French and Russian. She taught her son so much, and we know that he often quoted Shakespeare in letters that he wrote to his wife and Byron. Now, we also know about him, and this is something else very interesting, which Wilhelm alluded to, but I actually want to go a little deeper because Wilhelm very much influenced… He talked about the Blood and Iron speech when… And of course, Bismarck’s brilliant general Moltke, he said, “War is a necessary part of God’s arrangement of the world.” So there’s the militarism. But he was also a very, very close friend of Benjamin Disraeli. In fact, he had three pictures on his desk. Did Bismarck, one of the Kaiser, one of his wife, and one of Benjamin Disraeli. They first met at the Russian Ambassador’s restaurant in the summer of 1862 in London. And he actually spelled out his plans for Germany. And Bismarck wrote… This is what Disraeli wrote about his meeting with Bismarck. “I shall soon,” this is what Bismarck said to Disraeli, “I shall soon be compelled to understate the conduct,” and this is 1862, remember? This is before he embarks on the three wars of the Prussian government. “My first care will be the reorganisation of the army with or without the help of the Landtag, the parliament, as soon as the army shall have been brought into such condition to inspire respect as you’ll seize the least pretext to declare war against Austria, dissolve the German Diet, subdue the minor states, and give national unity to Germany under Prussian leadership.

I’ve come to say this to the Queen’s Minister.” And this is what Disraeli said to the Austrian ambassador, “Take heed of this man. He needs what he says.” The British ambassador to Berlin, a man called Odo Russell, he said of Bismarck, “The demonic is stronger in him than in any man I know.” The king said of him, “Bismarck is to be used only when the bayonets rule without limit.” However, the point is that this close friendship between Disraeli and Bismarck is going to last all of Disraeli’s life. And next week, when William talks to you about Bismarck’s home front and the terrible economic political conditions and the situation of the poor, it’s Disraeli who is writing to him and saying, “You have got to stop. You’ve got to stop grinding the poor.” It was Disraeli who said, and I think it’s a phrase we should remember to this day. Disraeli introduced more reforms for poor people in his short period of office than the whole of Gladstone. Disraeli, the Conservative. Disraeli said, “When the cottages are restive, the stately homes should tremble.” And he said, “The problem with England, it is two nations: the rich and the poor.” And Disraeli, the ultimate outsider, tried to explain to Bismarck how important it was that Bismarck introduces many, many reforms.

And of course, later on, at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, where the two old warhorse is, Bismarck and Disraeli managed to secure the peace of Europe. I know we shouldn’t play the game of if and but, but frankly, if Bismarck had been in power in 1914, if he’d lived and if Disraeli had been in power, I really believe they would’ve averted the First World War. And when William comes talk to you about it, you’re going to see what a stupid, ridiculous catastrophe it was. But yet, the Congress of Berlin, at the end of the Congress, Bismarck says of Disraeli, “Der alte Jude, das ist der Mann.” which is you must admit, was a very, very strange comment to make about the prime minister of Israel, of England. God, that was a Freudian slip. “Der alte Jude, das ist der Mann.” Now, I’m going to talk about his personal banker, in many ways, after Bismarck, the most powerful man in Germany. And that is Gerson Bleichroder. And can we see the next slide, please? Now, this is Fritz Stern. Fritz Stern, the brilliant writer, who, of course, wrote “Einstein’s German World” and also wrote a brilliant biography of Bleichroder. In his book, “Bismarck, Bleichroder and the Building of the German Empire,” this is what he wrote. “Opposites attract partly by complementing each other. Bismarck and Bleichroder were cast in radically different moulds, originally lived in different worlds and aspired to different stations, but their lives intersected. And for 35 years, they proved useful to each other.

The statesman, who had to circumvent the Prussian Constitution in order to bolster a conservative monarchy, needed the help of an ingenious banker who, as a Jew, had to circumvent the social hierarchy to climb to aristocratic respectability. Gradual collaboration turned into something akin to friendship.” Now, so who was Gerson Bleichroder who became the most important financial figure in Germany? He was born in 1822, ten years after Jews in Old Prussia had been emancipated. And yet, remember, they’re not fully emancipated in the whole of Germany until 1871. Never forget that the march out of the ghetto was very slow. He’s born into, and I think I illustrated that when I talked about the career of Amschel Rothschild, they were born into a group that had been suppressed for centuries and were popularly hated. And it’s a group, and I cannot emphasise this too much, they’re going to rise to… Bleichroder to appear in records was Gerson’s grandfather in 1740. He came to Berlin as a grave digger under the edict of Frederick II. Don’t forget Frederick II, we looked at him a couple of weeks ago in his charter because he saw himself as a figure of the Enlightenment. He allowed Jews into Berlin to allow the Jews he needed to live a Jewish life.

So basically, at his time, the majority of Jews were money lenders and peddlers. They were the traders that the Christian shunned. His son, Samuel, did a bit better. His mother had a lot of contacts. He opened an exchange shop. And particularly after and Prussian-Frankish War of 1806, even more, his father opened up an agency for lottery tickets. State raised funds for army war widows and disabled soldiers. So by the time Gerson’s born in 1822, his father is already a fledgling merchant banker. And also by the late ‘20s, he has contacts with the Rothschild. An interesting correspondence between the Rothschilds and their colleagues, like Bleichroder in Berlin. Because remember, the Rothschilds did not have a bank in Berlin. They used Hebrew postscripts. And he’s going to become an agent of theirs in Berlin. He joined the business in 1839 in Rothschild’s, he becomes a partner in 1855. And on his father’s death, he is head of the Bleichroder Firm. Now, in the 1850s, German industry develops at an absolutely unprecedented pace. Very much pushed by Bismarck, is triggered by railways, the metallurgical industry, and also the availability of capital. And Gerson has helped to finance the boom of 1850s. And of course, it’s first of all his ties with the extraordinary Rothschild family.

But he becomes very powerful in his own right. He established ties with other network of Jewish bankers throughout Europe. One of the reasons that people later on believed in Jewish power was because so many of these Jewish bankers were interlinked either through friendship or through marriage. He married Emma Guttentag, who was the daughter of a banker from Breslau. And he becomes Bismarck’s banker before Bismarck has serious power. In 1861, he had enough money to buy an elegant mansion in Berlin, which was within a few minutes walk of the castle. And when in Berlin, the whole of the Rothschild clientele banked with Bleichroder because he’s still an agent of Rothschild and they don’t have a bank in Berlin. Even the notorious Wagner and Cosima banked with him because Cosima received gifts from her father Franz Liszt via the Rothschilds in Paris and Bleichroder in Berlin. And by the 1860s, the Bleichroder Bank is crowded with prominent people from the world of culture, the world of business. And he collected Bismarck, he was Bismarck’s personal steps and banker. He collected his salary for him and all other income. He paid his bills at home, he set up accounts for him in broad, he invested for him. Basically, he’s not only the money man. He becomes the money man of Berlin, helping Bismarck with loans for the government, but he’s also Bismarck’s personal banker. He looks after his whole financial life.

And gradually, Prussian government begins to acknowledge Bleichroder’s worth. He is awarded the Red Eagle in 1858. And in 1861, the , which is title given to important business people. And with it was the police report of unblemished moral character in political matters, a loyally devoted berger. He was also loyal to the Jewish community. He managed somehow to walk both worlds in terms of remaining… He’s obviously dreamy of Berlin High Society. He’s got his elegant mansion, but he’s on the executive of the Jewish community in Berlin. He’s a huge philanthropist. He gives an awful lot of money to the Jewish community. And the other point about him is that it… The problem was even after Bismarck’s fall, Bleichroder remained loyal. And, of course, he is ennobled. He’s the first Jew as a Jew to be ennobled under Bismarck. And in letters from Bismarck, he is called his esteemed friend. But it’s interesting, although they probably saw each other practically every day for 35 years, but in his memoirs, Bismarck does not mention Bleichroder. And his son, Bismarck’s son, actually called him the Jew pig. This is so, and I’m quoting you now Fritz Stern. “Bleichroder’s success was swift and extraordinary, as was Germany’s, but it was brittle, as was Germany’s. Bleichroder was the merchant prince of Berlin. He rose to a height that no Jew and few communists could ever reach.

Amidst respect, obsequiousness, and whispered abuse, he was received everywhere in German society, but usually at the back door.” And we know that many of the officer class, they go to his board, they don’t want to dance with his wife and daughters. They feel they have to. So he’s still this sort of… On one level, he is almost a second-class citizen. Now, and this is a quote from Fritz Stern, “You are equal, said the law. You are more than equal, said Bleichroder’s patent of nobility. You are less than equal, said the Gentile wild. And behind his back whispered, 'Filthy Jew,’ with his Jewish money and Talmudic wisdom.” So is that with the hindsight? Because as I said before, we know what happened. Interesting, his brother Julius also opened a bank in… He opened a bank having been an apprentice to Rothschild. He founded his own bank and he married Adelaide Solomon. He becomes really… It’s his brother who’s really at the centre of Jewish charity. He supports the first old age home in Berlin, also established a Jewish teacher training school. It’s his brother who wants to raise up the level of the Jews. Again, this whole notion of the visceral, it’s almost as though Jews came into Germany with a hand tied behind their back. On one level, intellectually, they’re going to scale the heights. But somehow, they just… As Abelin said, it was almost as though they had a hump on their backs. And some pretended it wasn’t there. Some tried to excise it. It’s a very interesting parallel.

He, and in fact, Julius Bleichroder, all his sons died. All his sons were buried in Jewish cemeteries with Gershon, his children all converted. So important to remember. Bismarck’s banker, Bleichroder, the Jew. And then the richest man, the other richest man in Germany was a man called Henry Strousberg. Let’s have a look at him. Those of you who have visited Berlin, you know the site of the British Embassy, that was his mansion. And, of course, it’s just by the Brandenburg Gate. He was born in East Prussia, very bright, went to a Gymnasium. He moved to London. He was a bit of a chaucer. He went into the fancy goods business. He converted to Christianity. He became an agent for several building societies. He was arrested for fraud. He went to America and returned. He was one, you couldn’t keep him down. I’m sure we all know people like that. He becomes successful in England again. He becomes a fellow of The Royal Society. Evidently, he had huge charm. He had the charm of the devil and the charisma of the devil. He was backed and backed by British financiers. He returns to Germany in 1860 to be part of the great modernization. There was incredible… You see, Germany’s modernising in a hurry, and Berlin is the centre and this incredible opportunity for foreign investment capital. Now, what was he involved in? It was mainly railways.

He financed the East Prussian Railway Line and the Main Berlin Railway out to the east. He brought a huge iron foundry complex. He operated the Berlin cattle market. He became a member of the North German parliament. He bought himself a castle in Bohemia and a palace in Berlin. The problem was he started building railways in Romania and that brought him into liquidation. And there were many political opponents. And in fact, it was the Jewish liberal, Edward Lasker, denounced his financial methods. And he’s the corruption that he was behind. His corruption led to his resignation. And it also led to the… From all his businesses, it also led to the resignation of the Prussian Minister for Trade. And you can imagine what the newspapers did with it. And of course, when the crash came in 1873, the terrible Stock Market Crash, he becomes completely bankrupt. He dies in poverty. But the point about Bethel Henry Strousberg, who obviously was a complete charlatan, and yet had a streak of brilliance, although he’d converted, he was seen as the Jew. So what happened was after the crash of 1873 where so many people lost everything, and particularly the middle classes, the working classes had nothing to lose. Who did they blame? They blame the Jew.

Now, this is Fritz Stern, “Precisely at the moment of Germany’s modernization, the anachronistic economically declining elements of a modern society were exalted.” Now, what is the other division? As a response to 1873, and I’m going to elaborate on this when I talk about the rise of racial anti-Semitism next week as a separate topic, what you see is a revulsion with the big cities, a revulsion with industrialization, a revulsion against urbanisation, a revulsion against industry, against the big department stores, the small traders, the teachers, the little people, quote, unquote, who are left behind the middleland. And they begin to go back to a dream of Germany. Volkisch beliefs. When was Germany once great? The time of Frederick Barbarossa or when they beat the might of Rome? Volkisch beliefs, emphasis on the countryside, emphasis on German romanticism, and these movements are going to gather a lot of momentum, attracting small shopkeepers’ clerks, minor civil servants, teachers, craftsmen, farmers who loathe modernity, which is going to be seen more and more as Jewish. And also the crash of 1873. This is the problem. It happened throughout the German-speaking world. It really was the death knell of liberalism. It’s really the first important death knell of the Enlightenment. The ideas of reason, the ideas of universal education. It dashed all expectations that economic and political unity could lead to filtered-down wealth.

And consequently, it’s eventually going to lead to the polarisation of politics. It’s also virulent nationalism because Germany, between 1815 and 1871, and I’ll talk more about this next week, had assumed… Because many thinkers had dreamt of German unity in 1815, and it didn’t happen, by 1817, it was under Bismarck through war. It was almost too late. And German nationalism was palpable. I’m going to read you a couple of quotes here. And this is, again, from Richard Grunberger. “The dominant theme in this maelstrom was the need for a revolution that would lead to the spiritual regeneration of the German people. The recreation of a mythical Germany of peasants and small-town craftsmen who shared a love of Teutonic myths, a glorification of battle. These new Germans wanted the elimination of class, party, and religion so visible in Berlin.” Volkisch beliefs are going to become more secular. And, of course, you can see in this the germ of later on what became the Nazi Party. Now, here, this is a quote from an editorial in The New York Times. “It’s a leader of July 1866. Before unification, there is in Germany political geography… There is, in Germany, political geography but no German proper to speak of. There are kingdoms and grand duchess and duchess and principalities inhabited by Germans and each separately ruled by an independent sovereign with all the machinery of the state. Yet, there is a national undercurrent tending to national feelings and towards the union of the Germans into a great nation ruled by a common head as a national unit.”

And this is the sort of the dream, and it’s spotted by foreign newspapers. And can we come onto the next slide, please? There, you see, in correspondence to what I’m talking about, here you see Mendelssohn Palais in Berlin. And that’s just to give you a glimpse of the amazing way that some of the very rich lived. Look, real power in Germany was in the hands of the Prussian aristocracy, and the church, and the military. But, what you did have was a few thousand incredibly wealthy Jews. And later on, their numbers are going to be swelled by Jews escaping from Russia and Romania from the Pale after the assassination of Alexander II, which, of course, drove so many of people and so many of your ancestors, those of us on lockdown, who finished up in Britain, America, South Africa, Canada, and Israel. But many of them came to Germany and they’re going to swell the ranks of German Jews, who, believe it or not, are not too happy to see them. Now, can we see the next slide, please? This is an illustration of the Stock Market Crash of 1873. It’s the 19th-century equivalent of the Wall Street Crash. It changed everything. I can’t remember which politician said, “It’s the economy, stupid.” In the Main, when people feel they have enough of the cake, they do not revolt. But the Stock Market Crash meant that people were looking for a scapegoat. Can you go on, please, Emily? Here you see Heinrich von Treitschke, and he’s going to be at the pinnacle of this Volkisch nationalism that’s going to be so important. Now, more about him next week, but I want to give you a flavour so that you understand just how embedded it’s going to be in Germany.

He was a historian. He was a historian at the University of Berlin. In fact, in the time of Wilhelm II, much of the general staff came to his lectures. He was a writer, he was a member of the Reichstag, he was an extreme nationalist, he was a German colonialist, he was anti-Catholic, he was anti-Pole, and he was violently anti-Semitic and anti-socialist. He was professor at Freiburg at Kiel, Heidelberg, and he becomes professor of Berlin in 1874. That’s a year after the Stock Market Crash. He was one of the best known personalities in Berlin. He endorsed what we know as Social Darwinism. Now, this is the great split from theological hatred into race theory. Think of all the extreme nationalisms awash in Europe. Think of the Habsburg Empire with its 15 different national groups. Think of Germany, recently unified, but without its place in the sun. Think about France that had undergone six changes of government, from Monarchy to Republican back again, through the 19th century. Out of these insecure nationalisms and also, to an extent with the collapse of religiosity amongst many sections of society, you begin to have a belief in bloodline. They took some of the ideas of Charles Darwin, they perverted it, and applied his notions on the animal kingdom, survival of the fittest, to race. It happens in France. In fact, France predates Germany. And Heinrich von Treitschke, and I’m going to spend more time on it next week, Heinrich von Treitschke squallowed it all. In an essay of 1862, he actually praised the pitiless racial struggle of Germans against the Lithuanians and the Poles.

He claimed that magic emanated from German soil, which had been fertilised by noble German blood. He becomes more and more conservative, he is a great supporter of the House of Hohenzollern, and of course was very welcome at the Court of the Kaiser, both Wilhelm I and Wilhelm II. He endorsed Bismarck in his programme to subdue the socialists. Remember, he is the senior historian at the University of Berlin. And historian professors in Germany have an incredible amount of kudos. He completely rejected the Enlightenment and liberalism, he rejected the rights of the individual, he favoured monarchy and a militaristic concept of the state, he endorsed anti-Semitic attacks, particularly against European Jews. He wrote a pamphlet, “The Jews are Our Misfortune,” which later on became an important slogan in Julius Stryker, that terrible monster, his paper Der Sturmer. And because it’s Purim, I should mention that on the Gallows, when Julius Stryker was executed, his last words were, “Purimfest.” Now, this is what he wrote. “The Jews, at one time, played a necessary role in German history because of their ability in the management of money. But now that the Aryans have become accustomed to the idiosyncrasies of finance, the Jews are no longer necessary. The international Jew, hidden in the mask of different nationalities. It is a disintegrating influence.

He can be of no further use to the world.” Okay. Let’s go on, please. And these ideas were echoed by Wilhelm Marr who actually created the League of Antisemites in 1878, the same year as the Congress of Berlin. And one of the important lines in his manifesto, “The Semites Disraeli holds in his pockets the keys to war of peace in the Aryan. Is Disraeli really prime minister of England, of Britain, or is he a Jew?” More about him next week. Can we go on, please? Yes. Because I’m talking about the perception of Jews as capitalists. Look, if you look at German Jews realistically, the bulk of you have this small cadre of very wealthy bankers, but many of them are becoming very middle class. And on Thursday, I’m going to look at the development of department stores, et cetera, et cetera. The poor are now flooding in. But the point is that Jews are not just at the forefront inverted commerce of capitalism, they are also at the forefront of these new ideas, which the conservatives see as very, very dangerous. Berlin was an extraordinary city, but it had some serious social problems, which William’s going to elaborate. In 1870, it had the highest urban density of any city in Europe. Each small block had an average of 53 people compared to eight in Charles Dickens’ London. Over 60,000 people officially lived in coal cellars. The sanitary conditions were totally inadequate. There was raw sewage running through the slum areas. There were smallpox epidemic was so terrible that the Berlin garrison actually allowed health workers to establish hospital tents on their parade ground at Tempelhof, which later became the site of the airport.

And that’s later, by the way, the site where the Wright brothers would test their plane. This is what Rosa Luxemburg wrote. Rosa Luxemburg, the Polish-Jewish who comes to Berlin and is later, of course, to lead the revolution in Berlin, Jews and Revolution. “Every day,” she wrote, “homeless people die in Berlin. Broken by hunger and cold, nobody noticed them, particularly not the police. And of course, Bismarck’s government is going to be very slow to tackle the problem. And also by 1750, 4% of births are illegitimate. 1866, 15 to 70, 15% of births are illegitimate. There’s an abortion epidemic.” And now, in contrast to this, the property middle classes are now becoming rich beyond their wildest dreams. I’m going to quote from Harden, who was a Britain who visited Berlin. “One finds nothing in the world to compare with the department stores of their time. Those who first come to Berlin believe they have stepped onto the Earth of the richest city in the world. Wilhelm believes he’s God on Earth.” And this is Rosa Luxemburg again, “Berlin made a ghastly impression on me. It is a cold, tasteless, massive barrack filled with those darling arrogant Prussians, everyone looking as if he swallowed the stick with which he had just been beaten.

And militarism was detested by many people, and this is from a German intellectual. Nothing is left of the educated idealism, which led philosophy, poetry, and even sometimes politics in Germany. Where is the old cradle of art, the co-parent of Goethe, the Fatherland of Durer, Goethe, and Heiner? It is no longer in Berlin.” Now… Of course, the terrible working conditions are going to fuel all kinds of political movements. Now, Karl Marx. Karl Marx, of course, was the son of rabbis on both sides. He was born in the Rhineland. His father was one of those Jews who had become a lawyer under Napoleon. He was the brother of a rabbi, the son of a rabbi. What happened was he, as a lawyer, had a choice. When Napoleon is defeated, he could either go back to the ghetto or remain a lawyer. The price was baptism. Remember what Heiner said? “Baptism is the passport to European civilization.” What happened was he, taking the advice of his next-door neighbour with whom he played chess, the aristocratic von Westphalen, he converted. And when his son, his brilliant son Karl was eight years old, he converted him. The mother who was the daughter of Dutch rabbis. In fact, her brother created the Philips Empire. She didn’t convert for another year and there are no letters. What stopped the daughter of a rabbi? Why did she wait? Was it terribly painful for her? But you see how critical it is because Karl Marx, he wasn’t brought up as a Christian. He went to school, he was baptised into the Lutheran Church. He was called the moor.

He was an alienated character with a brain so big. He went to university. He fell under the spell of Hegel and Proudhon and he becomes a young Hegelian. He moves towards socialist doctrine. And not only that, he really is going to become one of the most important figures in the creation of the New Socialist Revolution. And in Paris, he was a close friend of, by the way, of Heiner. He tried to convert Heiner to his ideas. Heiner didn’t really want to know, although Heiner had a great social sense to social justice. But the point about Marx was he completely hated his Jewish roots. I think we can go as far of Marx to say he was a self-hating Jew. But in one of his pamphlets, he wrote that money is the God of the Jews. He laid down the seed of what he’s going to… Well, no, he didn’t actually lay it down. He emphasised a seed, which is going to become a very dangerous part of the left, the anti-Semitism of the left. And consequently, but to his opponents, he is seen as the Jew. So you have capitalists who are Jews, you have the man who really created it all, who is buried, of course, in London. He lived in Disraeli’s England most of his life. And he was refused citizenship because he wasn’t loyal to his own king. Now, however, the man who really satellites the German social democratic movement was the next character that I want to talk about. And that, of course, was a man called Ferdinand Lassalle. I’m just going to give you a description of Karl Marx by the wonderful Isaiah Berlin. “A grim and poverty-stricken pamphleteer.

A bitter, lonely, fanatical exile. Hurling implications, again, of the rich. A powerful remorseless plotter preparing the doom of an accursed class of exploiters and enemies of the workers. A single-minded and solitary worker in the British Museum with his pen. And with his pen, has caused a greater transformation in the world than heads of state and soldiers and men of action.” We know that Marx was subjected to anti-Semitism and he was horrible about Ferdinand Lassalle, who, of course, was born a Jew and, in fact, didn’t convert but had thrown it all away. He said of Lassalle, he called him a, excuse my language, it’s terrible, but it’s Marx’s language. He called him a Jewish nigger, talked of his Jewish wine, and referred to him as Baron Itzig. And he also, Marx also made fun of Joseph Moses Levy, who was the proprietor of The Daily Telegraph. And where Robert Westrick says this, “Self-hatred is not mysterious. Anti-Semitism was, after all, a universal sentiment in Europe. It can breed self-contempt and self-hatred amongst its victims.” Anyway, I don’t think I want to go on to Lassalle. You know why. Because I don’t want to rush. He’s important. I do have time. We will continue with him on Thursday. So thank you, Emily. Can you make a note where I’ve got up to because I never know where my head is? And can we please have a look at questions?

Q&A and Comments:

Q: “When you say Jews fell in love, did they all marry?”

A: What I’m saying, Joan, they fell in love with Germany. Many did marry out, but it’s important to remember, Joan… It’s important to remember Joan, that there was also a liberal Germany, too. There was the liberal Germany of Goethe and Schiller and there were Jews to marry, Gentiles to marry. Don’t forget, this is serious. By 1925, intermarriage was running at 45%, the highest in Europe. Joan, why would you align and be loyal to such a hostile country? You see, this is the point I think we’re using the hindsight of history. Joan says, “They sold their soul to the devil.” Look, they fell in love with culture, German culture. I’ve been a very lucky woman because teaching in Hampstead in the ‘70s and '80s, my classes were full of these incredibly educated German Jews. And I still have friends who can quote Goethe and Schiller to me in pure German. They fell in love with that side of Germany. They fell in love with the ideas of Germany. They fell in love with German music, which was glorious. They believed Germany would love them back. Look, even Heiner, the two ethical nations. What can we say? The two ethical nations, the Jews and the Germans, will create a New Jerusalem. You cannot use historic hindsight. I really do believe if it hadn’t been for the First World War, it would’ve gone a different way. I don’t know exactly which way it would’ve gone. But I think when you are actually looking at the causation of the show, the First World War is very, very important because that destroyed the dreams and the hopes of a whole generation. And when do ordinary people begin to hate? I’m not talking about psychotics. When do ordinary people begin to hate? When they feel dispossessed, when they feel unhappy, when they feel that they don’t have sufficient to live on? Ironically, it’s going to be Lassalle who creates the largest communist party in Germany, in Europe. It’s a Jew. And ironically, Bismarck liked Lassalle. It’s a strange old world.

And this is from Nanette. Last Saturday was a big demonstration into town in Switzerland wanting Hitler back. One of the problems, in this time of huge insecurity, racism is up 20 notches, and tragically so is anti-Semitism. And it’s coming from the extreme left and it’s coming from the extreme right. And that is one of the problems that we are facing. But don’t… Look, there’s that line of Isaiah Berlin again. Before the show on the subject of anti-Semitism, we were sleepwalkers, now we’re insomniacs. We have to always be alert. But there are different… We do have different circumstances. And something else, Jewish demography tragically had to change forever. 1/3 of all Jews were murdered. But don’t forget, the largest number of Jews now live in a Jewish state. And that makes whatever one thinks. One thing it has done, it’s made a huge difference to the Jews.

This is from Tim. “It’s odd that the Jews love Germany. I wonder if any Jews in Germany at the time have any idea of what was installed for them in the '30s. They weren’t considered a German enough by that stage. Also, it’s funny, you mentioned shoemakers were Jewish. My grandmother’s maiden name was Sandler. Although her family didn’t make footwear, they were actually Lithuanian. It’s interesting.” Look, Tim, if you look at the trades and professions that many Jews brought with them to America, or Canada, or Britain, or South Africa, they brought with them the trades and professions that they’d always been in the service industry. In the modern world, it became, for those of them who really made it… Look, of course, many of them were still small shopkeepers and craftsmen. But for many of them, it became the great shoe chains. The great department stores. 80% of the business and department stores were in Jewish-owned stores. It’s about being outside and having an imagination.

Oh, Joan said she had to try and learn about Bismarck in grammar school. So boring and given by a bad teacher. Yes, of course. But I hope you listened to William yesterday. He was brilliant.

Yes, Jonathan mentioned Albert Ballin, I was going to talk about him next week. Yes, of course, he was the most important shipping magnate in the world.

Q: Yes, was he a friend of the Kaiser or was he at court?

A: Wilhelm II was a notorious anti-Semite, but he didn’t mind rich Jews. Aratana was often at court, but in the last week of the war, he committed suicide. And again, you are pointing to “The Pity of It All.”

Of course, Amos Elon, let me reiterate “The Pity of It All,” “The origins of the modern Jew” by Michael Meyer, “Einstein’s German World,” Richard Grunberger, “Prophets Without Honour.” They are four that I use a lot, but there are so many. I have a bookshelf. I think I have three bookshelves full of books on. I’m talking about this period of history because some of the individual characters fascinate me.

Josie says, “Another revealing thing that Bismarck said in about 1877, he rode his horse in the teargas, passed a stroller with two German Jewish toddlers and their governess and said, 'Two such lovely little Aryan boys.’ One was my grandfather, the other .” Oh, Josie, what a story. I love it.

Monty. Yes, it’s called “We Want the Light.” Nice to have met you for the first time, Monty, at Jewish Book Week. “We Want the Light,” yes, please look at it. Jews and German music, I think it’s one of the… It’s 90 minutes, but I think it’s one of the best documentaries. I’d saw it years ago. In fact, Christopher Nupen came to the London Jewish Cultural Centre. But it was wonderful to watch it. And you see so many great Jewish musicians playing, like Ashkenazy. And it also deals with Wagner. And as I said, the extraordinary Mrs. Sommer, who was tragically in Theresienstadt but survived to be 110. And she came to London. And she and Anita Lasker-Wallfisch used to meet and play Scrabble every week. What a story that was. Those two incredible women who are both in this programme.

Yes, Jonathan says there’s a famous punch cartoon dropping the pilot showing Bismarck being dismissed by the Kaiser and showing him leaving the ship. Jonathan has an interesting point. Now, you’ve got to remember, it wasn’t all bleak. I’m going to, next on Thursday, look at the year of the three emperors. When Wilhelm first died, Frederick, his son was a liberal. He hated anti-Semitism. He actually went to the synagogue as a sign of solidarity. His wife, Victoria, who was the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria, they loathed anti-Semitism. Don’t forget, Victoria was particularly fond of Mendelssohn, the mother. And, of course, he only lived for a hundred and days and his son Wilhelm. The problem was Bismarck ruled by imperial decree. Bismarck, he was authoritarian with Kaiser Wilhelm who had an incredibly complex character.

May I recommend John Rohl’s “The Kaiser and his Court.” He dismisses Bismarck and then it hurdles to destruction.

Q: Were converted Jews more socially acceptable than Jews who stayed normally Jewish? And we Jewish behind their back.

A: Shelly, it’s complicated because this is the period when… Can you convert out of blood? Theological hatred is turning to race hatred. And in mean end, the Nazis classified anyone who had Jewish blood back from the year 1800. So was conversion socially acceptable? Look, it’s a complicated question, that. Look, please don’t forget, though, there were liberal Germans, there were great liberal musicians, there were great liberal politicians, too. It’s just that in the end, it was the extremists who took power.

Q: Did the Stock Market Crash of 1873 sow the seeds of communism in Europe?

A: It’s a very, very interesting point, Catherine. Don’t forget, you’d already had the Commune Revolution in Paris in 1870, ‘71. And to say, “Sorry, the French built…” What’s the name of? Sacro Cuore. The ideas are already there. No, but it certainly did empower more of the workers into left wing movements. Yes.

And Tim says, “Some of those Jews from the Soviet areas came to Ireland. My great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents came from Lithuania.” And yes, of course, I should have mentioned Ireland.

Noah is telling us there’s a new book by Professor Shulamit Volkov “Germany and its Jews,” Hebrew title available in German. Perhaps Noah, you’d let us know it’s available in English. Treitschke illustrates the misleading historian. There are still such people who don’t hold facts, tell lies, half truth, nothing’s changed. Yes. You see, one of the problems with any… Look, what do we mean by truth? I know if my watch is correct, it’s five past 8:00, English Time. You all know what I’ve been talking about. But I guarantee that each one of you would give a different account because we all come through our different prism. Treitschke deliberately distorts facts. You wouldn’t, and there’s a huge difference. Politics and religion should not mix, yes.

Q: Edna, Lassalle lived such a joint short life. Why and how did he get to make such an impact?

A: Wait till Thursday, Edna, all will be revealed.

Francine said, oh, that’s lovely. “You may not know where your head is, but your brain is fine.” Yeah, that’s not what my family said.

Q: How have the family continued without being anti-Semitic?

A: I’m going to tell you a story 'cause when I was running the LJCC, we had a volunteer every year from Austria. These were young Austrians who didn’t want to serve in the Austrian army. Rather than serve a short period, they wanted to serve a longer period in an organisation, throughout organisations throughout Europe and in Israel who were involved in Holocaust and anti-racist education. And I had a… My third was a very charming young man called Nicholas. Incredibly bright. More and more, I’m not going to tell you his surname. More and more, he would stay behind. He wanted to work, he was incredibly, he was brilliant. Anyway, one night, we were working very late and I got taught. I tried to find out a bit about his background and he said, “Oh, there’s a tradition in my family.” I said, “Well, please tell me.” He said, “Well, actually, in my family, I didn’t really want to talk about it.” And suddenly, I started thinking, “Oh, my God, what are you descended from?” And in the end he said, “My grandmother was a Bismarck.” And in fact, there were quite a few… I know… There were a lot of Bismarcks at Oxford. So yes, it’s a huge family. And I know some of them are, in fact, very interesting people.

Q: Linda, why were there so many immigrants from Germany to England in the 1870s? My granny’s family came to London, 16 kids, very well-educated, one of fine soprano with a fine opera company.

A: Ah. And okay, I’ll tell you why. There was huge… 5 million Germans got out between 1815 and 1880.

Q: Why do people move?

A: They probably thought England was a better option for them. It’s as simple as that. A lot of them went to America.

Sandra’s saying, I remember him second, great young… So please don’t forget that we now have the title from Monty. Those of you who have access to it, “We Want the Light.”

So thank you very much, Emily, and I will see you all on Thursday.