Trudy Gold
The Rise of Racial Antisemitism in Germany, Part 2

Trudy Gold - The Rise of Racial Antisemitism in Germany, Part 2

- Can I have the first slide? Right. “Dreikaiserjahr: The Year of the Three Emperors.” Now, this was 1888. Kaiser Wilhelm I died, aged 91, to be succeeded by his son, Friedrich III. Friedrich III was a liberal, and he was married to Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter, Vicky. And what he dreamt of was creating a liberal democracy. He wanted a sort of parliamentary system, very much like Britain. When I say liberal democracy, we’re talking about forty-shilling freeholders in England. But nevertheless, in its day, England had a much more forward-thinking kind of government than Germany, and he really wanted to liberalise. He was also a great friend of the Jews, and we’re going to see it, periods of huge antisemitism. He and Vicky would go to the synagogue to show solidarity. Unfortunately, he had throat cancer, and the doctors… It was too late for the doctors to cure him, and he died after 100 days, to be succeeded by his son, Kaiser Wilhelm II. And I did advise you to read some biographies of Wilhelm II. There’s a brilliant book by John Rohl, “The Kaiser and his Court.” Wilhelm had had a terribly, terribly difficult birth. He was born with a withered arm. His mother found… She was only 18 years old. She found it absolutely unconscionable that she would have a child who was… And she cues the word crippled. It’s a terrible word. She used the word cripple in letters to her mother, because how can you produce a future emperor who is not perfect? And as a result, he was put in a terrible harness. He suffered a lot of pain as a child, but he did grow up into a very strange, warped, discombobulated kind of man who also was very much infected with antisemitism.

So before I get on to looking at individual cases, I think I should address a few remarks. A, to what we mean by antisemitism, and also, what on earth does it mean “racial antisemitism.” We have already looked, have we not, at the whole notion of theological anti-Judaism. I said to you right at the beginning of these presentations, that when there is social, economic, and political dislocation, the majority of people do tend to look for a scapegoat. And depending on the society in which you live, every society has its own particular scapegoat, and it’s always the other. Now, the problem of the Jew is if you go back 2,000 years to when the Jews were expelled from their own country, they move into the Roman world. But what also happens is the rise of another religion, a monotheistic religion in some ways based on Judaism. But at the core of the religion is that Jesus of Nazareth came to the world to save the world from its sins, so you no longer had to be an observer of the commandments. So as Christianity developed supersession, Christianity has superseded Judaism. Judaism is now a redundant religion. And even more important than that, who is responsible for the death of Jesus? Now, I spent quite a lot of time on that when I looked at anti-Judaism, or I called it the bold titled, “Jew Hatred.” And the problem is, I can be as rational as you like. And of course, Joshua of Nazareth was executed, he was executed, remember, by the Romans’ crucifixion, which was the Roman method of execution. But unfortunately, the gospels are written under Roman rule.

The first one is written 40 years after his death. You’re not going to blame the Roman occupiers. And what develops is in the gospels, and in the church writings, who is responsible for the death of Jesus, who is God, the deicide, the greatest crime in history, it’s the Jews. And what that did, when Christianity was taken on as the religion of Rome, what that did is put the Jews in a very vulnerable situation. Gradually, it took right up until the 1300s for the whole of Europe to be Christianized. The last country was actually Lithuania. But the Christianized Europe, the pope in Rome, who is the bete noire, the Jew. And not only that, the whole of Christian society was so ordered that Christian guilds, if you think of any kind of work, it was in the Christian guilds. So, Jews are cursed. But also, they fall into the cracks of the economy, which Christians don’t do. They become the money lenders because the Christian church in 9/11 issued a… Actually, forbade money lending, because there’s a line in “Leviticus” about usury. The Jews become the Rabbi’s issue, takkanah. The Jews become the money lenders of Europe. And they also, because they’re international, are traders. So even though the majority of Jews were never wealthy, you have the notion of Jews and money. Now, the Enlightenment, the European Enlightenment changes all of this. The European Enlightenment emancipates the Jews, not because they love the Jews, on the contrary, they emancipate them because it’s an anomaly. Think of the watchword of the French Revolution, liberty, equality, fraternity.

So, the Jews are emancipated under the ideas of the Enlightenment. And as we’ve already established, you have the most extraordinary success story. Now, we’ve already begun to look at that. Why? And it’s a fascinating story, I personally believe there’s almost a restless gene in the Jew that perhaps being secure for us is to have some sort of profession, et cetera. But we won’t argue about it now. In fact, I’ve been discussing it with Wendy, and we want to have debates on these kinds of things. But the point I’m making is you did have, out of all portions, their number’s an incredible success story. And they fall in love with England, France, the German lands. In Austria, it’s much more complicated because of 15 different national groups in the Habsburg Empire. But in the Main, they go to the dominant culture, which in the Habsburg Empire was German. They fall in love with German culture. And what they’re unprepared for is a transmogrification of anti-Jewish theological feeling into racial antisemitism. Now, what is racial antisemitism? The 19th century, and I talked about this on Tuesday, the 19th century was one of the most bewildering centuries the world has ever known. I mentioned my history professor who always told me to use his historic imagination. If you’d been born in 1800 and you die in 1900, imagine what you see in your life, such unbelievable fundamental changes in society. Think about the development of travel. Think about the industrial revolution. Think about urbanisation, the growth of the big cities. London was the first city in the modern world to reach 1,000,000. But gradually, the big cities of Europe and the movement of the peasantry into the cities to gain work. Now the point is, not everybody benefited from the modern world. You can make the case that the Jews were the major beneficiaries, that’s tiny percentage of the population.

As we’ve already discussed, they took modernity and they pushed it, and they pushed it in the arts, the sciences, you name it. But a lot of people suffer as a result of modernity. And if we take Germany, in particular, remember, it’s not unified until 1871 under militaristic Prussia. In 1815, and we talked about this on Tuesday, there was a dream of unification. It didn’t happen. And out of that, you begin to see a very strong German nationalism. And that German nationalism does what? It goes back to that time in German history with when Germany was great. It went back to Frederick Barbarossa to the Teutonic Knights to, if you like, the Pagan tribes who defeated the might of Rome. It’s emphasised in Wagner’s operas, because Wagner was, if you like, the great symbol of German nationalism in his music. It’s also about the idealisation of the peasantry, the idealisation of the world that was lost. The old world of the Volk. The old world where life was much more simple, a total idealisation. And the problem was that many people who suffer found in the Jew a perfect scapegoat, and this ties up with social Darwinism. Taking ideas from Darwin about various species and survival of the fittest, you begin to see writers applying it to racial groups. So, go from nation to racial group, the Aryan, the Slav, the French. And what emerges is this whole nation notion of racial superiority. What really matters is not religious belief but bloodline, a Jew cannot be a German. Because if you think about the majority of Jews in Germany, and there’d been incredible amounts of conversion.

What were they? They saw themselves as German citizens after 1871 of the Jewish religion. The same in England, Englishmen of the Jewish religion. In France, Frenchmen of the Mosaic Persuasion. And that’s what they were emancipated under. However, racial antisemitism, the growth of race theory says a Jew cannot be an Aryan. The word Aryan is used a lot. And that applies to the German and Nordic racism, including the British. Now let me say, and I got into troubling question times, because what I’m actually talking about, when I talk about race theory, I’m not talking about anything logical, because race theory is totally illogical. However, the reason I’m having to discuss it with you is because it becomes incredibly important in German history and in Jewish history. And the term antisemitism is first coined by Wilhelm Marr, the German journalist. And he actually publishes, “The Victory of Jewishness over Germandom,” which I read on Tuesday for you, where basically he says the Jews are taking over the world. Well, basically. The reality was, there was a high proportion of Jewish success stories, but Jews never really had any power. And I want to make this case very, very carefully. Yes, Jews had influence. In Germany, they owned department stores, they were bankers. There were also a lot of poor, particularly after the exodus from Eastern Europe because of the pogroms. But they were at the forefront of many movements for change. For example, advertising, self-service restaurants, 50% of the doctors, 50% of the lawyers. But real power in Germany rested with the officer class, with the Kaiser, autocracy, the younger class, don’t forget this, and German aristocracy, and the church. So, there’s a huge difference between having influence in your own sphere and having power. But the point was, Jews who have seen that the symbol of international capitalism was the House of Rothschild. The symbol of international socialism, which muddles everything up if you are an autocrat, is Karl Marx.

And that’s why you get this notion amongst the anti-Semites that Jews actually have real power. And I said this to you on Tuesday, if you want to try and understand powerlessness, you have to think about the show-up. If ever there’s an example of real powerlessness, it is what happened to 1/3 of all Jews between 1941 and 1945. So be very, very careful on this. But as I said, the problem, it’s so difficult to uproot these feelings because they are not logical. This is about irrationality, it’s about hatred. And it comes to the fore in Germany because of all the instabilities, particularly after the stock market crash of 1873, as it does in the Habsburg Empire after the stock market crash. In France, when the Union Catholic bank collapsed, they blamed the Jews. There were no Jewish bankers in the Union bank. So, please don’t look for logic. And the other point I mentioned is the problem, the theorists of antisemitism. And remember, it’s social Darwinism, a theory of race which is based on blood. And as I already said to you, you cannot have a pure bloodline, it doesn’t exist. You’d have to take a people and geographically isolate them for thousands of years. Do you think the Jews have pure bloodline? Of course not. We have intermarried, et cetera, et cetera. There is conversion in Judaism. There’s no such thing as a pure bloodline. Ironically, some of these anti-Semites say that the Jews know how to keep their blood pure. But we’ll come onto that later on.

But now, I need to talk about some of the important individuals who were so involved in the history of antisemitism. And as I said, it’s from the top-down. So can we see the next slide, please, Judy? Here, you see Heinrich von Treitschke. He was born in Dresden into a military family. He had an academic career. He was very much in favour of a unified Germany, and that drove him into thinking about race, and he endorsed social Darwinism. In fact, he becomes the professor of history at Freiburg. He endorsed the racial start struggle against the Germans and the Slavs. In one of his first works, he said that the Germans are completely superior to the Slavs. Think about the Slavs on Germany’s eastern border. So, he’s a professor at Freiburg in at the beginning of the Habsburg wars with Prussia in 1864. He’s totally sympathetic with Prussia, and he goes to Berlin and becomes a Prussian subject. And he becomes editor of Prussia newspaper. He demanded the annexation of Hanover and Saxony by Prussia. This is way before Bismarck finally unifies, which caused estrangement from his father, who was a close friend of the king of Saxony. This man who comes from a very upper-class family. What he wants is Bismarck to unify Germany, unification of the strong German people. By 1874, he’s a professor at the Humboldt University. Remember the liberal university that had been established by the Humboldt brothers in 1810? He becomes the professor of history. He’s also a member of the Reichstag. He becomes one of the most important, famous intellectuals in Berlin. He had huge support for Bismarck. He endorsed all Bismarck’s programmes to subdue the socialists and the Catholics. He was a huge admirer and supporter of the Hohenzollern monarchy.

He hated the British Empire. He considered the British to be the enemies of Germany. He rejected all ideas of the Enlightenment, all ideas of liberalism, all ideas of human rights and separation of power. What he believed in was authoritarianism, monarchy, and the concept of the state. And he also was such a popular and charismatic leader, and theoretician that are under Kaiser Wilhelm II, the general staff. Kaiser Wilhelm II spent much of his time in Potsdam with the Imperial Army. The general staff would come to hear von Treitschke lectures, so he’s incredibly important. And this is what he had to say, he popularised the phrase “The Jews are our misfortune,” which later was adopted by that terrible anti-Semitic paper of the Nazis, Der Sturmer, edited by Julius Streicher. He even endorsed the ideas of exterminating conquered nation. He said this, “In the unhappy clash between races inspired by fierce mutual enmity, the bloodstain savagery of quick war of annihilation is more humane, less revolting than the specious clemency of sloth, which keeps the vanquished in a state of sloth.” And this is what he wrote in “The Jews our are misfortune,” “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.”

Let me repeat this, this is the crops of it. “‘The International Jew’ hidden in the mask of different nationalities is a disintegrating influence. He can be of no further use to the world.” So, this is Heinrich von Treitschke. One of the most influential intellectual figures in Berlin. Now, can the capital… And don’t forget also, Berlin, which is now 8% Jewish. Because the question is always asked, “Why on earth didn’t the Jews take it seriously?” And I tried to answer this last week. Look, it’s still the best century they’ve ever experienced. They saw this as nationalism out of control. The majority of Jews were liberal. And they really did believe that because they’d thrown in their lot with Germany, there was a liberal Germany, and that would come to the fore. And frankly, if it hadn’t been for World War I and the terrible disasters, antisemitism in Germany from about 1906 was beginning… The tide was beginning to turn. So, the hindsight of history is a wonderful thing, remember. Can we come to the next character, please? This is Adolf Stoecker, and he and von Treitschke were very close. He had been born in Saxony. His father was a prison guard. He comes from a working class background. But because he had a very poor background, there was a young man who took him on, and as a result of that, he gave him a proper education, and he becomes a theology student, and becomes a very greatly loved clergyman. Later on, he’s going to be regarded as the second Luther. From earliest times, he is totally brilliant as an advocate of Lutheranism. Now, he was ordained a chaplain in the Prussian Army. He came to national attention at Metz when he argued the Prussian victories over the French were the work of God. Remember, this is the third war. Bismarck through war with Austria, first war with Denmark in ‘64. Austrian, 1866. 1870, war with France.

And as a chaplain. He said, “This is God’s will.” Prussia beating France is the will of God. In 1874, Wilhelm I is so moved by his sermons, he appoints him court chaplain, which gave him a huge amount of power. And as early as 1875, he begins to attack Jews in racial terms. And of course, he takes his lead from Martin Luther. You will remember, a few weeks ago, I talked about Luther and that terrible pamphlet on the Jews and their lies. If you remember, Luther, when he nailed his thesis to the church door at Wittenberg, proclaiming abuses in the Catholic church. He said, “Well, of course the Jews haven’t converted, because Catholicism is evil. But soon, when they realise what I have done, they will follow me.” But of course, they didn’t, and he turned pitilessly against them. And don’t forget, Prussia is Protestant. Prussia is Lutheran. It is the South Munich that is Catholic. Anyway, he also worked with the poor of Berlin, because the point about him, remember, he’s a pastor and he’s charismatic. He works with the poor of Berlin. He was horrified how many of them were estranged from religion. And he was also horrified that so many marriages are taking place outside of the church, and that 45% of children weren’t baptised. He wants to help the poor, but in a very paternalistic way. He also was very worried about godless social democracy. And you will remember who had created social democracy, aka communism, Ferdinand Lassalle, who of course was born a Jew. He was also critical of capitalism. He wanted some reforms. He felt that the people had to be looked after in a paternalistic way. He was very much in favour of the younger class, as was Treitschke whose family came from that class.

They believed, by birth, the aristocracy should rule under the Hohenzollerns. And they wanted to win the working classes over to a strong Christian conservatism. We will look after you as long as you are obedient, and later on, these are the ideas that Adolf Hitler took on. The classless society. Obedient. He was violently against any kind of union. What he believed in was the throne and the altar. In 1879, in a speech which was later written down, “Our Demands of Modern Jewry,” he blamed all of Germany’s problems on the Jews. And what he does, unfortunately, he makes antisemitism respectable along with Treitschke. Ironically, most of his followers, in fact, were from the lower middle classes, not the workers. He blamed all the problems of Germany on the Jewish press, Jewish capitalism. Remember, the two largest publishing houses in Germany were controlled by people of Jewish birth. Do you know what the Jewish population of Berlin was at the time? 45,000. That’s all. He complained that Berlin… That was far too large a figure. And of course, after the terrible pogroms in Russia, we find Jews fleeing into Germany. And he argued that immigrants from Russia and Romania should actually been sunk on the high seas. The Jews did protest, but it made absolutely no difference. So, what did he do? It’s the lower middle classes he attracts, not the working classes. Now, who are the lower middle classes? They are the people who are suffering most after the great collapse of the stock market. So, who are they? They are teachers, they are farmers, they are artisans, petty artisans, shopkeepers. They are people who cannot make their way in modernity.

And they yearn for a different world of the Volk. You know, the idyllic settings of the grim’s fantasies, if you like, or Wagner operas. This is what they yearn for. And Treitschke and Stoecker really, really pull it all together. And this is what he has to say, he appeals to everybody who suffers from industrialization, urbanisation. He is seen as the man of the little people. And he says this, “If modern Jewry continues to use the power of capital or the power of the press to bring misfortune to the nation, a final catastrophe is unavoidable. Israel must renounce its ambition to become master of Germany.” So, do you see how far along the road we’ve come now? The reality, Jews trying desperately to be German across the board from communists through to capitalist with the majority being liberal bourgeois. And now you have poor Jews coming in from Eastern Europe, Yiddish-speaking, more religious. The German Jews weren’t too happy with them. They wanted to make them more Germanic. So the reality was, the Jewish community in Germany is totally disunited. But however, you now have two very formidable individuals, Treitschke and Stoecker who are close to each other, each from their own angle. And he also says, “Jews as a race are dangerous. They are all parasites and leeches. They are an alien drop in our blood. It’s a battle of race against race.” So you see how far we’ve gone? It’s no longer Judaism is a religion which killed Jesus. Look, there are many writers like Kohen Maccabee and Robert Wistrich who say that it’s the pillar, if you like, anti-Judaism was the pillar that fed into antisemitism with the notion of the deicide, because that’s what gave this ridiculous idea of Jewish power. He really hammers the point that Jews are a nation unto themselves, and they’re linked to other Jews throughout the world, and they are all mass exploiters.

And he said, “The ancient contradiction between Aryan and Jew…” Remember, he’s a preacher. “Can only end with the extermination of one of them. The ancient contradiction between Aryan and Semite.” You see, we’re now talking about race. “Can only end with the extermination of the Jews.” Our capital city is in danger from then of being de-Christianized and de-Germanized. And together with von Treitschke, they launched an anti-Semitic petition in 1880. It was signed by 250,000 people. It was presented to the Reichstag. They asked for Jewish immigration to be banned, and Jews be forbidden to hold public office, to work as teachers or to attend universities. These people, von Treitschke and Stoecker were incredibly popular amongst the Germans in the universities, the German-speaking, the Germans, as they were in the University of Vienna. Because the Jews were doing incredibly well in university. They’re really scaling the heights. The University of Berlin, the University of Vienna. I mean in the 1880s in Vienna, you have… For example, at the same time, you had Freud, Schnitzler, and Herzl all attending. German-speaking students at the University of Vienna. They took all this on, because many of them wanted union, particularly after Bismarck. They wanted union with Germany. They want the disemancipation of the Jews in this particular petition. And it’s signed by 250,000 people. The student’s associations are at the forefront. Now, this is when Crown Prince Friedrich attacked it. He said, “We are ashamed of the Jew hatred that has broken out.” Princess Victoria actually said that she believed that Stoecker belonged in a lunatic asylum. And she wrote to her mother, she wrote to Victoria that she was ashamed of her country of adoption.

And Friedrich and Victoria, this is still in the reign of Wilhelm I, they went to a Berlin synagogue, and he called Stoecker the shame of the century, and promised that if he ever became emperor, he would fire him as court chaplain. Now, Stoecker made a mistake. He attacked Bismarck for employing a Bleichroder, and Bleichroder complained to Bismarck, and Bismarck complained to Wilhelm that Stoecker was attacking the wrong Jews. And the rich Jews of Berlin were committed to the status quo rather than propertyless Jews who had nothing to love, and therefore are likely to join opposition movements. Under pressure, Wilhelm I admonished Stoecker his attack on Bleichroder. Later on, Bismarck really turns against him, because he had hoped that Stoecker could turn the working classes away from social democracy, but he’d already only attracted the middle land, the lower middle classes. So, he does fall from grace. In 1882, he attended the world’s first anti-Semitic conference in Dresden. In 1883, he came to London to speak at a conference of evangelical Protestants. And the lord mayor of London forbade him to speak, because he said, “If he speaks, it will be a breach of public order.” So, please understand that even though these people are very important in the growth of antisemitism, you know, they’re not completely getting their own way. In London, there was a huge protest about it at the Mansion House, where Gladstone was actually prime minister at the time, Disraeli was dead by then, although he hated Disraeli . He had personal reasons for hating Disraeli. The prime minister and the lord mayor, and much of England, and certainly the queen. They hated this kind of what they considered to be appalling.

And he was, though, supported by the future Wilhelm II, who called him of “A victim of a ghastly and infamous slander of the damned Jewish press.” He also said, “The most powerful pillar, bravest, most fearless fighter for the monarchy.” And he had personally won over 60,000 workers. Now, so you have a situation where Wilhelm, who was always on the side of the… You know that expression “On the side of the angels?” He was never on the side of the angels. And if you read John Rohl’s book, you’ll find out he was an appalling anti-Semite. When he finally abdicates, he said, “I have abdicated because of the freemasons, the communists, and the Jews. When Friedrich came to the throne, though, he was far too weak. He was dying, and he didn’t dismiss him. He was dismissed by Wilhelm II. Because leaders of the Liberal Party in parliament told Wilhelm II that they would not support his measures unless they dismissed Stoecker. Gradually, his party failed. And you know why? Because the young radicals who’d taken up antisemitism found him too Christian. What they were more interested is in the Volkisch ideas, the Paganism, which of course, Wagner, so brilliantly illustrated in his operas. And of course, that great line of Heine, I always quote it because I’m going to quote it again, because it sums it all up.

When Heine writing in 1840, "If the talisman of the cross will fall in Germany, the hammer of thought will rise up.” So, important to know that both Stoecker and Treitschke, they’re taken very seriously. They are very, very influential. But there are people who stand up against them. And at this stage, you know, it could have gone either way. Can we see the next slide, please? Here, you see Theodor Mommsen. Now, an interesting man, Mommsen. He was a classical scholar. He was a historian. He was a member of the Prussian and German parliaments. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1902. He was the only religious Christian who publicly attacked Treitschke. He was a member of the Academy of Sciences. He was a liberal. He supported Eastern European Jews being allowed into Germany. And because he felt that they were being so badly persecuted. One of his most important works, he actually established a framework for the study of Roman history. This is when history is becoming very interesting and really systemized. But he didn’t sympathise. He’s opposed to racial antisemitism, but he doesn’t sympathise with the Jewish wish to preserve its cultural independence or religious independence. And this is what it said. You see, this is the problem. German Jew’s so insecure now about their Jewishness, so in love with Germany. This is a liberal. He’s a Christian, he’s a liberal. And this is what he said in his article, another word about our Jewry. “The word Christianity in our day no longer means what it used to, but is still the word that defines an international civilization. Is it possible to remain outside these boundaries, and yet live within the nation, but it’s fought with danger.

The Jew will not be led by another Moses into the promised land, whether they sell trousers or write books. It is their duty to do away with particularities. They must make up their minds and tear down barriers between themselves and their German compatriots.” So basically, he sees the only option for the Jews if they want to be German to become Christian. So, there are different kinds of forces at play here. There is the outright racial antisemitism of a Treitschke. There is the outright racial Christian antisemitism of a Gertsa, but there are also those who are against them. Mommsen who is not an anti-Semite, or is he? Because what he’s saying is the only answer for the Jews is to throw away all their differences. “Throw away Judaism and your ethnic peculiarities.” And then, it’s all going to explode into another individual. Houston Stewart Chamberlain, and he’s in Vienna. Now, I’m including Vienna in this. Why? Because so many of the figures who are so important in the rise of German racial antisemitism are also from Vienna. Many of them come and live in Germany. But the point is, these are the ones who, particularly after the unification of Germany, want German-Austria to be affiliated, actually joined to Germany. Never forget in 1919… 1918, I beg your pardon. After the dismemberment of the Habsburg Empire, and Vienna emerges as the capital of a tiny little state of 6,500,000 Austrian Germans, rather than a huge empire of millions of people.

Other states, of course, were created. Hungary, Czechoslovakia, et cetera. But the important thing is they asked for Anschluss, and they said, “The president will live for six months in Germany and six months in Austria.” And of course, that was turned down. So, can we go on to Houston Stewart Chamberlain, please? Here, you see him. Now, he is an Englishman by birth. He was born in Hampshire. His father was a rear admiral. Comes from a very naval family. His grandmother brought him up in France, and he was then sent to Cheltenham College, which he hated because it was military. And also, he grows up in Victorian England in the so-called “age of progress.” It’s the age of growing wealth, of scientific process, technology, et cetera. But he is influenced by a different kind of force. He hates industrialization. He hates urbanisation. He’s a dreamer. He’s far more interested in the arts. What he becomes more and more involved in is conservative romanticism. And the critique for him is the… He’s so against the industrial revolution and the loss of what he calls “Merry Old England.” He also believed, and this really is going to really feed in to German and Austrian racial antisemitism. “People should live in harmony with nature. They shouldn’t live in overcrowded cities engaging in…” I’m quoting him. “In dehumanising working factories while society was dominated by a 'philistine, greedy middle class.’” So, when he was 14, he has withdrawn from Cheltenham, and they’re a wealthy family. He has a German tutor. They travel around Europe.

And his tutor instructs him very much, not only instructs him in German language, but awakened him in a huge interest in German history and culture. He also studied Italian. He was a very clever man, fascinated by the Renaissance. He studied in Geneva. He studied botany, astronomy, physiology, anatomy. He was influenced by the growing race theories, which you’re finding in all the European universities now, the notion that certain races by blood are best ever to rule. He had an absolute pathological hatred for the man who once become prime minister of England, Benjamin Disraeli, who he calls a blood-sucking Jew. An early sign of his antisemitism was a letter where he describes Disraeli as a blood-sucking Jew. And he also describes landlords… Can we go back? In Ireland as blood-sucking Jews. 1878, he first hears the music of Wagner. For him, it’s a religious revelation. He becomes a huge supporter of Wagner, a Germanophile, and the music of Wagner gave him a sort of life-affirming core force that he’d never found in either British or French society, which he felt was downgraded. He was forced to work in Paris as a stockbroker for a while. He was totally inept. And also, he had this terrible hatred of capitalism. He called the bourse the “Synagogue of Satan.” He actually founded the first Wagner Society in Paris, then he moves to Germany, he settles in Dresden. “Where I plunged heart and soul into the depths of Wagner’s music and philosophy. The metaphysical works of the master, probably exercising the strong and influence upon him as musical drama.” He also became more and more involved in philosophical writing.

He’s interested in the writings of the Volkisch writers, racist understanding of high art and culture. High art can only be produced by Aryans. He’s violently anti-Semitic. He wrote to his family in 1888 on the death of Friedrich III, “The Jewish liberal is dead.” Now, in June 1888, he meets Cosima Wagner. She’s a widow by now. She completely electrified him. Remember, he has created the Wagner Society. He’s moving in the top echelons of German society. And he feels a huge love for her. She becomes very, very close. It’s reciprocated. She says he is a man of outstanding learning and dignified character, and he becomes her surrogate son. And she further influences him in his reading about Volkisch race, art, nation and culture. He becomes what she calls the uberdeutsch. He also read Arthur de Gobineau, which I talked about on Tuesday, and he began to talk about the Aryan masters. In 1908, he married for the second time, Eva von Bulow, who of course was the daughter of Cosima Wagner and the granddaughter of Liszt. So, he’s very much part of the Bayreuth Circle. He promoted Wagner, he promoted Jew hatred, as an effort to cure all modern society. All the ills of society are caused by industrialization, materialisation, and urbanisation. And it’s all being given to us by the Jews. And this is what he wrote, “Like a wheel that spins faster and faster, the increasing rush of life dries us to continually further apart from each other, continually further apart from the firm ground of nature, soon it must fling us into nothingness.” He’s in Vienna for a while and he writes, “It’s fallen into the hands of Jews, which includes two consequences.

Every individual is bled to the utmost and systematically, and is neither order or cleanliness. Jews are totally mindlessly materialistic.” In the Boer War, he supports the Boers against the British. And the war was because of the Anglo-Jewish aggression against the Afrikaners, the good German Afrikaners. And Cosima wrote to him, “The extermination of one of the most excellent Germanic race is so horrible.” So, he becomes very close to the German ambassador to Vienna, Prince Philipp von Eulenburg, who was also a Wagnerite and an anti-Semite, and a very close friend of Wilhelm II. And he then writes, “‘The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century.’ The war is coming, the war between the Aryans and the Jews, and the Blacks, and the Asians. The Germans are at the helm. Everything good that comes in the world is Aryan. Jesus, of course, was an Aryan. The Jewish race is the inverse of the Aryan. All wars are financed by the Jews.” I’m quoting, of course. “Jews aims to put their foot upon the neck of the nations of the world and become whole possessors of the earth. The final aim of the Jew was to create a starvation. When they would be in Europe, only a single people of pure race, the Jews, all the rest will be a herd of Pseudo-Hebraic mestizos, a people beyond all doubt, degenerate physically, mentally, and morally.” He doesn’t believe the Jews are at the bottom of the racial run. He believes are the Jews who he says have kept their blood pure. You see how it all gets twisted? He now believes that they are the only group capable of destroying the Aryan.

He said democracy is a failed Jewish invention. Socialism is a cunning stratagem to divert attention from Jewish financiers. He also believed that Jews created Chinese civilization. And the two conversion for the Jew can never work because it’s about Jewish blood. And he writes this, “The more and more Jews took on the habits and thoughts of his gentile compatriots, the more he is to be feared. The readers will know how to deal with the Jewish question.” He sells very, very well. He becomes an important celebrity. And he, later on, of course, he is going to be almost required reading, certainly in Hitler’s Reich. And in Protestant parts of Germany, he is particularly popular. The German Jewish journalist, Maurice Goldstein, wrote in 1912, Houston Stewart Chamberlain has made him a Zionist, even the best spirits, clever and truth loving men. However, as soon as they speak of the Jews, fall into a blind, almost raved hatred. In 1901, Wilhelm II read “The Foundations,” Chamberlain had met him through Philipp von Eulenberg. It was a very close personal bond. And this is what the Kaiser wrote, “God has sent your book to the German people. Just as he sent you personally to me. May you save our German fault, for God has sent you as our helper.” And Chamberlain wrote back to the Kaiser, “Create a Germany which will rule the world.” He was also a very fervent admirer of von Treitschke.

He publishes many, many texts in the war. In Weimar, of course, he supported the Kapp Putsch. He becomes a follower and admirer of Adolf Hitler, who he refers to as Germany’s saviour. Hitler read “The Foundations.” He’d also very much influence Joseph Goebbels. Houston Stewart Chamberlain later met Hitler at Bayreuth. And in September ‘23, he is in Bayreuth at the Volkischer German Day. He sat in his wheelchair next to Hitler. And this is what he wrote to him, “Most respected and dear Hitler, it is hardly surprising that a man like you could give peace to a poor suffering spirit, especially when he is dedicated to the service of the fatherland. My faith in Germandom has not wavered, though my hopes were at a low ebb. With one stroke, you have transformed the state of the soul. That Germany, in her hour of need brings forth a Hitler that is proof of her vitality. May God protect you.” And of course, he was a media celebrity. He died in 1927, and both Hitler and Goebbels were at his funeral. Now can we go on, Judy? In Vienna, there are other characters who are pulling together antisemitism. Georg von Schonerer, who was known as the Knight of Rosenau. Again, after the Austrian defeat in 1866, and after Germany’s unification, he was desperate to be part of Germany. And he becomes violently anti-Semitic. And he believed that only Aryans could be part of the new Reich. He was also anti-Catholic. He considered his struggle for Austrian Germans as a fight against the Jews.

He had violent racial antagonism to the Jews. He became very popular. He was in the Austrian parliament. He had 21 followers in the parliament. He was a Pagan. He breaks away from Christianity. He calls himself the Knight of Rosenau. And he is very much a man who believed that you had to go back to that time in German history when Germany was great, and his followers would meet during the summer solstices, and German history would be celebrated through German battle songs. And he said, “If we don’t expel the Jews, we Germans will be expelled.” In 1884, he asked for the nationalisation of the Rothschild-owned railways. He was imprisoned in 1888 for temporarily ransacking Jewish and newspaper editors. So with him, and we need to bring this into the mix now, it’s really back to Paganism. As I said, he called himself the Knight of Rosenau. He believed in a pure Aryan world, which had not been spoiled by Christianity. And, though, he even tried to resurrect the old German rules for the months of the year. I think I better stop there, Judy, and I’m going to add an extra class next week, am I not? Jude-

• Yes, you are, Trudy. Yep, we are doing Wednesday, the 22nd of March.

• At seven-

• At…

• 7:00.

• At 7:00 PM UK, yeah.

• And then I’ll be talking about “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” which brings it all together. Look, I know this is difficult to take, but I have thought about it long and hard, and I think that if you understand the background to it, in a way, I’ve always believed, and I’ve said this to you many times, it is education that gives us strength. And please remember, there were people all the way through who stood out against it, as they still do. Let’s have a look at the questions.

Q&A and Comments:

Oh, this is from Sharon David Rappol. “Kaiser Wilhelm II, together with the royal leaders of England and Russia, led to the horrible first World War and what followed, they were grandchildren of Queen Victoria, her offspring led to millions of death. Royalty has a lot to answer for.”

This is Brian. “As a supplement to what you were saying about the 19th century and nationalism, there is an excellent BBC radio documentary called "Bad Blood: The Story of Eugenics.” Worth a listen in terms of the added impact on the pseudoscience of the time. It’s available on BBC Sounds online.“ Thank you very much for that, Brian. This is another reason why I love lockdown. There are always people, not only are they interested, but everyone’s well-informed and can add to our knowledge.

This is from Arlene. "I took a course about the origins of the Jews, Hebrews in the ancient world. It seems early Jews were fine-featured people. The intermarriage and rape in the early wars by non-Jews created the bad news stereotype of the Jew as symbolised by anti-Semite.”

Oh, that’s funny. Rita, and Rita’s sending us a link to the BBC Radio documentary. Thank you, Rita. Thank you for that. Most welcome. Francois Simone. “Antisemitism is a modern coinage.” Yes, the term is coined in 1878.

“Anti-Jewish behaviour precedes the advent of Christianity.” Yes, of course it does. That’s what I’m saying to you. It’s built on theological hatred, but it’s different. Because you could convert out of theological hatred, remember. You can’t convert out of blood.

“Bismarck and the first Kaiser wanted industrialization of Germany. No national power for Germany without industrialization.” Shelly, you’re trying to find logic in all of this. Remember, I said you can’t.

And Rita is recommending, Francois Simone, “Anti-Semitism Revisited” by Delphine Horvilleur. There are so many books on antisemitism. I wouldn’t know where to begin. I would recommend Robert Wistrich’s too, the two huge terms before he died.

“A Lethal Obsession” and “The Left in Antisemitism.” I’ll bring the proper titles for next week. Even the great Yehuda Bauer said that Wistrich was the world expert. I have on my shelf, I would think about 100 books on antisemitism. Some people worry about me . I do have other books, by the way.

Q: “How would German Jewish scientists treat it this time?”

A: Interesting question. And I’m going to be dealing with that in more detail when I look at Haber and Rathenau, and Einstein.

“Something like 90% of the physicists in Germany were of Jewish birth.” And look, there is problems, but it doesn’t become nasty, really nasty, until after the first World War, and we’re going to be dealing with that. And of course, it becomes appalling after Hitler comes to power.

Jonathan is recommending “George, Nicholas and Wilhelm” by Miranda Carter. You’ve just tweaked something. There is a BBC film. It was one of those long… Remember they used to do those huge wonderful mini-series. It’s called “Fall of Eagles.” I don’t know if it’s still available. It’s a drama doc, but it’s really good, and it really gets you into the three of them. I’ve got it, but I think it’s from the '80s. It’s well worth the look. It’s called “Fall of Eagles.”

Susan. “The Evangelicals love Israel, but are waiting for Jews to accept Christ.” Yes . Francois. Thank you, Rita.

Q: “Anyone saw the Tom Stoppard play, 'Leopoldstadt?’”

A: Yes, of course, Francois. And in many ways, it’s absolutely fascinating because it’s Tom Stoppard’s own journey back to being a Czech Jew, and it does very well illustrate the story of German Jews, or in his case, Austrian German Jews. Also, there’s the book, “The Oppermanns” by Lion Feuchtwanger. And also, he wrote another book on it. Yeah, look for “The Oppermanns.” That was also a mini-series.

“You should write a book, ‘History versus Biography: The Origins of Religious and Racial Antisemitism.’ This is a novel approach. If not, you work with another author.” I’d love to find the time to write, Louise and Stan.

“You should send the tapes of your lectures.” Look, I’m having lots of meetings with Wendy next week when she comes to London, and we’re going to talk about what we’re going to do with our huge archive. But an ADL, of course, is an extraordinary organisation, and I know that Wendy’s a great supporter.

“Hi, Trudy. The Jews are responsible for financing the world.” Look, Jerry, you’re asking for logic. Of course, that’s absolute rubbish. Where does he get that from? But he gets it because of the Rothschilds, and it’s absolute rubbish. But that’s the problem with race theory, you will not find any logic in it. Look, we are not just logical, are we? I wish we were, that was the dream of the Enlightenment, that we use rationality, but we don’t. We are creatures of blood and emotion, and all the rest of it, and that is totally illogical. It’s like saying all Jews are capitalists, all Jews are communists. All Jews are good, all Jews are bad. Jews are people. Some good, some bad, some indifferent. There are other minority groups who suffer in the same way. I’m sure you could, all yourself, think of many different minority groups who have the most terrible accusations passed against them.

“We do seem, when times are hard, to need someone to hate.”

“Your talk listed at 12:00 in New York, but we’re on daylight saving time, starts US Eastern Time at 1:00. Oh, Judy, help.

Q: "Did any of these anti-Semites support Zionism as the wings to get Jews out of their country and society?”

A: Yes, mainly in Russia, and later on in Poland.

You are right, Robert. Yes, “Fall of Eagles” is on YouTube. Oh, thanks for that, Susan. It’s such a good wallow. A beautifully acted. Many of the great British actors are in it. Great, thank you.

“I don’t believe there’s any relationship between the Houston Stewart Chamberlain and Neville.” I don’t believe so.

Yes. I think that’s it, Judy.