Katholizismus und Antisemitismus im Deutschen Kaiserreich (review)

160 SHOFAR Spring 2000 Vol. 18, No.3 concepts and analysis. His discussion of his psychological "survival strategies" is, nonetheless, revealing of personal, social, and cultural possibilities and limitations. In the end, the book makes for fascinating reading and, despite questions ofbroader usage and at times seemingly superfluous psychological considerations, has a number of strengths, particularly in its emphasis on undermining stereotypes and the vivid portrayal of past events that are possible only from those who experienced them, even if, in relating them, such recorders mediate the past with their own perspective and through their unique personal development. Dean Phillip Bell Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies Katholizismus und Antisemitismus im Deutschen Kaiserreich, by Olaf Blaschke. Kritische Studien zur Geschichtswissenschaft, 122. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997. 443 pages. DM 78.00.1 When a renowned newspaper prints two reviews of a dissertation, then the work must have hit a nerve.2 Research since 1945 on German Catholicism, when coming from the Church or from those close to the Church, has supported a harmless view of Catholicism 's attitude toward "Judaism," depicting it as, if not friendly, then at worst ambivalent and-to exaggerate-attempting to assign antisemitism to political Protestantism by focusing on Berlin court preacher Adolf StOckers, dismissing the fact that ideological differences between racial antisemites and the antisemitic "Christian social" movements of the Kaiserreich were perhaps not smaller than that of political Catholicism and the racial antisemites. This view was supported by the fact that in light of the 'Kulturkampf,' (Kanzel article, 1871, law against the Jesuits, 1872, the dissolution of most orders located in Prussia), both Catholics and Jews could be seen as oppressed minorities. For the Catholic camp in general, the minority identity raised questions about antisemitism, doubts which were expressed even at the highest levels of political Catholicism (Zentrumpartei). Olaf Blaschke's dissertation from Bielefeld effectively demonstrates that the situation was not nearly as nice as some modem scholars suggest, and that it would not have improved ifit had continued along the same 12nd edition, Gottingen 1999; all page references in the review are from the first printing. 2Klaus Schatz, "So dumm waren sie nicht, aber auch nicht so ungerecht. Gehorte der Antisemitismus im Kaiserreich zur IdentiUit der Katholiken? Olaf Blaschkes These und der Systemzwang der Strukturgeschichte," in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, July I, 1998, Joachim Scholtysek, in ibid.; April 6, 1998. A thoroughly positive evalauation by Heinrich August Winkler, "Olaf Blaschke zerstort eine Legende," in: Die Zeit, Oct. 17, 1997. Book Reviews 161 old path.3 Criticism of Blaschke's study focuses less on his conclusions than on his method and point of view. We will return to this point. But most importantly, no critic can ignore the density of Blaschke's argument; he used all the relevant sources, particularly Catholic publications with their important role in stabilizing their own milieu. Blaschke begins by examining previous approaches (church history, social history, research on antisemitism) and establishing his own angle: both modem antisemitism and modem Catholicism 'experienced an upsurge in the 19th century, which was never surpassed. Obvious questions arise about the relationship between these phenomena. The author introduces and analyzes current models of explanation and responses (resistance, ambivalence, real conflict, replacement conflict thesis, modernity thesis, minimization, etc.) In contrast to the oft-cited heterogeneous Catholic lower milieus, Blaschke emphasizes the impenetrability of the macro-milieus (pp. 22f., 55). In response to those who restrict "antisemitism" to "racists and friends of the antisemitic parties" (p. 23), Blaschke constructs a concept in which antisemitism appears as both "unconnected" (antisemitic parties, explicit Jewish hostility) and "connected," a highlevel connection to a particular context (p. 23). These distinctions, expressed in the influences on and self-perception ofthe Catholic Farmers Association in contrast to the equally antisemitic and anti-Catholic Farmers Union (pp. 220f.), paved the way for a simple, yet sharply analytical formulation, namely, "that there were no antisemitic associations in Catholicism, just antisemitism within the associations" (p. 259). Blaschke identifies five characteristics ofantisemitism, including "new topics" to which nationalism, anti-liberalism, conspiracy myths, fear ofJudaization, and racism belong. All five are also understood as elements of Catholic antisemitism (p. 24). Ofthe nine chronologically and thematically interconnected sections leading to the...