Germany’s Prophet: Paul de Lagarde & the Origins of Modern Antisemitism by Ulrich Sieg (review)

Ulrich Sieg’s Germany’s Prophet, the translation of a volume that appeared in German in 2007,¹ addresses a number of important historiographical issues in general and the origins of modern antisemitism in particular. Paul de Lagarde’s personal qualities and his ideological positions elude precise characterization, much as is the case with the nature of the hatred that Jews have faced. The confounding contradictions and impenetrable complexity of the man pose significant problems for any biographer.

Lagarde is known to readers in the English-speaking world largely through Fritz Stern’s influential book The Politics of Cultural Despair.² Poliakov’s venerable four-volume history of antisemitism does not mention Lagarde, nor does Wistrich discuss him in his recent 1,200-page overview.³ Sieg argues that Lagarde deserves to be better known, not just for what he actually wrote, but also in the more important sense of what is wrongly remembered about him today. That memory, Sieg argues, depends on isolated quotations taken out of context—most notably, Lagarde’s notorious remark about Jewish capitalists (“trichinae and bacilli” who must be “exterminated as quickly and thoroughly as possible”). This remark has been quoted widely in works devoted to the history of antisemitism, including one of my own works.⁴

Stern’s book first came out more than half a century ago, as did Robert Lougee’s still useful biography of Lagarde—the only other one in English.⁵ Puzzlingly, Sieg does not mention the latter in his bibliographical discussion. At any rate, a case unquestionably can be made for a new, full-length biography in English—especially one that has extensively tapped primary sources not used by Stern, Lougee, or any other author writing in English.

Sieg is generally judicious and well-informed in his interpretations, treating Stern respectfully but still seeing his book as contributing, at least to some degree, to subsequent misperceptions of Lagarde. Sieg makes the familiar historiographical observation that we tend to view the past in terms of questions that emerge from present agendas. He is especially concerned with a related but more delicate point that, in searching for the roots of Nazism and the Holocaust, some authors have assembled information carelessly, insensitive to nuance and context, locating those roots just about everywhere and ignoring details that do not fit into their simplistic narratives. It is not difficult to find examples of what he is referring to, especially in popular history, but an imposing challenge remains in presenting Lagarde more accurately and sensitively. How could a man who spoke of Jews as “bacilli” be presented in a more balanced manner? It is well recognized that an apologetic temptation is inherent in biographical writing: the human qualities and quandaries of the person studied are bound to emerge when that person’s life story is closely examined. But how should our sympathy be tempered? Are we justified in ignoring or suppressing “the good parts” in the life of a person who is deemed to be responsible for great evil?

A start in achieving a more balanced view of Lagarde would be to take note of his statements contradicting the notorious one cited above. Similarly, we must understand that Lagarde used poisonous language to describe just about every group or personality in Germany: Prussians, Protestants, left-wingers, other academics, and the antisemites of his day. Even Luther—whom he termed “a narrow-minded fanatic”—and Bismarck were on his poison-pen list. His most intense hatred, however, was reserved for the materialistic, individualist liberalism of his day, which he believed was supported decisively and forwarded by Jews. However, about Jews in general (not just Jewish businessmen) he once wrote: “We will only overcome this very annoying, very talented nation-within-a-nation through helpfulness and love, not by rejecting their best and brightest.” He insisted that he had “always treated individual Jews as lovingly as possible.” He maintained friendly relations with...