Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish Descent in Imperial Germany

1. Antisemitism, Colonialism, and Colonial Violence

Chapter 1 Antisemitism, Colonialism, and Colonial Violence The German colonial empire came into being on April 24, 1884. On that day, the German consul at Cape Town received a telegram from Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in Berlin, proclaiming that the government had taken under its protection areas in southwestern Africa purchased from local notables by a German tobacco merchant. Bismarck extended government protection to German commercial interests in Togo and Cameroon several months later, dispatching a gunboat to the region. Early the next year, he offered similar guarantees to the German East Africa Company, an organization founded by Carl Peters, which claimed large areas off the coast of Zanzibar. Antisemites back in Germany who had long supported the idea of empire celebrated these developments. One antisemitic newspaper in Berlin stated in May, “We would be extraordinarily happy if the German ›ag suddenly ›uttered on the coast of Africa and are convinced that England and France would reckon silently with this fait accompli, albeit with envious eyes.”1 Months later, the newspaper insisted that “every German patriot” would greet “with open joy” the acquisition of colonies.2 This chapter initiates the investigation into the relationship between colonialism and antisemitism. It argues that colonialism and antisemitism often went hand in hand during the imperial era, as did antisemitism and radical colonial violence. First, the chapter examines how dedicated antisemites perceived German colonizing efforts; after outlining the history of the modern antisemitic movement, it explores the attitudes toward colo25 1. “Weltlage,” Staatsbürger-Zeitung, May 25, 1884. The Staatsbürger-Zeitung was one of the longest-running antisemitic dailies in Germany, founded in 1865 and lasting through the Kaiserreich era. The antisemitic journalist Wilhelm Bruhn assumed control of the editorship in the late 1890s. 2. “Angra Pequena,” Staatsbürger-Zeitung, June 12, 1884. nialism among movement members, looking at stay-at-home antisemites of different stripes. The chapter shows that antisemitic politicians, ideologues , and the antisemitic press energetically engaged in the public debate about colonialism’s objectives, means, and costs, infusing the antisemitic movement with a colonial consciousness, with majority opinion strongly backing the colonial project. Second, the chapter details the penetration of antisemitism into the ranks of on-the-ground colonial actors. It illustrates how men and women imbued with a strong antisemitic Weltanschauung not only helped to create and administer the new colonial empire but also infused it with an ethos of racially justi‹ed violence. The evidence presented here shows that the colonial and antisemitic movements of the imperial era were deeply intertwined and affected one another. The rise of the modern German antisemitic movement roughly coincided with the creation of Germany’s colonial empire. The late 1870s witnessed the formation of Adolf Stöcker’s Christian Social Workers’ Party, the ‹rst antisemitic party with a national agenda and aspirations to the Reichstag. The petition drive of 1880 spurred the creation of several more antisemitic political parties later that same year, such as the short-lived Social Reich Party in Berlin and the more successful German Reform Party in Dresden, both rivals to Stöcker’s organization. New antisemitic political parties continued to appear throughout the following decade. In 1889, the German Social Party emerged in Bochum (Westphalia), and Erfurt (Saxony) became the home of the newly formed Antisemitic People’s Party in 1890. The 1880s and 1890s also witnessed the creation of an antisemitic press, replete with both weeklies and dailies. Some of the antisemitic newspapers founded during this time survived into the Nazi era.3 The economic crash of 1873 helped make the new phenomenon of political antisemitism possible. The crash ruined thousands of small investors , and the ensuing depression generated a widespread discontent with the policies and theories of economic liberalism, a discontent that ideologues were able to channel into antisemitism. For years, antisemites had insisted that the gradual emancipation of Germany’s Jews since Napoleonic times was largely responsible for the emergence of the modern economy of mobile capital, free enterprise, and market speculation. Artisans , merchants, peasant farmers, civil servants, and small entrepreneurs— 26 Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish Descent 3. These include the Deutsche Zeitung (Berlin, 1896–1934), the Deutsche Tageszeitung (Berlin, 1894–1934), and the Tägliche Rundschau (Berlin, 1881–1937). The antisemitic Hammer magazine (Leipzig, 1902–40) was also long-running. the group that constituted Germany’s Mittelstand—were susceptible to this anticapitalist and anti-Jewish rhetoric even before 1873...