Revolutionary Antisemitism in Germany from Kant to Wagner (review)

142 SHOFAR Revolutionary Antisemitism in Germany from Kant to Wagner, by Paul Lawrence Rose. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990. 395 pp. $29.95. / Among the plethora of studies on German antisemitism, Paul Rose's is one of the most intriguing. Rose traces and analyzes the intellectual origins of German hatred of Jews from Kant to Wagner. He argues that antisemitism was not a simple phenomenon based on single issues such as religion , race, economics, etc., but instead associated with a concept of revolution that is specifically German. Rose posits that the German revolution was simultaneously revolutionary and national, left and right. Fichte, Kant, Herder, Humboldt, Hegel, Marx, Feuerbach, Borne, Marr, Frantz, Bauer, Heine, and Wagner were all imbued, Rose states, with the faith of the German revolution-not necessarily a nationalist or racist revolution, but one founded ultimately on a new vision of freedom and emancipated humanity that had been vouchsafed especially to men raised in German culture. Having selected such an eclectic array of thinkers, Rose searches for similarities in their world views, and in particular notes that, in varying degrees , they all spent a great deal of time debating the Judenfrage. The question of what to do with the Jews occupied a salient place within the German intelligentsia, especially the young Hegelians. Rose believes that more important than the Jews' economic status were the various myths about Jews. Ironically, Jews were seen as standing in the way of "progress" or in holding back the revolution that all Rose's intellects longed for. This is ironic because of the Jews' contribution to various revolutionary ideals. Nevertheless, Jews were associated with the myths of Moloch, or ritual murder, Mammon, or insatiable greed, and Ahasuerus, the wandering Jew. All of these played a seminal role in the Jewish hatred spewed forth by the various intellectuals. Rose indicates that in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries antisemitism was transformed from a hostility based on religion to an anger more secular, and hence more dangerous in nature. Unlike many historians, he devalues the issue of emancipation, showing that it was possible for people like Marx to advocate equal rights for Jews while still remaining antagonistic to them. Rose chastises many of the fighters for Jewish emancipation who argued for equal rights only because it would benefit the state. This utilitarian motive did not mask the overt antipathy that most intellectuals had for Jews. The so-called "Liberals" were liberal only because they thought emancipation would lead to greater integration and assimilation and ultimately the end of Judaism. No matter what the political view, the extinction ofJews, whether peacefully or violently, was the goal of all of Rose's subjects. Rose then touches on the origins of Zionism. Moses Hess is a central figure VoLume 10, No.2 Winter 1992 143 for him, linking revolutionary thinking with Hess's generally negative portrayal of his own people. Many readers will be surprised to find philosophers like Kant equated with pseudo-scientists such as Marr. But all Rose's intellectuals perceived the Jewish Question as a paradigm for the liberation of Germany. Rose finds five basic anti-Jewish themes in most of the writers: egoism, which came from the label of the chosen people as well as the myths of Mammonism and Ahasuersus ; the projection of abhorrent Jewish vices on German culture; the need of the Jews to redeem themselves to save all of Germany from the risk of being Verjudung; the idea that Jews must be destroyed for the sake of humanity ; and finally, a socioeconomic critique that usually saw Jews as parasites whose capitalism was standing in the path of a "free" and liberated Germany. Rose's book raises a number of provocative issues, not the least ofwhich is the connection between the antisemitism of Kant and that of Hitler. Rose sees similarities in the language and in some of the proposed solutions. Except for Wagner, however, the link between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries is more tenuous. Another problem may be the centrality of the Jewish issue for all the writers. For Marr, the Jewish issue was of great and grave concern, but for those like Kant, Herder, and Fichte the...