Antisemitism as a Cultural Code: Reflections on the History and Historiography of Antisemitism in Imperial Germany

Historians of antisemitism have dealt with the problem in a variety of ways, having to come to terms not only with the question of continuity in German history but also with the equally baffling one of continuity in the history of anti-Jewish sentiments and action. During the 1890s antisemitism gained ground in the smallest Burgervereine, Heimatsvereine and a variety of local cultural groupings. Antisemitism became endemic. By the end of the nineteenth century it had become a cultural code. The search for a wider conceptualisation reflected an awareness of the complexity and significance of the matter, but was made all the more imperative when links between antisemitism and other ideas and attitudes became increasingly apparent. The subject-matters encompassed religion and philosophy, biology and the natural sciences, anthropology, history, heraldry and genealogy, language, art and literature, economics, politics and law. Although one cannot point out any direct link between the antisemitic parties of Imperial Germany and Nazism.