German Politics and the Jews: Dusseldorf and Nuremberg, 1910-1933

This account challenges the view that anti-Semitism was imposed on moderate Germans following Hitler's rise to power. The book argues that the Weimar Republic was instrumental in changing people's attitudes towards the Jews and uses the examples of Dusseldorf and Nuremburg to illustrate this.
This is a scholarly reassessment of the `Jewish Question' in Germany (1910-1933). Anthony Kauders challenges the view that, following Hitler's rise to power, anti-Semitism radically increased among the majority of Germans. He argues that the Weimar Republic was also very influential in changing people's attitudes towards the Jews and their place in German society. Through a study of Dusseldorf and Nuremberg, two German cities of comparable size but disparate
regional, religious, and economic characteristics, he explores the attitudes of journalists, politicians, clerics, and ordinary people. Using local and national archival material, Dr Kauders is able to show that, whereas before the First World War most Germans would distance themselves from racial
anti-Semitism, after 1918 many Germans agreed with voelkisch agitators that Jews were, in a variety of ways, alien to the national community.