JEFFREY HERF
231
Hitler's every success made the Weimar Republic look worse
by comparison . Weimar was associated with weakness in foreign
policy, an excess of party politics, economic suffering, chaos and
street fighting. Democracy and parliamentarism, division of powers
and civil rights, freedom of the press and association, and "Jewish
emancipation and assimilation" were all associated with the Weimar
years . Hitler's successes "retrospectively discredited" parliamentar–
ism, freedom, and democracy . Individuals had less freedom but
things were better than before 1933 . And after all, hadn't Britain,
France, and Italy met Hitler's expectations in Munich, expectations
that no one thought they would meet:
And as for the Jews : hadn't they found a role in the past which
they did not deserve? Must not some limits finally be placed on
them? Didn't they deserve to be shown these limits? And above
all , didn't the propaganda, aside from the wild, not seriously in–
tended exaggerations, contain in its essential points one's own
conjectures and convictions?
It
was when Jenninger finished this part of his speech, a part
clearly intended to articulate the views of a hypothetical Germany of
1938-and obviously not his own views-that the fifty members of
the Parliament walked out.
Jenninger then turned to the historic roots of Nazism. Anti–
Semitism had existed in Germany and in Europe for centuries. But
German nationalism differed in important ways from the na–
tionalism of other countries. Liberal, parliamentary, and democratic
currents remained underdeveloped. Foreign policy aggressiveness
merged with domestic authoritarianism and persecution of minor–
ities . There followed rapid industrialization and urbanization, ac–
companied by a diffuse discontent with modernity . The Jews played
an important role in industry , banking, business, medicine, law,
natural sciences, and culture in the process of modernization, which
aroused jealousy and inferiority complexes among Germans . Anti–
Semitic tracts of the early twentiety century linked the Jews to capi–
talism, big cities, liberalism, and socialism. Scholars , such as Hein–
rich von Treitschke, and artists , such asilRichard Wagner, "made
anti-Jewish resentments
salonfiihig.
The ' Jews became socially al–
lowed hate objects." Anti-Semites seizeti upon Darwinism to create a
scientific veneer for their melange of the Jewish world conspiracy
and the battle of races .
