Parliamentary Speeches of the Din de Siecle German Political Antisemites

Historians have used materialist and idealist arguments to attempt to explain the nature of antisemitism in Imperial Germany. An analysis of parliamentary debates from 1887 to 1898 shows antisemitic politicians' concerns reflected those of agrarian populists in other countries, such as the United States. This argues against German particularism as an explanation for Imperial antisemitism, and further suggests that the politicians' specifically anti-Jewish aims were secondary to their Mittelstand economic interests.