Origins and “Complete Explanations”

The history of antisemitism in Nazi Germany tends to be written from the perspective of antisemitism in the nineteenth century and vice versa: The history of nineteenth-century antisemitism has been normally written, and can perhaps only be written, from the perspective of the Nazi era. It is thus usually presented as a “dress rehearsal” for the National Socialist “final solution.” It is, no doubt, easy enough to list the various manifestations of antisemitism throughout the history of modern Germany, leading eventually to destruction. Even concrete plans to get rid of the Jews can be found in this catalog. It seems to be generally agreed that, although there have never been antisemites more fanatical, dangerous, and murderous than the Nazis, there was nothing particularly novel about their antisemitism. It is considered a phenomenon whose origins are well known and patently familiar.

Historians, after all, are always concerned with the tension between continuity and break, and their answers to the apparent dilemma created by this tension usually reconstruct the same pattern: In the last resort, the two are always intertwined, only mixed in varying degrees. Clearly, from a historical point of view, every event is rooted in the past, but at the same time, every phenomenon is at least in some way new and unique. The ongoing debate on break and continuity is thus only about the correct proportions. One cannot hope to decide between the two; one can only judge their relative importance.