F.

R O D E R I C H - S T O L T H E I M

THE RIDDLE
OF

THE JEW'S SUCCESS

Translated

from

the

German

by Capel Pownall

HAMMER-VERLAG / LEIPZIG
1

Contents.
Chapter

Page

Preface

II

Jewish Methods in the Economic Life

10

III

Particular Business Tactics of the Jew

29

IV

The International Connection and Secret League

of the Hebrews

39

The peculiar Morality of Jewdom

53

VI

An Explanation with Sombart

68

VII

Jewish Successes in modern Times

72

VIII The Stock-Exchange

IX

How Sound Business Methods are forced out of

the field by the Jews

84
98

Jewish Trade Specialities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

XI

Moral Principles in Trade

141

XII

The Hebrews as supporters of Capitalism

154

XIII Business and Religion

183

XIV
XV

The Race Problem

Origin of the Jewish entity

200
220

XVI

The influence of the Jew upon Womankind

242

XVII The Jews and the World-War

Concluding Words
Errata

277
283
290

Preface.
If there are riddles in the history of the nations, then the Jews
most certainly present one of the chief instances; and, whoever
has occupied himself with the problems of humanity, without
advancing so far as the great problem of the Jews, has, so
far as knowledge and experience of life are concerned, merely
skimmed the surface of the subject. There is scarcely a field,
from Art and Literature to Religion and Political Economy,
from Politics to the most secret domains of sensuality and
criminality, in which the influence of the Jewish spirit and of
the Jewish entity cannot be clearly traced, and has not imparted
a peculiar warp or trend to the affairs in question.
Indisputable as these facts are, it is nevertheless equally certain
that Science, Literature and the Press, which concern themselves,
not only in Germany, but all the world over, with all manner
of valuable knowledge, display the utmost anxiety to avoid
casting any light into the secret and mysterious sphere of
Jewish influence. It is, as if a silent mandate had been issued,
that the essential relations of life with Jewdom are on no
account to be disturbed that the Jews, in fact, are not to
be discussed. And thus, one is entitled to maintain, that in
no department of knowledge is the ignorance of our learned
men so pronounced, as it is in everything, which is connected
with the Jews.
If, however, the influences and activities, which the Hebrews
exert upon the spiritual and political destinies of the nations,
are of an extraordinary nature, one must finally supplement
this recognised fact by the further recognition, that Hebrewdom
avails itself of extraordinary powers and means to produce
such results.
It is, in this respect, that the present book furnishes disclosures.
To start with, one point must be made perfectly clear: religious
5

views and religious motives are excluded from this work.

The author is completely neutral to the religious parties, and
cannot subscribe unconditionally to any one of the same.
When Jews are spoken of in the course of this book, we are
not thinking of a religious community, but rather of a particular
people, a nation, a race. Consequently, whenever it would be
advisable to avoid the use of the word "Jew", on account of
the unpleasant flavour or taint which invariably accompanies
that expression, use has been made, to a great extent, of the
names "Hebrew", or "Semite".
That the Jews, however, in spite of their dispersion amongst
the nations, still feel, at the present day, that they are a special
people and a special race, and that they feel themselves united
more by their common blood and race than by their religious
creed, is testified to by one of the most illustrious amongst
the people of Israel.
Disraeli, who later on became Prime Minister of England, and
was created Lord Beaconsfield, makes, in his novel "Endymion",
which was published in London in 1844, an influential, elderly
Jew speak to a young man as follows:
"No one must treat the racial principle, the racial question, with indifference. It is the key to the history of the world; and history is only
so frequently confused because it is written by people, who are unacquainted with the racial question, and ignorant of everything which has
a bearing upon it. Wherever you find the same in operation, whether
amongst communities, or, in the case of individuals, it has to be reckoned
with. But, on the other side, there is no other subject again, which
demands such a fine power of discrimination, or, where the principle,
if it is not completely understood, may show itself to be as misleading
as an Ignis Fatuus.
I find in Europe three great races with pronounced characters the
Germans, the Slavs and the Celts, and their behaviour is determined
precisely by these distinguishing characteristics. There is, however, yet
another great race, which influences the world the Semitic. The
Semites are, without question, a great race, for, amongst all the things
in this world which appear to be true, nothing is more certain than the
fact that they invented our alphabet.* But the Semites, at the present
moment, exert through their smallest but most peculiar family, the
* This has long been shown to be erroneous (The author.)

Jews, an extraordinarily great influence upon all affairs. There is no

other race, which has been endowed to such a degree with obstinacy
and talent for organisation. These qualities have secured for them untold
possessions and immeasurable credit. As you advance in life and acquire
a more extensive knowledge of business and affairs in general, you will
find that the Jews cross your path and frustrate your plans, wherever
you go. Long ago they stole their way into our secret diplomacy, and
have become almost complete masters of it; in another 25 years they
will openly claim their share in the government of the country. Now
here we are dealing with races: men and cliques of men who are guided
in their behaviour by their peculiar organisation, and a statesman must
reckon with this situation. On the other hand what do you understand by the Latin race? Language and Religion do not make race
blood makes it".

At this juncture we shall only occupy ourselves with the

signification and importance of the Jews in trade, that domain
where they have laid the foundation of their power, and over
which they are always extending their influence and authority
in the endeavour to make a Jewish monopoly of it.
In his meritorious book: "Die Juden und das Wirtschaftsleben",
(The Jews and the Economic Life) Professor Werner Sombart
is at pains to prove nothing less than that the economic destinies of states and nations stand in immediate relation to the
wanderings of the Jews. What further conclusions he then
proceeds to attach to this theory, can best be summed up as
follows: to whatever spot the Jews turn their footsteps, there
trade and culture at once blossom forth; but, if they withdraw, commerce decays and prosperity disappears.
If this fact also, as a fact, is not to be disputed, it still seems
to me that the reasons, adduced by Sombart, to account for
this phenomenon, do not satisfy. And, as his conclusions also
appear to me to be unsound, I consider it necessary to supplement the work of this scholar, who depends almost entirely
upon literary and documentary evidence, by examples and
experiences taken from practical, everyday life.
According to the impression, which is left upon one after
reading Sombart's book, one might almost fancy that proof
had been actually produced that the Hebrews were the real
supporters of modern culture.
7

Sombart speaks of the "Culture of Capitalism", and endeavours

to show how this culture rests preponderantly, or almost exclusively on the shoulders of the Jews. The perception, that
humanity is extraordinarily indebted to the Jews with regard
to Culture, has been vigorously and continuously propagated
in more modern times, and may well have given rise to the
opinion, which is widely held, that Culture and Religion have
come to us mainly from the Hebrews, and consequently that
the other nations owe an everlasting debt of gratitude to this
Oriental people. In fact, in many quarters, it is actually
maintained that all progress proceeds from the Jews, and
that Culture without Jews is unthinkable. Such notions are,
however, no longer tenable at the present day, by reason of
our extended insight into the most remote periods of national
history. One must remember that highly developed systems
of culture have come into being in lands, in which a Jew
has never set foot; that great systems of culture even existed
at a time when no such thing as a Jewish nation had put in
an appearance in the history of the world. The discoveries,
made at the ancient seats of the Egyptian, Babylonian, and
Assyrian nations, testify to this. The Aztecs, and the Incas
in Peru as well, attained to a high degree of culture, and yet
they knew nothing about the Hebrews. The culture of the
Chinese and the Japanese gradually unfolded itself for thousands of years without the Hebrews contributing in the slightest
degree thereto, for even at the present day, the Jew is only
to be found as an isolated individual in China and Japan.
The strongly developed racial feeling of these nations knows
how to keep him at an arm's length. But, above all, what may
perhaps be regarded as the highest and most exquisite blossom
of culture, which humanity has ever brought to maturity
Grecian culture developed at a time when Jewish influence
was quite out of the question.
Thus, to hold up the Hebrew to universal admiration as the
supporter of culture, is simply not admissible. On the other
hand, it is conceded, that that, what is so commonly called
"Culture", at once acquires an acceleration in pace, as soon
8

as the Hebrews lay hands on it, and that, under the influence
of this singular people, the external appearances of Culture
develop in an astonishing manner. Only, at this stage, we
ought to make a finer distinction, and not call "Culture", i. e.
constructive work, what is really "Civilisation", i. e. a refinement or polishing-up of the mode of living. The increase and
enhancement of the forms of life, which proceed under Jewish
influence, affect preponderantly the externals of life. Trade
and business increase, production receives a powerful stimulation, the circulation of money and the amassing of capital
become more conspicuous than was formerly the case. Life
seems to assume a richer and more luxurious aspect, and an
impression of universal prosperity and augmentation of real
property is created. All this, however, must be included in
the conception of civilisation, whilst r e a l culture, which is
the cultivation and encouragement of the highest human capabilities, the improvement of organic and moral arrangement,
and the deepening of religious feeling, is more or less disregarded. In fact, it appears that these deeper, cultural values
actually suffer injury by the externalization of all existence.
The dynamic conformity to law throughout Nature is not to
be evaded even in human life; too much on one side always
causes a deficiency on the other. It is not possible to develop
extraordinary powers externally, without incurring a loss in
internal values. We shall therefore be obliged, in order to
treat this matter conscientiously, to throw light upon the highlypraised enhancement of culture by Hebrewdom from other
points than Sombart has done, so that this obvious phenomenon
can be viewed and comprehended as a whole.

II.

Jewish Methods In the Economic Life.

The question, why the economic life flourishes wherever the
Jews direct their footsteps, has not been answered by Sombart
in a way which satisfies us. He is under obligation to us for
important disclosures. We shall, to the best of our ability,
present these as follow. The facts and phenomena, upon which
light must be thrown, can be separated into groups, according
to the points of observation:
1. The Hebrew enhances and accelerates the circulation of
Money.
2. He mobilises slumbering values: lets loose balanced and
reposing forces.
3. He practises "Raubbau", (Predatory culture)* at the expense of the stored-up forces of Nature and Mankind.
At this juncture must also be taken into consideration:
4. The "Playing into one another's hands" (secret understanding) of the Hebrews.
5. The strange Morality.
The sound merchant of the old
school held the opinion that his
duty
was satisfactorily discharged, by satisfying the actual
purchase-requirements of his customers. He allowed the latter
to approach him of their own accord, and waited until they
called upon him, believing that he had conformed in all respects
to his business obligations, by procuring for the customer, at
a suitable price, the goods which the latter required. He regarded it as beneath his dignity to run after customers, or to
1. The Hebrew enhances
the circulation of Money,
enlivens business.

* Translator's note. It is very difficult to find in English a concise

equivalent for the admirable German expression "Raubbau". "Predatory
Culture" is, perhaps, the best.

10

entice them, by all manner of tricks, to buy from him; in fact,

in olden times, conduct of this kind was regarded as unbecoming and quite unworthy of an honourable trader. Far less
did it ever occur to him to talk a customer into buying some
article, which the latter would not have bought of his own
accord. Thus trade remained a peaceful, and not unduly
exciting occupation, and still the customer got what he wanted.
The Hebrew introduced into these relations, a new tendency
and a violent revolution. Wherever he invaded trade, he refused
to adopt this quiet and peaceful method of satisfying requirements. He endeavoured to entice the customers by advantageous offers and promises of all kinds. Above all, he
emphasised the cheapness of his goods, and knew well how
to delude the purchaser, by suggestion, into imagining that, in
this cheapness, the latter would find an enormous advantage.
He recommended his goods, loudly and publicly, by methods,
which were formerly known and forbidden as being those of
a mountebank, and which are now called advertising, and very
soon brought the practice almost to the verge of an art.
Yes, and when all these means of attracting customers proved
of no avail, he went and looked for them, not only by sending
out circulars and price-lists, but personally, by pedlars, agents
and travellers. Thus, he did not wait until the requirement
arose, and the demand set in of its own accord; he created
an a r t i f i c i a l d e m a n d ; he aroused requirement by
p e r s u a s i o n , and by other means. In this manner, a new
and alien trait was introduced into all business life. Commercial
business activity now became a wild hunt for customers, for
each tradesman sought to tear away the buyer from his rival.
Certainly all this resulted in a violent application of the spur
to business life, and the exchange of commodities was
accelerated and increased thereby, but this kind of activity
was of less service to political economy, in its higher sense,
than it was to another purpose. If it was the aim of sound
economy solely to satisfy a genuine want, and to direct goods
wherever the same were really required, the new way of
proceeding aimed mainly at gathering up or "assembling"
11

actual money. Trade, according to the new perception, was

no longer a useful link in the chain of calm, constant economic
development, but was rather a means to direct the circulating
money as quickly as possible again into the hands of the trader.
It was not the transfer of goods, which was so important, but
the fact that the transfer of goods gave the opportunity for
getting hold of money.
Thus, extraction of money from the pockets of customers
instead of satisfactorily meeting the need for commodities, now
became the main purpose of trade. But trade forfeited thereby
its proper and honourable character, and its former reputation
as an important contributor to the well-being of the community.
One can only learn to understand correctly this particular
tendency of the Hebrews, by considering their peculiar relations
to their environment. The old-fashioned merchant was not
particularly envious of his trade-competitors; his motto was,
"Live and let live"; and he knew that if he conducted his
business, honestly and conscientiously, that if he served his
customers honourably and fairly, a portion of the universal
volume of trade would fall to his share, through which his
individual existence would be assured. The merchants of olden
times did not feel themselves competitors with one another,
to the extent which the modern ones do. They were not so
numerous; and, through the guild privilege, each was assured
of his particular market or sphere of activity. The mania to
supplant one another did not force its way to the front, and
was kept within bounds by the respect felt for the vocation.
A feeling of goodwill and of mutual tolerance an attitude
corresponding to the Christian view of life prevailed amongst
merchants and tradesmen, just as it did in other circles.
The attitude of the Hebrew towards this state of affairs was
quite different. He came as a stranger into this kind of
existence, which was a new world to him, as a supernumerary,
whom nobody had summoned, and whom nobody desired to
see. Moreover, he was not united to the native inhabitants
of the land, either by the tie of blood, or by a common history,
or by patriotism, or by religious and social views. He felt
12

himself to be an alien, and regarded the others as strangers,

who did not interest him; but he desired to force a place
for himself amongst them by any and every means. He did
not look upon other competitors, striving all around him, as
being either entitled to live, or as compatriots. His view of
life, derived from his religion, had taught him that his nation
was something out of the ordinary, that it had been "chosen",
and its holy books contained the promise that he should
possess himself of all the riches in the world in order to rule
over all other peoples. The "Nations of the World" were represented in the law of the Hebrew as strangers and as
enemies. He had neither respect nor tolerance for them. All
he cared about was to dispossess them, and to make them
tributary to him. This is simply what stands written in the
books of the Old Testament, which we also have accepted
as "sacred books"; and it stands written still more distinctly
in the laws, which Hebrewdom teaches within itself, but prudently conceals from the rest of humanity.
We shall return to these facts later on.
At all events, the Hebrew was not content to keep step with
the other merchants, and to confine his attentions to those
customers, who came to him of their own free will. He considered it as his right yes, even as his duty towards himself and to his nation, to seize for himself as much as possible
out of the total volume of trade, and to deprive his nonJewish competitors of as many customers as he could. He
also recognised what a great advantage it was, to attract to
himself as much as possible of the money in circulation, in
order to obtain, by this means, power and mastery over the
economic life.
This assiduity grew out of his natural disposition, for the sense
of gain and the impulse towards self-enrichment have always
been very pronounced in the Hebrews. The greed for Gold
is an ancient and hereditary evil in the tribe of Judah. But
one only half understands the situation, if one forms the opinion,
that the Jew is actuated in his business operations solely by
the desire for gain, or by the love of money. Certainly the
13

Hebrew is fond of money; but the mere possession of the

metal is not enough for him; he knows that behind the
glittering gold lurks the secret also that the precious metal
gives him power over others. In his case, the possession of
money is not solely a means for leading an independent and
luxurious existence, but is, at the same time, a m e a n s for
e x e r c i s i n g p o w e r ; he will, by means of money, rule and
oppress.
And, through his intense one might almost say, artificially
forced business activity, by which he strives to bring back
all the circulating money quickly into his hands again, he
achieves something further. By gathering up money on all
sides, by every means in his power, and by retaining it in his
possession and allowing it to accumulate, the Hebrew knows
how to cause a scarcity of money in the nation; and the scarcity
of money brings him fresh custom not indeed as a merchant,
but as a money-lender.
If anybody understands how to bring back the money, which
is circulating amongst the people, quickly into his own hands
again, by enticing, for instance, in his capacity as merchant or
tradesman, his customers to make purchases, for which there
is no immediate necessity, he withdraws money from the
"market", and money at once becomes scarce if unforeseen
wants put in an appearance. Whoever then finds himself in
monetary difficulties, is compelled to apply to those, who have
known how to attract all the money into their own hands.
And, in this way, commercial activity, which had been so
violently stimulated, became simultaneously an auxiliary to the
loan-monger and usurer. It was not chance, nor was it by
any means the pressure of circumstances in former times,
which made a money-lender of the Jew, but a carefully thoughtout system. Money is a very peculiar commodity, and whoever
trades in money has a tighter grip on the economic life than
he who trades in ordinary goods. For this reason, all trade,
as far as Jews are concerned, is, strictly speaking, merely a
means for gathering together or "assembling" money, again
and again. For the Hebrew follows the money, which has
14

been lent on loan, also with ever-watchful eyes, and knows

well what precautionary measures to take, to ensure that it
will soon find its way back into Jewish safes.
It is not disputed that the Jewish method of doing business
produces a showy splendour, both in trade and traffic, in which
everybody a p p e a r s to be prospering. We often stand still,
absolutely dazed by the precipitate development, which has
overtaken all trade and traffic arrangements during the last
few decades. But, and we labour under no delusion in this
respect this blossom of external life, dazzling in all its
splendour, is only produced by heavy sacrifice on the other side.
I once knew a man, who could
not behold any stately tree, either
in garden or park, without indulging in an outburst, somewhat
on the following lines; "How crazy the people must be to
allow a tree like that still to be standing! What an amount of
capital is lying there locked up! What fine beams and planks
could be sawn out of it!"
2. The Hebrew mobilises
slumbering values, lets
loose balanced and reposing forces.

The man had Jewish blood in his veins, and gave vent to a
feeling, which must be keenly alive in many Hebrews, although
they do not venture to express it in such a barefaced manner.
The Hebrew is incapable of allowing anything to rest in calm
peace, which can be turned to some economic use. Instilled
into his mind is the urgent impulse to make everything "liquid",
to convert everything into money, to "mobilise" everything.
And, on all sides, we see Hebrewdom, driven by this impulse,
hard at work in order to scoop up with greedy hands the
treasures of Nature and of Human Life. Certainly existence
is enriched and broadened thereby, and civilisation is enlivened.
From the common economic point of view it has the appearance of being highly meritorious, when a forest, which has been
standing for a hundred years in peace, slowly and laboriously
growing up by virtue of the creative power in Nature, and has
become a great potential source of value, that somebody
should set to work with axes and circular saws to liquidate
15

the reposing capital. Hundreds of men are employed to lay

the trees low, and to cut up and transport the timber, and
thus life springs up in the district; wages are paid, and sales
are effected. Regarded from this point of view, the man, who
"mobilises" these sleeping values, may well appear to be a
benefactor to the neighbourhood where he provides useful
work for so many hands. But, not only will the lover of
nature be saddened by what has taken place; the serious
economist will also be of a very different opinion. Certainly
the forest is there, reduced at last to a form, in which it can
be utilised by the community as building-timber and fire-wood.
The wise forester, however, goes to work with care and restraint, and does not fell any timber without making provision
for afforesting an area equivalent to that, which has been cleared.
Or, at any rate, he only allows the mature trunks to be felled,
and spares all the younger timber. The Hebrew obeys an
entirely different principle his true commercial principle: he
clears the ground to the last sapling; the afforestation he leaves
to others.
The above is an example of reality rather than of symbolism.
The Hebrews have actually laid low enormous stretches of
primeval forest, not only in our Fatherland, but also in Russia
and in Poland; by doing so, they have certainly given a stimulus
to business and commercial intercourse, and have caused
money to circulate, but the reverse side of this activity will
perhaps only be appreciated to its full and disastrous extent
by future generations. The cut-down forest certainly brings
profit for the moment, but, for the more or less distant future,
it means nothing less than impoverishment of the district
in many cases, actual devastation. The springs dry up all
over the now bare surface; permanent drought sets in, and
when heavy rains do come, they simply sweep away the
valuable upper layers of soil. The extirpation of great forests
means, accordingly, nothing less than the exhaustion of fertility,
and the conversion into desert land of vast tracts of country.
Italy and the Balkan States furnish a grave enough warning.
As in the case of the forest, so does the Hebrew comport
16

himself in other spheres of activity. He is for ever intent upon

mobilising or stirring up sleeping values, and bringing them
into circulation, in order to derive an ostentatious and momentary benefit therefrom; but organic breadth of vision is completely wanting in this individual. He does not trouble to
consider what the further consequence of this reckless and
predatory method of proceeding on his part will be. This is
quite in accordance with his nomadic nature. He does not
feel himself in any manner linked to the soil; he forsakes the
devastated territories, and seeks fresh profit elsewhere in the
world. The conception of the Fatherland is altogether foreign
to him, and, in this respect, he is true to his nature as a
member of a desert and nomadic race.
Once more, as in the case of
the forest, the same fate befalls
3. The Hebrew piles his
the
treasures contained in the
Predatory Culture at the
bosom
of the earth. What has
expense of natural and
human resources.
here been slowly formed in
Nature's laboratory by processes,
which have taken hundreds of thousands, or even millions of
years, are dragged to the light of day with insatiable greed;
it must take its part in enriching and adorning life. At first
this sounds very plausible but how long can it last? Careful
economists are already asking uneasily how much longer the
world's supply of coal will suffice to shield the human race
against the ever-menacing forces of the cosmic cold. Certain
geologists have spoken reassuring words: the world's coal
supply is plentiful, and will suffice, at any rate, for many
centuries, perhaps, even for three or four thousand years. The
foresight of humanity ought to enable it to project its conscience across this span of time, for it will be our descendants,
who will even if it is after the lapse of thousands of years
raise bitter reproaches against us because we have squandered
the irreplaceable treasures of the earth, greedily and blindly.
And there are other treasures of the earth as well, which are
not so plentiful as coal. The world's supplies of iron ore,
17

which are nearly all known, as they can be discovered and

marked down by means of the magnetic needle, have been
subjected to close calculation with regard to their extent and
richness; and the result is, that if we continue to use up iron
in the same way, as we have been doing for the last few
decades, all the iron-ore fields of the world will be exhausted
in from 5 0 60 years. And then what?
Whether such calculations prove true or not, they provide us
with a glance into the future, which must arouse apprehension,
and cause us to regard the lordly culture, of which we boast
so readily today, in a very questionable light.
The Hebrews are certainly not the only ones who practise
Predatory Culture at the expense of the treasures of the earth,
but it can be maintained with justice, that it was that class of
men, who introduced the principle of ruthless mobilisation of
values and of pitiless money-making into our economic life.
And it is precisely that which Sombart wishes to demonstrate,
or actually does demonstrate, whether he does so intentionally
or not; the Hebrew has made the principle of pitilessly carriedout capitalisation supreme in the economic life, and it is not
to be wondered at if others try to copy him or rather, are
compelled to do the same, in order to withstand the Jewish
competition.
Not only do we squander these natural treasures, but we are
dissipating another treasure as well, which finally is the most
important of all, as far as culture is concerned. The mobilisation
of the treasures of the earth, and the tremendous activity of
economic life, which has risen to an almost morbid degree,
impose a terrible strain upon man and his creative powers.
He may, perhaps, feel a pride in the results of his work, in
the thousands of roaring and clattering machines, in the boldly
executed constructions, with which he spans rivers, estuaries
and mountain ravines, and in the ingenious technical appliances,
which convey him with the speed of the wind across the face
of the earth. But what does he run down and secure as
booty or prize at the end of this wild pursuit? Generally only
the loss of his best powers, and an early end to his days.
18

Who can now refuse to recognise the fact that the harassing
hunt after business, which characterises modern economic life,
is rapidly leading to an exhaustion of mankind, and that the
race itself, in spite of all the technical perfections of the external world, is slowly sinking, as far as its personal constitution and powers of accomplishment are concerned, i. e. is
decaying steadily both physically and spiritually?
In this respect also, the modern economy is carrying on
ruthlessly another method of Predatory Culture. Industrialism
entices men from the country into the town, and consumes
them. It is a well-known fact that the families, born in the
towns, very soon fade away, and that they seldom extend to
more than three generations, and that the large towns and the
industrial areas can only maintain themselves by a constant
influx of human beings from the rural districts. But even the
reserve of human strength in the country, taken as a whole, is
not inexhaustible. It already shows an alarming retrogression.
Sixty years ago, two thirds of the inhabitants of Germany lived
in the country, and derived their livelihood from agriculture
and from forestry, and only a third of the population lived in
the towns. Today, the proportion is almost reversed. The rural
population has now shrunk to 37 per cent of the total, and
will no longer be able to make up the deficiency in the births
amongst the 63 per cent of the population, who now dwell
in the large towns, and in the industrial districts.
We see accordingly how the magnificence of modern culture
can only be produced by the expenditure of powers, which cannot be revived. It requires but a few more decades of this
mode of existence, and the German Nation will have used
itself up; foreign national and racial elements will stream in
from all sides, and make themselves comfortable in the bed,
which we, in our excessive and suicidal diligence, have so
carefully prepared for them.
A typical example of the fanatical pressure, which impels the
Hebrew to mobilise all values, is furnished by his attack upon
the "Fidei-Kommisse", namely the indivisible family estates. The
land-owning nobility, in particular, has frequently made the
19

arrangement that the family estate shall descend undivided to

the heir, in order to guard against the breaking-up and dispersion of the estate. It is of incalculable value, both for
state and community, if, in this manner, strong, independent
existences can be maintained; moreover, the community cannot suffer any detriment thereby.
Notwithstanding this, the
Jewish Press has, for years past, fiercely attacked this arrangement, as if it were an offence and an injury against the
majority, and Parliament is overwhelmed, from the Jewish
side, with motions to do away with the "Fidei-Kommisse", as
if the eternal happiness of the whole nation depended upon
this. The innate hatred felt by the Jew towards the nobility
plays, in this respect, no small part. The Jew wishes to see
this nobility destroyed, which presumes, both by breeding and
tradition, to be something out of the ordinary, while the
"chosen people", according to his opinion, alone possess a
claim to pretensions of this kind. Do not the Jews, with
predilection, refer to themselves as the "natural aristocracy of
mankind"?
Moreover, this aversion to the "Fidei-Kommisse", (the indivisible family estates) is only the old Hebrew urgency to mobilise
values expressing itself afresh: there must not be anything
durable or constant: everything must be cut up and handed
over to speculation.
The new revolutionary government, directed by Jews, has no
more urgent policy than that of breaking up all the "FideiKommisse", and of prohibiting the formation of any new family
estates. Who can compute today the harm which will be
caused by such a policy? The undermining of the economic
foundations must also make itself felt in the social and intellectual structure of society. Genuine men of nobility will become
scarcer and scarcer: the nobility has already, in many respects,
degenerated, and become degraded by the intrusion of the Jewish
money- and business-spirit. The Jewish principle of life drags
mankind back from the heights, which it has scaled. The final
result is: universal vulgarisation.
20

We hear the ready answer: but wealth has increased enormously!

Have we not collected huge quantities of capital, which are
a sufficient guarantee for the future? In this respect also the
modern idea of economy arrives at a fateful and most erroneous
conclusion. Even Sombart represents the situation as if the
Hebrews brought riches with them wherever they went, and
were continually producing new wealth. Even if we understand
under the expression "wealth", merely the gold and silver
treasure of the earth, it certainly cannot be maintained that
these are increased by the Hebrew and his economic activity.
We have already seen that h i s art consists in collecting and
re-collecting these treasures into his own hands, as quickly as
he can. But the Gold and the Silver in their totality form
only an insignificant portion of the riches of the nation. What
we call capital does not generally consist of coined metal.
Today we reckon also as capital, landed property, such as
cultivated fields, forests, buildings etc. But the Hebrews certainly do not increase this kind of property either.
There is, however, another kind of capital, which plays the
most important role of all in modern political economy: this is
the Loan Capital those sums, which are lent out in return
for the payment of fixed rates of interest. And it cannot be
denied that the Hebrew possesses an extraordinary talent for
increasing this particular kind of capital.
Let us, first of all, make it quite clear to ourselves of what
such capital really consists. Whoever owns a million marks,
which brings him in interest, does not possess this million
marks in the form of gold and silver coins, lying in his safe,
but has lent the million marks out on l o a n . But even the
borrower the debtor to the man who owns the money
no longer holds the actual money; he has passed it on further
in the course of his business. All that is left to him of it is
the obligation to pay interest. He has taken over for himself and generally also for his descendants for illimitable
time the duty of paying to the creditor, certain sums of
money as interest, at certain stated intervals. Out of all this
the fact next emerges, that an equally great debt, on the other
21

side, faces this sum of Loan Capital. Whoever is in a position

to call his own a million marks of Loan Capital, and draws
interest from the same, must hold other people as his debtors
to the extent of a million marks. And thus arises the peculiar
equation: the more L o a n C a p i t a l there is here, the
m o r e Debts there are there. An increase of capital of this
nature means, in reality, nothing else than an i n c r e a s e of debt.
Loan Capital thus consists of acknowledgment of debt, and
of obligation to pay. It takes visible shape in the form of
mortgage-deeds, bonds, shares, original or founder-shares, rentcharges and similar devices. And, if we boast today that the
number of rich people has increased enormously, that millions
and thousands of millions are accumulated in the hands of
single individuals, we must not forget that the debts and obligations of other people have increased in equal measure.
It is accordingly a bold assumption to maintain, that the general
welfare of the nations is promoted by the increase of capital
of this kind, i. e. Loan Capital. Whoever speaks of modern
Wealth ought, if he is conscientious, to speak at the same
time of the monstrous nature of the modern system of creating
indebtedness. In whatever direction we look, we see an
enormous development of this creation of debt; in the kingdom, in the province, in the parish, in the business, in the
family all are carried on by means of debts. The registered
mortgages on land throughout the German Empire are computed at 6 0 7 0 thousand million marks* (three thousand to
three thousand five hundred million pounds sterling).
It is a very remarkable and significant fact that we have n o
s t a t i s t i c s w h a t e v e r concerning this so important question
of political economy, while we are overwhelmed with statistics
on all other matters.
* According to Jewish computation (v. Gwinner in the Prussian Upper
House) the capital value of the land in the German Empire amounts
to close upon 300 thousand million marks (Fifteen thousand million
pounds sterling) and, according to other authorities, 220250 thousand
million marks (eleven thousand to twelve thousand five hundred million
pounds sterling). Certainly, in most districts, the debts on the land
are higher than 25 p. c.

22

If the above-mentioned sum of debt is approximately correct,

it simply means that the nation has to find something like
3000 million marks (one hundred and fifty million pounds
sterling) every year in order to pay the burden of interest,
placed upon the ground, composing the Fatherland. Who, in
the last analysis, provides this sum of money? It is simply
the working and productive class of the citizens: the peasant,
the craftsman and the workman. These are the powers, which
create productive values, and who must, by the excess of
their labour, produce the burdens of interest in order to satisfy
the owners of Loan Capital.
If we reckon that there are 15 million working-men in the
German Empire capable of production, a yearly impost of
200 marks (ten pounds sterling) is laid upon each of them in
order to satisfy the owners of Loan Capital. That this crushing
impost is not consciously perceived, is simply due to the fact
that it is split up and distributed in such a way, that it is
almost impossible to check or trace it, and that all kinds of
roundabout ways and tricks are utilised, which make it quite
impossible for the ordinary man to discover the source of his
misery. The Loan Capital, which burdens our land, sucks in
its interest by raising the rents of tenements, workshops and
business premises, by increasing the price of food-stuffs and
other necessary commodities, and by other similar indirect
methods. Thus, the productive worker is not directly conscious
of this impost, but feels only an inexplicable pressure on all
his business activity. He sees that, in spite of all his effort
and industry, the fruits of his toil disappear out of his hands,
without his being able, at the same time, to discover any
satisfactory explanation of this. In spite of all his toil, he
cannot make any advance and prosper, becomes discontented
with his lot, and vents his resentment in all directions, mostly
against those, who are quite innocent of his hard fate. He
complains about the high taxes and rates, which form only an
insignificant particle when compared with that impost the
interest on Loan Capital. He grumbles about the increasing
cost of living, of rent, of food, of clothing, and of other things,
23

including "bread-usurers" and bad government, and does not

seem to have even the faintest idea, that it is just this invisible
impost of the interest on Loan Capital, which is oppressing
him by making everything dear.
Thus, this modern system of creating capital, by casting an
intolerable burden on the entire national life, produces universal
oppression and consequently discontent, which is causing an
ever-growing resentment between the various classes, which
compose the community, without the oppressed people being
at all clear as to where the source of the oppression really is.

It is not very probable that the Hebrews invented that work

of art t h e loaning-out of capital against interest; it is quite
likely that it was known and practised before their time.
It is quite certain, however, that they first introduced this
branch of business to us in Germany, and, supported by the
prohibition against practising usury, enforced by the Christian
Church against its members, promoted and developed it to an
extraordinary extent. Owing to their peculiar dexterity in
always attracting to themselves again the money, which is in
circulation, they know how to produce a constant shortage of
money amongst the people. In this manner they compel the
productive classes to borrow, and to continue borrowing.
The money, which has been gradually collected by commerce
and other means, leaves the hands of the Hebrew, for the
most part, only as Loan Capital, and continuously creates for
him fresh circles of people, pledged to pay him tribute.
Is it then really such a great blessing for a nation if it can be
shown, that the Hebrews, living in their midst, possess thousands
of millions of marks in the shape of Loan Capital, for which the
productive class have to find the interest? What does the
saying now mean: wherever the Jews turn, there appear new
riches, new capital? Should one not, before all other things,
state emphatically: there arise, to a terrifying extent, fresh
debts? It is not the real wealth of the nations, which is
24

increased by the Jews, but their debts and obligations, which,

under the deceitful name of "mobile capital", accumulate until
they amount to sums of incredible magnitude, but which are
in reality, only a phantom possession an imaginary value.
We read, with aversion, the descriptions of the persecutions
of the Jews, which are said to have taken place in the Middle
Ages: if these were, in all cases, as many people imagine,
can be left an open question; at any rate, one ought
to explain conscientiously, what led up to these persecutions, and what was the real cause of the same. We can
read, in every record, that it was by no means a religious
hatred, which incensed the citizens against the Jews, because
at all times and in all countries, a remarkable tolerance has
been displayed towards the religious rites of the Jews, some
of which rites are of a very peculiar nature. No one has
prohibited their noisy method of praying; no one has disturbed
their Sabbath and Passover festivals. Nobody has prohibited
even their Purim, their festival of revenge, which they still
celebrate annually, with unquenchable thirst for revenge, in
recollection of the massacre of 75,000 Persian enemies of the
Jews, by the direction of the minister M o r d e c a i more
than 2000 years ago. What really incensed the people against
the Jews were the insatiable hunger for interest, and the unchristianlike usury of the latter; by reason of this diabolical
greed for money, which stopped at nothing, this slinking, alien
race became so repugnant to the ordinary German man, that
he considered the Jews capable of anything.
As has been already stated, during the time when the influence
of the Church was predominant (from the 11th till the 18th
century) Christians were forbidden to practise usury; only the
Hebrew was allowed to do this. Thus it naturally came about
that everyone, who wanted to borrow money, was obliged to
go to the Jews. According to the law, the Hebrews were
aliens and on sufferance, and their sojourn, in either town or
district, was only permitted when a tax ("Jew-tribute") had
been paid to the ruling prince or potentate; but it was precisely
25

this arrangement, whereby the mild or stern treatment of the

Jews depended essentially on the attitude of the ruling house,
which relieved the situation to an extraordinary degree for the
Jews living in the Empire, which was, at that time, split up
politically to an endless extent. Generally speaking, the legislation was very considerate, and allowed the Hebrew to devote
himself wholeheartedly to his favourite occupation, viz traffic
in Money, and to claim unheard-of rates of interest for his
loans. A rate of interest of 30 yes, even of 50 and 60 per
cent per annum, was already known from the 12th to the 15th
century, and was so well-established during the 16th and 17th
centuries, that it was regarded as nothing out-of-the-way.
Under these circumstances, and owing to the scarcity as well
as to the extraordinary fluctuations in the value of money
throughout that period, it was an easy matter for the Hebrew
always to collect all the money again into their hands, and
to force the remaining citizens to raise fresh loans.*
A particular trick facilitated the obtaining of an exorbitant rate
of interest. Even when the rate of interest was moderate, the
debtor had, for the most part, to pledge himself to pay back
* "At the end of the 14th century, the social position of the Jews
deteriorated, chiefly on account of their arrogance and usuriousness. Up
till then, they had been respected, were qualified to own landed property, and were appreciated as being necessary for the development
of the towns. They had, in some instances, even found an entry into
the municipal bodies, for instance at Cologne and Worms. In many
towns, the highest admissible rate of interest reached 86-2/3 per cent
for the year! Ludwig of Bavaria (1314-1347) decided, as a particular
favour for the citizens of Frankfort, that the Jewish rate of interest was
to be restricted to 3 2 per cent. Since the canonical prohibition against
the lending of money for interest was enforced sternly and universally
against Christians, and the cloisters no longer loaned out money, the
money-business remained almost exclusively in the hands of the Jews
for a long period." (Drr and Klett) History of the World II, page 139)
"Thus a regular monopoly of usury by the Jews established itself, which
was only broken into in the 18th century, to the extent that, towards
the close of that century, it was permitted to charge generally a 5%
rate of interest." (Rich. Schrder: "Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte" II, 15,
[German History of Law II, 15].

26

his debt on a fixed date by weekly or monthly payments of

interest. In case he was unable to keep to the appointed
date, he was bound by the terms of his bond, to pay double
the rate of interest from that time onward; often indeed, the
whole debt was doubled. The well-meaning debtor, who had
the best intention of paying off his debt at the appointed time,
entered into such contracts with a light heart, in the certainty
that, at the appointed date, money, from other quarters, would
be at his disposal. The Hebrew, however, who had a complete understanding with his fellow-tribesmen, and knew accurately what call there was for money, and how much there
was in circulation, took good care that his debtor did not
get the expected money at the appointed time, and thus he
compelled the latter to accept the new and still more onerous
conditions. The Hebrew only granted an extension of the
term on the condition that his claims, both with regard to
interest and capital, should be increased, and as, thanks to
the cooperation of Jewish friends, of which we have already
spoken, delay in the repayment of the debt was frequently
repeated, the Jew was more successful then, than now, in entangling, by means of a comparatively small loan, a whole
family in the bondage of debt throughout their lives, or even
in expelling them from their house and land.
Thus there is nothing strange in the fact that, already from
the time of Charlemagne, unceasing complaints about the Jewish
usurer were directed both to the civil and clerical authorities.
The earlier peasant-insurrections also, were not due to the
"Priests" and to the Nobility, but to money-lending Jewry;
for example, the Peasants' Rising at Gotha in 1391, and the
Peasants' Rising at Worms in 1431. Later when the Jews
had drained the extravagant and quarrelsome nobility of their
riches, and the latter had made an alliance with the clergy to
oppress poor "Hans Karst"*, with tithes and compulsory
labour, the peasants turned against all three tormentors. In
1450 the cup-bearer, Erasmus von Erbach, an ancestor of the
* The German Peasant.

27

present Princes von Erbach (in the Odenwald), who personally

was quite prosperous, raised his voice thus against the Jews:
"The poor man is robbed and flayed by the Jews to such an extent
that it has become intolerable, and may God have mercy on him. The
Jewish usurers settle down, even in the smallest villages, and when
they lend five gulden, they take six-fold security and take interest upon
interest, and yet again interest, so that the poor man loses all that he
possesses."

How well founded this complaint was, is proved by the

testimony of all contemporaries.
Elsewhere it is stated that, "Jewdom sits on the necks of the
citizen and of the poor man, and is the cause of the rapidly
increasing poverty". The Jews are referred to as "vultures",
who "do not desist until they have consumed the marrow in
the bones, and reduced the citizen to beggary". (Petition of
the Frankfort citizens June 10th 1612). Sombart also mentions
in his conscientiously collected material a number of similar
expressions of opinion, taken from the same period, which
confirm what has been said above.
Thus, it was not religious hatred, which incensed the people
against the Jews, but the actual plundering of the masses by
a system of charging an immoderate rate of interest. The wealth
which the Jews "brought into a land", was thus of very doubtful value. It was a kind of wealth, which had a dazzling
appearance in certain places, whilst everywhere else it produced only poverty and misery.
Thus: the Hebrews did not create new values in the shape
of goods, and consequently, actual new wealth; they merely
understood, in a masterly fashion, how to obtain possession
of the prosperity of other people; they did not produce any new
possession, but only brought about a change of p o s s e s s i o n .
What they produced was merely an appearance of wealth,
which in reality consisted only of the debts of those people,
who were not Jews.

28

III.

Particular Business Tactics of the Jew.

The commercial practices of the Hebrew require that more
light should be directed upon them. It is conceded that the
Jew, in matters of business, displays great dexterity, and has
at his disposal a particular method of operation, which procures for him the admiration of extensive circles of people.
Many are inclined to ascribe an extremely high degree of
cleverness to the Hebrew, because he knows very often how
to give a particular turn to his business machinations, which
surprises and confounds all concerned. As soon as we look
more closely into the matter, and ascertain upon what principles these business measures are founded, we learn to think
less highly of the renowned cleverness of the Hebrew. It
becomes a matter of a number of tricks, carefully guarded and
transmitted by tradition amongst the Hebrews, and with which
this dexterous race of traders overreach every man, who thinks
in a natural manner. A short story out of actual life will give
us an idea of what goes on in this sphere of activity.
A well-to-do elderly married couple had decided to dispense with their
footman, and consequently with the latter's livery as well. The lady
of the house offered the garments for sale. A Jew appeared punctually at the appointed time, in order to inspect the livery. After
carefully examining the same, he made an offer of 50 marks. The lady
was astonished that the dealer was able to offer such a high price, as
the suit could not have cost much more, and was, moreover, a kind
of clothing being a uniform with particular badges for which there
would naturally be very little demand. She thought at once that she
could do a good business with him, and hurried away to fetch an
armful of discarded clothing, which she offered to him as well. The
Hebrew examined everything, and offered quite respectable prices.
Apparently he could make use of it all. The lady of the house, delighted
with the prospect of unloading her wardrobe in this way of unnecessary
ballast, continued to fetch more clothing. The Hebrew chose out most

29

of this as well, and laid it in a great heap together. The only article,
which did not find approval in the eyes of the Hebrew, was a fashionablycut, light summer-suit, which the master of the house had only worn
once, and had then laid aside, as it did not take his fancy. The Jew
threw this on one side with the remark: "this is out of fashion, and
nobody will buy it". When he had laid all the remaining articles of
clothing together, and had offered quite a reasonable price for the same,
the old lady asked him again to take the summer-suit; she wanted to see the
last of it as the sight of it annoyed her husband. Finally the Hebrew agreed
to take the suit for 5 marks. The lady accepted this offer, because of
all the other clothing, she had been able to dispose of. The entire
sale amounted to about 200 marks. "I have not got so much money
with me", said the Jew, politely, "because I was not prepared to buy
so many things. I will, however, have the clothing fetched away shortly,
and will send the money at the same time. I will leave a deposit of
5 marks, and may as well take the summer-suit with me so that I do
not make the journey empty-handed". With this the Hebrew took his
departure, and, up to the present moment, has not returned.

The worthy lady related the episode to me herself, and was

quite at a loss for an explanation. The Jew must have been
taken ill, or something unforeseen must have happened, as
otherwise he would have returned, "for he made such a favourable impression". I am afraid that I hurt the lady's feelings,
for I had to laugh in her face, before I proceeded to explain
the incident to her as follows: "the summer-suit was the
only object of any value to the Jew, and consequently the
only thing, which he was willing to buy. The other articles
of clothing he had never intended to buy; only, in order to
gain your confidence, he offered such good prices. Your confidence once gained, you did not observe how he was overreaching you with regard to the good summer-suit. He accomplished his object, and will take very good care not to let
himself be seen again".
It took a considerable time before I was able to convince the
good lady of all this; she then exclaimed with astonishment
and almost with admiration: "Gracious me, what a clever fellow
he is!" "No, madam", I replied, "that is not real cleverness;
it is a mode of operation, partly inherited, partly the result of
instruction. It is an ancient receipt, according to which the
Jews have conducted their operations for centuries even
30

for thousands of years. It is the "art" in business of deceiving one's opponent as to the value of the goods, and as to
one's real intentions. I will relate to you a short story of a
similar kind, which will make quite plain to you how this
mode of operating proceeds, according to a certain pattern
and custom."
A Jewish lad, who could not have been more than 10 or 11 years old,
was accustomed to go from village to village, buying up hare- and
rabbit-skins. He was instructed what he should pay for the wares, and
soon acquired such knowledge of the business by constant practice,
that he was able to carry it on to the satisfaction of his father. A
peasant, from whom he had bought several rabbit-skins, produced also
the fur of a marten. The young Jew held it to his nose, and said
contemptuously: "This is only the skin of a stinking marten, and is not
worth anything". The peasant, who understood little about such matters,
urged the young Jew to take the fur of the marten as well, and finally
the little business-man purchased it out of pure compassion for five
half-pence! As soon as the young rascal had reached home, he called
out: "Father, look what a stroke of business I have done! I have bought
a valuable marten-fur for five half-pence!" and he related what had
happened. A neighbour, who, unobserved, had witnessed the episode
from the window of a stable, made it known. Even this diminutive man
of business already possessed the "cleverness" to speak disparagingly
of the most valuable goods in order to deceive the seller with regard
to the real value, and thus to enable himself to buy them up at a
very cheap rate.

Anybody who has once thoroughly grasped the mode of operation, which has been systematically made use of in these cases,
need not express any great astonishment as to the measure
of "cleverness" required. It is always the same trick. The
Hebrew, who has lived for thousands of years by dealing, and
by overreaching other men, has developed, in this direction,
a cunning and superior tactic. He knows that the desire
the demand, causes the price to rise. Whoever allows it to
be seen that he would like to buy certain wares, or, that he
is urgently in need of the same, will soon tempt the seller to
demand a higher price. And, on the contrary, whoever offers
his wares in a pressing manner, and allows it to be seen that
he must get rid of the same at all costs, probably because
he is in urgent need of money, has to put as cheerful a face
31

on the matter as he can, when advantage is taken of his

situation to reduce the price to the utmost.
The old saying: "Supply and Demand fix the price", has a
certain justification so long as upright and honest merchants are concerned. Today, we know that Supply and Demand
can be artificially produced, simply to influence the price. And
the Jew "runs", or carries on the most insignificant business
in accordance with these sagacious measures, just as if he
were operating, on a large scale, on the Stock Exchange. He
knows how to deceive the other side as to his real intentions:
he pretends that there is Demand, when he knows that, in
reality, the Supply is more than sufficient, and also the reverse.
The Hebrew, who goes to the Produce Exchange, under the
necessity of buying several waggon-loads of wheat, because he
has contracted to deliver this amount to a mill, takes very
good care to conceal his real intention. He assumes an attitude
of complete indifference; and, if anyone offers him wheat, he
replies, shrugging his shoulders: "Wheat? I have enough wheat.
Do you want to buy any?" And, as all the other Jewish business
people present, who, perhaps, also want to buy wheat, assume
the same attitude, as if by some secret understanding, and behave as if they had no need whatever of wheat, but wanted,
on the contrary, to sell it, they create the impression that there
is a superfluity of wheat; thus, they force the price down, and
succeed in buying the wheat cheaply.
A simple or open-natured farmer, on the contrary, who has
gone to the Produce Exchange, in order to get rid of his produce, because he needs the money urgently to pay the interest
for the impending quarter, will at once offer his wheat eagerly.
But, strange to say, he encounters cold refusal on all sides.
And the same thing happens to all the other sellers; Supply
preponderates, and the prices fall. Our farmer now returns
to the first Hebrew, to whom he had offered his wheat, and
who, in reality, urgently needs wheat, and the latter appears
at last to relent, and says with apparent generosity: "Now, as
you are an old business friend of mine, I will relieve you of
your wheat, but only at a price, which is 2 marks (2 shillings)
32

under the current price" that is 2 marks cheaper than the

official price, quoted for that day on the Exchange. In the end
the farmer is glad to have found a purchaser at any price,
and is secretly grateful to the Hebrew for having purchased
his wheat out of sheer good nature. Several days later, when
the supplies have been, for the greater part, bought up by the
Hebrews, one notices a marked rise in the prices.
Business has been carried on in this manner, at the markets and
on the exchanges, for decades and for centuries, without that
simple section of humanity the producers perceiving what
is going on; they the producers have always all the toil
and disadvantage, the Hebrew dealer all the benefit. And this
benefit or gain, on occasions, mounts up to millions. One
example of this will suffice, compared with which, the so-called
"Bread-Usury" of the Agrarians, about which the Jews and
their hangers-on, especially the Social Democrats, are always
crying out, is mere child's play.
In the year 1892, the corn-merchants Cohn and Rosenberg, supported
by God only knows how many of their friends behind the scenes
the Chawrusse by buying up on a gigantic scale, and then withholding
from the market all available supplies of rye, produced such a shortage
of this indispensable food-stuff, that the price of rye rose, in a few
months, from 140 to 290 marks. They then "unloaded', and "earned"
by this business, in a very short time, about 18 million Marks (900,000).
Most of our newspapers and of our so-called "Liberals" the friends of
the people had not a single word of abhorrence or even of disapprobation for this "Bread Usury" according to the Old Testament pattern.

The game is made much easier if the Hebrews have a secret

understanding, that is to say, if they have consulted beforehand, amongst themselves, about the condition of the Market,
and have decided what the attitude of the other side is likely
to be. Still any such understanding is scarcely necessary, for
all Jewish business-people respond to one and the same instinct, are schooled in one and the same tactic, and act as one
without any previous arrangement.

33

There is another mode of operation, by which the Hebrews

The "Killing" or
secure an advantage in business,
"Slaughtering" Principle.
and to which they are indebted for their present dominating position. Again, an instance
of this mode of operation will make the same clear to everyone.
Take, for example, a town in which there have existed for a
long time ten separate businesses of the same kind or trade,
and all of about the same size. The owners of these businesses
have confined themselves, each to his or her circle of more
or less regular customers, in accordance with the principle, "Live
and let live", and have all been able to make a tolerable, and
even comfortable living. Suddenly this old harmony is disturbed. One of these businesses changes hands, and the new
owner, a man with a large amount of capital, or with extensive
credit, brings a new business principle along with him. He
calculates thus: What has been formerly sold by ten businesses,
can be just as well sold by one business. I will make it my
task to attract a l l the customers in the town for this kind of
business into my shop. This will not be difficult. I have sufficient money at my disposal to live comfortably, even if I
make no profit whatever for several years. I will therefore
offer all my goods at prices which show no profit whatever,
i. e. at cost price. The result of this will be that all the customers in the town for this class of business will be attracted
to my shop.
This business-man with the "New Principle" orders a new
price-list to be printed, and sends it to every customer in the
neighbourhood. He has reduced the prices so much below
what used to be customary in the trade, that all purchasers
are attracted without fail to the new shop.
The remaining nine businesses or shops now either lose their
customers, or are compelled to reduce their prices correspondingly. As in either case no profit is made, those, who have
no means to fall back upon, must sooner or later give up the
contest. Others, who may possess enough capital to support
them for the remainder of their lives, remark that it is useless
34

and stupid to continue to carry on a business, in which there

is no profit. These simply discontinue business. Others again,
try to keep pace with the new competitor, but only see what
means they possess, gradually disappear, and they also, sooner
or later, are compelled to retire from the ruinous struggle.
Thus, after a few years, the man with the "New Principle" remains the master of the situation, and now that he is without
competitors, and is practically a monopolist on his own territory,
endeavours to make up for the loss, which he has undergone,
by gradually raising the prices, until finally the customers are
at a greater disadvantage than they had ever been before.
This is no principle of life; but is, on the contrary, a principle
of destruction or death; it carries on business for the mere
sake of business, that is to make money; it does not ask what
becomes of the other people. Here we are, face to face,
with a tendency, which places acquisition before life itself; for
business and political economy are, in the last analysis, only
of importance when regarded as a means for preserving life.
The supreme law of political economy should always culminate in the question: how can we arrange matters economically so that the people shall secure the maximum benefit in
body and mind? A political economy, which certainly enables
riches to be accumulated, but which, at the same time, causes
the people to degenerate both physically and morally, cannot
be regarded as ideal.
Seen from a purely business point of view, it may appear to
be an improvement when material advantages are secured by
concentrating all the trade into a single business. Certainly
many purely economic advantages may be attained by the
uniting of the scattered individual branches of any trade or
business into one large central establishment; at any rate, the
concentration of the management effects a saving in space,
time and energy. Any person, however, who does not recognise business advantage as the supreme aim of life, but
asks, on the contrary: what becomes of the people concerned? such a person must have the gravest doubts as to
the beneficial influence of such a business development as
35

that described above; he would feel himself compelled to ask:

what has become of the nine families, who have been thrown
out of action by the "New Principle?" And he will then have
to confess, that this "New Principle", however profitable it may
seem at the first glance, leads finally to the expropriation and
impoverishment of extensive classes of people, and thus, by
its ultimate results, becomes a curse to the national life.
The man with the "New Principle", of whom we have just
spoken, is not necessarily a Hebrew; others can also adopt
this business method as their guiding principle. But, as a
matter of fact at any rate in our European affairs it
is almost invariably the Hebrew, who has introduced this principle. By so doing he has certainly created a great deal, which
corrupts the eyes of many by its dazzling appearance, as, for
instance, the great retail shops; but what kind of fruit this sort
of development will produce in the more distant future of our
nation is a question, which is well-warranted, and also very
serious.
Another example, taken out of everyday life, occurs to me
at this moment; it illustrates, in an allegorical manner, the
action or operation of the Hebrew on the community.
For a great many generations there had been a number of small mills
on a little river in Posen. There was not always sufficient water in
the river at all seasons of the year to keep the mills working regularly;
but one of the mills, on the upper part of the river, possessed a reservoir
of considerable size, in which water could be stored up to provide for
times of drought, when the sluices could be opened according to
requirements. When the upper miller had water enough to work the
mill for a day, or even for half a day, he started his mill, and thus
the motive water flowed down regularly to all the mills situated below.
There was no written law to regulate the use of this water; the practical
requirements and common sense of the owners sufficed to maintain
this arrangement to the complete satisfaction of all concerned.
One day, however, a disturbing element crept into the harmony, which
had so long prevailed amongst the milling industry along this particular
stream. The upper mill, together with the reservoir, passed into new
hands. Whether it was that the new owner did not understand much
about his business, or did not make himself agreeable to his customers,
in short, the old customers gradually deserted the upper mill, and
went to the other mills, lower down the stream. This annoyed the

36

new owner, and he did his utmost to disturb the business of his neighbours. One means of offence he had always at his disposal, and that
was his reservoir. He no longer allowed the water to run off, at regular
intervals, but stored it up for days, and even for weeks, to the utmost
capacity of the reservoir. Then, he would suddenly release the water
by opening all the sluices, generally at night or on a Sunday, so that
the accumulated water rushed down the stream with great force. The
mills, on the lower part of the river, could make little or no use of
this sudden head of water, and were obliged, as they did not possess
any reservoirs for storing the water, to open their floodgates, and to
allow this superfluous water to flow uselessly away. Any methodical
management of the lower mills was thus rendered impossible. The
injured parties complained in vain to the local and other authorities;
they could obtain no redress because there was no law, which compelled
the miller, on the upper part of the stream, to let the water run off at
regular intervals.
The mills, on the lower reaches of the stream, would most certainly
have been ruined by these spiteful tricks, if chance had not put a
sudden stop to them. On one occasion, after a heavy rain-fall, the
upper miller stored up the water to such an extent, and then let it
rush through the sluices so suddenly, that a regular inundation ensued,
which caused considerable damage to the embankments, dams and
machinery of the lower mills. Now, at last, there was cause to take
legal action against this disturber of the peace to force him to desist,
and to make him pay compensation for the damage, which he had
brought about.
Also, in this case, it does not necessarily follow that the disturber of the peace was bound to be a Hebrew; but as a
matter of fact, he was; and, one is entitled to say, that the
example given is typical of the onslaught made by the Hebrew
race upon our economic life. The organic connection of economic examples, which results from the love of order, innate
in the Aryan element, and from a voluntary adjustment to the harmony of life, which instills common-sense, and is supported
besides by a moral feeling of duty and a respect for the
respect of other men, collapses immediately when the Hebrew
puts in an appearance.
The hitherto quiet and regular development of business relations suffers a considerable disturbance in all directions, as
soon as this Oriental stranger, with his strange principles, and
in whom the sense for social harmony is completely wanting,
37

interferes with the economic life. He displays an utter disregard for others, and pursues, only and always, his private
advantage. By the ruthless manipulation of this principle, he
has become everywhere the destroyer of the economic life.
He checks the even flow of development, creates "corners",
produces artificial shortage and superfluity, and knows how to
make profit out of both. Thus, in the economic life, he is
nothing less than a disturber of the peace, a revolutionary and
an anarchist.

38

IV.

The International Connection and

Secret League of the Hebrews.
Amongst the various causes of the tremendous advance of
the Jews, special emphasis must be laid upon one of the most
important the way in which they play into one another's
hands internationally. The Jewish success can be attributed,
in a large measure, to the cooperation of many in conformity
with a principle of unity.
The House of Rothschild stands, before the eyes of all, as the
most striking example of this, and is testimony at the same time
to the avalanche-like growth of the property, which is strictly confined in Jewish ownership, and which plays the chief part in
sucking dry the national prosperity, not only of entire Europe,
but also of most other countries.
The role of the great millionaires,
who control the economic life of
America, has been played in Europe, until quite recently, almost
exclusively by the House of Rothschild with its five branches in
Paris, London, Frankfort on the Main, Vienna and Naples.* The
Rothschilds, however, can only be compared with the former, i.e.
the American millionaires so far as their actual riches are concerned,
and not with regard to their economic position. The money-princes
of America are always striving to utilise their gigantic fortunes for
the further economic development of their country; the Rothschilds,
1. The Rothschilds.

* The founder of this house, with its world-wide connections, was

Mayer Anselm (Amschel) Rothschild at Frankfort on the Main (1743-1812).
He had five sons, of whom Anselm (17731855) took over the management of the Frankfort House, Salomon Mayer 1774 1855) that of the
Vienna House, Nathan Mayer (1777 1836) that of the London House.
Karl (1788-1855) that of the House at Naples, and Jacob (James) Rothschild (1792 1868) that of the Paris House.

39

on the contrary, compose a cosmopolitan company, without

any country of its own, devoted to the mere acquisition of
money, and which lives solely from the "financing" of the productive power of others. And, in order to ply this business
on as great and as safe a scale as possible, the House of
Rothschild has devoted particular attention to that chronic want
of money, which is displayed by the Governments of the
various countries. For the last 50 years, scarcely a single
national loan of any importance has been negotiated and concluded without the Rothschilds; they have their fingers on the
pulse of every exchange, and no one knows better than they
how to skim the cream off all important economic operations.
If one was desirous of writing an appropriate description of
the various influences, which the Rothschilds exercise on our
economic life, and upon our politics, the material would fill
volumes. In this case a mere indication must suffice, and reference must be made to other books. Even in Sombart's
work there is something on the subject. The so-called "Germanicus-Broschren" (pamphlets) published during the years
1880-1888 by G. Richter at Frankfort on the Main, contain most
instructive matter. Also F. v. Scherb: "Geschichte des Hauses
Rothschild" (History of the House of Rothschild) Berlin 1892.
"Germanicus" is evidently a well-informed judge of all matters
relating to the Exchanges, and particularly so of the Jewish
fraternity of Frankfort, and he lays bare relentlessly the fraudulent machinations of the great Jewish firms. But although
some of these pamphlets passed through several large editions
the voice, which spoke, therein died away, completely unheard
in authoritative circles, and has not led to the slightest proceeding against the systematic plundering of the people, which
takes place on the Stock Exchanges a proof of the terrible
ban, which Jewry has already cast over our public life. Nothing
which runs counter to Jewish interests can any longer obtain
publicity.
If Social Democracy were a genuine movement of the people,
it would find, in this respect alone, its most urgent call to
come to grips with the real robbers of the nation; but the
40

genuine friend of the people learns to his astonishment, that

the apparent representatives of the Proletariat extend their hands
protectingly over the machinations of the Stock Exchange, and
march, arm in arm, with the very men, who arrange how the
people are to be deceived. With what notorious assiduity
the leaders of the Proletariat have earned their title, "The
Truncheon-Guard of the Jews", can be learnt from the fact,
which has never been challenged, that during all the incendiary
destruction, which took place at the time of the Paris Commune in 1870, the only property, which remained completely
unharmed, was that of Mr. Rothschild.
Further material for the chapter on the Rothschilds and their
companions is to be found in the writings of Otto Glagau:
"Der Brsen- und Grndungsschwindel in Berlin" (The Stock
Exchange and Establishment swindle in Berlin) and also "in
Germany" (1877).
Old Meyer Anselm (Amschel) Rothschild laid the foundation
of his fortune in Frankfort on the Main, as is known, with the
capital of the former Landgraf and later Kurfrst, William I of
Hesse who, during the time of the Napoleonic wars (18061813),
handed over the whole of his fortune, amounting to 12, or,
according to other authorities, to 21 million thalers, and the
whole of which had been acquired by the sale of soldiers to
other powers, partly by his father, and partly by himself, to the
Frankfort money-man at 2 per cent (some say, free of interest)
for many years, in order to guard it from the hands of the
enemy. As money is very scarce, and is in very great demand
during times of war, the clever banker earned, not only 5 and
10 per cent interest, but even higher rates, by means of the
royal treasure. And those, who held the purse-strings for the
German Federation, were guilty of the criminal folly of entrusting the huge sums of money, paid by France, as war
reparation, and which had been marked for the erection of
fortresses for the protection of the Federation, to the Frankfort Jews, and in particular, to the House of Rothschild, at the
rate of only 2 per cent for 20 years!
41

Thus, the House of Rothschild has utilised the millions, belonging to princes and states, to make a foundation for its own
world-wide power, and to still further extend its usury amongst
princes and peoples. It became the money-lender and the
money-broker for the Governments of all the European states,
and from then onwards exercised a fateful influence upon all
political proceedings.* It is significant that Amschel Meyer
Rothschild, the eldest son of the founder of the business, was
present at the Vienna Conference in 1815, spoke on that occasion, and was altogether a personality of considerable importance. In 1845, Prince Metternich wrote to the French
Ambassador in Paris: "The House of Rothschild plays a far
greater rle at Frankfort than any foreign government, with the
exception, perhaps, of the English. There are natural reasons
for this, which one certainly cannot regard as good, and which,
from a moral point of view, are still less satisfactory. Money
is the great and final tribunal in France" etc.
The fine art of the Hebrew has always consisted in ascertaining,
by means of espionage, the approaching shortage in goods and
provisions, in buying up the same, and then, when they are
urgently needed, only parting with them at a profiteer's price.
In times of war it is scarcely possible to satisfy the requirements of the army without the aid of the Jews, as they have
already laid their hands on all available stores, and secured
the same by deeds of purchase and payments on account.
That the House of Rothschild is quite at home in this underhand business, is proved by the following passage out of a
letter from Nathan Rothschild, the third son of Meyer Amschel,
to his friend, the politician Thomas Buxton:
When I had established myself in London, the East India Company**
* This is best shown by the drastic speech of the old tribal mother
Rothschild, when she said to her sons: "Don't give the Princes any
money, so that they will not be able to make war."
** According to an article in the Quarterly Review, June to September
1848, page 127, reviewing a book called, "Memoirs of Sir Thomas Fowell
Buxton, Bart.," the amount is given as 800,000 Ibs. of Gold! As twenty
Troy p o u n d s of Standard Gold, i. e. 22 carat Gold, are coined into 934
sovereigns and one half-sovereign, the above-mentioned amount of

42

sold gold to the amount of 800,000 pounds sterling. I bought it all,

because I knew that the Duke of Wellington must have it; I had bought
up a large number of his bills at a cheap rate.* The Government sent
for me, and declared that they must have the money. As soon as they
had it, they did not know how to send it to Portugal. I undertook this
as well, and sent the money a c r o s s F r a n c e . This was the best
piece of business, which I have ever done.

And the members of this firm, which has become rich through
countless, unclean, financial operations, have been ennobled
(Amschel Meyer by the Emperor of Austria already in 1815),
have been loaded with orders and decorations, and have been
entrusted by princes and persons of rank with the management of their fortunes, and princes and persons of rank did
not regard it as degrading to maintain relations with these
wholesale usurers yes, they sank almost to subserviency in
their eagerness to help this descendant of a Frankfort Jew,
who dealt in old clothes, and who had no other name than
that of the house in which he lived, to play a more important
part even than that assigned to kings and princes of the royal
blood. And sprigs of the oldest and most illustrious nobility,
who desired that everyone should know that their honour was
a rare and costly possession, bent the knee before men, whose
ancestor had adopted as his watchword; "My money is my
honour".*) The increase in the wealth of the House of Roth800,000 lbs. would represent in minted gold the enormous sum of
37,380,000, that is to say if T r o y P o u n d s and S t a n d a r d G o l d are
meant in Buxton's memoirs; if A v o i r d u p o i s P o u n d s and F i n e
G o l d are intended, the minted value would be still larger far over
40,000,000! It is incredible that Nathan Rothschild, or even the East
India Company, had such an enormous amount of Gold at their disposal.
The great probability is, that the actual amount of Gold, whether
"standard" or "fine", was represented, as Fritsch has stated, by a minted
value of 800,000. (Translator's note)
* Wellington, who was a spendthrift in private life, was first Lord of
the Treasury from 1826-1830.
** Mayer Amschel Rothschild writes as follows in a dunning letter to
the agent of the Kurfrst Wilhelm II of Hesse: "He, who has my money,
holds my honour, and my honour is my life; he, who does not pay me
my money, takes my honour away from me." The original letter was
sold by auction by Rud. Lepke in Berlin.

43

schild is calculated as follows by the writer on political economy

Dr. Rud. Herm. Meyer in the eighties:
The Parisian Rothschild (II) died in 1875, and left 1000 million francs.
One is entitled, therefore, to estimate the combined fortunes of the
members of the House of Rothschild at 5000 million francs. The Rothschilds make more than 5 per cent interest. Let us reckon in the meantime, that this "Plus" is utilised for their maintenance, and that their
capital only doubles itself every fifteen years. One is entitled to assume
this, because it has actually increased more quickly since the founding
of the House. If it had only doubled itself every 15 years, it would
have amounted to
1875

5000 m i l l i o n F r a n c s

1860

2500

1845

1250

1830

625

1815

312

1800

156

It may be pointed out, however, that old Rothschild had no fortune

whatever to speak of in the year 1800. One is therefore entitled to
assume, that if a remedy is not to be found by means of anti-capitalistic,
truly economic legislation, the fortune of the Rothschilds will continue
to double itself every 15 years.
With this fact in view, one is quite in order in asking what relation
does the income of the remainder of humanity bear towards it. The
kingdom of Saxony is one of the richest and most prosperous of the
German states. In the year 1876 the income, which had been assessed
for income-tax, of 2-3/4 million inhabitants, amounted to 459 francs a head,
and in 1877 to only 430 francs a head. The fifteen per cent income
derived from the present fortune of the Rothschilds is therefore as large as
the combined incomes of 581,400 Saxon citizens in the year 1877. If one
assumes, that the average income throughout Europe always remained
the same as that of the Saxons in the year 1877, and, bearing in mind
the fact that the income of the Rothschilds doubles itself every fifteen
years, one arrives at the following result:
The fortune of the Rothschilds amounted, in the year 1875, to 5000
million francs; the income out of this was as great as the combined
income of 589,000 ordinary individuals; in 1890 the fortune of the
Rothschilds amounted to 10,000 million francs; the income out of this
was equal to the combined incomes of 1,150,000 ordinary individuals;
in 1905 the fortune would amount to 20,000 million francs providing
an income, from which 2,320,000 human beings half the population of
the kingdom of Saxony in the year 1905 would have to live. In the
year 1920, the fortune will have swollen to 40,000 million francs; in the

44

year 1965 the fortune will amount to no less than 320,000 million francs,
providing an income equal to the sum of the incomes, upon which
37,120,000 human beings must exist.

Thus writes Rud. Meyer. This survey, even if it can lay no

claim to absolute accuracy, shows nevertheless, in a very instructive manner, how a great mass of capital, which is constantly increasing by means of compound interest, grows after
the manner of an avalanche, and, like a sponge, sucks up the
whole economic life. For these huge accumulations of property do not, of course, consist of real money, but simply of
the debts and obligations of others; their growth, therefore,
indicates a progressive indebtedness of the productive and
owning classes, and also of the countries themselves.
The success of the House of Rothschild is entirely attributable to the fact that the firm possessed simultaneously an
establishment in each of the five most important countries in
Europe, and maintained, by means of their representatives at
these establishments, a constant service of news, relating to
all political and economic circumstances, which was utilised
to exercise active influence in every direction. The five great
banking houses, which all worked on exactly the same lines,
and played into one another's hands, formed, whenever a crisis
arrived, a united power, opposed to which the governments
of countries were but little better than powerless.
This particular instance is not
necessary to demonstrate how
valuable organised collaboration
is to business interests. The
superiority of the Jewish organisation over individual activity
is apparent in countless cases of everyday life from the
buying of rags, and the operations of the auction-room hyenas,
to cattle-dealing and traffic in stock-exchange shares. The
Hebrew, however, is already quite capable, as an individual
alone, of out-stripping all sound and honest competitors in the
business arena; not only does his innate and trained sense
of business give him the advantage, but, before everything else,
2. The "playing into one
another's hands", and
secret understanding of
the Hebrews.

45

he is enabled to do this by particular tactics and by the unscrupulousness of his procedure. And, granted that the Hebrew
possesses an eminent talent for commerce, and all kinds of
remarkable characteristics, which enable him to force the average
German business-man out of the saddle, these powers increase
until they become absolutely irresistible when several cooperate to exert them in the same direction.
The German business-man, as a rule, stands as a single individual, opposed to all the rest; he endeavours to advance
his business by his own power and ability, and nowadays it
is quite the exception for him to receive any special help or
advancement from relatives or friends. With the Hebrews it
is quite different. The strong "holding-together" of this foreign
national element is a world-wide historical fact. One hears
them extolled in all quarters, because they stand by one another and support themselves. That is certainly a praiseworthy
characteristic, and, as such, may appear worthy of imitation.
In the case of the Jews, this "holding-together" does not arise
from unalloyed mutual goodwill; it is rather a duty of life,
created by tradition, and indispensable for this people. The
Hebrew recognises the fact that, o w i n g to his peculiar behaviour, and to his peculiar designs, which are hostile to the
rest of humanity, he would be powerless in the world as a
separate individual. The co-operation of kindred powers, in
the same direction, appears to him as necessary law of life.
It is solely due to the fact that many of his kind either
by agreement or impelled by the common instinct incessantly oppose the established regulations of the honest and
productive nations, that that kind of dissoluteness, and that kind
of confusion are produced in the social structure, which are
essential to the prosperity of the Hebrews.
For this reason no one finds "holding together" so necessary
as the Jews. In all their business, whether it be as agent or
middleman in the country, or as wholesale merchant or stockbroker in the towns, the Hebrews are organised everywhere
in bands or gangs. Even in the domain of theft where, until
a few decades ago, they were considerably more active than
46

at the present moment, they had developed theft by gangs,

until it could almost be regarded as an art.* Each one had
a separate part to play. For instance, there were the "scout",
who had to "provide" the opportunity, the "Schmiere-Steher"
(Grease Stander) whose business it was to keep a look-out,
while the theft was being committed, fellow-conspirators who
received the stolen goods, and all kinds of other people, who
helped to make "gang-robbery" so successful. One has only to
read the writings of the criminal actuary Thiele, which were published in the forties of the last century under the title: "The Jewish
Swindlers in Germany", to learn on what a magnificent scale
the people of Judah showed their skill on every occasion,
both in organisation, and in the assignation of the part, which
each should play.
In one particular case Rosenthal versus Lwenthal there
were no less than 700 thieves and accomplices prosecuted,
who were, almost without exception, Hebrews, and whose
communications extended, from certain towns in Poland, as
far as the Rhine, with branches all over Germany. This
powerful "Chawrusse" carried on burglary, embezzlement,
artificial bankruptcy, and the traffic in stolen goods, on a truly
grand scale. Anyone, who reads the account of the trial at
the time, cannot help being struck by the fact that quite a
number of characteristic names of various [members of this
band of thieves are to be found today amongst the magnates
of finance and the matadors of the Stock Exchange in Berlin,
until the impression gains ground that the present-day Jewish
corporation of the Stock Exchange is a direct continuation of
the old swindling "Chawrusse" of Bentschen and Neutomischel.
One must not, by any means, believe that the connection between thieves and bankers belongs to the past. When four
Jewish burglars were captured recently in the act of robbing
a warehouse in the vicinity of Paris, a large number of letters
* The "Thieves' Jargon" or "Rotwelsch" is, on this account, full of
"Yiddish", which is a corrupt form of German spoken by Hebrews:
compare also Av-Lallemant: "Das deutsche Gaunertum* (German
Swindledom) 4 Volumes 1 8 5 4 .

47

were found in their possession, connecting them with some

of the leading Jewish firms in London and Antwerp. The
public press unfortunately remained silent concerning what
other discoveries were made in the course of the investigation.
Internationality presumes, of necessity, a departure from the stationary
habit from the attachment to the
soil, to the home, to the Fatherland. Since the Jew knows no
Fatherland in our sense of the word, Internationality is an essential
part of his peculiar disposition, and impels him, on principle,
to assume a hostile attitude towards all national effort. For this
reason the German disposition is especially hateful to the Jew.
3. Nomadism of the
Hebrew.

Sombart very appositely represents the Jews as a nation of

wanderers o f "nomads", compared with the stationary nations.*
Out of this fundamental opposition arises a wide divergence
in the views taken with regard to life and to economic principles. The stationary individual must, of necessity, favour wellregulated conditions and stability, in order that he may have
full scope for his productive and constructive activity. The
nomad, animated by the impulse to convey all his possessions along with him, and to make them as portable as possible,
must always foster the wish to make things and values moveable; in fact, to "mobilise" them. Consequently he is not
in love with fixity and constancy of relations and regulations;
he desires, on the contrary, to see everything in a state of
flux and revolution. The ground with its surface-soil, which is
the preliminary condition, and forms the foundation for all
productive and stationary nations, has little meaning for the
nomad if he is not able to convert it into moveable, liquid
values. He accomplishes this by the production of "paper
values", for which the immoveable goods of stationary citizens
are pledged. Therefore he holds sides with mortgages, pledge* He was certainly not the first to remark this, for we have possessed,
since 1887, the masterly work of Professor Adolf Wahrmund ( 1913):
"Das Gesetz des Nomadentums und die heutige Judenherrschaft": (The
Law of Nomadism and the present-day domination by the Jews).

48

papers, stocks and shares, bills of exchange, and all other paper
values, which can be stuck comfortably in the pocket, and
carried away.
Just as little interest is shown by the Hebrew in the production of the native soil; his instinct for "dealing", drives him
to desire that all articles, on their journey from producer to
consumer, should travel as far as possible, and consequently
be made to pass, as frequently as possible, the turnpikes of
his middleman monopoly. The more that goods wander about
the world, and the more that nations become dependent upon
what they import from foreign countries, so much the better
for the Hebrew. It is on this account that he endeavours,
by all means, to check and to complicate the simple and straightforward course, which the exchange of goods would naturally
take. He thrusts himself everywhere between producers and
consumers, and strives, wherever it is possible, so to arrange
matters, that not even the smallest business shall be completed
without his interference. In countries where the Jews sit close
to one another, this system has been perfected to a marvellous
extent. J. C. Kohl, for instance, relates in his "Journeys in
the interior of Russia and Poland", that in Poland it is not
possible to conclude either an important or unimportant piece
of business without the mediation of a Jew. "The nobleman
sells his wheat to the shipper through the Jew, the master of
the house engages his servants, his steward, his cooks, yes,
even the instructors and tutors for his son through the Jew.
Estates are let, money is collected, stores are bought etc. through
the agency of the Jew; in short, one feeds, travels, rides, lodges and clothes one's self through the mediation of the Jew.
Formerly the Jews were also the sole tenants of the Customs,
Mines and Salt-works in Poland.* T. von Langenfeldt in his
book "Russland im 19. Jahrhundert" (Russia in the 19th Cen* Leipzig 1841. This work is still regarded by those acquainted with
the conditions as correct and reliable. See also Richard Andree:
"Zur Volkskunde der Juden" (National information concerning the Jews)
page 213.

49

tury* gives a picture of the interaction of Jewish business

activities, and of the far-flung net of their helpers and
helpers' helpers:
At the annual markets where the Jews are permitted to do business,
the dealing takes on a certain feverish aspect. They appear in enormous
numbers, and sell their goods, both wholesale and retail, from booths
and stalls, or hawk them from house to house. Around each Jewish
wholesale dealer swarm hundreds of poor Jews, who obtain goods from
him on credit, and sell the same retail. One Jew supports another;
they have their own bankers, brokers, agents yes, even their own
carmen. Over the whole of western and southern Russia there is spread
an innumerable host of commission agents and factors, employed by
rich Jewish wholesale merchants. These form the connecting link
between the merchants and the producers, between the more distant
markets and the commercial centres. The duties of these agents consist in purchasing goods, and in writing periodical reports, with which
they have to furnish their masters, concerning every economic novelty,
concerning the prices of every possible product, imparting at the same
time their views as to the advantage of this or that commercial operation".
And further: "Besides the commission agents, the brokers are absolutely
indispensable for Jewish trade. The business of the broker consists in
knowing everything, hunting up everything, bringing the interested
parties together, watching the actions of those people who have any
kind of relations to the merchant in one word: to represent all the
interests of his principal. The broker is a living price-list, in whom
the prices, the quantity, the quality, and the location of the goods for
sale in fact everything which can interest the purchaser, is recorded.
Almost every Jew is a broker; yes, one is entitled to maintain that he
is born to the part".
"The brokers on any particular market do not allow any stranger to
enter the same, and do not themselves attempt to enter any strange
market, but recommend their clients to go to a broker known to them,
at the place in question. There are special brokers for the grain, tallow,
salt, and timber trades. Where Jews exclusively live, the whole country
is covered with a net of brokers, who penetrate into the most remote
economic corners of each district. The broker understands how to
make himself indispensable everywhere, and to everybody. The estateowner, and especially the Polish estate-owner, is the born friend of the
Jew, who flatters him, abases himself before him, knows always where
and how money can be procured, and where he the estate-owner
can dispose of his produce to the best advantage".
* Berlin 1875. See "Handbuch der Judenfrage" (Handbook to the
Jewish Question) 27 Edition pages 100111.

50

From the above characteristic motives springs the mania of

the Hebrew to give the preference to all foreign goods. He
is always the first to bring novelties from foreign countries,
and is an indefatigable praiser of everything foreign. He is
always ready with an assurance that the foreign article is better
than the native; he even goes so far as to maintain that foreign corn is more nourishing than that grown by German
peasants. He knows full well that the native product very
easily discovers the direct road from producer to consumer
without requiring his services as middleman; and this sticks
in his gizzard.
He would like to make production just like consumption
dependent upon himself, and to get it completely into his power;
he therefore tries to separate the two processes, and to thrust
himself between them. The business of the middleman has
become to such an extent the second nature of the Jew, that
he regards it with favour also, when practised by others, so
long as he does not lose any advantage thereby. Manufacturers, who deliver exclusively to their representatives, the
latter themselves, as well as the great army of agents, brokers,
and commission men, who do not stand in direct competition
with Jews, are wont to praise the Jews on account of the
punctilious respect, which the latter pay to every kind of
middle-man business. The Jew's ideal would be to convert
Germany into a one-sided industrial country, importing all raw
material and food-stuffs from abroad, and compelled to export
again the greater part of its industrial products. In this case
both the raw material and the finished article must pass
through the hands of the middle-man, and his control of the
market would be complete. But this would be accompanied
also by the political control of the state. The nearer this ideal
brings the Hebrew to the social-democrat of Marxian* tendencies, the further it separates him from all representatives
of national work.
* Karl Marx (1818-1883) was of Jewish origin, like Ferd. Lassalle
(18251864) and many other notorious social-democratic magnates.

51

Therefore the Jew is a sworn enemy of agriculture in the

home country. He persecutes with fanatical hatred the "agrarian",
who by his diligent production, interferes with the commercial
monopoly of the Jew. For this reason the latter is never tired
of singing the praises of international free-trade, of abusing
protective duties, of inciting the inhabitants of towns against
the country-folk, and of endeavouring, as far as possible, to
sow discord between the two.
The Hebrew fraternity is favoured by yet another circumstance
in its control of the economic life, and that is: the p e c u l i a r
morality.

52

V.

The peculiar Morality of Jewdom.

That the Hebrew is not very particular with regard to his moral
obligations towards other people, is fairly well known. One is
wont to excuse him much in this respect, and to overlook his
lack of conscientiousness with the remark that he had been
frequently unjustly persecuted in "olden times", and thus had
been driven, by dire necessity, to the adoption of a lax moral
code. In this respect also, many "worthy souls" are inclined,
out of ill-considered amiability, to speak disparagingly of their
own nation by imputing the responsibility for the moral deficiencies of the Hebrew to their own Christian ancestors.
These fine folk could easily ascertain from the Bible, that the
bad ethics of the Hebrew are as old as that nation, and already existed before there were any Christians. The Hebrews
were already decried, far and wide, in ancient Egypt, Babylon,
and Syria on account of their questionable morality and business
tactics; consequently, the Christians cannot be blamed for the
moral shortcomings of the Jewish people.
Already we can learn out of the Old Testament that their law
allows the Hebrews to treat the "non-Jew" "the stranger"
very differently to those of their own faith and blood. In this
respect already, the "Chosen People" place themselves in the
strongest contrast to all other nations, who are designated as
"strangers". It is continually reiterated that it is permissible
to do all kinds of things towards a "stranger", which it is forbidden to do towards the fellow-Jews. Thus, for example:
"You may practise usury against the "stranger", but not against
your brother." (5. Moses 23, 20).
A sharp distinction is always drawn between the Jews, and
the rest of the nations. All the moral commandments of the
Hebrews extend only to members of their race; all other
53

races are excepted. What is forbidden to be done to Jews, is

permitted towards those, who are not Jews. 5. Moses, 15. 3:
"You may put pressure on the stranger, but you must be
lenient to him, who is your brother." The contempt shown
for all those, who are not Jews, goes so far as to regard unclean food and garbage as good enough for the "stranger".
5. Moses, 14, 21: "You shall not eat offal; you may give it to
the 'stranger' in your gate so that he may eat it, or sell it
to another 'stranger'".
All the commands, made with reference to one's neighbour,
are not comprehended by the Jew as by the Christian, who
regards them as referring to all men; he the Jew accepts them quite literally, and as referring only to the actual
neighbour, the member of the same race, the fellow-Jew. When
we read in 3 Moses: 19, 13: "Thou shalt neither overreach
nor rob thy neighbour", the Jew considers that he is released from any like duty towards those, who are not Jews.
The writings of the Rabbis express this particular comprehension of the text quite unmistakably.

This peculiar comprehension on the part of the Jews of their

particular rights as human beings goes, however, still further
back; it rests, in the last analysis, on the fact that the
Jews not only separate themselves as a "chosen people" from
all other men, but have their own particular god. It is a fatal
mistake of our theologians to regard the Jewish God as identical with the Christian. On a closer examination, Jehovah
(whom the more modern science calls Jahwe) is found to be
the exclusive God of Jewdom, and not, at the same time, that
of other men. One can convince one's self from 1. Moses,
Chapter 17, that this Jahwe-Jehovah concluded his formal agreement expressly only with Abraham and his seed (descendants),
and that this covenant bears a hostile meaning for all nonJewish peoples. As a sign of the covenant, circumcision is
introduced, and Jahwe declares: all who are not circumcised,
will incur his vengeance, and will be completely destroyed.
54

It is at once clear that this covenant between Jahwe and

Abraham's seed is a warlike covenant, the point of which is
directed relentlessly against all non-Jewish nations the unbelievers, the heathens (Goyim). In the eyes of the Jews, however, heathens are all those, who are not of Abraham's seed,
all who are not circumcised, all who have not entered into
the blood-pact with Jahwe. Dominion over all other nations is
promised to the Jews, and the possessions of the former will
be given to them as a reward if they the Jews are true
to their pact with Jahwe:
"Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and
the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break
them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's
vessel." (Psalms 2. 8. 9)

Yes, open hostility is declared against all non-Jewish nations,

and their extirpation and annihilation are to be the life task of
the Jews:
5. Moses 7, 16: "Thou wilt devour all nations, which the Lord thy
God will give thee. Thou shalt have no mercy on them, and shalt not
serve their gods, for to do so will be thy condemnation.*

The oriental scholar, Adolf Wahrmund, is therefore justified

in referring to the journey of the Jews across the earth as an
expedition for the capture of the world certainly not by
open force of arms, but by other means, a plentiful store of
which, is placed at their disposal by the Talmudic teaching
of the Rabbis.
The most important weapon of the Jews against non-Jewish
nations is M o n e y ; they therefore endeavour to obtain possession of this in every form. For this reason Jews are allowed to practise usury against non-Jews, and the lending of
money, and the receiving of interest are recommended as an
important means or instrument for dominating other nations.
* Consequently it was a fatal blunder of Luther, always to translate
the word Jahwe as "Lord God", and thus to help to obliterate the
fundamental difference between the particular god of the Jews, and the
"Heavenly Father" of Christ.

55

5. Moses 15, 6: "For Jahwe, thy God, has conferred blessings on thee,
as he has promised thee, so that thou shalt lend to many nations but
shalt not need to borrow thyself, and that thou shalt rule over many
nations but that no one shall rule over thee!"

Truly a wonderful compact with God, which is payable in

cash, and which promises domination over other nations by
money-power whilst Christ teaches: "Ye cannot serve God
and Mammon."
The peculiar Jewish perception of life which results
from such doctrines, is made the utmost of in the Talmud.
It would take too much time and space to quote even extracts
here from the mystical books of the Rabbis; therefore reference
is made to the work by Th. Fritsch: "Mein Beweismaterial
gegen Jahwe" ("My evidence against Jahwe")* in which a
strong light is cast upon domains, which we can scarcely
glance at.
Thus, the segregation of the Hebrews from all other nations
is conscious and deliberate, and is in nowise due to possible
dislike on the part of those nations. The devotional books of
the Jews furnish us with plenty of proof on that point. Warning
is incessant never to make common cause with the foreign
nations:
"Give heed that thou makest no treaty with the inhabitants of the
land, into which thou comest, so that they may not become a vexation
to thee." 2. Moses 34. 12 and 13.

The boundary-line between the Hebrew and the rest of

humanity is everywhere most sharply defined, and the peculiar
morals of Jewdom rest on this separation of interests. They
were first set out, however, in characteristic form, by the Rabbis,
who "laid down" the Jewish system of morals in the "Talmud"
(= Doctrine), from the 2 to the 5 Century after the birth of
Christ.
"The Talmud a comprehensive work, divided into many
parts is the real code of laws for Jewdom since the time
of Christ, and is the foundation of its religious and civic arrangements". (Brockhaus Conv. Lexicon). And it is precisely in this
book, where the perception impresses itself most forcibly upon
n d

* Hammer-Verlag, Leipzig C 1

56

t h

the reader, that it is only the Hebrew, who is a man in the real
sense of the word, and that all the remaining nations stand far
beneath him, and are, in fact, comparable to animals.
"The nations of the world are like the baskets, in which one puts
straw and dung. They have a soul, which is only equal to that of
the animals."

is an example of what is to be found in the "Midrasch schir

haschirim", and a further specimen in the treatise "Baba mezia"
is as follows:
"You Israelites are called men, but the nations of the world are called
not men, but cattle."

Jalkut Rubeni expresses himself still more distinctly:

"The Israelites are called men (human beings) because their souls are
derived from God, but the souls of those, who are not Jews, are derived
from the unclean spirit, and therefore they are named swine."

But, in case a believing Jew might be of the opinion that

those, who are not Jews, are just as good men as the Hebrews,
because they possess the same form, Schene-tuchoth-habberith is
prepared to give instruction upon this point, for it is stated there:
"A human form is only given to those, who are not Jews, in order
that the Jews may not be waited upon by beasts."

With such a perception it is comprehensible how all intercourse with those, who are not Jews, is most strictly forbidden
to all true Hebrews. It is a matter of common knowledge
that the Old Testament warns the true Jew, in the most emphatic
manner, not to enter into marriage with those, who are not
Jews, and the Rabbis of the Talmud repeat and accentuate this
commandment on many occasions.
Consequently, when the suggestion is made that a mutual
contempt exists between Jews and non-Jews, it is well to
remember, first of all, which side started this; it is in consequence of the racial conceit of the real Hebrew that he
regards his nation as quite out of the ordinary, and especially
chosen, and permitted to look down upon other men with contempt. It is certainly nothing to wonder at, if the other nations,
in their turn, pay back this aversion in the same coin, and they
57

are more entitled to do so, as, in their case, it is a counterstroke to a brutal challenge.
But, whoever regards those, who do not belong to his race,
as no better than beasts, cannot possibly recognise that he has
any moral obligations towards such inferior creatures. Upon
this fundamental perception rests the entire system of morality
of the Rabbis; it teaches, with constant repetition, that one has
duties only towards one's neighbour, one's race, and towards
nobody else. The Law states: "Thou shalt do no wrong to thy
neighbour", and the discerning Rabbi adds, to make it clearer:
"the other people are excepted". Again, one reads in the
treatise Sanhedrin: "An Israelite is permitted to do a wrong to
a "Goi" i.e. non-Jew, because it is written: Thou shalt not do
wrong to thy neighbour, without however, paying any heed to
the Goi."' It cannot be wondered at then, when the Talmud
draws the following conclusion for instance: "Lost property,
which belongs to a Goi, need not be returned."
But the writings of the Talmud do not confine themselves
to such general instructions. Just as business forms, as it were,
the soul of the entire Jewish existence, so great importance is
given in the Talmud also to all business relations, and all
manner of good advice is imparted therein as to how one is
to comport one's self during business developments. For this
belongs also to the Jewish religion. When one recollects how
little the doctrine of Christ concerns itself with money-matters
and business, and how it, to a certain extent, rejects any such
thing as Money, relying on the Word: "Ye cannot serve God
and Mammon", one must feel what a contrast exists between
the Christian and Jewish perceptions of life, and one, across
which no bridge can ever be built. How important, however
on the contrary, are all business matters to the Hebrew! Thus,
we find in the writings of the Talmud directions, of which the
following are examples:
"If a Goi holds the pledge of an Israelite, and the Goi loses it, and
an Israelite finds it, the latter shall return it to the Israelite, but not to
the G o i ; if, however, the finder desires to return it to the Goi for the

58

sake of the sacred reputation* then, the other (Israelite) shall say to
him: 'If you wish to keep the reputation sacred, do so with what belongs
to you.'" (R. Jerucham Seph. mesch. f. 51. 4)

It is also taught:
"It is permissible to take advantage of the mistake of a Goi, when
he makes a mistake (to his disadvantage). Thus, if the Goi sends in
his bill, and makes a mistake, the Israelite shall say to him: 'See, I rely
upon your b i l l ; I do not know if it really is as you state, nevertheless
I give you what you demand.' "

Not only in purely business matters is the Hebrew allowed

to treat those, who are not Jews, in a different manner to his
own race, but Rabbinism inexorably extends the sharp division
between Jew and non-Jew into all remaining domains of life.
The Jew is commanded, when acting as Judge in law-suits,
to influence the course of the proceedings in favour of his
racial companions. In the book Baba Kamma (= the first door)
we find Fol. 113a, paragraph 2:
"When an Israelite and a non-Jew come before you in the Court, you
shall, if you can, administer justice to him the former according
to Jewish law, and say to him: 'it is so according to our law'. When
the law of the worldly nations is favourable to the Jew, you shall administer Justice to him accordingly, and say to him: it is thus according
to our law'. But when this is not the case, use c u n n i n g . "

The following passage, for instance, bears eloquent testimony

to the assertion that the despicable doctrines of the Talmud
towards the Canaanites, Edomites and Amalakites, refer, not
only to the peoples of antiquity, but also to the present:
"The inhabitants of Germany" says Kinchi (Obadja 1,20) "are Canaanites, for when the Canaanites fled before Jehoschua, they went into
the land Alemannia, which is called Germany, and e v e n to the
p r e s e n t d a y the G e r m a n s are c a l l e d C a n a a n i t e s . "

In more recent times, the Hebrews eagerly assume the

appearance of possessing a warlike spirit, boast of their participation in the various campaigns, and endeavour, through
their patrons and press, to bring it about that they will even
be admitted to the rank of officer. That they, however, prize
safety rather than valour is shown by referring to the passage
out of the Talmud Pesachim 112b:
* A mode of speaking, which frequently occurs, much to this effect:
"In order that our Religion and our God do not incur a bad reputation."

59

"If you go to war, go not first but last, in order that you can return
home first".

Also, the extensively held idea, that the Jew was compelled
by foreign influence to confine himself to trade, because other
vocations were forbidden to him a matter, which, later on,
we will go more deeply into is shown to be fallacious by
the actual writings of the Rabbis. The same prove that the
Hebrew has, from the remotest periods, always displayed a
preference for trade, because other activities, and especially
agriculture, appeared too tedious to him, and brought in too
little profit. Thus we read in the Talmud:
"Rab Eleazar has said: "No handicraft is so unprofitable as agriculture
for it is said Czech 27. 29 'You will come down' (grow poor)!" R. Eleazar
beheld a field, across which cabbages were planted in beds. He then
said: "Even if cabbages were planted for the whole length of the field,
trading would still be the best." On one occasion when the Rab was
walking through a wheatfield, and observed how the wheat swayed to
and fro, he said: "continue to sway, trade is to be preferred to you".
Rab has further said: "He who expends a hundred Sus in trade, can
enjoy meat and wine every day, but he, who expends a hundred Sus
on agriculture, has to be content with cabbage and salt, must sleep on
the earth, and is exposed to every kind of misery."

Thus, the preference for Trade, and the contempt for Handicraft and Agriculture are a very ancient legacy of the Jewish
race, and no one has ever found it necessary to compel
them to turn to trade.

It would be a fatal mistake to imagine that these ancient

views and laws in the Talmud do not possess any validity
today. On the contrary: the doctrines of the Talmud form,
uninterruptedly, an important item in the Jewish religious
education, and every young Jew receives instruction according
to the views expressed in the Talmud however much he
may assure one, later on in life, that such matters are entirely
unknown to him. Moreover, the law, set out in the Talmud,
has been modernised by a recent revision the so-called
Schulchan aruch and the validity of this law is so undisputed, that the Imperial German legal authorities, in law-suits,
60

in which both parties were Jews, have relied upon the precepts
of the Schulchan aruch.
In this more recent law-book of Jewdom is to be found that
remarkable prayer, which is said every year on the Day of
Atonement, in all synagogues, accompanied by great solemnity,
the so-called Kol-Nidre-Prayer. It is as follows:
"All vows (Kol-Nidre) and obligations and conjurations and oaths,
which we shall vow, enter into, and swear, from this day of Atonement
until the next, we repent of, and the same shall be dissolved, remitted,
abolished, destroyed, and shall be of no force and invalid: our vows
shall not be vows, and our oaths shall not be oaths".

The contents of this peculiar prayer have often been used

as a reproach to the Jews, who usually argue their way out
of it, by maintaining that the vows, declarations and oaths,
which are spoken of in this prayer, refer only to religious
matters, more especially to vows and oaths, which the Jew
makes or takes to himself, or to his God. It is difficult, however,
to see why anyone, who regards his oaths to God so lightly,
should take a more serious view of his affirmations or vows
to his fellow-men. In any case, the praying Hebrew has the
right, when reciting the "Kol", to connect this prayer secretly
with his own particular vows and oaths.

There is nothing to wonder at then, if a nation, with such

a remarkable system of ethics, obtains a tremendous advantage
over men, who possess a more sensitive conscience, and a finer
sense of justice, and who not only abide by their oaths and
vows, but adhere punctiliously to their ordinary promises and
assurances. That ethical perception of the Talmud, which forces
the Hebrew to observe his duties towards his racial and religious
brethren with almost painful exactitude, but absolves him of his
duties towards other men, must introduce a curious kind of
discord into our life. The Hebrews are thus united in a strong
union, which not only possesses a strong common-interest, but
directs itself, at the same time, in silent hostility against all
other men. And, since the Hebrews are forbidden in addition
61

in the sternest manner according to their laws, to disclose

anything of their secret legislation to those, who are not Jews,
Jewdom acquires, with such a basis, the nature of a conspiracy
which is aimed at all men, who do not happen to be Jews.
The situation is aggravated by the following circumstances:
the doctrines and laws of the Rabbis are with few exceptions only to be found in the Hebraic language and
characters, and are, for that reason, practically unapproachable
for the rest of mankind. Besides, the written language of the
Hebrews resembles a cryptograph, the reading and explanation
of which are taught by tradition in the schools of the Rabbis.
The Jews are consequently in the position to maintain to the
uninitiated that the rendering of the latter is incorrect. For, as
a matter of fact, those scholars, who are not Jews, but who,
having learnt the Hebrew language and examined the writings
of the Rabbis, have then proceeded to translate some of the
awkward passages, have become the objects of the most violent
hostility on the part of the Jews. Only with the help of converted Jews has it been possible, in certain cases, to ascertain
the correct reading or version. But for centuries reliable
Christian scholars have made translations of the immoral passages, which all agree, so that it is scarcely permissible to entertain any doubt as to the correctness of the version. One need
only mention the Heidelberg Professor of Oriental Languages,
Johann Eisenmenger, who produced a translation of extracts
from the Talmud in the year 1700; the Canonical Professor,
August Rohling, of Prague, who published his "Talmudjude"
(Jew of the Talmud) in 1878, and since then has been made
the object of most odious enmity from the side of the Jews.
Further, the Orientalists, Professor Johann Gildemeister of Bonn
( 1890), Dr. Jakob Ecker of Mnster, and Professor Georg Behr
of Heidelberg, as arbiters in court, have confirmed the correctness of these same translations of the rabbinical writings,
when the opportunity presented itself in law-suits, relating to
such matters. Since, however, the Jews always renew their
denials, there is really a most urgent necessity, in the interests
of both sides, that the disputed passages in the Talmud should
62

be examined by impartial experts; all conflict about the matter

would then be removed from the world in the simplest manner
possible.
It is, however, a most remarkable fact that the Hebrews
oppose any such procedure most emphatically and, strange
to say, the state officials have also declined to move in the
matter when application has been made to them. When, in
the year 1890, a petition was sent from the anti-Jewish camp
to a number of Imperial and local authorities, containing the
request that a commission of independent savants should be
appointed, whose duty would be to examine carefully the passages in dispute, in not a single instance was the request
granted. The Prussian Ministry of Culture dismissed any such
step as being "impracticable." If one compares the thoroughness with which the morality of the Jesuits has been and is
still discussed in public, one is forced to accept the view, that
the zealous friends of truth and opponents of those, who work
in an obscure and devious manner, know how to restrain their
zeal for enlightenment in a truly remarkable way so far as the
Jews are concerned.
The position is thus a very peculiar one. This much is
established: The German national representative bodies
and governments have given the Jews equal c i v i c
rights, and have recognised them as a separate r e l i g i o u s
community, without m a k i n g any inquiry whether the
moral instruction of the Jews is compatible with the
welfare of the state. There is, therefore, no cause for wonder
if attacks are constantly being delivered by the National German
Party against this untenable position, and if the demand is
made upon those, in positions of authority, to undertake, even
at this late stage, a thorough examination of the Jewish doctrines.
There will be no end to this dispute until the matter has been
made clear beyond any possible doubt. Joh. Ludwig Klber, the
diplomatist and authority on International Law (decd. 1837)
calls the Jews plainly, "a political-religious sect, under the
strict, theocratic despotism of the Rabbis", and "a completely
separated society of hereditary conspirators, with certain poll63

tical principles and commandments for the general life and

for c o m m e r c i a l intercourse." (Thus, not merely with religious aims). And this is, in concise, sober language, the
essence of the matter. For the Jews do not compose, like the
Christians for instance, simply a religious community, which
depends upon certain moral doctrines, and worships its God
according to certain established forms; their the Jews'
law extends to all manner of practical affairs in life, and, under
the influence of a peculiar morality, concerns itself particularly
with the cultivation of trade and usury. They form, in spite
of their dispersion amongst other peoples, an absolutely distinct
nation, even, as Fichte expresses it, a separate state. And, as
they are at the same time intent upon preserving the purity
of their blood, and intermarry, as far as it is possible, they
form also a self-contained race. Of all the rulers in Germany,
no one has recognised this fact more clearly than the greatest
of all practical politicians amongst them, Frederick the Great,
who considered it necessary, even in his political will of 1752,
to impress most strongly upon his successors: "Moreover, the
ruler must keep his eye on the Jews, prevent their interference
with wholesale trade; check the growth of their population, and
deprive them of their right of sanctuary whenever they commit
an act of dishonesty. For nothing is more injurious to the
trade of the merchants than the illicit profit which the Jews make."
The racial peculiarity; however, is visible to the eye, so that
the Jew can be recognised immediately and picked out from
all the other peoples of the world. And, further, there can
be no doubt whatever upon this point: by means of their
Talmud and their system of Rabbis, the Hebrews are held
together in a rigid caste, which carries on a cooperative war
against the remaining nations, chiefly by means of material
expropriation and the undermining of morality.
Our Moltke, who had the opportunity of studying Jewdom
thoroughly, during his residence in Poland from 1830 to 1832,
sums up his observations in the following words ("Darstellung
der inneren Verhltnisse in Polen") (Description of the internal
conditions in Poland, Berlin 1832):
64

"In spite of their dispersion the Jews still remain closely united.
They are guided consistently by unknown authorities for mutual purposes.
As they reject all the attempts of governments to incorporate them in the
nations, the Jews form a state within a state, and have become a deep wound
in Poland, which has not healed even at the present day. Even now
each town has its own Judge, each province its Rabbi, and all are subordinate to an unknown chief, who lives in Asia, and who is bound by
their law to travel round continually, from place to place, and whom
they call the "Prince of Slavery". Thus, retaining their religion, their
government, their morality, and their language, and obeying their own
laws, they know how to evade those of the land they live in, or, at any
rate, to nullify the same for all practical purposes: and, closely united
amongst themselves, they resist all attempts to fuse them into the rest
of the nation, just as much on account of their religious belief as on
account of their self-interest."

It simply does not do then, to complacently ignore, with

Christian tolerance and sentimental charity, this singular and
firmly

organised

hostile state of Jewry.

This hostile state

has declared war on us war to the knife for it is attempting to appropriate our material as well as our spiritual
values.*

It is an error to represent the Jews to one's self as

a harmless "Concession", which lives peacefully besides us,

and is only desirous of serving its God in its own particular
way.

The most excellent Adolf Wahrmund sees the ancient

principle of the nomadic desert robbers, who sweep across

the cultivated spots in order to leave the pastures grassless
and barren behind them, surviving in our Jews. He says:**
"According to the view taken from the Talmud, and expressed by the
Rabbis, the path of the Jews across the world is a warlike expedition
for the conquest of the same nothing else. They regard themselves
as soldiers on the march, hiding themselves in secret camps, or concealing themselves under a false flag in the midst of the enemy, always waiting for the signal to attack and surprise."
* Dr. Moritz Goldstein stated in the "Kunstwart" 1912, that it could
no longer be disputed that the Jews ruled over, not only the material,
but even the spiritual values of the German Nation, however much the
Germans might deny their capacity to do so.
** Page 41 in the writing under his name.
65

None of these facts are altered in the least, because, now

and again, this or that Jew appears to us to be quite a harmless and perhaps even an amiable individual. Without doubt
the Jew possesses many human and social virtues, but who
will guarantee that this external aspect of his disposition can
be regarded as genuine, mixed as the latter quite comprehensibly
is with bitterness on account of imagined slights, or imbued with
feelings of revenge? The peculiar situation of the Jew, in the midst
of a community, which is inwardly foreign to him, compels him
to adopt a cautious and discrete attitude. It would be foolish
on his part if he openly displayed his pride and his aversion
to all men, who are not Jews. How could he thus accomplish
his aims? Slyness commands him to adapt himself by mildness
and pliancy to his environment, and to present the appearance
of entertaining good will and a kindly disposition towards his
fellow-citizens, in order to captivate the latter in their artlessness, and to win their confidence. Only thus is he enabled
to promote his own business interests, and those other secret
aims of Hebrewdom, to the best advantage. One must not
then accept the plea that there are also some extremely nice
and honest Jews as a proof that they are not dangerous.
Exceptions prove the rule, and amiability and apparent harmlessness are amongst the most deadly weapons, which the
Hebrews employ against those who surround them. If, occasionally, a kind heart may prompt a Jew to act unselfishly, and
even to display self-sacrifice where others are concerned, (an
occurrence which, on account of its rarity, is wont to be trumpeted forth a hundred times as loudly as it would be in the
case of anybody, who is not a Jew) the best and most moral
Jew still remains a member of a most secret society, which
directs its front against us. And, at the moment, when the
decision must be made whether to defend Jewish interests
against other interests, the noblest and most high-minded Jew
will also take the side of his racial comrades, and will treat
everyone, who is not a Jew, as an enemy. Luther already
summed up the situation correctly when he spoke as follows,
concerning the Jews:
66

"But if they do anything good, know that it is not done out of love,
nor does it happen for your good; but because they must have room
to live amongst us, they must of necessity do something. But the heart
is, and remains, as I have said."

Therefore, do not forget: we are in a state of war with the

Jews. But, if a nation has declared war upon us, and advances
with hostile intent into our country, it no longer behoves us
to ask: is that particular individual a good or a bad man?
but, from that moment, each of them must be regarded as our
enemy, and against whom we must defend ourselves.

67

VI.

An Explanation with Sombart.

After we have sketched in outline our own attitude to the
question, which lies before us, the task still remains to follow
up Sombart's work,* in order to supplement the same, partly by confirming it, and partly by making another comprehension valid. Sombart, himself, allows that his book is one-sided,
and is meant to be. He has, in fact, supplied a written history of the economic method of the Jews, which although
the author obviously has taken pains to keep to the point, and
to abstain from all appreciations has nevertheless been
written preponderatingly from the sunny side. Anyone, who
did not know anything about the history of the world, would,
on reading this book, easily acquire the impression that the
Hebrews were the sole moving principle not only in political economy but chiefly in Culture, that we were indebted
to them alone for all great undertakings, and for all progress.
It can scarcely have been the intention of the author to create
this impression, and he would simply disclaim any such explanation. But it can be easily understood, that at a time when
so many disparaging remarks are made about Hebrews, the
wish might arise, for once, at any rate, to muster everything,
which could be said in their favour. Sombart still says
although he wishes to refrain from appreciation:
"Israel traverses Europe like the sun; new life bursts forth where it
arrives; on its departure what has hitherto prospered, wastes away."

It would be scarcely possible to utter a more pretentious

appreciation of a people than the above, and it is certainly
opportune, for once in a way, to examine in detail how far
such a pronouncement is justified or not. Sombart has collected, out of literature, with extraordinary diligence, everything,
* "Die Juden und das Wirtschaftsleben" (The Jew and the Economic Life).

68

which could possibly throw a favourable light upon the activity

of the Jews. He acknowledges that other factors have contributed to the building-up of the modern capitalism which
seems to him to be equivalent to modern Culture but does
not wish to mention the same in his book. He is of opinion
that one will search in vain throughout his work, "to discover
in any single passage anything approaching an appreciation of
the Jews, their affairs, their performances," and yet, a few lines
further on, he says concerning the Jews; "They, above all other
nations, are an eternal nation". That is a frequently-expressed
opinion, and yet the ancestors of Jewdom can scarcely date
further back than the ancestors of other races, for it is not recognised that the incarnation of the remaining nations only
happened within historical time; just as little is the national
existence of the Hebrews any older than that of the other
nations. It is quite the contrary for it must not be forgotten
that ancient cultures were already known in the history of the
world before the Jewish people put in an appearance. And
when Sombart goes on to reckon up, amongst the accomplishments of the Jews, the following:
"They have presented us with the one and only God, with
Jesus Christ, and consequently with Christianity", this is not
only an appreciation, but an extravagant eulogy, which, in the
face of our modern knowledge of these matters, may even be
called frivolity.
The contention that the Hebrews invented monotheism the
one God doctrine belongs to the domain of thoughtless
phrases, all the more as the most ancient Jewish documents
recognise a whole line of gods, such as Elohim, El-Schaddai,
El-Elyon, Adonai, Zebaoth, Jahwe etc. It was first of all Luther's
translation which was frequently extremely free of these
names by the universal designation "God the Lord", which is
responsible for this semblance of Jewish monotheism.
Moreover, it has been sufficiently established for many decades that the Jewish God has nothing in common with the
Christian Father-in-Heaven, or the universal Father of the
Germanic nations. Jahwe, as we have already discussed, is
69

the exclusive tribal God of the Hebrews: he has absolutely

no desire to be the God of other peoples, for he persecutes
the latter with unappeasable hatred, and assigns to his favourite
the task of annihilating the remaining nations, or, as Luther
translates: "to devour them." It is quite clear in this case
that we have not to deal with the one and only God of all
nations, but with a tribal or separate and national God. Therefore Jewdom can, by no means, lay claim to have presented
"the" only God to the rest of the world. The discoveries of
the Egyptologists and Assyriologists have furnished sufficient
proof that these ancient, civilised nations already worshipped
an only God before the Jewish nation was known of.*
Our Germanic ancestors also worshipped an only God and
universal Father, in the form of their Ziu (Dius), and the Egyptians did likewise with their Ptah, the Indians with their Dyaus
Pitar (from which the Roman Jupiter originated), the Greeks
with their Zeus, and the Persians with their Ahuramazda
(Ormuzd) etc.
The way, in which Sombart misleads his readers with regard
to Christ, is still more flagrant. Upon this point also we are
at the present day sufficiently well-informed to know that Christ
was not of Jewish extraction, but was a heathen Galilean. The
enmity of the Jews towards him shows itself in every chapter
of the Gospels; the Jews persecute him incessantly so that he
must always seek refuge from them "in the land of the Heathen."
Their hatred against him is so fanatical, because, out of his
teaching a spiritual world, which is strange to them, is spea* Compare Wahrmund: "Babyloniertum, Judentum, Christentum"
(Babylondom, Jewdom, Christendom.) Lagarde: "Deutsche Schriften"
(German Writings); Fritsch: "Beweismaterial gegen Jahwe" (Evidence
against Jahwe); Further "Hammer" No. 257: "Zur Entstehungsgeschichte
des Alten Testaments" (The History of the origin of the Old Testament);
particularly W. Schmidt: "Ursprung der Gottesidee" 1. (Origin of the idea
of God); 1912. A. Lang: "Making of the Religion" (1909). Fritsch endeavours to prove that Jahwe is identical with El-Schaddai, whom he
indicates as the "Geist der Finsternis", (Sprit of Darkness) and as the
personification of the Principle of Evil. The philological comparisons
upon this point are striking. (Compare "Beweis-Material gegen Jahwe",
9. Edition, pages 77-86.)

70

king. It is the spirit of the other race, which here opposes

the Jewish nature, for the teaching of Christ signifies, in all
respects, a complete reversal of the Jewish system of morality.
Christ had, accordingly, nothing in common with the Jews,
neither outwardly nor inwardly. His teaching is the most
pronounced contrast, yes, the most emphatic protest against
Jewish morality and the view, which Jews chose to take of
the world, and the whole life of Christ was a continual fight
against Jewdom. The excellent Lagarde (celebrated both as
an orientalist and an authority on the Bible, died 1891) said:
"No nation crucifies its ideal, and whoever is crucified by a
nation certainly does not correspond to the ideal of that particular nation." One must read the Gospel of St. John in
order to convince one's self how, on every occasion, the racial
contrast between the Galileans and the Jews bursts forth. But,
when the Jews boast of being the children of God, Christ
calls them the children of the devil (Gospel of St. John 8.
4445). It would scarcely be possible to make a more trivial and thoughtless remark than that the Jews bestowed
Christianity upon us, and therefore have a claim to our gratitude. But when this phrase is heard from the mouths of
the Jews themselves, the very summit of senselessness is
reached, and a piece of bluff is produced calculated only to
deceive those, who are utterly incapable of judgement. It is
only necessary to ask in return: If the Jews assign merit to
themselves on account of Christianity why are they content to pass on ungrudgingly to others, what can be proved
to be a great advance in moral perception and in the ennoblement of mankind, instead of also enriching themselves
therewith? And finally, above all, if the Jews of today, who
still harbour the utmost contempt and enmity towards Christ
and his teaching, claim merit for themselves by reason of the
Christian doctrine, will they not also take over part of the
responsibility for the torturing and martyring of Christ?

71

VII.

Jewish Successes In modern times.

Sombart points out that when the migration of the Jews
took place in the 16th century, a remarkable displacement of
the economic centre of Europe became perceptible. The
Hebrews, who had been turned out of Spain, migrated, for the
most part, (some authorities say 90,000) to European and
Asiatic Turkey, where they are known to the present day as
"Spanioles." Another large multitude (25,000) migrated to
Holland, Hamburg, and England. The remainder, about 50,000,
dispersed themselves amongst the various countries of Europe
and America. It is not disputed that, from that time, the
economic life of Spain suffered from a severe set-back, whilst,
in those places, to which the Jews had directed their foot-steps,
there was a sudden access of trade. There is, however,
nothing extraordinary in this, and the same thing could have
happened if people of another nationality and race had been
concerned in these migrations instead of the Hebrews. The
immigrations of the Huguenots, for instance, are a distinct proof
of this. Every extensive emigration is bound to produce a
set-back in the economic life of a country, whilst, on the other
hand, every considerable influx of population, irrespective of
whatever elements it may be composed, will always enliven
the economic life. We experience this, on a small scale, almost
every day the removal of a factory, of a garrison etc .
In our case it must be taken into consideration that the Hebrews, for the most part, brought capital with them and brought
it to countries, which were developing, and thus it would be
doubly beneficial from an economic point of view. We have already
recognised, earlier in this work, the kind of enlivenment, which
the Jew introduces into the economic life. It is the mobilisation of all values and forces, by which he imparts a tremen72

dous stimulus to political economy. But we have also seen

how this inflated economic life, which is, at the same time,
highly artificial, acts, in its final phases, devastatingly and destructively upon the nations.
Still, for the time being, the glory of enlivening trade and
international intercourse may be conceded to the Jews. But,
at the same time, one must not forget that they do not stimulate trade out of love for their fellow-men, but in order to
make profit for themselves. They produce, in all directions,
traffic and exchange, in order to derive the utmost benefits
for themselves thereby.
It is enough to take away one's breath when Sombart endeavours to convince us that modern colonial affairs owe their
development chiefly to the Hebrews. Certainly the Jews went
out also to the newly opened-up colonies, just as they go
anywhere where business prosperity entices them. And, for
this reason also, they were certainly amongst the first in the
newly opened-up America. Sombart serves up, for our edification, the unproved legend that a number of Jews were present in the ship of Columbus (but scarcely on the original
voyage of discovery), and that the first European, to step upon
American soil, was the Jew Luis de Torres. Yes, he even
maintains that the expeditions of Columbus were fitted out
exclusively with Jewish money, and that we have, accordingly,
to thank the Jews especially for the discovery of America.
Still more audacious is the conjecture that Columbus himself
may have been a Jew, simply because some Columbus-investigator claims to have discovered a family "Colon," into
which a Jewess married. This half-Jewish family Colon is
therefore asserted to be identical with the family Colombo.
A genealogical feat, which is not made any the more probable
by the fact that the Christian name Christobal occurs in both
families.
One can thus see how ready many people are, to assign
everything remarkable in the world to the Jews: and Sombart
surpasses himself, whilst calling attention to the fact that already
in the period 18201830 there were numerous Jewish firms
73

in America, by the audacious utterance: "America is, in all

respects, a Jewish country." He mentions with satisfaction that,
at the present moment, New York contains nearly a million
Jews, of whom the majority certainly have not yet begun their
capitalistic careers; and since all Hebrews, according to his
opinion, carry a passport for the territory of the millionaires
in their pockets, his exaggerated fancy sees in the America of
the future a land where there will only be Slavs and Negroes to
act as servants, and Hebrews to lord it as rulers. With the
fantastic imagination of an oriental, he calls the Jews, "the
golden thread, which runs through the texture of American
political economy."
He utters the following remarkable words with respect to
the colonies in general:
"Their economic body must have bled to death, if it had not been
fed from outside with a constant blood-stream in the form of precious
metal. Jewish commerce, however, directed this blood-stream into
the colonies."*

Here also we meet again the extraordinary idea, either that

all the Gold treasure in the world had always belonged to the
Jews, or that the Jews had, in some way, produced the Gold
themselves. In this respect one must always keep the fact
clearly before one's mind, that the Jew, in general, produces
nothing at all neither goods nor money, but that he possesses
an extraordinary knack of attracting the goods and money of
others into his hands, in order to pass the same on further,
after making a considerable profit for himself. And the simple
fact arises of its own accord out of all this: if the Jews had
not got the money, other people would have it; and other
people would look after what commerce was necessary if the
Hebrews were not always at hand to push them aside. There* It is a remarkable fact that no trace of the above is to be found
in our colonies. Out of the 35 milliards of German capital, which
Jewish trade has, for the most part, directed abroad, little enough has
fallen to our colonies, although it was precisely there, where problems
of incalculable importance for the development of the lands themselves
and for the mother-country, awaited solution. These problems, however,
were certainly not those of the money-bag alone.

74

fore again it is a curious kind of exaggeration when the learned

man, who pretends to regard matters objectively, states: "The
United States must thank the Jews that they The United
States exist at all". Is it not most peculiar that these Jews,
who are supposed to convey riches and life with them in all
directions, are never able to exist alone by themselves? That
they have never been able to create a self-supporting state,
and always required other men on whom to live, and of whom
to take advantage? If the Jews were really the great cultural
nation, which they are represented to be, they would, for once
and all, separate themselves from all other nations, and, established in their own colonial kingdom, would give proof of
their power and productivity.
Very probably a Jew was always on the spot wherever
there was prospect of business; but certainly not to benefit
the commonweal, but rather to utilise the opportunity and to
lay claim to the best for himself. Sombart himself has portrayed the process of the colonisation of North America as
follows:
"A body of absolutely reliable men and women say twenty families advanced into the wilderness, in order to begin life anew there.
Amongst these 20 families, 19 would be equipped with plough and
scythe, ready to cut down the woods, and to clear the steppe by fire,
and, by the work of their hands, to support themselves by cultivating
the land. But the twentieth family would open a shop in order to
provide their comrades quickly, by means of trade, with the requisite
utensils. This twentieth family would then, very soon, busy themselves
with the sale of the products, which the 19 other families would have
won from the soil. This family would be the one which would first
have ready cash at its disposal, and thus would be in the position, in
cases of need, to provide the others with loans. In many such cases
a "rural loan-bank" would attach itself to the shop etc etc."

He thus actually portrays, in sleek words, a picture of the

part, which the Hebrew plays amongst the working and productive nations; it appears to us, however, that the real cultural work is done by the people with the pick-axe and the
spade, with the plough and the scythe, and not by the shopman; and, there is no doubt that if no Hebrew is present to
act as shop-keeper, amongst the 20 other families there will
75

certainly be one, ready to act in this capacity as soon as the

necessity arises. For, after all, nothing is so easily learnt as
this elementary dealing in produce, and the lending of money;
and we experience every day and in every direction how
people of mean origin and very mediocre ability can take up
this kind of business with complete success. That the Hebrew,
with his peculiar talent for this branch of business, and, we
may well add, with his ruthless exploitation of the situation,
generally has more success than other and more ingenuous
men, we are quite willing to admit.
Further, Sombart tries to prove to us nothing less than that
the Hebrew has played an important part in the formation of
the modern state. He acknowledges that the Jews are, by
their very nature, a "non-national" or "unnational" people.
Actually with the exception of the former Jewish kingdom in
Palestine, they have never been able to found a state anywhere
in the world.* Nevertheless Sombart wishes to assign to
leading Jewish politicians an important share in the modern
state. It sounds almost like biting irony when he says:
"But even if we do not find any Jews amongst the rulers of the
modern state, we can scarcely imagine these rulers, we can scarcely
conceive of the modern prince, being without Jews".

Who, on reading the above, does not recall Talleyrand's

venomous words: "The Financier supports the state in the same
way as the rope supports the man who is hanged!" And
even Sombart, on referring to the conjunction of Prince and
Jew, cannot refrain from the ironical observation that if you
have a Faust you must also have a Mephistopheles. He
continues then:
"I consider that it was they (the Hebrews), before all others, who
placed the material means at the disposal of the state, as it came into
being, by which it could maintain itself and develop further."
* Even in this case they did not form, strictly speaking, a separate
country, but lived in the midst of the native Edomites, Canaanites,
Hittites, Amorites, Philistines, Galileans, Samaritans, and formed, apparently, only the monied bourgeoisie, while the real cultural work fell to
the lot of the others.

76

He certainly does not disclose to us where the Jews are

accustomed to procure these means, namely: if not out of
the state treasury, then out of the pockets of the people, who have
been fleeced. Also, he does not disclose to us how the Hebrews, before all others, have practised the art of plunging all countries deep
into debt, and again, how these state loans are nearly all negotiated
and created by Jews, in which process there lies a rich profit for
the broker or agent, as the state becomes, so to speak, a
cow to be milked for the benefit of the Hebrews. One is
entitled to ask the question: Do the Hebrews provide this
money out of love for the Prince and the State? or, do
not they rather provide it in order, by this means, to make
State and Prince dependent upon them, and to create an
economic system, by which they can, as it were, continuously
suck the marrow out of the bones of the nation?
One must again and again recall to one's mind that all the
so highly-praised services of the Jews do not arise from the
promptings of a humane heart but simply from the mania
for profit.
It is equally a matter for amazement when Sombart, with
extreme conscientiousness, gathers together all the facts of
how the Jews have always acted as army-contractors in times
of war, and appears inclined to assign great praise to them
for having undertaken a most meritorious service on behalf
of the state. The Jews certainly had a strong predilection for
army contracts, and it is equally certain that they always enriched themselves immoderately by this means.
In the disclosures about Poland (Page 42) it was shown that
the Jews, by means of their widely-extended organisation, held
the whole of the grain- and cattle-trade in their hands, and
thus there is nothing remarkable, if, in times of war, they are
the first on the spot and are the best able to undertake
army contracts. Nobody should believe that they do this out
of self-sacrifice for the state, and that they actually give something away, but it is a specific Jewish tactic to represent sly
profiteering as kindly acts undertaken for the good of the
community.
77

The following fact is immediately conceded; the non-Jewish

nations, and especially the Germanic people, are somewhat
simple and awkward as far as economic matters are concerned.
There are excellent, highly spiritual natures, in whom all matters
of money and accounting arouse an inward repugnance. And
it is just this weakness which one is equally justified in
regarding as strength, and which certainly has its foundation
in a lofty and spiritual constitution which the Hebrew has
always known so well how to exploit. He was always ready
to encourage this dislike to all money and commercial transactions, which existed, as one would naturally expect, in aristocratic circles, and offered his services as obsequious assistant
and agent. Sombart says of a Court Jew, Moses Elkhan, who
lived in Frankfurt a. M. about 1700:
"The industrious man, who procured jewelry for the Princess, cloth
for the livery of the head-chamberlain, delicacies for the head-cook, was
also quite ready to negotiate loans."

This would constitute in itself a meritorious beginning, and

would allow the Hebrew to appear as a useful member of
society, if he had confined himself to taking a moderate
remuneration for the performance of the above duties, and
had not mixed himself up in other affairs. But the Hebrew
has no time and no inclination for the simple discharge, for
a moderate remuneration, of such duties as have been mentioned: for him they are rather the opportunity to make other
people dependent upon him, and to acquire a determining
influence over affairs. Everywhere he plays the rle of Joseph
in Egypt, whom Potiphar placed in authority over all his
property, and who soon lulled his lord and master into such
a state of comfortable indolence that it is said of the latter:
"He made everything over into Joseph's hands, and no longer
took interest in anything except eating and drinking." This
was the first step for Joseph towards the all-powerful position
of the Finance-man of Egypt, in which capacity he fleeced
country and people to their very shirts. (See I Moses 17, 1320.)
For the Hebrew does not aim merely at profit; he desires
to exploit, to rule and to subjugate. He soon finds out how
78

to place the yoke of compulsion on to his confiding clients,

and to keep a tight hand over them. He is not acquainted
with the maxim: "Live and let live;" he releases nothing until he has seized all for himself.
But it does not matter what the Hebrews do; Sombart always knows how to direct a ray of sunshine upon their deeds
so as to beautify the same. Speaking of our time, he mentions
boastfully, that, at the present day, the Court Jew has been
done away with, and that the loaning of money (we could
also say usury) to princes and states is no longer the business
of one individual, but that all opulent Jewdom takes part
cooperatively in the business. And Sombart regards this also
as a virtue on their part. He says:
"And now again it is the Jews, who have helped to perfect this
modern system of loans. It is they, who have made themselves superfluous as monopolizers of money-lending and, by so doing, have contributed so much the more to the founding of the great states."

What nobility of soul! might one exclaim. But one

really does not know if it is supposed to be praise or blame,
when Sombart ascribes the "Commercialisation of the Economic
Life" to the Hebrews, understanding thereby, the resolving of
all economic occurrences into sheer commercial transactions.
He discerns, as the final accomplishment of capitalism, the
"transmutation of political economy into a series of Stock Exchange operations."* He says:
"First of all a process is completed, which one might call the manufacture of credit, and the materialisation of the same in the shape of
paper securities. Closely connected with this is the occurrence, known
under the name of "Mobilisation", or, if one prefers a German word,
the marketing of these claims." (Page 60).

We have accustomed ourselves, in modern times, to understand by the word "Credit" something full of value, and precious in the highest degree; sober-minded people call it in
plain English: "Begging for a loan economy", and one might just
as well call the "making objective of claims", the "con* T r a n s l a t o r ' s n o t e . To convey the exact sense of the word
"Verbrsianisierung" one must coin an English equivalent viz "Stock
Exchangisation".

79

version of all values into paper form", that is to say: the transformation of all objects of value into easily transportable Promissory Notes. The creative part, which the Jews play in this
transformation of the economic life, we will allow to pass
unchallenged; it is quite another question whether this proceeding finally is wholesome for mankind. It is not denied that
objects of value, when transformed into paper (shares, mortgage-bonds, bills etc) are a commercial convenience, and facilitate the flow of business on the various markets. But, in this
mobilisation of all values lies also a great economic danger.
Let one imagine, for instance, that a millionaire finally acquires
the power of buying an unheard-of quantity of such paper
securities, including the title-deeds to a considerable portion
of our Father-land, which he then sticks into his pocket in
order to take up his residence in some foreign country. In
every case, everything, including even the land itself, is thus
easily made an object for speculation. And in all this, the
Hebrew pursues if not a conscious calculation then solely
his racial instincts. The nomad, in whom the sense of constancy and of a desire for a permanent habitation is wanting,
wishes to make everything transportable, so that it may easily
be carried with him wherever he goes, just like the silver
and golden vessels and utensils were taken out of Egypt.
The fore-runner of the paper security, namely the saleable
or negotiable promissory note, is already to be found in the
Bible, and in the Talmud, as Sombart points out. The loaning
of money and commercial business are actually the twin suns,
around which the whole essence and being of Jewish life
revolve, and so there is nothing to wonder at if these two
conceptions find an important place in the religious writings
of the Jews. One can learn from a certain passage taken from
the Rabbi Schabbatai Cohen, and which Sombart quotes, that
the activity of the Rabbis extended also into the business
organisation. The passage mentioned speaks of regulations
introduced by the Rabbis for the extension of commerce.
The Rabbi in question regrets that the trade in promissory
notes cannot be very large on account of the amount of detail
80

involved in a transaction of this kind, boasts, on the other

hand, that in his time (in the 17th century) the turnover in
note-of-hand or paper acknowledgments was considerably greater
than in actual property, and states therefore that the decrees
of the Rabbis for the extension of trade deserve the closest
consideration.
One can see from this that the rle of the Rabbi in Jewdom
is something quite different from that of a Christian pastor or
clergyman. The Rabbi is not only priest and guardian of the
soul, but he is also adviser on business matters,* and as
we shall learn later on political organiser and leader of
his congregation.
The conversion of all economic values into paper arises, in
the case of the Hebrew, still more from the mania for creating continuously fresh material for trade; for trade appears to
him to be a purpose in itself a s the real object of life, and
all his thoughts are concentrated on the extension of trade.
To us, trade is only a necessary kind of evil, a servant, as it
were, to production and consumption; the Hebrew, however,
regards the world as having been created for the sole purpose
of being turned into a huge shop full of goods. Whilst we
regard each promissory note, each paper security, simply as
representing a receipt for a loan or value received, the Hebrew
makes "trade-material" out of the same. Sombart says:
"The effect (Paper Security) is intended by its very nature for traffic,
and it has failed to perform its function if it is not traded with."

This is a specific Jewish perception, which is not clear to

us without further explanation, but we hear at once that it is
grounded upon the nomadic view of the world:
"Any peculiarity, which our economic life experiences from the perfectionment of the paper security, is derived exclusively from the
mobility of the same, which makes it extraordinarily well adapted for
quick transfer."
* This is made manifest by the fact that the Stock-Exchange prices
from Berlin are announced by telephone to the Rabbis in the provinces
at the same time as they are announced to the banking businesses in the
same places.

81

We ask: is then quick change of possession a necessity for

a healthy condition of political economy? Is it indispensable
for a settled and productive nation? Is anything of a positive
nature accomplished by the continual "shoving-about" of values
in all directions? Sound, economically-productive circles have
no interest in such a constant change of proprietors; steadiness
and certainty of duration must appeal to them as far more
desirable objects. But the Hebrew combines with this easy
saleableness of values yet another purpose; the traffic in paper
securities, owing to the perpetual shifting in values on the Stock
Exchange, means to him constant opportunity for profit-making;
and we shall learn later on, how this profiteering is carried
on at the expense of the honest and productive section of the
community.

During the perception of such matters the contrast between

two views of the world unconsciously reveals itself. The
settled man desires continuance and steadiness, the nomad
sudden change and mobilisation. Sombart admits that this
strange principle of easy change of proprietorship, and of
constant alteration of values, was foreign to the German, and
also to the Roman Law, and that it, in all probability, had its
origin in Jewish mentality.* Quite comprehensible, for the law
of mobilisation is the law of sudden change and revolution.
Sombart calls the Jewish Law "traffic-friendly": that is only a
circumlocution for the idea of mobilisation and the shifting of
values. While we should like to see trade confined to what
is necessary, the Jew strives to extend it beyond all limits,
and into every conceivable domain. The constant endeavour
of the Hebrews is to procure for trade the utmost freedom
from restriction. Under the expression "Protection for the
market", they demand an unconditional recognition of, and
sanction for all trade customs. They go so far as to demand
* Compare Richard Schrder: "Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte" (History of
German Law.)

82

that stolen articles, which are found in the hands of Jewish

"receivers", shall not be reclaimed by the lawful owner. This
principle has already been enunciated in the Talmud, and it
has been repeatedly corroborated, especially in the Middle
Ages, by the privileges given to the Jews. According to
Jewish perception, the right to buy ranks higher than the
right to own, and the relative legislation aims almost at giving
privileges to receivers of stolen goods!

83

VIII.

The Stock-Exchange.
The Jewish World of Trade and Mobilisation achieves its
greatest triumph on the Stock-Exchange. The Stock-Exchange
might well be although Sombart does not put forward this
claim on behalf of the Jews in its present day form an
invention of the Hebrews in every respect. Originally it was
merely the meeting-place for merchants, where they bought and
sold their goods according to sample. All trade on the Exchange
related originally to "effective" goods, that is to say, to goods,
which actually existed, and of which, samples had to be produced. Even today business of this kind is still transacted on
the Exchange, but the extent of the trade there has increased
considerably. Not only are goods bought and sold there, which
are really warehoused somewhere, but also goods, which time
alone can produce yes, goods even, which do not exist and
which never will exist. It is justifiable, under certain circumstances, to secure in advance, delivery of goods for a future
date, and therefore purchase-contracts on the Exchange, which
refer to a future delivery of the goods, are comprehensible.
The manufacturer, who has pledged himself for months in advance to supply certain of his customers with certain wares
at regular intervals, is naturally interested in also securing the
necessary raw material in advance. He accordingly buys "on
term", that is to say: he enters into contracts today at fixed
prices, which contracts shall only become "effective" at a future
date or "term." Trade of this kind has nothing actually objectionable in itself, although it was simply forbidden on the
sound mercantile exchanges of the olden times. But, at any
rate, this method of doing business opened the path to unlimited speculation. By this means large quantities of goods
can be bought and sold, which are never delivered, and which
84

are never intended to be delivered. Buyer and seller make

a bet, so to speak, as to whether a commodity at some future
date will cost more or less than at the present moment. Settlement is effected on the following lines, that one party has
to pay out, on the appointed date, the difference between
the arranged price, and the price quoted, for the day in question,
on the Stock Exchange list.
Thus this "term-trading" becomes simply a business of
differences, and does not rank any higher than gambling and
betting. This game of "differences" might appear harmless if
it were a private affair, and did not exert its influence upon
the genuine fluctuation in the prices of goods. For, when
business in "differences" is undertaken to a far greater extent
than the real business purchases, the basic price, at which the
business in "differences" has been concluded, must, of necessity,
influence the price of the actual goods. The fixing of the
daily price results from the general average of the prices, at
which the purchases have been concluded, and, generally
speaking, one is not able to say whether the latter represent
genuine sales of goods, or merely a gamble in "differences."
It can also be the case that someone buys himself free from
his contract to deliver the actual goods, by paying the pricedifference. Accordingly there is no hard and fast line between
genuine purchases and mere speculations in prices.
The essence of the so-called "speculation" consists in
making sham purchases on the Stock Exchange so as to create
an artificial influence on the movement of prices; and, apart
from the fact that this gambling in "differences" ruins many
a person, it is thoroughly repugnant to the sense of sound
political economy. Strictly speaking, every purchase, which
does not aim at satisfying the requirement of the moment,
but has rather the object of utilising the occasion to lay up
cheap goods for a future date, is of a speculative nature. It
is more usual, however, to understand by speculation on the
Stock Exchange, sham purchases and the trade with imaginary
values, as opposed to trade in real values.
85

The machinations, connected with unsound business on the

Exchange, and which first appear on the Produce Markets,
assume a more pronounced character on the Stock and Share
Market. Here, along with the national loans, it is particularly
the railway-stocks and the shares in industrial undertakings,
which form an important object of trade. The computation
of the value of the share depends, generally speaking, upon
the rate of interest paid during recent years, which is not by
any means an infallible guide as to what the returns will be
in the future. The art of the guiding factors, on the Stock Exchange
consists in creating, above all things, a favourable atmosphere.
Reports are inserted in the newspapers in order to cast a
more or less favourable light upon an undertaking, and to
anticipate a higher or lower dividend as the case may be. The
public is thus seduced into buying or selling the paper securities in question. Certainly a preliminary condition to the
successful carrying-out of this manoeuvre is that the public press
puts itself at the disposal of the powers in question. This is
easily managed. Some of the matadors of the Stock Exchange
are themselves owners of newspapers, or are connected with
the same as secret partners, others again, through the agency
of influential banking-firms, procure favourable notices from the
press by making considerable payments to the latter in the
shape of orders for costly advertisements. By far the largest
portion of the public press, in all countries, is actually under
the influence of the magnates of the Stock Exchange, and to
this extent Sombart is correct when he states that the Jews
took a substantial part in the development of the modern
Stock Exchange.
But business on the Stock Exchange only yields a sure
result when it is transacted by secret collusion, that is to say by
gangs or bands. If individual always opposed individual on
the Stock Exchange, the formation and quotation of prices
would pursue an even and reliable path, and profit and loss
would be more or less dependent upon chance. It might
then well happen that what was lost one day might be regained on another. Matters take a very different course when
86

a secret organisation of certain brokers exists, and when all

the partners in the same, who have a mutual understanding,
operate simultaneously according to a pre-arranged plan. In a
case of this kind, the price is like a ball, which can be tossed
about at the pleasure of this organised clique.
Let anyone represent to himself the following position: the
number of shares actually on the market are limited. One
knows, for instance, the exact number of shares in any undertaking. If now, several of the larger banking firms and stockbrokers are working in conjunction with one another, they
can very easily ascertain what number of the shares of any
undertaking are held by the public, and what number are in
the hands of the operating banks and brokers. The aim and
object of the secret confederates we will make use of a
Jewish expression and call them the "Chawrusse" consist,
as one can easily understand, in buying up paper securities
at a low price, and in selling the same at a high price. And
this business is effected in the simplest way possible. As
soon as any particular paper security is held to a very large
extent by the public, all that is necessary to do is to arouse
suspicion about the same. The view is spread abroad by
means of suitable and cleverly-worded press-notices, that the
security in question has no prospects, and that only a poor
dividend can be expected. At once a number of the holders
endeavour to get rid of the shares in question, and the price
steadily falls as the shares are offered for sale. The large
stock-brokers help in the process by instructing their agents
on other stock-exchanges to offer, whatever they hold of the
security in question, at declining prices. They do not run
any risk by doing this, for nobody wants to buy the discredited shares. Thus, by reason of these carefully planned and
continued influences, the price of the paper security in question
falls, day by day; and then, and then only, when a heavy fall
in the price has set in, does the "Chawrusse" begin, in all
secrecy, to carry out their purchases. They buy up the shares,
at the greatly depreciated price, and know how to maintain
it at this low level until they hold the greater number of the
87

shares in their own hands. Then the page is at last turned

over. All at once, the "well-informed" financial press announces that the former suspicions, with regard to the prosperity
of the undertaking, were without any foundation, and that it
promises, on the contrary, to pay an excellent dividend very
shortly. Immediately the price of the shares begins to "recover",
to use a stock-exchange expression, and here also assistance
is given by the instigation of a zealous but absolutely artificial
enquiry for the shares. But, for the time being, the "Chawrusse" withholds all the "material" i. e the shares. The tension,
due to the growing demand and the scanty supply, contributes to a further rise in the price, and it is only when the
"Chawrusse" consider that their profit is large enough that
they begin to unload their stored-up shares at the enhanced
price. If, after the course of several weeks or months, as the
case may be, they have relieved themselves of enough of their
treasure, they turn the point of the spear in the opposite
direction. They suddenly make a forced sale of the remainder
of their shares, and arrange that the financial press shall
publish articles to correspond; the price gives way, and the
old game begins once more. It is instructive to note that, in
these transactions, it is invariably the "Chawrusse", who gain,
and the dear Public who are duped.
Some simple-natured people look up with respectful awe
to the ingenious heads, who direct our stock-exchange affairs,
and who, in spite of all fluctuations on the Bourse, always
contrive, with "miraculous certainty," to secure the advantage.
The former imagine that an almost superhuman capability is
requisite to survey the situation on the money-market aright,
and to grapple with the circumstances as they alter. Good,
trusting folk! If they only knew how it was done they might
well say, to paraphrase an old saying: "One cannot believe
what a little understanding is required to rule over the stock
exchanges of the world."
The indispensable condition for success, however, is combined action: the Chawrusse. He, who ventures into the
combat on the Stock-Exchange as a free-lance, must not be
88

surprised if he emerges from

the struggle stripped of all
his feathers. Success is assured only to organised bands. It is
a well-known fact that, in every game, if two or more of the
players have a secret understanding with one another, they
always gain the advantage, and "let the others in." They
know how to communicate by secret signs, and play into
one another's hands. On this account also, one of the conspirators can attach himself to the losing side, without the
least apprehension, for he knows that he will receive his
share of the profits eventually from his fellow-conspirators.
This is the secret of the Stock Exchange. And it is only the
elect of the people of Israel, who form the conspirators of
the "Chawrusse." The transactions of the Stock-Exchanges,
at the present day, are nothing less than swindling; the artificial quotations are made by the "Chawrusse," supply and
demand are artificially created, and all this takes place with
the sole object of fleecing the unsuspecting, productive nations
by the continual rise and fall of the Stock Exchange quotations,
and of adding incessantly to the wealth of Israel.
And this important secret, of which Sombart unfortunately
has betrayed nothing to us,* is the secret combined action
of the Hebrews, of which we spoke on page 39 and the
following pages, and which extends over many other domains
as well. This secret hand-in-hand working has always been
the chief strength of the Jews, and which has naturally always
given them an advantage over all sound, straightforward traders. We are not at all astonished when we read in Sombart: "Already in the year 1685 the Christian merchants of
Frankfort were complaining that the Jews had gained possession of the entire broker- and bill-discounting business;" and
that in the year 1733 the Hamburg merchants lamented that:
"The Jews were entirely masters of the bill-discounting business,
and had out-stripped our people."
* Anyone, who requires further information on this subject, can find
enlightenment in Kolk's "Das Geheimnis der Brsenkurse" ("The secret
of Stock Exchange quotations"), Leipzig. Herm. Beyer 1893, and also
in the Germanicus Pamphlets. See page 34.

89

Let us then grant to the Hebrews the glory which Sombart

claims for them; i. e. of being inventors of trading in "Futures"
and of being the fathers of speculation ("Jobbing") on the
Stock Exchange. And this questionable practice is introduced
by the Hebrews wherever they settle. During the 13th and
14th centuries, when they were present preponderatingly in
Northern Italy*, Sombart informs us that stock-jobbing was,
at that time, in full swing in Genoa, and that speculation, in
the form of "futures" and "differences", was carried on to
a considerable extent at Venice so much in fact, that in the
year 1421, a prohibition had to be issued against trading in
bankers' bills.
The mania for speculation accompanied the Hebrews to
Holland as well, where, in the course of the 17th century, the
shares of the East India Company furnished the material for
an arrant piece of stock-jobbing. It is there where Sombart
seeks the source of the modern Stock Exchange speculation.
Here also was issued a proclamation of the States General
in the year 1610, forbidding, "the sale of more shares than
one actually possessed." This prohibition was followed by
many others, whereby Sombart remarks: "naturally without
having the slightest result." Our author (Sombart) boasts that
the Jews invented dealing in shares. A questionable glory indeed, for, in a report from the French ambassador at the Hague
to his government in the year 1698, the former expresses himself in an extremely outspoken manner: "the Jews have control of the entire business in paper securities on the Stock Exchange, and regulate it as they see fit"; and, according to the
same report, "the prices of shares fluctuate so incessantly that
they give rise to transactions several times in the course of
the day, a kind of business, which rather deserves the name
of gambling or betting, all the more, as the Jews, who are
at the bottom of all this activity, carry out masterstrokes of
artifice, by which the people are again and again 'let in' and
made fools of."
* The business of loaning paper securities (Lombardising?) which takes
its name from the Lombards, dates from this period.

90

Sombart informs us, with reference to the activity of the

Hebrews in England, during the reign of William III. (1689
1702), that the chief negotiators of the first loan were Jews;
they were ready at hand with their advice when the Orangeman began his reign. The rich Hebrew, Medina, was banker
to the English Commander-in-chief, Marlborough (16501722),
and paid the latter a fixed yearly salary of 6,000 (120,000 Marks),
for which he acquired the right to receive all the war intelligence direct from head-quarters.
"The victories of the English army brought as much profit to him as
they reflected glory on the soldiers of England." (Sombart page 106)
All the tricks of raising and depressing prices, false news from the theatre
of war, the pretended arrival of couriers, the secret coteries on the
Stock Exchange, the entire hidden machinery of Mammon, were wellknown to the first fathers of the Bourse, and were utilised by them to
the utmost extent."

We learn concerning Mannasseh Lopez, the body-physician

of Queen Elisabeth of England, that he made a large fortune
by circulating a false report that the Queen was dead, and by
buying up the public funds which consequently fell in value.*
Nathan Meyer Rothschild of London had reports sent to him in
Brussels, by Jewish spies, concerning the issue of the battle
of Belle-Alliance, so that he could travel back with the news
to London by express post and special ship. On his arrival
he circulated a false rumour concerning the result of the battle,
which was the immediate cause of a tremendous drop in the
prices of English and German paper securities. He bought
up the depreciated securities secretly in enormous quantities,
and, when 24 hours later, the London Stock Exchange learnt
the true issue of the battle, and, at the same time, that Rothschild had made fools of them, he Rothschild was many
millions richer.
Sombart allows that John Law (1671 1721) the author of
the notorious fraud in the shares of trading companies, may
have been a Hebrew, and that his real name was probably Levi.
* He ended on the gallows, a fate which he incurred for betraying
the English interests to Philip II of Spain. (Drumont: "La France juive.")

91

Of kindred spirit to these Jewish "statesmen" was the notorious "Demon of Wrttemberg": Sss-Oppenheimer (hanged 1734).
The Hebrews also introduced the traffic in shares into Hamburg, in the 18th century, and carried it on to such an outrageous extent, that the Hamburg Council issued a proclamation, in 1720 prohibiting the practice. Today, it is represented
as being the narrow view of reactionary circles to speak of
business on the Stock Exchange with anything but the most
profound respect; but, as Sombart himself confesses, this view
of those, who are called today "Provincials" and "Agrarians",
was, in the 18th century, the settled opinion of the sound merchant. During the debate upon John Bernhardt Act in the
English Parliament in 1733, the "infamous practice of stockjobbing" was condemned unanimously by all the speakers.
What have not our Hebrews accustomed us to in the meantime!
Sombart has already said (P. 112) of the time in question:
"Public debts were regarded as the shameful side "Partie honteuse" of national life. The best men saw, in the rapidly advancing
indebtedness, one of the worst evils, which could be inflicted upon the
community."

The extension of the market in shares from 18001850 is

regarded by Sombart as being of equal significance as the
expansion of the House of Rothschild.
"The name of Rothschild means more than the firm; it means all
Jewdom as far as the Stock Exchange is concerned; for, only with the
help of their compatriots could the Rothschilds reach their position of
power, which dominates all others, and obtain the entire mastery of the
Stock Exchange."

This is a complete confirmation of the "playing into one

another's hands", which characterises the Jews, and which we
have always insisted upon; this is our "Chawrusse" and its secret;
this is organised Jewdom, which has turned the Stock Exchange
into a cupping-glass to bleed the nations (compare chapter IV).
Sombart says further:
"If, in this way, the sphere of the money-lender was considerably
extended, the Rothschilds also took good care to adopt further measures
for squeezing the last farthing out of the community. This was brought
about by skilfully utilising the Stock Exchange for the purpose of emission
or issuing into circulation."

92

This step on the part of the Rothschilds soon brought into

this kind of activity other, and questionable followers and
imitators, in the shape of "Banks of issue or emission." These
deflect German "spare" capital abroad to an incredible extent
(but not to our colonies!)* thereby depriving the homecountry of the money, which is required for economic purposes,
and depressing the value** of our national paper securities,
upon which countless citizens depend for the proper and regular payment of their interest. These "banks of issue," at the
same time, secure enormous profits for themselves by their
activity, which is absolutely destructive to all national economy,
and which is either inadequately taxed, or escapes taxation
altogether. Only a severe legal restriction and even, from time
to time, an absolute prohibition of the issue of foreign securities,
by means of the Stock Exchange, could remedy this nuisance.
Sombart then continues:
" 'Create a favourable atmosphere', was the watchword, which, from
this moment, dominated all traffic on the Stock Exchange. 'Creating a
favourable atmosphere', was the aim and object of the unceasing fluctu* "The amount of German "working" capital, invested abroad, was estimated in 1912 at 35 Milliards of marks (France 30, England colonies
excepted 33 Milliards of marks).
** On the occasion of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the
accession of the Emperor William II., when there was a great deal of
grandiloquent talk concerning the "unexampled development" of the
German economic life during the past 25 years, the T-gliche Rundschau" published, side by side, for the purpose of comparison, several
Stock Exchange quotations from 1888 and 1913. According to this, the
following prices were current:
1888

1913

4% German Imperial Loan

107.00
98.10
3% " " "
102.00
84.90
98.10
106.90
4% Prussian Consols
103.50
84.90
3% " "
Here is proof, in cold, hard figures, of crushing weight, with which to
confront those who speak of the "unexampled development of the
last 25 years", and of the blessings conferred on the nation by the
"Emission-activity," or the "Activity in issuing", of certain "great banks",
which "opens the doors of foreign countries", but which, however,
only causes the empire, our states and cities, and finally our citizens,
enormous losses.

93

ations in the market-prices, caused by the systematic sale and purchase

of shares, just as the Rothschilds manoeuvred when they were about to
'launch an issue'. In order to obtain command of the Stock Exchange
and the Money Market, all possible means, which stood at their disposal, were utilised; all paths, which might lead to the attainment of
the desired object, were traversed; every conceivable trick of the Stock
Exchange, and of anywhere else, was practised; all levers were put
into motion; money was sacrificed both in large and small sums. The
Rothschilds practised 'Agiotage' (Stock-jobbing) in the narrower sense
which the French attach to the word. Up till then, the great bankinghouses had never done this, at any rate, openly. The Rothschilds employed the expedient of artificially influencing the market by creating
a favourable atmosphere, which practice had been introduced by the
Amsterdam Jews for a new object viz the launching of shares."

This is a literal quotation from Sombart; and it is the same

thing, which the wicked Anti-Semites have been saying for
30 years. This activity of a great banking-house had in view,
the placing of golden fetters upon Governments, in order to
compel the latter to create more public debts. The Rothschilds
have made it their business to burden the different countries
with the necessary public debts; with this object in view they
understood how to create artificially the occasion for making
a public or national debt. According to the latest reports (1913)
they have reached Ecuador with their "opening-up activity."
Soon we shall hear the Press tune up, preparatory to bursting
into hymns of praise concerning this "land of promise".
In addition to the fabrication of public bonds and obligations
by the gentlemen, who manufacture stocks and shares, the
Flotation and Mortgage business soon made an appearance.
The industrial undertakings were "financed" and "discounted",
on a miniature scale, in just the same way as the various states
were on a large scale. In order to provide new trading values
for the Stock Market, it became necessary to buy up the sound
businesses of private people, and to convert the same into
shareholder companies; that is to say, to float them. Otto Glogau
has bequeathed to us a valuable book about the Flotation
Swindle in Berlin in the years 18701873*. It shows that,
* "Der Brsen- und Grndungsschwindel in Berlin" (The Stock Exchange and Flotation-Swindle in Berlin) Leipzig 1877.

94

in this case also, the Hebrews were always the active spirits,
and that it was only for the better concealment of this fact,
as far as the public was concerned, that a number of more
or less innocent Germans aristocrats whenever it was possible
to procure them were pushed to the front as dummies.
What Jews, and the companions of Jews, brought to pass on
this occasion, belongs to the most impudent of political comedies.
When, according to their opinion, they had sufficiently plundered the masses at the time of the Flotations, and saw their
erections of swindles on the verge of collapsing, they put up
their tribal companion, Lasker, the then leader and particular
star of the National Liberal Party, in the Reichstag, to play the
part of the suppressor of "Flotations". He then unearthed,
with great tumult, several members of the Conservative Party
whom, he asserted, were implicated in "Flotations", but let the
chief culprits, who were his tribal brethren and Liberal Party
friends, escape scot-free. Thereby he secured the double advantage of diverting the resentment of the public, who had lost
enormous sums, from the real culprits to the opposing political
parties, and of posing, at the same time, as the guardian of
public morality. The Jew-controlled press also helped, for all
it was worth, to fan the universal indignation against the unfortunate scape-goats in the Conservative camp.*

Our professional political economists of the High Schools

unfortunately do not report any of these ugly facts, any more
than they mention the baneful effect, which the game on the
Stock Exchange has on the National Wealth, and on the entire
economic and public life: they even lift up their voices in
praise of the beneficial development of the Stock Exchange,
and all connected with it. Glogau, in his book, which we
have already mentioned, calls the learned political economists
* The Jewish statistician, Ernst Engels, estimated the losses on the
Berlin Stock Exchange alone, during the "Flotation Years", at 700 million
Thalers, and Glogau estimated double.

95

the chief allies of the "Flotation" gang, because they so disgracefully neglect their duty as instructors and guardians of
the people, and he regards it as being beyond doubt that
many of these political economists are directly paid for their
opinion and instruction by the Stock Exchange.
Sombart then proceeds to speak of the "commercialisation
of Industry": it would be better to use plain English, and to
call it "converting Industry into material to job and huckster
with". Industry thus becomes a mere object of speculation
for the Stock Exchange; Production is a matter of secondary
importance.
"In the Speculation Banks", says Sombart,
"capitalistic development reaches its highest point. With their
help, the commercialisation of the economic life is carried to
the extreme, and Stock Exchange organisation becomes complete." He then says concerning these Speculation Banks:
"They take part, to a very considerable extent, in speculation, either
directly or else by way of the "Report" business, which, it is notorious,
has become, at the present moment, the mightiest and most important
lever of speculation. By means of loaning speculative securities, the
banks are thereby placed in a position, by acquiring other securities at
a cheap price, to create the impression that money is plentiful and is
accompanied also by a desire to buy. Thus, on the one hand, a power
of creating an upward movement in prices is easily acquired, and this
power can be reversed just as easily to depress prices, by depreciating
the store of available securities. The great banks accordingly, hold the
handle, which controls the machine called the Stock Exchange, literally
in their hand." (Page 129) And further: "The heads of the banks, who
control the Stock Exchange, tend more and more to become entire
masters of the economic life."

Sombart refers to the notorious "Crdit mobilier" in Paris

as nothing better than a speculation bank. This "bank" was
founded by the Portuguese Jews, Isaac and Emil Pereira; other
large share-holders in this undertaking are Torlonia of Rome,
Salomon Heine of Hamburg, and Oppenheim of Cologne. Sombart also includes in the species of speculation-banks, the Berlin
Diskonto-Gesellschaft, founded by David Justus Ludwig Hansemann, and the Berlin Handels-Gesellschaft, in close connection
with which, stand the Darmstadt Bank, and the Berlin banking
96

firms of Mendelsohn, Bleichrder, Warschauer, and the brothers

Schickler. The above-mentioned also adds: "The Jewish elements also preponderate amongst the founders of the Deutsche
Bank." (Page 129)
Thus, the international character of the "Speculation-Banks"
is proved, and accordingly the part which they play in the
trade and intercourse of the world.

97

IX.

How Sound Business Methods

are forced out of the field by the Jews.
Sombart also recognises the Jewish influence upon the
mental attitude adopted by the capitalist towards political
economy. He acknowledges that, owing to the peculiar Jewish
spirit, something of an alien nature is introduced into our life,
and he is in a position to understand how it is that, merchants, who are not Jews, and their spokesmen resent these
conditions, and display a deep sense of injury, which is quite
comprehensible. He perceives in all this a "quite natural
reaction against the Jewish disposition, which is of a fundamentally different order." He refers constantly to the pages
of history in order to establish how the sound commercial
spirit has protested for centuries, in a similar manner, against
the disorder caused by the Jews in trade. Everywhere and
always the same complaint. Thus, the various trades and
professions in the Mark of Brandenburg, in the year 1672,
complain "that the Jews take away the food from the mouths
of the other inhabitants of the land." The mercantile community of Danzig, in the year 1717, expressed themselves in
almost identical terms. In 1740 a petition to the Prince
Bishop of Mainz complains "that it is a matter of common
knowledge that the Jews are the cause of ruin and destruction
to the rest of the community." And it is the same story in
every country to which the Jews come. In England also, the
sound mercantile community resists the intrusion of the Jewish
spirit with similar expressions of opinion. The business people
of Toulouse in France complained in the year 1745: "We implore you urgently to check the progress of this nation, as
there is no doubt whatever that it will wreck the entire trade
of Languedoc." In Sweden, in Poland, everywhere the same
98

picture. A moralist of that period reports with reference to

the Jewry of Berlin: "They support themselves by means of
robbery and deceit, which, according to their ideas, are not
regarded as crimes." The behaviour of the Jews was felt
universally to be an offence against the good customs of the
commercial community. Sombart concedes that, in all this,
a battle between two antagonistic views or perceptions of the
world is evident. In the settled organisation of society as it
used to be, in what are called "the olden times," man was
the centre of interest, and the object of all regulations and
laws was to render the existence of the honest worker as
secure as it could be made. The production of goods was
proportioned to the actual need, and, in the sound development of all businesses, each honest worker and trader received
his fair share. Struggling to obtain unlimited profit was regarded as improper and un-Christian; nobody deliberately endeavoured to enrich himself by damaging, or at the expense of,
another. A spirit of social harmony pervaded all, each found
his own path, and could exist honestly.
Into this state of social harmony the Jew now stepped, with
his entirely different mind and irreconcilable disposition. He
had nothing to give neither productive talents nor capacity
for honest, straightforward work; consequently he had to secure
an existence by cunning. To him, trade was not only as it
was according to the Christian perception the willing companion of, or the necessary complement to Production and
Consumption, but a way and means also for the enrichment
of the individual, and for the obtainment of mastery over others.
A moderate profit meant nothing to him; he desired great surpluses, which would enable him to heap up capital and thereby
become a despot with the power to oppress.
This new tendency naturally brought a very disturbing element
into the organic nature of society as it was then constituted.
Up till that time all business life and all social cooperation had
been based on good-will and trust; now a hostile element
stepped between, an element which did not lay claim to be
trusted, and did not repose trust in anyone. The Hebrew
99

considered that he was quite within his rights in abusing the

confidence of others; he even despised them on that account,
and designated trustfulness as sheer stupidity. This is the
bottomless chasm, which separates the Hebrews' view of life
from ours, and across which no bridge will ever be constructed. The contest has always been an unequal one for
the two antagonists. The Hebrew arrived as conscious opponent, with no quarter for those who were not Jews; the artless Christian Aryan, however, took pains, in accordance with
the teachings of his religious instructors, to see, in the Hebrew,
a fellow-man who was to be met, before all others, with trust
and love, because he belonged to the nation from which our
Saviour was said to be sprung. Thus, heart and home were
opened alike, in all directions, to the foreign intruder. The
latter knew well how to profit splendidly by this, but not
without sneering to himself at the confidence reposed in him,
which he regarded as nothing less than stupidity. And, as
a matter of fact, it is fit material for derision that the Aryan
nations, even up to the present day, fail to grasp the situation.
Certainly there has been a silent conspiracy for centuries
on the part of School and Church, on the part of the Law
and the Press, to mask this situation, but, now and again,
sound national common-sense perceived instinctively that the
crime, which the ancient Jews committed against the Saviour,
outweighed ten times any merit, which their successors might
claim, on account of their descent, and the contemporary
Jews were taken for what they really were: mysterious beings,
alien in blood and country, usurers, dabblers, spies, cheats
and voluptuaries.

The complaints of those, who carried on industry in the

olden times, are all pitched in the same key, like the reluctant admissions of the clergy, concerning the spoliation of the
departing crusaders in the 13th century, whom the Jews deprived of everything they possessed in exchange for bad equipment and faulty weapons. Thus we read very significant
100

with respect to the mania for dealing, which dominates the

Jews in a complaint from the tradespeople of Hannover in
the 18th century: "The trade in manufactured goods has fallen
completely into the hands of the Jews. The Jew, by preference,
stocks his shop with foreign hats, shoes, stockings, leather
gloves, furniture and ready-made clothing of all kinds, and on
the other hand, they prefer to export all raw material out of
the country" (compare page 42). And again: "the Jews entice
away the customers of their neighbours. They lie in waiting
everywhere, both for the buyers and the sellers", a practice
which had been regarded hitherto as a gross offence against
commercial etiquette. In 1685, the gold workers in Frankfort a.M.
complained that the Jews had secretly bought up, under their
very noses, and carried off by means of their numerous spies,
all the available scrap gold and silver. In 1703, the furriers
at Knigsberg gave utterance to a similar plaint, to the effect
that the Jews, Hirsch and Moses, together with their followers,
overreached them in the purchase and sale of furs, and caused
them great loss (Sombart page 161). "When troops are quartered
in the town, they the Jews run after the soldiers and
officers, and endeavour to entice them into their shops, in
order to take away the custom from the other tradespeople."
Under their influence also, the pedlar- or hawker-business develops into a perfect nuisance; in 1672 the various trades
and professions in the Mark of Brandenburg complain that "the
Jews run from village to village, and round the towns, hawking their wares, and forcing the same upon the inhabitants."
In Frankfurt on the Oder the complaint was "that the Jews
pursued possible customers in all directions travellers in
their hotels, the nobility in their castles, and the students in
their lodgings," because they are not content, like the other
tradespeople, to lay up goods in their store-rooms, but endeavour
by importunity to force the sale of their wares, and thereby
to deprive the other business people of their share of the local
trade. On the occasion of the great fairs also, the Jews overrun all the restaurants and inns, in order to entice all possible
customers to themselves. It is reported from Nikolsburg in Austria
101

that they the Jews have possessed themselves of all the

trade, all the money, and all the material. They lie in wait
for customers outside the town, force themselves upon the
travellers, and endeavour to keep them away from the establishments of Christian tradespeople. They listen to every conversation, keep watch for the arrival of strangers, and know
how to derive benefit immediately, from every kind of disaster,
by hastening to the homes of those concerned with their offers
and quotations. Yes, their importunity is sometimes carried
so far that it becomes physical compulsion; they attempt to
drag reluctant customers by force into their shops, a mode
of operation the so-called "tearing" at a person which
was in full swing on the "Mhlendamm" in Berlin during the
"seventies" and "eighties" of the last century. The Hebrews
lay in wait at their shop-doors, like spiders in their webs.
They stopped any passerby, who appeared to show the slightest
interest in their goods, which were spread out even up to the
pavement, and tried either to entice, or to tug him by force
into the shop. This progeny of Jewish business enterprise
has been called "Vermin-picker" business, a fact also cited
by Sombart. Yes, the Jewish street-dealers even went so far
as to erect their stalls, or to push their barrows, straight in
front of the shop of a Christian competitor, in order to deprive him of his customers.
To attract customers to himself, by any and every means,
is the sole aim and object of the Jewish dealer, and, in doing
so, he does not allow any consideration of decency or shame
to stand in his way. The Hebrew was the first to force
hostility, as a principle, upon our business life; that pernicious
principle, which asserts that the most important task in trade
is to alienate the customers of other men, and to regard any
and every means as permissible, which can be utilised for
trampling under foot all business competitors.*
* If there was only some way of making all this known throughout
all classes of our community! Then one might indeed expect that the
displeasure of all honest people would be directed against such conditions, and that the pernicious stranger would be turned out of our
national life for once and all. But, in this respect, the public press

102

The Hebrew has also carried advertising and soliciting in

the newspaper to a stage where it is not only offensive to
good taste but outrages public decency as well. Some years
ago, the title, "Down with all competition!" was the favourite
cry of the Jewish advertisers. The degeneration of newspaperadvertising brought yet another disadvantage in its train, and
that was that the public press became more and more dependent upon Jewish mountebanks and quacks, in order not to
lose the advertisements of these people, it placed itself completely at their service. And today no public newspaper of
importance dares to publish anything derogatory to Jewdom,
if it does not wish to lose all Jewish advertisements on the
spot, and to be boycotted by the whole Jewish community
a consequence of the unholy alliance between what should
properly be the
political newspaper, and the advertiser.
Thus, under Jewish influence, trade has completely lost its
original, sound motive of acting as intermediary between producer and consumer, and has degenerated into laying cunning
snares for customers. And it is on this account that the
complaint of all sound business people in all ages, bears always the same refrain: the Jew ruins trade, because he disregards all rules and refuses to recognise any principle except
the acquisition of money.
An especially questionable kind
of trade-tactics, practised by the
Jews, consists in taking undue advantage of the difficulties
which beset the producers of goods. Thus, the Jews know
well how to utilise the occasional embarrassments, both of
workman and manufacturer, to force the goods out of them at
exceptionally low prices: yes, they also know how to prepare
a difficult situation for the producer, and to lead him into the
same by all manner of tricks. This complaint is an ancient
one. Thus, a report of the wholesale-traders of Augsburg in
the year 1803 reads as follows:
Certain Jewish trade-tricks.

fails completely; in fact, it places its services with preference at the

disposal of the Jews.

103

"The Jews endeavour to profit out of the universal distress; they force
goods out of the man, who happens to be in urgent need of money,
at scandalously low prices, and upset and ruin the regular trade by selling
these goods again at absurdly inadequate prices." (Sombart page 168).

Unfortunately, even the authorities, since the decay of the

trade-guilds (beginning of the 18th century) have been short
sighted enough to support this essentially Jewish policy. They
allowed themselves to become corrupted by the cheap offers
of the Hebrews, and never asked by what means the Jew
came into possession of the goods, which he could offer so
cheaply. A memorandum of the Chancery of the Court of
Vienna, dated May 12th 1762, states bluntly: "it is advisable
to make military contracts with the Jews, as their quotations
are much lower."* It is a remarkable fact that, in spite of
this, the Jewish army contractors have always become rich.
It stands to reason that they must have over-reached someone,
whether it was the State, or the unfortunate manufacturers.
The ways and means, by which the Hebrew obtains possession
of cheap goods, are many; we have already mentioned the
spoliation of the producer, who happens to be in difficulties.
But the Hebrews also utilise the collapse of business concerns
to get hold of parcels of goods very cheaply; they even know
how to bring these collapses about purposely, by scheming
amongst themselves, in order to transfer the goods from one
to the other at a very low price. Levi, who has just opened
a new business, knows how to obtain goods on credit. For
several times in succession, he fulfils his obligations to the
merchant, who supplies him, conscientiously, and by so doing,
gains the latter's confidence. Gradually he increases the quantity of goods ordered, and keeps on taking longer and longer
credit. The supply-merchants, obviously impressed by the
apparent development of the business, are loath to lose such
* We know only too well, from our experiences in mobilisations
since that time, what has been the result of following this advice.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers, belonging to the various European
Powers, have had to sacrifice their lives or their health in order to
satisfy the profiteering greed of Jewish contractors, who supplied clothing
of inferior quality, and adulterated food and medicaments.

104

a good customer, and continue to give longer and longer

credit. Levi, however, with the help of his compatriots, sells
the goods far under the proper price, that is to say, he becomes the middleman for other Jewish businesses, which "cut"
prices. He sells the goods to these businesses, at a price,
which is actually lower than what the factory charges him;
when he has stretched his credit as far as he dares, he declares himself a bankrupt, and the supply-merchants, who have
been under the impression that their customer held a large
stock of goods, discover an empty nest, and have to satisfy
themselves by agreeing to accept from the debtor a meagre
percentage of what he really owes them. There is no particular skill or art in delivering goods, or, in other words, selling
cheaply, if such means are adopted. The Hebrew, who knows
only too well how to reverse the order of things, has, in this
case also, reversed the normal business principle: sometimes
he does not try to make a profit out of his customers, but
makes his gain at the expense of the manufacturers and supplymerchants. He sells the goods actually cheaper than he buys
the same, and ends by never paying for the greater part. This
peculiar method of carrying on business has actually procured
for the Hebrew the reputation of being a philanthropist, because he "helps" poor people to obtain cheap goods that
he makes presents, in fact, to the purchasing public; but only
a few are aware that he does this out of other people's pockets.
Since time immemorial the Hebrew has been a master of the
art of doing good at somebody else's expense.
It is a matter of common knowledge that he is always ready
to receive goods, which have been acquired in an underhand
and illegal manner. He buys pledged, attached and stolen
goods whenever the opportunity presents itself. For preference
he endeavours to acquire wares, which are cheaper, either because they have flaws, or, because they have been rejected for
some other reason, the so-called "job-lots", which the genuine
business-people will not accept on account of small imperfections. The Hebrew reckons on the shallow nature and general
lack of any expert knowledge on the part of the public, and
105

knows well how to dispose of such articles to his customers

under the guise of genuine wares, which are worth every penny
of the price charged for them.
Sad to say, owing to the influence
2. Lowering of the
of Jewish machinations, the manufacstandard of production.
ture of many products has degenera(Cheap and bad)
ted. Any notion of quality in goods,
has, for the most part, disappeared, and a great demand has
sprung up, on the contrary, for the production of cheap and
trashy goods. The genuine business people do their best to
protect themselves against this unclean traffic, and endeavour
to take proceedings against the "cutter", when he tries to pass
off his inferior wares as being equal in value to those of better
quality.
The trade protection associations have frequently
brought actions against the "cutters" with satisfactory results;
but, in many cases, trade experts have been obliged to concede
that differences in the quality of the material, and of the labour
are extremely difficult to establish, even when they are responsible for a reduction of from 1015 per cent of the value
of the genuine article. And thus the Hebrew is enabled to
keep on reducing the quality of the goods, and to injure the
producers as well as the purchasing public.
Our average purchasing public of today is unfortunately far
too frivolous to attach value to genuine goods. The Hebrew
has carefully trained it, before all things, to seek for and find
its satisfaction in "Modernity" and "Appearance", instead of
insisting, first of all, on appropriateness and durability, which,
in all cases, allow themselves to be combined with a pleasing
shape. Most people desire to possess what glitters and dazzles
for the moment, quite indifferent as to whether it soon loses
its value, and has to be thrown on one side, only to be speedily
replaced by some new and equally cheap and showy trash.
Thus, not only does the national political economy enter upon
a dangerous road, but the national mode of living, and the
national morals follow. The delusive arc lights of the great
"Stores" are not only destructive to genuine business but are
ruinous to the nation itself.
106

As Sombart concedes, the Jew is the author or originator

of the substitute in its most extensive sense, i. e. in plain English:
the Jew is the author or originator of adulteration and falsification in trade.
Many goods of inferior value, which have been produced
according to the Jewish principle, have actually received the
name "Jewgoods." Thus, one speaks of "Jew-linen", "Jewcotton" and other "Jew-stuff". A particular trick in Jewish
business circles, consists in giving less than the proper weight
or measure, in the case of goods where weight and measure
are difficult to check.* When the new system of weights was
introduced, purchasers, according to custom, still demanded an
extra "quarter of a pound", or whatever the extra amount
might be, and the Hebrew knew only too well how to utilise
the opportunity by giving only a fifth instead of a quarter. It
is also a matter of common knowledge that a "Jew's Gross"
is only about 100 instead of 144. If it was formerly customary
to maintain in justification of the Jewish method of trading that
the Jew could afford to sell and deliver more cheaply, because
his way of living was more unpretending and he could subsist on very modest means, this argument is no longer valid.
It is notorious that the Hebrews of the present day maintain
a most luxurious existence, and their womenfolk especially
endeavour to surpass all other classes even Royalty and
the aristocracy in luxury and ostentation.
One point must be conceded to the Jews; that by increasing
sales for cash to the utmost possible extent they accelerate
the turnover. A quick turnover, at any rate, makes it possible
for the merchant to content himself with a smaller profit, and
yet to maintain the standard of his existence. It is the methods,
by which the Hebrew procures the quick turnover, which are
for the most part questionable, and which disclose their injuriousness in other branches of the economic life. For, in
the last analysis, trade is not the sole aim of trade; the mission
* Women, in particular, are victims of this practice, for, they allow,
for instance, "English thread', which is measured by the yard instead
of by the metre, to be forced upon them.

107

of human life is not to produce as much as possible; for

enhanced consumption can be injurious to the individual as
to the community. Just as excessive nourishment and excessive
enjoyment are detrimental to the individual, so are the stimulation and enhancement of the economic functions by no means
beneficial in all cases.
The Hebrew turns gladly to the maxim: "Quick turnover
and small profits", and utilises it as an advertisement for his
particular methods. And, in this case also, it is essentially a
matter of discovering a means wherewith he can dazzle
and infatuate.
The nature of the Jewish mode of thinking is such that it functions quite differently to the normal understanding. The
Hebrew thinks, as it were, round the corner; his thoughts
travel by the opposite path to the natural one. Whilst the
Aryan intelligence directs itself towards production and buildingup, the Hebrew is meditating everywhere on confusion and
exhaustion, on ruin and dismemberment. He seeks his advantage in the injuries of others, his advancement in the
oppression of his fellow-men, who do not happen to be Jews.
Jewish thought is always of a negative nature; the Hebrew
is the born bacillus of decomposition. Hence it is that a
healthy human mode of thinking can only follow the Jewish
speculative machinations with great difficulty; and for the
same reason, the Hebrew remains an incomprehensible being
to the majority of mankind. The Jew is well acquainted with
our mode of thinking and feeling, but we know nothing about
his. The Hebrew reckons with certainty upon our straightforward conclusions, but we are quite unable to keep step
with his crooked thoughts. The Jew, therefore, seldom makes
a miscalculation when dealing with a German, but the German almost always, when dealing with the Jew. The Hebrew
tries to guide our thoughts into a direction where he can
follow their sequence closely so closely that we are bound
to fall into the trap laid for us. He has learnt to think the
3. Deviating mode
of thought.

108

thoughts of other men in advance; we, however, have not

practised the art of following the zig-zag workings of his
mind. And thus the Hebrew has acquired an apparent superiority over us which, however, in the final analysis, is only
based on a habitual perversion of the natural way of thinking
and feeling. His whole endeavour has but one aim, namely,
to direct the impulses and activities of others in order to
misuse the same. The Hebrew is not a natural being with
straightforward impulses; everything in him is diverted and
perverted. His warped mind is simply a machine for provoking and harassing. Anyone, who has not gradually learned
to know the eccentricity and subtlety of the Jewish mode of
thinking by long personal intercourse with Jews themselves
and naturally very few Christians have the opportunity to
gain this experience is quite incapable of pursuing the
Jewish train of thought unless he has obtained insight into
the true Jewish spirit by reading the Rabbinical writings.
Everything there based on direct denial of reason and
morality is turned topsy-turvy, and is directed against the
natural feelings and disposition of humanity. He, who has not
studied, in some measure, the books of the Talmud, will never
come to a right understanding concerning the Jews.
All the motives and activities of the Jewish brain are directed
towards obtaining advantage and material gain. And, in spite
of this, the Hebrew imagines that, especially with regard to
morality, he is a very exalted being. No one speaks more
effusively about ethical values than the Jews, but whoever takes
the trouble to examine what they understand by that expression,
discovers that they mean the art of seeking their advantage
by means of the understanding, under the pretext that they
are engaged in some praise-worthy and unselfish effort. If
one wished to sum up Jewish morality in one concise phrase,
it would read as follows: "All is moral which brings advantage." The Jew is incapable of applying a higher standard
to the values in life than that of advantage or profit.
The Jewish perception can be formulated in yet another way:
"Morality is the art of over reaching other people, and of crea109

ting, at the same time, the impression of a benevolent disposition in fact, of representing what is in reality an offence
against others as an act of charity." (During the recent war,
we had ample opportunity of admiring with what masterly
skill this doctrine was put into practice by the English statesmen, who had graduated in the Talmudic school.)
Sombart quotes one passage from the "Universal treasurehouse of Commerce", which presents the sound morality of
a merchant of the old school in the most striking contrast to
the present-day Jewish perception. "If you happen to be the
sole possessor of a particular class of goods, you are entitled
to a fair and honest profit, that is to say, your conscience
must be satisfied that you have not exceeded what is Christianlike, and your mind must be at rest upon this point." The
Hebrew is incapable of understanding a moral summons like
the above; it would, in fact, excite his derision. The religious
and moral command had always the first consideration in all
Christian business in olden times; it remained for the Jew to
chase all morality out of the economic world. He regards
everything which brings profit as permissible. He has made
the mammonistic idea the dominating influence in our life,
with his dogma: "He who serves Mammon pleases God"
for the real God of the Jew is Mammon, a fact which, Karl
Marx, himself of Jewish descent, openly admitted.

110

X.

Jewish Trade Specialities.

Bankruptcy means to the
sound tradesman the severest
misfortune which can befall him; in most cases, it spells for
him not only economic, but also social and moral extinction.
The German tradesman therefore, devotes all his energy, and
all his reserves, to avert this calamity; and, just as an honourable captain does not desert his sinking ship so long as he
is alive, so many a German merchant has considered himself
unable to survive the disgrace of his bankruptcy. In any case,
a genuine German tradesman emerges from his bankrupt business as poor as a churchmouse, and shuns the public disgrace.
In this respect also, the Jewish morality and mode of thinking, which are of quite a different kind, have brought about
a change which, unfortunately, has exercised a demoralising
influence upon the conceptions of honour, prevalent amongst
the German commercial community. In the eyes of the Hebrew
there is nothing dishonourable about bankruptcy, which is to
be regarded, in any case, purely as a business accident, and
which, on that account, may evoke the sympathy of kindred
souls, but which has not otherwise the slightest effect on the
social position. No, indeed, the Jewish mode of thinking,
which regards bankruptcy as a stroke of good luck, bringing
rich profit in its train, is far from being an invention of the
comic papers. This is in accordance, not only with the peculiar morality of the Jews, but also with the entire tactic of
the Jewish business system or entity.*
1. Professional Bankruptcy.

* In an article written in the year 1816, it is stated that "the Jew

forces trading to a height where the sound Christian merchant grows
giddy."

111

The Hebrew knows well how to begin a business with

somebody else's money. According to his solution often
thoughtlessly echoed by people, who are not Jews "Credit
is equivalent to hard cash", and he sets to work to obtain credit
from other firms and banks for preference from those who
are not Jewish assisted in this respect by his racial brethren,
who extol his business capacity and reliability with all their might.
If the business succeeds, and reaches the stage where a
quick and profitable turnover is assured, the Hebrew meets
his engagements punctually, and, perhaps, works himself up
into the position of a really sound business man. If, however,
the site of the shop has not been well chosen, and the right
class of customer does not present itself, the owner alters his
tactics: he now steers a straight course for bankruptcy, and
a bankruptcy, which shall be as profitable to him as possible.
He succeeds in this by the following manoeuvre: instead of
reducing, or even entirely withdrawing his orders, so as to allow
for the deficiency in the sale of his goods, he actually increases
them. So long as he still enjoys credit, he intends to make the
utmost use of the same. By a steady increase in his orders,
he is desirous of creating the impression that the business is
in a state of healthy development. He pays punctually for
part of the goods received, but lays claim, at the same time,
to more and more credit; and this is willingly enough granted
to him, for the merchant or manufacturer, who supplies him,
is loath to lose so good a customer. The Jew now disposes
of the goods, which he has obtained on credit, partly below
cost price, in which process, he can always find some of his
racial colleagues, ready to lend a helping hand, either by relieving him of large quantities of the goods at half the original price, in order to sell the same at extraordinarily cheap
prices in their own shops, or, by selling the goods again as
"job-lots" to others, who profess the same faith. The expectant bankrupt takes care to lodge part of the proceeds where
it will be safely guarded, and utilises the remainder to continue
his part-payments to the manufacturer or merchant in order
to retain the confidence of the latter, and to gradually screw
112

up credit to its utmost limit. If he is successful in all this,

and is satisfied with the amount of plunder, he finally suspends
payment with the profoundest regret that bad times and
unlooked-for losses no longer allow of what was formerly a
lucrative business being carried on profitably. The creditors
find scarcely any stock and no cash, and have, moreover, the
trouble and expense of the investigation. The man is practically
safeguarded against any legal proceedings; the books are
apparently in order; the selling-off at low prices of the "joblots" is so far justified by the argument that the goods, in
order not to become old-fashioned, had to be got rid of at
any price; the considerable sums, which are entered up to
the private account, are again justified by heavy expenditure
in the household under the plea that, in the interest of the
business and its inseparable social connections, it was necessary
"to cut a dash". Briefly; it is impossible to get hold of the
man.*
Made shy by similar experiences, the creditors, for the most
part, avoid the costly bankruptcy proceedings, fearing that, in
the end, they will have to content themselves with less than
five per cent, and prefer to conclude a forced settlement,
meagre indeed, but which will leave them at any rate with
25 or 30 per cent of the value of their claims. It frequently
happens that a special "bankruptcy sale" is arranged, which
is kept going as long as possible, and by which means large
quantities of goods, specially ordered for the occasion, are
disposed of in the manner described above, so that the whole
circle of "business friends" may benefit to the utmost by the
favourable opportunity.
Recent legislation has, in some measure, checked this unsavoury practice, which had developed, during the last decades,
to an incredible extent, but has by no means put a stop to
* One can frequently read in the news-papers that Jewish business
people, who have long been in a state of bankruptcy, still continue
to live in a very expensive style, and to move in a very expensive
social set, until they are at last declared bankrupt to the extent of
several millions.

113

it: for little as the Hebrew may have invented in other directions he is a past master in the invention of new ways to
circumvent or evade the laws.
The fortunate bankrupt knows well how to start business
again if necessary in another part and probably on still
more lucrative lines; if he considers it advisable, he will carry
it on under the name of his wife, or one of his children, in
order that his former obligations may not become a source of
annoyance to him. And, if again the business fails to become
a success, the ingenious fellow knows how to arrange for a
second, and even a third bankruptcy. The money, which is
lost in the process, never belongs to him, but always to other
people, that is to say, it is invariably the properly of the confiding Goyims.
Wholesale merchants and manufacturers have been plundered
systematically in this way for years by Jews, who have made
a profession or business of becoming bankrupt; and this particular species of crime has contributed in no small measure
to the enrichment of many Jewish families, and, at the same
time, to the impoverishment of many honest Germans. For
the sufferers by this kind of robbery are not only the merchants,
who actually deliver the goods, but also the sound tradespeople, who are squeezed out of existence by this unclean
kind of competition. The Hebrew, who has obtained his
goods by evil tricks like those described, or who has, perhaps,
not paid anything at all, can well afford to sell them more
cheaply than the sound tradesman. And thus the "cutting"
of prices and unsavoury competition are considerably promoted
by those Jews, who have become professional bankrupts.
If complaints concerning these abuses have not been so
frequent of recent years, this improvement is only partly to be
attributed to the increased severity of the laws, and is due, to
a very considerable part, to great mercantile organisations of
all kinds, endeavouring to protect themselves against these
abuses by uniting to form trade protection societies.
The Jews of today, however, no longer find it so necessary
to enrich themselves by such comparatively clumsy methods
114

of deceit; they have acquired money enough in the last few

decades, and to use the words of one particular Hebrew
"can permit themselves the luxury of trading respectably"
of course with exceptions!
Many a Jewish business-man has had his task made easy,
when engaged in such practices as those just described, by
the absolutely irresponsible and ridiculous ease, with which a
change of name can be made legitimate in Germany. The
official advertisement that, for instance, Hirsch Levi intends to
call himself Hermann Winter, or that Aaron Feiteles wishes
to be known as Arnold Krause, appears only in the German
Imperial and Prussian State Advertiser, a paper, which is not
read by anybody outside official circles, so that those interested
seldom learn anything about what has taken place until the
for them unpleasant consequences bring it to their notice.
A further advantage is taken by those owning Jewish names,
which can be used both for Christian and surname.
Thus,
Moses Meier Aaron, after his first bankruptcy, can reconstruct
the firm as Aaron Meier Moses, to be followed, when necessary,
by a third reconstruction as Moses Aaron Meier, and is thus
in a position to escape more easily the eyes of his old creditors.
The Hebrew, equipped with principles of this kind, together
with a complete lack of even the slightest sense of honour,
can engage in any business undertaking with a far lighter
heart than a man of another race. It is scarcely possible to
find a business opening anywhere, even of the most risky
nature, which a Hebrew has not already taken in hand. The
costly shop in the newly erected premises at the junction of
two streets, a questionable invention, some speculation relying
on the folly or curiosity of the public all are taken up by
Jews, while conscientious business people are still carefully
considering and weighing the merits and drawbacks of the
concern. A decision is actually far easier for the Hebrew
than for anybody else, for, in event of a failure, the conscience
of the former does not trouble him in the slightest, and he
says to himself at the commencement as well: "you are not
risking your own money."
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The Jews certainly have the reputation of possessing great

enterprise one could also say: of possessing great temerity
in business. It cannot be denied that they occasionally help
to promote a sound undertaking and that many an inventor
would have waited in vain for the realisation of his ideas if
the Jews had not come to his assistance. And one may well
wish that occasionally our German merchants and capitalists
displayed less reserve where new plans and ideas are concerned, and did not leave this field of enterprise so completely
at the disposal of the Hebrew. One must, however, take into
consideration that the German promoter of any such undertaking not only risks his own money, but very often his own
good name as well, whilst, in the case of the Hebrew, neither
of these two all-important considerations enter into the question
at all. Moreover, one must not forget a fact, which has already
been mentioned; in all business undertakings the Hebrew is
assured of the open, or, at any rate, the secret support and
cooperation of his racial friends, whereas the German, in such
matters, has in most cases to rely upon himself, and even,
when peculiar and hazardous enterprises are concerned, has
to reckon with the opposition of good friends and relatives,
which arises from denseness of perception, and a dislike of
novelty. The Hebrew, on the contrary, sets to work with a
light heart and in a very different frame of mind: "Risk it!
if you are not successful well it is only somebody else
who is the loser!"
And further, one must take into consideration that, not only
the business world, but that all public life, for the last forty
years, has been infected with the Jewish spirit, and has taken
on a Jewish aspect. Jewish tendencies are supreme everywhere, and Jewish ideas and views rule the mass of the
population, in the towns at any rate. Everything, which is
born of the Jewish spirit and pursues Jewish aims, is, on that
account, readily assimilated into the current of public life, for
it blends with it. The genuine German is completely out of
the running; he is as a stranger in this new world; he cannot
make himself at home amidst such surroundings. The best
116

things which he can think of, do not seem to fit into this
altered world; he is swimming against the stream. This holds
good, not only for business, but in equal measure for Art,
Stage, Literature and Press. Jewish work is in accordance
with the disposition of the times, and the factors of public
life, which come under the same influence, further Jewish
enterprise. Thus, it is far easier for the Jewish business-man,
just as it is for the Jewish author and for the Jewish artist,
to "make a name", than it is for the more conscientious, and,
for that reason, more awkward German.
The surrounding world is now estranged in many respects
from the German mode of thought and action; it is therefore
harder for a German to get on than it is for the eel-like
Hebrew, concerning whom Franz Dingelstedt ("Lieder eines
kosmopolitischen Nachtwchters") (Song of a cosmopolitan
watchman) sang in 1840:
"He forces the farmer out of his farm,
He scares the shop-keeper away from the market,
And partly with gold, and partly with his servile wit,
Purchases the pass-word from the Spirit of the age".

If the German does not possess the power to create an

environment for himself, suitable for his mode of thought and
action, he will be lost in this Judaized world, and Hebbel's
words will come true: "The German possesses every qualification to gain heaven, but none to maintain himself upon earth;
and thus the time may well come when this people will
disappear from the earth."
In nearly all the larger towns there
are business firms, who, by means of
or
brisk advertising, offer, as a special
Hire-purchase System
recommendation, that they are prepared to part with their goods on receiving a small preliminary
payment, provided that the purchaser pledges himself, by a
written agreement, to pay off the debt by regular generally
weekly instalments. On account of the apparently so favourable offer this kind of business secures many customers,
especially amongst small officials, and the more needy of the
117
2. The Instalment

working-class. People, without any means, look upon these

firms almost as benefactors, and as noble-hearted philanthropists
because, for instance, they hand over an entire suite of furniture to a young couple, anxious to get married, against an
undertaking on the part of the latter to pay a weekly instalment of from 3 5 marks. This type of business-man knows
well how to pose in his advertisement as the friend of mankind. As a matter of fact, there lurks, behind this particular
method of conducting business, unparalleled usury in a
shape, admittedly, which the law, as it now stands, finds extremely difficult to deal with. The next point is, that the goods,
which are offered, have been hastily made out of inferior
material; but in spite of this, the price at which they are invoiced, is high. The willing purchaser, however, pays little
heed to the high price for the simple reason that he does not
have to pay it at once; he imagines that the comfortable method
of payment renders a dispute about the price unnecessary, for
it becomes an easy matter to produce the money when the
payments are spread over a considerable time. Accordingly,
he signs the contract, laid before him, with a light heart, quite
heedless of the snare, in which he is entangling himself. It is
stated in the contract, amongst other conditions, that the seller
is entitled to regain possession of the goods, which have
been delivered, without refunding any of the money, which he
has already received, if the purchaser does not pay each instalment punctually.* The purchaser, who has every intention
of paying regularly out of his income, is naturally unable to
realise that such could ever be the case, and unhesitatingly
attaches his name to the document. But unfortunately it only
too often happens that the purchaser perhaps through loss
of his situation, perhaps through illhealth or misfortune is
one day unable to meet his obligations, and suddenly he finds
himself robbed, not only of the articles of furniture, which he has
taken on this "hire-purchase" system, but also of all the instal* Recent legislation interferes to a considerable extent with the easy
operation of contracts of this nature.

118

ments, which he has already paid, and which are irretrievably lost.
An appeal to the Law Courts seldom avails, for the written contract has been drawn up in such a manner that, from a legal
point of view, the seller is completely within his rights. Year
after year large sums of money are sacrificed in this way by
people of scanty means, who live, so to speak, from hand to
mouth. It can scarcely be a pure accident that these "payment by instalments" businesses are, almost without exception,
owned by Jews; they belong to the most objectionable inventions, with which the Hebrew has graced the modern age.
The whole operation is based on a well-thought-out plan; it
is an important part of the great system to rob the people of
their money, according to a carefully thought-out and prearranged scheme. The Hebrew is not content with depriving
people of the money, which is already in their pockets; he
forces them to pledge their future earnings. The anticipation
of the profits of the future is entirely the product of the
speculative Jewish mind, which conveys the taint of unreality
into the economic life, and builds it up, so to speak, upon
air. For an existence, which is founded upon such future values,
must, of necessity, undergo shipwreck as soon as the slightest
hitch occurs in the tranquil and natural development of affairs.
It is said with truth in Goethe's Faust: "The Jew will not spare
you for he creates anticipations."
We learn that 27 of these great "Hire purchase" or "Payment by instalments" businesses in Germany are united under
one control, that is to say, belong to one company, the chairman or managing director of which is said to be one Leskowitz
of Dresden. It is further maintained that the yearly income
of this man amounts to Marks 800,000 (40,000). Enormous
as this may sound, it is by no means improbable if one takes
into consideration that not only must very high prices be paid
for all the goods, which these businesses supply, but that those
goods, which have been confiscated and taken back in consequence of failure to pay an instalment when due, are "touchedup" a little, and immediately supplied again to a new customer.
119

In what plight is a community and its legislation when it

is unable to check bare-faced plundering of its poorest members by such a system of thinly-disguised usury? Would one
not do far better to substitute in the place of these innumerable laws, which eventually prove to be utterly inadequate, and
which can be evaded on every occasion by experienced cheats,
the healthy sense of fairness, inherent in properly-trained
Judges i. e. men of long personal acquaintance with practical
life, just like the English do, and which they find answers
very well?
The original of the "Stores"
3. The "Stores."
is the eastern "bazaar", which,
already more than a century ago,
was represented in this land by the country "general-shop",
and the latter was really necessary in our remoter districts.
Both of these satisfied an obvious need; but even in this
direction an alien and degrading feature began to make itself
visible in the sound development of trade, in the shape of
the 50, 25 and 10 Pfennig bazaars, caricatures of the originals,
which were started by the Jews soon after the establishment
of the freedom of industry. It is worthy of note that the first
"stores", on a grand scale, arose in that most pleasure-loving
of all world-cities Paris in order to provide the world
of frivolous women with a convenient establishment or depot
where the hundreds of requirements of an elegant lady could
be satisfied under one roof. Their field of activity was then
extended into the United States in order to make it possible
for the population there, who, though dwelling in the smaller
towns and in the open country, separated from one another
by vast distances and cut off, for the most part, from traffic,
still wished to be "up-to-date". The Hebrews have introduced
their imitation bazaars into our larger towns, which were already amply supplied with shopping facilities, without any
other justification than that of speculation, based upon the
love of comfort, mania for enjoyment, confusion of thought
and absence of any critical faculty, which characterise the
great majority, especially of women. Not in one single case
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are our "Stores" necessary in the sense that the eastern bazaars, our country general-shops, and the American "Stores"
are necessary, and it is worthy of note that in many countries
for instance Brasil the erection of these great "Stores" is
forbidden in the interests of sound, straightforward commerce,
and therefore in the interests of the community generally.
Thus the great, dazzling, central shopping-establishments
to be found in all our large cities, and into which the "Stores"
gradually develop, owe their existence entirely to a deliberate
violation of the practices of sound commerce, which forces a
way for itself, regardless of everything and everybody, assisted
by and in connection with an extensive association or combination of capital, i. e. great Bank-credit. It is undeniable that
these establishments, by reason of the organisation upon which
they depend, belong to the most remarkable creations of modern
times, and it is quite comprehensible why the purchasing
public seems to lose its head over these novelties, and is
powerfully attracted by the real or apparent advantages of
these establishments. What these advantages are supposed
to be, is in everybody's mouth, for the "Stores" themselves
have taken very good care that the same should be adequately
advertised. It is not so well known, however, that these great
bazaars find it necessary to make use of a number of cleverlyconceived manoeuvres in order to attract their public, and to
secure a good profit, in spite of the apparent cheapness of
their wares. Chief of all is the endeavour so to work upon
the customer by dazzling the eyes, and generally by bewildering the senses with an extravagant and varied display of
goods, and further, by enlisting the arts of persuasion and
cajolery to such an extent as to make it almost impossible,
or, at any rate, extremely difficult for the customer to leave
the establishment without having purchased something, whether
he actually required it or not. A number of special tricks,
as well, have been invented to mislead the customers on the
one side, and to exploit ingeniously the manufacturers and
merchants on the other. A few examples only of these tricks
are given below.
121

1. Tricks to deceive customers. A r t i c l e s to entice.

The "Stores" have found that the best means to attract
customers is to offer certain articles of little intrinsic value at
surprisingly low prices; at prices, in fact, which do not allow
of any profit, or may even be less than the actual cost of the
goods. They sell many of such articles for several Pfennigs
less than the factory price fully aware that by so doing
they are brilliantly advertising themselves. What does it matter
after all, if a few Pfennigs are lost each time that reels of cotton,
hairpins, goldfish, gloves, buttons, glasses etc. are sold! Customers
are drawn in by the enticing prices, and temptation is placed
in their way to purchase other articles, the real value of which
they are not nearly so well able to estimate. And thus the
great emporium is richly recompensed for its small initial loss.
Moreover, it is the intention to create the impression amongst
those, who are desirous of buying, that, in a business, where
certain articles are so cheap, all must necessarily be cheap.
And that is just what they are not. This is one of the most
effective deceptions practised by the great "Stores" on the
public. For, in the case of the larger and more costly goods,
which are only occasionally purchased, and the value of which
the ordinary layman is not experienced enough to judge, considerably higher prices are charged than would be the case
if the article in question had been purchased at a genuine
business of the usual kind, i. e. businesses which specialise in
the sale of one kind of goods.
Also, it is worth remarking, that articles, intended to act as
a bait, or an allurement, are always objects, which have but
little value in a household, and, for that reason, are not purchased to any considerable extent by the public. However, if
anybody, in order to take advantage of the cheapness of these
goods, endeavours to buy more of the same than is usual, he
is almost invariably met with the answer that the stock is
sold out.
" D i s p l a y articles." One occasionally notices in the
windows of the great "Stores" articles of a larger size, which
122

cause astonishment on account of their exceptional cheapness.

So far as can be seen, these articles are made of good
material and the workmanship is sound. On entering the
establishment to buy one of these articles, one is usually shown
something of similar appearance but of inferior quality. If the
customer detects the difference, he is given to understand
that all the better quality has been sold. If he then demands
the article, which is displayed in the window, he is told that
the same has been sold already, but that the purchaser has
given permission for it to remain on display until a new
consignment arrives. Certainly the law concerning unclean
competition provides in a measure a remedy against
tricks of this kind, but the customer scarcely ever avails
himself of it, and, if he does, seldom with success. The rule
is that one simply does not obtain the desired article at the
stated price.
" M i x i n g of goods." The following practice is customary in the "Stores" when a quantity of articles are offered
for sale in one lot: amongst a number of cheap goods such
as articles of clothing, linen, crockery etc, several articles of
a better quality than the majority are introduced. These better
articles are, for reasons which it is easy to understand, placed
on the top, and are handed, for hasty inspection, to likely
purchasers. If a sale takes place the salesman endeavours
to substitute the inferior article, or, if a large quantity is being
dealt with, to mix the inferior articles with the better ones.
" D e c e p t i o n - a n d Exchange-articles." The "Stores" have
introduced the following practice: they buy a parcel of goods
of superior quality from a manufacturer of good reputation,
and, armed with a sample from these, order articles, deceptively similar in appearance but made of inferior material, to
be manufactured at another factory. As they then sell by
turns from the superior and inferior stocks (but mostly from
the latter) they are in a position to evade the reproach that
they deal in inferior goods. Whenever a dispute arises, they
simply produce one of the better articles, and assure the
customer that this is their normal quality, and that the inferior
123

specimen complained of has been introduced amongst the

better goods by accident.
What is related below as having taken place in a large "Stores" has
been proved, beyond doubt, to be a fact: the business in question had
bought a large quantity of well-made lace, the factory price of which
was 10 Pfennigs the metre. Two inferior qualities of lace at the respective factory prices of 6 and 3 Pfennigs the metre, but of exactly the
same pattern, were then ordered. The winding cards of these three
different qualities of lace, which all appear to the ordinary superficial
observer to be of the same quality, are placed, side by side, and are
all offered for sale at the same price of 9 Pfennigs the metre. It is
easy to understand that those who sold had received instructions to
sell as much as possible from the winding-card, which contained the
lace, which had cost 3 Pfennigs the metre; it was only when a customer
entered, who displayed a certain amount of criticism, and appeared to
understand something about the matter, that lace was taken from the
winding-card, which contained the superior quality. The lady who, by
chance, happened to receive a piece of the 10 Pfennig lace for 9 Pfennigs,
would naturally continue for a long time to sing the praises of the
superiority and cheapness of the article in question amongst the whole
circle of her acquaintances, and, in this way, this particular "stores"
recovered by the good advertisement far more than the value of the
single Pfennig, which had been actually lost in the transaction.
" P r i c e s which confuse and mislead."

The great "Stores"

often endeavour, by marking articles at unusual prices (such

as 98 Pfennigs, 2 Marks 95 Pfennigs etc.) to create the impression that their calculations are made with the greatest
nicety, and that they are satisfied with a very meagre profit.
But this is also a delusion, for, amongst the articles marked
98 Pfennigs, there are many, which can be bought in genuine
business for 75 or 80 Pfennigs.

Moreover, the fact that a

customer has allowed himself to be enticed by an apparent

saving of 2 Pfennigs is scarcely an event to which he can
refer with pride; it is so obviously a speculation of a mean
nature, or generally where women are concerned

is

prompted by an absurd idea of economy.

The "Confectionr", which issues the official organ of the union of
"Stores" and Warehouses as its Sunday supplement, recently gave its
readers the following good advice: "the smaller articles must often be
sold at cost price, and sometimes even for less, in order that so much
the more may be charged for the larger ones. If a lady is enabled to
124

purchase gloves or soap for a few groschen below the usual price, she
is there and then convinced that a l l articles in that same businesshouse are cheap, and continues, with complete confidence, to purchase
in the same establishment also, mantles and silken garments."

In the course of an action taken by the "Stores" called

Stein in Berlin against the "Bund der Handel- und Gewerbetreibenden" ("Association" of Commerce and Industry") a pronouncement was made by the Prussian Court of Appeal, when
reversing the judgement of November 14th 1907, as follows:
"it is a matter of common knowledge to those engaged in
law, that the "Stores" endeavour to attract large numbers of
customers, by offering for sale, at absurdly low prices, those
particular goods, which are in daily use or consumption by
the masses, but that when other goods are sold, far higher
prices are demanded than are charged by the small and
moderately-sized shops, which specialise in the particular kind
of goods concerned."
When a large Berlin "Stores" went so far recently as to
offer Imperial 5 Pfennig postcards for 4 Pfennigs, the intention,
which was to entice customers into the establishment and to
force other articles upon them, was only too apparent. For,
finally, the reduced price for the postcards was only granted
to those, who could produce proof that they had purchased
other goods. But the intention was also present to create
the bewildering impression that this "Stores" was making the
impossible possible, and was actually in a position to sell
the Imperial postcards cheaper than the postal authorities themselves could. The success of this questionable kind of business
depends, to a large extent, upon the suggestion that this
"Stores", by some incredible means or magic, could actually
sell goods cheaper than those who manufactured the same.
It is certainly only the most thoughtless, who can allow themselves to be fooled by such unbusinesslike tricks, and the same
may therefore be regarded as a speculation in stupidity.
Whoever allows himself to be enticed by these "Stores" tricks
is certainly not entitled to ask for a certificate stating that he
or she is capable of sane and independent judgement.
125

2. Injury done to the P r o d u c e r s .

It can be seen from the practices, which have just been
described, how the "Stores" favour, for the most part, the
production of inferior goods and thus react very oppressively
upon certain branches of manufacture. The method of procedure is usually as follows: the "Stores" buyer puts in an
appearance at the office of the factory, and producing a certain article says: "I can order annually large quantities of this
article if you can produce the same at from 20 to 25 per
cent below the present price. It does not matter if the workmanship and the material are inferior, but the appearance
must be the same." When a respectable manufacturer declines
to accept this invitation, the "Stores" buyer threatens to take
his order to some other firm. Many a manufacturer, apprehensive of being squeezed out of the market, ends up by
consenting, and produces the inferior goods, which are desired.
One inevitable consequence of the constantly increasing manufacture of shoddy and inferior goods is, that the production
of goods of superior quality tends as steadily to diminish.
An expert in the manufacture of china reports: "our factory has worked
for years at a loss simply because the demand for a good class of
ware, which is worth its price, is gradually falling off. The "Stores"
buy only "fourth selection" and flawed goods, that is to say, refuse.
They then mix several good pieces among the lot, in the case of plates,
for instance, laying them on the top of the others, and the public buys
this rubbish unsuspectingly. A sound line of goods, however, waits in
vain for a purchaser. There is nothing left but to resign one's self to
the manufacture of artificially prepared refuse. On the other hand
wages keep on rising, so that it is no longer possible to make the
business pay, and this entire branch of industry goes from bad to
worse."

Numerous factories in other branches of trade have allowed

themselves to be inveigled into manufacturing rubbish, especially for the "Stores", and have found their ruin in the process.
It was the invariable habit of the "Stores" buyer to endeavour
to beat the price down each time he gave a fresh order, until
there was no longer any possibility for the producer to make
even the most meagre profit. The customers for the better
126

class of wares had, however, disappeared in the meantime,

so there was nothing to be done except to discontinue business.
Another decade like this, and we shall see the greater part
of that branch of industry, which is dependent upon orders
from the "Stores", ruined likewise.
A sausage manufacturer, when asked how it was that he could deliver
his sausages so cheaply to the "Stores" that the latter could sell a pair
for 12 Pfennigs when 15 Pfennigs were charged everywhere else, answered laughing: "just measure the things! they are certainly a fifth
cheaper, but they are also a quarter shorter."

The purchasing public has no idea whatever of such proceedings, or behaves, at any rate, as if it had no such idea; it
is bewitched by the fascinating and bewildering life of the
great "Stores", and does not pause to consider to what an
extent the entire economic life is being undermined by such a
questionable form of development. For, not only is industry
reduced to producing rubbish, but also those sound businesses
in the towns, which confine themselves to the sale of high-class
specialities, are being ruined, because the "Stores" are gradually depriving them of their customers. In the vicinity of the
"Stores" one good business after another disappears; in Berlin,
for instance, in the year 1913, no less than 18,000 separate
shops were standing empty. Development of this kind can
only end in a gigantic economic catastrophe; and we shall be
indebted for this to the magnificence of the "Stores", as well
as to the incredible shortsightedness of the public, which allows
itself to be enticed into such man-traps, and which stifles every
feeling of responsibility with arguments, which are prompted
solely by its own laziness and vanity.
A l o w e r i n g of quality in the type of a l l a r t i c l e s
available for trade. As the "Stores" have use only for
great quantities of articles as much alike as possible, they
endeavour, as far as they can, to reduce the number of the
various samples and types. The whole of the Art-Industry
suffers especially thereby, as it is wont to grant both fancy
and personal taste as large a field as possible. The "Stores"
like to have a suitable sample reproduced a thousand, or even
127

a million times, and this naturally causes other good samples

to be forced out of the market. The Art-Industry loses its
individuality; all becomes mass-manufacture for mass-taste.
As inferior material is almost invariably introduced where
the above course is practised, the Art-Industry suffers degradation and cheapening in every respect.
The French political economist, Trepreau, characterises the
development in the following words: "This change is causing
the taste for what is good and beautiful, which formerly obtained
such a good reputation for French trade, to disappear, and is
substituting for it the mass-production of rubbish, which is
degrading our industry, and the sequel of which will be the
disappearance of all specialities of artistic handicraft in the
immediate future".
In the case of jam and preserves, for example, the factories were
compelled, in consequence of the pressure, to reduce prices and to
produce special lines of preserves for the "Stores" alone, whereby not
only did the quality suffer but the difference between gross and nett
weight was increased by improper filling.
Many textile fabrics are reduced, not only with regard to the quality
of the yarn and the closeness of the mesh, but actually with regard to
the breadth, customary in the trade. Thus velvet was woven 42 centimetres instead of 50 centimetres broad a fact which quite escapes
a hasty inspection. To what an extent the contents of the balls and
skeins of yarn, thread etc, mostly stated in English yards instead of in
metres, differs from what it ought to be, is seldom ascertained by our
thoughtless women, although, in this case, the difference in money is
considerable.

But enough; the manufacturers, whether they like it or not,

are compelled to help the "Stores" to deceive the public,
although they destroy their own business in doing so.
3. The o v e r p o w e r i n g and m o n o p o l i s a t i o n of all
e c o n o m i c means.
A further danger menaces our economic and social relations,
arising from the circumstance that the "Stores", by gradually
concentrating the retail trade into their hands, have almost
obtained a monopoly of the same. This can make it as bad
128

in the future for the purchasing public as for the manufacturers.

As soon as the "Stores" have driven the majority of competing
shops out of the field, they will not find it necessary any
longer to entice customers with cheap prices, because the
public will simply be compelled to buy many things from the
"Stores" on account of the total disappearance of the sound
old businesses, which confined themselves to one kind of trade
and specialised in the same. When this time comes, the
"Stores" will raise the prices as high as they like, and this
will be made all the easier for them, as they have already
formed themselves into a trust, and are codifying their rules
and regulations. And there is no doubt that the purchasing
public will eventually have to pay the reckoning for the apparent
favours which it enjoys today.
At the present day the great "Stores" exert a kind of
monopoly-domination over the manufacturers. They claim the
right to take all kinds of discounts special "Stores"-Bonus
etc which the manufacturers are powerless to resist, as
they are placed more or less at the mercy of these great
undertakings, who can give or withhold orders. When a
special tax of 2% was imposed on the "Stores" in Prussia,
the "Stores" immediately passed it on to the manufacturers
and merchants, by deducting 2% from all their accounts, even
before the tax actually came into force. Thus it is clear how
the monopolising nature of these great "Stores," which is
steadily increasing, is creating and inflicting a state of servile
dependency upon the manufacturers, which, in its turn, will
gravely endanger not only the economic but also the civic
freedom to say nothing of objections from the moral point
of view. And it is not only the employers, who suffer, but
the employees are threatened with the same evils and to the
same extent. All those, who patronise the "Stores", should
make a note of this.
As a matter of fact the "Stores" and the great Banks, which
work in close alliance with them, are obtaining, in consequence
of the continually progressing concentration of the economic
life, a dominating power, which gives cause for the gravest
129

apprehension. They have the power to crush every smaller

competing business, and to make the manufacturers and producers absolutely dependent on them. This means nothing
less than steering a direct course towards an economic "right
of the fist", which is an end to every conception of justice
and morality. Every kind of compulsion, which hurts the feeling
of justice and wounds social sensibility, must of necessity lead
to an undermining of public morality, and finally to anarchy,
and consequently cannot be tolerated in any well-organised
community. Since the great "Stores" already form an international trust, they are in a position to subject the citizens of
any country to international machinations, and to interfere to
such a degree with the means for upholding authority that they
seriously menace the economic freedom and independence of
the inhabitants.
This calls for objection and opposition. The state cannot
sanction that private persons or companies should have a
monopoly of commerce, and consequently of profiteering.
But this is precisely what any further development of the
"Stores" system will lead to.
Least of all, however, can an economic predominance of
such a nature be tolerated, when it endeavours to attain its
ends by questionable means, when it makes use of trickery
and deceit, and thereby endangers public well-being.
4. M o r a l and P h y s i c a l Harm.
The great "Stores" endanger not only the economic existence of the smaller and moderate-sized businesses, as well
as the steady and regular production of goods, but are harmful to the public morality. It is a well-known fact that, side
by side with the evolution of the great "Stores", certain new
and disquieting features have made their appearance in the
moral attitude of the public. A new category of offences has
come into being; the seductive influence leading to an improper appropriation of goods, the pathological appearance
of that class of theft, which is peculiar to the "Stores". Ex130

perience shows that this particular type of larceny is not

confined to the poorer class of people and professional thieves,
but is practised by individuals drawn from all stations of life,
and more especially by females, even when the latter belong
to the most prosperous grades of society. The phenomenon
is accounted for by the peculiar nature of business as conducted in the great "Stores". Everything is designed to excite
cupidity, to bewilder and to ensnare. The whirl of business
and the multitude of impressions raise excitement to such an
extent that the senses become quite confused. Weak characters
succumb entirely to these influences, and lose control of their
will-power. They are tempted, when they feel that they are not
observed, to appropriate something, and steal occasionally
even from their fellow-customers. They are, however, nearly
always caught, for the proprietors of the "Stores", well aware
of the insidious charm of their "shows", keep a special staff
of detectives to watch those whom they attract. Numerous
cases have already occurred, where ladies of good position
have been escorted into a private office, and have been subjected to the indignity of a personal search. It is easy to
imagine what scandals develop out of such incidents.
But even if it does not lead quite so far as punishable
offences, the influence upon the character of the public of the
peculiar method of trading introduced by the "Stores", is altogether bad, for the simple reason that it induces many to buy
more than their circumstances warrant, and to spend money
on useless things. The whole system connected with this
method of trading is designed to create the impression on
the customers that they are guilty of neglect if they do not
at once recognise and utilise the opportunity to make a cheap
purchase, or, in other words, a bargain. The cheap rubbish
also, made to look like something better, seduces simple
people into buying articles quite unsuited to their position in
life; by so doing they accustom themselves to a mode of
living, which far exceeds what their circumstances and means
justify. One of the great "Stores" advertised for a considerable
period with reference to one of their brands of cheap Cham131

pagne: "Champagne must become a popular drink!" a

phrase that one of the Social-Democratic members of the
Reichstag actually made his own particular slogan.
The demoralisation, which arises out of the peculiar method
of trading adopted by the great "Stores", extends not only
to the purchasing public, but even more to the staff or personnel
of the "Stores", to the salesmen and saleswomen who labour
under the steady und unvarying influence of the lax morale
prevalent in these establishments, and who are compelled to
help to deceive and overreach the public. To the above
remarks may be added some foreign criticisms, in order to show
how the objectionable features referred to have already acquired
an international significance.
The physical injury caused by the unceasing strain of the
service is considerable, and this reacts on the character. D Paul
Berthold says concerning it:
"The assistants live in unhealthy surroundings, in badly-ventilated
apartments, which are crowded with people. In most of the great
"Stores" the number of cases of illness and of actual death is appalling,
so much so, that those, who work for several years in these establishments without acquiring tuberculosis, form the exceptions."

In addition moral perils arise from other causes. Dr. H. Lambrecht, Director of the Ministry for Public Works in Brussels
deserves recognition for having published in a memorandum
concerning "Stores and Cooperative Societies", a number of
facts dealing with these matters facts which are all the more
striking for having been scientifically corroborated. He makes
inter alia, the following remarks with reference to this subject:
"This penning-in of a number of young females, and making them
absolutely dependent on a person of the opposite sex, whether the
latter may happen to be the shop-walker, inspector or manager, constitutes already a gross moral danger, which is all the more marked,
when one takes into consideration that the saleswomen are drawn from
the very class, which is most susceptible to the enticement of luxury
and social pleasures".

He goes on to express his opinion about the questionable

"friendships", which the great "Stores" offer both sexes so
many opportunities of making, and which are utilised, not only
132

by the salesmen and the saleswomen, but also by the customers.

We have neither space nor time to refer further to the chapter
dealing with this delicate subject. Lambrecht continues:
"The danger, however, is still further increased by the inadequate
payment of the young girls employed, by bad advice, and by bad
example. In these great businesses, in each of which several hundred
people are employed, some of the older ones always find the means
to dress themselves better than the others, and to visit the theatres
and the restaurants after business hours, and soon the little girl
apprentice, with her salary of 20 marks a month, allows herself to be
deceived by what she imagines to be the brilliant prospect in store
for her".

J. Hennigsen (Hamburg) after portraying the questionable

moral relations, which evolve out of the "Stores" system, remarks:
"I am convinced that if all this could only be published, far and
wide, no German woman, who still preserved a spark of sympathy
with her fellow-women, would ever set foot again in one of these
"Stores".

And Baroness
tions, observes:

Brincard, after describing the same condi-

"Generally speaking, women are sympathetic beings, whose hearts

are touched by all suffering. Therefore they do not act intentionally
when they profit grossly from the misery and distress of other women,
but unfortunately it is just the women of the well-to-do classes, who
know nothing of these matters, who neither see nor think . . . ."

The great "Stores" are responsible for the production of a

new nervous disease, a fact which Emile Zola has portrayed
in his book "Au Bonheur des Dames". The French physician,
Dr. Dubuisson, has chosen as a theme for his book ("Les
voleuses des grands magasins") the injurious effect which the
"Stores" have upon neurotic people; he says therein:
"It is impossible, even for people of the strongest constitutions, to
spend any considerable time in these gigantic establishments without
experiencing a peculiar feeling of nervous debility of mental langour and bewilderment".

In the case of neurotic people this condition amounts to a

complete confusion of the senses, which, to a certain extent,
deprives them of the control of their actions, and brings in
its train mental and moral disaster.
133

Dr. Laquer in "Der Warenhaus-Diebstahl" ("Thieving at the

Stores") says:
"Thieving at the great "Stores" is very extensively carried on, and
it is a matter of urgent importance that this fact should be made widely
known, especially as children are taking a large part in it. The unguarded display of goods without any compulsion to buy, is a great
temptation to those, who are deficient in will-power; for this reason
alone it should be restricted. Whether this deficiency in will-power
(notably in the case of women in an interesting condition), when brought
face to face with the allurements of the great "Stores", is to be regarded
as a malady, must be decided by the evidence of medical experts in
the Law Courts . . . ."

In any case, the "Stores" contribute to an enormous extent

to undermine the morality of a generation, whose conscience
is already blunted, and to multiply to a serious extent the
already numerous social evils. The determining factors in
the State ought to seriously consider, whether the trivial advantages of making one's purchases under these luxurious conditions are sufficiently valuable to be placed in the scales
against the economic and moral welfare of the population.
And, before everything else, if it is consistent with the duty
of those, who are in authority, to see that justice is enforced
and that the interests of the commonwealth are guarded, that
the brute force of money, combined with boundless selfishness,
should be established as a system to enslave the whole nation.
The evasion of our social politicians, who maintain that these
results of modern life are inevitable, and must be "surmounted",
is equivalent to the consolation, given to a man, who is unable
to swim, that, in any case, he would also have to learn how
not-to drown.

5. Premiums for those e m p l o y e d and the cost

i n v o l v e d in c a r r y i n g on this method of trading.
How thoroughly unsound the business principles are in the
great "Stores", is shown by the evidence of Dr. Josef Lux,
who maintains that many of the "Stores" have different prices
for certain customers and for certain times of the day.
134

A salesman, who had been employed in a "Stores", informs

us that the employees were instructed to exploit the weaknesses
and inattentiveness of the public. A leading principle was
that, if possible, no one should be allowed to leave the building without making a purchase. If a certain article was too
dear for a customer, after several ingenious attempts had been
made to persuade him or her to take something else, the
same article would be produced again at a lower price under
the pretext that it was of a different quality. Further, that
salesmen and saleswomen were instructed, if the opportunity
presented itself, to charge more than the goods had actually
been priced at. In this case they receive special premiums
for the excess profits, which they have been instrumental in
obtaining.
How often the employees at the "Stores" are tempted to
purloin the goods is only too well known. The Law Courts
are incessantly engaged with cases of this kind*. Several
years ago in the Berlin Courts, in one case alone, 54 salesmen
and saleswomen as well as the head of a department out of
the same "Stores", received sentences.
The idea, that the working expenses of the "Stores" are
lower than those of other businesses, is erroneous. The
peculiar conditions, under which these great businesses are
worked, call for all kinds of arrangements, which can be dispensed with in sound businesses.
In order to protect themselves in some measure against
thefts, both by employees and customers, most of the great
"Stores" engage and maintain a number of detectives, secret
agents, inspectors and searchers, whose business it is to keep
both the public and the staff under continual observation and
control; and daily a number of the staff, as well as of the
customers, are detained at the exits, and are conducted to a
room, where they must divest themselves of their clothing in
order to be thoroughly searched. The moral effects of this
* In No. 182 of the "Hammer" there is an article entitled: "34 Summonses in one "Store", and in No. 239 an article under the heading:
"Morality in the 'Stores'".

135

bodily examination need only be hinted at. It is by no means

excluded that a perfectly innocent customer might have suspicion deliberately directed against her, and would consequently be exposed to a search of this kind.
In any case, the "Stores" are bound to maintain a large staff
of people, whose sole duty consists in dealing with the moral
damage, which follows as a matter of course in the train of
this novel method of conducting business, and this, of course,
increases the expenses enormously. If one also takes into
account the continuous and costly advertising, which the
"Stores" are quite unable to do without, it ought to be sufficiently clear that these modern undertakings cannot spell
progress from an economic point of view, and that they are
not at all in the position to deliver genuine goods at lower
prices than other businesses. They are only able to keep themselves going by deceiving the public, and by lowering the
quality of the goods.
Moreover, they have a devastating effect upon the economic
existence of the middle-class, and, in this respect also, bring
again a whole row of social evils in their train.
Trepreau ascribes the appalling falling-off in the number of
marriages in France to the herding-together of the unmarried
of both sexes in the enormous business barracks, which are
called "business emporiums" or "stores".
It is just the women and girls, who never think that by
supporting the "Stores" they are sinning against their own
sex. If one only pauses for a moment to consider that, owing
to the growing power of the great capitalistic "Stores", the
possibility of a man of the middle-class ever establishing
himself in a business of his own is quite precluded, marriage
becomes more and more remote for many men, and more
and more women are consequently driven to seek some means
of making their own livelihood, one is finally bound to admit
that, by reason of the development of the "Stores" system,
the woman-question has become considerably more acute.
136

Thus it is the women themselves, who help to destroy their

own social position when they give their custom to the great
"Stores".

Lambrecht thus sums up the result of his investigations:

the system of concentration in retail-trade offers no social
advantages, which are not far outbalanced by other great
disadvantages. The latter are leading towards a social condition full of danger, and which must be regarded as less
advantageous and desirable when compared with the soundness and many-sidedness of the smaller businesses, each of
which confines itself to one special branch of trade.
Regarded from the social point of view, it is the ethical
forces, and not the economic, which must decide the issue.
Already all the older civilisations have gone to ruin because
they would not recognise this truth about the accumulation of
all wealth in a few hands, and the consequent impoverishment
of the masses. What leads to decay cannot be called progress.
For us, however, material self-enrichment must not be carried
on to the detriment of morality, and the general welfare must
not be sacrificed in order that profiteering shall flourish.
The mission of the truly moral system of government remains
unaltered, viz, to respect and protect the economically-weak
man, who, at the same time, can well be the best man when
judged from the physical and moral point of view. A particularly valuable social quality of the middle-class is moderation
in all its needs and requirements, even in its aspirations after
honours and riches; for, only in this case, can there be a
fairly good distribution of prosperity, and a cheerful state of
well-being be made possible for the community. The entire
mechanism of acquisition, which has been placed at the absolute disposal of an unrestrained lust for gain, has not increased either the health, or the safety, or the happiness of
human individuals.
The social consequences of an evolution along these lines
are: monotony, degeneration, and a gradual disappearance of
137

the aesthetic sense and taste; degradation of personality and of

the individual, and lack of an appropriate field of activity;
suppression of the artistic industry. This whole series of
appearances are the forerunners and symptoms of the decay
of a nation, and of its culture.
It is almost superfluous to add that the great "Stores", in
all parts of the world, are almost exclusively in the hands of
Hebrews, and that it is in this particular domain that the
Jewish business spirit celebrates its questionable triumphs.

A press, which represents every political party, and is always at the service of the great "Stores" on account of the
rich harvest, which it derives from the advertisements of these
establishments, has, up till now, helped to present these modern
bazaars of rubbish in the most favourable light, and to write
all manner of nice things about them. It has, in any case,
refrained altogether from exposing the terrible nature of the
economic, social and moral damage which is inseparably connected with the management and working of these great
emporiums. Thus, for the sake of money, a grave crime is
perpetrated against our nation.
When women, in particular, in the attempt to justify their
patronage of these establishments, offer the excuse that it is
so convenient to do their shopping at the "Stores", they should
be reminded that convenience is a property or quality, which
ultimately can be used to justify any kind of indolence and
carelessness, and that it becomes an absolute vice when it
is referred to as an excuse for supporting dubious undertakings.
This much-praised convenience is, however, as all genuine
frequenters of the great "Stores" will, without exception, admit, inseparably bound up with an incalculable expenditure
of time, and with many other drawbacks as well, so that in
reality, double as much inconvenience is experienced as if
one had made the purchases in separate shops. The dawdling about in the "Stores" is already recognised as one of the
138

modern feminine vices, which the Hebrew knows so well how

to foster.
If all the facts, which have been portrayed above, were only
sufficiently known, the great "Stores" would soon lose their
fascinating splendour in the eyes of all thoughtful people.
Most of all, it is to be hoped that the conscience will awake
in our womankind, and will ask itself the question, if it is
consonant with decency and morality to support, with their
custom, these questionable emporiums of trash, and thus to
condemn whole classes of our nation to economic and moral
ruin. It is fully time that the customers realised at last their
social responsibility. Whoever, for the sake of a paltry and
often merely an apparent advantage, supports businesses founded on questionable principles, whoever shows favour to an
unwholesome and immoral development, must not be surprised when the consequences of his ill-considered trading
finally turn against him; for the morbid principle, spreading
always further and further, endangers the social order and
moral welfare, and helps to establish conditions, which most
seriously menace social and national stability. Our cultured
ladies have opportunity enough to observe and deplore the
growing laxity of public morals; it never seems to occur to
them, however, that they themselves have helped to undermine the spirit, which makes for order and morality, by the
support, which they give to these questionable business-undertakings, which pander solely to fashion. It is more especially
the possessing and cultured classes, who ought to be conscious of their social duties, and who ought not sometimes
out of stinginess, and sometimes out of a lust for spending
to give their custom and support to these dubious trading
concerns, and thereby to set a bad example to those below
them in the social scale. The p r i n c i p l e of the great "Stores"
is uneconomic, u n s o c i a l and i m m o r a l ; and out of these
great lanterns of modern times, erected to attract and dazzle,
issues a spirit, which threatens to poison and demoralise all
society from top to bottom: the spirit greedy for gain at any
cost, the spirit of vain boastfulness and of pleasure-seeking,
139

the spirit of frivolity, of bodily and spiritual sickness, in fact

of megalomania.
Whoever has regard for our nation and its future, whoever
has not already made it a habit to barter his moral consciousness for momentary enjoyment and momentary advantage,
ought now to understand clearly, in which direction we are
bound, if we continue to give our support to lax morality in
business affairs, and other paths of life; for, all offence against
good sense and morality, by destroying both state and society,
attacks finally both us and our posterity.

140

XI.

Moral Principles In Trade.

Many people consider themselves very clever when they
impart the advice to the merchant, who complains that he is
unable to hold his own against the Jews: do the same as the
Jew! In reality, this amounts to the following: do not recognise
any religious motives whatever in your mode of doing business,
and descend to the level of a low money-grubber and voluptuary. The economic principle of the Jew threatens to trample
under foot, in our time, all other higher principles of life. That,
however, is no evidence of its superiority, but of the contrary
its moral inferiority; for, the supposition that, if all forces
have free play, the better and the nobler must win, is erroneous.
On the contrary, what Goethe said, remains true for all time:
Nobody should complain about what is base,
For it remains all-powerful, whatever people may say.

So far as ordinary, everyday life is concerned, what is low

and devoid of scruple wins invariably, if it is allowed free
play just as surely as the manners of the quadruped
prevail over those of the civilised man if both are compelled
to live in the same room, and to feed out of the same trough.
The task assigned to anyone, who has a desire to promote
real culture, consists in subduing or eradicating what is vile,
in order that it may not smother what is noble, before the
latter can arrive at full development. Whoever is desirous of
rearing choice plants in his garden, must wage incessant warfare against weeds and insect pests. Unfortunately in our
time, the morality, belonging to the higher culture, has been
neglected and forgotten, namely, the w i l l to c o n t r o l , and
the r i g h t to c o n t r o l , which is the p r e r o g a t i v e of
a l l that is n o b l e . When one no longer dared to think,
and to act like an aristocrat, everything became vulgar and
plebeian; and the Hebrew is the leading dancer in the Cancan
141

of vulgarity. He calls this descent into vulgarity "Progress",

and designates, on the other hand, everything of an aristocratic or noble nature, as out-of-date or reactionary.
Society, in former days, possessed an organic structure; it
separated itself, practically automatically, into classes, whose
rights and duties were conscientiously defined and graduated.
Thus, a genuine social and moral order came into being,
which secured to each man such prosperity as he was entitled
to, and assigned to him his due share of rights, as well as
duties. The Hebrew has shattered this ancient moral order
to pieces. He has absolutely no perception for a moral structure of this kind; to his eyes it appears merely a jumble of
disconnected fragments; he is incapable of understanding the
purpose of all this regulated coherence. He regards every
restraint as a fetter, and as an interference with his liberty.
In addition to his greed for gain, the Hebrew is, for this reason, driven by an irresistible impulse, before all other things,
to dissolve all old-established associations, and to break up
all arrangements, which are the outcome of social organisation.
He calls for "Freedom" and "Equality", but whether he does
so out of pure calculation, or reacts in response to some
dark instinct, it is difficult to say; at any rate, he knows for
certain that, on the dissolution of all social bonds, he and his
fellow-conspirators will gain the upper hand in the ensuing
chaos. Thus, it is that he demands loudly and incessantly
"Free play for the exercise of every kind of power", which,
in reality, amounts to: "Privilege for unscrupulousness, and
domination by those, who conspire in secret."
There is no doubt whatever that the phrase "Freedom and
Progress" has provided the Hebrew with a slogan, which he
has known how to make his own particular property, certainly
not to procure freedom for others but to procure license for
himself, and to unsettle and seduce others to desert the firm
union of time-honoured organisation, so that, disorganised and
isolated, they may, all the more easily, fall into his power.
In spite of this, it is his constant boast that, by breaking down
the old restrictions, he has introduced a desirable and bene142

ficial freedom into the economic life; and, to a superficial observer, this may well appear to be true. But, in reality, a
ruthless campaign of all against all has been instituted, which
has certainly produced, as its first and immediate result, a
release of all kinds of forces, and a stimulating and goading
of the economic life to an alarming extent, but which must
eventually exhaust the most valuable activities in a nation, and
end in a complete victory for those, who are most ruthless
and dishonest.
In former times, there was also no lack of stimulating competition; it was, however, of quite a different kind. The competition then, was in the good quality of what was produced;
whoever sold the best goods, secured the most custom. The
Hebrew, by "cutting" prices, has reversed the nature of the
competition; for today, the low value of the goods produced
is the principal object of the commercial rivalry of the world.
Whoever can manage to offer goods at an exceedingly low
price without any consideration for the quality, or, at any
rate, only with the appearance of quality is assured of
success. And, whoever makes use of deception, in addition,
can rely upon brilliant results. Unclean competition has usurped the position, once occupied by sound and straightforward
commercial rivalry.
There is no doubt whatever as has been stated already
on page 99 that the ancient guilds, which the Hebrew invariably abuses as a reactionary system, possessed their good
features. They not only required proof of the capability of
each craftsman, but they tested also the quality of what was
produced. Each master had to answer for the genuineness
of the goods, which he produced, and the guild- or hall-mark
furnished the article produced with evidence of its soundness.
At the time spoken of, there still existed a morality in
business, which, at the present day, has dwindled away to such
an extent, that only some pitiful traces are still to be found,
here and there. That mutual "hunting-down" of customers,
which was formerly regarded as dishonourable, is, today,
the special boast of the Hebrew. In those days there was a
143

maxim: "No one must force his way into the business of
another, or push his own business to such an extent that
another citizen is ruined thereby." This amount of morality,
this amount of regard for one's neighbour, this amount of
social sense are unknown in the business-life of today. The
announcement that one would accept lower prices than one's
competitors, was regarded, in olden times, as the lowest degree of commercial impropriety. The Hebrew, with mental
machinery of an entirely different kind, has no sympathy with
such dignity and propriety. These appear to him merely as
irksome restrictions, which make it more difficult to earn money;
for this reason he rejects them. An inevitable sequel to these
modern business maxims and views is the relaxation of all
morality, and of all social ties throughout the community. One
looks around and asks one's self, if humanity indeed has made
any moral or social advance since those olden days.
Whilst the merchant of former times knew how to preserve
the dignity of the independent man, and in the course of
trading, never sacrificed his self-respect in order to obtain
business, the Hebrew, on the contrary, has degraded the entire
domain of commerce, and has cast honour and shame to the
winds, simply to create business. He has introduced into the
economic life that degrading hurry and scurry, which wears
the soles off the boots in order to steal a march on a competitor, and sacrifices self-respect and decency sooner than
allow any business to go elsewhere.
Only the grossest form of self-deception could enable anyone
to imagine that this kind of mutual "hunting-down" is of the
slightest value from an economic point of view. In reality
this excessive activity is accompanied by a crazy waste of
energy. Formerly, as now, the merchant found his customers,
but the whole process was carried on, and completed itself,
in a peaceful and dignified fashion. The merchant could wait
until the customer came; and the customer came, surely
enough, for there was nobody interested in alienating him.
Thus all business traffic pursued the even tenor of its way,
without haste and without excitement, and a man could ob144

tain a decent subsistence without infringement of his selfrespect. At the present day, business people harry one another
to death, for each has the feeling that a potential robber is
lurking in ambush, in his preserve, ready to waylay his customers and to take their money if he does not come up
quickly to prevent it.
This hurry and nervousness, peculiar to present-day business,
first made their appearance when the Jewish traders assumed
the ascendancy. Sombart says:
"The world, well-arranged as it used to be, with all its ancient soundness and solidity was simply taken by storm by the Jews, and we behold this people, stride by stride, thrusting back the former economic
order and economic mode of thinking."

Actually, this assault by the Hebrews on our Aryan world

is not only an attack on our economic arrangements, but is
simultaneously an attempt to undermine the very foundations
of our moral system. Sombart certainly gives it as his opinion,
that transgressions against the precepts of rectitude and morality are part and parcel of human nature. We protest against
such a conception. Certainly there have always been individuals, who have not known how to remain within the limits,
appointed by rectitude and morality, but they were invariably
denounced as bunglers and disturbers, and regarded accordingly. Respect for the restraints of law and sound morality
must be set down as a fundamental and marked feature of
the Aryan or Nordic mode of living and thought; and if,
at the present day, we are scarcely aware of the possession
of this quality, we at any rate know, that it was bad example
and dire necessity, which compelled us to cast it from us.
He, who wishes to compete on equal terms with the Hebrew,
must descend to the moral level of the latter.
This dire necessity has forced itself upon the German merchant, at an earlier date, than upon his brother traders in
other countries, as Germany, on account of its political disruption, has fallen an easier prey to the Jew than any other
of the ancient lands of culture. Two hundred years ago, the
German name already laboured under the misfortune of being
145

used as a cloak by the Jews. When the Jewish business people

began to come into prominence, an English writer (1745) expressed
his indignation, that there were certain people, who publicly
announced their readiness to sell their goods at lower prices
than their fellow-traders. He stigmatized this unseemly "cutting" of prices, as shameless. In England, "Dutchmen", that
is to say, taken literally, "Germans", were regarded as being
the instigators of this practice. It was really the inhabitants
of Holland, however, who were meant, and who, up till the year
1648, belonged politically to the German Empire, and were
then, as now, called "Dutchmen." It is these people i. e. the
Dutch Jews, whom we Germans have to thank for the unpleasant fact that, even now, the English and Americans refer
contemptuously to the Germans as "Dutchmen." The Dutch
Hebrews, who arrived in England at that time, were the real
originators of under-bidding, and of the traffic in shoddy
merchandise. The Jews also, who were hunted out of Spain,
and fled, for the most part, to Holland, made their sinister
influence felt upon the destinies of us Germans. Soon after
1700, they had already begun a system of predatory culture
in a recovering Germany; the book-trade serves as an instance,
upon which particular business they conferred the questionable
benefit of sales, on a gigantic scale, at book-auctions, a practice, which they had introduced in Holland, because the profit
by the old-fashioned method of selling volume by volume was
acquired too slowly to suit their taste. In modern times also,
it is much to be regretted that the German merchant has
accustomed himself to, and definitely accepted, all kinds of
unseemly practices, which were formerly the monopoly of
the Hebrews. Sombart allows that Jewish ethics differ from
those of mankind in general, and that those offences on the
part of Jews against public morality cannot be laid to the
account of any individual in particular, but arise rather from
those general ideas regarding life and business morality, which
are implanted in the Jewish nature. He asks (page 153):
"What really then was specifically Jewish? And is one entitled to
assume, in general a peculiar idiosyncrasy in the attitude of the Jew

146

towards all enduring arrangements? I believe so; yes, and I believe

that this specific Jewish characteristic of infringing the law, expresses,
before everything else, the idea that the Jews regard their offences
against right and morality, as not being the particular concern of any
individual amongst them, but rather as being the discharge of a
code of commercial morality, accepted by and current amongst
the Jews, and that their business habits are only those, which are sanctioned by the majority of the Jewish business people. We are bound
to conclude, from the general and continued practice of fixed customs,
that the Jews do not at all regard their irregular mode of trading as
immoral, and consequently as unpermissible, but are convinced, on the
contrary, that they are acting in a perfectly moral manner the "correct"
right as opposed to a ridiculous conception of right and morality."

As a matter of fact, our moral perception of things is

"senseless" so far as the Hebrew is concerned; it is too lofty
for him. If there is any pronounced feature about Hebrewdom, whereby it can at once be distinguished from the rest
of humanity, it is precisely this absence of moral sensitiveness.
In reality the Hebrew is a lower type of being, in whom all
those qualities are wanting, which confer a real dignity upon
mankindhonour, a sense of shame, a conscience and moral
consciousness. As our entire existence is confined within
these barriers, we are naturally not so free to carry on the
competitive struggle, whether it be of a spiritual or economic
nature, so effectively as the person, who declines to recognise
any such restraints. Just as a cleanly being steps aside to
avoid a foul mire, into which a swine plunges with satisfaction,
so does a man, with clean instincts, revolt against following
the Hebrew into the swamp of moral degradation. If he tries
to do so, either he or his better nature is ruined.
And this is the peculiar difficulty of the present time, that
we have allowed ourselves to be overcome by the swinish
predilection of the Hebrew, that we have descended from our
moral altitude, in order to scuffle with him in the mud and
mire for our daily fodder. It is vain to hope that one will
ever be able to elevate the Hebrew to the plane of nobler
manhood; for at least three thousand years, he has shown
himself to be incapable of improvement, and he will always
remain so. It is a fallacy to maintain that this moral deficiency
147

made itself so glaringly conspicuous in the Jew, owing to his

compulsory detention in the Ghetto, and would leave him as
soon as he was permitted to move freely in a moral community.
This fond expectation has been bitterly disappointed by the
actual facts: the Hebrew, with his insensibility for higher moral
values, will invariably drag down the rest of the community
to his own low level, whenever he is permitted full scope for
his baneful activity. The same presumption has shown itself
to be false also, in countries, where the Jews have enjoyed
unrestricted freedom for centuries, such countries for instance,
as England, the Netherlands and the United States. In these
lands, as well as in France, where they have had complete
civic rights since the end of the eighteenth century, and now
are the undisputed masters*, their nature has not altered by
one hair-breadth.
Sombart speaks in the highest terms of a certain Jewess,
the so-called "Glckel von Hameln," who lived from 1645 to
1724, and wrote her own biography. But, in spite of his
praise, he added the significant remark: "All the aspirations
and endeavours, all the thoughts and feelings of this woman
centred themselves on Money. For the whole 313 pages of
her memoirs, she speaks of nothing else but money, and of
acquiring riches." (Page 156). And it is this trait especially,
which proclaims the lower nature, and which predominates in
the Hebrew; for we are entitled to maintain with confidence,
that the man is by so much the more spiritual and moral,
the less his thoughts are influenced by material considerations.
The noblest spirits, taken from any period, have seldom been
good managers. The interest concerning money did not
occupy their minds to any considerable extent, and was regarded as a secondary consideration. It was the noble Nazarene, who announced: "You cannot serve both God and
* After Martin, Levy is the name, which occurs most frequently in
the French business world, a fact which the well-known Dr. Bertillon
has established by reference to the various address-books. (T-gl. Rundschau, Nr. 291 of 1913).

148

Mammon." The more idealism, the more spiritual purity and

dignity, and the less regard for money.
The Hebrew endeavours to substitute cunning in the place
of the idealism, in which he is so conspicuously lacking, and
to compensate for his deficiency in moral feeling and in deep
instincts, by a more subtle understanding. The intellect
the cool power of calculation belongs, by no manner of
means, to the higher spiritual functions; invariably it forms
but a poor substitute for the deeper spiritual forces, which are
wanting, for the feeling and perceiving discernment of things
and connections between things. Just as the Hebrew endeavours in the economic life to substitute the mere possession
of money for the ability to work and create, in which he is
so deficient, so does he endeavour to conceal his lack of the
deeper, spiritual capacity by a veneer of sham culture. It is,
for this reason, very questionable praise, when Sombart refers
again and again to the "pre-eminent intellectuality" of the
Jews; In reality, all that he means is the mental cunning, the
subtle process of calculation, which is peculiar to a low order
of intellect.
Now we will occupy ourselves for
a short time with the economic side
of the matter: the Hebrew desires
to possess riches in order to obtain mastery over others,
and to oppress them; and it is in this particular, where there
is a great difference between the acquisition of money by
Jews, and the acquisition of money by other races. Certainly
there are plenty of business people amongst Aryans and
Christians, whose inclination is predominantly towards making
money, and people, enough and to spare, who do not pay
much attention to the moral side of the question, and regard
all means and methods as equally good, provided that money
can be acquired thereby. But, in one respect, they impose a
restriction on themselves; they content themselves with guarding and enjoying their wealth; they do not begrudge others,
besides themselves, the opportunity to acquire wealth and to
149
Deviation in the trend
of Jewish life.

enjoy it. It is quite different where the Hebrew is concerned.

It is, as if he is consumed by an inappeasable hatred towards
all, who happen to possess something; as if he felt himself
alone entitled to claim all material possessions in this world
for himself and for his people; as if he could not rest so long
as goods and money still remained in the hands of those, who
are not Jews. This frame of mind finds unconcealed expression in the Talmudic-Rabbinical writings. One finds there,
for instance: "God created the world solely for the Jews, and
accordingly all property in the world belongs to the Jews."
The Talmud therefore declares: "The possessions of those, who
are not Jews, are equivalent to possessions without an owner
and the first, who seizes the same, is entitled to them."
This is no theoretical interpretation; the Jews take it, and
act on it in deadly earnest. They regard it as their special
mission in life to travel all over the earth in order to acquire
all the possessions of the Goyim. They do not consider that
they have fulfilled their duty to their God, Jahweh, until all the
riches in the world are in their hands, so that they can lay
the same at the feet of their idol. It is for this reason that
the real Jew is animated by a feverish restlessness to dispossess the Goy of his property. It is, as if he suffered
mental distress, so long as there remained any property in
his vicinity, which he had not yet acquired. It is precisely this
behaviour, which draws such a sharp dividing line between
the Jewish and "Christian" business and usury practices. The
Hebrew does not only desire to gain, but to ruin and enslave
others as well. The young deputy Bismarck, speaking in the
Landtag of 1847, furnished a classical proof of this contention:
"I will give an example, which contains the whole history of the relations existing between Jew and Christian. I know a rural district
where the Jewish population is numerous, where there are peasants,
who cannot call a single object on their farms their own property,
where the entire furniture, from the bed to the stove, belongs to the
Jew, and where the peasant pays a rent for each separate piece of
furniture; the growing corn and the corn in the barn belong to the Jew,
and the Jew sells the corn for bread, seed and feeding purposes back
to the peasant again, by the peck. I, at any rate, in the course of my

150

professional duties, have never come across nor even heard of a Christian
practising usury comparable with this."

Anyone, who is acquainted with the activity of the Jews in

Bavarian Franconia, in Hesse, in the north of Wrtemberg and
other places, can provide more than enough instances of a
similar kind.
The Jew, when doing business, is always impelled by a
double motive: not only does he desire advantage for himself, but he wishes, at the same time, to cause damage to the
other side. It is for this reason, that he will not reject a
piece of business, that brings him in nothing, so long as it
serves his purpose of weakening others. His aim is to sweep
all competitors away. "He does not ask", says Sombart, "if
a profit can be made or not, or if it will be necessary to work
for a time without making a profit, simply in order that, later
on, he may make all the more profit". This is the "great",
startling innovation, which the Jew has introduced into business
life, and which celebrates its economic triumph in the form of
the great "Stores". At the back of the Jewish fighting tactic,
is always lurking the idea of monopoly of sole domination
the desire to annihilate all competitors.
A dark instinct for disturbance and destruction, for confusion
and dissolution, all of which facilitate the plundering of others, is
the most marked feature in the Hebrew; for, in the universal
ruin, the richest booty falls to his share. In this respect he
resembles the vulture, which, scenting its prey, hovers over
the battle-field. The ruin of others brings him his surest spoil.
Whilst the merchant of former days willingly restricted his
activities to dealing in one speciality, in one particular district,
the Hebrew, by preference, deals everywhere with everybody.
The former division of trade, according to specialities, had the
great advantage of enabling the merchant to acquire a far
more thorough knowledge of his goods, and, at the same time,
to provide, in his particular line, the greatest variety of choice.
The Hebrew, on the contrary, whose original business-occupation was always in the old-clothes shop, in which secondhand articles of all kinds were to be found, has not been
151

able, even at the present day, to free himself of his preference

for a medley of second-hand rubbish: he preserves the character
and atmosphere of the old-clothes shop, even in his emporiums
of trash and his great "stores"; yes, and even into his great
industrial undertakings. Even Sombart perceives in all this,
what he describes as a characteristically Jewish touch, and
acknowledges that the great "stores" are almost exclusively
in Jewish hands.
Sombart mentions with pride, that the Hebrews are the
fathers of the "hire-purchase" business; and this may well be
the case. (Compare page 117). One must not run away with
the idea, which is for ever being trumpeted forth in the advertisements of these business, namely that sympathy with the
small man was the motive, which originated them. A far
different tendency is at the root of the movement. Just as
the Hebrew buys up the harvest, for a mere song, from a
peasant, who is short of money, or is in other difficulties, while
the grain is still on the stalk and even before it is ripe, so
does he secure for himself, by means of the "hire-purchase"
system, all the wages of the poor man for weeks and months
in advance. In Faust the Jew is spoken of as follows:
"Er schafft Antizipationen
Die Schweine kommen nicht zu Fette,
Verpfndet ist der Pfhl im Bette,
Und auf den Tisch kommt vorgegessen Brot."
(Goethe)
["He creates anticipations . . .
The swine are never left to fatten
Pawned is the pillow in the bed
And the very bread, which is placed on the table,
has been eaten in advance."]

The Jew knows how to prevent the unfortunate people from

taking their money elsewhere, by binding them over in a legal
agreement, to assign the proceeds of their labour to him for
a long time in advance. The "hire-purchase" system is therefore a particular and valuable link in the chain of business
operations, by which the Jews suck up the money in circulation.
It prevents the saving of money by those, who are not Jews,
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and quickens the return flow, even of the smallest stream of

money, into the reservoir of Judah. Certainly all these Jewish
practices have introduced a novel and peculiar atmosphere
into modern business life, but it is certainly not a healthy and
beneficial one. The final injurious effects of this kind of
commercial activity upon the economic life are not immediately
apparent, for the excessive stimulation of the economic life
produces, with its colour, variety and movement, a positively
dazzling effect. But it is no less certain that this Jewish
tendency, in the economic life, is continually bringing public
morality to a lower and lower level, and is destroying all
regard for the general welfare of the community. The principle of ruthless selfishness has obtained the mastery, and the
right of the individual to enrich himself, by any and every
means, has established itself, even if the rest of the community
suffer grievously thereby, and both state and morality are
sacrificed. Social harmony has been replaced by mutual
enmity, everybody fights everybody, and this can only end in
universal destruction. It is no longer a cause for wonder
when active business people break down prematurely from
nervous exhaustion in their best years, and when all manner
of insidious diseases and social disorders arise out of this mad
state of affairs. We are being continually and insistently informed that all this must be so that all this is inseparable
from progress. We perceive, at any rate, that the physical
and mental powers of mankind are giving way, under these
malign influences, to the verge of complete extinction.
This method of destruction must be opposed by a wise and
sensible discipline, whereby all the material requirements of
life can be satisfied without impairing the constitutive powers
of mankind. This disciplinary system must adopt, as its standard, the principle that the preservation and elevation of mankind are of more importance than the mere increase of business,
and the accumulation of world riches.

153

XII.

The Hebrews as supporters of Capitalism.

Sombart advances the question as to whether the Jew
possesses a special capacity for capitalism. It appears most
extraordinary to us that such a question should ever have
been propounded. Capitalism is not an activity, which calls
for a special kind of capacity, but a condition, the cultivation
or administration of which, calls for certain qualifications. Even,
in the case of the Hebrew, capitalism, for its own sake, is not
regarded as the main object, but rather as a means for increasing his own power, and for enslaving those, who are
not Jews.
Thus, the question will take the following shape: does the
Hebrew possess a special talent for amassing capital, and for
giving a capitalistic formation to the economic life? Nobody
has ever been in doubt concerning this fact.
Sombart claims for the Hebrews the merit of being the
founders and upholders of modern world-wide commerce, of
modern finance, of the Stock Exchange, in fact, of the commercialisation of the entire economic life; of being the parents of
free trade, and of free competition, of being the exponents of
the modern spirit in the realm of business. We will cheerfully concede all this, but, at the same time it is perfectly
clear to us, that this modern spirit is by no means a good
spirit, for it is the spirit of the disintegration of political economy,
of the destruction of the productive nations. The explanation
of the idea of capitalism, which, according to Sombart, is as
follows, seems strange indeed to us:
"Capitalism is the name we give to that organisation of economic
intercourse, by which two different groups of the population the
owners of the means of production, who, at the same time, carry on
the work of directing, and the ordinary work-people who own nothing
cooperate, so indeed that the representatives of Capital (i. e. of the

154

requisite store of the necessary goods) are the real economic subjects,
that is to say, hold the power of deciding the nature and direction of
the economic management, and bear the responsibility for the issue,
whatever it may be" (page 186).

According to this, Capitalism characterises itself as the economic method of the proletarian state, which is ruled and guided
unresistingly by a few financial magnates, as a new edition of
slavery in its most acute form. In actuality, this is the ideal
of the Hebrew, to whom it has been promised in the Talmud,
that a time will come when every Jew will possess 2800 slaves.
The only question is whether the other nations regard such a
state of things as desirable, and are willing to help to bring
it about.
This might be expressed in a somewhat more general fashion
as follows: the capitalistic economic system regards the formation of capital as the principal aim of economic activity.
According to this system, capital, and not man, is of most
importance. This system places man and his spiritual needs
on a lower plane than the accumulation of capital. Moneymaking is regarded as the first principle of life. And the object of this creation of capital? the domination and exploitation of mankind by means of loan-servitude.
Formerly the earning of money was a side-issue in the
economic life; the other, and more important object was: on
the one hand, the satisfaction of human needs by the production of the requisite goods, and the guaranteeing, on the other
hand, of the possibility of an existence for the producer, as
well as for the business or middle-man. The man, and the
possibility of his existence, were always the chief consideration. According to the capitalistic system of the Hebrew, the
matter was regarded in a very different light. Sombart is of
opinion that:
- Out of a systematic direction of economic affairs, for the purpose
of making profit, which thereby provides the incentive for the effort
to expand continuously all kinds of business activity, arises, as a natural
consequence, a conscious guiding or directing of all trading activity
towards the supreme reasonable method of establishing and maintaining
economic relations."

155

It is certainly true that the economic life receives a very

marked warp or distortion in one particular direction, if one
enquires every moment what profit can be made, but we certainly cannot recognise the method just described as the "supreme rational"; it is rather supremely irrational, because it
is so busily engaged in the mad accumulation of capital that
it entirely disregards the aim of all culture: namely the preservation and elevation of mankind.
In olden times the economic method was grounded firmly
on the principle of organic growth and building-up, but the
modern Jewish economic method aims at a ruthless extermination at the so-called predatory culture. It drags riches together, from all directions, at the cost of human welfare; it
produces wares, which, to a considerable extent, serve but one
purpose, and that is simply to entice and trick money out of
the pockets of the people; it creates a few rich by the indebtedness and impoverishment of the masses. But, above all,
it uses up human energy to such an extent, that it must soon
end in the exhaustion and decline of the nation.
It is characteristic of this capitalistic system that it is unable
to realise the effects of its own action that it is actually
killing the goose, which lays the golden eggs. Impelled by the
short-sighted greed for amassing money, it wrecks the organic
foundations of national life. Is there perhaps design behind
all this? Is this Jewish-capitalistic economic method perhaps
the means to the end of fulfilling the ancient commandment:
"Thou shalt eat up all nations?"
Sombart asks the question:
"What is the meaning in the capitalistic sense of a successful stroke
of business? Naturally that this activity, with its terms and conditions,
should be followed by a good result. In what way however, is this
successful result to be gauged? Certainly not by the quality of the
performance. Just as little by the quantity. All the more, simply and
solely, if. . ."

The reader expects now to hear: whether, under the operation of this beneficial, capitalistic system, Culture and Humanity
are to be conducted to a still higher plane, or: whether Morality
and Social Arrangement are to show a gratifying advance?
156

 Oh, dear no; completely erroneous! According to Sombart, the beneficial result of this economic method is to be
gauged solely as follows:
"If, at the end of an economic period the advanced money is again
in hand, and has brought with it something additional, which we call
profit" (page 188).

The sublime blessings, to be derived from this economic

system, could not be stated in a more pertinent manner, and
one must infer that Sombart is a man, with a very keen sense
of sarcastic humour, who, under the pretext of recognition, is
desirous of exposing, in these words, the utter barrenness
of capitalism. Even the question is not asked, whether an
improvement in the production of goods is the result of this
economic method no: "the sole consideration is, that at
the conclusion of the transaction, the gain in money or property
remains in the hands of the capitalist, who took it in hand."
Mankind, you have no need to be alarmed; capitalistic Jewdom is conducting you towards a splendid goal:
". . . so that the debit and credit of the ledger shall be closed with
a balance in favour of the enterprising capitalist. In this effect are
included all the successes and all the transactions, undertaken by the
capitalistic organisation." (Sombart p. 188)

What is then an undertaker or contractor in the capitalistic

sense? "He is a man," says Sombart, "who has a task to fulfil, and sacrifices his life in fulfilling it."* Certainly there are
undertakers or contractors of this kind but, for the most part,
they are not of Jewish origin. Certainly there are men, who,
with the sacrifice of their entire physical and mental energy,
devote themselves to some great work and who can be described as actually sacrificing their lives for these objects.
Great industrialists, such as Krupp, Borsig, Schichau, Hartmann
and many others were men of this stamp, but we certainly
do not find Hebrews amongst them. The Rothschilds, Bleichrders, Guttmanns, Hirschs have accumulated hundreds of mil* A strange formulary! Just as if the official, the officer, the doctor,
the workman etc had not also tasks to fulfil, and might not with equal
right be said to sacrifice their lives in fulfilling the same!

157

lions, in a few decades, but we search in vain for any great

and astounding work, which they have accomplished; we see,
at the most, that they have known how to exploit, in the most
cunning fashion, other men, who have been the real producers,
in order to amass enormous riches for themselves; we are
unable to perceive that they have in any way hazarded their
lives, while engaged in this kind of business. They were the
money-lenders and speculators, who finally pocketed the entire
benefit accruing from the work of others, without themselves
accomplishing anything worth mentioning. If Sombart means,
that the real promoter of undertakings must be a combination
of producer and dealer, it does not say much for the Hebrew
capitalists as far as the promotion or origination of undertakings is concerned, for, as a rule, we find nothing of the productive element in them, only the dealer. And the latter Sombart defines in the following manner:
"The dealer is a man, desirous of lucrative business, all of whose
ideas and feelings are concentrated upon the value in money of conditions
and negotiations, and who therefore consistently regards all phenomena
in terms of money; for whom the world is a great market of supply
and demand, of crises and occasions, of possibilities of gains and losses,
who is always asking: How much does it cost and what does it yield?
And whose incessant questions in this respect resolve themselves into
the final momentous one: What does the world cost?"

Truly, the character and behaviour of the Hebrew, as dealer,

could not be better portrayed, and we have a strong suspicion
that Herr Sombart is, in reality, a cleverly disguised opponent
of the Jews. With still more exquisite irony, he characterises
the Hebrew actually as "discoverer" namely as the discoverer
of fresh possibilities of "doing business", who knows full well,
how and where to discharge his goods, when there is not the
slightest requirement nor demand for the same, and who, in
order to excite new needs, provides Esquimos with bathingdrawers and niggers with hot-water bottles. And Sombart
also knows full well how to portray the tenacious importunity
of the Hebrew, when he characterises the specifically Jewish
talent for dealing, as the art of,
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"Acquiring a pair of old trousers

patience of a needy cavalier, to whose
been five times without accomplishing
to talk some peasant into buying the
powers of persuasion."

by cunningly wearing out the

apartments he may already have
his purpose, in order, later on,
garment, by exercising all his

According to Sombart, amongst the other requirements of

the Dealer, must be included a power "to see with a thousand
eyes, and to hear with a thousand ears", and this accomplishment has been brought to perfection by Jewdom, by means of
the organisation and consistent cooperation of all Jews. The
German business-man can only see with his own two eyes,
and only in exceptional cases has other eyes at his disposal,
to help him to extend his vision. Jewdom, however, has been
organised into a Hydra with a thousand heads, which are all
attached to the same body, and which all follow the same
instinct. This Jewish "dealing" organisation, with its thousand
senses, spies upon the artless nations, never lets an opportunity
slip of "doing business", and knows how to arrange matters
so that the profit always falls to its share.
According to the sound, old, time-honoured ideas, trading
or dealing was an honourable exchange, in which one gave
either goods for goods, or goods for money; and the sense
of fairness regulated the proceeding to mutual satisfaction. In
the case of an honestly conducted transaction both sides might
well derive advantage and profit therefrom, because the object
purchased might be worth more to the purchaser than the
price paid, and, at the same time, the seller might secure a
profit. It is quite different according to the Jewish perception.
Sombart's opinion is, that trading or bargaining means "a
struggle with mental weapons", and, in reality, all Jewish trading
and bargaining is made up of persuasion, overreaching, false
representation and imposition. He is not desirous merely of
satisfying a want but, in addition to endeavouring to secure
an excessive profit for himself, he attempts to do the other
side as much harm as possible. The Hebrews, as a nation,
which, for thousands of years, has practised nothing but haggling,
usury and overreaching, have developed the art of persuasion
to the highest possible point. How often does one not hear
159

simple-natured people, who have been talked into buying the

goods of some Jewish pedlar, excuse themselves by saying:
"I had to buy something from the man because I could not
otherwise get rid of him". Yes, it is impossible to ignore the
fact that many Jews at any rate when they come into
contact with artless and ingenuous people possess an almost demoniacal power of suggestion, and of infatuating simple
natures, so that the latter follow unresistingly the intentions of
those, who are fooling them. We shall return to this particular
theme in chapter XVI: "The influence of the Jew upon
Womankind."
"One of the most effective inward means of coercion, which the
Hebrew is in the habit of applying, consists in arousing the idea, that
the immediate conclusion of the business in hand will prove advantageous."

Thus speaks Sombart, and the Hebrew knows full well how
to utilise this means to the very utmost. It is actually a fact
that some Jewish pedlars are in the habit of intimating to
possible customers, that the goods they offer, are stolen property, or are taken from a bankrupt's stock, and must, on that
account, be disposed of as quickly as possible, and at almost
any price.
Sombart rightly refers to the peculiar position of isolation,
which the Hebrew takes up in the midst of the other national
communities, as a circumstance, which confers exceptional advantages upon him in the midst of the other nations. He
emphasizes that the advantages, enjoyed by the Hebrew, are
rooted in the following circumstances: 1. in their extensive
dispersion, 2. in their alienage, 3. in their half-citizenship, and
4. in their wealth. Unfortunately Sombart has omitted the
most important items, namely, 5. the open and the secret connection amongst themselves, and 6. the Jewish morality, which
is especially adapted for trading and for deceit.
The Hebrews, thanks to their extensive
dispersion over all lands, are enabled,
by means, of their international and
domestic connections, which they attend to with the utmost
assiduity, to maintain an accurate survey of all economic occur1. The extensive
dispersion.

160

rences in distant, as well as in adjacent territories. By this

means they are enabled to secure, at all times, the earliest
reliable information concerning the prospect of the crops, concerning the production and sale of goods, concerning stocks
of goods in hand, concerning the forwarding of goods, both
by land and water, and concerning the circulation of money
and any local deficiency of money. It is also known for certain that they mutually exchange most valuable information and
hints with respect to these matters not only by means of
the reports in the Press of the various markets and exchanges,
which reports are, almost without exception, under their control
but also by means of private letters and dispatches in cipher.
Important facts like these, are far too little known and appreciated at their full value in our time. Anyone, who has an
inkling of these matters, cannot be in the least surprised at the
success of the Jews; he, at any rate, will not gaze upwards
with amazement and admiration at the supposed eminent and
unusual faculties for trade, possessed by the Jews, because
these faculties rest on very ordinary foundations. There have
always been men with keen insight, who have seen through
these inner workings; but, unfortunately the wisdom of olden
times seems lost to the present generation, and it often appears
to us as if our teachers and spiritual pastors, as well as our
political leaders of today, put on smoked spectacles, so as not
to see what is happening before their eyes.
Even in the year 1698, a report from the French Ambassador
at the Hague, is devoted to a description of the activities of
the Dutch Jews, and of the machinations of these people on
the Amsterdam Exchange.* Amongst other things, mention is
made therein of the secret brotherhoods (Congregations), which
the Jews maintain, and which stand in the most intimate connection with one another. For instance, the "Fraternity of
Saloniki, which rules over their nation in both those other
parts of the world, and is surety for it," and that of "Venice
which, together with that of Amsterdam, holds sway over all
* Revue historique.

Vol. 44 (1890)

161

the northern parts." Mention is also made that these "brotherhoods" are only tolerated in England, and have to be kept
secret in France. The result of the intercourse between these
"brotherhoods" is, that the Jews are the first and the best informed concerning anything connected with trade, or of a novel
nature, and out of this liaison they build up their system (The
Speculation), and meet weekly on Sundays for consultation,
while the Christians are occupied with their religious duties.
The ambassador continues:
"These speculative schemes, which are of a most subtle nature, and
have been prepared in accordance with the intelligence, which has come
in during the preceding week, are sifted and refined by their Rabbis
and learned men, and are then, on the following Sunday, handed over
to their Jewish brokers and agents, who are selected for their exceptional craftiness. After the latter have consulted with one another, each
of them circulates, on the same day, the news, which is specially
adapted to serve their purposes. The next day, they at once set to work
buying, selling, exchanging and dealing in shares. As they always have
large sums of money and stocks of goods at their disposal, they are
always in a position to judge correctly when the right moment has
arrived to carry out their "coups", whether at the top or at the bottom
of the market, or simultaneously in both directions." (Sombart, page 202.)

This has been, in very truth, the secret of the Jewish brokers
for centuries, and it is nothing less than astounding how neither
our merchants, nor our learned political economists, nor our
politicians, nor our statesmen can see through these secret
machinations, and still cling to their naive belief that supply
and demand determine the price. In reality, the Hebrews,
combined internationally, form a clique for exploring all opportunities, and for systematically influencing all market conditions.
Even at the present day, similar conspirators and instigators
of the same unsavoury plotting and scheming are to be found
amongst the Rabbis, and one can soothe one's self with the reflection that, on occasions, matters are dealt with in the Synagogues, which have nothing to do with the service of God,
but which, on the contrary, exhale the very essence of trade
and the money-market (compare page 74).
This Jewish system of espionage, and the secret machinations
in the synagogues and on the Stock Exchange, place the Hebrew
162

in a position to obtain quicker and more reliable information,

concerning all matters, than anybody else in the country, not
excepting the Governments. And thus it comes to pass, that the
latter, in their naivet and artlessness, frequently imagine that
they must make use of the Hebrew, not only for the purpose
of obtaining important news from abroad, but also in order to
exert diplomatic influence in all directions. They forget that
by doing this, they are putting the cart in front of the horse,
and that it is Jewdom and the money-market, which derive
thereby all the benefit from any new political move.
Anyone, who is desirous of obtaining a correct idea of the
methods and extent of Jewish interference with and intrusion
into the higher political circles, should read what Emil Witte,
formerly commercial counsellor under v. Holleben at the German
Embassy in the United States, has to say in his book "Aus
einer deutschen Botschaft. Zehn Jahre deutsch-amerikanischer
Diplomatie" (From a German Embassy. Ten years of GermanAmerican diplomacy). This work is rich in disclosures concerning the nature of, and the position occupied by the two
telegraphic agencies of Reuter (London) and Wolff (Berlin), to
whom has been assigned the chief rle of making known important political news to the public by means of the Press.
Whilst dealing with this subject, the following remarks will
be of interest, as they afford glimpses into the career of a
Jewish adventurer. The founder of the "Reuter Bureau" was
born in Cassel of poverty-stricken Jewish parents, and his real
name is Josaphat. After an obscure and apparently turbulent
youth, Reuter became partner in a bookseller's business in
Berlin; he left this position on account of certain "irregularities", and soon afterwards founded the Reuter Bureau in London,
in company with a fellow tribesman, Dr. Englnder, one of those
numerous men of honour, who, by their assumed German
names, bring everything connected with that country into disrepute abroad, and who was, at the same time, a pronounced
Anarchist. With the help of Oscar Meding (Gregor Samarow)
the well-known Guelphic author and political agent, he was
successful in inducing the blind King George V of Hannover
163

to grant the concession of a telegraph-cable from Lowestoft

to Norderney, which he disposed of, in 1869, for a profit of
more than 200,000 (over four million marks) to the British
Government. Raised to the grade of Baron by Duke Ernst
of Coburg-Gotha, he earned large sums of money by acting
as impresario to the Shah Nasr-el-Din of Persia, and paid the
latter's travelling expenses all over Europe. By so doing, he
secured from the Shah, every possible concession, which Persia
had to impart.
In order to put a stop to the mutual competition, engendered
by the founding in Berlin in 1865 of the telegraphic bureau
of Dr. Wolff also a Jew Reuter purchased a part share
in the same, so that since then the same genius has held
sway over the two bureaux. What the nature of this spirit or
genius is, can be ascertained later on in this book, at the
appropriate place. Here it will suffice to say, that the owner
of the R. Bureau Baron de Reuter is portrayed as a
man, possessed by a demoniacal ambition, who is enabled, by
his position and his enormous wealth, to play a pernicious
part on the political stage, even though it takes place behind
the scenes. A man, moreover, utterly unscrupulous as to the
means he employs to enrich, and to advance himself one
can read a great deal more about him in Witte's book and
who was turned out by Bismarck on account of the hostile
tone, which his news service always displayed towards Germany.
The German Baron had his revenge for this, by securing a
dominating influence in the direction of Wolff's Bureau, which
is supported by Prussia and Germany, and since then has
taken his part in shaping politics in both of these countries by
the method peculiar to him. How and when this takes place,
the public has never been allowed to learn, although it is a
fact of common knowledge in all our newspaper offices, that
Reuter's Bureau is the heart and soul of all the foreign animosity towards the German Empire.* Thus, this institution,
* Anyone, who is desirous of tracking down the instigators of the
World's War, must certainly not pass Reuter by unnoticed.

164

which exists to feed half the world with news

in other

words to influence vast masses of people is connected by

the "most intimate ties" with the telegraphic bureau of Wolff,
which is domiciled in Berlin.

What that means, is expressed

by Witte, on page 118, in a quotation from an article in "Black

and White" by a former Times correspondentCharles Lowe
concerning the bills of exchange transactions between Reuter
and Wolff, as well as the inner organisation of the telegraphic
bureau of Wolff:
" "Wolff" is a joint-stock company, composed of some of the first
Jewish bankers in Berlin, and, naturally enough, the members of this
association claim the privilege for themselves of having the first look
at all important telegrams, a privilege, the prodigious significance of
which, for the twin worlds of international politics and international
finance, is immediately apparent.
The W. T. B. is a semi-official arrangement, the recognised organ of
the German and Prussian Government. "Do ut des" (I give in order
that you may give) or, "quid pro quo" (nothing for nothing) is the
principle, which regulates its relations to both governments, of which it
is, at one and the same time, henchman and mouthpiece. Many contemptuous expressions have been used concerning the "Reptile" Bureau in
Berlin, but, as a matter of fact, such a Bureau does not exist, or, at
any rate, only in the shape of the above-mentioned telegraphic bureau.
This is not to say that Wolff receives a subsidy in money out of the
"Reptile" fund of the Government. In the case of a newspaper, or a
similar undertaking, however, payment, in the form of important news,
is just as valuable, if not more valuable, than payment in hard cash.
What does the payment to Wolff consist of? First of all, in the precedence, which the Government accords to all messages received by or
emanating from Wolff's Bureau, in order to assure to that office, whenever
possible, priority in the publication of its announcements, a consideration,
which is naturally of the utmost importance to a telegraphic bureau.
Moreover, the Government makes use of Wolff's Bureau as its channel
of information and mouth-piece, when it wishes to publish a "dementi"
to influence public opinion, or to communicate certain information in
a certain form to the world especially to that part, which lies outside
Germany; this last can be very comfortably accomplished thanks to
Wolff's international connections."
The W. T. B. is an institution, founded by Bleichroder, and
for which Louis Schneider, formerly non-commissioned officer
and later courtier, the well-known reader to King William I,
165

was successful in obtaining the favourable notice of his august

master. In his letter to Dr. Wolff, in which he praises the Doctor's
intention, the King, in 1865, announced his expectation that
"patriotic financiers like Messrs Oppenfeld, Magnus and Bleichrder" would support Wolff's undertaking. What the shareholders in Wolff's Telegraphic Bureau understand by "patriotism",
is disclosed by the activity of this institution, which Bismarck
distinctly referred to in his famous aphorism "to lie like a telegram." The principal shareholders according to Witte, are the
chief of Bleichrder's Bank, Dr. Paul von Schwabach, English
Consul-General, and Herbert v. Reuter, chief of the English
telegraphic bureau, whose enmity towards Germany is an
established fact. Amongst other shareholders are the bankinghouses of Mendelsohn and of Warschauer.
Similar agreements to that between the Bureaux of Wolff
and Reuter exist also between these two institutions and official
or semi-official telegraphic agencies in other European countries,
of which the best known are the French "Agence Havas" and
the Italian "Agencia Stefania". All these are in the hands of
Jews. One must pause to reflect what it really means, when
one learns that by means of contracts, in which high penalties
have been mutually agreed upon, each of the above-mentioned
"Bureaux" engages to communicate to the Press in unaltered
form (that is to say without any regard for the truth) any
message, received from any other agency belonging to the
Union or Ring of telegraphic news-agencies! Of the two competing American telegraphic news-agencies "Associated Press"
and "Laffan Bureau", the former enjoys, thanks to the "smartness" of its representative, without any reciprocation on its
side, official priority for the quickest dispatch of its news from
Berlin because one believes here in Germany that by this
complaisance a "Good Press" is manufactured in America.
One must read Witte's book, in order to learn from the actual
facts of the World War, what astounding success has resulted
from this policy.
Witte continues: "the men, who are interested in the telegraphic bureaux, know no fatherland, think and feel internation166

ally. War, and danger of war provide, as far as they are

concerned, the most favourable opportunities for fishing in
troubled waters. It has already repeatedly come to light in
the Law Courts, and there is documentary evidence to confirm the statement, that Wolff's Bureau has suppressed important news in the interests of its shareholders, so that the
"patriotic financiers" (to whom King William I addressed himself) might be enabled, thanks to the exclusive information,
to transact profitable business on the Stock Exchange. It was
established, moreover, that the Foreign Office communicates
the Speech from the Throne of the Kaiser, at the opening and
closing of the Reichstag, to Wolff's Bureau, several hours before it is made known to the Reichstag and to the Press."
(Page 121 122).
This "national" Telegraphic Bureau was not ashamed to
receive subscriptions from private individuals for the quickest
possible telegraphic information of the death of the Emperor
William II during the life of this monarch. Already for years
(Witte wrote his book in 1907) the number of such subscribers
had reached 5000.
One asks one's sell: are the representatives of the German
Empire unable to discover any means of protecting themselves
against this "patriotic" Telegraphic Bureau and its dark machinations by instituting themselves a self-supporting independent
news-service, which would ward off from us the insidious peril,
which threatens the whole German Empire by the prejudicing
of its outlook and opinions for the sake of Jewish moneyinterests?*
Sombart can also tell us something about similar secret
methods of the Jews. He says:
Their method in High Finance has frequently been the following:
they first of all made themselves useful to the prince or ruler, as interpreters, by means of their knowledge of languages; they were then sent
as negotiators and agents to foreign courts: then the prince or ruler
* Even during the World War the W. T. B. was allowed to have a
monopoly of the news-service! Who can wonder now at the way in
which the war ended.

167

entrusted them with the management of his property (which opportunity,

it may be remarked by the way, was skilfully taken advantage of to
lead the prince or ruler into debt, and to become his creditor), and
by these means they became masters of the finances, and, in more
recent years, of the Exchanges (page 203)."

The Jews work always according to the same old receipt.

It is already sketched out in fullest detail in the history of
Joseph of Egypt's behaviour towards Potiphar and Pharaoh;
and thus the Hebrew does not find it necessary to develop
any particular intelligence in order to repeat the same old
artifice daily especially as the Christian nations are brought
up in complete ignorance of such tricks, and repeat, in good
faith, the Jewish lie that the Egyptian Joseph was a pious,
virtuous man and a national benefactor. Even in the earliest
times the Jews played a leading part at the courts of the
German princes; thus, for example, Isaac at the court of Charlemagne, and Kalonymos at the court of Otto II. Frederick
Barbarossa was surrounded by an entire staff of Jews, just
like Rudolph I. Maximilian I, being an unbusinesslike man,
was heavily in debt to the Jews. During the extensive German
wars in the 17th and 18th centuries, espionage was carried
on by the Jews, in all directions, to an enormous extent; even
during the Prussian-German wars of liberation in 1813 and
later (compare the Kreuzzeitung 1913 No. 209) more than half
the traitors, who served the French as spies, were Jews.* The
Jews were to be found in swarms at the various Courts until
the monarchs fell. The latter were blind enough to take the
most dangerous enemies of the monarchy to their bosom, and
to place implicit trust in them. The collapse of the monarchs
is not undeserved; stupidity is a crime in rulers; there was
no lack of warning. * This much is certain: the Jewish boast, on the contrary, concerning
the participation of Jews in the battles of liberation, was proved already
in the year 1819 to be a lie. That the same lie flourishes today, and
even to a greater extent than formerly, so that one Jewish Journalist
even goes so far as to claim Eleonore Prochaska the Potsdam heroine
as a Jewess, is only in accordance with the usual Jewish falsification
of history.

168

In modern times, the notorious Bernhard Maimon provides

a typical example of the Jewish intriguer behind the scenes on
the political stage.

On account of frequent thefts of documents

from the Foreign Office in Paris, in 1911, various arrests were

made, and Maimon, who was eventually unmasked as the leader
of an extensive system of espionage, was included amongst
the thieves.

Concerning this talented political adventurer one

could read as follows in a Jewish paper:

"Bernard Maimon, who is perhaps sixty years of age, is, without doubt,
one of the most interesting adventurers of the present time, truly a
modern Casanova, who, just like his famous (Jewish) predecessor, is
constantly and universally engaged in politics, works simultaneously for
and against all parties, brings the greatest financial operations to successful issue, negotiates the most difficult state loans, and still has time and
inclination to engage in most daring love-adventures."
Bernhard or properly Baruch Maimon is a Gallician
Jew, which has not prevented him from playing, sometimes
the Christian, sometimes the Moslem.

He was well versed,

not only in the Talmud, but also in the Koran and in the
Bible, and understood, to a remarkable degree, how to make
the most of this knowledge.

The Hebrew paper full of ad-

miration, relates further:

"His extensive public, and still more extensive secret relations with
the British Embassy were in constant rivalry with his mysterious connections with other Embassies, and especially with the palace of Abdul
Hamid. Tachsin, the first secretary at Yildiz Kiosk, was literally a mere
tool in the hands of Maimon. And whenever Maimon stayed away from
the palace in his own hotel, there was an uninterrupted exchange of
letters and messages between Yildiz and Maimon, by night as well as
day.
Apparently Maimon gave the first consideration to the interests of
England, but it is quite certain that he had other irons in the fire. He
was a spy for the whole world, and it flattered his vanity to play with
the first diplomatists of the day like a cat plays with a mouse, and to
converse with monarchs, in their private apartments, concerning matters,
which their ministers only learnt about for the first time much later on
in the day. The Winter Palace on the Neva was open to him, and
Abdul Hamid had the greatest personal regard for, and placed the
blindest confidence in him, in spite of, or just because Maimon was on
very friendly terms with the Young Turks. Whenever Maimon was
staying in Constantinople, Abdul Hamid took counsel with him daily
169

concerning all international questions, and when he was at a distance

from the Bosphorus, his advice was often sought and given by telegraph.
And, at one and the same time, Bernard Maimon was the counsellor
even the friend of King George of Greece, and his adviser during the
Turco-Grecian War. He put in an appearance at Crete, accompanied by
an entire staff of the leading French and English war-correspondents,
and even the renowned American photographer, Underwood, was not
wanting, for pictures of the most memorable episodes had to be provided for the great illustrated papers of both hemispheres and Bernard
Maimon naturally as the central figure in each case! The political adventurer, Bernard Maimon, travelled only by special train from one
residence to the other, and lived only In the best hotels. So much
for the wisdom of the old governments, and so much for the wisdom
of their diplomacy! Who can wonder that they suffered ship-wreck!"

The distribution of the Hebrews over all lands is particularly

advantageous for their system of reconnoitring, and one can
take it for granted that the distribution represents a carefullyspread net, so that every important centre has its appointed
spy or scout. When Governments so frequently gave the
preference to Jews in the case of army-contracts and similar
business transactions, it was always justified by the argument
that the Jews, thanks to their far-flung net of agents, were in
a far better position than other merchants to "assemble" rapidly
provisions and other materials in large quantities thanks
again to the connections, which they maintained from town to
town. In a book with the title "ber Judentum und Juden"
(Concerning Jewdom and the Jews) [1795] the author, von
Kortum says: "The Jewish contractor has no need to be scared
by difficulties. He has only to electrify the Jewish community
at the right place, and in a moment he has as many helpers
and helpers' helpers as he requires." Then again, how he
emphasises the fact: "formerly the Jew never traded alone as
an isolated individual, but always as a member of the most
extensive trading company in the world", and there is also a
noteworthy petition of the merchants of Paris, in the latter half
of the 18th century, which states: "they (the Jews) resemble
drops of quicksilver, which disperse themselves and run about
170

in all directions, but which, on the slightest shock, reunite

themselves into one mass."
The fact that the Government gives the Jews still further
support for their business espionage, by entrusting them with
the consular representations, belongs to those incomprehensibilities, of which our administrative wisdom furnishes so many
instances.
The fact that the Hebrew is a foreigner
The "foreignness"
in all countries is of great use to him.
of the Hebrews.
The Jew never identifies himself with
the interests of the country in which he lives. He has his
own peculiar nationality, and constitutes, with those of his
kind, an international nation as it were; and the interests of
this nation are supreme with him; they form, literally, the base
of his religious faith. Why should he break away from a
community, which is not only united by the double tie of
consanguinity and religion, but represents as well a gigantic
business association, which, simply owing to this adherence
to one another, is able not only to maintain its own existence
but can guarantee an existence to each individual Jew as well!
And an alien business association of this kind, with an alien
religion, will see to it that its interests are sharply separated
from those of other nations, and must accordingly confront
the latter both as foreigner and enemy. The leaders of the
Hebrew nation recognised this fact thousands of years ago;
and, for this reason, they drew up the rule: "remain a stranger
in the land, for you go there to take possession of it." And,
as Professor Adolf Wahrmund very appositely remarks, the
Jews, even at the present day, regard their journey across
the world as a warlike expedition, undertaken for the purpose
of conquest certainly not by displaying courage, sword in
hand, but by the weapons of financial and mental enslavement,
with which they overreach and infatuate the different nations,
and impose usurious spoliation and moral disturbance on them.
Just as Jacob, the ancestor of Jewry, defrauded the honest
peasant Esau of his rights as first-born, and, by a trick, sneaked
into possession of what should have been another's inheritance,
171

so, even up to the present day, Jewdom remains the professional

"sneaker" of inheritance among the other nations. The Talmudic
doctrine announces: "The possessions of those, who are not
Jews, are to be regarded as property without an owner, and
whoever is the first to seize the same is entitled to it."
One must certainly concede that the Hebrews have acquired
to an uncommon degree agility of mind, business circumspection, and a penetrating judgement as regards relations
and persons. These capabilities are the inheritance of a race,
which, for thousands of years, has not practised anything but
trading, usury, espionage and overreaching of honest people.
It was, by no means, the external pressure of his environment, which converted the Hebrew into a usurer and a deceiver;
he has never been anything else. This can be seen from his
primordial laws and doctrines, which apart from meaningless stories and forms of ritual, scarcely touch upon anything
except how to exploit and befool that part of humanity, which
is not Jewish. It must also be taken into consideration that
Jewdom, which is for ever on the move, impelled by the lust
for roving, and which represents the nomadism of modern
times, is enabled, by constant change of relations and surroundings, to develop a keener insight into affairs, than those
who never move from the spot where they were born. The
Hebrews are intruders everywhere, who were obliged to capture a place for themselves by means of cunning, and who,
for that reason, have always practised, in a masterly fashion,
the requisite artifices. "New-settlers" as Sombart, not very
appropriately, calls them,
"must keep their eyes open, in order to make themselves quickly at
home in their new quarters, must be careful how they proceed, in order
that they may, at any rate, make a livelihood under the new conditions.
While the long established inhabitants are resting comfortably in their
warm beds, they (the Jews) are standing outside in the chilly morning
air, and must first of all endeavour to build themselves a nest! There
they stand regarded by all settled inhabitants as intruders."

And the alienage of the people of Juda, as even Sombart

allows, is not only of an external but of an internal nature as
well. He says:
172

"Israel, however, was alien amongst the other peoples since time
immemorial in quite another - one might almost say psychologicalsocial sense, in the sense, of an internal contrariety to the population
surrounding them, in the sense of an almost partitioned-off seclusion
from the economist nations. They, the Jews, were conscious that they
were something out of the ordinary, and were, in turn, regarded as such
by the economist nations."

That, in the last analysis, is the secret which stigmatises

Hebrewdom: this alienage and contrariety, which they, as guests
in foreign countries, feel and display towards their hosts;
and it is the chief defect of our education, that not only are
these peculiar relations not made clear to us, but we are
actually deceived concerning them! While the Jew never allows
himself to forget for one moment that he must regard us as
strangers and enemies, whom it is business to exploit and
overreach, we are brought up under the false impression that
the Hebrew is a harmless member of the human community,
just like the members of any other nation. And even more;
we actually befriend and favour the most dangerous enemy
of our economic and national existence, in consequence of
the unlucky associations which Church doctrine has most
erroneously derived from the traditions of Jewdom.
The Church ascribes a moral and religious importance to
the Jew, which he simply does not possess. Out of this fundamental error on our part, Hebrewdom draws its main strength;
our blindness and foolish trust provide him with the most
favourable opportunities. Whilst hecertainly with the demeanour
of the innocent friend of humanity lies in wait for each
opportunity to overreach us, we advance towards him with
open arms, open heart and open pocket, and make his task
of exploiting and harming us a very easy one. Viewing the
situation, as described above, one may well ask if the Hebrew
really is in need of a special intelligence department, and of
superior business ability, in order to gain an economic advantage over us, when the secret alliance of his racial companions and our unlimited trustfulness have already made the
game so ridiculously easy for him.
173

We have already seen, in section V, how the Hebrew, in

his compartment-like seclusion, recognises no moral obligations
of any kind toward us; and how he considers himself entitled to abuse our trustfulness in any and every way.
One must realise that the whole culture of civilised humanity
rests on a foundation of mutual trust. The co-operation of a
great, civilised community is only rendered possible by each
honestly fulfilling his duty, and thereby justifying the reliance
and confidence of others in him. The Hebrew knows nothing
of fidelity and trust at least as far as "strangers" are concerned.
He knows only of a compact with his own clique, which is
more of the nature of a conspiracy, and which is indispensable
for the successful issue of his plans for overreaching others.
As regards strangers, however, he considers himself freed from
any moral responsibility whatever. Sombart says:
"The mere fact that one had to do with a 'stranger' has sufficed in
all times, which had not yet been tainted by humanitarian considerations, to relieve the conscience and to loosen the bonds of moral
obligation."

And this is the position taken up by the Hebrew even at

the present day; all of us are strangers in his eyes, fit material
for exploitation, whom it is his duty to injure, for the greater
honour of Israel and of his idol Jahwe. These relations of the
Hebrew with the stranger are the antithesis to the attitude and
behaviour of the German under like conditions. Overstrained
conceptions of humanity prompt us to display especial consideration and obligingness towards those, who are not Germans.
We have had to pay dearly for this unpatriotic indulgence in
the past; and to nobody more than to the Jews.
The Semi-Citizenship of the Jews, which
has already been mentioned, proceeds
from their alien nature. They are semicitizens amongst us, because their allegiance to our national
community is only feigned and superficial, for secretly they
retain their separate Jewish civil community, and their separate
nationality. This causes them, however, in another sense to
3. Semi-Citizenship
of the Jews.

174

become double-citizens, for, according to the law, they belong

simultaneously to two nationalities and states; amongst us they
are, at one and the same time, German and Hebrew; they
are amenable to two systems of law, and can claim protection
from both; for they have the option of invoking, at one time,
the German, and at another, the Jewish code, selecting whichever system appears to be most advantageous.

They acquire

thereby privileges over all other citizens of the state, and it

is only a trait of their ancient mendacity and

presumption,

when they behave as if they were not treated with full justice
in our country.

As a matter of fact as double citizens they

enjoy double rights are actually privileged.

Fichte has al-

ready called attention to this:

"Through almost every country in Europe a mighty, hostile state is
extending itself, and is engaged in constant warfare with all the other
states: its oppressive tyranny causes grievous suffering to the citizens
of all the other countries, and it is called Jewdom. I do not believe
that this fearful state of affairs has come about because Jewdom forms
a separate and exceedingly compact community, but because it is founded
upon hatred of the whole human race.*
It has gone so far, in his (Fichte's) opinion, that:
"In a country where even the King may not, of his own free will,
deprive me of the cottage, which I inherited from my father, and where
I have my legal rights against the all-powerful minister, the first Jew,
nevertheless, who takes it into his head, can plunder me with impunity,"
and he then continues:
"You are all aware of this and cannot deny it, and utter words sweet
as sugar about tolerance, the rights of man and civic rights, and the
whole time you are inflicting injury on our chief rights as men
Cannot you recall in this case the instance of the state within the state?
Does not the intelligible thought ever occur to you that the Jews, who,
apart from you, are citizens of a state, which is more firmly founded
and more powerful than all of yours, will, if you once give them citizenship in your own countries, tread you, the original citizens, under their
feet?"
* J. G. Fichte: "Urteile ber die franzsische Revolution" (Opinions
concerning the French Revolution) [1793] Extracts are to be found
in the "Handbuch der Judenfrage" (Handbook of the Jewish Question).
26 Edition, Pages 6365.
th

175

The assertion that, in olden times, the Jews were denied

entry into the honourable industries, and consequently were
forced to resort to usury, is contradicted in the most emphatic
manner by Sombart. He cites, amongst other proofs, an order
of the Cabinet, dated 1790, which permitted the protected
Jews of Breslau to carry on all kinds of mechanical crafts,
and mentions also that, amongst these Jews, besides those
who were tolerated, there were privileged and universallyprivileged ones, who were allowed full exercise of all Christian
rights in the ordinary course of life. It is quite certain that
some Jews enjoyed special privileges, which were hereditary
in their families.* Sombart also lays stress on the fact, that
if the Jews neither obtained nor sought for admittance into
the corporations and guilds, this was to be attributed mainly
to the Christian character of these organisations; the crucifix
repelled them. The Jews, moreover, already in the 12th and
13th centuries, were not only on a completely equal footing
with the great merchants, the shopkeepers and the leading
people as regards freedom of the markets (Freitag: "Bilder a.
d. Vergangenheit" II - "Pictures out of the past" II) but they
actually had the privilege over their competitors of being protected, together with clergymen, women and pilgrims, against
all action under feudal law (Schrder's Rechtsgeschichte. I
History of Law. I). In olden times the religiousness of the
Christian, and the alienage of the Jew himself, operated to
the latter's advantage, just as German cowardliness and "culture" do, at the present day. Owing to their alienage the
Jews possessed one peculiar advantage, namely, that there
was no need for them to take part in the quarrels of other
nations, and could, on that account, all the more easily derive
benefit from political complications at the expense of the
* "Amongst themselves the Jews lived (during the 10th-12th centuries and later) according to the Mosaic-Talmudic Law, from which,
later on, many legal ideas have crept into the common law of the
community. In each town the Jews formed a special community by
themselves" that is to say the Ghetto "under a Jewish bishop,
who was appointed by the King at their suggestion, and who exercised
judicial powers amongst them in all cases of dispute."

176

two conflicting powers. Sombart says: "national conflicts became actually the principal source of Jewish acquisition." Espionage might also be included (compare page 156). Besides
this, one must not forget the farming-out of the privilege to
mint money, which the German Emperors, since the 13th century, had made over to the towns and to the large landowners,
who, in their turn, had handed it on to single tenants
amongst them many Jews. Up to the middle of the 18th century these people secured enormous profits for themselves
from debasement of the coinage alone. "Outwardly good and inwardly bad, outwardly Frederick but inwardly Ephraim"* was the
derisive comment of the people of Brandenburg concerning the
badly silvered-over groschen, issued during the Seven Years War.
The ancient complaint about the oppression
of the Jews in olden times, contradicts itself alone by the fact of their indulgent mode of living, and
their display of luxury. We have already mentioned how they
inhabited the most magnificent mansions, not only in Holland
and London, but also in Paris and Hamburg, and Gl-ckel of
Hameln discourses in the same strain concerning the princely
splendour displayed at a rich Jewish wedding in Amsterdam.
Sombart furnishes long lists of the names of rich Jews in
England, Hamburg and Frankfurt, during the 17th and 18th centuries, and the amounts stated in figures of the fortunes
of these people are a sufficient refutation of the ancient fable
about the "poor, oppressed Jew." He says:
4. Jewish Wealth.

"The peculiar and interesting fact, that the Jews were always the
richest people, has continued unaltered for centuries, and remains as
true today as it was two or three hundred years ago. It anything, it is
still more pronounced and universal at the present time than formerly.**
* The Jew Ephraim (Itzig & O) was the head of the mintage-farmers,
of whose services Frederic the Great was compelled to avail himself
when surrounded with difficulties.
** Sombart's book is especially recommended to the notice of Social
Democrats, in order that they may learn who are the originators of the
capitalistic system, which they pretend to hate so much, and who are
the real oppressors of the people. Perhaps then they will begin to reflect whether they are justified in selecting their leaders and advisers
out of this particular circle.

177

We possess sufficient explanation of this mystery, when we

have once become acquainted with the means, by which Jewdom acquires its riches. Only we must once more oppose
the erroneous idea, that the riches of the Jews, who live in
our midst, are part and parcel of the national wealth. The
Hebrews, of their own accord, place themselves outside the
pale of the nation; their riches, therefore, are not to be included in our national wealth. On the contrary, the Jewish
riches are the sum of what is lost to us in prosperity. These
riches, at the present moment, are in the possession of a foreign and hostile nation, which is using them in order to oppress
us. All the mighty banking foundations and gigantic Stock Exchange speculations of the Hebrews are, in reality, consummated mainly with o u r money. In the case of all Jewish
activity there is no suggestion of the creation of sound economic
values, but only of a crafty shifting of ownership. An honest
Hebrew, one Conrad Alberti (Sittenfeld), acknowledged as much
when he wrote as follows in the "Gesellschaft" of 1889 No. 12:
"No one can dispute that Jewdom takes a leading part in polluting
and corrupting all relations. A characteristic of the Jew is the stubborn
endeavour to produce values without work, and this being a matter of
impossibility, it simply means that these values are artificially produced
by swindling and corruption, by manoeuvres on the Stock Exchange in
conjunction with the Press in order to spread false rumours, and by
other and similar methods. These artificial and fictitious values are
then acquired, unloaded and exchanged for genuine values, produced by
real work, only to melt away and vanish in the hands of their new
owners like Helen in the arms of Faust. The representatives of corruption on the Exchange, in the Press and in the Theatre in my novel
"The Old and Young", representatives of that class who strive to
enrich themselves without working, are therefore Jews."

When Sombart says: "Capitalism is born from the moneyloan", I should like to add to this: Capitalism actually exists
only in the money-loan; for, under the expression "Capital"
in the narrower sense, I understand only Loan-Capital, that is
to say the kind of capital which is utilised, not to generate
productive activity, but solely to win interest. It cannot be
disputed that the dangerous capitalism of the present day arises
178

solely from the loaning of money, for the productive fortunes

of our great industrialists must not be compared in this respect
with the usury-capital of the Rothschilds and their associates.
The productive capital of industry consists, like that of the
large land-owners, preponderatingly of landed property, buildings and industrial investments, and only gives a return when
inventive intelligence, organising power and hard work are
also brought into active operation. The distinguishing feature,
however, of loan-capital "speculative capital" is to bring
in a return without doing any work for it. Productive capital
gives opportunity for work and wages simultaneously to hundreds and thousands, but loan-capital is only a steady drain on
the return earned by others, taking often the lion's share; for
it makes sure of its percentage whatever happens, even when
adverse circumstances or the failure of the harvest wipe out
all profit.
When certain people make the simple masses believe that
the farmer and the large land-owner the hated "Agrarian"
are the real oppressors and plunderers of the people, they
omit to mention that very frequently this "Agrarian" himself is
grievously oppressed, and is on the rack from year's end to
year's end, to raise the money to pay the interest on the
mortgages. The workman in industrial service, or in possession
of a handicraft, always remains a free man, who receives an
honest wage for honest work, and who can, if he chooses,
give notice and change his employer. But whoever finds himself in the bondage of Loan-capital and doomed to pay interest,
is seldom, if ever, able to shake off the fetters. The landowner, burdened with mortgages, is far less free and far less
of a master than the youngest proletarian from the factory.
All his life long he, and often his children and grandchildren
as well, are chained to the same piece of soil, which claims
all their labour in order to raise interest for Loan-capital. How
crazy it is then, to direct the envy and hatred of the townbred proletariat against these supposed tyrants! In reality,
many of these so-called owners even the large landed proprietors are themselves "owned" by the Loan-capitalists.
179

A new kind of secret serfdom has come into being, which is

invisible to the ordinary public, and which consists in allowing
the slave to retain the outward appearance of lord and master,
whilst it condemns the much-envied owner to a kind of bondage.
This bondage is rooted finally in our wrong arrangement
of our interest system. It is opposed to common sense, in
the case of a sum of money lent on interest once only, to
make, not only the recipient of the loan, but his children and
children's children liable to pay interest for all time. This
"eternal interest" is, on the one side, the curse of the productive classes, and on the other, the fertile soil in which are
rooted the power and dominancy of that oppressor of the
nations Judah. The interest system invests the moneylender with a relative might which, in reality, is more oppressive than the dominance and despotism of the olden times.
The despot of earlier times invariably took the part of his
bondmen, and protected them against dangers from without,
because their preservation and his own economic interest
were inseparable. The lender of money does not recognise
this personal concern for the welfare of those who pay him
interest; he chases them ruthlessly from hearth and home
when they are no longer able to pay him tribute. He also
enjoys the advantage that the unpledged portion of his debtor's property falls, in this manner, into his clutches as well.
Sometimes he acquires, under a forced sale, the entire possessions of his debtor in satisfaction of his claim, and thereby
gains that part of the property, which had not yet been pledged. He then introduces a fresh "interest-slave" into the
property, and proceeds to treat the same, who perhaps has
increased the value of the property by his personal energy,
in precisely the same manner should he fall into arrears.
Between the "interest-master" and the "interest-slave" all
human relations have ceased; the connection between the two
has become purely mechanical; it has become unhuman and
soulless. On the other hand, the activity of the receiver of
interest does not call for the slightest intellectual or physical
exertion. The knight of olden times protected his bondmen
180

with spear and shield against their foes; the lord of capital
has divested himself of all such responsibilities. The accumulation of capital also has become a purely mechanical process.
Interest and capital accumulate in accordance with the purely
mechanical law of mass-attraction an absolutely imbecile
proceeding devoid of any organic sense. Sombart says:
"With regard to the lending of money, economic activity as such has
lost all meaning; the occupation of lending money has ceased to be
a sensible activity of either mind or body."

There is one, and only one object: the material result i. e.

the acquisition of fresh capital, and therewith the extension
of the power of the lender of the money.
In this manner loan-capital gains power over other men,
and has forced itself into a dominating position, which is
founded neither on physical, nor on intellectual, nor on moral
superiority. This position depends entirely upon a fictitious
power, and one which is devoid of any human element, namely
the conception or notion of capital. It is enabled by means
of eternal interest, extending into immeasurable time, to make
foreign labour subject to itself, and to overpower and crush
all spiritual and moral effort. The formation of capital out of
interest is something automatic and spiritless, for it can be
consummated just as well in the hands of an idiot as in the
hands of a being destitute of all morality simply by a
fiction, by a false economic view.
"The possibility of earning money without any personal exertion by
an economic transaction, makes its first distinct appearance in the lending
of money. The possibility also, of getting strangers to work for one
without physical compulsion, is immediately apparent."

Thus writes Sombart on page 223; it seems to us, however,

that the "scooping-in" of interest is scarcely worthy of the
name of "economic transaction."
After such illuminating reflections, it seems very extraordinary to us, that it is precisely in the capitalistic Jewish press
where a bitter hatred is unceasingly fomented against the
domination of olden times, and against anything which refers
to, or recalls the same. Feudal-domination, Knighthood, No181

bility are mediaeval ideas, and as such are exposed to

incessant attacks from the so-called "liberal" press. With what
right and for what purpose? Simply with the object of not
allowing the infatuated population, who are ignorant of history,
to wake up to the fact that they are languishing and wasting
away under new tyrants, the interest-despots, who set to work
in a far more selfish and brutal manner than was ever the
case even with the most ruthless Feudal-Lord of the Middle
Ages.

182

XIII

Business and Religion.

Sombart speaks mockingly of the "fearful maxims" which
Pfefferkorn, Eisenmenger, Rohling, Dr. Justus and others have
culled from the religious books of the Jews. It would have
been a good thing if he had submitted a sample of these
"horrors" to his readers, for, often as these "maxims" have
been examined by other conscientious scholars, they the
maxims have invariably retained the same aspects. And,
when the explanatory artifices of the Jews are brought into
play, according to the receipt given in chapter V, one is in a
position to understand that the Hebrew can interpret entirely
different, and far worse meanings out of those doctrines, than
the conscientious Christian translator is capable of. The same
Sombart, who reported to us some time back, how, owing to
the Talmud, the entire Jewish spiritual world had declined into
impotence, and how every minute point, every letter, every
word had its own important meaning, goes so far as to say
light-heartedly a few pages further on:
"naturally in the course of so many centuries these particular doctrines
have altered entirely in meaning."

This is untrue. All that is correct is, that in the Talmud with
its commentaries, the most divergent opinions of the Rabbis
find utterance, and that the doctrines and expositions contained
therein, frequently contradict one another; that, however, is
only equivalent to saying that it is open to every faithful Jew
to accept as authentic whatever doctrine and exposition may
best suit his purpose for the time being. Thus, when one
passage reads: "you must not lie to, deceive, or rob the Goi",
and another Rabbi says: "under circumstances you may do
so", more latitude is allowed to the conscience of the Jew
who believes in his Talmud. He can act either in this way,
183

or in that, and will still find himself in agreement with the law,
will still remain a pious and orthodox Jew.
Out of the mass of inconsistencies and contradictions contained in the Rabbinical writings, arises that cheap form of
diversion which the Rabbis have always carried on at the
expense of those who do not happen to be Jews. If anyone
calls attention to a passage in the Talmud, which states: You may
do the Goi an injury, the Rabbi can at once turn up another
place where it says: You must not do this. The morality of
the Talmud is like a conjurer's box with a false bottom, from
which the moral and the immoral can be produced according
to wish. It is therefore, trifling on the part of Sombart when,
referring to the serious scientific study which Christian Scholars
have made of the Talmud, to speak of the "downright silly game,
which the Anti-Semites and their Christian or Jewish opponents
have been playing ever since the recollection of man". The
only question is, which side is playing a silly game. Sombart
himself is engaged in a game of harassing and mystifying
when he says with reference to these matters:
'So far as the religious writings are read by the laity themselves,
it seems to me essential that, generally speaking, a settled opinion
should be expressed with regard to any particular question. It is a
matter of indifference if, at the same time, the contrary opinion is also
represented; for the devout man, who has been edified by these writings, is content to accept the view which coincides with his own interests, so that he is thereby in a better position to defend the same."

According to this logic one might well believe that Sombart had also attended the Talmudic School, for this is a
genuine specimen of the Rabbinical expression of opinion:
one particular view or manner of understanding suffices if it
exactly suits the reader! capital. But if there happen to
be two entirely opposite opinions, the devout man has the
opportunity of selecting whichever one pleases him best. And
one is bound to admit this is a very empty kind of morality.
Sombart adds: "since everything, in this case, is divine revelation, one passage is just as valuable as another." Quite
correct! here we have the morality with the double bottom
openly defended by a scholar who does not desire to be a Jew!
184

The Rabbinical writings, which most certainly have been

written by the most intellectual amongst the Jewish people,
actually prove that, amongst the Jews, the feeling for true
morality, for the ethical consciousness, is entirely wanting.
There is no good and evil for them; everything is gauged
by momentary advantage. A naive ponderer, like Friedrich
Nietzsche, saw with admiration in all this, a "higher form
of morality," and felt tempted to write his "Jenseits von
Gut und B-se" ("The other side of Good and Evil"). He
had no conception how his action smoothed and prepared
the way for unmoral Jewdom. There is no "other side" to
good and evil for constructive and productive people, for
nations of real culture; these require stern standards and
accurate balances to determine what is constructive and what
is destructive, and to show what preserves and what demolishes. It is only the Hebrew, who does not construct anything, who can allow himself the luxury of an "other side to
Good and Evil."
Sombart is more honest when he confesses:
"I find in the Jewish Religion the same leading ideas as those which
characterize capitalism: I see that the former is filled with the same
spirit as the latter."

In reality, the conscienceless predatory spirit, which distinguishes modern Capitalism in its worst form Mammonism
fulfils also the Talmudic Rabbinical doctrine. One must be
grateful to Sombart for this admission. He proceeds to say
and this statement must also be approved on account of its
honesty
that this religion
"has not arisen from an irresistible impulse, nor from the deep fervour of the heart of those, whose souls have been mutilated, nor from
the religious ecstasy of adoring spirits, but from a premeditated plan like
a carefully-considered proposition, resembling a diplomatic problem."

He designates it as a work of the understanding, calculated

to break up and enslave the whole natural world. How strangely
does this opinion correspond with the perception of the
derided Anti-Semites, who have been saying the same for
decades!
185

Undoubtedly the Jewish doctrine arises from the understanding, warped with vanity, which has lost all touch with
the fundamental laws of natural growth or development, and
would like to convert life, devoid now of soul and reason,
into a sum of arithmetic. The word, Rationalism, which one
would like to apply to this particular frame of mind and this
mode of regarding life, is not appropriate here. Ratio always
means reason, i. e. thought that is in harmony with natural
laws; reason is not merely understanding, but is, at all events,
understanding united to instinct or feeling, being endowed
with a keen sensibility as to the essential nature of things.
Mere understanding is simply arithmetic, without instinct,
without feeling. And the Jewish mode of thinking must be
placed in this category. If, according to the popular belief,
the devil is to be regarded as stupid, then this points out
very pertinently the purely intellectual nature of the calculation and scheming which arise out of Evil. For this calculation, devoid of instinct, invariably ends by deceiving itself
for the simple reason that no allowance having been made
for Nature, the calculation rests on a false basis. When Sombart
says: "Rationalism is the principal trait of Judaism just as it
is of Capitalism," he means the mere mechanism of the understanding soulless calculation. And when he goes on to
say: "the Jewish religion does not recognise anything of a
mystic nature," he might have said still more correctly
that it did not recognise idealism, nor true morality, nor anything ethical. When he further maintains that the ancient
religions were always ready to attribute any deed, which
aroused a sense of shame or remorse, to the Divinity, it is
the Jewish doctrine alone that entirely justifies the accusation.
Already, in the time referred to by the Old Testament, all
kinds of disgraceful deeds, perpetrated by the people of Judah
against other nations, were undertaken, always ostensibly at
the bidding of their God Jahwe or Jehovah; and the same
diversion is continued in the Talmud. Jahwe not only approves
of all manner of evil things, but he himself, as personification
of the Jewish entity, tells lies and deceives. The philosopher,
186

Ludwig Feuerbach, has already designated the so-called Jewish

religion as nothing more than a business contract between
Judah and its God. Nothing is to be found in these laws
and doctrines, which does not hint at some material benefit
for the children of Israel. Jahwe demands obedience from
his people, and promises them in return: riches and long life.
"Utilitarianism
profit is the predominant principle of
Jewdom" says Feuerbach. "The Jews have retained their
peculiarity up to the present day: their deity is the most
practical principle in the world: egoism, and egoism in the
form of religion." Ernest Renan says the same thing (Hist. des
lang. sm.).
Sombart is no different with reference to Jewish doctrine:
"There is no kind of compact or partnership between God and man,
which is not consummated in the form that man performs something
that is agreeable to God, and is rewarded by God correspondingly."

But even Jahwe does not do anything for his chosen people
except for cash down. He is no God of the self-sacrificing love,
but is an out-and-out business man like the Jew himself; and
thus, throughout the whole Jewish religion, there is no higher
moral guiding star. There is nothing to raise man above himself, no unselfish sacrifice, no inspiration for ideals. Always
only
"A constant weighing-up and comparison of the advantage or disadvantage, which any action or omission to act may entail, a most
complicated kind of book-keeping in order to keep the debit side of
each individual's account in order."

Such is Jewish piety according to Sombart. And, just as

according to the Jewish mode of thinking, everything resolves
itself into action and reaction, into payment and acquisition, so,
in the so-called Jewish religion, is the acquisition of money regarded as the supreme and sole object of life. The Jew introduces the huckster's spirit even into his divine services, and
Sombart reports that these ceremonies have, in many cases,
developed into nothing less than formal auctions. Thus, for
example, the official posts of the Thora in the Synagogue are
sold by auction to the highest bidders (Sombart page 249).
He also confirms that the Rabbis were, for the most part,
187

prominent business people, (compare also page 73) and therefore we are bound to acquiesce when he hints that the Jewish
religious system has greatly assisted the capitalistic career of
Jewdom. In other words, the so-called Jewish religion is
nothing else than the wrapping-up of sharp business practices
in a religious garment.
A nation certainly has nothing to be proud of in having
invented and retained in favour, even up to the present day,
a code of morals which in truth is devoid of all morality. But
why should not the Hebrew cling tenaciously to this traditional
doctrine; for, thanks to its help, success is on his side! Why
should he not cherish his Jahwe, who has been such an excellent adviser to him in all business matters? It is a fatal
weakness of the other nations that, up till now, they have not
been able to perceive what their real relations to the Jews are,
and have not been able to discover the ways and means by
which the Jews enrich themselves. So the Jew still retains the
fantasy that not only is his intelligence of a higher quality
than that of other men, but that his religion is also superior
to theirs. He will only become sober-minded when the other
nations at last settle accounts with him, and when he discovers
that the accountant, Jahwe, unmasked and hurled from his
throne, is no longer in a position to help him.

Indeed, there cannot be any more striking contrast than that

presented by the intense, unearthly idealism of Christ, which
disregards the material world, and the rabbinical spirit which
is directed entirely towards material advantage and earthly
enjoyment. Sombart says:
"In this respect the Jews stand in the most striking contrast to the
Christians, whose religion has endeavoured to its utmost to embitter
all joy in this world. Just as often as riches are praised in the Old
Testament, are they cursed, and poverty extolled, in the New Testament."

It is therefore illuminating, why the devout Christian and

the pious Jew play such very unequal parts in the acquisitive
life. The Christian seeks to acquire in order to gain his
188

living; the Jew is desirous of heaping up riches in order to

control and to enjoy. And, at this juncture, the question
arises: Has not the unworldly religion of the Christians perhaps
been the unconscious agent to fasten the golden fetters of
Jewdom on the Aryan nations?
But while the views taken of life, and the moral obligations
of the Aryan nations have, in the course of time, altered and
become freer and more humane, the same cannot be said of
Jewdom. Its law remains rigid and unchangeable up to the
present day: in the course of 3000 years Jewdom cannot
record any moral advance. What stands written, stands written,
and is just as valid today as on the first day, when, according
to the legend, it was dictated directly by Jahwe to Moses on
the summit of Mount Sinai. Jewish law is built up on a faith
of sheer and literal acceptation, with exclusion of all common
sense and of all unfettered judgement. It reduces its adherents
to dumb slaves. Jewdom is, in reality, the religion of servility.
Whenever the fable is repeated that the Jews were our instructors in moral and religious matters, and presented us, as it
were, with a religion, the repetition discloses either complete
ignorance of the subject, or a deliberate perversion of facts.
The people of Judah were never moral and pious in our sense
of these words; they do not possess any faculty of perception
in this respect. And whoever regards the blind subservience
of the Hebrew to literalness as the highest degree of piety,
is incapable of recognising the spiritual and moral nature of
the genuine man. The really religious man is he, who untiringly searches for the deepest and most intimate associations
between natural and moral occurrences, who is constantly extending his knowledge, who surveys and judges of his own
actions according to their effect, and who does not cling blindly
and incapable of judgement to mere literal forms. Lagarde
says appositely: "A religion only lives as long as it is cultivated."
In reality it is only the constant striving for moral perfection
and the constant seeking for and deepening of moral insight,
which form the essence of true religiousness. Where these
are wanting, there is no religion; and they are wanting in Jew189

dom. The slave to literalness, who conforms to the timeworn doctrine without passing any criticism, and who, at the
best, endeavours to thread a way by means of cowardly subtlety between the various precepts of the same, is wanting in
nothing so much as in religious consciousness. And thus, from
this standpoint, the Jewish doctrine cannot lay any claim to
the name of religion.
Sombart says with respect to the "Thora" of Israel:
"The commands and prohibitions of God contained therein must be
observed most strictly by the pious man; whether great or small;
whether they appear sensible or senseless to him; they are to be fulfilled in the strictest sense of the word, just as they stand, for the
simple reason that they are the command of God."

Thus, common sense and individual reflection, individual

moral feeling and conscience are excluded of necessity
in order to equip Jewdom for the particular task, which has
been assigned to it as its world mission: viz. to ruin the other
nations morally and physically, and to seize their possessions.
The Jewish nation is the soulless tool of an abstract idea,
which has been exalted even to Divinity, and whose ultimate
aim is the plundering and annihilation of honest mankind.
The driving force in this struggle is the hatred of mankind,
a disposition hostile to life, the evil spirit.
From a superficial point of view, that is to say the point
of view of all those to whom the essence of true religion is
unknown, the Jewish doctrine may certainly appear as a
model religion because it concerns itself with the lowest functions of life (for instance, with one's behaviour in the w.c.), and
represents all such precepts as direct commands from God.
Moreover, the Jewish language possesses a peculiar pathos, a fact
to which Goethe has already called attention, and readily avails
itself of extravagant expressions. But we must not be l e d astray
by the high-sounding words. It is frequently the case in ordinary
life that the person, who has the richest vocabulary and the most
touching phrases at his disposal, has a cold heart, whilst another,
whose soul is almost choked with overpowering emotion, is
unable to utter a word. Both the written and the spoken language
of the Jews use occasionally extravagant expressions for what
190

is actually base, worldly, and even immoral, and by this means

the semblance of religiousness is aroused, where, in reality,
nothing of that nature exists. On the other side, blind obedience
raises itself, which slavishly follows the letter of the law, which
constitutes the might of the business managers of this "religion,"
namely the Rabbis. And thus it is intelligible if the apparent
piety of the Jews appears exemplary to priests, who are greedy
of power.
In reality, the Hebrews have borrowed many devout words
from the religions of older and more deeply-feeling nations,
in order to act as a cloak to their selfish and worldly aspirations. When a comparatively honest Hebrew, like Dr. Jacob
Fromer, maintains that in Jewdom everything is ethical,* all
that he means to say is: everything therein is regarded from
a practical point of view: for the conception of morality is
foreign to this man also. I should feel inclined to believe
that the Hebrew meant Art when he said Ethics, so as to
give to all bargains and transactions, even of the lowest description, a decent appearance, and to invest the same with a
mantle of piety, although the pretence could not be extended
beyond representing that the transaction in question lay within
the province of God. For instance, a Hebrew, who was about
to rob a man, actually went so far as to clothe his intention
in the following words: "My Lord God, thou hast given thy
servant power over the goods of the stranger, and see, I hasten
to execute thy divine Will."
In this manner the Hebrew has introduced an element of
untruthfulness and hypocrisy into the life of mankind, that is
devoid of all naturalness and morality, and which is intended
to detach the rest of humanity from any dependence on Nature
and common sense. And this hostile principle works with
amazing results, and is, at this moment, steadily and irresistibly
dragging mankind down that stairway of degeneration prepared
for it by the Jew.
* See Dr. Jacob Fromer: "Das Wesen des Judentums" ("The Essence
of Jewdom"). The author has been fiercely attacked by many of his
co-religionists on account of his frank and frequent criticisms.

191

One may say: Jewdom is an attempt to tear the existence

of mankind apart from Nature, and to mould it into a kind
of calculating and exact comprehension. This is what is understood by the much-praised "Intellectuality" of Hebrewdom. To
say no more about it, a life without dependence upon Nature
cannot continue for any length of time; and just as the Hebrew
with his disintegrating intellect has never succeeded in maintaining a state of his own, has never succeeded in creating
an independent, self-contained, and self-supporting society and
culture, so does he convey the spirit of disintegration into
the midst of those nations, who believe in culture. From
whatever point he is regarded, the Hebrew displays the features of the parasite. He does not derive his means of
existence directly from Nature from the soil but only
by means of an intermediary system of living, the essential
members of which he sucks dry. But it is the custom of the
parasite, if not checked, to entirely consume the juices and
energy of its host, and then, if it is unable to migrate to a
fresh source of sustenance, it perishes together with the host.
Accordingly there is little that can be regarded as rational in
the nature of the parasite, but there is, on the contrary, a
blind and greedy stupidity, which finally destroys the foundation of the parasite's own existence. The Jews, therefore, are
not, as Sombart is of opinion, "rationalists," but short-sighted
beings, wanting in sensibility, and nothing better than spongers.
His aversion to everything natural does not allow the Hebrew
to feel any unfeigned pleasure in the simple expressions of
Nature. A lovely flower, the song of a bird, are meaningless
to him; he is scarcely aware of them.* Human emotions,
such as affection, and sympathy with other beings, which would
impede his cold and calculated pursuit of what is advantageous, appear to him mere folly. The Talmudic doctrine
has no room for such. Rabbinism is a stern schooling for the
Jewish soul, which finds its counterpart, perhaps, only in the
* Heinrich Heine's classification of plants, as those which one eats,
and those which one cannot eat, is an excellent instance of the Jewish
perception of nature.

192

arts, principles and practices of the Jesuits. Everything is

calculated and adapted with the object of making the pupil
the hard tool of another's will. A good heart and a gentle
disposition must not be tolerated, because these would prejudice the object and purpose of trade. Sombart calls the Jewish
doctrine a "Mechanism of means to carry out a purpose."
Certainly a great deal of what is contained in the Rabbinical
Writings sounds very fine and virtuous; especially the unceasing zeal manifested towards unchastity, which even goes
so far as to spurn womankind and all natural pleasure derived
from the senses. "Let not thine eyes lust after women, turn
a deaf ear to their voice, avert thy gaze from their form.
Thou shalt not even look upon the garment of a woman with
approval!" And so it continues in the same strain; but how
does all this agree with what is actually practised? From
time immemorial up to the present day the Hebrews are
known to us as the most shameless pursuers of women. And
anyone who undertook to write a history of Jewish unchastity,
would have to extend it into countless volumes.
If the Rabbis of the Talmud are so zealous in warning their
people against unchastity, the principal cause for this would
appear to be fear regarding their own peculiar weakness. Even
Sombart admits that, in the case of the Jews, we have to deal
with a people strongly disposed towards sexual excesses, whom
Tacitus has already described as a "projectissima ad libidinem
gens." Just as the Hebrew is unnatural in everything else, so
is he unnatural in this respect; his sexual inclinations and
desires exceed all usual bounds and are quite without restraint.
We will now return to the affinity
between the Jewish religion and Capitalism. Sombart also allows that
the object of the Jewish doctrine is: to conduct a life, contrary to Nature or alongside nature, in order to develop an
economic system, which likewise builds itself up alongside
nature and in defiance of it. And, he is of the opinion that
the religion of the Jews must be the means of accomplishing this.
193
The separation or
shutting-off of the Jews.

"In order that Capitalism could develop, it was first of all necessary that all the bones in the body of the industrious and forceful, but
neutral man should be broken, that a specific psychology or mechanism
of the soul, equipped solely from the intellect, should be substituted in
the place of the original and natural life, and that a subversion, as it were,
of all the values of life should be introduced. The "homo capitalisticus"
is the artificial and artful creation, which finally emerges from this subversion."

One is now entitled to ask: what was then the motive for
such an extraordinary object? What natural man could entertain the desire to renounce and subvert all his natural inclinations?
Here it is not the case as Sombart thinks, and is generally
believed, of the Hebrew being the product of a cunningly
thought-out doctrine of life, but rather as follows: the strange
doctrine arises from, or is the product of the Hebrew himself,
and his attitude towards honourable society. The conjecture
holds good that Jewdom originated amongst the expelled
elements of the ancient, civilised, oriental nations,* and one
must bear in mind the Tschandala of the Indians, composed
of the degenerates and criminals excluded from the honourable castes, in order to find an enlightening explanation of
the peculiarity of Hebrew mentality. Those who had been
expelled, despised by all the other castes, revenged themselves
by deriding and reversing all moral conceptions. What was
sacred to others, they made a mockery of; they praised, on
the contrary, those attributes and dispositions which other
people despised. "Amongst these people everything is profane,
which is sacred in our eyes; and, on the other hand, what
appears abominable to us is permissible to them", thus characterises Tacitus the Jews. In reality the very essence of Jewishness is a subversion of all the views of moral humanity.
Whether it happens unconsciously or is undertaken deliberately,
it still remains a fact that the Hebrews, in their nomenclature,
reverse the names of many things; thus, for example, those
* See Fritsch: "Handbuch der Judenfrage" (Handbook of the Jewish
Question.) 2 7 Edition page 236, and "Origin and Essence of Jewdom",
"Jahwe or Jehovah Book", second edition pages 176193.
th

194

who have been expelled, they call "the chosen". Out of this
compulsory segregation the Tschandala were not allowed
to dwell amongst the honourable castes they established,
in the course of time, a voluntary separation; and finally raised
their segregation to the status of law, and in their turn like
the gipsies and the wandering people of the Middle Ages
looked down with contempt upon all who stood outside their
circle, that is to say, upon all honest people.
The seclusion of the Jews from the rest of humanity, to which
it is customary to refer as if it were the result of some cruel
despotism, has always been voluntary; they were not driven
into the Ghetto, but united of their own free will to form it,
in order to practise their own peculiar customs without interruption, and also because their law forbids contact with the
rest of mankind. It was therefore an advance on the part of
the public authorities, when they allowed the Hebrews to erect
separate quarters for the Jews. Many Jewish historians admit
this frankly, and also the proved fact that it is precisely the
Ghetto life, which is mainly responsible for preserving the
Jewish national existence. Sombart says:
"The Jews themselves created the Ghetto, which originally, from the
non-Jewish point of view, was to be regarded as a concession or
privilege, and not the consequence of a hostile attitude. They wished
to live apart because they regarded themselves as superior to the
common people surrounding them; because they felt themselves the
chosen the priestly people
Their disposition, which is hostile
to every foreign element, their tendency towards seclusion, extend far
back into the ages."

Already, at a very remote period, they were forbidden to contract mixed marriages with other nations; and the Old Testament is full of outbursts of contempt for the surrounding nations
Edom and the Canaanites. The reproach, so often raised
by people prone to sentimentality, that the Jews have become
what they are, in consequence of the scorn and exclusion
which they have experienced from the other nations, is thus
quite beside the mark. It was far more a case of the Jews
excluding themselves from other nations; they regarded, themselves as a peculiarity, high above all other peoples upon whom
195

they looked down disdainfully. "The Jews desired and were

obliged to live thus in accordance with their destiny, which
was their religion," is the opinion of Sombart.
The economic nations have often approached the Jews with
goodwill and trust: they the Jews enjoyed, during the
Middle Ages, not only all rights, but often actual privileges,
particularly under the government of the crosier (compare
page 20 and following). A bishop, named Hausmann, built a
well-fortified town, especially for the Jews, at Speyer in the
11th century, from which they used to undertake veritable pillaging excursions into the surrounding country, without anyone
being able to intercept them. They were not obliged to restore
any stolen property, which might be found amongst them, or
could, at any rate, charge any price which they liked to set
upon the same.
"The important consequence of this segregation and concentration of
the Jewish population, which were effected by religion, as far as the
economic life was concerned, was just that foreignness of which we
have already recognised the importance: namely that all traffic of the
Jews, as soon as they emerged from the Ghetto, was a traffic with
foreigners."

In such a strain writes Sombart. Foreigners or strangers,

are, as we have learned from our examination of the Talmudic
writings (Section V), outlaws, beasts, fit material for exploitation. In the case of such strangers, usury was not only allowed, but ordered to take precedence of every thing else, and
if there are perhaps passages in the Talmudic writings, which
seem to teach the contrary, these are only variegations customary in Rabbinical Jewdom, which are intended to obscure
the real sense. Even Sombart concedes this much:
"I am inclined to think that a great part of these discussions serve
the exclusive purpose of obscuring, by all kinds of sophistry, the extraordinarily clearly defined situation, which has been created by the Thora."

Thus, according to the Jewish doctrine, you may practise

usury at the expense of the foreigner (5 Moses 23, 20); and
plainly stated, the larger the amount of undeserved wealth,
which the Hebrew amasses during his life, the greater the
complacency with which he looks back on that past life; for,
196

by so doing, he
that God, Jahwe,
extirpation of all
pious Christian",

has rendered his God supreme service

who so ardently desires the spoliation and
the other nations of the world. "Whilst the
continues Sombart,

"who has practised usury, is seized with agonies of remorse on his

death-bed, and is ready, before the end comes, to divest himself of all
his property because he, at this moment, regards it as unjustly acquired,
and it weighs upon his soul; the pious Jew, on the contrary, in the
evening of his life, surveys with gratification the well-filled trunks and
chests, crammed with Zechins, which he has succeeded, throughout his
long life, in squeezing out of the wretched Christians. This is a spectacle upon which his pious heart can regale itself with the utmost
satisfaction, for every groschen which lies there is, as it were, an offering

laid before his God." (Sombart page 287).

Sombart is of the opinion that only ignorance or malice

could deny that the position of the foreigner, as far as Jewish
justice is concerned, is an exceptional position, and that the
obligations and responsibilities of the Jew refer always and
only to the "neighbour" i. e. to the Jewish racial companion.
And he adds:
"But the fundamental idea, that you should have less consideration
for the stranger than for the racial companion, has not altered from
the time of the Thora until the present day."

This is a most important admission, and can always be

brought forward as a challenge to those people, who are of
the opinion that the Jewish doctrine is, at the present day,
no longer efficacious, and that the Talmud contains views,
which have been overcome. By these very words, Sombart
at the same time, contradicts his opinion expressed above,
that the Talmud doctrine has altered in the course of the
centuries.
"This completely vague perception: that you are not committing any
sin, and that it is permissible in the course of business with a stranger
to tell him that odd is even, became firmly established wherever that
formal Rabbinism developed out of a study of the Talmud, which was
the case in many districts of Eastern Europe. (Sombart page 289)."

Even the Jewish historian, Graetz, who otherwise certainly

cannot be regarded as impartial, confesses that:
"Distortion and perversion, the trickiness of the lawyer, affectation
of wit and precipitate rejection of whatever might not be included in

197

his range of vision, are the essential features of the Polish Jew. Honesty,
and a sound mode of thinking have deserted him, as well as simplicity,
and a desire for and an appreciation of truth."

We certainly are of opinion that, so far as moral negligence

in the case of the Jew is concerned, it is not a question of
the loss and disappearance of moral qualities, but is, on the
contrary, to be attributed to a primitive and hereditary defect;
for we discover this trait, not merely since the origin of the
Talmud, but already even in The Old Testament. One need
only call attention to the treacherous behaviour of the sons
of Jacob, who persuaded the honest Hevites to undergo circumcision, and then attacked and slew them while suffering
from the effects of the operation. (1. Moses 34).
It is worthy of note how the Rabbis in their Talmudic writings concern themselves in a most intimate manner with all
kinds of business practices; and again, it is only in accordance
with the principles of the Talmud, that warnings should be
issued ostensibly against immoral business practices, whilst
later on, the prohibitions are withdrawn and the selfsame
practices are declared permissible. Rabbi Jehuda speaks thus
in one and the same breath:
"The grocer shall not present the children with cakes and nuts, for,
by so doing he attracts them to his shop the Sages, however, allow
it. Further, one must not cut the price the Sages, however, are of
the opinion: the precept is worthy of remembrance (i. e. it w o u l d be
a praiseworthy habit). Abba Saul has decided that the split beans are
not to be picked out the Sages, on the contrary, allow it."

Here we find the contradictory and discordant morality of

the Talmud expressed in the sleekest manner apparently
without consciousness that it is a doctrine of nonsense and immorality. That is to say: everything is forbidden and everything is allowed; see which suits you best. However, the compilers of the Shulchan aruch, without any attempt at concealment, have made this question perfectly clear; they say in
Chochen hammischpat 228,18:
"The shopkeeper is permitted to make presents of nuts and suchlike
to the children who buy from him, in order to attract them to him; he
is also in the position to sell more cheaply than the market-price, and
the people on the market are unable to raise any objection."

198

Unrestricted license in underbidding and competition form

the very life-breath of the Jewish existence, everything is permitted, which makes business easy; everything is allowed, which
puts the Jew in a position to over-reach and fleece others. For
this reason, Sombart says at the conclusion of this chapter:
"God (i. e. Jahwe English Jehovah) desires free-trade, God desires
freedom of industry! What a motive to make the same effective in the
economic life."

The references of Sombart to the accordance of English

Puritanism with Judaism are interesting, and Heine, in his time,
made fun of this association by calling the Puritans "porkeating Jews". A fact, which Sombart lays stress upon, is that
the Jews in England, especially among the Puritans, enjoyed
during the 17th century a respect and reverence, which are only
to be described as fanatical, and many writers of the period
vied with one another to prove that the English were direct
descendants of the Jews. At all events, certain pietistic circles
in England were at great pains to copy the Jews in their mode
of living, nomenclature and other externals. This symbolism
was carried so far, that the Christian clergy and even the
Christian laity studied the Rabbinical literature for preference.
Sombart refers to a "droll little book", which appeared in 1608,
under the title of the "Calvinistic Mirror of the Jews", and
which, amongst other things, treated of the relations subsisting
between Puritanism (Calvinism) and Judaism. The following
quotation out of this book is worthy of note: "the Jews penetrate into every country to cheat the inhabitants."
In the Netherland and German pietistic circles also, (Wupperthal, Swabia etc.) one encounters reminders of the English
Puritanism in the form of nomenclature, intense veneration of
the Sabbath, and so forth. These form, without doubt, the
strongest props of that fateful validity which the Old Testament
possesses in the German Protestant Church. There are even
Protestant clergy, who are ready to represent the Jews as the
pattern of religiousness, and perhaps unconsciously to
work more for the cause of Jewdom than for that of Christianity.
199

XIV.

The Race Problem.

Sombart gives himself great airs in his
Xllth chapter, where he treats of Jewish
peculiarity when regarded from a racial point of view. He is
of opinion obviously with a side thrust at the wicked AntiSemites that the racial problem and national psychology
have become the plaything of caprice and dilettantism, and
that in particular the portrayal of the Jewish entity is "undertaken as a kind of political sport by coarse individuals with
gross instincts". It certainly cannot be denied that, in the
course of the Anti-Semitic movement, many people and tendencies have started up, whose origins and pretensions will
not bear investigation; but, at the present day, even these
people, who can never inflict enough pain by the derision,
which they cast upon the opinions of others, refuse, in a superior
manner, to listen to anything Anti-Semitic. And yet, a very
considerable number of leading spirits and estimable characters
have belonged, and still belong to the spokesmen of this
movement. We do not wish here to dwell upon the fact that
great men in all times, that philosophers from Giodarno Bruno
and Voltaire to Fichte, Herder, Schopenhauer and Feuerbach,
that statesmen like Frederick the Great, Napoleon I and Bismarck,
that artists like Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt must be included amongst the opponents of the Jews.* The more modern
Anti-Semitic movement also includes in its ranks as spokesmen,
1. In general.

* A collection of extracts from the writings of these men is to be

found in the "Handbuch der Judenfrage" (Handbook of the Jewish
Question) 27 edition, pages 12117. The racial question is dealt
with exhaustively by the well-known geographer Rich. Andree in "Zur
Volkskunde der Juden" (Popular information respecting the Jews)
Bielefeld 1881.

200

individuals like Paul de Lagarde, Eugen Dhring and Adolf

Wahrmund, whose profound erudition cannot even be approached by any of their opponents however much it may be
belittled or ignored by the public press, itself completely under
Jewish domination. However, before everything, it must not
be forgotten that it was the wicked Anti-Semites, who first
tackled the Race-problem and aroused racial consciousness
again among the nations. If, at the commencement, it was
only the difference between Aryan and Semite, which engaged
their attention, it is nevertheless due to their initiative that the
whole of the modern racial movement has come into being,
and has built itself up upon the fundamental views of the AntiSemites. If, now and again, objectionable behaviour puts in
an appearance in the course of the Anti-Jewish movement,
and epithets are applied to the Hebrews, which are not exactly
flattering, there is no cause whatever for undue sensitiveness
in this respect on the Jewish side. One has only to recall how
low-class Jewish wits, in the so-called comic papers, which
are founded almost without exception by Hebrews, let themselves go concerning other nations, classes, privileges and
political opponents. Scarcely anything is low and foul enough
to enable the Hebrew to give full vent to his hatred against
those, who differ from him in their opinions, and for this reason
there is little or no justification on his side for a display of
moral indignation and extreme sensitiveness on hearing an
expression of opinion concerning himself, which is often
remarkably appropriate.
This assumption of indignation collapses in a ridiculous
fashion, if the fact is disputed, from a purely Jewish point of
view,
like a certain Friedrich Hertz and others attempt
to do that there are such people as Jews at the present
day. This is more than droll. So long as the so-called Jewish
religion continues, so long will Judaism, as a compact hostile
force, live and operate amongst the other nations. But even
if it were possible to extirpate this religion, the racial peculiarity
of the Jew, which has acquired an extraordinary tenacity by
incessant inbreeding, would long continue to function.
201

Sombart then honourably takes pains to put an end to those

chatterers, who wish to deny the existence of a Jewish race
and a Jewish peculiarity. But he himself is certainly not clear
in his own mind concerning the racial entity when he says:
"On the other hand it is senseless to give the name of "Jew" to an
Israelite of unmistakable origin, who has succeeded in throwing off the
fetters of Esra and Nehemiah, in whose mind there is no longer any
thought for the law of Moses, and whose heart no longer feels contempt
for other races."

In the next place it is doubtful if a Jew can ever completely

free himself of the views, derived from his racial peculiarity,
which were being prepared and established from the time of
Moses to that of Esra and Nehemiah, and which, later on,
under the influence of Talmudic Rabbinism, were extended
and expanded until they became a gross exaggeration. But
even if he is capable of emancipating himself, Jewish instincts
will survive and function in his offspring. So long as we
have no experience of a Jewish business-man causing his son
to become a farmer, a conductor, a carpenter or a sailor, it
is certain that no one will seriously believe in the transformation of the people of Judah into genuine human beings. We
are in agreement on this point with our own most excellent
Fichte, who also did not believe that the Hebrews were capable
of being converted, unless "all their heads were cut off in
one night, and other heads were substituted in which there
was not a single Jewish idea." These words describe most
aptly the indestructibility of the Jewish racial entity.
The study of the racial problem has taught us that an indissoluble bond exists between the blood and the mental disposition of mankind. It is said in The Old Testament that "the
soul of a man dwells in his blood," and that means, that the
mental nature of man is inseparably united with his blood.
This fact we must ultimately learn to accept in all its seriousness. We have long been accustomed to attach value to the
blood and stock amongst animals; we do not desire that a
poodle should become a sporting-dog, or that a horse from
Brabant should develop into a racer. We know that advantages,
just like disadvantages and defects, are transmitted with the blood.
202

We have no intention of conveying the impression that all

good and bad characteristics must be transmitted with unchanging fidelity from generation to generation, that the children
of a clever father must be, without exception, geniuses, and that
the offspring of a criminal is invariably criminal; but we perceive a certain constancy in the transmissibility of average qualities, whereby only those deviations and variations crop up,
which Nature allows herself everywhere as a diversion. If the
constancy in the transmissibility of qualities is comparatively insignificant as regards the present-day generation, this must be
attributed to the excessive intermingling of tribes and races,
which has been taking place for centuries even for thousands of years. The pure races certainly have almost completely disappeared, and only mongrel descendants surround
us. In spite of this, one must not straightway deny that the
racial entity has ceased to operate. The frivolous doctrine,
that all men are equal, has caused unspeakable disaster and
has actually introduced degeneration into the human race. We
Germans of today have certainly no reason to boast of our race,
for its worth is seriously depreciated, both blood and intellect
having been dulled. But this should not restrain us from
appreciating to the utmost the importance of the racial entity,
and from endeavouring, by means of racial culture, to restore
what has been sacrificed by an irresponsible racial lottery.
It is a fact and it is about the only reputable thing
which one can say about Judaism that racial consciousness
is fostered to a greater extent among the Hebrews than among
any other nation, whether consciously or unconsciously, by
the rigid law which enjoins that everyone, who does not belong
to the race, must be regarded with hostility and contempt.
Thus the irrefutable fact remains, that the racial entity amongst
the Jews is today of greater validity, both physically and
mentally, than amongst all the other races. The Hebrew, almost everywhere, can be recognised amongst other races both
by his external appearance and, if anything, still more by his
mental cast. And this racial constancy asserts itself, even when
mingled with other strains.
203

The Jewish Professor Eduard Gans expresses himself as follows:

"Baptism and interbreeding are of no avail; we remain, even in the
hundredth generation Jews, as we were 3000 years ago. We never
lose the odour of our race not even by tenfold crossing. And, in
every case of cohabitation with every woman, our race dominates:
young Jews result."

Whoever, in face of facts like these, still persists in denying

the existence of a Jewish race, cannot have much regard for
truth. But we can very well understand why it is so distasteful
to the Hebrews to see racial recognition and racial consciousness
awakening among other nations. In the moment when this
comes to pass, the alienage of the Jew will, for the first time,
make itself apparent to all, and this will, in every respect,
make the Hebrew's business more difficult. Up till now, the
Jew has been able, in an inimitable manner, to mingle with
other nations, and to delude them into believing that he really
belonged to them a circumstance, which rendered his
overreaching operations extremely easy to carry out. As soon,
however, as the other nations become aware of their own
particularity, and of the value of their own especial gifts, both
moral and intellectual, they will soon recognise in the Hebrew
the disturber of their domestic peace and of their harmonious
development, and will endeavour to keep him at a distance.
The Hebrew certainly possesses a great
adaptability, but it would be erroneous to
expect from his external adjustment to the
habits and customs of other nations that the Jew is absorbed
and disappears. The Jewish peculiarity differs far too much
from the nature of all other nations to allow a complete fusion
to appear even probable. In the last analysis it is the Jewish
view of life, and the Jewish moral law, which do not admit
of any permanent association with other nations.
2. The Psychology
of the Jews.

Sombart makes a vain attempt to sum up the Hebrew entity in precise ideas. He sees, amongst these, only a few of a
disagreeable nature, and is unable to connect the same with
fixed characteristics. The distinguishing features of the Jew
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enumerated by him, appear to me to be insufficient. I believe

that I shall meet with but little opposition, when I characterise
the average Jew as follows: sharp at business and glib of
tongue, greedy for money and of a saving disposition, cunning
and addicted to dissimulation, averse to bodily labour, sensual
and shameless, vain, cowardly and impudent. There are but
few Jews in whom the majority of these characteristics cannot
be detected. When Sombart speaks incessantly of their "prominence in intellectuality", it is clear that he means only the
calm, calculating intelligence of the Jew, generally speaking,
the mere operation of the cold understanding as opposed to
the sensibility of deeper and more emotional natures. This
much-praised intellectuality of the Hebrew is, in reality, only
the outcome of necessity*. How could otherwise a people, devoid of all capacity for production, maintain their existence
unless they unceasingly made use of cunning and deception,
and knew how to fool others into furthering their own secret
plans? It cannot be denied that Hebrews have occasionally
distinguished themselves as clever physicians, scholars and barristers, but only so far, in these professions, as the possession
of a coldly-calculating and subtle understanding permitted them
to advance. And, in this respect, they have frequently been
actually favoured by their own low standard of morality. Moral
laxity frequently gives the Hebrew an advantage over other
people. Whoever is not particularly scrupulous concerning his
moral duty towards mankind, has a much freer hand on many
occasions than those, who are restrained by their conscience
and consideration.
Just as the Jewish business-man, thanks to his moral laxity,
outstrips competitors in commerce, so is it in many other
* The well-known oriental traveller, H. Vmbry, (originally Bamberger)
confirms this fact, amongst others, in his report concerning the Jews
of the Orient, 1879, in which he states that it is a delusion to assume
that the Jews in Europe possessed higher intelligence than the nations
who acted as their hosts, for, to take Middle Asia as an example, the
Jew, when confronted by the Hindoo and the Armenian, invariably came
off second best.

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departments of life. For sense of duty, conscience and honour

have but little value in the eyes of the Hebrews when compared with intellectual capacity. The Jew is desirous, at all
costs, of passing as clever; everything else is a matter of
comparative indifference to him. There are a number of Jewish proverbs, which regard stupidity as being far worse than
any other mental or moral defect. All of these are centred
on the idea: you may be a rascal if you only show yourself
sly. Whilst the civilised and honour-loving nations attach the
highest value to moral character, and to the emotional side
of human nature, the Hebrew appraises a man merely according to his mental adroitness. Whoever is clever, is therefore worthy of admiration, even if he uses his cleverness to
the detriment of others perhaps, for that reason, all the
more to be admired! It is often to be observed in the Jewish
Press how the attempt is made to find a certain measure of
excuse for grave crimes on the grounds that considerable
intellectual capacity has been displayed in committing the
same. This confusing and disordering of moral ideas by the
introduction of intellectual standards, are to be included amongst
the most dangerous means, by which Hebrewdom is seeking
to destroy the other nations. Unfortunately, the moral sense
in many classes has already been considerably weakened,
because its power of discrimination has been injuriously
affected by the fact that - thanks to Jewish example admiration is frequently accorded to the criminal. It thus happens,
that when a crime is being discussed, one can often hear
good-natured men mitigating their abhorrence somewhat as
follows: "But, after all, he showed himself a very sharp
fellow!" Indeed a sign of the Judaization of our mode of
thinking.
Sombart characterises the Jewish and probably at the
same time his own perception with the words: "the highest
humanism is supreme intellectualism" an appraisement, to
which we feel ourselves compelled to object. For, measured
by this standard, the most accomplished rogue and swindler
would, under circumstances, represent humanity's supreme
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ideal. The heroic nations have an assured conviction of another

ideal. They seek it in the direction of self-sacrifice of the
individual for the general welfare, or, for an idea for freedom or for honour but, above all, in the complete subjugation of selfishness. The hero of our dramas, whose fate
rivets our attention and affects us deeply, is not a sly customer,
who, thanks to his crafty alertness, knows how to dodge all
dangers, but is, on the contrary, an upright, inflexible character,
who accepts his recognised duty courageously, and who does
not turn aside from the path of truth and justice whatever
menace may stand in his way. He thinks little of his own
advantage, but all the more of duty and honour. A real hero
of this type will appear to the eyes of the Jew as no better
than a fool; "better a live dog than a dead lion" is a
Semitic proverb. This indicates the deep chasm, which exists
between the Jewish and the genuinely human mode of thinking.
However, the understanding which merely calculates, proves
itself generally inadequate for dealing with all serious matters
in life. There is something higher than the intellect. A man
of fine character allows himself to be swayed more by innate
and instinctive feelings than by cold calculation. And these
instinctive feelings which, in reality, indicate an intimate spiritual and emotional insight into the connection between things,
are a far surer guide to mankind than all the speculations of the
intellect. Where the guiding instinct is wanting, we see the intellect straying into all manner of blind alleys, clambering too
high on its own artificial structures, which have lost all touch with
reason and nature, and at last, for this reason, failing completely.
The Hebrew, a being, who is not of immediate natural
origin, and who, for that reason, makes his journey through
life without any intimate connection with nature, is devoid of
instinctive feelings. He endeavours to replace them by conscious intellect. This may confer a certain apparent superiority
on him so long as he moves in artificial surroundings, which
depend, more or less, upon intellectual foundations. He is,
however, completely at a loss, and feels helpless immediately
when he finds himself in a situation where the relations are entirely
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natural. A Robinson, alone on a desert island, can contrive,

with scant resources, to keep body and soul together; a
Hebrew is incapable of doing so. The Jew is a second-rate
man, whose existence depends upon all kinds of artificial assumptions. He is Nature's step-child, and cannot get on with
this mother. He is always in need of some man, who has grown
up in touch with Nature and who is full of natural impulse,
to carry him the Jew through life.
And when Sombart believes that he can perceive the acme
of genius in freedom from all natural law, and in tearing one's
self loose from all natural instincts, he betrays, in spite of himself, his own Jewishness. The opposite is correct; genius stands
unconsciously in most cases in closest relationship, in
inmost feeling with the natural laws of being and becoming!
It draws from a source, whose deepest spring is scarcely known
to itself. It is only for the reason that the internal and eternal obedience to law, of all natural things and occurrences,
resides also in the creations of genius, that the latter are eternal and inextinguishable; and it is also for this reason that
they stir the emotions of mankind, so long as men do not
close their ears to the voice of nature.
The conspicuous intellectualism of the Jew is direct evidence
of his weakness and of his inferiority from a human point of
view. It is only when the natural feeling fails, when the instinct is no longer a safe guide, that the calculating intellect
begins in its distress to strain after artificial remedies, and
seeks to create artificial conditions, which are agreeable to it.
The Jew can only flourish in an artificial world. In reality,
the mental speculations of the Hebrew are confined to comparatively narrow fields of activity, where it is a matter of
obtaining an advantage and of misleading and confusing the
opponent. Only there is he a master; everywhere else, where
it is a case of penetrating more deeply into artistic, technical
and exact scientific knowledge, the intellect of the Jew does
not suffice. And therefore, the Hebrew is never inventor and
artist in the grand style. Whoever follows up the refined
subtleties of the Rabbis in the Talmud, can often observe how
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their petty, short-sighted, calculating spirit leads them into

incredible imbecilities. According to the popular opinion, the
devil is a professor of slyness. But also, according to popular
tradition, there are all kinds of legends, showing how the
peasant gets the better of the devil; and from this popular
notion emerges a deep meaning. The peasant may appear
to be awkward and helpless in the external affairs of life,
especially when he is brought face to face with the artificial
conditions of town life; he possesses, for the most part, however,
although it may be only by means of his feelings, a deeper
insight into natural things than many a learned townsman.
And the devil, for all his arithmetic, always miscalculates
when he encounters natural cleverness, and when the unalterable laws of nature break through his web of deceit. Yes,
after all, the devil is stupid, and so is his cousin, the Jew.
Place him face to face with Nature, with no creative men to
assist him, and all his lordly intellectualism will suffer a miserable
shipwreck will not save him from starvation.
On the other hand, the Jew has known how to confer an
extraordinary power of attraction on the modern towns with
their artificial and refined methods of traffic and intercourse;
he entices the simple villagers away from nature into these
modern paradises of vice, where everything is cast in an unnatural and artificial mould. Jews, and Jewish mentality reign
supreme in the large towns, and the natural man feels that
he is a stranger there, more like a child, straying helplessly
into the traps of the Jews, which are laid for him on every
side. Therefore, whoever wishes to escape from the Jewish
illusion must fly from these places, and seek refuge again on
the maternal breast of Nature; and, just as surely is he doomed to certain ruin, who imagines that he can continue to
live as a child of Nature in the meretricious and false world
of the Jew.
Even Sombart admits as much:
"We frequently find in the case of the Jew that all instinctive feeling
is stunted, just as if all sensibility and sensitive relations to the rest
of the world were foreign to his disposition."

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Here, however, it is conceded that the Hebrew himself

stands forth as both foreign and contrary to Nature. He moves
in the midst of Nature as a dull and insensible being; he
certainly sees things separately, but he passes over the causal
connection of the natural phenomenon and the inward obedience to law of all life, without paying the slightest attention
to the same. For this reason, he is unable to judge what
the final effects of his scheming and plotting will be; he is
always directed merely by the advantage of the moment. He
hankers after the goods and chattels of the peasant; he knows
how to get hold of the same, and to drive the peasant from
hearth and home; but he neither stops to reflect, nor does he
care, what will become of the village, when all the peasants
have been plundered in this fashion and driven away. He
sucks the last drop of blood out of the workman and the
small employer of labour, and dispatches them to ruin, without
asking: what will become of the world if we weaken the
productive classes in this manner? He entangles the various
countries in debts and loans, and hands them over to ruin,
without taking the trouble to think that these operations will
eventually cause human society itself to collapse that society
which nourishes him with its flesh, and out of whose body
he derives his parasitic existence. We see here the same
fool, who saws off the branch on which he is sitting, and who
kills the hen, which lays golden eggs for him. Accustomed
to the constant provision of new hunting-grounds and fresh
objects of usury by an inexhaustible Nature, and by the indefatigable industry of the nations, he is unable to conceive that
the world-dominion, for which he is striving, would mean
simultaneous world-ruin. The vain nature of his understanding,
which does not look beyond to-day and to-morrow, operates
destructively and suicidally in all directions.
Hence only powers can work constructively, which stand in
organic relation to Nature; and the profoundest essence of
natural things can only be comprehended by means of sensibility. The intellect is not sufficient to sound the well of
life. The Jewish mode of thinking is inorganic, and is, for
210

that reason, incapable of creative operation. For that reason

also, the Hebrews are incapable of forming a state of their
own, for, in the last analysis, the state is of an organic nature,
and endures only through organic laws. Society, in a wellordered state, requires organisation of the classes, a rational
constructive policy, and internal connections i. e. sound
relations and ties with one another, which enable the concern,
taken as a whole, to prosper. The Hebrew has no understanding for all this. He regards individual men merely as
objects to be turned to profitable account, and is incapable
of comprehending why these same men are desirous of retaining a scale in their social order, why they band together
in organic associations the better to fulfil their duties as men
and citizens. All this appears to him as foolish prejudice
and antiquated institution; he would like to alter, loosen and
dissolve everything in order to find an easy and convenient
field for his profiteering operations. He is, therefore, hostile
to all organic social creations: the guilds, the trade associations,
the nobility, the army. These are like a thorn in his eye. He
would like to disrupt and atomise them, and to isolate the
members. He is guided in this policy by the calculation that
he can deal better with the individual, and can more easily
make him subservient to his aims than he can the compact
whole. He calls this disruption of all organic structures,
"bringing freedom", "liberalising"; he knows how to delude
men into believing that their organic connection is a barrier,
which must be broken down, a fetter, which must be shaken
off, in order to attain to true liberty the liberty of the wolf
amongst sheep.
Sombart remarks very appositely:
"The Jew is very sharp-sighted, but he does not see much. In the
first place, he does not perceive that his environment is a living one.
And, for this reason, feeling for what is singular in life, for its entirety,
for its indivisibility, for what has organically developed, for what has
grown naturally, is lost to him. Consequently all conditions and relations of dependence, which are built up on personality, such as personal
rule, personal service, personal sacrifice, are foreign to him. The Jew,
from his very disposition, is averse to all chivalry, to all sentiment,

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to all nobility, to all feudalism, to all patriarchism. He is also incapable

of understanding a community, which is built up on the above relations. Everything to do with class or rank, everything incorporative
is hateful to him. He is political individualist."*

And yet he is individualist only in a restricted sense; he

is himself the slave of a rigid principle, of a law of compulsion,
which, in the place of a natural tie, binds him together with
his kind. The Jew himself possesses no individuality; he is
invariably only the more or less successful repetition of a
Jewish pattern. The Jews, amongst themselves, resemble one
another in their national characteristics to a much greater
extent than the men of other nations; and the extraordinary
limitation of their disposition is rooted in the above fact. The
Hebrew is, as it were, an automaton, trained and adjusted to
carry on definite social activities; he fulfils exactly the same
functions in all grades of society. For this reason a Hebrew
is easily replaced by another Hebrew, whilst the same cannot
be said of men of other nations.
The Hebrew is now desirous of transferring this systematic
constitution of the Jewish league, i. e. this mechanical placing
together of elements all equal in value and devoid of individuality, to other social creations, and even to the state. He is
unable to understand why organised society is on the defensive
against this subjugation to one pattern, and he denounces this
opposition to his endeavours to break up and dissolve, as
"Reaction". In reality, this reaction is the natural and healthy
resistance, which an organised society evolves against the efforts
of the Hebrew to introduce decay and dissolution; in other
words, it is the instinct of self-preservation.
The actual and harmful reactionary is, on the contrary, the
Hebrew, who checks the natural growth of national life by his
plan to reduce all to one emasculated pattern, and who desires
to force this life back into its primordial state the struggle
* We are justified in supposing that this train of thought on the part
of Sombart was set in motion by the "Hammer", which, ever since it
was founded in 1902, has often thrown light upon the "Jew Question"
from this point of view.

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for existence of all against all. It is he who hinders natural

development, and thereby disturbs the even progress of life.
This fact, to our unspeakable misfortune, is only recognised
by a few. The enormous liberation of energy, caused by the
speculative principle of the Hebrew, and the enormous development of the external life caused thereby, deceive everyone
as to the true state of affairs. The glitter and gleam all around
us appear to many as the veritable light of life, but it is, in
reality, only the phosphorescence of corruption. The Hebrew,
by inciting to that wild struggle for existence, has forced into
action the last reserves of national energy, and thus the national
life itself seems to have experienced a tremendous stimulus;
and yet it is only the waging of a desperate battle for mutual
destruction, which must end suddenly from exhaustion.
But what does the Hebrew care about that! As a man who
depends upon the momentary fluctuation of affairs, he derives
his chief benefit from such conditions, and that is enough for
him. Sombart says:
"The Jew brings everything into relation with his "I". The questions,
which have first claim on his interest, are: Why? To what purpose?
Where do I come in? What do I get out of it? His real living interest
is the interest for success. It is unJewish to regard an activity as an
end in itself, to live life itself for its own sake, without purpose in
accordance with destiny; it is unJewish to rejoice harmlessly in Nature.

(Sombart page 230-31)."

And just as he is himself, so has the Jew devised his God.
The Jewish God stands outside the pale of Nature as a despot, who alters the course of affairs arbitrarily to suit his purposes. He allows all kinds of miracles to take place, which
are contrary to Nature, and arranges everything so that it turns
out to the advantage of his favourite people.
3. Apparent Jewish
Superiority.

When Sombart expresses the opinion:

"At the present day, the Jew of Western

Europe no longer desires to retain his faith
and his national peculiarity; he wishes, on the contrary, so far as national
consciousness has not again been aroused in him, to allow his peculiarity to disappear as completely and quickly as possible, and to adopt
the culture of the nations who act as host to him,"

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we must ask circumspectly: where are the proofs of this suggested effort? Who authorises Sombart to assure us of this?
For our part, we perceive and know just the contrary.
It may well be conceded that, at the present day, the Hebrew
is occasionally uncomfortable under his skin, since observant
men have begun to make a practice of observing his activity,
and are now revealing his tricks; it may well be the case at
the present day that many a Jew no longer wishes to be recognised as such, and would prefer to change his appearance;
the fact remains that it is simply impossible for the Jew to
be absorbed by other nations, even if it were his wish. His
distinctive nature is far too different from that of other nations,
and moreover his self-esteem is too great. He has no intention of resigning his privilege of being regarded as a "chosen
people." But the aversion also of the other nations, so far as
a healthy instinct is still alive in them, will protest against any
such fusion. Certain sections of society, which have already
completed their resemblance to the Hebrew, represent types
of degeneration doomed, in any case, to disappear. It is only
the degenerate who shows inclination towards the Hebrew;
the former, by the loss of the finer instincts, has sacrificed his
real manhood, has been discarded by nature, and sinks into
that swamp of corruption represented by Hebrewdom the
dregs of culture.
The following judgement concerning the Jews testifies that
Sombart, in his scientific positiveness, is gradually working
round to our perception, even though it may be in a circuitous manner:
"His intuition has not grown out of his innermost being, but is a product of the head. His stand-point is not the level earth, but an artificial building in the air. He is not organic original but mechanicrational. He is not rooted in the mother-soil of sensibility instinct."

All this is covered by the perception expressed a long time

ago by the Anti-Semites. Only, at the same time, it must not
be forgotten: the Jewish entity, and its inward perception of
life, is certainly an artificial creation of the intellect; but, in
the course of thousands of years, it has become so ingrained
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in the Hebrew
has entered so thoroughly into his flesh
and blood, that he is actually less capable of changing his
skin than the representative of any other race. He certainly
possesses adroitness enough to adopt superficially the manners,
and even the mode of thinking, of others; he has sufficient
powers of dissimulation and of acting, to make us believe
that he is a being very similar to ourselves; but, in the end,
the unadulterated Hebrew always comes to the surface again.
This pliancy, this outward adaptability, this talent for representing one's self as something different to what one really is,
might appear admirable to us, if it was not at the same time
so dangerous. All these Hebrew talents are only means to
mislead us, and to make us subservient to the designs of the
stranger. It is correct that the Hebrew, regarded from a purely
intellectual point of view, appears to display great superiority
in a number of respects, the questionable value and unquestionable danger of which are only recognised by the instinct of
fine-feeling. We may admire the Jew from an intellectual point
of view, but our feelings reject him.
Sombart speaks appositely concerning the "moral mobility"
of the Jew; in the pursuit of his purposes "no irksome restrictions of a moral or aesthetic nature are allowed to intervene."
His morality is lax and elastic; he is ready, at any minute,
to proclaim that odd is even if he sees any advantage in
doing so.
"In this respect his poorly developed sense for what one can call
personal dignity, is of assistance to him. It is very little exertion to
him to deny what he has himself said, when it is a question of accomplishing his purpose."

Thus writes Sombart on page 327. In reality, the Hebrew

possesses so little of what we call character, that he is ready
at all times to barter his honour and self-respect for material
advantage. An old proverb says:
"The Jew will wade through seven puddles, in order to possess one
groschen more."

With the help of the Talmudic schooling, the Hebrews are

educated to become cunning pettifoggers, for, from youth up215

wards, the practice of dissimulation is enjoined upon them,

practically as a command. There is, accordingly, little cause
for surprise when they distinguish themselves later on in life
as lawyers, journalists and actors. The art, of being able to
transpose one's self quickly into a strange world of ideas, is
absolutely essential to speculative dealing; if the Jew did not
possess it, how else would he gain respite for himself, entirely
dependent as he is on the exploitation of other men, and on
the misuse of law and thought? The advantages, possessed
by the Jew, mirror his weaknesses; these are shiftiness, evasion,
adroitness in escaping from embarrassing situations, all of
which he requires in order to conceal his failings from us.
There is a well-known contradictory principle in Nature,
whereby she endeavours to conceal and compensate for prominent defects by other qualities. She provides weak, defenceless creatures with properties or qualities, which serve as a
means of protection against the pursuing enemy. Thus Nature
protects the young birds in their nests by their revolting
ugliness, other animals by an obnoxious smell or by a disagreeable secretion, the snail, for instance, by a nasty slime. And,
in the same way, Nature dispenses properties to a section of
mankind, burdened with hereditary weakness, which must
serve as a protection. Even the evasive intelligence, craft
and cunning are protective qualities of this order, and they
are to be found amongst the weak and the criminal. Men of
great bodily strength are, for the most part, open and upright,
good-natured, patient and obliging. They can put up with a
good deal, without losing their tempers, because they know
that when the decisive moment arrives, they can rely upon
their good, natural strength, which, if required, will sweep
every obstacle out of the way. This good-nature and this
indulgence, which are sometimes taken for weakness, but which
are, in reality, only an expression of self-confidence or assurance, are occasionally displayed also by men of mind and
character. On the other hand, it is a matter of common
knowledge that weakly and deformed beings display a sharp
mental activity, which can even become caustic, and which
216

represents, in their case, a means of defence to protect them

against unexpected attacks.
The situation of the Hebrew, when he finds himself in the
presence of honest men, is analogous. He, the weakling, who
is incapable anywhere of shaping a life for himself by his
own exertions, whom political incapacity has condemned to
lead a parasitic existence amongst other nations, he, who is
wanting in all the higher mental powers necessary to produce
an imaginative and creative culture: he, it is, who has been
equipped with a cunning intellect, and with boundless impudence
and slyness as a means of defence. In reality, the Hebrew
is the mental cripple amongst mankind, the type of intellectual
deformity. The Jew represents the lower side of human nature.
Let those wonder at him who will: we should only feel sorry
for him if he did not happen to be, at the same time, a
poisonous snake, which endangers the peace and safety of
honest humanity everywhere.
But the slyness of mind, and the threadbare morality are
still not sufficient to assure him of prosperity; he requires yet
another weapon for defence and attack, in order to outwit and
overcome honest people. As a substitute for the natural
ability, which he does not possess, he has created for himself
a principle, in which an almost demoniacal force resides, viz
Money-Capital. Money plays so great a part in the existence
of the Jew, that the individual sinks into insignificance when
compared with material possession. "Whoever does not pay
to me my money, deprives me of my honour", wrote old
Amschel Mayer Rothschild to the Elector William II. (see page
37), and the socialist leader, Carl Marx, who was himself of
Jewish origin, admitted that "money is the real secular deity
of Jewdom". From an allegorical point of view it is worthy
of note, that the Hebrews erected a golden calf on Mount
Sinai, and arranged a dance around it. This is also recognised
by Sombart.
"Money, and the increase of money, must always be the centre of
interest for Jews, just as it is for capitalism. Not merely because its
abstract nature is congenial to the equally abstract nature of the Jew,

217

but, above all, because the appreciation of money is in conformity with

another leading trait in the Jewish character viz teleologism. Money is
the absolute means: it has but one meaning with regard to the purpose
to be realised."

Sombart expresses himself as above in his scientific German,

and thereby recognises money as the highest potential in all
Jewish endeavour.
Money is, however, an imaginary value, an artificial creation
of human speculation. It has nothing to do with nature, nothing
to do with organic things; it has no inner relation to the being
of mankind. Money does not make a man stronger, wiser or
nobler; the capability alone, conferred on it by the human
imagination, of possessing, not only buying power, but in
the form of loan capital power to produce interest, has invested it with an almost supernatural might. And this imaginary might has been recognised by the Hebrew, as the correct
means to provide him with a substitute for his deficient powers.
Money places the sub-man in the position to pose almost as
a super-man, and to force all human affairs under his yoke.
Of what then does the renowned Jewish superiority consist?
In reality, of a kind of mental provocation and harassing. It is
precisely because the distinctive nature of the Hebrew is averse
to Nature, that he is destined to deceive and over-reach the
man who thinks naturally. It is because the Jew does not
think organically, and consequently does not think naturally,
that the unspoilt and unaffected man is unable to keep pace
with his speculations. Whilst we are accustomed to think
straightforwardly, the Jew thinks, as it were, "round the corner";
his mental process is perverse, warped, subverted. Consequently his conclusions confound all natural logic. It frequently happens that a man, who has been overreached by a
Jew, is unable to restrain a feeling, akin to admiration, for the
cunning deceiver. The unnatural sequence of Jewish thoughts
confuse a natural brain, so that it loses the power of thinking
logically while under the influence of the seductive language
of the Hebrew, and falls into a kind of stupor, a condition in
which, a weak-willed man, or a man who is unable to think
218

quickly, is inclined to succumb to the influence of an external

will. This power of suggestion, which operates by imposing
one's own will upon another, is one of the most dangerous
means employed by Hebrewdom to infatuate, not only individuals, but whole nations. There is scarcely any other way to
explain this extraordinary state of infatuation, in which the
civilised nations of to-day find themselves, when confronted
with Hebrewdom, than by describing it as the result of a kind
of suggestion or mesmerism. Indeed, both states and their
populations scarcely know what is really happening to them
since the Hebrew, in addition to the demoniacal power of
money, has also enlisted that gigantic power to deceive and
mislead, which the public press possesses, in order to hypnotise
everybody and to paralyse their mental activities.
Perhaps, however, it only requires an unmasking of the
hypnotic agent, and a thorough exposure of his dishonest expedients, to break the spell for ever.

219

XV.

Origin of the Jewish Entity.

Sombart searches around to discover the origin of the Jewish race,
and raises the question: whence does it come, and whither
is it proceeding? He does not hesitate to describe the Jews
as a kind of freak, as a lower order of humanity, of entirely
different blood to the nations amongst whom they live. We
add to this: difference in blood means also difference in mind
and spirit, for, amongst the most important disclosures of the
science of race, must be included the fact that certain mental
qualities are firmly and inseparably united with a certain kind
of blood. In accordance with general acceptation, Sombart
believes that Israel, as well as Judah, originated from a mixture
of various oriental peoples. This notion is contradicted by
the fact, that all Jews regard themselves as the descendants
of a common tribal father (Abraham or Jacob), and that already
at a very remote period, the Jews were prohibited by strict
laws from mixing with other nations. Actually, one can only
begin to speak of Jewdom, from the moment when a particular
caste arrayed itself in conscious opposition to the rest of
humanity, and declined either to mix with the same or to
entertain any feelings in common with it. It is precisely the
exclusion of their stock from any consanguinity with the remainder of mankind, which makes Jewdom what it is. That
Bedouin, that is to say, Semitic tribes have provided the
ground-floor of the structure of Hebrewdom, is universally
accepted, and Adolf Wahrmund, in his frequently-quoted work:
1. Descent of the Jews.

"The

Law

of

Nomadism

and

the

present-day

domination

by

the Jews" has provided convincing proof of the spiritual

affinity of Hebrewdom with the Semitic desert tribes. Nomadism
and changeableness are common to both; the conception of
220

a firmly-founded state is foreign to both, and both seek their

salvation in continual wandering and peregrination. They graze
the pastures bare, and then move on to where fresh booty
beckons to them. Both practise the sudden method of attack,
allow no quarter, and exterminate; both are animated by the
spirit of the desert, which leaves a train of burnt-out settlements
along its track. Amongst the civilised nations, however, our
Hebrews have altered the methods of their predatory expeditions. They no longer slay with the blade of the sword, but
throttle their adversary with the golden noose of capitalism.*
The surprise and slaughter of the opponent is accomplished,
in its modernised form, on the Stock Exchange. There the
dice are cast, which determine victory and dominion; there the
economic fortunes and the economic freedom of the nations
are gambled with; and as Judah plays with loaded dice, it
is assured of victory. There the strangler of nations twines
the golden snares, in which he entangles, not only the economic,
but also the spiritual and political life of the peoples.
But one must certainly not any longer speak of our Jews
of to-day as pure Semites; they have also taken up all manner
of foreign national elements; and it is truly remarkable to
what a complete extent they have assimilated the same. One
is entitled to ask whether the Talmudic spirit alone has rendered this complete adaptation possible, or whether a few
drops of Jewish blood have sufficed to give an unvarying
stamp or impression at least mentally to the entire
mass. Externally the Jews of to-day present marked differences
in their appearance; Negroid and Turanian (Mongolian) types
can be discerned amongst them as well as Semitic. Even
amongst the Hebrews, who hail from Russian Poland, one
not infrequently comes across blond and watery-eyed examples. It is practically certain that the people, who were
formerly called the Chasaren, and who are regarded as
* We find here a parallel with the Indian Thags or Thugs (=Robbers),
who consider that they can best serve their God by strangling as many
victims as possible. Perhaps these Thugs also stand in relation to the
old rejected caste of the "Tschandala" (see page 182).

221

belonging to a Finnish-Tartar stock, and who, about 800 years

after Christ, formed a separate empire in the South of what
is now Russia, went over to Jewdom and were completely
absorbed. The Jews themselves are conscious of this racial
distinction, for the western Jews, who have come across Spain,
call themselves "Sephardim" (if baptised: Marannen), and have
North-African blood in their veins, describe the Eastern Jews
as "Aschkenasim", and look down on the latter with a certain amount of contempt. In spite of this, the Talmudic law
embraces them all, and the Rabbinical despotism welds them
into a close caste, absolutely united in its hostility to all nonJewish peoples.
If, therefore, the Jews of today are not to be regarded as
a united race from a physical point of view, all Jewry is inspired, nevertheless, with the uniform racial spirit of Hebrewdom. And one must not forget this the spiritual entity
is of higher importance to the racial idea than the purely
physical, which may well play a part in all manner of chance
externals without prejudicing the racial ground-work of blood
and soul.
If an explanation is required of what is understood by the
expression "Race", it can be formulated on the following lines:
Race denotes a community, which, starting from a common
ancestor, is based on blood-relationship and exhibits, for that
reason, a number of physical and mental characteristics. One
must also reckon with the fact that, with the blood, the attributes
of the mind and disposition, of the temperament and character,
are inherited equally with the bodily properties. The purer
and more united the race is, the more stable and constant is
this inheritability. Through admixture with other race-elements,
racial peculiarities are partly masked, the external ones more
so than the internal, but they assert themselves again, often
after generations, with astonishing distinctness. One is therefore entitled to say: a race characterises itself by means of
a complex of unvarying, transmissible qualities.
The German people of to-day represent a mixture of Germanic,
Slavonic and Romanic (Celtic) or, according to modern
222

methods of indication, of Northern, Alpine and Mediterranean

elements, which have melted into a certain sort of homogeneity
after the lapse of centuries, at least to the extent, that scarcely
any doubt can exist as to the uniformity of German thought
and German feeling. It is only comparatively recently, after
distinct signs of degeneration have become visible, that it
appears as if these racial constants are about to be resolved
into their original elements, and, in the course of this process,
to release a multitude of mongrel-products (degeneration-forms)
which cannot be classified racially.
If the existence of a separate Jewish race is disputed, as
Felix von Luschan, amongst others, attempts to do, the contention may, perhaps, have a certain amount of justification, as
there was not an o r i g i n a l Jewish race; it appears to me
much more likely that the Hebrews arose out of a mixture of
the dregs of all kinds of races (compare page 194), a mixture,
however, which has been welded by thousands of years of
in-breeding into a racial type.
In the meantime, whoever is searching for the anthropological
peculiarity of the Jews, will find this rather in the constitution
of mind and character than in definite physical relations. It is
quite correct that the Sephardim are preponderatingly longheaded, that the Aschkenasim or Chasaren Jews are roundheaded, and that the profile of the face passes through a great
variety of gradations. Perhaps, shortness of limb can be regarded as the most noticeable physical feature of the Jewish
race. Nearly all Jews possess remarkably short arms and legs
and a proportionately long trunk. Whilst the normal European,
and especially the German fathoms more than the entire length
of his body, in the case of the Hebrew it is the reverse. The inferior development of the arms might certainly be accounted for by
the fact that the race in question has never occupied itself with
honest manual labour, has employed neither weapon nor oar, and,
for these reasons, has failed to develop the arms properly. Other
unmistakable physical features include the relation and position
of the ear to the nose; amongst the pure Aryans the ear and
the nose, on an average, are of equal length and are on the
223

same level; in the case of the Jew, variations and startling

irregularities in both of these respects are noticeable.
As a matter of fact, however, the Jewish racial constancy is
stronger at the present day than is the case in any other human
strain, and this is also confirmed by the declaration of Professor
Gans, which has been already quoted on page 204. That the
peculiar mental tenacity of the Jewish people was already in
evidence in the remotest period, is testified to by the excited
references of the ancient prophets to this "stiff-necked and
stubborn" people.
Jewish peculiarity may also acquire exceptional solidarity
from the fact, that this nation, more than any other, possesses
a religion entirely suited to its nature, and which occupies itself at the same time, in the most painstaking fashion, with
laying down the most detailed precepts for the conduct of
ordinary life. Race, religion, nationality, mode of living, and
business behaviour are all cast in the same mould as far as
the Hebrews are concerned; these are all the uniform expression of the same fundamental nature. The mentality and
character of this people, owing to uniform schooling and tense
discipline, and owing to the mode of living, which has become
strengthened by inbreeding and habitual by the practice of
thousands of years, must have established and incorporated
itself to an unusual degree so that the Jews are less susceptible to outside influence than any other race of mankind, which
is capable of culture and development.
The voluntary segregation of this race, and the consciously
fostered aversion to all other peoples, all contributed to maintain Hebrewdom in its singularity. It must be repeated with
emphasis: the segregation, so far as the Jews were concerned,
was voluntary just for the preservation of their singularity
and their singular rites. Sombart insists that the Jews have
not always been "half-citizens" in the strange states, but, on
the contrary, in olden times, were frequently actually endowed
with peculiar rights and privileges (compare pages 25 and 176).
They held themselves aloof, however, of their own free will,
from all participation in civic and state affairs; they did not
224

accept their share of the spiritual and political destiny of the

nation; they regarded themselves everywhere merely as visitors
and foreigners, and were always ready to fasten up their bundle,
so that laden with gold and silver, after the manner of their
forefathers they could slip over the frontier.
Sombart also confirms the fact that Jewish peculiarity did
not first develop out of the Diaspora (Dispersion) like biased
Jewish historians endeavour to make us believe, but that the Diaspora itself is a production of this peculiarity. Just as invalid
is the contention that the Jewish peculiarities are the fruit of
the religion, and of the rabbinical doctrines; far rather has the
Jewish religion grown out of the fundamental nature of Jewdom, and is the inevitable product of the Jewish mode of
thinking. Yes, it is an indispensable expedient for sustaining
the Jewish mode of existence. Without this "immoral morality"
the Hebrew could not continue. The rabbinical doctrines are
merely the undisguised expression of the real thoughts and
feelings of the Jew; if these doctrines had been artificially
constructed, and had been forced upon the Jews against their
inclination, the whole Jewish mass would have revolted against
such views of life. But no one has ever heard of anything of
the kind. Rather have the Hebrews gladly adopted these senseless doctrines because the latter suit them to a nicety. Sombart is therefore entitled to say that one may, without hesitation,
refer back from the peculiarity of the Jewish religion to the
national peculiarity of the Jews. Certainly, when he expresses
doubt if one is justified in attributing the dishonest behaviour
of Isaac, Jacob and Joseph to a fraudulent trait in the Jewish
nature, we must leave it to the reader to form his own opinion
upon this point.
The legend, which is always cropping up, that the Jews were
originally an agricultural people, is to be accounted for by the
excusable failure to distinguish between the two tribes, Israel
and Judah. The extensively-held opinion especially amongst
theologians that Israelites and Jews are identical, is an assumption, which must be challenged, for it is refuted by numerous
passages in The Old Testament, in which Israel and Judah are
225

mentioned.* Ancient Israel was a people, composed of honest

husbandmen and graziers, which eventually came under the
yoke of the intruding Hebrews. The real Jew made his appearance in Palestine, just as in other countries, as the financialpolitical usurper; he came with the gold, which he had abstracted from other countries (as in the case of the excursion
from Egypt) into the land, and made the honest population
tributary to him by money-lending and usury. And thus the
honest agricultural Israelites were enslaved by this alien moneybourgeoisie, precisely as many other nations are at the present
day. But the detestation of the real Israelites for the new
money-lords must have been very pronounced when the
Israelitish captain, Abner, answered an unworthy imputation
with the indignant words: "Am I then a scoundrel like a Jew?"
(2. Sam. 3. 8.)**
During the subsequent vicissitudes of the people of Judah, there
was opportunity and to spare to
devote themselves to agricultural occupations; the Hebrews,
however, have never availed themselves of the same. They
feel little inclination for this burdensome and downright occupation, for it is impossible to make a fool of nature. And
already the wisdom of one Talmudic rabbi has said as much
in the following words: he who employs one hundred "Sus"
in trading, can enjoy meat and wine every day; but, on the
contrary, he who expends one hundred "Sus" on tilling the
soil, has to be satisfied with salt and cabbage, must sleep on
the ground, and endure all manner of hardships. Thus, there
is no lack of historians, even amongst the Jews themselves,
2. Development of the
Jews as a commercial
nation.

* Amongst other matters, it is worthy of notice that in the apocryphal

story of Susanna and Daniel, a sharp distinction is drawn between
Canaan's stock and not Judah's on one hand, and the "daughters of Israel" and Susanna as "daughter of Judah", on the other.
** Harosch keleb anoki ascher l'jehuda?" Kautsch translates: "Am I then
a Jewish scoundrel?" Compare " H a m m e r " No. 259: "The History of
the origin of the Old Testament."

226

who openly admit that the Jews are inclined by their very
nature to trade, are devoted to it, and are a nation with a
very pronounced commercial tendency. Their most ancient
scriptures also bear testimony to this fact. The cuneiform
documents from Nippur as well, have provided additional
evidence that the Hebrews were already wholesale dealers
and bankers in ancient Babylon. They cheerfully resigned the
dangerous maritime trade to the Phoenicians, for this branch of
commerce called for personal courage, and was inseparable
from peril to life.
Sombart must credit us with great simplicity when he tries
to represent the notorious robbery of gold and silver by the
Jews, on their departure from Egypt, as if these were loans
of the Egyptians, which the Hebrews were intercepting. This
discloses an astounding lack of any understanding for national
psychology. Since the Hebrews, in olden times, scarcely ever
carried on any other occupation than those of grain-dealer, cattledealer, usurer and pawnbroker, it may be taken for granted that
they carried on these occupations in Egypt also. I consider it
likely that these gold and silver vessels and costly garments,
which the Hebrews took with them on the occasion of their
exodus from Egypt, were pledges, which the Egyptians had
handed over to the Jewish usurers, into whose clutches they
had fallen. (Compare Sombart pages 370372.) To what an
extent the Jewish usurer was in demand in olden times, is
testified to by the punitive sermon of Nehemiah, and especially
by Amos. 8, 4 7 .
It is only part and parcel of the Jewish doctrine and view
of the world, that the Rabbis, all their lives, have not disdained to participate most actively in all money transactions.
Even Sombart admits, that the Rabbis are, in many cases, the
chief money-lenders; there are even passages, which seem to
suggest that the Rabbis have a monopoly of usury. Sombart
cites an instance out of the Oxford Papyrus, which actually
describes a case of Jewish usury on the grand scale, for it
is distinctly declared in this document, which is a bond or
obligation, that the debt shall be doubled each time that it is
227

not repaid at the appointed term. A true Jewish mode of

operation, which we are continually coming across, at all times
and in all places. (Compare page 25).
Can it be wondered at that the Hebrews have managed
by such practices, throughout the ages, to draw the money
of the other nations quickly into their own hands? And thus
Sombart remarks, that already in the Hellenic period, and in
the time of Imperial Rome, rich Jews were acting as moneylenders to the kings; and much was said in the Roman world
concerning Jewish hagglers and usurers. Amongst the Arabs,
however, the Hebrew has the reputation of being a born
usurer and chafferer. The Jews were likewise the financiers
and business-men of the Merovingian kings; and in Spain,
where they enjoyed most freedom for their operations, they
very soon had the nation in debt to them. Already at the
time of the Crusades they were engaged, to an excessive
extent, in money transactions, and "bled" the Crusaders mercilessly (compare page 25 et seq.) so that Sombart feels compelled to admit: since we have ascertained something about
the Jewish economic life, we see that the loaning of money
plays a very prominent part in the same. (Page 375 and
following). He adds:
"It is really about time that the fairy-tale disappeared, that the Jews
had first been driven into the money-lending business, during the European Middle Ages, because all other occupations were closed to them.
The history of a Jewish loan-traffic, extending over a period of two
thousand years before the Middle Ages, ought really to be sufficient
proof of the erroneousness of this historical fabrication."

And even when the path to other occupations lay open

to the Jews, they still turned aside to devote themselves,
with preference, to the loaning of money against pledges,
like Karl Bcher has pointed out in the case of Frankfurt a. M.
Indeed, at certain times, the authorities have even offered
premiums to induce the Jews to choose other vocations, but
all attempts in this direction proved futile. It is characteristic
of the Jewish religion, that the Jewish temples, in olden times,
were the centres of the money-traffic, and were, to a certain
extent, banking-houses. A large quantity of gold was accu228

mulated in the Temple at Jerusalem. And this alliance between

religion and money-traffic is not to be excused on the grounds
that other Semitic nations, like the Babylonians, are said to
have done the same. At any rate the same reproach cannot
be levelled at the Christian Churches. And, although the
talents of the usurer are occasionally to be found amongst
the other nations, the non-Jewish usurer is, generally speaking,
more or less of an amateur; the Hebrews alone have brought
usury to an art and a science have exalted it even to a
religion. Sombart also admits, that the Jews have developed
the technic of loan-agreements to an uncanny perfection. He says:
"If one reads the fourth and fifth chapters of the Baba Mezia, one
gets the impression that one is taking part in a usury-inquisition in
Hesse, some twenty or thirty years ago, so multitudinous are the tricks
and devices, which are introduced into these loan-contracts."

It is, therefore, not without full justification, that both Jewish

wealth and the Jewish usurer have become a by-word.
Whilst the priests of other nations have to be the guardians
of what is ideal, the Hebrew priests are business-folk to their
finger-tips, and even usurers. Sombart says:
"It is remarkable what a number of rich and very rich men there are
amongst the Talmudists. It is not at all difficult to draw up a list of
several dozen Rabbis, all of whom enjoy the reputation of being extremely wealthy."

But Sombart confesses that all his investigations into the

faculty of acquisitiveness, possessed by the Jews, do not satisfactorily account for the phenomenon of Jewish wealth. He
has actually forgotten the most important factor, viz that confederation of the Jewish business demeanour, the Chawrusse.
The enormous gains of the Jewish capitalists are also only
to be accounted for by the existence of the Chawrusse. The
characteristic picture in the fourth section (page 47), drawn
from the descriptions of the actuary, Thiele, of the criminal
court, forms a typical example of the Jewish organisation for
acquisition. The Chawrusse continues, at the present moment,
on all sides; on the Stock Exchange, amongst the Banks, in
the Press, in the "White Slave" traffic, amongst Jewish pickpockets and burglars, and has its ramifications over the whole
229

world. There is only one satisfactory explanation for this

phenomenal enrichment of the Jewish people; it is the organisation in bands, of Trade, of Usury, of Fraud, and of Theft;
and all these again are federated with one another however vague and shadowy such connection may appear to be.*
It is exactly as Herder has already stated: "The Hebrews
are a despicable race of cunning dealers, a race that has never
desired honour, home and country. That they can ever have
been valiant warriors and honest peasants does not appear
credible to us, for the disposition of a nation does not alter so
quickly."
Sombart makes a last attempt to save the honour of the
Jewish nation, and to explain away its peculiarities, by representing the Jews as an oriental people that became mixed up
with or dispersed amongst Northern nations, and started a
system of culture in conjunction with the latter. Certainly one
has every right to refer to the fact, that the penetration of a
nation with alien racial-elements can impart a tremendous cultural impulse. Gobineau,** as is well known, has attempted to explain the origin of the ancient cultures, as being the consequence
of the penetration of Southern Nations by elements of the Northern
race, the blond Aryans, whereby the latter assumed the leadership amongst those, who had been subjugated, and by means
of their organising power and heroic mode of thinking, sowed
the seeds of future great developments. It is unlikely that
anyone will attempt to compare the part, which the Hebrew
plays amongst us at the present day, with the above example.
Nowhere can the Hebrew be regarded as the bearer of culture and of a new social order; his entire method of working
* There is a particular association in Russia for the purpose of
business and exploitation, called Kahal or Kagal, which embraces the
whole Jewish community. Important disclosures concerning this are
to be found in Dr. Rich. Andree's book: "Information about the Jewish
nation," and the "Handbook of the Jewish Question" also contains
extracts. 2 6 edition page 293297.
th

Count Gobineau: "Disquisition on the dissimilarity of the Human

Races." Stuttgart 1902.

230

is of too negative a nature. When Sombart continuously talks

about "capitalistic culture", he is only using a euphemism all
the time. We learnt already at the beginning of our examination of the subject, that although the capitalistic economic
method can certainly effect a prodigious release of latent forces,
the only result is a rapid wasting-away of the nations concerned, and in no case is a constructive culture ever produced.
Justifiably apprehensive of the above fact, Sombart occasionally speaks of "the strange blossom of capitalistic culture."
Far more remarkable is his expressed opinion that this oriental
race wastes its best faculties in an environment, which, racially
and climatically, is antipathetic to it. On the contrary, it seems
to us that it wastes the faculties of others. We can agree
with him, however, when he calls the Bedouins itinerant cattlebreeders and nomads, and then continues:
"Such a restless and roving tribe of Bedouins were those Hebrews
also, who, about the year 1200 B. C., burst into the land of Canaan,
pillaging and murdering, in order to compel the native population to
work for them." (Sombart page 405)*

He also admits that the land was subdued, less by martial

valour than by financial subjugation, and that the Hebrews had
known how to make the greater part of the territory tributary
to themselves, and thus to achieve the same result by a loan
relationship. He allows as thoughtful Anti-Semites have
always represented that
"Considerable numbers of Hebrews resided in the towns, drawing rent
and interest, whilst the enslaved population cultivated the soil as if it
were a colony or they were free peasants."

All the idle talk about the Hebrews having been formerly
an agricultural people, can, as Sombart also admits, be dismissed as a myth; he says:
"But the spirit of nomadism must have remained active in all tribes,
for if it had been otherwise, if Israel (should be Judah) had been an
* These ideas of Sombart, however, are not original, for they were
already expressed in 1886, in the "Handbook to the Jewish-Question",
which was formerly known as the "Anti-Semitic Catechism" of Theodor
Fritsch.

231

agricultural people, even merely in an oriental sense, we would never

be able to understand the origin and first formation of the Jewish system
of religion."

As a matter of fact, an agricultural people is not wont to

invent a religion of usury and deceit, and to choose a God
who ordains that the destruction of countries and their populations is a sacred duty. Whatever suggestion there might be of
honest agriculture, in the history of the ancient Jewish people,
must surely refer to the original and permanent population,
the Israelites, and not to the tribe of usurers, called Hebrews,
who migrated into the country at a later date.* That the Israelitish history has become intermingled with the Jewish, and that,
now and again, in the Old Testament, glimpses of a loftier
conception of divinity occur side by side with the hate-breathing, revengeful destroyer of nations, Jahwe (Jehovah), is to
be ascribed to the influence of the non-Jewish Israelites.**
Sombart seems to have some hazy notion that such is the
case, when he says, that the Pentateuch has been composed
to suit the mind of a nomadic people, and when he continues:
"The God, who maintained his position victoriously against all other
false gods, is a god of the wilderness and of the shepherd. And, in the
conscious establishment of the cult of Jahwe, all the ancient traditions
of nomadism from Esra and Nehemiah are quite distinctly adopted,
without any notice having been taken of the intervening agricultural
epoch, which, in the case of the Jews themselves perhaps never really
happened."

He then cites Jul. Wellhausen, who corroborates as follows:

"The priestly records reject every reference to settled life in
the land of Canaan; they confine themselves to an exposition
of the desert migration, and claim to be, in every sense of
the word, desert legislation. Sombart is of the opinion, that
* In number 269 of the "Hammer" W. Scheuermann, in referring to
the book of W. Fishberg, an American Jew, traces the legend of agricultural Jews back to the fact, that in olden times, just as at the present
day, converts to Judaism from agricultural peoples, were straightway
designated Jews.
** Compare Th. Fritsch: "Der falsche Gott" (The False God) (evidence
against Jahwe] Ninth Edition. "Hammer"-Verlag, Leipzig.

232

if nomadic instincts and inclinations had not prevailed to a

preponderating extent amongst the broad masses of the Jewish
people, this preponderatingly nomadic religion could never have
been permanently imposed upon them. And the destiny of
the Jewish nation proves that it has remained a nomad- and
desert-race throughout thousands of years.
This is my opinion as well. But all this again is nothing
more than what discerning Anti-Semites, who, so far as ethnological matters are concerned, are far in advance of their times,
have been insisting upon for decades. But, in order to avoid
all points of contact with these intelligent racial-psychologists,
Sombart finds it necessary to speak about "anti-Semitic pamphleteers", who have drawn upon these facts, in a most odious
fashion, in order to obtain material to carry on their "campaign of abuse". He can know very little about those concerned, when he includes Eugen D-hring and Adolph Wahrmund amongst writers of this class, for both of these, and
more especially the latter, have only written in a most refined
and scholarly manner concerning the Jewish problem. Sombart
regards all anti-Semitic utterances as "silly and odious"; but
what he has to offer us, although presented in another form,
does not differ essentially from the conclusions of those farsighted men, who had comprehended the racial problem long
before certain loquacious sciolists had formed even an idea
on the subject.
He is justified, however, in his derision of our incorporated
professional wisdom, which proceeds crablike, with logical
considerations of the following kind: "In olden times agriculture was carried on in Palestine; at that time the Jews inhabited Palestine; consequently the Jews have been agriculturists." Really, one might just as well argue: at the present
day the Jews hold a dominating position in Germany, and
since the German Nation, which maintains itself for the greater
part by agriculture, has reached a high stage of culture, these
Jews must be agriculturists, and the creators of the German
culture!
233

Sombart has only irony for the

Diaspora, which provides a most
acceptable motive for evoking
howls of lamentation from the children of Judah, and a whine
of sympathy from many other sentimental people.* He is of
opinion that if we wish to be honest with ourselves, we are
quite unable to form any correct impression of the exile,
whether of the departure or of the return. The Jewish account
states: "And Nebucadnezzar led away all the captains and
all the soldiers; ten thousand were led away, and all smiths
and metal-workers; no one was left except the common people
of the country." And when it proceeds to state: "He led
away all the nobility of the land from Jerusalem into captivity
at Babel", the thought occurs to us, that perhaps only the
parasitic upper classes were transported, whilst the honest,
agricultural population was allowed to remain undisturbed
(2 Kings 24, 1 4 1 5 ; 25, 11 12). There is obviously a mistake
in Luther's translation of the latter passage. This reads: "But
the rest of the people, who remained in the town, and who
sided with the King of Babel, and that other poverty-stricken
section of the populace, were led away by Nebusur Adan, the
Governor." This must manifestly mean: "not away"; for,
later on it reads: "and the Governor called for peasants and
vine-dressers from amongst the lowest in the land;" and again,
later on, in verse 22, that the king had placed "the remainder
of the people" under the order of Gedalja.
3. Dispersion of the Jews
over the earth.

To the Governor, Nebusur Adan, Sombart gives the title

"Chief of the executioners". What is then the object of
this objectionable translation? Does it not disclose the ancient
Jewish hatred for the enemies of Judah? But Sombart himself, referring to the exiles, speaks in confirmation of the above:
* Amongst other things it is interesting to know that Alexander
Dumas, in his play: "The wife of Claudius", which glorifies the Jews,
makes his hero, Daniel say: "the Diaspora has not scattered us; on
the contrary, it has extended us in all directions. In consequence, we
enmesh the whole world in a net so to speak".

234

"The real country-people were not to be found amongst them. Thus

the wisdom of the Assyrian kings obviously recognised the kind of
plague, which was afflicting the fruitful land of Canaan, and endeavoured
to purify the new province by deporting the parasitic class the
plutocracy and leaving the honest peasant and working-class undisturbed in the country."

Excellent! This is exactly the reading which the Anti-Semites

adopted 30 years ago. And we are in agreement with Sombart,
that these honest people were the remainder of the original
native tribes. Thus our author, (Sombart) has adopted the
perception of the despised Anti-Semites, in its entirety, when
he characterises the dominion of the Jewish nation in Palestine,
and the conditions, which they took along with them to Babylon, in the following words:
"Town-bred masters, who are, at the same time, money-lenders, have
their land cultivated by non-Jews, who act as tenant-peasants; that, at
any rate, is the typical picture, which we obtain from the Babylonian
Talmud."

Sombart allows it to appear, that the exile of the Hebrews

in Babylon, was by no means enforced by compulsion, and
that the Hebrews, on the contrary, had gone there voluntarily
so that they would be able to practise their usury to greater
advantage in the centres of culture.
"For", he says, "we never learn that those self-banished Jews ever
returned to their native soil, after they had acquired a small fortune,
like emigrant Swiss, Hungarians or Italians do, at the present day.
They remained, on the contrary, in the foreign cities, and maintained
merely spiritual-religious relations with their native land. At the most
like genuine nomads they undertook their annual pilgrimage to
Jerusalem at the Feast of the Passover."

The diffusion of Hebrewdom over all lands, open to commercial intercourse, must already at that time have been considerable, for, referring to Strabo (B. C. 63 to A. D. 24)
Josephus writes, that it was not easy to find a single place
on the inhabited earth, which was not occupied and dominated
by this race. Philo (about 20 B. C to 40 A. D) also reports
that the Jews resided in numerous maritime and inland cities
of Europe, Asia and Libya. We do not hear, however, of
any brutal act of violence, which caused them to be dragged
235

thither against their will; for this reason, the dispersion of the
Jews throughout all lands of culture has been manifestly voluntary. How closely packed they were, for example, in Rome,
during the early period of the Empire, is testified to by various
authorities. An embassy from the Jewish King Herod to
Augustus, were accompanied by about 8,000 members of their
faith, who were domiciled in Rome, and in the year 19 A. D.
4,000 men of military age, who had been released, and were
"infected with Egyptian and Jewish superstition," were sentenced
to be deported to Sardinia (Page 430; according to Tacitus,
Suetonius and Josephus; the last-named is said to have been
a favourite of Vespasian).
Sombart goes on to speak about the very considerable
immigration into the German Empire, and shows, by means
of figures, how the Hebrews are streaming from the East of
the Empire to the West, and especially to Berlin. It certainly
sounds more than strange when he speaks of "a people hunted
from place to place." We, for our part, are of the opinion,
that if the Jews move from Birnbaum and Meseritz to Berlin,
they do so because they can do better business and procure
more pleasure in the metropolis, and not because someone
has hunted them thither. At the present moment, actually
more than half of the Jews in Germany reside in the large
cities, feeling more in their element there, because the brisker
business-life, as well as the pleasures and noise of a large
city, are more in accordance with their taste. It is also apposite,
when Sombart, in another passage, compares the great modern
cities to the desert, indicating thereby, that the spirit of the
nomad and of the desert has a close affinity to that of the
modern cities, and that the great modern city acts devastatingly
on the national life. "Desert and Forest," says he, "are the
great contrasts, around which the distinctive natures of countries and of mankind group themselves."
The forest is actually the real birth-place and home of the
German, and it was on this account that Germania or ancient
Germany appeared so gloomy and abhorrent to the Romans,
who disliked forests. At the present day, the real German
236

can prosper only in the field, and in the forest; and, as forest
and desert are contrasts, so also are the two extreme contrasts of mankind to be found in all that pertains to the
German, on one hand, and to the Hebrew, on the other. It
is a firmly established fact, that agriculture has, at all times,
been the most important institution of the Germanic races,
and was never entirely unknown at any epoch of early IndoGermanic history. By living and working continually in the
presence of Nature, as peasantry must of necessity do, the
essential and true nature of the German is formed, as indeed
is that of all really-constructive, cultural peoples. The estranged attitude towards Nature is the hall-mark of the Semitic
race, concerning whose tribal father, Cain, the murderer of
the gentle and peaceful husbandman, Abel, it stands written:
"A fugitive and vagabond shalt thou be upon earth! Let thy
hand be against everyone, and everyone's hand against thee!"
Sombart betrays his prepossession for Jewdom, by commending what a 16th century Jewish physician in Spain has excogitated, to account for the "high-spiritual" nature of the
Jew. He the physician is of opinion that the dry, pure
air of the desert, the "clear water", and the "delicate food
of Manna" have produced a marvellous spiritual refinement
in the Jew. The ridiculousness of this perception is obvious.
Must not correspondingly all Bedouins also have refined
spiritual natures? And how will Sombart explain away the
fact, that the Arab, strangely enough, who must certainly be
regarded as a true son of the desert, feels himself separated
by a yawning chasm from the Jew? There is scarcely any
other nation, which fosters such abhorrence for the Jews, as
the Arab. Arabian authors have expressed their contempt for
the Hebrew in the most biting terms. Already in the year
545 A. D. Abd al Odir a-Ilani wrote as follows:
"The Jews, who live scattered throughout the entire world and, in
spite of this, hold firmly together, are cunning, misanthropic and dangerous beings, and must be treated just as one treats a poisonous snake,
namely, by stamping on its head immediately it approaches; for, if one
allows it to raise the head for one moment, it will infallibly bite, and
the bite is fatal."

237

And when Sombart makes a further attempt to account for

the peculiar disposition of the Hebrew, by ascribing it to his
former life in the desert, one is entitled to meet him with the
question: why then have not the Arabs become Jews? why
have they preserved a disposition, which can be regarded as
aristocratic and heroic in comparison with that of the Jew?
Sombart attempts to explain away the malevolent attitude, assumed by the Jews towards the Northern nations, by attributing it to the "wet-cold" manner of the natives of the North.*
But this attempt at defence is also doomed to failure, for we
see how the Hebrew, in southern countries such as Egypt and
Morocco, behaves in exactly the same way and becomes
usurer, just as he does in the North. And when it is finally
brought forward in excuse of the Jew, that his bad character
must be attributed wholly to the circumstance that, for thousands of years, he has been the appointed custodian of the
monies of the various nations, we then ask: who appointed
him? Did he not choose this rle himself? With regard to
this particular aspect of the Jewish question, there is a favourite perversion or distortion of facts, which is repeated to satiety,
and which is in conflict with all history, especially with the
spirit of the Old Testament. It must be included amongst the
clumsiest subterfuges, employed by Jewry, but unfortunately
belongs also to those, which impose most easily on the idealists
amongst our fellow-countrymen. The Jew is always represented as having had his particular rle forced upon him, against
his will, while, in reality, he has chosen this rle of his own
free will, in order to create conditions around him, which are
congenial to his nature. When Sombart says: "They became
the lords of money, and by means of money, which they made
subject to themselves, lords of the world", these words amount
to a confession that the Hebrews made themselves masters of
money in order to dominate.
* In former times, the attitude of the Germans towards the Jews, as
such, was by no means hostile (compare page 25). But the Jews have
abused the great patience of the Germans, beyond endurance, and have
thereby incurred the lasting hatred of their hosts.

238

To anyone, who looks more deeply into the matter, the

question certainly occurs as to whether the actual existence
of money does not introduce such a dangerously deceptive
and unnatural factor of power into human life, that the deceitful spirit of the Hebrew is thereby accorded the utmost
license to develop its sinister activity. It is quite possible
that the nations will not be freed from the Jewish plague,
until they can get rid of the ban of money that kind of
money, the value of which rests on a fiction, and which introduces
a demoniacal element into culture, or, until according to
Lagarde's plan the State takes the entire money-business
into its own hands. The Hebrews did not invent money, nor
have they dug the glittering gold out of the bowels of the
earth; but they may well have devised that misuse of money,
which, in the shape of loan-capital, loads the honest, productive
nations with fetters of interest to all eternity. For, the strange
mystery connected with money, lies not so much in the money
itself as in the notion or conception of capital, which is derived
from money, and in the further notion or conception, which
is inseparably connected with the former, of unnatural, "everlasting interest." It is unnatural to demand for a loan of money,
so long as it is not repaid, a continuous, unchanging rate of
interest for hundreds and thousands of years. It is here where
the source of the distress of the honest, productive nations
lies; here we find the cause of the unlimited growth of Jewish
capital and Jewish dominion.* Sombart is therefore right when
he says: "money places in the hands of the Jew the means
to exercise power without being strong." In very truth, the
feeblest and most cowardly nation in the world, by a misuse
of the glittering gold, have arrogated to themselves, the
demeanour and position of lords and rulers.

* Theodor Fritsch has already proposed in 1892, that it should be

made obligatory and legal, to include, in every loan-contract, provision
for the reduction of the debt (so-called sinking-fund) so that the debt
could be paid off within a conceivable time. Compare "Land-usury
and Stock Exchange", Leipzig 1892.

239

It is amusing to read Sombart's account of how hateful the

German-Polish Jews, the so-called Aschkenasim, are to the
Sephardim, their western brethren-in-faith from Spain and
Portugal (compare page 221). At Bordeaux, in the year 1761,
the Portuguese Jews brought about a drastic order, that all
foreign Jews should leave Bordeaux within 14 days. They
called the eastern Jews "vagabonds", and took the utmost pains
to get rid of them as soon as possible. Now if the more
"aristocratic" Jews themselves harboured a detestation for the
lower-class Hebrews, the Aschkenasim, how can anyone take
it amiss when we feel this aversion in an enhanced degree?
For the Sephardim and Aschkenasim are, to say the least of
it, closely united by the ties of religion, morals, and their
conjoint view of life; how then, shall these abhorrent beings
not be doubly repulsive and hateful to us, to whom their feelings, mode of thinking, and entire nature are completely alien?
The spiritual and spiritual-moral difference between these two
sections of Jews cannot well be great; for they are both
steeped in the atmosphere of the Talmud. And even Sombart
admits, that the habits of those of Jewish blood, however low
in the social scale they may be, acquire a remarkable fixity:
for instance, inclination for petty deception, obtrusiveness, lack
of self-respect, lack of tact etc.

These selections from Sombart's writings should suffice to

convince anyone who is visibly anxious to regard the Hebrew
in as favourable a light as possible, but who is, at the same
time, unable to close his eyes to a number of serious faults
and failings in the Jewish disposition, in themselves of sufficient
warranty for regarding the Jews, in the midst of the cultured
nations, as a highly undesirable, and entirely alien element,
that the aversion and dislike, felt by the moral nations for the
Jews, has been thoroughly deserved by the latter.
It is most valuable, when a man, who repudiates the slightest
tendency to anti-Semitism, and who collects carefully every
word said in praise of the Jews, makes such important ad240

missions. It is for this reason, that so many passages from

Sombart have been quoted and criticised, although the same
contain little that is new for anyone, versed in the Jewish
question. It is evident that Sombart has learnt much from the
Anti-Semites, but he employs the tactic, which, though it may
be ingenious, is certainly not noble, of repudiating the source
of his instruction. It is to be hoped that our German countrymen will be ready to believe certain facts when stated by
a person, who refuses to be regarded as an Anti-Semite, although
they would flatly decline to accept these same statements when
made by a declared Anti-Semite.

241

XVI.

The influence of the Jew upon Womankind.

Women exert an important influence upon the development
of retail trade. It is they, who superintend, for the most part,
the purchase of necessaries for the household; it is through
their hands that the greater portion of the income, earned
by the man, is returned into business life, and it is for this
reason surely, not a matter of indifference to whom women
entrust their custom.
It is now a generally recognised fact, that most women
and girls give Jewish shops the preference. The apparent
cheapness of Jewish goods might be brought forward as an
explanation of this. Women and even those women, who
are by no means entitled to include thrift, in its true sense,
amongst their other virtues seem to find a peculiar pleasure in the mere idea that they have been successful in purchasing some article at a cheaper price than it is usually sold
for even when this supposed cheapness exists only in the
imagination of the purchaser. Such women regard this result
as being directly due to their own cleverness in some
cases, perhaps, even as a triumph of their own personal
charm. For this reason, the shopkeeper, who, by exposing
his wares in calculated disorder to be pulled about and hunted
through, advances half-way to meet this fancied feminine capacity for ferreting-out and overreaching, will stand a far better
chance of doing business than a rival tradesman, who prefers
a conventional and orderly method. Women often require
"chance goods", and, for that reason, visit by choice those
shops or stores, where everything lies jumbled up together,
and where they imagine that they will be able to pick up
something cheaply: they pass by the well-ordered shops,
so, at least, is the admission of a domesticated woman, who
242

knows her own sex. By the cunning utilisation of this feminine weakness, the salesman is enabled to kill two birds with
one stone; he confers a special favour upon his female customers, and saves himself the trouble of sorting out and
arranging his rubbish, of which task his customers obligingly
relieve him.
If, in addition to this, the same salesman knows how to
create the impression that, overcome, as it were, by the personal
charm of a female customer and of her alone, he is prepared to part with some article under its proper price, he will
infallibly secure her goodwill. And if, moreover, he is expert
and nimble enough to flatter all of his customers in like manner,
and to lead each individual on to believe that she has been
especially favoured before all other customers, he will have
no cause to complain of bad trade.
Our women are extraordinarily simple when confronted with
any economic question, although they surpass men in many
other matters, where cleverness and intuition are required.
They allow themselves to be perverted by the dazzling exterior
of an object, and to be guided by the prospect of a momentary
advantage, without taking any account of the further consequences
of their conduct or action. They do not stop to ask whether
they are supporting, with their custom, principles, which are
unsound, and business practices, which are harmful, and are
thereby depriving genuine and deserving tradesmen of their
custom, perhaps forcing entire branches of industry into difficulties,
promoting inferior manufacture, and, briefly expressed, imparting
an ominous tendency to all business-life. All such considerations
are foreign to them.
Possessing these particular failings, they come face to face
with the natural disposition of the Jew, who is likewise the
man who believes in and upholds the dazzling exterior and
the momentary advantage. The Hebrew, who takes more pains
to study the psychology of his customers than the trader of
Aryan descent because he looks for his return less in the
quality of his goods than in the exploitation of human vanities
and weaknesses has always been able to detect these
243

peculiarities in the feminine disposition, and has known how

to take the fullest advantage of the weak side of woman. As
it is, his shop-window acts confusingly and disturbingly on the
feminine mind. It is difficult to define exactly what the particular
art may be, which the Jew makes use of in displaying his
goods, so that the same have a more attractive effect upon
the glances of the passers-by than the wares in the window
of a tradesman, who is not a Jew. There must be some kind
of affinity or connection between the capricious and abstracted
nature of the average feminine mind, and the Jewish manner
and touch when they exhibit or display anything; for the Jews
most certainly do not show superior taste in the arrangement
of their wares, and it is rather a bewildering jumble or an
obtrusive thrusting-in-the-face of certain articles, which seem
to excite and lure the female spectator. The Jew also tries
to puzzle and confuse by marking up unusual prices. An
article in the shop of a tradesman, who is not a Jew, which
remains comparatively unnoticed at the price of 75 Pfennigs,
can be prominently displayed in a Jewish shop at the price
of 97 Pfennigs, and here it seems, all of a sudden, to create
the impression as if it were in reality several Pfennigs cheaper
than elsewhere.
At any rate, it is a matter of fact that the Jewish showwindows exert an almost mesmeric influence over the great
masses of curious and inquisitive people. But for all that,
the Hebrew despises no other means whatever, by which he
may achieve the same result. Calculating upon the herd instinct of the public, many of the larger Jewish businesses
engage and pay people, solely for the purpose of walking to
and fro on the pavement in front of their establishments, at
such times as the traffic is at its height, and of occasionally
stopping before the show-windows as if curious and interested.
Their example prompts others to imitate them, and businesses
of this kind are always besieged by people. As soon as one
of the hirelings separates himself from the throng, and enters
the shop, the movement seems to become contagious, and
others follow.
244

An unceasing and striking series of advertisements in the

newspapers by the Jewish business-houses, also contributes to
attract custom to their shops, and in this particular sphere of
activity, the Jewish trader gives full rein to the obtrusiveness
and heedlessness of his race. Doubtless such artifices ensure
that Jewish shops are more extensively patronised than other
establishments, but still they are not sufficient, to account for
certain, almost unaccountable phenomena. It is rather the personality of the Jew himself, which acts upon so many women
with absolutely forcible suggestiveness.
Without doubt, the well-known susceptibility of our women
for everything "foreign", has prepared the soil for this astounding Jewish influence. It is an absolutely incomprehensible fact
to people from other countries, that representatives of our womanhood from school-girls up to women in the forties are
to be found in large numbers, who comport themselves towards
negroes as if the latter were of their own race and standing,
and who behave in a downright shameless manner towards
the various men of colour, connected with exhibitions etc.; and
others again, in the colonies, whose conduct with respect to
the natives discloses an unbelievable intimacy. A state of
things, which, quite apart from the unrestrained sensuality involved, is a melancholy indication of a steady decline in national
and racial self-respect. All this has reference to the relations,
which unfortunately subsist between a large section of
our womankind and the Jews.
And now it becomes necessary to step aside into a dark
territory, which the majority of our contemporaries pass unsuspectingly, but which must be explored and opened-up in
order to help to account for the unholy influence, which the
Jews have acquired amongst us. Certainly it is a region, which
a clean-living and conscientious man enters with reluctance,
and it was long before I could make up my mind to lay it open
to the public view. But as this book, by reason of the serious
and economic matter which it contains, runs but little risk of
falling into the hands of the young, the idle, and the prurientlyinclined, it will not be dangerous, in the presence of mature
245

readers, to treat with candour a subject, which, as a rule, is

wont to shun all publicity. As it is a question of the secret
undermining of the moral and physical strength of our nation
by the machinations of the Hebrews, undue sensitiveness in
this respect may well be laid aside for once. Moreover, the
discussion of this question cannot be avoided here, because it
is necessary to a proper characterisation of the racial and ethical domain in which the Hebrew lives, and out of which sphere
he moulds his life and carries on his business. In order that
the chief features may be recognised, it will be best to cite
some instances, selected from the experiences of daily life.
As an introduction the following remarks are not out of
place. The many thousands of single and married Jewish
sensualists are causing such devastation amongst our young
women, that from this quarter alone the ruin of our nation is
assured, without taking into consideration all the other closelyconnected economic and social evils. So much can be learnt
from a thoughtful perusal of the following pages. But, from
my own personal observation there are many, in other respects
experienced men, who are ignorant of these facts, or, who are
ignorant at any rate of the extent and depth of the injury,
which is being inflicted upon our nation; they simply proceed
blindly on their way.
There is no doubt whatever, that the real nature of the Jew
is completely unknown and incomprehensible to the great
majority of the most educated people of to-day. They have
had no opportunity to gain an insight into the more secret
machinations of the Jew. Their acquaintanceship with Jews is
confined, for the most part, to occasional and brief contact in
social and business circles, and, since in this respect the
Hebrew is wont to show his most harmless and agreeable side,
there is little cause for wonder when one repeatedly hears,
that the Jews are really nice, decent, amiable people. Others
again, only know the Jew from flattering literary presentations
of him, like "Nathan der Weise", or Sir Walter Scott's "Ivanhoe", and are inclined also, to transfer their instilled and unquestioning reverence for the Biblical Patriarchs to the Jews
246

of to-day. And has not our light literature always been utilised
in a most subtle manner, by Jewish authors, to convey an entirely misleading portrait of the Jew? With a cunningly calculated appeal to German susceptibility, Jews and Jewesses
have been portrayed invariably as high-minded, innocent beings
as patient creatures, bearing their burden of "eternal pain",
because they have to suffer severely under the prejudice and
unfounded hatred of the malicious Christians. Moreover, as
our daily press and our literature are completely under Jewish
influence, all personalities, who come into publicity, are appraised and judged accordingly as they show themselves welldisposed, or the contrary, towards Jewdom. This circumstance
has always formed the standard of criticism for Jewish authors,
and is more the case to-day than ever. The consequence is,
that from youth upwards, our dispositions are made susceptible
to a false philanthropy, and become especially sympathetic to
the "poor, innocent, persecuted Jews." And, in riper years,
"refinement" and "tolerance" both play a part in shielding the
Hebrew of to-day from any unpleasantness, which he might
experience on account of the mediaeval prejudice. Yes, we
actually give ourselves trouble, not only to make all manner
of excuses for the Jews, because of the illusory state of suffering, in which they are supposed to live, but even to assist
them, and to further their interests whenever we can, just as
if we had to make restitution for an ancient wrong, which our
ancestors are supposed to have inflicted on them.
Such a sentiment does credit to our hearts but what
about our intelligence? All people, who are acquainted
with history, and the actual facts of life, know perfectly well
that the Jews have never emerged guiltless from the occasional
disasters, which they have encountered, (compare page 25 and
following) and that the tales of cruelties, said to have been
perpetrated against the Hebrews, proceed, in many cases, from
the imagination, and in others, from gross exaggeration. Thus,
the so-called "Jew battles" of the Middle Ages were confined,
for the most part, to an expulsion of the Jews, who had become far too numerous, from the towns and districts in which
247

the economic pressure, directly due to their usurious practices

and manoeuvres, had become unbearable. As a tremendous
clamour arises from the whole of Jewry, at the present day,
whenever one of their race loses his life, or has even one
hair of his head touched, one can easily understand how it
is, that all incidents, in which Jews have figured as the injured
party, have been so extravagantly described in history.

The only person, who really understands what the Jew of

to-day is, must have had the opportunity to associate with him
on intimate terms for years; but an opportunity of this kind
does not offer itself to many. For the Hebrew is just as
cautious on his side in the selection of his intimate friends
as any intelligent German might be; and the latter knows
instinctively, in spite of all conventional toleration, how to
preserve a certain distance between himself and the Jew.
Of all the greater importance then, are the experiences of
Jewish companionship, which we will now let our correspondent
relate in his own words.
"I came, as a guileless youth of twenty, from a small provincial
town to Berlin. Chance brought me into the company of
Jews of the same age as myself. I was introduced by them
into their family circles, and both saw and heard there much
that came as a surprise to me. As the acquaintanceship with
my Jewish friends became more intimate, opinions and sentiments were occasionally expressed in my presence, which
secretly horrified and angered me. But whenever I attempted
to remonstrate, I was met with such universal laughter that I
began to be ashamed of whatever delicacy of feeling I still
possessed.
In the circle of my more intimate Jewish friends, the conversation turned almost exclusively upon women and sexual
matters; they preferred to boast about the various tricks and
artifices, which they had employed, in order to seduce innocent
girls; and, in no case, did any one of them display the slightest
trace of being conscience-smitten. It was regarded as a matter
248

of course, that the female servants must be at the disposal of

the men in the Jewish household. 'We have just got a new
servant', announced one. 'Is she pretty?' asked another.
'Well, it is scarcely likely that my father would select anything
bad for me', was the answer. One related with considerable
ill-temper, that a servant-girl, who had only been a short time
in his family, had rejected his advances; that his father, however,
had very soon brought the girl to reason by saying: 'Have I
not engaged you as "general servant"? Very well, then! this
is included in your duties!" And the universal assent of his
listeners, proved that they all regarded the incident from the
speaker's point of view, and approved of the way it had been
dealt with.
Many years later, after other events had combined to make
me a convinced opponent of the Jews, these first and lasting
impressions of my early manhood came vividly into my mind.
I had, without success, repeatedly endeavoured to convince
a well-known educational reformer of the injuriousness of the
Jews. He was too much of an idealist, and was too remote
from practical, every-day life, to be susceptible to the influence
of commercial, economic and political facts. According to his
opinion, all hostility to the Jews arose from the incapability
and envy of the "Christian" business-people, who did not feel
able to compete with the "superior" Jew. In order to bring
him down from his Utopia into a sphere, in which every man,
who had any regard for morality and decency, would find it
difficult to control his anger, I related to him some of my past
and recent experiences as set down in the chapter on "Jews
and Women." Still, even these made no impression upon
him; he regarded them either as incredible, or, at least, as
grossly exaggerated.
After the lapse of considerable time, he called on me
again, and made the following admission:
"I must confess that I have become convinced, that the descriptions,
which you gave me, of the relations between Jews and women are
believable. At Munich recently, a passenger got into my compartment,
and I soon recognised, in the course of conversation, that my com-

249

panion was an educated Jew in very comfortable circumstances. He

might have been either a merchant or a banker. The conversation
happened to turn upon the servant question, and he exclaimed: 'At last,
thank God, we have again found a nice and proper kind of servantgirl.' When I asked him if it was difficult to get servants in Munich,
he replied: 'There are servant-girls enough to be had, but when I
engage a girl I have my own particular conditions. I have a son, who
is fifteen years of age, and one of my conditions is, that he shall have
free access to the girl.' "

The relater continued:

"I could scarcely believe my ears; my heart almost choked me, but
I managed, with an effort, to assume an appearance of indifference, and
asked: 'What does your wife say to this?' The reply was: 'What
should she say? my wife is a sensible woman. Is it likely that she
would wish the boy to have intercourse with unclean, street prostitutes? It can only be a source of satisfaction to her, that her son
should have access to a clean and healthy girl in his own h o m e ! "

Our educational reformer was still more shocked at this

answer than he had been at the first; but it had at last dawned
upon him what a world-wide gulf lay between Jewish thought
and Jewish perception, and ours.
But how few of those sentimentalists amongst us, who are
always disputing and denying everything, of which they have
not had any personal experience, have such a drastic opportunity of refuting their Nathan-like views of the Jewish character?
One recognises one fact: the education of the Jewish youth
is a very different process from that of the German. Is there
any cause for wonder, when boys, growing up into manhood,
continue to extend the experiences, which they have gained
in the manner described above, so ruthlessly in every direction,
that they become accustomed to regard every female, who,
according to their view, is socially inferior, or who may be
dependent upon them for a living, as an instrument for the
gratification of their lust? Anyone, who does not shrink from
the only conclusions, which this summing-up of the situation
will admit, cannot be astonished at the racial degeneration,
which is making itself only too visible by the countless thousands
of illegitimate and falsely-legitimate children, resulting from
this Jewish-German sexual intercourse; and the easily-recognisable
mixed-type, to be found amongst the populations of Berlin,
250

Frankfort, and other cities and districts, which teem with Jews,
will not come as a surprise and shock to the honest observer.
And, keeping pace with this, is the appalling decay of the
national character, which is the inevitable consequence of
mongrelising the race, and which invariably means national
ruin. A nation can save itself from moral lapses and relaxation;
but never from racial decay. Ancient Rome is a historical
instance of the former case, France of the latter.
The lascivious impudence, displayed by the Jewish youth
especially towards female employees in business-houses, in
dancing-establishments, and in restaurants, and generally towards females of no social pretensions or devoid of all worldly
experience, is only too well known. Neither married women,
nor girls, scarcely emerged from childhood, are safe from the
importunities of the most conscienceless of these fellows, and
an unending succession of cases of this nature occupy the
police-courts, and would soon attract the attention, even of the
most stupid, if the names, nationality, etc. of the criminals were
not intentionally and systematically suppressed in all the newspapers. It is a fact, confirmed by many police-court cases,
that Jews violate, for preference, maidens, who are so young
that they are only to be regarded as girls, and even children.
For these unnatural offences a kind of authority is actually to
be found in Talmudic literature; for a Talmudist Rabbi endeavours to prove, by going into details, why a girl of three
years of age is fit for sexual intercourse.* Berlin, at the end
of the "seventies" in the past century, was the real field for
conducting observations of a very convincing nature. The
advance of Jewry was at that time extraordinarily in evidence.
The fraudulent manoeuvres on the Stock Exchange, during the
so-called "promotion years," had brought enormous wealth to
the Hebrews, who forced themselves to the front in all directions, in society as well as in public life. Even then, one could
not avoid seeing what was a deeply humiliating sight for every
* Compare Fritsch: "Der falsche Gott", (Evidence against Jehovah or
Jahwe.) 5 Edition (1919) page 77.

251

honourable German, namely, splendid specimens of German

womanhood hanging on the arms of Jews and even then
not enjoying, at least, the respected position of a married woman.
Dazzled by the flash appearance and behaviour of Hebrews,
who have amassed wealth in every conceivable manner, and
allured by the most cunning methods of seduction, countless
women, well qualified to be the mothers of the nation, fall
victims, year after year, to the Jews, and descend to the level
of purchasable commodities. Prostitution always flourishes
luxuriantly wherever the Jews live and have lived; it is a
matter of common knowledge, that a notorious law-suit scarcely
ever runs its course without implicating one or more Jews,
either as "friend," seducer, usurer, cheat, or receiver of stolen
goods. The Leyden Papyrus, which dates from Egyptian antiquity, as well as the Old Testament, refer frequently to Jewish
sexual excesses.* The Jew, as Oriental, is a supporter of polygamy, or, as the well-known Jewish author, Max Nordau,
(Sdfeld) expresses himself, "is not a monogamous animal."
If he happens to live in countries, where monogamy alone is
legal, and conforms outwardly to this law, he can always find
plenty of ways of evading it in order to indulge his oriental
proclivities. Jewish married women place no obstacles in the
way of their husbands in this respect, whether it is because
the idea of polygamy is something innate in them, or because
they derive a secret satisfaction from seeing the women of a
foreign race rivals in a double sense in a state of complete subjection to their husbands. With regard to the phenomenon, it is interesting to establish how occurrences of this
kind are judged by Jewesses.
In the "Lit. Echo" (1912. Number 3) the Hebrew woman, Anselma
Heine, deities her racial companion, the author Jacobowski. In the
course of her article, she treats of his love affairs, and expresses herself
in connection therewith as follows: "Suddenly I discovered in him the
ancient typical trait of pain, peculiar to his race. He experienced a
vindictive rapture in displaying his power over women, and never indi* Compare: "Handbuch der Judenfrage" (Handbook of the Jewish
Question) 26 Edition. Page 240.
th

252

cated the plebeian with more scorn than when he boasted, how he had
subjugated the elegant wives of the blonde nobility by brutal force."
Only let anyone try to imagine to himself, if it could be possible,
that a Christian authoress would announce to the whole world, with
such a voluptuous thrill of veneration, confessions, like those above, of
the sexual triumphs of a fellow-countryman over Jewesses.

And still one more instance of this kind. The publishing

house, Velhagen and Klasing, of Bielefeld and Leipzig, which
has gradually built up a sound literary reputation by the loyal
and strictly evangelical inclination of all their publications, and
especially as publishers of the family paper, "Daheim", has
been issuing for about the last twenty-five years, the "Monatshefte" (Monthly Numbers) which form a periodical of interesting
contents, edited by H. v. Zobeltitz and P. O. Hcker, and which
of late has been giving preference to novels from the Jewish
pen. The following noteworthy passage, concerning the Jewish
hero of the story, is to be found in the novel, "Der Tunnel",
by the Jewish author, Bernard Kellermann (Frth), published
in the periodical.
"S. Woolf was a perfect specimen of a gentleman. He had only (!)
one vice, and he concealed it carefully from the outside world. It
was his extraordinary sensuality. The blood began to sing in his ears
as soon as he caught sight of a young and pretty girl. He travelled
at least once every year to Paris and London, and had his "friends"
in both cities. From these expeditions he occasionally brought back
"nieces", whom he transplanted to New York. The girls had to be
young, pretty, and blonde! S. Woolf avenged (!) in this way, poor
Samuel Woolfsohn (his father) who, years before, had been hopelessly
driven out of the field, so far as all good-looking women were concerned, by the competition of stalwart tennis-players and large monthly
cheques(!) He took his revenge on that blonde race, who had formerly
spurned him with their feet. And, above all, he recompensed himself
for the privations of his youth."

Thus, the cynical debauchee, who comports himself with

"blonde girls" as if they were nothing more than so much
"human flesh", captures them, enjoys them, and then flings
them on one side, is, according to Jewish notions, the "pattern
of a gentleman"! And then this foolish idea of revenge: because old Woolfsohn could find no favour in the eyes of
German women, is that any reason why his son should
253

revenge himself on other women of the blonde race? Has

not the Jewish author here, by mistake, revealed too much?
Accordingly it is not inclination, or mere sensual desire, which
attract the Hebrew to the blonde women, but rather Hate
and Revenge! He desires to ruin and dishonour as many of
these females as possible, whether they stand in any sort of
relation to his scheme of "revenge" or not, and thus procure
retribution for what? for a wrong existing only in the
Jewish imagination, which is clouded with conceit and hatred.
Verily, logic of this order can only flourish in the swampy
carnal-mindedness of a people, who celebrate today, just as
they celebrated more than 2000 years ago, with songs of
triumph, the remembrance of the massacre of those 75000 Persians, who fell victims to the lust for revenge of the strumpet
Esther and her cousin Mordecai.
But without doubt the real motive for the feeling of
revenge lay, as far as the Jewish "gentleman" was concerned,
in the concluding sentence: "he compensated himself for the
deprivations of his youth," by dishonouring, with the help of
his money and all the tricks of the professional seducer, as
many women of the blonde race as possible: and the incarnate
hatred sweetened his triumphs.
And what about the "ancient, typical trait of pain in the Jewish race" "the eternal pain of the Jews" of Heine, Jakobowski and company? It is nothing but the mortification of
Mephistopheles that he is not left at liberty to do exactly as
he likes; the mortification of Shylock when he is prohibited
from mutilating his business rival in order to gratify his
demoniacal hatred. This pain, born of hatred and insolent
pride towards everything that is not Jewish, is certainly an
ancient inheritance of the race, and one of its fundamental and
lasting characteristics. The Jew disguises or conceals it under
the appearance of melancholy, whereby he deceives simpleminded people so long as he has not the opportunity to, or
dares not exhibit his real nature; it discloses itself as insolent
sensuality or ruthless rapacity, when it feels that it is safe
enough to step, unveiled, into broad daylight. Woe to those,
254

who allow themselves to be deluded by the harmless exterior;

and may shame and disgrace descend on all who assist the
Jew in deceiving the rest of humanity as to the true nature
of his "pain" and "revenge".
What kind of spiritual offspring this "typical, ancient pain"
of the People of God is, is disclosed in a poem, published in
the Jewish periodical, "Die Aktion" (February 1913), from the
pen of a certain Paul Meyer. Perhaps it may open the eyes
of a few, here and there, as to the thinly-veiled "ultimate aims"
of Jewdom.

THE MERRY SONG OF THE VAGRANT AHASVER.

Behold! I am a man rooted to no spot,
A man unwedded to any environment:
The narcosis of home-sickness
Does not drive my heart into my breeches,
For I am proof against grief.
If you drive me from your thresholds,
I still remain more sought-after than anybody else,
Your cries of envy resound,
For I drink at y o u r fountains,
And I weigh up y o u r values.
The sleek skin of my soul
Conceals what I have expiated as a beggar,
Still, my booty mounts up
And, your brides call joyfully to me
me, the refuse of a foreign desert.
Yawningly you exhale your tobacco-smoke
As you honourably digest your meal,
But I am a clever juggler,
And I know how to excite your vices
So that they develop to the utmost.
255

Thus I continue to play the game

Of my mature insolence,
The strange, very subtle, final aims
Of my Asiatic blood,
Which are hidden from you!
It is a fact, that the Rabbinical doctrines of the Talmud deny
the right of the Jewish wife to raise any objection to the
intercourse of her husband with women, who are not Jewish,
even though the latter may be married. The circumstance,
that the marriage of those who are not Jews is, according to
Rabbinical perception, not to be regarded as marriage but "as
no better than the living-together of beasts", is confirmatory
of the above. According to Talmudic doctrine those, who are
not Jews, are not even to be regarded as human beings, but
only as "animals in human shape." (compare page 57).
A perception of this kind accounts for a whole series of
Jewish views, which would otherwise be enigmatical to us. An
animal has no moral rights, and consequently Rabbinism does
not recognise any moral duties on the part of the Jew towards
those who are not Jews. A beautiful woman, who is not
Jewish, is nothing more than a beautiful animal in the eyes of
the Jews, and therefore the individual Jew is at liberty to do
with her as he likes. In any case there is no necessity for
him to trouble his conscience with what becomes of her.
Now and again, one hears the voice of a superior type of
Hebrew, frankly admitting and disapproving of this shameful
behaviour on the part of their racial companions towards
women, who are not Jews. Conrad Alberti, (Sittenfeld) for
instance, writes as follows, in M. G. Conrad's "Society" 1889
No. 2, after he had spoken of Jewish intolerance towards those
who are not Jews:
* The only exception is the sexual intercourse, and especially the behaviour of rich, young Jews towards girls of the poorer class, seamstresses etc. This reaches an incredibly low level of cynical brutality,
and one to which I have never seen young men sink, who belong to
the Christian faith. The latter, for the most part, still preserve some

256

lingering traces of shame in the presence of the opposite sex, but, in the case
of our young "jobbers" of the Stock Exchange, not a spark is to be found."

The thousands of girls who, year in and year out, come to

their ruin in Jewish business-houses and in Jewish families,
could provide terrible evidence that the honest admission, quoted
above, is founded upon fact. Certainly the objection is justified, that employers and people in positions of authority, who
are not Jews, frequently abuse their position in the same shameful
manner; but in all cases of this nature a characteristic difference
always distinguishes those cases, where the culprit is a Jew,
from those where he is not. And this difference lies in the
attitude, which Jewish women take up towards such conduct
on the part of their men-folk. When confronted with the complaint of a servant-girl, that the "master" or "young master", is
annoying her with his attentions, a German married-woman
will, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, prepare a very
bad time indeed for the men of her household, and will replace the girl by one less dangerous. It is far otherwise with
the Jewish wife or mother. She not only shows herself "tolerant" to her growing-up son, but overlooks as well the weaknesses of her husband, and actually assists him to attain his
object thus following the example of Sarah by advising
the girl, in her own interests, to yield to the desire of her pursuer.
In one particular instance, the words were repeated to me, with
which a rich married Jewish woman received and disposed of the complaint of her pretty housemaid, that the master of the house was persecuting her with his attentions. Smiling almost sympathetically, and
with a goodwill, which had something motherly about it, the mistress
of the house spoke to the girl: "What a foolish child you are! You
are young, and you are pretty; if you leave and go into another house,
there will be men there also, and they will also pursue you with the
same object. And if you again leave your place and go to another, it
will be the same there as well. Men are like that; a pretty girl is
never free from pursuit. And at last you will yield. Be sensible,
and remain here; my husband is rich and can pay you well!"*
* It is well known to the inhabitants in Berlin, that, in consideration
of a special payment, many registry offices for servants dispatch all
good-looking country-girls, who apply to them for situations, exclusively
to Jewish households.

257

In the case mentioned above, the girl possessed character

enough to at once take her departure, but how few others
would be strong enough to resist such plausible argument and
insidious temptation? They fall victims to the Jews, and preserve silence concerning their shame. Moreover, the Jew is
astute enough to flatter the vanity of the girl by timely presents
and liberal treatment, so that those who have fallen, after they
have once lost the first sense of disgrace, find little difficulty
in speaking in glowing terms of their Jewish employers.
This story may surprise some readers on account of the
peculiar attitude assumed by the Jewish married-woman, but
this fact is nothing new to anyone acquainted with the circumstances; and, quite apart from the Talmudic perception, to
which attention has already been called above, this behaviour
arises out of another and absolutely materialistic frame of mind.
The Jewess knows only too well, that her lascivious husband
will not be satisfied with intercourse with only one woman.
Accordingly he will seek opportunities away from home. This,
however, is generally expensive, and carries, moreover, dangers
in its train not the least of which are those affecting
health. The astute, saving Jewess reasons thus with herself:
a healthy servant-girl, who is paid a few thalers more than the
usual wages, and who receives an occasional present in addition, is the cheapest expedient for appeasing the lewdness
of the husband: and, of course, danger of infection is greatly
reduced.

It has already been intimated above, that the personality of

the Jew exercises a remarkable, even a puzzling influence over
many women, which can be described as suggestive and willdestroying. When, during the past nineties, this subject was,
for once in a way, treated to a public discussion in the periodical "Deutsch-sozialen Blttern", personal experiences and observations, confirming this influence, poured in from all sides.
Powers are seen to be at work in the background, which one
258

is tempted to call demoniacal, and there is an unnatural sensual stimulation, which apparently robs the victim of her reason.
The rle of "enchanter", which one otherwise assigns to the
female, seems in this case, by some inexplicable means, to be
transferred to the opposite sex.

And this power must be de-

scribed as unnatural and disquieting, because the woman, who

is accessible to its influence, appears to succumb literally without showing the slightest trace of resistance.
Amongst the communications already mentioned are the following, which have been selected as particularly characteristic.
A lady describes what was actually observed on several occasions:
"A somewhat shabby-looking Jew met a respectable middle-class
woman. He glances at her, she stops, remains standing as if rooted
to the spot, looks round after him and finally follows him. Much
the same thing happened in another street, where a red-haired Jewish
clothes-dealer was standing at the door of his shop. A respectable
young female, in fact scarcely more than a school-girl, passes by, and
the Jew catches her eye or whispers something to her; she stops
suddenly as if shot, and remains before the next shop-window, her gaze
fixed on the Jew. It is not long before she follows him into his shop.
An old and ugly Jew called, ostensibly on business, at the house of
the young widow of a merchant, who had but recently died. She admitted
him again the same evening, and allowed him to spend the night with
her. She came from a good family, and was educated and refined;
he was a repulsive old fellow, devoid of refinement."
The lady continues:
"The question arises: are, perhaps, secret Talmudic arts at the bottom
of all this? It is said that many Jews have brought their art to such
a pitch that they can, with one glance, cause a female to quiver and
tremble just as if she had received an electric shock. A lady, who
had allowed herself to be implicated with a Jew, gave the following
account to her family as soon as she had regained her senses: the first
time when the man spoke to her, and gazed at her with his penetrating dark eyes, she felt stricken to the core, and from that hour she
had been drawn as if by an irresistible force to him; that he had appeared to her in dreams, etc . . .
Who is going to solve this riddle? Is it the look (perhaps that which
the Italians call "jettatura") or is, perhaps, the extraordinary Talmudic
knowledge and experience of life acquainted with secret alterations in
259

relations with certain mysterious, sympathetic forces? Or must we,

in these cases also, take into consideration Jewish energy, whereby the
Jews have perhaps learnt how to dominate the mind of the female?"
As a matter of fact, in such cases as these, one is confronted with something obscure and mysterious, which must be
made clear at all costs.

The great majority of the countless

girls and women, who have fallen victims to Jewish seducers,

relate afterwards that they were driven towards them, as it were,
by some unknown evil power.
Unquestionably

many Hebrews utilise hypnotic powers in

order to render women submissive to their will.

A corre-

spondent, writing from Triest, on the 16th of July 1913, announces:

"The authorities here have just succeeded in arresting a certain Ziffer,
who had abducted a 19 year-old girl of noble descent, and daughter
of a great silk manufacturer, after he had previously hypnotised her.
It is said that, two years before, Ziffer had abducted the wife of a
Breslau sugar-refiner by employing similar methods."
Further, one read in the Berlin papers of July 20th 1913:
"The tragic fate of a young girl, who had been robbed by a marriageswindler of all her savings, and who had committed suicide in her
despair, was revealed yesterday in the course of a case, which came
up for hearing before the 2 Vacational Criminal Chamber of the Provincial Court of Justice. As the result of the enquiry, the fitter Frederick Ziffer was brought up on a charge of fraud. In April of the
same year, the accused had made the acquaintance of the single woman, Johanna Simon, who had arrived in Berlin from her home a few
days before, in order to take a situation as companion. Ziffer represented
himself to the girl as an engineer, and promised, after a short acquaintanceship, to take her to South America and to marry her there, describing to her at the same time in glowing colours, the delightful life
which would be their lot. As the girl, who was a strict Catholic,
had once stated, that she would not marry out of her faith, the accused,
who was a Jew, pretended to be a Catholic also, and carried his hypocrisy so far, that he raised his hat ostentatiously every time when he
passed a Catholic place of worship in the company of the girl. By all
kinds of pretexts, he succeeded in inducing the inexperienced girl to
part, by degrees, with her entire savings. When he had extorted the
last farthing from her, and had, in addition, brought her to physical
ruin, he let fall his mask, and became brutal and callous. After the
victim had given notice to the police, it came out that the accused
had already deceived and robbed another girl in a similar way. The
n d

260

Court, with regard to the proved bad character of the accused, sentenced
him to ten months' imprisonment. The next day, the girl, who had
gone to Hamburg, committed suicide in despair at her ruined life. On
appealing against his sentence, the accused had the incredible impudence to maintain that it was grief at his punishment, which had driven
the girl to take her life. In spite of this, the Court actually reduced
the sentence! The final judgment was six months and two weeks
imprisonment."

This is one example of thousands. It was the custom, in

the "dark Middle-Ages", to safeguard the community against
the repetition of a similar crime, by hanging the scoundrel out
of hand. The occasional outbursts of outraged national feeling
at Jewish misdeeds have been most erroneously described in
our falsified historical records as "Jew-baitings". For his "servitude" under German law, Ehren-Ziffer will know full well
how to satisfy his "typical, primitive Jewish pain" by taking
further revenge on the female section of the blonde race as
soon as his mild punishment is completed. And the men
of the "blonde race?" Are they too "tolerant" and too "refined" to be any longer aware that the honour of the blonde
women is also their own honour?"
Just as in the case of Ziffer, one is also inclined to assume
the presence of some hypnotic power, when one observes
how even old and ugly Jews render young females docile and
submissive to their desires. Many a story could be told, in
this respect, by the small rooms behind the actual shops, into
which Jewish dealers know how to entice pretty customers during the slack business hours, usually under the pretext of
showing them some exceptionally attractive patterns or garments.
Feminine curiosity can seldom resist an invitation of this kind,
and the Jew then has it in his power to create such compromising situations for instance, by a further invitation
to try the garments on that the feminine nature proves too
weak to resist any familiarity.
'A respectable young woman, who had been enticed, in the way
described above, into a small room leading out of the shop, became
absorbed in the examination of some particularly beautiful patterns:
hearing a peculiar rustling sound behind her, she turned sharply round

261

and saw the Jewish shop-keeper standing completely naked before

her. With a cry of horror, she rushed out of the shop.'

But even if one is not willing to accept the theory of hypnotic influence, the weakness of women, when confronted with
Jews, can be reasonably accounted for by other facts. Already
in their own ancient writings, in The Old Testament and in
The Talmud, the Israelites are described as a voluptuous and
lewd people, who were addicted to the grossest sensual excesses. Lust and desire stand written on the faces of the
Hebrews, and this is not without effect upon weak people of
the opposite sex. But, above all, it is the complete absence
of the sense of shame, which makes the Jew so dangerous to
women, and which makes the game so much easier for him
to play. The Rabbinical writings bear ample testimony as to
the complete absence of all sexual shame amongst the Hebrews,
by relating, unabashed, the most intimate affairs, and always
in a manner as if the most harmless and ordinary topics were
being discussed.
A particularly significant example, taken from the book of
Benakhot 61a relates as follows:
"Kohana, as a youth, was the pupil of the wise Rabbi Rabhs. Observing one day that his master was engaged with a young and strange
girl, he concealed himself under his the Rabbi's bed. The Rabbi
and his female companion came in, and laid themselves down, chatting
and laughing . . . . When the woman began to utter cries of pain,
Kohana called out from under the bed, making use of a Talmudic phrase:
"It looks as it the mouth of Abbas had never yet tasted food." He intimated, of course, that the woman was still a virgin. The Rabbi answered: "Are you here, Kohana? Go away, it is not proper." But Kohana replied: "It is only for the purpose of acquiring knowledge, Master;
I want to learn from you in all particulars."

That the pious books of the Jews consider such muck as this
as fit for narration, is sufficient comment on the Jewish perception of morality and decency.
Hampered in no way whatever by ethical considerations,
the Hebrew carries his lustfulness openly for all to see, and
thus discovers and arouses latent, kindred feelings in the opposite sex. The nature of woman is adaptable; it acquiesces
involuntarily and unconsciously in the actual feeling and way
262

of thinking of the man, with whom she comes into immediate

contact, and for whom she feels sympathy. In proximity, to
a noble-natured man, a woman will also preserve and uphold
all her innate dignity and distinction; but, brought into close
contact with a low voluptuary, she is just as much in danger of
sinking to his level. Now the Jew has a peculiar knack of
speaking of sexual matters, as if these were perfectly harmless and ordinary topics of conversation, and in this way he
contrives to lull, or even deaden a woman's natural sense of
shame. In the vicinity of the Jew, feminine sensibility sinks
to the lowest plane; one may even go so far as to say that
each Jew transforms the women around him into prostitutes.
As he regards them merely as instruments for gratifying his
lust, they, for their part, accept his appraisement of them, and
no longer feel acutely that this appeal to their animal instincts
is a gross affront, or, at any rate, do not resent it to anything like
the same extent, which they would, if it were made by other men.
The late Professor of Natural Philosophy at Leipzig
J. K. F. Zllner, who died in 1882, has preserved for us
in a small brochure, the various tricks and frauds of the Jewish
swindler, Glattstern. Some of these are worth repeating in
the form of a contribution to this chapter.
Glattstern, an indigent Polish-Jew student, who, in addition was halfblind, had somehow managed to gain a footing in the best Leipzig
families, and to associate on the most intimate terms with the daughters
of the same. He represented himself everywhere as a well-to-do man,
and procured the means for playing the part, on the one hand by
patent-swindles, on the other by instituting collections at the best social
functions, ostensibly for charitable purposes, but in reality for his own
pocket. He employed a trick, the main feature of which was to start a
subscription by laying a bank-note for a large amount on the collecting
salver, an example which prompted others to give lavishly; he then
embezzled the proceeds. When he was sentenced by the General Court
of Justice at Leipzig to six years imprisonment, he left the daughters
of several wealthy families with the best prospects of becoming mothers.
Influential people must indeed have interceded on his behalf for, strange
to say, he was pardoned after the expiration of two and a half years.
Amongst the especial exploits of this dissolute rogue must be included the following: he had provided a poor woman, whose husband

263

acted at the same time as his private secretary, with the means to fit
up and stock a small shop, in order to carry on a business in selling
and repairing washing-garments. The main responsibility of the woman,
however, was the engaging and employing of a number of young seamstresses and female apprentices, who worked in a small room, which
was lighted by a sky-light, and which l e d out of the shop. Glattstern was
accustomed to come, whenever he liked, whether in the daytime or
in the evening, to send away the owner of the business on some pretext,
and then to lie down with one of the girls on the sofa in the presence
of the others. After this had been witnessed several times through the
glass roof by the neighbours, notice was given to the police, who then
interfered.

This is not the only case, of which I have been personally

informed, where Jews have satisfied their lust in the presence
of other women and girls. And, strange as it may sound
each of those present, standing under the ban of this shamelessness, had accepted the occurrence as inevitable, and kept
silent also concerning it, so long as particular circumstances
did not lead to a discovery. Just as the mere glance of the
snake is said to have the power of paralysing a bird with
horror, so does the behaviour of the Jew appear to effect a
complete paralysis of the senses in the case of the weakerminded females, and to blast them as it were with a curse,
from which there is no escape.
Women of character and noble-mindedness, on the contrary,
feel an unconquerable aversion towards the Jews and all that
is Jewish, and, thanks to their fine instinct, they are conscious
of the repulsiveness of the Jewish nature even when it escapes
the eye of an observant man. On the other hand, weak and
vain women succumb to the influence of the Jew as if bereft
of will-power. In this case, it looks as if the conditions,
governing the mixing of races, were playing a part. A being,
who is racially clean and true to type, is keenly alive to the
alienism and enmity of the Jewish nature, and avoids the
destroyer either consciously or instinctively. In the case of
the mongrel or mixed breed, however, all these fine instincts,
as far as one can see, are extinguished, and, incapable of
resistance, it becomes the victim of the enticer.
264

One can, if one chooses, discover a higher purpose at the

back of these events. And that is, that the Jew has been
sent, as it were, amongst mankind, in order to help to destroy
and obliterate all who are feeble in their vital instincts, that
is to say, all who are degenerate and of little value. An explanation on these lines might afford some consolation, if it
were not a fact that it is precisely the most pronounced Germanic type of woman, which is most eagerly pursued by the
Jew, and which eventually succumbs. As the Jew represents,
in all respects, the exact opposite of the Germanic man or
woman, he does so in this particular respect as well, and it
is just the sexual contrast of both races, which seems to operate bafflingly and fatally.
At any rate, one can derive from the above considerations
the firm conviction that if the Germanic and Jewish races are
to live lastingly in close contact with one another, it spells
doom for the former, and must lead inevitably to the decay
and disappearance of Germanic ethics and racial characteristics.

Amongst the various methods of seduction, which the Jewish

girl-hunter is wont to employ, preferably as a last resource,
when he sees that he will not otherwise attain his object, is
that of "betrothal" or "engagement". It is simply incredible
how infatuatingly the prospect of the "ring on the finger"
operates on the disposition of simple and innocent women.
But what power this method can exert, is known only too
well to the Jewish snarer.
Two commercial travellers a German and a Jew were gossiping in an inn about another hotel in G . . . and doubtless considered
that no one overheard them.
"I recollect", remarked the Jew, "that I once went there years ago.
Quite an interesting incident was the cause of this. I had "picked up"
an extremely pretty girl in the course of my railway journey. She was
scarcely more than a school-girl. After a time she became very confiding in me, and we became engaged . . ." "Engaged?" asked the
other astounded. "Well, yes, what one calls engaged", continued the

265

Jew, in a tone of amused indifference. "I gave her a ring I always

carry several cheap little rings with me for this purpose. I then persuaded her to get out with me at the station at G . . . by telling her
that we must solemnise our betrothal!" concluded the Jew, laughing,
"and we then spent the night together in the hotel we have just been
speaking of." "And what was the end of it all?" asked the other. "God
only knows," replied the Jew, in his nasal, indifferent tone of voice,
"she continued her journey the next morning. It is a pity, for she was
a nice, little thing . . . ."

The Jew also does not hesitate to promise marriage, if it

is necessary to make a formal promise in order to gain his
purpose; he knows that, in any case, the matter cannot affect
him seriously. As soon as he wishes to get rid of the girl,
all that he has to do, is to acknowledge himself a Jew, and
to declare with feigned distress, that all his relations are
bitterly opposed to his marriage with a Christian. Under
the supposition that the relations of the girl also, would refuse,
in all probability, to hear of her union with a Jew, he plays
the rle of a man, afflicted with misfortune, and parts from
the woman, whom he has deceived, assuring her that he will
never forget, for the rest of his life, his one true love affair
only to begin the same game with another woman the next
day. German girls, for the most part, are confiding and naive
enough to accept such miserable subterfuge as something
genuine, frequently even to defend the impostor against the
accusations of others, and actually to bear in their minds an
affectionate remembrance of him.
That section of the German Press, which occupies itself
especially with social matters, remarked, after describing a
number of cases of this kind:
"Is any law-suit of a disgraceful nature ever heard of in any law-court
throughout the whole, wide world, without Jews being either directly or
indirectly involved in the same, whether as seducer, keeper, inciter or
in some such unsavoury capacity? Wherever it may be we always
find that it is the Jew, who is the most daring seducer, and to whom
no one's virtue, no one's beauty, no one's honour is sacred, when it is
a question of the gratification of his lust. One is even inclined to believe that it is not merely sensuality, which impels him to this, but that
he experiences a devilish and malignant joy in undermining moral
feminality, and in dishonouring those, who would otherwise have been

266

the respected wives of German men. Shameless as he is by nature,

he makes use of the circumstance that desire awakens desire, especially
when it is displayed, brazenfacedly without the slightest trace of shame
for all to see. In sexual life, the animal appeals to the animal; and it is precisely in this respect where the lowest and most animal nature finds
the best opportunity to display its power. Therefore, there is nothing
to be astonished at in the fact that an animal-desire, proclaimed without the slightest restraint, must make an irresistible impression upon a
weak and impressionable nature.
And there is still another psychological factor, which cannot be left
out of account; an absolute lack of shame, which is openly advertised,
deadens the sense of shame in others, and arouses shamelessness. One
thing is quite certain, and that is, that one feels far less shame in the
presence of the Jew, than in the presence of any other man. Why do
the peasant, the mechanic, yes, even the land-owner, the officer, and
the clergyman, when they get into money difficulties, apply to a Jew
rather than to a friend, a bank or a loan-office? "One does not feel
ashamed in the presence of a Jew!" This frequently-heard phrase solves
many riddles. And, as a matter of fact, one has many a transaction with
the Jew, which one would anxiously conceal from the eyes and ears of
other men; one does not feel ashamed in the presence of the Jew because the Jew does not know what shame is.
And to this cause also must be attributed the extraordinary faculty
for bribery, possessed by the Jews. "Moral Nihilism", i. e. the renunciation of any higher standards than those of money and enjoyment, is
proclaimed with such imperturbable assurance by the Jew, that he is
able at any rate for the time being to degrade the sentiments of
others to his own low level.
This forms the base for the fearfully corruptive force exerted by the
Jew, also with respect to feminality. The Jew allows no other feeling
to come to the surface in his vicinity than a lust for enjoyment and
profit. Is it then essential that he should possess any particular or
especial power for this purpose? By no means! Wherever the lowest
and crudest instincts appear unrestrained, it is impossible for anything,
higher and more refined, to hold its own. The erroneous doctrine of
the victory of what is better, in the "free interplay of forces", leads in
reality, step by step, to an absurdity.
Furthermore, it is extremely useful to the Jews that the superstition
concerning the particularity and preferableness of the "People of God"
is inculcated into us from childhood upwards, and it is precisely
the female disposition, which clings more tenaciously to all superstition
than the sober sensibility of the man. And, in addition to this, our
women are given an entirely wrong idea of what constitutes the
ideal man. On the stage, the role of the lover is played, for the most

267

part, by Jewish youths; in our romantic literature, which is now completely Judaized, the hero of the story is almost always a Jew, while the
rule of the duffer, the dupe, of the altruistic seeker for the ideal is
assigned to the German. Is it to be wondered at then, it the misguided
taste and bewildered fancy of our young girls see, in every half-grown
black-headed Jew-boy, the hero of a romance, and are "enchanted" by
his appearance? The general German folly, which makes a special point
of admiring everything which is un-German and alien, also plays its
part. We have, as a matter of fact, for decades encouraged a culture
of what is oriental in the higher branches of literature, in the ladies'
journals and fashion-papers, in Art . . ."

It is, however, not only the honour and moral purity of

German women, which are at stake; their physical health is
likewise endangered. Whether it is that the peculiar nature
of the Jew exhausts the female body to an unusual degree,
or whether it is that physiological circumstances, connected
with the act of circumcision, play some part it is sufficient
to state the fact, that women, who have been accustomed to
have sexual intercourse with Jews, suffer from a variety of
uterine disorders, and remain barren. Yes, one can go so
far as to say: women, who have been accustomed to sexual
intercourse with Jews, are lost to the other race. And, if
enquiry is being made at the present moment to find out the
causes of the decline in the birth-rate, there ought to be no
delay in directing attention to the influence of this racial alien
in our midst, who ruins the women, not only morally but
physically, and who threatens, together with the widely-spread
efforts to check conception, to become always more and more
injurious to the community.
And it is not difficult to conclude from all this, that the
Jewish race is the principal carrier of sexual disease amongst
the other nations, which could not very well be otherwise,
considering how unbridled their sensuality is. And even when
he is afflicted with an infectious disorder, the Jew will still
not place any restraint on his lust. One recalls the disclosures of young Jews, according to which, a fiendish kind of
rapture is experienced by them in seducing in spite of their
diseased condition what is, in all probability, still an innocent girl.
268

A terrible picture of such devilish cynicism was revealed

in the course of a judicial proceeding in February 1904.
The trader, Julius Klippstein, married man and proprietor of a moneylending business, which he carried on under the name of Jacob Weg.
was brought up before a jury in the Law Courts at Munich. He was
charged with perjury, and with incitement to perjury. Klippstein had
attempted to induce the wife of a postman, who was under examination,
on account of some other misdemeanour, and was one of his customers,
to deny on oath the fact that Klippstein was, in the course of his
business, in the habit of having immoral relations with her. Klippstein
denied the fact. The woman, however, confessed eventually, in spite
of the present of money, which had been promised to her. The examination of Klippstein now brought to light, that it was a regular part
of the daily proceedings for him to make immodest proposals to the
female customers. The State Attorney had found out no less than 35
women and girls, who had come to their ruin through Klippstein. They
all appeared in court as witnesses. Their joint evidence furnished the
material for a terrible history; some cases were little removed from
rape. Klippstein proceeded to sell up the goods and chattels of certain
women who resisted his advances. He only postponed execution, and
granted a longer period for payment, when the women yielded to his
wishes. These unfortunate beings consisted, for the most part, of the
wives and daughters of workmen and small officials. As a consequence
of his licentious mode of living, Klippstein suffered continuously from
a revolting disorder, which he communicated, moreover, to the victims
of his lust. His wife had been infected by him, and had had to undergo
a severe operation; the cook in his own household, with whom he also
had relations, suffered from the same disorder and the same was
the case with his seventeen year-old son, who had taken his father as
a pattern. Klippstein was sentenced to 1-1/3 years (!) imprisonment.
The social democratic "Mnchener Post", one of the few
papers, which published this unheard-of history, as a public
warning, stated also: "During the retirement of the jury, the
accused was busily muttering Hebrew prayers in his cell.
Various divorce proceedings are the further consequence of
this case."
The "Deutsche Handels-Wacht" had also something to report
concerning the personality of the accused:
"Julius Klippstein had already been arrested and detained on a charge
of rape, in his former domicile, Giessen, but had managed to secure
an acquittal. After moving to Munich, he had carried on his business,
scarcely for a year, when he entered into an "arrangement" with his
269

creditors, whereby the latter incurred a loss of 25,000 marks, and he

then embarked on a fresh career of debauchery, which simply beggared
description. "If you are nice to me", he was wont to say to his female
employees, "you will have a good time; but if not, I will make your
life a hell." A girl, employed at the counter, who had energetically
resisted his advances, and had, on that account, been disgracefully
abused by Klippstein, complained to the book-keeper of the business,
who told him, straight to his face, that he ought to be locked up. This,
however, did not trouble that man of honour in the least. His customers, both girls and women, were assailed in the same way as the
servants of his household and the employees in his business, and he
compelled many of them, as mentioned above, to yield to his wishes,
by threatening to seize and sell up the last of their belongings. Some
things, which happened, cannot even be hinted at."

The paper adds:

"Naturally we shall at once be accused of unfairly suggesting that

what is an isolated incident, is of general occurrence, but we feel ourselves compelled to say that the case of Klippstein is more or less
typical of certain kinds of business."
At the same time the "Hammer" made the following r e m a r k s :
"It would be mock modesty to forbid the public examination and
discussion of such disquieting excrescences as these. A danger lurks
in the gloom of concealment, the effects of which are inconceivable as
regards their range and extent. Anyone, who has affection for his
nation, must open his nation's eyes to such horrors. The great, public
press has taken no notice whatever of these unheard-of occurrences
not even that section, which is fond of stepping to the front as the
special guardian of the national morality and rights, and which otherwise makes a huge fuss over every trifling scandal. A remarkable confusion of moral conceptions dominates our dear public. When some
rough words are spoken to a few recruits, and an exceptional blockhead
amongst them happens to get a smack on the head, all the newspapers work
themselves up into a state of fury, and inflame public opinion for weeks
with the "incident", and the Reichstag occupies session after session
with the discussion of like occurrences. But when it is a question of
criminal acts of the basest description, and the honour and health of
numerous women and girls are at stake, everything is enveloped in
silence. Why did not Herr Bebel, who is so ready to play the part
of a censor of morality in his book "The Woman", discharge some of
his moral wrath in this particular direction? Are not the majority
of the victims the wives and daughters of workmen and minor officials?
We should much like to have an answer to these questions."

270

The Hebrew has made almost a principle of degrading woman, both in illustration and text, as well as in speech and in action. He
dominates the stage and now the cinema as well with
his insolent lasciviousness; the shops, where the most shameless books and pictures are sold, are kept by Jews (mostly
under a Christian pseudonym), who are also purveyors of the
worst kind of appliances for preventing conception and procuring abortion. So it is scarcely to be wondered at that the
profoundest disregard for mankind in general, and more especially for young unmarried women, as well as the degradation
of commerce to its lowest conceivable plane, should proceed
from the Jew. We refer to what is known as the "White Slave
Traffic", and in particular to the traffic in young girls. It
denotes the most infamous degeneration of the business instinct: trade in living human flesh, sale of souls for the sake
of foul profit. It was reserved for Hebrewdom to develop
this vile business, systematically and on a grand scale, until
it grew into a vast organisation, which embraces half the world.
The traffic in girls.

In olden times the slave trade was already a Jewish speciality. Not without good reason did the eminent Polish painter
Henryk Siemiradzki depict the two slave-dealers, in his celebrated picture of ancient Roman life: "The Vase or the Woman", with unmistakably Hebraic features. Even in the Carlovingian time, the slave trade was preponderantly in the hands
of the Jews.* Thus, in conformity with the original state of
affairs, the dealers in girls of the present day are, almost without exception, Jews: and this is admitted by the Jews themselves. On the occasion of a conference, which was held in
London, during March 1910, protesting against the traffic in
women, "The Jewish Chronicle" of April 2nd 1910, acknowledged that "the Jews in this particular sphere of activity far
outnumbered all the other 'dealers' ", and added; "the Jewish
trafficker in women is the most terrible of all profiteers out
of human vice; if the Jew could only be eliminated, the traffic
* See Drr and Klett "Weltgeschichte" (History of the World II, page 56).

271

in women would shrink, and would become comparatively

insignificant."
If avarice and greed for profit occasionally tempt the man
of Aryan race to engage in businesses of a doubtful nature,
and if his sensuality also calls for many a victim, it is improbable that a man of genuine Aryan race has ever descended
to such cold-blooded commercialism and malicious subtlety as
is required to carry on the "White Slave Traffic"; if such has
been the case, it is an instance of moral abortion.* Only by
means of the Talmudic perception, which regards all who are
not Jews, as beasts (see page 57), and more particularly so
the women who are not Jewish, is it possible to find an explanation for the cold-blooded behaviour of the Hebrews
towards women, whom they treat as if the latter were articles
of merchandise. And, one is justified in asserting that the extent to which the Jew avails himself of cold calculation and
cunning dissimulation, in order to entice young and unsuspecting girls into his trap, for the most part either by betrothing
himself to them, or by promising them marriage or a good situation
in order to induce them to run away from their parents' home,
and then, after "his passion has lost its novel force", handing
them over like ordinary merchandise to another, and surrendering them, beyond redemption, to ruin would be practically impossible to parallel in the case of any man of Aryan
descent (Compare the case of Ziffer on page 260).
As a Jew is always ready for the purpose, when it is a
question of screening the pernicious activity of the Jew, so it
is in this particular case also. All the exertions of "charitable
women" and "social workers" on behalf of the miserable
victims of the "White Slave Traffic" are rendered, for all
practical purposes, null and void from the beginning, by the
* One does not allow one's self to be misled into regarding an unmitigated Hebrew as not being a Jew, merely because his name has a
very genuine German sound. In the publication of the names of malefactors also, the Press is deceit itself. Every day it succeeds in "misprinting" an unmistakably jewish name so that it assumes the shape
of a genuine German one.

272

fact that Jews place themselves at the head of these organisations.

In this way, every genuine investigation is held up.*

For it is the aim and object of the Jews, always and everywhere, to weaken, emasculate, or to divert against those who
are not Jews, any accusation, which might prejudice a Jew,
until the gravest affair fades away into insignificance or is
transformed into a comedy.
The literature upon this subject is copious enough to preclude any necessity here, of going into the more intimate details
of this sorrowful business.

One account alone, taken from

actual life, is sufficiently eloquent to reveal all the ignominy

of the conditions, and to provide testimony as to the long
period throughout which this shameful trade has been carried on.
Otto Glogau's "Kulturkmpfer" (Combatant for Culture) No. 3
of 1880, contains the following description of Rio de Janeiro (from
the pen of a former German Consul):
"Could anything well cause us deeper shame, when we visit the
wonderful capital of Brazil, than to observe that German and Austrian
girls compose one of the largest sections of the local prostitutes?
Whole streets are occupied by them, and from open windows, in the
most shameless fashion, they endeavour, in their native tongue, to entice
passing men to visit them, and even in the numerous pleasure-resorts
of the same city, one is pestered with their importunities.
* Here is an instance, which is worth mentioning as significant of
women's work in this direction. There is an association in Munich,
presided over by Princess Sulkowska, and called "The German League
for combating the traffic in women." The committee includes, in addition
to several other titled ladies, three men as well, the publisher of the
society's organ
"The Human Market", and two Jews the GeneralSuperintendent, D. Possart, and Oscar Tietz, proprietor of a great shop
or "stores". The secretary, who acts also as editor, signs himself Robert
Heymann, and makes the third Jew. A printed slip had already been
attached to the first number, intimating in a significant manner, that a
change in the editorial had become necessary, because the contents of
the first number 'had not been all that was desired.' Whoever reads
the same, will find it incomprehensible, generally speaking, that wishes
have been met: it is piquantly dished-up pot-pourri, in which the experienced reader can at once detect the purpose to prevent, at all
hazards, any exposure of Jews.
273

"The majority of them are very young, and it can be proved that
they have not emigrated of their own accord, in order to earn money
in a foreign country, in this unclean fashion, but are the unfortunate
victims of Jewish procurers and procuresses, who have carried on an
undisguised traffic in German girls to Rio for several years.* At last
this assumed such dimensions, and operated so alarmingly upon the already very feeble morality of the Brasilian capital, that the local
government was forced finally to interfere, and to order the deportation of the Jewish procurers, who posed, for the most part, as dealers
in jewelry and precious metals, but whose principal source of income
was the traffic in women.
In Rio de Janeiro, in the month of December, the following persons
were "moved on." Markus Shomer. Moritz Silbermann, Markus Weinbach, Tebel Silbermann, Moses Silberstein, Moritz Eisenberg, Johann
Freund, Adolf Bernstein, Tobias Saphir, Hermann Ficheler, Gerson Baum,
Markus Schwarz, Hermann Beitel, Markus Freeman, Samuel Auster, Karl
Bukowitz and Abraham Robins. They drove in carriages to the place
of embarkation, and engaged first-class cabins on the steamer "Equator",
which was to take them to Buenos Ayres; they were enabled to travel
in this style out of the iniquitous profits which they had pocketed in
Rio. However, on arrival in Buenos Aires, the unclean company were
disagreeably surprised to find that the police had boarded the vessel,
and had protested against their landing, in consequence of which action
these "uncles" will again make old Europe joyous with their presence.
According to the newspapers of Rio de Janeiro later on, twenty-three
Jews, who had been convicted of traffic in girls, were again ordered to
leave the country, and simultaneously their unfortunate victims were
relieved by the authorities of any obligation with regard to repayment
of any pecuniary advances, which had been made to them by the Jews,
for the purpose of paying their passages and other inevitable expenses,
a measure, which enabled the women to withdraw themselves from the
dens of vice, if which, however, is much to be doubted public
compassion would smooth their future path, and charitable souls would
interest themselves in the fallen. But, praiseworthy as the measures
taken by the Brasilian Government undoubtedly are, the evil is far from
being extirpated, and will soon break out again in a new form. Complete suppression is only possible, if the procurers are attacked here
* To such an extent is this traffic a Jewish speciality, that the
brothel-keepers are officially and openly spoken of as "os caftens",
(Andree: "National History of the Jews", "Volkskunde der Juden"
page 253.) In New York matters have reached such a pitch that the
brothel-business has been converted into a Trust! At the head of this
"Trust" is a Jew called Goldberg (still another "Dutchman"). See "The
Hammer" No. 267 (August 1913)

274

in Germany and Austria, where they obtain their supplies. In order

to ascertain their names, it would be necessary for the German police
to communicate with the authorities at Rio de Janeiro, so that the latter
could institute an official examination of the unfortunate creatures, who
have become the prey of the vilest form of greed. But, enough of this
miserable business, which compels many of our countrymen in Brasil
to blush with shame, and makes it the bounden duty of the German
press to call upon the proper authorities to intervene."
The following notice, taken from the "Tgliche Rundschau"
of the 2 4

t h

July 1913, will serve as proof that these conditions,

in still more recent times, have not altered but have, if anything, grown worse.
"Abduction of 4,000 girls. The Russian (i. e. Jewish: author) "White
Slave" trafficker, Jakubowitsch, who was arrested the day before yesterday in Hamburg, is regarded as the business-principal of the entire
trade in women, which is carried on in the east of Europe. Several
thousand cases alone have been brought home to him. According to
reliable statistics, more than 4000 girls have been passed through German
ports, for this purpose, during several years."
Although a "League for combating the "White Slave traffic"
has been instituted, although severer measures have been
ordained

by the Government, although

every year a few

procurers and procuresses are arrested who are always

and exclusively Jews the hateful business still flourishes,
to the shame of "moral" Europe, and as an infamous reminder of the feebleness of will, sickly tolerance, and last, but
not least, of the uncontrolled dread of the Jews, which possess
the majority of our "cultured" men and women, up to the
highest circles, and which sap any collective effort at its inception.* The power of infatuating the female mind, possessed and
* "Our consideration for the Jew is carried to an incomprehensible
extreme. To realise this, one has only to recall with what precaution
and indulgence, everyone concerned, treated the name of a Doctor Sternberg, the Jewish lover of the accused, in the Hedwig Mller criminal
proceeding, which was heard before a jury in the Berlin Courts of
Justice in the course of October 1913: counsel for the defence, witnesses, reporters and even the Judge all united their efforts in this
direction. Experienced newspaper-readers know, that for several decades, whenever the names, in a questionable case, are suppressed in
any of our papers, Jews are invariably concerned as evil-doers.
275

exerted by the Jewish commercial competitor, appears, indeed,

to verge on the supernatural, and this much must have become
clear to the readers of this chapter. It is all the more necessary then, to expose this power, and to warn all people of
its dangerous nature.

276

XVII.

The Jews and the World-War.

The wars of the Aryan nations have always served to enrich
and strengthen Judah. Reference to this fact has been made
many times in the course of this book. By usurious behaviour
in connection with army-contracts, by financial manoeuvres
with various securities, and by raising and depressing the rate
of exchange, the Jews have always known how to make profit
out of the agony and need of the various nations. The Jewish
families, which have become rich, and have been ennobled, are
almost always indebted, for their ascension, to war-time profiteering, and in this respect the "Semi-Gotha" contains some
interesting disclosures.*
The World-War of 19141918 also, showed us Hebrewdom in a state of feverish activity. This time, again, they
were the most important army-contractors, the most daring
manipulators of prices, the most cunning clandestine dealers,
formed the most powerful business rings, and absorbed incredible profits. By their behaviour they contributed, to a large
extent, to the defeat of the Central Powers; one may even
go so far as to say: they have emerged as the real victors
from this monstrous war of the nations.
Directly after the outbreak of war, the Hebrews, Rathenau
and Ballin, took over the organisation of the economic side
of the war ostensibly in the interests of the nation, but in
reality to secure the lion's share of the army-contracts for
their racial comrades, and to create almost a Jewish monopoly of the entire trade carried on, not only in Germany itself,
but with neutral foreign countries as well.
* Semi-Gotha. Register of ennobled Jewish families, Munich. Kyffhuser Press 1912.

277

An industrialist, who visited the Prussian War Ministry in

September 1914 in order to tender, pictured to us his amazement when he found installed in this high office, not, as he
had expected, officers and military officials, but preponderantly
Jews. Herr Walther Rathenau sat in a large room, at an
enormous secretarial writing-table, "dispensed" and gave away
the army-contracts. Around him were seated, almost without
exception, Jewish clerks and Jewish business-people. Herr
Ballin, Director of the "Harpag", seeing his shipping enterprise temporarily paralysed by the war, offered himself to the
Imperial Government as a voluntary organiser and business
expert, migrated with his entire staff of officials and clerks to
Berlin, and organised the "Zentral-Einkaufs-Gesellschaft" (Z.E.G.)
[Central-Purchase-Company], and other Jewish undertakings.
The feeble government under Emperor William II, which
had always formerly favoured Jews in all important positions,
allowed this to happen, owing to its embarrassment and perplexity; and if, in the course of the war, any fact rose conspicuously to the surface, which, until then, had only been perceptible to those who see deeply, and which even then appeared
incredible to German visionaries, it was the fact that since the
beginning of William II's reign, the Jews had been the real
rulers of the German Empire. For the last fifteen years, those
in immediate personal contact with the Kaiser were Hebrew
financiers, Hebrew manufacturers, and Hebrew merchants
like Emil and Walter Rathenau, Ballin, Schwabach, James Simon,
Friedlander-Fuld, Goldberger, Guttmann, Hulschinsky, Katzenstein etc.*
The old legend that the Kaiser was under the influence of
the high nobility and of the Junkers, living east of the Elbe,
was only a Jewish ruse to deceive the nation as to the real
state of affairs, and to lower the Kaiser himself in the estimation of his people. It is quite true that the Kaiser, for the
last decades, has gone mainly to the Jews for advice, who
have flattered his weaknesses, and have contributed much to
* Compare Rud. Martin: "Deutsche Machthaber" (German Potentates).

278

the follies, which led finally to the World-War, and to the collapse of Germany. The German Nobility were as good as
banished from the Berlin Court.
Hymns of praise have been sung to one of the Rathenaus
in the press, conducted by his racial brethren, on account of
his supposed services in connection with the organisation of
the war-time economy, without which it is pretended that the
war could never have been carried on. He arranged that he should
be designated, behind the front, as "Chief of the Economic
General Staff", to whom the German victories were really to
be attributed. As a matter of fact, Rathenau created by means
of his "War Companies", which exceeded 300, an absurdly
complicated apparatus, which disordered and made more difficult the entire economic life throughout the country, and transferred, by a kind of jugglery, all the power and the advantages into the hands of the Jews. I do not hesitate to maintain, and can furnish convincing proof moreover, that Rathenau's
"War Companies" contributed, in a large measure, to the defeat
of Germany. They did not facilitate the German economic
life but, on the contrary, disturbed and interrupted it for
reasons, which are not to be discussed in this work. This particular subject, as well as the general attitude of the Jews,
throughout the war, calls for special treatment in a book,
devoted to that subject alone, and it is to be hoped that an
opportunity to accomplish this will soon present itself.
Here mention is only made of some grave facts, for which
valid documentary evidence is forthcoming: the activity of the
Z. E. G. as can be proved, has, in many cases, rendered the
importing of the necessaries of life from abroad more difficult
than it was before; and in other cases a particularly glaring
instance is that of the "War-Grain-Department" (K. G.) goods
have been sent backwards and forwards, from one end of the
Empire to the other, time after time, in such an absolutely
crazy manner that they have reached the hands of the consumers in a perished condition. Simultaneously the railways
were burdened, in an unheard-of manner, beyond their capacity,
and the cost of the commodities unnecessarily increased by
279

heavy freight charges.

What extraordinarily uneconomical
business was perpetrated by the buyers of the Z. E. G. in Holland, Denmark and other countries, can be easily ascertained by referring to the numerous and instructive instances
given in the "Hammer" publications from 19151918.* The
annual volumes, 19151919, of the trade paper "Deutscher
Mller" (German Miller) in Leipzig, contain numerous examples
of the favouritism shown to the great mills, owned by Jews,
and of the crazy transport, backwards and forwards, of grain
and flour by the K. G.
It would be a great mistake to see in all this merely blunders
in organisation and disposition; closer observation discloses
that malevolence prevailed.
The attitude of the Hebrews is only comprehensible by
attributing it to their deep aversion for all that is German, for
the German form of government, and for militarism. Victory
was begrudged to the German Empire. It is beyond all doubt
that the Jews hate the Germans more than they hate any
other nation simply because German idealism is the natural
antithesis to the Jewish Tschandala disposition. It is quite
obvious also, that the majority of Jews sympathised with our
enemies, and were on their side, and especially on the side
of England. Influential Jewish newspapers, such as the "Frankfurter Zeitung", "Berliner Tageblatt", the Vienna "Neue Freie
Presse", and many others also, knew well the whole time how
to glorify the Western Power at the expense of the German
people, whom they characterised as a horde of reactionaries,
and of whom they could never say anything bad enough. It
is this kind of newspaper, which, for decades, has carried on
a steady campaign with the definite object of rendering everything
connected with Germany, despicable in the eyes of foreign countries,
by circulating as widely as possible, occasional scandalous
incidents, such as the Eulenberg law-suit, various military excess* These were collected and published by the "Hammer" under the
title: "Complaints against the Z. E. G." Further, compare "The Z. E. G.
and the Jewish Business-Monopoly", Hammer No. 377 from March 1 1918.
st

280

es etc, and, by suggesting that the German Nation was addicted

to a revolting vice, has procured for it the equally revolting
term of abuse "Boche" a word, the meaning of which
cannot be reproduced in German book-language, for it denotes
someone who is addicted to indulgence in unnatural lust (The
desire for boys).*
The crime, which the Hebrews have committed against the
German people by their unheard-of war usury, by their invention of the clandestine and secretly linked-up method of
trading, known as "Schieber- und Kettenhandel" (linked-up
smuggling), by raising the prices of all the necessaries of life,
and thereby enriching themselves to an immeasurable extent,
can hardly be estimated. All these matters call for a searching
investigation at some other time and place.
Here it is only necessary to call attention to the fact that
alone in the case of army supplies, a disproportionate increase
in prices at once set in, because in consequence of Jewish
influence direct delivery from the producers was evaded,
and the orders were assigned to Jewish commission-merchants, agents and middle-men. It created almost the impression
that the people of Judah had made it a condition with the
German Government, from the very beginning of the war,
that they should receive the lion's share of the army-contracts.
For the cases are too numerous where German contractors,
manufacturers, merchants, trade associations, guilds, etc have
been "turned down", whilst, later on, Jewish middlemen have
secured the contracts at considerably higher prices. In this
way, the delivery of important supplies was frequently entrusted
to dealers, who were without experience in that particular
kind of business, and who had no technical knowledge of the
goods required; it sufficed that they were Jews.
The Hebrews were seldom to be found in the trenches,
but were more at home in the depots, in the offices, in the
garrisons and in the war-trading-companies. In consequence
of the numerous complaints, which were made about this
* It Is quite possible that the expression is derived from the Hebrew
word "Bocher" (boy).

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even in the Reichstag statistics were taken, notably in

December 1915, which, however, have never been published
probably because they would disgrace even Judah.
The revolution, the object of which was certainly not to
assist the honest working-class to obtain its fair share of
political influence, but rather to enable the Jews to do away
with the hated Monarchy and the military organisation, was
principally the work of Jews. The Masonic Lodge at Milan
(Latin Freemasonry is completely under Semitic direction)
announced in a circular, dated July 30th 1914, that the object of the Lodges was, to introduce an age "free from thrones
and altars". That is to say: the overthrow of all princes and
the removal of all non-Jewish religions. Jewdom has been
working at this task openly and in secret for decades.
And they have very nearly succeeded in their purpose.
The ill-advised working-class, instigated by the Jews, has
allowed itself to be made a tool of, in order to promote interests which are entirely Jewish. The destruction of all
national feeling amongst the working-people, and the actual
turning-to-contempt of everything German, are the work of
a subtle Jewish press campaign. Throughout all the years of
war, confidence in an ultimate German victory was steadily
sapped by the influence, which the Jewish press exerted upon
the public frame of mind, and the attempt was made to lay
the entire blame for the war on German shoulders. And the
collapse of our front was the result of sheer treachery. A
person, who enjoyed the fullest confidence of the "Hammer",
reported that a Jewish soldier had declared in July 1918:
"Germany will not be victorious, for we (Jews) will make the
revolution before the end of the war comes." The independent
Social Democrat, Vater, admitted at Magdeburg that, since
January 1918, his party had carried on propaganda at the
front, inciting to desertion and mutiny. Thus, the German
people are indebted for the collapse and the annihilating
peace conditions to those malicious forces, which, even in
inmost Germany, played into the hands of her enemies outside favoured by the blindness and trustfulness of the
282

German people themselves. It is as if the old prophecy in

the cloister Lehnin fulfilled itself:
"Israel infandum scelus audet, morte piandum."
(Israel dares unspeakable crime deserving death).

C o n c l u d i n g Words.
Whoever weighs up all the facts, which have been imparted
in the course of this work, will understand how frivolous and
superficial those phrases are, which, clothed in the semblance
of humaneness and tolerance, speak of an adaptation and
blending of the Jews with the Aryan nations of culture. Only
fathomless unacquaintance with real life, such as that of Friedrich
Nietzsche and other stay-at-homes, can excuse such phantasy.
The entire humanitarian assimilative idea shatters miserably at
the first contact with the awful seriousness of racial heredity.
The notion that all contrasts could be balanced, as it were,
by men living in closer contact with one another, and by socalled civilisation, rests on a doctrinaire interpretation, which
is contradicted, at every moment and at every turn, by the hard
facts of actual life. Jewdom is something, which moves and
acts beyond the sphere of the natural laws of life, something
hostile to life, something unnatural, something demoniacal.
And that doctrine also, which is equipped with a veneer of
natural science, that, in the battle of life, what is better and
stronger, conquers, is out of place here. A selective combat
of this kind is only efficacious and warranted, when beings
of kindred stock, provided with the same natural weapons,
strive with one another for the mastery. No one will claim
that an unrestricted sphere of action should be granted to the
bacilli, which cause disease, that one should not oppose devastating pestilences with precautionary measures; no one will
contend that the Cholera bacillus is a better and a stronger
being than a human being, because the former is able to
destroy the latter. This doctrine of a free field for all forces,
requires the restraint of reason, for that singular destiny persists, which ordains that diseases work by infection, but that
health does not. A single rotten apple in a basket will easily
283

communicate its corruption to a hundred sound ones, but even

a thousand sound apples cannot heal a rotten one. Here it
is a case, not of selective combat and superiority, but of
shielding what is healthy against infective illness, of warding
off national poison. Intelligence commands that all corrupting
and infecting forces must be kept at a distance from healthy
life, and must be suppressed by all possible means. To avoid
what is poisonous is the first precautionary law of life. "Find
out what is good for your body, and do not give it what is
bad for it."
Jewdom, however, is a symptom of disease within humanity,
a fact, which even the Hebrew Heinrich Heine admits, for he
calls it, "the everlasting plague, which has been brought away
from the slime of the Nile." The Hebrew is the "under-man",
who has passed into a condition of spiritual and moral rottenness, who carries disintegration and corruption with him wherever he is permitted to come. He is himself very well aware
of this peculiar property, as the following outburst of the
Hebrew, Dr. Mnzer, shows. He has written a novel "The
road to Zion" which has been suppressed on account of
its filthily naturalistic contents. In the course of this book, he
makes the hero of his story speak as follows:
"Not only have we Jews degenerated in this manner, and are at the
end of a civilisation which is used up and sucked dry; we have ruined
the blood of all races in Europe perhaps we infected them in the
first instance. Generally speaking, everything is under Jewish influence
at the present day. Our ideas animate everything; our spirit dominates
the world. We are the masters; for what is power at the present day,
is the direct offspring of our genius. However much we are hated, however much we are hunted down and persecuted, our enemies can only
triumph over our weak bodies. We are no longer to be expelled. We
have eaten into the nations, have tainted and dishonoured the races,
have broken their power, and, with our mortiferous culture, have brought
staleness and decay into everything."

Mnzer tries also, in the usual way, to represent the war

of annihilation, which the Jews wage against humanity, as a
justified act of revenge, because of the pretext that the Jew
has been unjustly despised and persecuted. He portrays the
284

Jew as being insulted and spurned with the foot: he continues

to portray him as ducking, dodging and twisting; and then
adds in the same strain:
"But, at the back of all glows triumph at the surreptitious victory.
The world had been Judaized, and had decomposed into the Jewish
mode of thinking and into Jewish vice. That was revenge!"

"The surreptitious victory!" The word describes the situation

involuntarily. Only by surreptitious falsehood and deceit
has the Hebrew attained to his power. But surreptitious victory is no victory just as little as the success of a thief is
a proof of his power and superiority. Whoever, as guest in
house, abuses the trust placed in him, and robs his host,
has not thereby gained a victory, but has, on the contrary,
committed an act of villainy. The Jewish "victory" is a parallel
case. Now, it seems to us, that the triumph is somewhat
precipitate. It is certainly true that the dull masses in civilised
countries have been infected, both with the Jewish mode of
thinking and with the poisonous blood bacillus of the Hebrew,
and, before all, that certain higher classes of our society, who,
devoid of instinct, have coquetted and fraternised to such an
extent with the destroyer of nations, that they have fallen
victims to the corruption, and are beyond rescue; but a sound
core still lives in our nation, which, up till now, the foreign
poison has been unable to get hold of. And, even if a tremendous collapse is impending over the imbecile masses, who
have been Judaised both in body and soul over those
masses who crowd together in the great cities our nationality will grow young again, and renew itself out of the unspoilt
reserves, who live on the land.
It is to be hoped that the standard will be adopted, which
the excellent Lagarde speaks about in his "German Writings":
"Every Jew who is burdensome to us, is a serious reproach
to the genuineness and veracity of our life. Germany must
be German, and be full of Germans, full of itself like an egg . . .
then there will be no room for Palestine."
It is perfectly true: the nations of antiquity have collapsed
under racial degeneration and Judaisation, without any correct
285

forebodement of what was gradually happening to them. We,

however, have learned from history, and have discovered the
source of racial destruction. Now, for the first time, the Jew
is being unmasked and recognised for exactly what he is,
and now, for the first time, the secret of Jewdom is being
pitilessly unveiled. For many decades, intelligent men have
been on the look-out, carefully observing every movement of
this enemy. They have seen completely through him, have
calculated in advance what his next moves will be, and have
begun, as quietly and unobtrusively as possible, to protect the
most important positions against destruction; no one now has
the power to arrest collapse of our miry surface-culture,
collapse of that structure of fraud, erected by Jewish speculation, collapse even of the Judaized system of government;*
but one may well hope that the unspoilt elements will escape
in an ark, as it were, from the deluge, and will land, after it
has subsided, on a purified soil, to build up a new and better
life in a German world, free from Jews.
Leipzig, August 1922.
The contents of the present book have not been altered
since the second edition in 1913. In the meantime the movement, directed against Jewdom has developed to an undreamt-of extent, and important political and economic events
have taken place, which would possibly make it advisable
that an amplification of the statements, made in this book,
should be published. At present, this has not been done
chiefly on account of the unusual expense. The text of the
book is cast in plates; alterations in the same would necessitate a complete resetting of the type. This would be bound
to increase the price of the book considerably.
But there is, however, no urgent need for such a supplement.
Whatever has been set down here, in the separate chapters,
as characteristic of the Jew, still retains its validity. It has not
* These words were written in the year 1913, and have since proved
themselves true.
286

been refuted by more recent events, but, on the contrary, has

been confirmed in all that is essential. Moreover a new and
extensive literature has come into being, which supplements
in welcome fashion what is given here. (A list of such works
is appended).
The most remarkable literary event in this particular domain
is the appearance of a book, written by the American, Henry
Ford, the great and widely-known motor-car manufacturer and
winner of the Nobel prize. The title of this work is: "The international Jew The World's foremost Problem." Millions of copies
of this book are dispersed throughout English-speaking countries,
and there is also a strong demand for the German edition.
The discriminating and careful manner, in which the author
introduces the American public to this question, which is entirely novel to it, is masterly and works irresistibly. In particular, the accounts in the second volume present an engrossing
picture of the machinations of Jewish High Finance during the
World War, which latter stands revealed as the indubitable
work of the Jewish "Golden International."
The discovery of the so-called "Protocols of Zion," which
in truth represent the programme of political action of the
secret confederations of the Jews, is of further great importance. The Jewish plans, which are revealed therein, display
such demoniacal malice that the uninitiated reader might well
believe them to be a fabrication. Jewdom is straining every
nerve to refute the genuineness of these "protocols"; what,
however, speaks most strongly for their authenticity, is the
circumstance, that not only during the war, but that even now,
Jewdom acts, in unmistakable fashion, in full accordance with
the programme laid down. (The essential points in these
"Protocols" are also repeated in Ford's book.)
At the present moment, Jewdom is endeavouring, by means
of the Government organs at its disposal, to stifle the everswelling anti-Jewish movement:* it hopes, principally by means
* Numerous patriotic and German-national associations have been
dissolved and forbidden.

287

of an artificial and disproportionate increase of prices on the

paper-market, to render impossible any further publication of
those books, periodicals and newspapers, which are hostile to
the Jews (the paper trade lies under the dictatorship of Hartmann, a Hungarian Hebrew, who lives in Germany); all this,
however, cannot prevent the spark of perception, which has
fallen into the national soul, from continuing to glimmer, and
from bursting, one day, into a clear flame. Already, far down
into the working-class, insight is dawning that the pernicious
effects of the degenerate capitalist-system can be referred
mainly to Jewish machinations, and that it is precisely from
that quarter that the greatest danger threatens the freedom of
the nations. The awful events in Russia have made it clear
to every one what Jewish tyranny means.
The movement against the predomination of Jewdom is no
longer confined to Germany: it has taken root in all civilised
lands. Anti-Jewish periodicals and books are being published
in England, France and the United States, and also in Poland,
Hungary and Sweden, and a "White International", a league
of all honourable nations to break a way for the departure
of Jewdom, is now in the process of formation.
Peace and quietness will not return to humanity until the
enemy of humanity has been completely unmasked, and has
been warned to keep within his own boundaries. We are,
however, on the right road to accomplish this.

288

Errata.
Page 21. Line 6 from above: Read "went" instead of wet".
33. 20

"Chawrusse" instead of "Shawrusse".

34. Title
"Slaughtering"
instead of "Slaugthering".
42. Line 7 from below:
"don't" instead of "dont".
43. 17

after "honour": ** instead of *.

46. 9
"that" instead of "the".
47. 9 and 18

"Chawrusse" instead of "Shawrusse".

48. 1

"of" instead of "o".

49. 8
"one's self" instead of "oneself".
53. 8
"amiability" instead of "aimiability".
above
57. 12

"Jalkut Rubeni" instead of "Falkut

Rubeni".
114. 10
"are" instead of "is".
below
153.
"commercial" instead of "commercia".
6
above
153. 16

"grievously" instead of "grieviously".

212.
"the" instead of "this".
below
5
217. 1
"in their case, a means . . . "
above
237. 2
below
"head" instead of "ead".
242. 8

"ferreting-out" instead of "ferreting,

out".
266.

10
"of" should be omitted.