The Geography of Hate: How Anti-Semitism in Interwar Germany Was Influenced by Medieval

THE GEOGRAPHY OF HATE: HOW ANTI-SEMITISM IN INTERWAR GERMANY WAS INFLUENCED BY THE MEDIEVAL MASS MURDER OF JEWS

Violence against Jews – and signs of anti-semitic sentiment – in interwar Germany were much more common in those towns that had also seen pogroms in the Middle Ages. That is the central finding of new research by Professors Hans-Joachim Voth and Nico Voigtländer, presented at the Royal Economic Society’s 2011 annual conference.

Their study examines geographical variation in levels of anti-semitism in interwar Germany and its roots in the fourteenth century. The findings suggest that a cultural trait can persist over very long periods, particularly in small towns where most people married within the same locality for generations.

The study focuses on pogroms against Jews that occurred during the Black Death (1348-50). Since the Jews were blamed for the plague (having allegedly poisoned the wells), many towns and cities burned their Jewish populations. The case of Basle is paradigmatic: on 9 January 1349, approximately 600 Jews were gathered in a wooden house, specially constructed for the purpose, on an island in the river Rhine. There they were burned.

Looking at Weimar Germany in the 1920s and 1930s, Voigtländer and Voth examine whether towns that had burned their Jewish populations in the fourteenth century were more likely to display signs of anti-semitism.

They use a variety of indicators, from votes for the Nazi Party, attacks on synagogues and deportations to letters to an anti-semitic newspaper – Der Stürmer, known for its grotesque cartoons of ‘evil’ Jews, often shown drinking the blood of Christian children or taking advantage of innocent Christian maidens.

The research finds consistently strong effects. For example, towns that committed pogroms in the fourteenth century voted 50% more for the Nazi Party than towns without a history of medieval violence.

The findings are striking since they suggest that a cultural trait – in this case, anti-semitism – can persist over very long periods. This is all the more surprising since Jews largely vanished from Germany after the Middle Ages. The authors point to the persistence of passion plays and the anti-semitic writings of Martin Luther as causes of the long-run persistence of race hatred.

They also emphasise just how small was the average town in their study: a typical town probably had no more than 20,000 inhabitants in the 1920s, and no more than 1,000-2,000 in the Middle Ages. Mobility was low, and most people married within the same locality for generations.

ENDS

‘Persecution Perpetuated: Medieval Origins of Anti-Semitic Violence in Nazi Germany’ by Nico Voigtlaender (UCLA) and Hans-Joachim Voth (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)