Lecture Outline: Anti-Semitism, Zionism, and the Dreyfus Affair
I. “Politics in a New Key” (term coined by Carl Schorske)
A. Changes in political participation
1. Industrialization creates new urban working class
2. More people can vote, legalized political meetings, strikes, unions
3. “Mass Media” (illustrated large-circulation newspapers)
4. Literacy created by free primary education
B. Changes in how people think about politics: the key is to rile up the crowd
II. Theodor Herzl’s Life before 1883
A. “Assimilated” vs. “unassimilated” Jews
B. German culture and its role for Austrians like Herzl
1. German is the Austro-Hungarian administrative language
2. Adopting German language and culture is rewarded
3. A culture people can join, that binds the empire together
4. “Becoming German” as way for Jews to advance, 1848-1880
5. Herzl the German nationalist
C. Herzl’s first brush with Anti-Semitism, 1883
III. What was Anti-Semitism?
A. Blaming Jews for all the problems of industrialization (racism + nationalism)
1. Stereotypes of Jews as money-grubbing
2. Jews as aliens whose race prevented them from truly joining the nation
3. Conspiracy theories
B. A way for people on the right to appeal to poorer, less-educated voters
1. Before, the right had focused on elites (aristocrats especially)
2. Socialism’s growing appeal to these new voters
a. In Germany, the Social Democrats boom after 1890
b. In France, Socialists emerge in 1890s, the SFIO forms in 1905
c. Social Democrats agitate in Austria-Hungary as well
3. Anti-Semitism provides a way for the right to win over these crowds
a. Giving people someone to blame for their problems
b. Socialists blame rich in general, Anti-Semites blame Jews
4. Herzl notes how emotional appeals sway these new voters
IV. Herzl Reports on the Dreyfus Affair from Paris
A. 1894: Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew, suspected of passing secrets to Germans
1. Case is weak
2. Dreyfus is a good soldier and French nationalist
B. Public pressure leads to his conviction, December 1894
1. Anti-Semitic journalist Edouard Drumont drums up publicity
2. Dreyfus’ degradation
3. Huge wave of Anti-Semitism among the French
C. Things get complicated (1895-1898)
1. Secrets keep leaking
2. Picquart finds the real culprit, Esterhazy
3. Henry forges new evidence against Dreyfus
4. On the basis of evidence, Esterhazy acquitted, late 1897
D. “J’Accuse,” 1898
1. Emile Zola takes a stand, and debates break out in the press
2. Henry’s forgeries discovered, August 1898
3. Dreyfus gets another trial, is found guilty again, but pardoned
F. Left wins in France, but Anti-Semites like Karl Lueger win in Austria
V. Zionism, Herzl’s Discovery
A. If Anti-Semitism can happen in France, it can happen anywhere
B. Using the Anti-Semites’ weapons against them
1. Riling up the poorer, less-educated Jewish crowd – the power of a flag
2. The shining myth of a Jewish nation
C. Politics of the heart replaces politics of the head