GHDI logo

Otto Glagau, The Stock Market and Founding-Era Swindle in Berlin (1876)

page 3 of 5    print version    return to list previous document      next document


The Manchester policy is actually dangerous to the public and the state. All upright and well-meaning people must fight it vigorously and join forces for this purpose, no matter what their party affiliation. One can already observe how newspapers of the most heterogeneous inclinations, clerical and democratic ones, conservative and Social Democratic ones, including those alleged “scandal sheets” and the “yellow press,” are joining hands and taking action against the Manchester “liberals” and the “economists,” against the exploitation of the people by the stock market, swindling, and usury. The bulk of the people are still under the spell of the “liberal” press, which leads them by the nose and fleeces them; there are still many, all too many people who are allied to capital and the stock market because of self-interest or fear; the honest and the brave still account for but a small handful of people, but their number is growing visibly, and their time will come very soon.

[ . . . ]

The Jews in particular feel hurt by my articles. Even before I stated the fact that they are mostly to blame for the stock market and founding-era swindle, their bad conscience prompted them to agitate against me. First, in response to the animosities and machinations that were directed against my essays; to completely justify and account for them; but at the same time also to show that I shall not be intimidated, I have included a variety of additions regarding the Jews in this book edition; they can be found in particular on p. 148ff and in the supplements (p. 342ff.).

However, to prevent honest misunderstandings, to counter dishonest suspicions and denunciations, I expressly declare, by paraphrasing Windthorst, the member of the Reichstag from Meppen, that I do not intend to kill or slaughter the Jews, or to drive them out of the country; I do not intend to deprive them of anything they already possess, but I do intend to give them a working over and a fundamental one at that. No longer must misplaced tolerance and sentimentality, wretched weakness and fear prevent us Christians from taking action against the excesses and arrogance of the Jews. No longer must we tolerate the fact that Jews are everywhere forcing their way to the front, to the top, seizing the leadership and doing the talking. They always push us Christians aside, they push us against the wall, and they take away our air to breathe. They actually exercise sovereignty over us; they have a dangerous supremacy and they exert a very ominous influence. After many centuries, it is once again the case that an alien tribe so small in number is dominating the great true nation. The entire history of the world knows no other example of a homeless people, of a race that is decidedly degenerate both physically and psychologically, having dominion over the entire world merely by means of cunning and cleverness, usury and haggling.

first page < previous   |   next > last page