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Ernst Henrici Addresses Berlin Antisemites in the Reichshall Meeting: A Report in the Tribune (December 1880)

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judgment on us. (Shouting: Boo! Racket.) I do not doubt the impartiality of our judges; but when I think of the passages quoted from the Talmud and have to tell myself that a large part of our judges were raised under such influence, [then] I am worried about our German people. (Thunderous applause and terrible racket. At the back of the hall and on the galleries severe brawls take place, in the course of which several Jews are thrown out by force once again.) The speaker reads several passages from the Talmud that advise Jewish judges to judge in favor of Jews at all times. (Cries of outrage.) I remind you, dear gentlemen, of the impudence with which Jewish humor magazines caricature our clergymen. If the Wahrheit took the liberty of launching anything similar against rabbis, it would certainly be confiscated immediately. (Lively approval.) The fact that the Jews would shrink from no measure to achieve their goals has provided them with social superiority. Thus we see Jews advancing everywhere, in all branches of administration and offices. We Germans, fleeced as we are, do not have the opportunity, for instance, to loll around as a private lecturer for several years, like the Jew, and wait for a professorship, and that explains the large number of Jewish professors. Three quarters of the poets and writers in Germany belong to the Jewish people. It is widely known that our daily press is completely dominated by the Jews. Even though Christian editors are employed by some liberal newspapers, they are nonetheless on the Jews’ payroll. The Jews claim that they are patriotic. (Loud laughter.) Well, of course, why shouldn’t they be patriotic? Could the Jews imagine a better country than Germany in which to realize their objectives? (Shouting: Jewish Eldorado!) Oh, yes, the Jews may well be patriotic, but they lack any German nationalist consciousness. (Thunderous applause and racket.) In the year 1870, it was almost exclusively Jews who tried to avoid participating in the open battle with the German archenemy by reporting to the military offices as scribblers. (Thunderous applause and racket.) “Fatherland” and “Jew” are simply two terms that don’t go together. In this country, forward steps – “progress” – means Jewish steps. (Thunderous applause.) The Vossische Zeitung, generally know as a progressive newspaper, adheres to the principle of printing anything that is favorable to the Jews and suppressing everything that attacks them. It proceeds in this way with foreign press assessments of the Jewish question, with the responses to Dr. Förster regarding the Jewish Petition, and with the well-known scandal involving District Governor Dollfuß. (Thunderous applause and racket.) This man, who has stolen eight tons of cement from the city, has been confirmed in office by the progressive Assembly of City Councilors, because they were afraid that without this confirmation the Jew Straßmann would not be re-elected City Councilor. (Shouting). The Progressives simply do not know any German ideals any more; their ideal is a “progressive Judeal.” (Thunderous applause and racket.) Professor Mommsen, a very old gentleman (Shouting: Well, he is burned out!) argues in a brochure that the Jews belong to the German nation and that the original sin of their forefathers is to blame for their evil deeds. (Shouting: Boo!) Well, I repeat, Professor Mommsen is already very old. (Laughter.) So what can we do about the Jews? (Shouting: Smoke them

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