The “V. d. St.” was antisemitic because the Jews were considered un-German (based on racial theory), unpatriotic (since they occupied the opposition camp almost without exception), and unsocial (they were regarded as pillars of Manchester liberalism). Court Preacher Stöcker and Professor [Heinrich] von Treitschke were the association’s two idols. Because of my oratorical activities in the V. d. St., I came into personal contact with leading antisemites even as a very young person. Among them was a man who is completely forgotten today, but who played an enormous role in the 1880s: Otto Glagau. He had been the business editor of liberal newspapers like the Nationalzeitung. He had saved a few thousand marks. In 1871, when the windfall from the French reparation payments unleashed the founding period [Gründerzeit], Glagau also got caught up in the frenzy. He bought shares in the extremely fishy Linden Construction Society and thus lost his entire savings. But if his gold had turned to water, he knew how to extract gold from dirty water in turn. He wrote The Stock Market and Founding-Era Swindle in Berlin, a book that caused an incredible sensation. He followed it up with a number of other books. The financial success allowed him to publish his own newspaper, which he called the Kulturkämpfer [Cultural Warrior]. It was written in a dazzling style and contained much interesting material, especially with respect to personages, as was also the case with [Maximilian] Harden’s later newspaper Die Zukunft [The Future].
Glagau had become an antisemite for purely personal reasons: Jews were prominently involved in the fishy enterprises that he had hoped would propel him to effortless riches. In other enterprises, ones that were no less fishy, high noblemen (such as Prince Putbus) and ultraconservative Teutons (such as Privy Counselor [Hermann] Wagener) had occupied leading positions. With enviable one-sidedness, however, Glagau saw the Jews behind everything. To him, Jews were the seducers, Aryans the seduced. Thus, he created the platform for a popular and financially profitable position. His motto was: “The social question is the Jewish question.” – The social question was the focus of my interest. Glagau had invented a patent remedy for its solution: Away from the Jews, and the social question is solved! Therefore, I went to him to imbibe social wisdom at the source.
And besides – and I only became aware of this later – I remained under the spell of antisemitism for nearly 30 years only because all the eminent antisemites honored me with their trust and friendship. “Our crown prince,” were the words I often heard. [Max] Liebermann von Sonnenberg, then the undisputed leader of the antisemites, dedicated a volume of his poems to me and offered me (just as I had turned 26) a newly vacant antisemitic seat in the Reichstag. Liebermann von Sonnenberg, a cavalry captain dismissed because of debts, knew nothing, but was capable of a lot. He was one of the most effective public speakers I have ever met in my life. He combined dazzling wit with a lofty pathos whose hollowness was not always easy for a young person to grasp. In addition, he was an organizer and conversationalist of high caliber. Any constituency to which he applied his “special treatment” could be regarded as carried from the very start. And any debriefing he called was a source of amusement beyond compare. He could write poetry, sing, and drink equally well. People melted with delight when he launched into his own original antisemitic Schnaderhüpferl* “Sleep, little Jew, sleep” or “In parliament sits Eugen Ri-Ra-Richter.”** For years, I, too, could not resist the spell of this earthy personality.
* South German: a four-line song that is humorous and often smutty – trans.
** Both are corrupted nursery rhymes – trans.
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