Cultural pessimism and anti-Semitism in Imperial Germany

Immanuel Kant Arthur Schopenhauer

Oswald Spengler

“Anti-Semitism is a reflection of political, social and economic tension in Germany (…) linked to the process we normally call modernization - a change of society, its values and roots at a fast pace, from rural to urban and industrialized society.”

• Jewish population in 1871: 500,000 or 1,25% of the population

• Jewish population in 1871: 500,000 or 1,25% of the population

• Full emancipation in 1869

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

Arthur de Gobineau

Charles Darwin

Houston Stuart Chamberlain