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| | Leftist scholars examining the connection between socialism and anti-Semitism before 1914 generally have assumed that capitalist exploitation of the workers was responsible for the "Jewish question," and that the labor movement was largely immune to anti-Semitism. At a deeper level, factors such as retarded economic development in Central and Eastern Europe, Christian cultural traditions, the fragility of political liberalism outside Western Europe, the intensity of national conflicts, and the quality of leadership and class consciousness among the proletariat led to anti-Semitism in Germany, Russia, France, and Britain before 1914. | | Leftist scholars examining the connection between socialism and anti-Semitism before 1914 generally have assumed that capitalist exploitation of the workers was responsible for the "Jewish question," and that the labor movement was largely immune to anti-Semitism. At a deeper level, factors such as retarded economic development in Central and Eastern Europe, Christian cultural traditions, the fragility of political liberalism outside Western Europe, the intensity of national conflicts, and the quality of leadership and class consciousness among the proletariat led to anti-Semitism in Germany, Russia, France, and Britain before 1914. |
| | ====Austria==== | | ====Austria==== |
| − | Popular antipathy toward Jews was more deeply rooted and stubborn in Austria than in most European countries. Reasons included slow development of a secular, pluralist society based on individual rights and open career opportunities; survival of corporatist ideas of economic organization; replacement of the multinational ideal of the Austro-Hungarian Empire by political division and ethnic antagonism; and the conspicuous role of individual Jews in finance capitalism, mass media, arts, and radical politics.
| + | The national government of the Austro-Hungarian Empire deliberately protected Jews from violent Anti-Semitism. However, popular antipathy toward Jews was more deeply rooted and stubborn in Austria than in most European countries. Reasons included slow development of a secular, pluralist society based on individual rights and open career opportunities; survival of corporatist ideas of economic organization; replacement of the multinational ideal of the Austro-Hungarian Empire by political division and ethnic antagonism; and the conspicuous role of individual Jews in finance capitalism, mass media, arts, and radical politics. |
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| | Karl Lueger, the popular mayor of Vienna (1897-1910) and routinely used high powered Anti-Semitic rhetoric. It caught the attention of one young resident, Adolph Hitler. But there was no action takes against Jews, who played a major role in Vienna’s cultural and business life. Lueger operated within a strong national government that tolerated Jews. The Habsburg dynasty did not allow significant ant-jewish actions in its domains. The inviolate character of the Rechtsstaat and of a political culture based on law still existed. Mass violence within this political system was rare, and economic life was not yet caught up in the disastrous economic cycles of the post-1918 era. All these structural factors were serious barriers to the translation of anti-Semitic rhetoric in Vienna from words into deeds during the Habsburg era. In the 1930s, however, Vienna became increasingly hostile and many Jews fled before the Nazis marched in and took over in 1938. | | Karl Lueger, the popular mayor of Vienna (1897-1910) and routinely used high powered Anti-Semitic rhetoric. It caught the attention of one young resident, Adolph Hitler. But there was no action takes against Jews, who played a major role in Vienna’s cultural and business life. Lueger operated within a strong national government that tolerated Jews. The Habsburg dynasty did not allow significant ant-jewish actions in its domains. The inviolate character of the Rechtsstaat and of a political culture based on law still existed. Mass violence within this political system was rare, and economic life was not yet caught up in the disastrous economic cycles of the post-1918 era. All these structural factors were serious barriers to the translation of anti-Semitic rhetoric in Vienna from words into deeds during the Habsburg era. In the 1930s, however, Vienna became increasingly hostile and many Jews fled before the Nazis marched in and took over in 1938. |
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| | + | Anti-Semitism was an integral part of the political platform of the Austrian Socialist Left before 1914. Given the depths of anti-Jewish feelings among the Austrian masses, the Socialists endeavored to woo the working class from right-wing political parties through employing the latter's anti-Semitic arguments concerning Jewish control of the Austrian economy. This approach was even utilized by such Socialists of Jewish background as Victor Adler. Once Lueger's anti-Semitic party gained control of the Vienna municipal government in 1897, the Socialist press attacked him and his associates for their alleged lack of fidelity to their anti-Semitic principles through covert dealings with the Jewish upper class. |
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| | ====Russia==== | | ====Russia==== |