Antisemitism

In 1883, Austrian author Hermann Bahr was arrested for antisemitic abuse. Ten years later, he was a champion of the Viennese avant-garde and its numerous Jewish exponents, and would soon marry a Jewish actress. In Antisemitism Bahr makes the political personal (and vice versa) using the then-novel form of the interview for a sweeping international survey of the most contentious issue of his day. His respondents are economists and anarchists, preachers and political grandees from across Europe, with such figures as activist Annie Besant, novelist Alphonse Daudet, polymath Ernst Haeckel and trailblazing socialist August Bebel. Now available in English for the first time, this hugely important document was originally published in 1894, and it captures the moment when an ancient enmity assumed new force, the age of the Dreyfus Affair and Germany’s pre-Nazi peak in politicised race hate. Antisemitism is no echo chamber, with some respondents offering robust defence of prejudices that would have harrowing consequences in the 20th century. But with its conspiracy theories, babbling demagogues and demonised minorities, Bahr’s investigation is sadly all too relevant today.