THE RIDDLE OF THE JEW’S SUCCESS : XIV – The Race Problem

The Riddle of the Jew’s Success

Chapter XIV

 

F. RODERICH-STOLTHEIM

 

THE RIDDLE

OF

THE JEW’S SUCCESS

Translated from the German by Capel Pownall

HAMMER-VERLAG / LEIPZIG

1927

 

 

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From Metapedia

[http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Fritsch]

Theodor Emil Fritsch (October 28, 1852 near Leipzig – September 8, 1933) was a German antijudaist whose views did much to influence popular opposition to Jewish supremacism in Germany during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

A believer in the absolute superiority of the Aryan race, Fritsch was upset by the changes brought on by rapid industrialization and urbanization, and called for a return to the traditional peasant values and customs of the distant past, which he believed exemplified the essence of the Volk.

In 1883 he founded the Hammer Publishing House.

One of Fritsch’s major goals was to unite all Jew-resister political parties under a single banner; he wished for opposition to Jewish supremacism to permeate the agenda of every German social and political organization. This effort proved largely to be a failure, as by 1890 there were over 190 various patriotic parties in Germany. He also had a powerful rival for the leadership of the patriots in Otto Böckel, with whom he had a strong personal rivalry.

In 1893, Fritsch published his most famous work, The Handbook of the Jewish Question also known as the Anti-Semitic Catechism which criticed the Jews and called upon Germans to refrain from intermingling with them. Vastly popular, the book was read by millions and was in its 49th edition by 1944 (330,000 copies). The ideas espoused by the work greatly influenced Hitler and his party during their rise to power after World War I. Fritsch also founded a journal – the Hammer (in 1902) and this became the basis of a movement, the Reichshammerbund, in 1912.

His better known book, The Riddle of the Jew’s Success was published in English in 1927 under the pseudonym F. Roderich-Stoltheim, and dealt with the negative impact that Jewish values and the centralization of the German economy in Jewish hands had on the German people. This book was recently republished by Noontide Press, and was the subject of a media controversy after it was banned by Amazon.com and other online book sellers.

Fritsch held the publication rights to the German edition of Henry Ford’s work The International Jew.

 

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Contents.

[Note: Clicking on a Chapter heading will take you to that post]

Chapter …………………………………………………………..……………………………………. Page

 

I Preface ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5

II Jewish Methods in the Economic Life …………………………………………………. 10

III Particular Business Tactics of the Jew ……………………………………………….. 29

IV The International Connection and Secret League of the Hebrews ………… 39

V The Peculiar Morality of Jewdom ………………………………………………………….. 53

VI An Explanation with Sombart …………………………………………………………….. 68

VII Jewish Successes in Modern Times …………………………………………………… 72

VIII The Stock-Exchange …………………………………………………………………………. 84

IX How Sound Business Methods are Forced Out of the Field by the Jews … 98

X Jewish Trade Specialities ……………………………………………………………………… 111

XI Moral Principles in Trade …………………………………………………………………….. 141

XII The Hebrews as Supporters of Capitalism …………………………………………. 154

XIII Business and Religion ……………………………………………………………………… 183

XIV The Race Problem ………………………………………………………………………….. 200

XV Origin of the Jewish Entity ……………………………………………………………….. 220

XVI The Influence of the Jew Upon Womankind …………………………………….. 242

XVII The Jews and the World-War ………………………………………………………….. 277

Concluding Words ………………………………………………………………………… 283

Errata …………………………………………………………………………………………… 290

 

 

 

XIV.

The Race Problem.

 

 

1. In general.

Sombart gives himself great airs in his XIIth chapter, where he treats of Jewish peculiarity when regarded from a racial point of view. He is of opinion — obviously with a side thrust at the wicked AntiSemites — that the racial problem and national psychology have become the plaything of caprice and dilettantism, and that in particular the portrayal of the Jewish entity is:

“undertaken as a kind of political sport by coarse individuals with gross instincts”.

It certainly cannot be denied that, in the course of the Anti-Semitic movement, many people and tendencies have started up, whose origins and pretensions will not bear investigation; but, at the present day, even these people, who can never inflict enough pain by the derision, which they cast upon the opinions of others, refuse, in a superior manner, to listen to anything Anti-Semitic. And yet, a very considerable number of leading spirits and estimable characters have belonged, and still belong to the spokesmen of this movement. We do not wish here to dwell upon the fact that great men in all times, that philosophers from Giodarno Bruno and Voltaire to Fichte, Herder, Schopenhauer and Feuerbach, that statesmen like Frederick the Great, Napoleon I and Bismarck, that artists like Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt must be included amongst the opponents of the Jews.*

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* A collection of extracts from the writings of these men is to be found in the “Handbuch der Judenfrage” (Handbook of the Jewish Question) 27 edition, pages 12—117. — The racial question is dealt with exhaustively by the well-known geographer Rich. Andree in “Zur Volkskunde der Juden” (Popular information respecting the Jews) Bielefeld 1881.

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[Page 200]

The more modern Anti-Semitic movement also includes in its ranks as spokesmen, individuals like Paul de Lagarde, Eugen Dühring and Adolf Wahrmund, whose profound erudition cannot even be approached by any of their opponents however much it may be belittled or ignored by the public press, itself completely under Jewish domination. However, before everything, it must not be forgotten that it was the wicked Anti-Semites, who first tackled the Race-problem and aroused racial consciousness again among the nations. If, at the commencement, it was only the difference between Aryan and Semite, which engaged their attention, it is nevertheless due to their initiative that the whole of the modern racial movement has come into being, and has built itself up upon the fundamental views of the AntiSemites.

If, now and again, objectionable behaviour puts in an appearance in the course of the Anti-Jewish movement, and epithets are applied to the Hebrews, which are not exactly flattering, there is no cause whatever for undue sensitiveness in this respect on the Jewish side. One has only to recall how low-class Jewish wits, in the so-called comic papers, which are founded almost without exception by Hebrews, let themselves go concerning other nations, classes, privileges and political opponents. Scarcely anything is low and foul enough to enable the Hebrew to give full vent to his hatred against those, who differ from him in their opinions, and for this reason there is little or no justification on his side for a display of moral indignation and extreme sensitiveness on hearing an expression of opinion concerning himself, which is often remarkably appropriate.

This assumption of indignation collapses in a ridiculous fashion, if the fact is disputed, from a purely Jewish point of view, — like a certain Friedrich Hertz and others attempt to do — that there are such people as Jews at the present day. This is more than droll. So long as the so-called Jewish religion continues, so long will Judaism, as a compact hostile force, live and operate amongst the other nations. But even if it were possible to extirpate this religion, the racial peculiarity of the Jew, which has acquired an extraordinary tenacity by incessant inbreeding, would long continue to function.

[Page 201]

Sombart then honourably takes pains to put an end to those chatterers, who wish to deny the existence of a Jewish race and a Jewish peculiarity. But he himself is certainly not clear in his own mind concerning the racial entity when he says:

“On the other hand it is senseless to give the name of “Jew” to an Israelite of unmistakable origin, who has succeeded in throwing off the fetters of Esra and Nehemiah, in whose mind there is no longer any thought for the law of Moses, and whose heart no longer feels contempt for other races.”

In the next place it is doubtful if a Jew can ever completely free himself of the views, derived from his racial peculiarity, which were being prepared and established from the time of Moses to that of Esra and Nehemiah, and which, later on, under the influence of Talmudic Rabbinism, were extended and expanded until they became a gross exaggeration. But even if he is capable of emancipating himself, Jewish instincts will survive and function in his offspring. So long as we have no experience of a Jewish business-man causing his son to become a farmer, a conductor, a carpenter or a sailor, it is certain that no one will seriously believe in the transformation of the people of Judah into genuine human beings. We are in agreement on this point with our own most excellent Fichte, who also did not believe that the Hebrews were capable of being converted, unless:

“all their heads were cut off in one night, and other heads were substituted in which there was not a single Jewish idea.”

These words describe most aptly the indestructibility of the Jewish racial entity.

The study of the racial problem has taught us that an indissoluble bond exists between the blood and the mental disposition of mankind. It is said in The Old Testament that “the soul of a man dwells in his blood,” and that means, that the mental nature of man is inseparably united with his blood.

This fact we must ultimately learn to accept in all its seriousness. We have long been accustomed to attach value to the blood and stock amongst animals; we do not desire that a poodle should become a sporting-dog, or that a horse from Brabant should develop into a racer. We know that advantages, just like disadvantages and defects, are transmitted with the blood.

[Page 202]

We have no intention of conveying the impression that all good and bad characteristics must be transmitted with unchanging fidelity from generation to generation, that the children of a clever father must be, without exception, geniuses, and that the offspring of a criminal is invariably criminal; but we perceive a certain constancy in the transmissibility of average qualities, whereby only those deviations and variations crop up, which Nature allows herself everywhere as a diversion. If the constancy in the transmissibility of qualities is comparatively insignificant as regards the present-day generation, this must be attributed to the excessive intermingling of tribes and races, which has been taking place for centuries — even for thousands of years.

The pure races certainly have almost completely disappeared, and only mongrel descendants surround us. In spite of this, one must not straightway deny that the racial entity has ceased to operate. The frivolous doctrine, that all men are equal, has caused unspeakable disaster and has actually introduced degeneration into the human race. We Germans of today have certainly no reason to boast of our race, for its worth is seriously depreciated, both blood and intellect having been dulled. But this should not restrain us from appreciating to the utmost the importance of the racial entity, and from endeavouring, by means of racial culture, to restore what has been sacrificed by an irresponsible racial lottery.

It is a fact — and it is about the only reputable thing which one can say about Judaism — that racial consciousness is fostered to a greater extent among the Hebrews than among any other nation, whether consciously or unconsciously, by the rigid law which enjoins that everyone, who does not belong to the race, must be regarded with hostility and contempt.

Thus the irrefutable fact remains, that the racial entity amongst the Jews is today of greater validity, both physically and mentally, than amongst all the other races. The Hebrew, almost everywhere, can be recognised amongst other races both by his external appearance and, if anything, still more by his mental cast. And this racial constancy asserts itself, even when mingled with other strains.

[Page 203]

The Jewish Professor Eduard Gans expresses himself as follows:

“Baptism and interbreeding are of no avail; we remain, even in the hundredth generation Jews, as we were 3000 years ago. We never lose the odour of our race — not even by tenfold crossing. And, in every case of cohabitation with every woman, our race dominates: young Jews result.”

Whoever, in face of facts like these, still persists in denying the existence of a Jewish race, cannot have much regard for truth. But we can very well understand why it is so distasteful to the Hebrews to see racial recognition and racial consciousness awakening among other nations. In the moment when this comes to pass, the alienage of the Jew will, for the first time, make itself apparent to all, and this will, in every respect, make the Hebrew’s business more difficult. Up till now, the Jew has been able, in an inimitable manner, to mingle with other nations, and to delude them into believing that he really belonged to them — a circumstance, which rendered his overreaching operations extremely easy to carry out. As soon, however, as the other nations become aware of their own particularity, and of the value of their own especial gifts, both moral and intellectual, they will soon recognise in the Hebrew the disturber of their domestic peace and of their harmonious development, and will endeavour to keep him at a distance.

 

 

2. The Psychology of the Jews.

The Hebrew certainly possesses a great adaptability, but it would be erroneous to expect from his external adjustment to the habits and customs of other nations that the Jew is absorbed and disappears. The Jewish peculiarity differs far too much from the nature of all other nations to allow a complete fusion to appear even probable. In the last analysis it is the Jewish view of life, and the Jewish moral law, which do not admit of any permanent association with other nations.

Sombart makes a vain attempt to sum up the Hebrew entity in precise ideas. He sees, amongst these, only a few of a disagreeable nature, and is unable to connect the same with fixed characteristics. The distinguishing features of the Jew enumerated by him, appear to me to be insufficient.

[Page 204]

I believe that I shall meet with but little opposition, when I characterise the average Jew as follows: sharp at business and glib of tongue, greedy for money and of a saving disposition, cunning and addicted to dissimulation, averse to bodily labour, sensual and shameless, vain, cowardly and impudent. There are but few Jews in whom the majority of these characteristics cannot be detected. When Sombart speaks incessantly of their “prominence in intellectuality”, it is clear that he means only the calm, calculating intelligence of the Jew, generally speaking, the mere operation of the cold understanding as opposed to the sensibility of deeper and more emotional natures. This much-praised intellectuality of the Hebrew is, in reality, only the outcome of necessity*. How could otherwise a people, devoid of all capacity for production, maintain their existence unless they unceasingly made use of cunning and deception, and knew how to fool others into furthering their own secret plans? It cannot be denied that Hebrews have occasionally distinguished themselves as clever physicians, scholars and barristers, but only so far, in these professions, as the possession of a coldly-calculating and subtle understanding permitted them to advance. And, in this respect, they have frequently been actually favoured by their own low standard of morality. Moral laxity frequently gives the Hebrew an advantage over other people. Whoever is not particularly scrupulous concerning his moral duty towards mankind, has a much freer hand on many occasions than those, who are restrained by their conscience and consideration.

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* The well-known oriental traveller, H. Vámbéry, (originally Bamberger) confirms this fact, amongst others, in his report concerning the Jews of the Orient, 1879, in which he states that it is a delusion to assume that the Jews in Europe possessed higher intelligence than the nations who acted as their hosts, for, to take Middle Asia as an example, the Jew, when confronted by the Hindoo and the Armenian, invariably came off second best.

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[Page 205]

Just as the Jewish business-man, thanks to his moral laxity, outstrips competitors in commerce, so is it in many other departments of life. For sense of duty, conscience and honour have but little value in the eyes of the Hebrews when compared with intellectual capacity. The Jew is desirous, at all costs, of passing as clever; everything else is a matter of comparative indifference to him. There are a number of Jewish proverbs, which regard stupidity as being far worse than any other mental or moral defect. All of these are centred on the idea: you may be a rascal if you only show yourself sly. Whilst the civilised and honour-loving nations attach the highest value to moral character, and to the emotional side of human nature, the Hebrew appraises a man merely according to his mental adroitness. Whoever is clever, is therefore worthy of admiration, even if he uses his cleverness to the detriment of others — perhaps, for that reason, all the more to be admired! It is often to be observed in the Jewish Press how the attempt is made to find a certain measure of excuse for grave crimes on the grounds that considerable intellectual capacity has been displayed in committing the same. This confusing and disordering of moral ideas by the introduction of intellectual standards, are to be included amongst the most dangerous means, by which Hebrewdom is seeking to destroy the other nations. Unfortunately, the moral sense in many classes has already been considerably weakened, because its power of discrimination has been injuriously affected by the fact that — thanks to Jewish example — admiration is frequently accorded to the criminal. It thus happens, that when a crime is being discussed, one can often hear good-natured men mitigating their abhorrence somewhat as follows:

“But, after all, he showed himself a very sharp fellow!” —

Indeed a sign of the Judaization of our mode of thinking.

Sombart characterises the Jewish — and probably at the same time his own — perception with the words:

“the highest humanism is supreme intellectualism” —

an appraisement, to which we feel ourselves compelled to object. For, measured by this standard, the most accomplished rogue and swindler would, under circumstances, represent humanity’s supreme ideal.

[Page 206]

The heroic nations have an assured conviction of another ideal. They seek it in the direction of self-sacrifice of the individual for the general welfare, or, for an idea — for freedom or for honour — but, above all, in the complete subjugation of selfishness. The hero of our dramas, whose fate rivets our attention and affects us deeply, is not a sly customer, who, thanks to his crafty alertness, knows how to dodge all dangers, but is, on the contrary, an upright, inflexible character, who accepts his recognised duty courageously, and who does not turn aside from the path of truth and justice whatever menace may stand in his way. He thinks little of his own advantage, but all the more of duty and honour. A real hero of this type will appear to the eyes of the Jew as no better than a fool; — “better a live dog than a dead lion” is a Semitic proverb. This indicates the deep chasm, which exists between the Jewish and the genuinely human mode of thinking.

However, the understanding which merely calculates, proves itself generally inadequate for dealing with all serious matters in life. There is something higher than the intellect. A man of fine character allows himself to be swayed more by innate and instinctive feelings than by cold calculation. And these instinctive feelings which, in reality, indicate an intimate spiritual and emotional insight into the connection between things, are a far surer guide to mankind than all the speculations of the intellect. Where the guiding instinct is wanting, we see the intellect straying into all manner of blind alleys, clambering too high on its own artificial structures, which have lost all touch with reason and nature, and at last, for this reason, failing completely.

The Hebrew, a being, who is not of immediate natural origin, and who, for that reason, makes his journey through life without any intimate connection with nature, is devoid of instinctive feelings. He endeavours to replace them by conscious intellect. This may confer a certain apparent superiority on him so long as he moves in artificial surroundings, which depend, more or less, upon intellectual foundations. He is, however, completely at a loss, and feels helpless immediately when he finds himself in a situation where the relations are entirely natural.

[Page 207]

A Robinson, alone on a desert island, can contrive, with scant resources, to keep body and soul together; a Hebrew is incapable of doing so. The Jew is a second-rate man, whose existence depends upon all kinds of artificial assumptions. He is Nature’s step-child, and cannot get on with this mother. He is always in need of some man, who has grown up in touch with Nature and who is full of natural impulse, to carry him — the Jew — through life.

And when Sombart believes that he can perceive the acme of genius in freedom from all natural law, and in tearing one’s self loose from all natural instincts, he betrays, in spite of himself, his own Jewishness. The opposite is correct; genius stands — unconsciously in most cases — in closest relationship, in inmost feeling with the natural laws of being and becoming!

It draws from a source, whose deepest spring is scarcely known to itself. It is only for the reason that the internal and eternal obedience to law, of all natural things and occurrences, resides also in the creations of genius, that the latter are eternal and inextinguishable; and it is also for this reason that they stir the emotions of mankind, so long as men do not close their ears to the voice of nature.

The conspicuous intellectualism of the Jew is direct evidence of his weakness and of his inferiority from a human point of view. It is only when the natural feeling fails, when the instinct is no longer a safe guide, that the calculating intellect begins in its distress to strain after artificial remedies, and seeks to create artificial conditions, which are agreeable to it.

The Jew can only flourish in an artificial world. In reality, the mental speculations of the Hebrew are confined to comparatively narrow fields of activity, where it is a matter of obtaining an advantage and of misleading and confusing the opponent. Only there is he a master; everywhere else, where it is a case of penetrating more deeply into artistic, technical and exact scientific knowledge, the intellect of the Jew does not suffice. And therefore, the Hebrew is never inventor and artist in the grand style. Whoever follows up the refined subtleties of the Rabbis in the Talmud, can often observe how their petty, short-sighted, calculating spirit leads them into incredible imbecilities.

[Page 208]

According to the popular opinion, the devil is a professor of slyness. But also, according to popular tradition, there are all kinds of legends, showing how the peasant gets the better of the devil; and from this popular notion emerges a deep meaning. The peasant may appear to be awkward and helpless in the external affairs of life, especially when he is brought face to face with the artificial conditions of town life; he possesses, for the most part, however, although it may be only by means of his feelings, a deeper insight into natural things than many a learned townsman.

And the devil, for all his arithmetic, always miscalculates when he encounters natural cleverness, and when the unalterable laws of nature break through his web of deceit. Yes, after all, the devil is stupid, and so is his cousin, the Jew. Place him face to face with Nature, with no creative men to assist him, and all his lordly intellectualism will suffer a miserable shipwreck — will not save him from starvation.

On the other hand, the Jew has known how to confer an extraordinary power of attraction on the modern towns with their artificial and refined methods of traffic and intercourse; he entices the simple villagers away from nature into these modern paradises of vice, where everything is cast in an unnatural and artificial mould. Jews, and Jewish mentality reign supreme in the large towns, and the natural man feels that he is a stranger there, more like a child, straying helplessly into the traps of the Jews, which are laid for him on every side. Therefore, whoever wishes to escape from the Jewish illusion must fly from these places, and seek refuge again on the maternal breast of Nature; and, just as surely is he doomed to certain ruin, who imagines that he can continue to live as a child of Nature in the meretricious and false world of the Jew.

Even Sombart admits as much:

“We frequently find in the case of the Jew that all instinctive feeling is stunted, just as if all sensibility and sensitive relations to the rest of the world were foreign to his disposition.”

[Page 209]

Here, however, it is conceded that the Hebrew himself stands forth as both foreign and contrary to Nature. He moves in the midst of Nature as a dull and insensible being; he certainly sees things separately, but he passes over the causal connection of the natural phenomenon and the inward obedience to law of all life, without paying the slightest attention to the same. For this reason, he is unable to judge what the final effects of his scheming and plotting will be; he is always directed merely by the advantage of the moment. He hankers after the goods and chattels of the peasant; he knows how to get hold of the same, and to drive the peasant from hearth and home; but he neither stops to reflect, nor does he care, what will become of the village, when all the peasants have been plundered in this fashion and driven away. He sucks the last drop of blood out of the workman and the small employer of labour, and dispatches them to ruin, without asking: what will become of the world if we weaken the productive classes in this manner? He entangles the various countries in debts and loans, and hands them over to ruin, without taking the trouble to think that these operations will eventually cause human society itself to collapse — that society which nourishes him with its flesh, and out of whose body he derives his parasitic existence. We see here the same fool, who saws off the branch on which he is sitting, and who kills the hen, which lays golden eggs for him. Accustomed to the constant provision of new hunting-grounds and fresh objects of usury by an inexhaustible Nature, and by the indefatigable industry of the nations, he is unable to conceive that the world-dominion, for which he is striving, would mean simultaneous world-ruin. The vain nature of his understanding, which does not look beyond to-day and to-morrow, operates destructively and suicidally in all directions.

Hence only powers can work constructively, which stand in organic relation to Nature; and the profoundest essence of natural things can only be comprehended by means of sensibility. The intellect is not sufficient to sound the well of life. The Jewish mode of thinking is inorganic, and is, for that reason, incapable of creative operation.

[Page 210]

For that reason also, the Hebrews are incapable of forming a state of their own, for, in the last analysis, the state is of an organic nature, and endures only through organic laws. Society, in a well ordered state, requires organisation of the classes, a rational constructive policy, and internal connections — i.e., sound relations and ties with one another, which enable the concern, taken as a whole, to prosper. The Hebrew has no understanding for all this. He regards individual men merely as objects to be turned to profitable account, and is incapable of comprehending why these same men are desirous of retaining a scale in their social order, why they band together in organic associations the better to fulfil their duties as men and citizens. All this appears to him as foolish prejudice and antiquated institution; he would like to alter, loosen and dissolve everything in order to find an easy and convenient field for his profiteering operations. He is, therefore, hostile to all organic social creations: the guilds, the trade associations, the nobility, the army. These are like a thorn in his eye. He would like to disrupt and atomise them, and to isolate the members. He is guided in this policy by the calculation that he can deal better with the individual, and can more easily make him subservient to his aims than he can the compact whole. He calls this disruption of all organic structures, “bringing freedom”, “liberalising”; he knows how to delude men into believing that their organic connection is a barrier, which must be broken down, a fetter, which must be shaken off, in order to attain to true liberty — the liberty of the wolf amongst sheep.

Sombart remarks very appositely:

“The Jew is very sharp-sighted, but he does not see much. In the first place, he does not perceive that his environment is a living one. And, for this reason, feeling for what is singular in life, for its entirety, for its indivisibility, for what has organically developed, for what has grown naturally, is lost to him. Consequently all conditions and relations of dependence, which are built up on personality, such as personal rule, personal service, personal sacrifice, are foreign to him. The Jew, from his very disposition, is averse to all chivalry, to all sentiment, to all nobility, to all feudalism, to all patriarchism.

[Page 211]

He is also incapable of understanding a community, which is built up on the above relations. Everything to do with class or rank, everything incorporative is hateful to him. He is political individualist.” *

And yet he is individualist only in a restricted sense; he is himself the slave of a rigid principle, of a law of compulsion, which, in the place of a natural tie, binds him together with his kind. The Jew himself possesses no individuality; he is invariably only the more or less successful repetition of a Jewish pattern. The Jews, amongst themselves, resemble one another in their national characteristics to a much greater extent than the men of other nations; and the extraordinary limitation of their disposition is rooted in the above fact. The Hebrew is, as it were, an automaton, trained and adjusted to carry on definite social activities; he fulfils exactly the same functions in all grades of society. For this reason a Hebrew is easily replaced by another Hebrew, whilst the same cannot be said of men of other nations.

The Hebrew is now desirous of transferring this systematic constitution of the Jewish league, i.e., this mechanical placing together of elements all equal in value and devoid of individuality, to other social creations, and even to the state. He is unable to understand why organised society is on the defensive against this subjugation to one pattern, and he denounces this opposition to his endeavours to break up and dissolve, as “Reaction”. In reality, this reaction is the natural and healthy resistance, which an organised society evolves against the efforts of the Hebrew to introduce decay and dissolution; in other words, it is the instinct of self-preservation.

The actual and harmful reactionary is, on the contrary, the Hebrew, who checks the natural growth of national life by his plan to reduce all to one emasculated pattern, and who desires to force this life back into its primordial state — the struggle for existence of all against all. It is he who hinders natural development, and thereby disturbs the even progress of life.

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* We are justified in supposing that this train of thought on the part of Sombart was set in motion by the “Hammer”, which, ever since it was founded in 1902, has often thrown light upon the “Jew Question” from this point of view.

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[Page 212]

This fact, to our unspeakable misfortune, is only recognised by a few. The enormous liberation of energy, caused by the speculative principle of the Hebrew, and the enormous development of the external life caused thereby, deceive everyone as to the true state of affairs. The glitter and gleam all around us appear to many as the veritable light of life, but it is, in reality, only the phosphorescence of corruption. The Hebrew, by inciting to that wild struggle for existence, has forced into action the last reserves of national energy, and thus the national life itself seems to have experienced a tremendous stimulus; and yet it is only the waging of a desperate battle for mutual destruction, which must end suddenly from exhaustion.

But what does the Hebrew care about that! As a man who depends upon the momentary fluctuation of affairs, he derives his chief benefit from such conditions, and that is enough for him. Sombart says:

“The Jew brings everything into relation with his “I”. The questions, which have first claim on his interest, are: Why? To what purpose? Where do I come in? What do I get out of it? His real living interest is the interest for success. It is unJewish to regard an activity as an end in itself, to live life itself for its own sake, without purpose in accordance with destiny; it is unJewish to rejoice harmlessly in Nature. (Sombart page 230-31).”

And just as he is himself, so has the Jew devised his God. The Jewish God stands outside the pale of Nature as a despot, who alters the course of affairs arbitrarily to suit his purposes. He allows all kinds of miracles to take place, which are contrary to Nature, and arranges everything so that it turns out to the advantage of his favourite people.

 

 

3. Apparent Jewish Superiority.

When Sombart expresses the opinion:

“At the present day, the Jew of Western Europe no longer desires to retain his faith and his national peculiarity; he wishes, on the contrary, so far as national consciousness has not again been aroused in him, to allow his peculiarity to disappear as completely and quickly as possible, and to adopt the culture of the nations who act as host to him,”

we must ask circumspectly: where are the proofs of this suggested effort? Who authorises Sombart to assure us of this? For our part, we perceive and know just the contrary.

[Page 213]

It may well be conceded that, at the present day, the Hebrew is occasionally uncomfortable under his skin, since observant men have begun to make a practice of observing his activity, and are now revealing his tricks; it may well be the case at the present day that many a Jew no longer wishes to be recognised as such, and would prefer to change his appearance; the fact remains that it is simply impossible for the Jew to be absorbed by other nations, even if it were his wish. His distinctive nature is far too different from that of other nations, and moreover his self-esteem is too great. He has no intention of resigning his privilege of being regarded as a “chosen people.” But the aversion also of the other nations, so far as a healthy instinct is still alive in them, will protest against any such fusion. Certain sections of society, which have already completed their resemblance to the Hebrew, represent types of degeneration doomed, in any case, to disappear. It is only the degenerate who shows inclination towards the Hebrew; the former, by the loss of the finer instincts, has sacrificed his real manhood, has been discarded by nature, and sinks into that swamp of corruption represented by Hebrewdom — the dregs of culture.

The following judgement concerning the Jews testifies that Sombart, in his scientific positiveness, is gradually working round to our perception, even though it may be in a circuitous manner:

“His intuition has not grown out of his innermost being, but is a product of the head. His stand-point is not the level earth, but an artificial building in the air. He is not organic original but mechanic-rational. He is not rooted in the mother-soil of sensibility — instinct.”

All this is covered by the perception expressed a long time ago by the Anti-Semites. Only, at the same time, it must not be forgotten: the Jewish entity, and its inward perception of life, is certainly an artificial creation of the intellect; but, in the course of thousands of years, it has become so ingrained in the Hebrew — has entered so thoroughly into his flesh and blood, that he is actually less capable of changing his skin than the representative of any other race.

[Page 214]

He certainly possesses adroitness enough to adopt superficially the manners, and even the mode of thinking, of others; he has sufficient powers of dissimulation and of acting, to make us believe that he is a being very similar to ourselves; but, in the end, the unadulterated Hebrew always comes to the surface again.

This pliancy, this outward adaptability, this talent for representing one’s self as something different to what one really is, might appear admirable to us, if it was not at the same time so dangerous. All these Hebrew talents are only means to mislead us, and to make us subservient to the designs of the stranger. It is correct that the Hebrew, regarded from a purely intellectual point of view, appears to display great superiority in a number of respects, the questionable value and unquestionable danger of which are only recognised by the instinct of fine-feeling. We may admire the Jew from an intellectual point of view, but our feelings reject him.

Sombart speaks appositely concerning the “moral mobility” of the Jew; in the pursuit of his purposes:

“no irksome restrictions of a moral or aesthetic nature are allowed to intervene.”

His morality is lax and elastic; he is ready, at any minute, to proclaim that odd is even if he sees any advantage in doing so.

“In this respect his poorly developed sense for what one can call personal dignity, is of assistance to him. It is very little exertion to him to deny what he has himself said, when it is a question of accomplishing his purpose.”

Thus writes Sombart on page 327. In reality, the Hebrew possesses so little of what we call character, that he is ready at all times to barter his honour and self-respect for material advantage. An old proverb says:

“The Jew will wade through seven puddles, in order to possess one groschen more.”

[Page 215]

With the help of the Talmudic schooling, the Hebrews are educated to become cunning pettifoggers, for, from youth upwards, the practice of dissimulation is enjoined upon them, practically as a command. There is, accordingly, little cause for surprise when they distinguish themselves later on in life as lawyers, journalists and actors. The art, of being able to transpose one’s self quickly into a strange world of ideas, is absolutely essential to speculative dealing; if the Jew did not possess it, how else would he gain respite for himself, entirely dependent as he is on the exploitation of other men, and on the misuse of law and thought? The advantages, possessed by the Jew, mirror his weaknesses; these are shiftiness, evasion, adroitness in escaping from embarrassing situations, all of which he requires in order to conceal his failings from us.

There is a well-known contradictory principle in Nature, whereby she endeavours to conceal and compensate for prominent defects by other qualities. She provides weak, defenceless creatures with properties or qualities, which serve as a means of protection against the pursuing enemy. Thus Nature protects the young birds in their nests by their revolting ugliness, other animals by an obnoxious smell or by a disagreeable secretion, the snail, for instance, by a nasty slime. And, in the same way, Nature dispenses properties to a section of mankind, burdened with hereditary weakness, which must serve as a protection. Even the evasive intelligence, craft and cunning are protective qualities of this order, and they are to be found amongst the weak and the criminal. Men of great bodily strength are, for the most part, open and upright, good-natured, patient and obliging. They can put up with a good deal, without losing their tempers, because they know that when the decisive moment arrives, they can rely upon their good, natural strength, which, if required, will sweep every obstacle out of the way. This good-nature and this indulgence, which are sometimes taken for weakness, but which are, in reality, only an expression of self-confidence or assurance, are occasionally displayed also by men of mind and character. On the other hand, it is a matter of common knowledge that weakly and deformed beings display a sharp mental activity, which can even become caustic, and which represents, in their case, a means of defence to protect them against unexpected attacks.

[Page 216]

The situation of the Hebrew, when he finds himself in the presence of honest men, is analogous. He, the weakling, who is incapable anywhere of shaping a life for himself by his own exertions, whom political incapacity has condemned to lead a parasitic existence amongst other nations, he, who is wanting in all the higher mental powers necessary to produce an imaginative and creative culture: he, it is, who has been equipped with a cunning intellect, and with boundless impudence and slyness as a means of defence. In reality, the Hebrew is the mental cripple amongst mankind, the type of intellectual deformity. The Jew represents the lower side of human nature.

Let those wonder at him who will: we should only feel sorry for him if he did not happen to be, at the same time, a poisonous snake, which endangers the peace and safety of honest humanity everywhere.

But the slyness of mind, and the threadbare morality are still not sufficient to assure him of prosperity; he requires yet another weapon for defence and attack, in order to outwit and overcome honest people. As a substitute for the natural ability, which he does not possess, he has created for himself a principle, in which an almost demoniacal force resides, viz Money-Capital. Money plays so great a part in the existence of the Jew, that the individual sinks into insignificance when compared with material possession.

“Whoever does not pay to me my money, deprives me of my honour”,

wrote old Amschel Mayer Rothschild to the Elector William II. (see page 37), and the socialist leader, Carl Marx, who was himself of Jewish origin, admitted that “money is the real secular deity of Jewdom”. From an allegorical point of view it is worthy of note, that the Hebrews erected a golden calf on Mount Sinai, and arranged a dance around it. This is also recognised by Sombart.

“Money, and the increase of money, must always be the centre of interest for Jews, just as it is for capitalism. Not merely because its abstract nature is congenial to the equally abstract nature of the Jew, but, above all, because the appreciation of money is in conformity with another leading trait in the Jewish character viz teleologism. Money is the absolute means: it has but one meaning with regard to the purpose to be realised.”

[Page 217]

Sombart expresses himself as above in his scientific German, and thereby recognises money as the highest potential in all Jewish endeavour.

Money is, however, an imaginary value, an artificial creation of human speculation. It has nothing to do with nature, nothing to do with organic things; it has no inner relation to the being of mankind. Money does not make a man stronger, wiser or nobler; the capability alone, conferred on it by the human imagination, of possessing, not only buying power, but — in the form of loan capital — power to produce interest, has invested it with an almost supernatural might. And this imaginary might has been recognised by the Hebrew, as the correct means to provide him with a substitute for his deficient powers. Money places the sub-man in the position to pose almost as a super-man, and to force all human affairs under his yoke.

Of what then does the renowned Jewish superiority consist? In reality, of a kind of mental provocation and harassing. It is precisely because the distinctive nature of the Hebrew is averse to Nature, that he is destined to deceive and over-reach the man who thinks naturally. It is because the Jew does not think organically, and consequently does not think naturally, that the unspoilt and unaffected man is unable to keep pace with his speculations. Whilst we are accustomed to think straightforwardly, the Jew thinks, as it were, “round the corner”; his mental process is perverse, warped, subverted. Consequently his conclusions confound all natural logic. It frequently happens that a man, who has been overreached by a Jew, is unable to restrain a feeling, akin to admiration, for the cunning deceiver. The unnatural sequence of Jewish thoughts confuse a natural brain, so that it loses the power of thinking logically while under the influence of the seductive language of the Hebrew, and falls into a kind of stupor, a condition in which, a weak-willed man, or a man who is unable to think quickly, is inclined to succumb to the influence of an external will.

[Page 218]

This power of suggestion, which operates by imposing one’s own will upon another, is one of the most dangerous means employed by Hebrewdom to infatuate, not only individuals, but whole nations. There is scarcely any other way to explain this extraordinary state of infatuation, in which the civilised nations of to-day find themselves, when confronted with Hebrewdom, than by describing it as the result of a kind of suggestion or mesmerism. Indeed, both states and their populations scarcely know what is really happening to them since the Hebrew, in addition to the demoniacal power of money, has also enlisted that gigantic power to deceive and mislead, which the public press possesses, in order to hypnotise everybody and to paralyse their mental activities.

Perhaps, however, it only requires an unmasking of the hypnotic agent, and a thorough exposure of his dishonest expedients, to break the spell for ever.

[Page 219]

 

Version History

 

Version 2: Added chapter links and new cover image – Sep 27, 2014

 

Version 1: Published May 21, 2014