Mirror of Competing Claims: Antisemitism and Citizenship in Vormärz Germany

Abstract

Abstract:The Haber Affair of 1843 became a cause célèbre within German society as it pitted the traditional elites against more liberal groups who sought inclusion of outsiders and a fundamental re-organization of society along bourgeois lines. Caught between these groups was Moritz von Haber, the son of an ennobled court banker. These groups viewed the Haber Affair through their personal views of Haber and his perceived transgressions, but ultimately as a litmus test of the limits of Jewish integration and whether or not German Jews deserved full emancipation. The Haber Affair also demonstrated how latent Jew-hatred could be re-activated quickly in society and how the German State participated in fomenting this violence.