1. Coursework mini session: Anti-Semitism

2. Problem 1: The big picture
One of your key elements in this coursework is your 100 year coverage. This is not just about looking at individual events in an isolated context, but about the big picture and tracking AS throughout the 100 year period. Whilst your individual events are important, you need to place them in the context of what is happening at the time, what has happened before and what will go on to happen. If you don’t do this then there are issues such as:
Mein Kampf –if you ONLY look at this for the press and literature in Weimar Germany then it would infer that this is the norm when in fact this is anything but the case.
A similar thing applies to the murder of Walter Rathenau
You also end up with large ‘chunks’ of time unaccounted for such as the period 1819 (Hep-Hep) to 1922 (Murder of WR) and we lose sense of what is actually happening with regards to AS.
DON’T PANIC - On the whole, much of the things you will be adding in will be brief and in some ways will form part of your explanation in to why there is an anomaly or not.

3. Lets start at the very beginning, it’s a very good place to start…
You need to be bringing in the big picture and the 100 year coverage in your introduction. You can do this by:
Mentioning the time frame (ie )
Summarising how Anti-Semitism has changed over time period
You should also think about providing some context with regards to the Jews and their standing within Germany. For example, Jews only make up for approximately 0.78% of the population in Germany.

4. Criteria
This proving to be a challenge for some. And before you rush to write it down you should think about:
What Anti-Semitism is and the different ways it can be expressed. Therefore break this down and look at it from different angles.
You should also remember that your question is about the German people and so think about what you expect from them.
You should also mention that this is something you expect to see only under the Nazis, as the question is asking whether the anomaly is in this period.
Judgement
You should try to avoid sweeping statements that encapsulate all of the German people or the fact it goes from one extreme to another. Think very carefully about what you want to say and what judgement you want running through. For example don’t just say that there was not an anomaly of Anti- Semitism. This is too broad. You need to think about what evidence you have and what that tells you.

5. Historians
Which ever historian you are looking at, you need to remember they have not written a book about your question. Whilst there are parts of the book that will apply, you should not bend their arguments to ‘fit’. If the historians cover it then you should refer to what they say (such as Goldhagen does look at Kristallnacht) and you should look to other historians to help you with your other events.
Therefore they should not have to appear in every paragraph, what should be there though is your judgement and how the evidence is supporting it.

6. 100 years
1819 – The cause of the Hep-Hep riots in 1819 is often described as a backlash to the Jews wanting emancipation. The fact is that they had asked for this back in and therefore it is more likely economic factors that caused the riots to occur. Therefore to say that the German people at this stage are Anti-Semitic is not necessarily true ad this something we should think about moving forward when we look at other events.
The Jews at this stage are also not full citizens and they do face some discriminatory laws (eg. Restrictions on Jobs)
During this time Germany was not unified comprised of many different smaller states. Between the years 1848 and 1850 had shown that there was popular demand for a united, federal Germany with a national parliament led by Prussia. During this period we see the start of the emancipation process and eventually the unification of Germany This is when we start to see Germany how we know it today. This started the democratic process which peaked during the Weimar period, before ending under a dictatorship under the Nazis.
Therefore it is important to remember that for the most part Germany is not a democracy during our period and therefore the freedom that comes with it is limited.
To get a good idea about this and put some of your events into context, look at the following:
- Growth of German nationalism
- Growth of German nationalism

7. When commenting on the large gaps (particularly the period after 1819 – Kaiser or Weimar) where nothing happens you should think about why that is the case and also what does tell us about Anti-Semitism and our question. During this period we see Jews starting to be recognised more as citizens (unlike previously). What would you expect to see if the German people were Anti-Semitic? You should however comment on the press and literature that we seen during this time, but think about how much of this is a reflection of the people as a whole and how popular was it.
When we move into the period of Kaiser Wilhelm II, whilst it is clear he is Anti- Semitic to a degree, the question is not about him. You need to pay closer attention to the constitution and the reaction by the people as this was not Anti-Semitic. Although, some institutions such as the Army are prejudice towards the Jews.

8. When we move into the Weimar period again, we need to think about how do people react on the whole to the fact that it is in the period Jews have the most rights. Germany at this time is considered the most liberal in Europe and we see people like Hugo Preuss wo was a Jew and helped draft the constitution for the Weimar government. Therefore the murder of Walter Rathenau is almost an anomaly during tis period. However, to say there was no violence is an oversimplification and in particular if you belonged to one of the lower classes (as described by Niewyk Pg. 10 of AS textbook) then it is likely you would experience some violence.
For more information on anti-Semitism and Jews during the Weimar period refer to Anti- Semitism textbook.

9. By 1935 the Nazis take the AS laws further with the Nuremburg Laws and the Reich Citizenship Law which prohibited marriages between Jews and non-Jews and it determined who was a Jew and who wasn’t. This had a mixed response, as there were many Jews who felt that by having this it would stop the Jews from dying out and the fact they account for such a small amount of the population. The ones most affected by it were the liberal Jews who did not necessarily see themselves as Jews prior to the laws. Therefore we see no upheaval.
With something like the Reich Citizenship Law, whilst it was a change compared to the Weimar and Kaiser period, it took the Jews back to a similar social standing to that at the start of our 100 year period.
From this point on we see the systematic discrimination of the Jews taking place, mainly due to the fact they can identify who is a Jew and who is not.

10. Also when looking at the Weimar period it is important to remember that again Mein Kampf is not a reflection of the whole German people and tat there are other elements to his book that would appeal to the people of Germany on the back of a crisis like there was in You need to think that people start to look for alternatives and people to blame when things start to go wrong in society.
Therefore when the Nazis do move into power the Nazis were not able to just come in and start persecuting the Jews. The initial AS laws that started to emerge in 1933 were generally weak, mainly because no-one knew what it meant to be classes as a Jew. For example, when the law came out that said Jews no longer were allowed to hold civil service jobs, in the end the had to back track and two thirds did. You also need to remember that Jews account for a very small percentage of the population and therefore most people would not have felt any affect to this happening.

11. Value of primary sources
When you talk about value with your primary source you only need to look at it in terms of the insight it gives you into Anti- Semitism at that time. For example:
Provenance – a girl writing to her brother – limited view as it does not necessarily reflect the view of other people at this time, especially as she is of Jewish heritage she is likely to be sympathetic compared to those who aren’t. Bring in some brief own knowledge about who started the riots and why to show how this persons view is limited. It is also limited as it is only addressed to her brother.
Tone – angry - quote examples – It is valuable as it reflects her feelings as to what has happened and is clearly affected by it. It also reflects that she does not support what has happened. However, like with provenance, this view does not fully replicate that of the German people. Try and bring in a brief part of your own knowledge with this.
Argument – the use of the phrase ‘in a way that I have never experienced before’ would imply that this is something out of the norm and therefore AS is not something she experiences on a regular basis. You could then bring in some own knowledge here with regards to how hep hep mainly occurs as a result of the economic situation at the time, and not an on-going issue of German people being AS.
(you should try to add in more points to this. You only really need to pull out 2 arguments though, so try not to go overboard with that section. You will need to bring in own knowledge to emphasis why it is strong or limited, though keep this brief too and try not to repeat yourself)
Once you have gone through provenance, tone and argument in this way you then need a sentence at the end which will then link it back to the question - for example:
Whilst this is a limited source in terms of the value, it does show us that violence towards the Jews during this period were a lot less frequent compared to the violence Jews experienced under the Nazis. Therefore the level of violence was an anomaly under the Nazis and AS more common, which is a reflection of the government rather than the people themselves. (look at the parts I have put in bold in terms of phrasing – by doing this it is not saying violence is an anomaly as that is not true, it is about the amount that we see – you should think about this moving forward with other parts of your work and having a sustained argument, without it being too overreaching).
With your Nazi source you should find it easier as this can automatically link in to the question.