Opinion in Germany
After World War I, Germans from Marxist to ultra-conservative were united in looking forward to their nation's regeneration, but they differed as to how regeneration was to be accomplished and where to cast blame for their nation's troubles. Public opinion in Germany was like public opinion elsewhere: it contained portions of half-truths, untruths and myth. Many Germans blamed their nation's troubles on the old regime of Wilhelm II for losing the war and for having turned power over to the socialists. Some blamed their nation's defeat on those who had signed the armistice, seeing these men as traitors and pacifistic cowards. They believed that the German army had marched home in tact after having been stabbed in the back.
Prominent among those believed to be traitors were Jews -- among them the murdered Communist leaders, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, and Kurt Eisner, who had led the takeover Communist takeover in Bavaria. The leaders of the Bolshevik Revolution were thought to be predominately Jewish -- as was Leon Trotsky, Gregory Zinoviev and Karl Radek. Béla Kun, who led the Soviet regime in Hungary, was also Jewish -- as was Karl Marx. Many Germans who opposed Communism saw Jews as inclined to be internationalist rather than loving the German fatherland, because, they believed, the Jews had a heritage of wandering and rootlessness.
Many Germans saw little difference between the Communists and the Social Democrats who had taken power in Germany just before the Armistice. The Social Democrats were traditionally a Marxist party. They still had a red flag, although they had long given up on Marx's idea of revolution. And seeing the Social Democrats as internationalist like the Jews, some Germans -- including the decorated war veteran, Adolf Hitler -- associated the Social Democrats with Jews.
Germans tended to look upon themselves as a superior people. It was a view that had been reinforced by Germany's accomplishments in science and industry. From reading the ancient Roman historian, Tacitus, some Germans believed that Germans had an inborn special character. Tacitus had described Germans as a people who did not mix with other tribes. And believing themselves superior, most Germans saw this as having benefited their nation, and they disapproved of Germans interbreeding with lesser breeds - including Jews.
Anti-Semitism in Germany dated back to Martin Luther, the founder of Protestantism. Luther had wanted Germany to deprive its Jews of all their cash, jewels, silver and gold. He had wanted their synagogues set afire, their homes destroyed and Jews driven out of the country. In the late nineteenth century, when people were superimposing Darwin's theory of evolution onto social development, anti-Semitism in Germany -- as well as elsewhere -- received a boost with enhanced concern about bloodlines and race. And Germany's anti-Semitism had some of its roots in its peasantry's opposition to the big cities.
Perhaps anti-Semitism was greater in Germany than in Italy or France because Germany had more Jews per capita. Nevertheless, the Jews in Germany were but a small percentage of the population: 0.9 percent, compared to 0.5 percent in France, and 0.13 percent in Italy. In absolute numbers, about 600,000 Jews lived in Germany, as opposed to about 100,000 in France and 45,000 in Italy.