Designs for Anti-Jewish Policy in Germany up to the Nazi Rule
In the 1880s antisemitic elements and parties in Germany and Austria attempted, unsuccessfully, to pressurize their respective parliaments to renege on the Jewish Emancipation principles of equality of rights. In the early 1900s academics and students continued to battle for curtailment of Jewish equality. In 1918 the Society against Jewish Arrogance published its blatantly antisemitic “German Regulations for the Jews.” Five years later the National Socialists republished this radical program, hoping it would lead to complete exclusion of Jews from German society. However, it was not generally accepted at that time. Hitler, the head of the small, nascent National Socialist Party was more concerned with foreign policy in the 1920s when his party had few representatives in the Reichstag. However, they did attempt to push through anti-Jewish legislation including a numerus clausus in institutions of higher learning. Most Germans were surprised in June 1932 when Goering presented Nazi proposals for an anti-Jewish racial policy, which were passed in the Reichstag. The draft was unacceptable to Hitler, who wished to move more slowly on this subject.
