THIRD THOUGHTS ON GERMAN AND AUSTRIAN ANTISEMITISM

The last forty years have seen an explosion of scholarly writings on the subject of German and Austrian antisemitism, in contrast to the paucity of such publications in the preceding decades. While some interpretations, like those derived from Marxism and Freudian psychoanalysis, have declined in favour, there has been an increase in sophisticated studies of local developments and of the role of antisemitism in party political, associational and cultural life. This has resulted in a much better understanding of the temporal, geographical and ideological fluctuations of antisemitic sentiment, and of its general place in the political development of Germany and Austria.1