From 'Judas' to 'Jewish Capital'
Antisemitic Forms of Thought in the German Communist Party (KPD) in the Weimar Republic, 1918-1933
Engage Journal 2
On the occasion of an event initiated by the KPD, Wofür starb Schlageter? Kommunismus, Faschismus und die politische Entscheidung der Studenten [Why did Schlageter die? Communism, fascism and the students’ political decision] in Berlin in the summer of 1923, Ruth Fischer, who was the head of the party’s Zentrale [Central], in an attempt to win over to the KPD the nationalist students who had gathered there, used this argument:
“You cry out against Jewish capital [Judenkapital], gentlemen? Whoever condemns Jewish capital, gentlemen, is already engaged in the class struggle, even though he doesn’t realize it. You are against Jewish capital and want to eliminate the stock manipulators. Rightly so. Trample the Jewish capitalists under foot, hang them from the street-lamps, stamp them out. But what do you want to do with the large capitalists, the Klöckner, Stinnes…?”