Politics of resentment · Austria · Late nineteenth century–1910
Karl Lueger made anti-Jewish resentment part of a successful political appeal.
Explore AustriaPublished by WTJPublication updated
Late nineteenth century–1910
Politics of resentment · Antisemitism wins a place at city hall
Karl Lueger made anti-Jewish resentment part of a successful political appeal.
A changing city creates anxieties
Industrialization and urban growth changed work and status in Vienna. Antisemitic politicians offered a simple explanation for those pressures: Jews were supposedly behind the changes ordinary people disliked. The claim converted complicated social conditions into blame against a minority.
Karl Lueger’s political weapon
Karl Lueger, Vienna’s mayor from 1897 to 1910, used antisemitic rhetoric in Christian Social politics. Jewish residents could be depicted as hostile to the interests of ordinary citizens. A prejudice became more influential when a prominent elected politician gave it public legitimacy.
Equality meets the ancestry test
Nineteenth-century emancipation had widened Jewish rights. Modern antisemites responded by claiming ancestry made Jews permanently different, whatever their faith or civic contribution. This changed the terms of exclusion: neither conversion nor citizenship could satisfy an ideology that defined belonging through supposedly fixed race.