Bibliographical references included in "Notes": pages 321-357

From romanticism to the Volk -- A Germanic faith -- The new romanticism -- Ancient Germans rediscovered -- Racism -- Germanic utopias -- The Jew -- Education comes to the aid -- The youth movement -- University students and professors on the March -- Leadership, Bund, and Eros -- Organizations carry on -- Bedeviled conservatives -- Veterans and workers -- From bourgeois to anti-bourgeois youth -- A German revolution -- The anti-Jewish revolution

The unification of Germany in 1871 disappointed many Germans from the bourgeois and educated classes: it was seen as too materialistic, and they thought that the Germans failed to achieve inner, spiritual unity through the establishment of the Empire. This disappointment brought about the rise of the "völkisch" movement, which rejected modernity and stressed the unity of the Germans through the bond of German "blood and soil". The "völkisch" ideology acquired traits of a national religion, in which antisemitism was an important element. The stereotyped "rootless" and "soulless" Jew seemed to be the enemy of the "Volk". Gradually, "völkisch" antisemitism acquired a racist and mystical character. Dwells on the rightist conservative organizations and youth movements (e.g. the Pan-German Association, the Wandervögel) that belonged to the "völkisch" movement and shared its antisemitism. Nazism was a natural outgrowth of the this movement. Hitler transformed its anti-capitalism into antisemitism, radicalized the latter and made it into a political vehicle. The Nazi idea found its greatest support among the educated classes, just like the "völkisch" idea had had its appeal to them before 1914. Antisemitism was not transitory, but endemic to Nazism. Dwells, also, on another party that grew out of the "völkisch" movement - the Deutschnationale Volkspartei (1918-33), and on the transformation of its antisemitism. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism)