138 Chapter 6
patedChamberlainin his conventionaldenunciationof Jews.Kant,too,believedthe
stereotypethat Jewsare too usurious:“The Palestinianswholive amongus havethe well-
meritedreputationof beingsharpers,owingto the spiritof usurywhichholdssway
amongstmostof them.It is truethat it seemsodd to imaginea nationof swindlersbut it is
equallydifficultto imaginea nationof merchants,” for suchmerchants“do not aspireto
civicvirtuebut wishto compensatetheirshortcomingin this respectby the benefitsthey
derivefromdeceivingthe peoplewhograntthemprotection.. .” But that is exactlywhat
KantbelievesJewsto be—“a nationcomposedmerelyof merchants,thatis to say of
unproductivemembersof society.. .”^45
FoundationsavailedChamberlainmuchacclaimin Germany.In partdue to the work’s
anti-Semitism,it wonthe manan audiencewithKaiserFriedrich Wilhelm.Then,in
Chamberlain’s twilightyears,he andHitlerdevelopeda mutualadmirationfor one an-
otherand corresponded.Hitlerconsideredone of the greatestmomentsof his life to be his
comingface-to-facewitha wheelchair-boundChamberlain.^46 On thatcriticalmomentin
history,Chamberlainexpressedto Hitlerhis gratitudefor seeingthroughChamberlain’s
workto its naturalend.^47 In kind,the futureFührerkissedthe academician’s hands.^48
MeinKampfitselfcitesChamberlainby name.The Nazimanifestowailsthat Germanylost
the firstWorldWarfor the reasonthat those“whohad the Governmentof the countryin
theirhandswere... indifferentto the principlesof civilwisdomlaiddownby thinkers
like HoustonStewartChamberlain.. .”^49
The ideologyof bothGobineauand Chamberlainfounda pathinto the headof French
anthropologistGeorgesVacherde Lapouge(1854–1936).^50 Lapouge,whoalsoinfluenced
Hitler,hatedespecialethnicgroupson accountof theseethnicitiesbeingstereotypedas
merchantpeoples.Mossewritesthatin the viewof Lapouge,“the inferiorracessuchas
the yellowraceandthe Jewswerewithoutscruplesandhadno senseof values,being
whollycommercial.Thebourgeoisiein de Lapouge’s racialanalogyseemsthe enemy
oncemore... the Jew lovesspeculationfor its ownsake.... the Aryanmiddleclasscan
onlysurviveby destroyingthe Jewishbourgeoisie.” Lapougejudgedthat the socialprob-
lemsthat camewith“urbanismand plutocracy” couldbe ascribeda “‘Judaized’ economic
system.”^51 Noticingthatanti-capitalismandracismweretraitsLapougesharedwith
variousmembersof the politicalLeft,Mosseadmits,“De Lapougeand othertheoreticians
of race” were“not so far removedfromthe contemporaryFabianSocialists,particularly
SidneyandBeatriceWebb.... For this meantthatthe one racewhichwasbestfittedto
buildsocialismwouldbe overrunby mongrels.... Socialismandeugenicswerenot
inherentlyconflictingconcepts,and neitheroccasionallyweresocialismand race.”^52 Poli-
akovpointsout thatLudwigWoltmannfollowedLapouge’s ideas,andthatWoltmann
himselfservedas a rolemodelto the Third-Reich-appointedeugenicspolicyofficers
EugenFischer,FritzLenz,and Otmarvon Verschuer.^53 Poliakovwritesthat Fisher,“who
wasthe firstto applyMendel’s lawsto ‘racialhygiene,’ declaredin 1934that he had been
the firstto propagateWoltmann’s ideasin a universityfacultyandto have‘inflamed
youngheartswithenthusiasmfor racialscience.’”^54
Meanwhile,FrancisGalton’s teachingson eugenicsgainedan audienceamongboth
AmericanCharlesDavenportandGermanbiologistErnstHaeckel(1834–1919).Haeckel,
thoughstill unawareof Chamberlain’s work,had alreadyconcludedthatbiologyproved
the inherentsuperiorityof native-bornGermansoverJews.^55 CitingGobineau,Haeckel
proclaimsthatthe “lowerraces(suchas the Veddahsor Australiannegroes)are psycho-
logicallynearerto the mammals(apesor dogs)thanto civilizedEuropeans;we must,
therefore,assigna totallydifferentvalueto theirlives.”^56
In 1900,Haeckelsat on the six-memberpanelof judgesthatevaluatedthe sixtyessays
submitted in Alfred Krupp’s eugenicist essay contest.When in 1905 Alfred Ploetz
foundedthe Societyfor RacialHygiene,^57 he namedHaeckelits honorarychair,^58 with