Jewish Philosophical Politics in Germany, 1789-1848

Jews between Volk and Proletariat { 167

this marvelous manure has propagated itself. All Jew friends and the Jews

have up to now acted as though there were no such thing as Kritik. In order

to be complete and to put all theology—including theological privilege—out

of business, Kritik must now direct itself against Judaism [das Judenthum],

the most disgusting form of privilege and monopoly.^78

Bauer mentions in this letter that he had submitted the essay to the Rheinische

Zeitung but that it had been rejected by the censor, which he imagines must

have come as a relief to the newspaper’s publishers, in particular Oppenheim (a

Jewish convert to Protestantism).^79 Bauer continues:

But Jewishness [das jüdische] so forcefully asserts privilege and monopoly

that even the baptized ones can’t dispense with monopoly. Those dogs want

to have a monopoly against Kritik—quintessentially Jewish, all monopoly is

Jewish—and the stupid Jew friends have all failed to see where the snag is

that has got everything caught up.... There is only One salvation, only One

possibility of progress: the break with all half-measures and all that is illu-

sory! Thoroughgoing Kritik.... The deeper the concentration and the more

austere the objective, the more enemies we will have, the more we will move

forward, the clearer the cause will become, the more the friends of the old will

stand out as embarrassed, baffled, and helpless, the more possible it will be

that the all-deciding hour will arrive, the more we will act on the people [das

Volk], and the more and better friends we will acquire.^80

Beyond Bauer’s outspoken aversion to Judentum (it is the “most disgusting

form of privilege and monopoly”; the essential Jewish penchant for monopoly is

not altered by conversion; the opponents of Bauer’s form of critique are “dogs”

and “quintessentially Jewish” because “all monopoly is Jewish”), this passage

underscores Bauer’s aim to be as provocative as possible. He declares war on

any incrementalism that would seek to increase freedoms within the terms set

by the Christian state. Referring to this letter, Hans-Martin Sass remarks: “The

campaigns of pure Kritik, against all the rules of warcraft, aim to involve as many

opponents as possible in the most decisive battles possible at the same time.”^81

Rather than support Jewish emancipation as a pragmatic step in the right di-

rection (as Marx consistently did) Bauer’s Die Judenfrage attacks it—from an

aggressively antipragmatic position—as an instance of half-measure, a com-

promise, a step that fails to break radically with the logic of privilege. Bauer’s

strategy is to polarize maximally, both by arguing against any form of compro-

mise with the logic of privilege and by intentionally provoking the defenders of

causes (in particular Jewish emancipation) that, in his eyes, manifested such a