Jewish Philosophical Politics in Germany, 1789-1848
amelia
(Amelia)
#1
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