This volume examines selected works of German literature from Gustav Freytag to Joseph Goebbels
in relation to ethical socio-economic and political texts from the economic take off period
in the middle of the nineteenth century up to the rise of National Socialism and investigates
two aspects of anti-Semitic anti-capitalistic representations contained therein. First it
traces how the Jews gained the dubious distinction of being the inventors even embodiment of
capitalism and elaborates on negative traits assigned to both of them. Second it examines how
representations of specifically Jewish capitalists were instrumentalized both to discredit
laissez faire and simultaneously to assist in the definition of a specifically German
socio-economic ethos.
