Karl Lueger (1844-1910) was elected mayor of Vienna in 1897. During that time Vienna had a vibrant Jewish community going back to the 12th century.
Lueger’s eventual election had been blocked four times by the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph who considered him a dangerous revolutionary and anti-Semite. However after Pope Leo XIII personally intervened , Lueger eventaully succeeded in being elected mayor and transformed Vienna into a modern garden city with excellent infrastructure. Vienna became a city of elegance, Strauss waltzes, art, and learning. Viennese Jews were part of Lueger’s success, enriching its intellectual and cultural life with the likes of Freud, Mahler, Schnitzler, Stefan Zweig and Herzl.
Herzl disturbed by Lueger’s antisemitism had met Lueger many times to persuade him to support the emigration of Jews to Palestine even before the Dreyfus Affair became a public campaign. These meetings were fruitless.
As a lawyer, Lueger was known as the “little people’s advocate” while his mentor Ignaz Mandl, a popular Jewish physician and local politician, was called “god of the little people.” Their relationship ended when Lueger’s anti-semitic populism became untenable.
Lueger had previously been elected to the Austrian Lower House . He soon learned that galvanising the masses was the key to success. Lueger also understood what appealed to the masses. Thus he included overt and crass antisemitism to his platform which increased his popularity. He made a point of referring to the “Jewish Question” in his speeches. At the time, antisemitism became the sine qua non of politicians who eyed success.
The combination of mindless populism with antisemitism certainly worked!
One of Lueger’s fans was a youthful Hitler, who later praised him in his book Mein Kampf. He understood the winning formula as adoring Germans and Austrians eagerly listened to his speeches. That did not eventually work out too well as Germany and Austria were badly defeated with ruined cities and lost territory. Nazi loving Palestinian Arabs forget that part of history.
Astonishingly, Lueger had many Jewish friends who considered him a decent and tolerant man. When questioned about having Jewish friends, Lueger retorted,” I decide who is Jewish.”
Lueger therefore had no problem inciting hatred of Jews to win votes while expediently having Jewish friends at the same time. We have a similar situation today in America with NY mayoral candidate, Israel hating, global intifada advocate Mamdani supported by many non-Orthodox Jews.
Western governments eyeing their woke-ist and growing Muslim populations embrace or tolerate anti-Zionist /anti -Israel incitement. These governments tend to be left of centre/Labour/Socialists. Hence Spain, Ireland, UK, Canada, Australia, France and others fall into that category. These governments also embrace the populist Arab Palestinianism with all its trimmings. They have romanticised hatred of Israel by marches such as on Sydney Harbour Bridge, chanting slogans and wearing keffiyeh scarves.
Lueger’s Vienna is no longer the gracious clean beautiful city it once was. Other cities in Europe such as London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, Stockholm have gone the same way. Changing demographics, low fertility rates, poverty and major cultural changes with growing Muslim communities have coincided with rampant antisemitism. Leftist governments with leaders such as Macron, Starmer, Carney, Albanese and others have seen, as Lueger did, what galvanises the masses for political success.
Sadly and also mindlessly, this includes - in a post Holocaust world - the demonization of the Jewish State of Israel. (And now, as Rabbi Shmuley Boteach discovered several days ago, it includes beating Jews wearing skullcaps who are then accused by the police of being the assailant. Read about it here.)
Did these governments forget or not know that during Lueger’s time, the phrase “ antisemitism is the socialism of fools,” was coined?
Ron J. Hutter is the author of the satire on antisemitism “The Trombone Man: Tales of a Misogynist.”