Antisemitism in Galicia

In the last third of the nineteenth century, the discourse on the “Jewish question” in the Habsburg crownlands of Galicia changed fundamentally, as clerical and populist politicians emerged to denounce the Jewish assimilation and citizenship. This pioneering study investigates the interaction of agitation, violence, and politics against Jews on the periphery of the Danube monarchy. In its comprehensive analysis of the functions and limitations of propaganda, rumors, and mass media, it shows just how significant antisemitism was to the politics of coexistence among Christians and Jews on the eve of the Great War.

Tim Buchen is the BKM Junior Professor for Social and Economic Networks of Germans in Eastern Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries at Technische Universität Dresden.

“Buchen’s sophisticated and highly original study is an important reminder of the intractability of this modern sociopolitical reality.” • Austrian History Yearbook

“This is probably the most persuasive historical study of anti-Jewish violence to be published in recent years … Buchen never loses sight of his real human protagonists and is able to convincingly describe their motives.” • H-Soz-u-Kult

“Tim Buchen's prize-winning work casts a bright light on the massive wave of antisemitic violence inflicted on West Galician rural and shtetl Jewry by Polish villagers … This book is a watershed in connecting Christian-Jewish relations to the emergence of modern mass politics in the Polish lands.” • Pol-Int