“In 1894, historian Theodor Mommsen wrote that the root cause of the anti-Semitic ‘affliction’ was ‘envy and the basest instincts,… a barbaric hatred for education, freedom, and humanism.”

—  Götz Aly

Source: Why the Germans? Why the Jews?: Envy, Race Hatred, and the Prehistory of the Holocaust (2011), p. 31

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In 1894, historian Theodor Mommsen wrote that the root cause of the anti-Semitic ‘affliction’ was ‘envy and the basest …" by Götz Aly?
Götz Aly photo
Götz Aly 10
German journalist, historian and social scientist 1947

Related quotes

A.C. Cuza photo
Joseph Massad photo
Eric Hoffer photo

“It is not love of self but hatred of self which is at the root of the troubles that afflict our world.”

Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher

Section 100
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)
Context: The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves.
It is not love of self but hatred of self which is at the root of the troubles that afflict our world.

Joseph Massad photo
Götz Aly photo

“Even the traditional anti-Jewish pogroms in medieval Europe were not always based on religious hatred alone. Often, anti-Semitism was combined with plunder for plunder’s sake.”

Götz Aly (1947) German journalist, historian and social scientist

Source: Hitler’s Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare State (2007), p. 5

Albert Einstein photo
David Lloyd George photo

“Of all the bigotries that savage the human temper there is none so stupid as the anti-Semitic.”

David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Is it Peace (1923)
Later life

Richard Brinsley Sheridan photo
A.C. Cuza photo
Gottfried Feder photo

Related topics