The Hilsner Affair

If you like my videos and want to make sure that I make more of them, you can support me here: https://ko-fi.com/sirmanatee

The Hilsner affair was one of the biggest political scandals in Austrian and Czech history. An innocent Jew by the name of Hilsner gets accused of having committed a ritual murder and all across the Habsburg empire, bigots do everything in their power to spread a mediaeval legend that they can personally benefit from. Just when everything seemed hopeless a philosophy professor from Prague called Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk intervened and fought for justice and reason. This video will tell you everything you need to know about the infamous Hilsner affair, which has often been compared to the Dreyfus affair in France.

Sources:
Arbeiter-Zeitung. Year 11, Nr. 256, 17.09.1899.
Deutsches Volksblatt, Year 11, Nr. 3697, 18.04.1899 (Morning Paper).
Deutsches Volksblatt, Year 11, Nr. 3859, 29.09.1899 (Evening Paper).
Dr. Bloch’s Oesterreichische Wochenschrift, Year 16, Nr. 38, 22.09.1899.
Dr. Bloch’s Oesterreichische Wochenschrift, Year 16, Nr. 48, 01.12.1899.
Neue Freie Presse, Nr. 12595, 15.09.1899 (Evening Paper).
Neue Freie Presse, Nr. 12597, 17.09.1899 (Morning Paper).
Neue Freie Presse, Nr. 12651, 10.11.1899 (Evening Paper).

Bibliography:
Beller, Steven: The Hilsner Affair. Nationalism, Antisemitism and the Individual in the Habsburg Monarchy at the Turn of the Century, in: Pynsent, Robert B. (Ed.): T. G. Masaryk (1850-1937), Volume 2: Thinker and Critic, Houndmills & London 1898, pp. 52-76.
Čapková, Kateřina: Czechs, Germans, Jews? National Identity and the Jews of Bohemia, New York 2012.
Červinka, František: The Hilsner Affair, in: The Leo Baeck Institute Year Book 13 (1968), Nr. 1, pp. 142–157.
Erb, Rainer: Ritualmordbeschuldigung, in: Benz, Wolfgang (Ed.): Handbuch des Antisemitismus. Judenfeindschaft in Geschichte und Gegenwart / im Auftr. des Zentrums für Antisemitismusforschung der Technischen Universität Berlin, Volume 3: Begriffe, Theorien, Ideologien, Berlin 2010, pp. 293-295.
Frankl, Michal: „Prag ist nunmehr antisemitisch“. Tschechischer Antisemitismus am Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts, Berlin 2011.
Frankl, Michal: The Background of the Hilsner Case. Political Antisemitism and Allegations of Ritual Murder 1896 - 1900, in: Judaica Bohemiae 1 (2000), pp. 34-118.
Kieval, Hillel J.: The Making of Czech Jewry. National Conflict and Jewish Society in Bohemia 1870-1918, New York & Oxford 1988.
Kieval, Hillel J.: Blood Inscriptions. Science, Modernity, and Ritual Murder at Europe's Fin de Siècle, Philadelphia 2022.
Le Rider, Jacques: Antisémitisme et antisémites, réactions juives à l'antisémitisme à Vienne et à Berlin autour de 1900, in: Cahiers d'Études Germaniques 24 (1993), pp. 267-284.
Lichtblau, Albert: Die Debatten über die Ritualmordbeschuldigungen im österreichischen Abgeordnetenhaus am Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts, in: Erb, Rainer (Ed.): Die Legende vom Ritualmord. Zur Geschichte der Blutbeschuldigung gegen Juden, Berlin 1993, pp. 267-293.
OTS: Berger. Fall Hilsner markantes Beispiel für Versagen der Justiz, https://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/O..., (accessed on 17.10.24).
Zieger, Karl: Emile Zolas "J'accuse" und die Dreyfus-Affäre, in: European History Online (EGO), http://www.ieg-ego.eu/ziegerk-2019-de (accessed on 20.10.24).

Chapters:
0:00 Emancipation of Jews in the Czech Lands
2:12 The Emergence of Antisemitism
9:38 The Hilsner Affair
23:21 Tomáš Masaryk intervenes
29:58 Czech Society and the Hilsner Affair
31:32 A Czech Dreyfus Affair?
34:36 Aftermath
39:13 Outro