d to return
twelve members to the Reichstag, and in 1903 its party strength fell to
nine. A remarkable revival in its fortunes, however, took place between
1905 and 1907. Identifying itself with the extreme Chauvinists and
Anglophobes it profited by the anti-national errors of the Clericals and
Socialists, and won no fewer than twelve by-elections. At the general
election of 1907 its jingoism and aggressive Protestantism were rewarded
with twenty-five seats. It is clear, however, from the figures of the
second ballots that these successes owed far more to the tendencies of
the party in the field of general politics than to its anti-Semitism.
Indeed the specifically anti-Semitic movement has shown little activity
since 1893.

The causes of the decline of German anti-Semitism are not difficult to
determine. While it remained a theory of nationality and a fad of the
metaphysicians, it made considerable noise in the world, but without
exercising much practical influence. When it attempted to play an active
part in politics it became submerged by the ignorant and superstitious
voters, who could not understand its scientific justification, but who
were quite ready to declaim and riot against the Jew bogey. It thus
became a sort of Jacquerie which, being exploited by unscrupulous
demagogues, soon alienated all its respectable elements. Its moments of
real importance have been due not to inherent strength but to the uses
made of it by other political parties for their own purposes. These
coalitions are no longer of perilous significance so far as the Jews are
concerned, chiefly because, in face of the menace of democratic
socialism and its unholy alliance with the Roman Catholic Centrum, all
supporters of the present organization of society have found it
necessary to sink their differences. The new social struggle has
eclipsed the racial theory of nationality. The Social Democrat became
the enemy, and the new reaction counted on the support of the rich Jews
and the strongly individualist Jewish middle class to assist it in
preserving the existing social structure. Hence in Prince Billow's
"Bloc" (1908) anti-Semites figured side by side with Judeophil Radicals.

Russia.

More serious have been the effects of German anti-Semitic teachings on
the political and social life of the countries adjacent to the
empire--Russia, Austria and France. In Russia these effects were first
seriously felt owing to the fury of autocratic rea