Being a European phenomenon as far back as its emergence as a political and social movement in the late 19th century, the radicalization of Antisemitism followed similar patterns in large parts of Europe. This research group takes the radicalization of Antisemitism as its focus and investigates the process of radicalization at the beginning of the “short 20th century”. Key topics of concern are specific national characteristics as well as similarities across nations regarding the transfer of political ideas and the interconnectedness in the radicalization process.

The research group’s working language is German.

As the “great seminal catastrophe” of the 20th century, World War I sent out social, political, economic, cultural and mental shockwaves into European societies which reach well into the present. Its outcome was the break-down of “old Europe” and its global political and economic hegemony. In the light of the disastrous and traumatic experience during the war and the revolutions and crisis that followed, the “old” Antisemitism escalated at the outset of the “age of extremes” into more and more extreme forms. The research group systematically explores Antisemitism in Europe during the “Great War” and the early post-war years, looking at new motives in the language of radicalized Antisemitism. Its primary focus is to investigate the radicalized physical violence against Jews from a comparative perspective.

radicalisation radicalised Prof. Dr Werner Bergmann Prof. Dr Ulrich Wyrwa Technische Universität Berlin