A German calendar for the year 1847 - Leipzig, edited by J. Scheible. The calendar is accompanied by numerous illustrations. On page 212, is an unfolding anti-Semitic caricature of the story "Der Juden Badstub" - "The Jewish Bathhouse" - an early anti-Semitic narrative depicting Jews exploiting non-Jews. The following pages present a lengthy anti-Semitic text about the greedy and manipulative Jew, who charges interest from the Gentile in order to make himself rich at his expense, and about Jewish schemes.
The anti-Semitic caricature depicting the story of Der Juden Badstub - "The Jewish Bathhouse" - appeared as an anti-Semitic engraving published for the first time by Philip von Allendorf in the early 17th century. It portrays the Jew as a collaborator with the devil (or in the form of the devil himself) in order to cheat the non-Jew out of his possessions. The caricature presents a Christian merchant who comes to bathe in a Jewish bathhouse (in medieval times, each community operated its own public baths), while bathing, the Jews with the help of the devil, manage to blind his eyes and cause him to lose all his property as a result. To expand the anti-Semitic message and intensify it, the illustrator added illustrations towards the end of the caricature depicting the blood libel story that circulated in 1475 regarding the alleged murder of the Christian child Simon of Trent. He connected it to this narrative. In the calendar, following the caricature, there is a long anti-Semitic text, as well as a "caption" detailing the "plot" in each square of the anti-Semitic caricature.
Before us a rare finding of showing how virulent anti-Semitism has been incorporated into supposedly "innocent" German literature. The libel here appears as part of an entire annual calendar with dozens of engravings dealing with a wide range of themes in German culture.
741 [3] p. 16 cm. Very Good Condition .
