Аукцион Bidspirit | Early Antisemitic Issue of the

Early Antisemitic Issue of the Viennese Satirical Weekly Die Bombe (The Bomb), Accusing the Jews of the Collapse of the Viennese Economy - Antisemitic issue of the Viennese satirical weekly Die Bombe (The Bomb), dated February 2, 1873, accusing the Jews of the collapse of the Viennese economy - early antisemitic caricatures. Vienna. Rare. An issue published only a few months before the great Vienna Stock Exchange Crash of May 1873. At that time, Vienna was in turmoil over financial scandals, an inflated real-estate bubble, shell companies, and the establishment of fictitious banks. The newspaper sharply attacks the renowned Viennese press and financial magnate August Zang and presents the financial crisis through the extensive use of classic antisemitic stereotypes of the period, identifying Jews with speculation, the stock market, and economic fraud. The front page features a caricature entitled ”August Zang and the Speculators.” August Zang, founder of the influential newspaper Die Presse, is depicted in elaborate military dress, holding a whip in his hand and trampling under his heavy boots Jews portrayed with stereotypical features - large hooked noses, thick lips, pointed beards, and sinister expressions. The heading above him is designed in the form of the whip itself: ”Finanzielle Fragmente” (”Financial Fragments”).  Further in the issue appears a caricature depicting Jews with stereotypical facial features associated with financial fraud scandals. The caption claims that whenever rumors of corruption or a stock market collapse arise, panic immediately spreads through the Jewish quarters of Vienna. The text specifically mentions the districts of Schottenring and Leopoldstadt:  ”The millionaire, possessed by holy anxiety... trembles over every penny... The panic among those involved and interested in these circles is so immense that there is not the smallest institution in Israel [meaning the Jewish community] that does not on this day become a central bank.” The issue employs the Jewish term nebekh (”poor fellow” or ”wretch”) and portrays the stock exchange as an arena of Jewish swindlers deceiving the innocent German-Austrian public. Further on appears a satirical correspondence between two noblemen. The text states:  ”...No mercy! The government wishes to rob us nobles of our last lifeline! Members of boards are locked up like ordinary bourgeois criminals... At least a nobleman now has the right, after all, to be dragged after the Jew (dem Jude nach)... in order to take revenge upon the Jew by borrowing money from him.”  (This is an allusion to the stereotype of the Jewish moneylender impoverishing the aristocracy through interest-bearing loans). On the back page appears a caricature depicting a mythological scene (Thetis Surprised by Peleus), but in the lower section, in stark contrast, sit two spectators with exaggerated antisemitic profiles (long hooked noses, heavy beards, and the elegant dress of ”new rich” stock-market speculators). Above the caricature appears a penciled note referring to Johann Strauss II's operetta Blindekuh (Blind Man's Buff). The critique presents these ”Jewish stock-market speculators” as those who fill Vienna's theaters, dictate cultural taste through their financial power, yet in reality lack any true artistic understanding and prefer to hurry home to make more money. This was the antisemitic atmosphere that preceded Austria's great economic crisis of 1873, in which the Jews were likewise accused of pulling the strings of the economy and of having caused the depression. [4] pages. Complete issue. Tears along the fold lines. Good condition.