German spirit and holy ghost - Treitschke's call for conversion of German jewry: The debate revisited

In 1879, Heinrich von Treitschke published an article which, inter alia, declared the German Jews a danger to Germany and its culture and called on the Jews to be more German. The article, having strong antisemitic overtones, shocked German Jews and provoked responses by leading German Jewish intellectuals, e.g. Heinrich Graetz, Moritz Lazarus, Hermann Cohen, as well as by some non-Jews. Argues that the main purpose of Treitschke's publication was to call for the conversion of German Jews to Christianity. Like many of his contemporaries, Treitschke regarded Christianity as a historical and humanistic component of German culture, a foundation of German nationality. In that light, a Jew could not become a German without embracing Christianity. Theodor Mommsen, while deploring Treitschke's antisemitic language and arguments, supported him in these conclusions. Most of the German intellectuals of the time regarded the emancipation of Jews as a precondition for their conversion and fusion with the German nation. Thus, their approach (as well as that of Treitschke, despite his anti-Judaism) was devoid of racism. Treitschke's Jewish opponents argued that Judaism was no less compatible with the "German spirit" than Christianity.