Editing Wilhelm Busch (section)

===Antisemitism===
[[File:Busch Werke v3 p 477.jpg|thumb|right|upright|240px|Preface of the fifth chapter of ''Plisch und Plum'']]
The [[Panic of 1873]] led to growing criticism of high finance and the spread of radical [[Antisemitism]], which in the 1880s became a broad undercurrent.<ref>[[Volker Ullrich|Ullrich, Volker]]: ''Die nervöse Großmacht: Aufstieg und Untergang des deutschen Kaiserreichs 1871–1918'', [[S. Fischer Verlag|Fischer Taschenbuch]] 17240, Frankfurt on the Main, 2006, {{ISBN|978-3-596-11694-2}}, p. 383</ref> These criticisms saw a separation of capital into what was construed as "raffendes" ([[financial capital|speculative capital]]), and what constituted "constructive" creative ("schaffendes") production capital. The "good", "native", and "German" manufacturer was praised by Antisemitic [[Political demonstration|agitator]]s, such as [[Theodor Fritsch]], who opposed what he saw as "'rapacious' 'greedy', 'blood-sucking', 'Jewish' financial capitalism in the form of '[[Plutocracy|plutocrats]]' and 'usurers'".<ref>Piefel, Matthias: ''Antisemitismus und völkische Bewegung im Königreich Sachsen 1879–1914'', V&R unipress Göttingen, 2004, {{ISBN|3-89971-187-4}}</ref> Busch was thought to have embraced those [[stereotype]]s. Two passages are often underlined, one in ''Helen Who Couldn't Help It'':
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<poem>
Und der Jud mit krummer Ferse,
Krummer Nas' und krummer Hos'
Schlängelt sich zur hohen Börse
Tiefverderbt und seelenlos.
</poem>
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<poem>
And the Hebrew, sly and craven,
Round of shoulder, nose, and knee,
Slinks to the Exchange, unshaven
And intent on usury
</poem>
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Even more obvious remarks are found in ''[[Plisch und Plum]]''; according to biographer Joseph Kraus, they could have been written for anti-Semitical hate sheets, and Weissweiler noted they were the most memorable and ugliest depictions of a German Jew.<ref>Kraus, p. 87</ref><ref>Weissweiler, p. 300</ref>
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<poem>
Kurz die Hose, lang der Rock
Krumm die Nase und der Stock
Augen schwarz und Seele grau,
Hut nach hinten, Miene schlau&nbsp;—
So ist Schmulchen Schiefelbeiner
(Schöner ist doch unsereiner!)
</poem>
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<poem>
</poem>
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[[Robert Gernhardt]] defended Busch by stating that Jews are satirized only in three passages, of which the oldest is an illustration of a text by another author, published in 1860. He stated that Busch's Jewish figures are merely stereotypical, one of a number of stereotypes, such as the "limited Bavarian farmer" and the "Prussian tourist".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.literaturkritik.de/public/rezension.php?rez_id=6369&ausgabe=200309|title=Schöner ist doch unsereiner|author=Gernhardt, Robert|language=de|access-date=29 January 2013}}</ref> Joseph Kraus shares the same view, and uses a couplet from ''Eight Sheets in the Wind'' (Die Haarbeutel),<ref>Kraus, pp. 88–89</ref> in which profit-seeking people are:
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<poem>
Vornehmlich Juden, Weiber, Christen,
Die dich ganz schrecklich überlisten.
[Mainly Jews, women, Christians / Who outwit you terribly]
</poem>
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<poem>
Most often wenches, Christians, Jews,
Who would much sooner see you lose
</poem>
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<!--The non-Jew is therefore not better, as the ironical row "Schöner ist doch unsereiner!" indicates in ''Plüsch und Plum''.-->Although Gernhardt felt that Jews for Busch were alien, the Jewish conductor [[Hermann Levi]] befriended him, suggesting that Busch's bias against Jews was slight.<ref>Kraus, p. 90</ref>