Page 4 - Jewish Domination Of Weimar Germany 1919-1932

The Numerical

Development of Jewry

in Prussia

I he first complete inventory of the people in the form Jewish population and consequently their increase in numbers
of a census was undertaken by the Prussian Govern- decreases rapidly in proportion to the total population. It is
ment in the year 1816 after the Wars of Liberation. further connected with the fact that the statistical method
The census returns showed that the total population only deals with the idea of professing Jews and not with that
of the State of Prussia was 10,349,031, including of the Jew by race. Owing to this mechanical factor alone,
123,938 Jews or 1.2 per cent. the statistics fail from the start to take account of all the
From that time on, statistics permit us to obtain a fairly Jews who are Jews by race without belonging to the Mosaic
clear idea of the entire development. It may be gathered faith. In particular however the increasingly popular habit of
exactly from the following table which covers the period changing to the Christian faith or of resigning membership
from the year 1816 to the year 1925. of the Jewish religions community in the group of dissidents
has led since 1885 to the distortion of the statistics. We can
provide an idea of the effect of this factor by pointing out
Jewish inhabitants Jewish inhabitants
Census per 1000 of the Census per lOOO of the that in the decade from 1922 to 1932, for which statistics are
of the year tola! population of the year total population available, the number of Jews who resigned their member-
ol Prussia oi Prussia
ship of their church in Berlin alone amounted to 5,611.
1816 11.98 1858 13.67 In spite of these sources of error, however, the concluding
1819 12.26 1861 13.78
part of the table shows that between the years 1910 and 1925
• 1822 12.41 1864 13.61
there was again an increase in the Jewish population from
1825 12.24 1867 13.06
1828 12.65 1871 13.21 10.36 to 10.58 per 1000. This fact is all the more remarkable
1831 12.83 1875 13.20 as it must not be forgotten in this connexion that between
. 1834 13.06 1880 13.34 the census years 1910 and 1925 the cession of extremely
1837 13.02 1885 12.94
Jewish areas, such as Posen and West Prussia, occurred,
1840 13.03 1890 12.42
whereby no less than 49.101 or 11.81 per cent of the Jewish
1843 13.35 1895 11.92
1846 13.38 1900 11.38 population were taken from the Prussian state. Thus even
1849 13.41 1905 10.98 the insufficient statistics demonstrate in this case the fact
1852 13.40 1910 10.36 that, in spite of changes of religion and resignation of church
1855 13.62 1925 10.58
membership as well as of losses of population owing to
cessions of territory since the World War, a wave of increase
If this table is examined, it will be seen that it shows at in the Jewish population has swept across Germany. The
first a steadily rising curve which continues until 1880 and reasons for this are obvious even to the layman. They are
then suddenly drops, so that, from that point on, the im- due to an extraordinarily powerful wave of Jewish immigra-
pression is given oi a decrease in the proportion of Jews in tion, principally from the East of Europe, which occurred
the population. But this impression is deceptive. In fact it during and after the war. For after all Germany has always
conceals the real state of affairs which is directly the oppo- been most exposed to the influx of Jews from the east; geo-
site. This distorted representation of the statistics is connec- graphically Germany is the first dam in the stream of Jewish
ted in the first place with the fact that the fertility of the immigration.