The Image of Antisemites in German and Austrian Caricatures

Antisemitic caricatures had already drawn broad attention from one attentive contemporary observer and passionate collector – Eduard Fuchs, who had published in 1921 a huge volume on Jews in cartoons. Already in 1901, he had published what remains to this day the most extensive history of caricatures of the European people. The term ‘caricature’ goes back to the cartoons, the “ritrattini carichi”, literally “loaded portraits”, of Annibale Carracci in 16th century Italy.3 But not before the mid-18th century were caricatures used as a medium for political messages.