“Learning from Vienna Means Learning to Win”: the Cracovian Christian Socials and the ‘Antisemitic Turn’ of 1896

This article describes how it came to pass that the clerical milieu in Cracow deployed the concepts “antisemitism” and “Aryan people”, why Karl Lueger, accused of German nationalism, served as a bearer of hope, and how all of this came to a head in the call for an antisemitic movement in 1897. The reference to Vienna was not a mere copy of Viennese antisemitic ideas. Rather it made up one element in a larger strategy of the Cracovian Clericals to gain votes in the ballot box. Analyzing these strategies and rhetorics allows a better understanding of antisemitism in the Catholic milieu in particular and in antisemitic agitation in Galicia in general.