Bidspirit auction | Eight issues of the Hungarian

Eight issues of the Hungarian antisemitic newspaper Harcok-Péter – 1897 - Eight issues of the rare Hungarian antisemitic weekly Herko-Páter, published in Budapest. These issues contain numerous caricatures mocking Jews and warning of the alleged threat of Jewish domination over the Hungarian economy and government. They promote the message that the Jew is the source of all the ills of Hungarian society. Among the earliest and most virulent antisemitic publications known to us today. Extremely rare. Issues included: January 31, 1897 March 21, 1897 March 28, 1897 April 4, 1897 May 16, 1897 June 13, 1897 July 11, 1897 The New Hungarian Kingdom, established in 1867, enacted for the first time the Emancipation Law, granting Jews equal rights with all other citizens. In 1895, further progress was made when Judaism was officially recognized as one of the state’s religions, granted equal status alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. As a result, by the end of the 19th century, Jews rapidly rose to prominence in the country’s economic, commercial, legal, and cultural life. Although they comprised only about four percent of the general population, Jews accounted for approximately half of all merchants, physicians, and lawyers. This advancement triggered a widespread antisemitic backlash, led by parliamentarian Viktor Ištóczy, against the growing visibility and influence of Jews. It was in this context that the weekly publication before us emerged. The goal of Herko-Páter was to highlight the differences and emphasize the inferiority of the “undeveloped” Eastern European Jew in contrast to “modern” Hungarian society, in an attempt to undermine the public legitimacy and recognition Jews had attained. The issues are filled with countless caricatures depicting the stereotypical, backward Eastern European Jew and his alleged attempts to infiltrate and take over Hungarian society. In some issues, Jews are depicted as animals, long before Nazi antisemitism made widespread use of such imagery. This was among the first periodicals to push such extreme visual portrayals of Jews. Due to the rarity of these issues, and despite the vast number of antisemitic caricatures they contain, Herko-Páter is virtually absent from the extensive academic literature on 19th-century antisemitism. It is not mentioned in Die Juden in der Karikatur (1921), and the caricatures published in this weekly have never been formally analyzed. According to the WorldCat global library catalog, only one listing for this publication exists - issues from 1898, held at the National Library of Israel, Jerusalem. These 1897 issues do not appear in any known library collection worldwide. Six complete issues. Overall good condition.