SOURCE: Massey, Irving. “Gustav Freytag and the Problem of Human Sacrifice.” In Philo-Semitism in Nineteenth-Century German Literature, pp. 87–96. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 2000.

In the following excerpt, Massey examines Freytag's ambiguous treatment of Jews; his pro-Jewish sentiment in some of his non-fiction works is at odds with the anti-Semitic stereotypical characters in some of his novels.

The case of Bartels, who, as I have mentioned above, was able to build a highly successful career as a German literary critic on his anti-Semitism, casts a long shadow. It is hard to read about the late careers of Freytag, of Raabe, or of Fontane without an uncomfortable feeling that a lingering anti-Semitism clings to them too. Freytag was a friend of Treitschke's, and remained resolutely silent in the face of Treitschke's anti-Semitic campaigns.¹ Raabe's notorious remark that he regarded the Jews as only »Gast-Genossen« among the Germans does not need...