Marx, Wagner, and Antisemitism

In this lecture, Ken Gemes traces how the language and imagery of 19th century degenerationism found its way into the influential writings of Karl Marx and Richard Wagner. He explores the paradox of Jews being cast simultaneously as atavistic and hyper-modern, and how Jewish emancipation in Europe triggered a powerful backlash that fueled conspiracy theories from the Protocols of Zion to Henry Ford's propaganda. Gemes examines Wagner's 'Judaism in Music,' with its claims about Jewish foreignness, linguistic debasement, and supposed incapacity for genuine artistic creativity, alongside its vampiric and parasitic imagery. He then turns to Marx's 'On the Jewish Question,' situating it within debates about political versus human emancipation. Marx equates Judaism with egoism and materialism, treating it as a marker for everything wrong with post-feudal individualism. Gemes argues that while Marx frames his critique as a call for universal emancipation from materialism, the result remains a form of antisemitism.