Barney P. Hartston

In 1900, Prussian government officials sent special police commissars to intervene in a sensational ritual murder investigation in the West Prussian town of Konitz. Despite occasional displays of incompetence, these special investigators generally held themselves aloof from popular anti-Semitic pressure and worked diligently to secure an acquittal for the Jewish defendant. But was this intervention by outside investigators an isolated case in Imperial Germany? Did it represent a trend of "responsible" government behavior in dealing with anti-Semitic incidents? This article will attempt to answer these questions by examining government actions in four additional anti-Semitic causes célèbres in the early Kaiserreich.