It still doesn't make much sense but I understand that was a prejudice that was widely available at the time.HansHill wrote: ↑Mon Jun 23, 2025 9:33 am Ok good, so now you understand the context of the quote presented by Hektor and why Adolf Hitler mentioned it in his speech:
Adolf Hitler: "Either the Jews will have to adjust to constructive, respectable activities, such as other people are already engaged in, or, sooner or later, they will succumb to a crisis of yet inconceivable proportions."
Confused Jew: "This doesn't make much sense. What were the Jews doing that was not respectable and what kind of crisis was he imagining and how would it come about?"
Real numbers of Jewish Occupations (estimates, around 1925–1933):
Occupation and % of Jews employed
Trade and commerce ~30%
Liberal professions (lawyers, doctors, teachers, artists) ~11%
Industry, crafts, manual labor ~25%
In Imperial Germany (pre-1918), Jews faced informal and formal barriers in government jobs, the military officer corps, and the highest academic posts. Even though legally equal after the 1871 unification, antisemitic discrimination and old-boy networks often blocked Jews from state bureaucracies and senior officialdom.
Only a small fraction of Jews actually worked directly in banking or high finance. Historians estimate that roughly 1–2% of the total Jewish population in Germany worked in banking, stock brokerage, or large-scale finance. A few famous Jewish banking dynasties (like the Rothschilds, Warburgs, Mendelssohns) were prominent in Germany’s financial history — so they were highly visible. This fueled the stereotype that all Jews were bankers or controlled finance, which was never true.
Germany’s banking sector in the early 20th century was dominated by a few very large “universal banks” — e.g. Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, Commerzbank. These banks were not Jewish-owned, ownership and control were mainly in the hands of German industrial and banking elites.
Jews were more visible in private banking houses (Privatbanken), smaller family-run banks that specialized in merchant banking, loans, and investments. Before WWI, Jewish-owned private banks were indeed significant in cities like Berlin, Frankfurt, and Hamburg. By the 1920s, the large universal banks overshadowed these older private banks. Jewish-owned private banks handled about 10–20% of banking capital around 1900. By the 1920s, this share had declined, as big universal banks and state-controlled banks dominated credit and industrial finance.
Finance isn't an inherently evil activity or profession but financial systems are inherently unstable and will inevitably result in financial crashes, bubbles, and cycles regardless of who is involved.