STUERMER, DER

STUERMER, DER, antisemitic German weekly, founded and edited by julius streicher . It appeared in Nuremberg between 1923 and 1945, at first a local paper with a small circulation, but after 1935 with a circulation of 500,000. Its slogan, "Die Juden sind unser Unglueck" ("The Jews are our misfortune"), was pasted on walls in the streets and schools, thereby popularizing racial antisemitism among the masses. Der Stuermer encouraged the economic boycott and social isolation of Jews, further demanding that they be exterminated "root and branch." It contained sensational gossip tinged with sadism. It defined the Jews as "defilers" of the "pure and superior Nordic race," using crude lies, repetition of catchphrases, and caricatures depicting the stereotyped hideous Rassenjude ("Jew by race"), a devil in human form that destroyed everything good and healthy. In its "Ritual Murder" issue (May 1939), Der Stuermer revived the blood libel accusation , with presumed proofs from the Talmud and frequent quotations from the Protocols of the elders of zion . World War II was portrayed as the ritual murder of the whole of humanity by "World Jewry." Because of its vulgarity, Der Stuermer aroused distaste even among Nazi leaders, who occasionally tried to silence it. Though Der Stuermer was crude and vulgar, it was not ineffective in shaping the concept of the Jew in the minds of certain segments of the German Public. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: L.W. Bondy, Racketeers of Hatred (1946), ch. 3 and index; W. Hagemann, Publizistik im Dritten Reich (1948); Y. Wulf, Presse und Funk im Dritten Reich (1966). (Nathan Feinberg / Michael Berenbaum (2nd ed.)