Abstract
The race laws of April 7, 1933, were part of the National Socialist
“coordination” [Gleichschaltung] of
all public authorities. They signaled the end of legal equality for
German Jews. From that point on, all employees in the civil service, the
administration, and the judicial system would have to present a
so-called certification of Aryan ancestry
[Ariernachweis]. Subsequent decrees
forced Jews out of more and more branches of professional activity.
Whereas a large part of the German population reacted with aversion or
passivity to the SA’s “rabble-rousing” or “hooligan” antisemitism
[Radau-Antisemitismus], many Germans
welcomed the exclusion of Jews from particular professions and hoped to
benefit from it economically. The photograph shows an event organized by
the Reich Union of German Civil Servants in Hamburg. The banner
suspended from the balcony reads: “First a German, then a Civil
Servant.”