[Sharing Lights]

Hermann Goedsche

Hermann Goedsche's 1868 fiction novel, Biarritz (in English as To Sedan) contributed another idea that may have inspired the scribe behind the Protocols. In the chapter, “The Jewish Cemetery in Prague and the Council of Representatives of the Twelve Tribes of Israel”, Goedsche wrote about a nocturnal meeting between members of a mysterious rabbinical cabal, describing how at midnight, the Devil appears before those who have gathered on behalf of the Twelve Tribes of Israel to plan a “Jewish conspiracy”. His depiction is also similar to the scene in Alexandre Dumas, père's Joseph Balsamo, where Cagliostro and company plot the affair of the diamond necklace. With Biarritz appearing at about the same time as The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu, it is possible that Goedsche was inspired by the ideas in Joly's pamphlet, especially in detailing the outcome of the cabal's secret meeting.[5]

Goedsche, a reactionary to the revolutions of 1848, lost his job in the Prussian postal service after forging evidence to implicate democratic leader Benedict Waldeck of conspiring against the king. Following his dismissal, Goedsche began a career as a conservative columnist, while also producing literary work under the pen name Sir John Retcliffe.[6] Goedsche was allegedly a spy for the Prussian Secret Police.[3]

In 1871, the story was being presented in France as serious history. In 1872, the “The Jewish Cemetery in Prague”, translated into Russian, appeared in St. Petersburg as a separate pamphlet of purported non-fiction. François Bournand, in his Les Juifs et nos contemporains (1896), reproduced a speech from the chapter as that of a Chief Rabbi “John Readclif” [sic].


Structure and themes

The twenty-four Protocols are posited as instructions to a new Elder, outlining how the group will control the world. The Elders want to trick all "gentile nations", whom they call "goyim", into doing their will. Their preferred methods include:

Protocol Theme

1 Alcoholism, Annihilation of the privileges of the non-Jewish aristocracy, among other topics.
2, 9, 12 The propagation of ideas of all possible complexions with the task of undermining established forms of order, including Darwinism, Marxism, Nietzsche-ism, Liberalism, Socialism, Communism, Anarchism, and Utopianism
4 Materialism
5 World government
7 World wars
10 Staging catastrophes against one's own people, then claiming a moral high ground for leverage
11 Universal suffrage
11, 12, 17 Curtailment of civil liberties with the excuse of defeating the enemies of peace
13 Creating the impression of the existence of freedom of press, freedom of speech, democracy and human rights, all of which are subsequently undermined and become mere illusions or deceptive smokescreens behind which actual oppression lies
14 Distractions
14, 17 Pornographic literature
16 The destruction of Christianity, other religions and cultures, followed by a transitional stage of atheism, followed finally by the hegemony of Judaism
20 Brainwashing
21 Economic depressions
22 Undermining financial systems by foreign loans, creating national bankruptcy, destroying Money Markets and replacing them with government credit institutions
23 Justification of previous acts of evil and expectation of a great new society
24 Reduction of the manufacture of articles of luxury, destruction of large manufacturers, prohibition of alcohol and hashish, unleashing forces of violence under the mask of principles of freedom, only to have the 'King of the Jews' demolish those very forces to make him appear a saviour
25 Training of the king, direct heirs, irreproachability of exterior morality of the King of the Jews

Control of the media and finance would replace the traditional sources of social order with one based on mass manipulation and state engineered propaganda, where powerful elites and institutions conspire to conceal unpalatable truths from the masses. In these respects, the Protocols draw on long-standing criticisms of modernity, radicalism and capitalism, but present them as part of an orchestrated plot, rather than as a product of impersonal historical processes.

The text assumes that the reader already believes that the Freemasons are a secret society with a hidden political agenda, and the Protocols purport to demonstrate that this hidden agenda is itself controlled or guided by the 'Elders', a sort of conspiracy theory within a conspiracy theory. In the Protocols, Freemasons and "liberal thinkers" are shown to be mere tools that the Elders will eventually replace with a Jewish theocracy. The Protocols describe a forthcoming "kingdom" and go into great lengths about how it will be run. Yet even in this kingdom the Elders will avoid direct political control, preferring to assert themselves via usury and manipulation of money. Even the "King of the Jews" himself will be nothing more than a figurehead.