The Hep Hep Riots of 1819 were violent pogroms in Europe directed at Jews. The riots, which were a backlash against a Jewish call for emancipation, took place in and around what is now Germany.
In the late eighteenth century, the German Jews created a movement known as Haskalah. Also known as Jewish Enlightenment, the movement encouraged Jews to assimilate fully into European society. The Jews increasingly began to study secular subjects, took up jobs viewed by Europeans as traditionally "un-Jewish", learned European culture and languages and took greater part in social life outside of their communities.
The Jews believed that fully integrating into European society would help them achieve emancipation. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Jewish representatives formally requested emancipation.
To the contrary, the calls to be treated as equals brought a backlash against the Jewish community. Fueled by centuries of anti-Semitism, many Europeans saw the Jews as trying to gain financial and political control in their countries.
The violent riots would begin in Wurzburg in August of 1819 and spread across Germany to towns including Frankfurt, Leipzig, Darmstadt and Dresden. Jews were beaten and murdered, while Jewish homes and shops were vandalized and destroyed. Although German authorities did hold quell some of the violence, in some instances they were slow to respond and in others they would stand by idly.
The violence would spread beyond Germany and spill over to places such as what is now Denmark, Poland, Latvia and the Czech Republic.
In the end, The Hep Hep riots strengthened the Haskalah movement, as many believed full integration was the key to preventing such incidents from breaking out in the future. By the start of World War I, the Jews were well assimilated into German society. Unfortunately the proponents of the Haskalah were wrong, as it did not prevent the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
