Antisemitism in Comic Strips

This comic strip tells stories from the life of Isidor Färber, a fictional pharmaceutical entrepreneur. His name is probably inspired by an antisemitic smear campaign by the local Nazi Party in Berlin. Started by Joseph Goebbels, it denigrated the Jewish man who had become the city’s deputy chief of police in 1927, Bernhard Weiss, by constantly calling him “Isidor” Weiss. The depiction of Färber follows the general pattern of the antisemitic caricatures drawn by “Fips”. Particularly prominent is his large hooked nose, further reinforced by his Star-of-David cufflink and pocket-watch pendant.

The business suit, bowler hat, and cowboy boots are meant to connect Isidor Färber with the English-speaking world, in which the United Kingdom and the United States represent the forces of globalized liberal capitalism. The second panel’s mention of a “vaccination programme” as well as the third panel’s advertisements for fictitious drugs with seemingly Old Testament names like “Adamin” and “Evalin” (i.e. Adam and Eve), in addition to “Schnupfin” (or “sniffle-in”), help establish Färber as an agent of the profit-seeking pharmaceutical industry. This stands in contrast to the naturopathy favoured by Nazi physicians and healthcare policymakers (in the form of the “New German Medicine”), with its treatments based on water, tisanes, light, and homeopathic globules.

Since the late nineteenth century, academically trained doctors have had to compete against providers of various alternative therapies like homeopathy, both for patients and for societal acceptance. These were collectively labelled “Kurpfuscherei” or “quackery”, with the German Society for the Combatting of Quackery conducting several legal and political campaigns against alternative medicine. Despite what the comic strip claims, the term “Kurpfuscher” or “quack” was usually regarded by German courts as an inadmissible insult.