In his polemic Die Germanomanie, published in 1815, the Jewish scholar and journalist Saul Ascher (1767–1822) criticized the departure of many of his Christian German contemporaries from universalist principles and the Enlightenment’s conception of man in favor of the nationalist conception of a völkisch (ethnic-nationalistic) differentiation of human beings. His work experienced strong rejection and was burned in 1817 as a Jewish invective during the fraternity (Burschenschaft) meeting at Wartburg Castle in E…