More Light! - Early Publication Openly Opposing Antisemitism in Germany. Ulm, 1881 - First Edition - Mehr Licht! - Ein Wort zur Judenfrage an unsere christlichen Mitbürger - ”More Light!” - A Word on the 'Jewish Question' to Our Christian Fellow Citizens. By Gustav Mayer. Published by Heinrich Kerler (Verlag von Heinrich Kerler). Ulm - 1881 - first edition. Copy from the library of the Freemasons in the city of Constance. German. An early publication issued with the aim of denouncing antisemitism at the height of the ”Berliner Antisemitismusstreit” (Berlin Antisemitism Controversy), against the backdrop of the German Antisemites' Petition of 1880/1881. In the preface (Vorwort), Mayer explains that the booklet originated as a response to an article by a Christian friend, published in a periodical with limited circulation, which leveled numerous accusations against the Jews, including hostility toward Christianity, demanded that they show gratitude for their emancipation, and assailed Judaism as a ”fossilized” religion. Mayer seeks to bring ”tolerance, humanism, and light” to the very discussion and to open it to the wider public. He calls upon Christian citizens to regard the rising wave of antisemitism not merely as a disgrace, but as a tangible injury to the entire German homeland. He also attacks the arguments made by that Christian writer against Judaism itself. In his remarks, he explains that Christianity arose on the foundation of a fertile and flourishing Judaism, not a fossilized religion; he refutes the writer's claims against the Talmud and condemns the generalization employed by many antisemites, who seized upon marginal phenomena within Jewish society and attributed them to all Jews. He further argues, in response to the antisemitic claims made in that article, that Jews fulfill their obligations to the state and society no less than members of any other minority, and that the Jewish people in particular have contributed more to German culture than any other people, through leading Jewish figures such as Heine, Börne, Felix Mendelssohn, and others, and proceeds to refute the writer's arguments one by one. In conclusion: ”We fight for positive aims, for the advancement of humanity, for reconciliation between opposing forces in society - in short, for what I call humanity, or more precisely humanism, which you uphold as a Christian ideal. Let us not quarrel over the word itself, so long as the concept is the same!” The author, Gustav Maier (1844–1923) - a German-Jewish banker, writer, philanthropist, and human rights activist, one of the founders of the League Against Antisemitism in Germany, a devoted advocate of dialogue and tolerance, and one of the founders of the Peace Society in Switzerland. The title chosen by the author for the work, Mehr Licht! - ”More Light!” is a famous expression attributed to Goethe's last words. The inner title page bears the Freemasons' library stamp: BIBLIOTHEK der Freimaurerloge Constantia z. Zuversicht KONSTANZ (Library of the Freemasons' Lodge ”Constantia zur Zuversicht” in Constance). 25 pages. Stains on the booklet's pages. Good-moderate condition.