ocr: In the late eighteenth century, most Jews in Germany lived according to Jewish tradition, as minority on the fringes of German society. Most were poor peddlers or petty merchants. - One century later, their condition was totally different. They had undergone a process of rapid urbanization and had been largely integrated into the German middle class; a few had even become central figures in German economic life. The fact that the Jews' impressive economic ascent coincided with the consolidation of capitalism, which had grave effects on other social strata in Germany, did not elude their oppone ...
