Under the leadership of Julius Streicher, the working-class city of Nuremberg not only became a stronghold of the Nazi movement in the mid 1920s, but also an anti-Semitic bastion.

In 1871, Germany accorded Jews the same legal status as its other citizens. The sense of security and self-confidence were visible in the architecture of the main synagogue consecrated a few years later in Nuremberg city centre. However, in the wake of war debts, a new racial ideologically motivated anti-Semitism met with growing support across the country. Jews especially were blamed by many Germans for the drastic consequences of the war.

In Nuremberg, Julius Streicher had been publishing his hate sheet "The Stormtrooper" since 1923. Its innovative blend of radical content and entertaining gutter press found a receptive readership. Even before the Nazis came to power, the increasingly anti-Semitic atmosphere caused more than half of Nuremberg's Jewish population to leave their home town.

"Even before the Hitler Putsch, the gravest excesses were committed in Nuremberg," recalls Rudolf Bing, a Jew from Nuremberg. In January 1923, the Social Democratic newspaper, the "Fränkische Tagespost" commented: "Must not this behaviour cause every decent German, whether Jew or Christian, to blush with shame?"