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AbstractThis paper examines emblematic texts by two important protagonists of post‐1848 liberalism inGermany,GustavFreytag andHeinrich vonTreitschke, focusing on their treatment ofJews andPoles. The paper analyses the social content of their statements and argues that the elements of anti‐Semitism and anti‐Slav racism that they contain were motivated by the specific kind of nationalist liberalism that frames their affirmation of the process of modernisation. This affirmation was directed against thePoles on the one hand, seen as backwardEasterners who had to be pushed into civilisation byPrussian–German colonialism, and, on the other hand, theJews, largely perceived as representing the wrong kind of modernity against which benign (supposedlyGerman) modernity had to be protected. At the same time, the image of theJew inFreytag andTreitschke also participates in that of the backwardEasterner, permitting to see undesirable, allegedly Jewish aspects of modernity also as distortions resulting from an alien and ancient culture. This analysis has consequences for theorisations of both liberalism and nationalism: it suggests that the racism and anti‐Semitism of nationalist liberals were intrinsically related to core aspects of the liberal world‐view rather than being merely contingent opinions held by particular individuals. It also indicates that the nationalism of manyGerman post‐1848 liberals was ethnic as well as liberal. In this way, the paper contributes to the growing body of literature discussing the illiberal aspects of liberalism as well as the shortcomings of the long‐established conceptual dichotomy of ethnic vs. liberal nationalism.