Trudy Gold
Jews and the Beginnings of the German Enlightenment, Part 1
Trudy Gold - Jews and the Beginnings of the German Enlightenment, Part 1
- Today, I’m starting a series on Jews and the German Enlightenment. Because having looked at the development of theological hatred, and of course, you had William dealing with the Thirty Years’ War. As a response to the Thirty Years’ War, you begin to see a new movement in philosophy that experiencing the horrors of that war, it led enlightened thinkers to rethink what it means to be human, and it also is going to have an impact on the Jewish people. And it’s the Enlightenment, which is sort of the strap name, the Age of Reason, that it is going to say that it is unreasonable not to bring the Jews into the body politic. And it’s out of that, that we’re going to see the American and French revolutions. And of course, the French Revolution is going to have implications for Germany because Napoleon was a great conqueror, and of course, he breaks down the ghetto walls in parts of Germany. But what I’m interested in today is the absolute beginnings of the Enlightenment and to look, of course, at Berlin, the capital of Prussia. Because, don’t forget, Prussia is going to emerge as the most important state in the German Federation. In 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the victorious powers are going to come together and redraw the map of Europe. And what happens with Germany, Germany’s cleaned up. 366 separate states before 1815. It’s cleaned up to 36. And gradually, Prussia, particularly under the leadership of Bismarck, and we spent a lot of time on Bismarck, is going to unify through war. And Berlin, the capital of Prussia, is going to become the centre of the German Empire. So Prussia, Berlin, at the time I’m talking about, the Enlightenment, is beginning to still become an important city in Germany. And can we see the first slide, please, Judi?
Here you see the Brandenburg Gate, the great symbol of Germany that was constructed between 1788 and 1791. It’s built by Frederick William II, and it is a sort of arch of conquest very much in the Roman style, and it becomes the great symbol of Berlin. Berlin as a city was very late in its development. It really doesn’t emerge until the 10th century. And may I recommend, I think the best book on Berlin is Alexandra Richie. It’s called “Faust’s Metropolis”. And while I’m talking to you, I think the other two books that will be very useful for this course is “The Pity of It All” by Amos Elon and the brilliant “Einstein’s German World” by Fritz Stern. Of course there are many other books that you can look at, but they are the three that I think are the best written as well as having the best content. I always find it important if a book is well written and they read as novels, and they’re both brilliant, but they’re brilliant historically as well. Can we have a look at the next slide, please, Judi, if you don’t mind? Here you see the Magravate of Brandenburg. The Hohenzollerns have first taken over Brandenburg in 1415, and this is how they gradually acquire territory. And you see the Duchy of Prussia in 1600, and then you can see how much territory is actually going to be developed by Prussia, and it’s going to extend so that by the 19th century, it’s going to become one of the most important states in the German Union. And in the end, there are two big states. It’s going to be Prussia and Bavaria, but as I said before, it’s going to be Bismarck, the brilliant chancellor who is going to unify Germany through Prussia, and also, Prussia was very much a militaristic state. And this is another development that’s going to be very important in the future.
So as I said, the Kingdom of Prussia, it grows out of the Magravate of Brandenburg in 1415, which was given to a prince of the Hohenzollern family. And they are going to rule Prussia and finally, Germany right up until the end of the first World War when the last of the Hohenzollerns, of course Kaiser Wilhelm II, is going to abdicate. Also, to give you a background, and I think this is going to be important when we look at the myths and legends of Prussia, a member of the family in 1525 was also the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order. This was the land of the Teutonic Knights. And I know that William has discussed it with you, and I have a little bit. In 1525, he actually became a Protestant. And in 1618, the territory is united with Brandenburg, and you can see all those acquisitions in the west and the north. And it’s the great elector, Frederick William, and it’s declared the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. Now, can we see the next map, please? And this is the further extent, and it also shows you the dismemberment of Poland, which meant, of course, that more Jews are going to become part of Prussia. Have a look at this, it’s very important. Those of you who’ve studied this period, and I know many of you will have done, Poland was the heartland of the Jewish world between the 14th and the 17th centuries. By 1648, it’s falling into decline. It takes about another hundred years to totter on, but look where it’s placed geographically. It’s got rapacious neighbours, the Habsburgs, the Prussians, and the Russian Empire. And you can see how gradually, slices are going to be taken. And you can see that whole area, East Prussia, New East Prussia, which is carved out of Poland. Okay, so what about the Jews? Can we see the next slide, please? Thank you. That’s Frederick II who I’m going to be dealing with in quite a lot of depth. Now, in 1670, Brandenburg, including Berlin, was opened to a few Jewish families. In 1671, the Jews of Vienna were expelled. And in 1671, an edict of admission allowed them into the city because gradually, the kings of Prussia are trying to build up a mercantile state. Remember, it is a Protestant state. They’ve broken away from Rome.
They’ve broken away from the Holy Roman Empire, and they are developing the beginnings of capitalism. So, they allow a small number of Jews in, and they allow them to deal in various goods. They’re subjected to the civil authorities, and they have to pay protection money as individuals and also as a group. Never forget, this is very much part of the Jewish situation. They are taxed as a group. They were forbidden to be money lenders. They were given freedom of worship, but they weren’t allowed to construct a synagogue. And then, because of complaints from the Christian merchants, edict of 1680 prohibited them from dealing in hides. You’ve got to remember that all the guilds were Christian. Back in 1671 when they’ve been allowed in, the Protestant king also allowed Catholics in. More than anything else, he is trying to build up his state. It’s pragmatism, it’s not loving Jews, it’s not loving anybody. It’s how on earth do you build up a state? Well, you bring in merchants who will be useful to you. In 1700, they had to pay a communal tax for licenced Jews. Jews who come to Berlin are to be licenced to trade there. And Frederick III needed them because he’s really building up the sun. He’s building up a huge commercial economy. And also, he had a very, very extravagant household. And if you think of the role of Jews, if you think of the role of Jews as international traders, there’s always this group of international Jews, and many of the courts of Germany, remember, prior to 1815, there were 360 of them, nearly every one of them had a Court Jew.
He would live at court. He was really the Parnassus for the rest of his community, and he’s very important in the economic life of the court. And other Jews settle. So in 1712, they’re allowed to build a house of worship. And in 1704, they were allowed to actually own property, which is a big step forward. Now, when Frederick II comes to the throne, his policy, look, he didn’t like Jews very much. This is what he said in an official edict of 1774, he disliked the Jews, but he allowed the second son of a privileged Jew to reside there, but didn’t want many in the state. I’ll talk about what a privileged Jew is in a minute, but he admits that he needs their commercial skills. So, as a result, he’s going to allow exceptional privileges to certain Jews who can set up manufacturing industry. For example, a man called Moses Rif who sets up a silk factory in Potsdam and also included a man called Isaac Bernhard, who’s going to be important in the future story that I’m going to tell because he’s going to be the employer of Moses Mendelssohn. And Moses Mendelssohn is absolutely seminal to the Enlightenment. But in a strange little edict of 1769, every Jew, before he married or bought a home, had to buy a set of china from the crown factories, and of course, the money went to the crown. So, we also know that Frederick II was determined to keep the proportion of Jews fixed in Berlin. In April 1750, he’s going to actually decide how many there will be. They’re going to allow 333 families in Berlin. That’s actually under 2,000 people. And that included a number of Schutzjuden.
They are the privileged Jews. He will allow 150 privileged Jews into Berlin. Only their eldest sons have a right of settlement, others couldn’t transmit the privilege. Now, who are the privileged Jews? It is the merchant class, those he wants to build up his economy. Later on, he is going to extend the right to second sons in exchange for a huge amount of money. And also, Jews had to deliver a quantity of silver to the royal treasury. Now, during Frederick’s reign, a large number of factories were established and mills. Amongst them, a man called Daniel Itzig who I’ll come on to soon. He establishes a lead factory and also an oil mill. And also, the Jews were his mint masters. Ephraim, and then Moses, Isaac, and Daniel Itzig, and Veitel Heine Ephraim. So these are successive mint masters. He’s not in the least bit concerned with the inner life of the Jews. He’s a pragmatist. He wants them in his country because they can be used to them. But, how can I describe Frederick? He’s got an incredibly complicated personality. He’s a very, very, difficult man. He was the son of Frederick William and Sophia Dorothea, who was the daughter of George I of England. Don’t forget that there was a German king from Hanover on the British throne. He had a very bad relationship with his terribly rigorous, dogmatic father. And he did, in fact, have, he himself, was interested in the Enlightenment. Despite everything he said about Jews, he was fascinated by the ideas of the Enlightenment, and he does encourage German intellectuals to his court. He wants Prussia to become a centre of ideas. If you think of the various German city-states, one of the reasons Germany was awash with so many brilliant musicians was that every court had a couple meisters.
He didn’t want Berlin just to be a centre of music. He wanted it to be a centre of ideas. So he actually, he opens it up to any people of the Enlightenment. But he was above everything, a strong believer in mercantilism. He actually wrote a testament politique, which was about the foundations of trade and manufacture. He did believe, though, he was an enlightened despot, he believed that by blood, only the nobility had a right to rule. So don’t get too excited. And don’t forget that Catherine the Great, a little later on, she also was an enlightened despot. Yes, she would enter into conversations with Descartes, with Voltaire, but they believed they ruled divinely. Having said that, they’re interested in the ideas of the Age of Reason. He’s very much an advocate of that extraordinary German word, Bildung, which doesn’t have a common word in English. I’m told by my German friends it means education and cultivation. He did believe, to an extent, in paternalistic reform. He did abolish, for example, judicial torture. He also tried to set up universal primary education in Prussia partly from pragmatism, why? Because he realised that he needed a well-educated state. If you’re going to create a strong economy, you need educated class. So, judicial reform and also an educated population.
And his reign actually does weaken the structure of the Holy Roman Empire. And he’s going to make Germany into the dominant, Prussia into the dominant force so that later on when Bismarck takes over, it’s no accident. There’s this progression really, of Prussia emerging as one of the greatest states done through two things. He was a brilliant strategist. He was also a warrior king, and he was also, of course, a mercantile king, so through war and trade. But the charter, in 1750, this is his extraordinary charter for the Jews of Berlin. And remember, there are only 333 families allowed into Berlin. It’s a very small minority. They don’t have to live in a ghetto. The majority of Jews in other city-states live in ghettos. They don’t. They are there, the privileged Jews are there because he wants them there. And because he’s a creature of the Enlightenment, he’s going to allow other Jews to live in Berlin for the Jews there to live a Jewish life. And that is how you’re going to have characters like Moses Mendelssohn finally being able to settle in Berlin. So I’m going to quote a little for you from the charter because I think it’s a very, very interesting document, and it gives you a notion of Jewish employment patents. And let’s face it, many of the employment patents that Jews later on bring to the west are the employment patents of Eastern and Central Europe.
So, I’m reading in quotes, I’m quoting to you, “A wish to establish and maintain as far as possible the livelihood and trades of every loyal subject under our protection, Christian as well as Jews, in a continually good and flourishing state. For this reason, we found it necessary to make such provision that this, our most gracious purpose, may be attained. So the proportion may be pertained between Christian and Jewish business opportunities, and especially that neither Jew or Christian be injured through a prohibited expansion of Jewish business activity.” Look, he doesn’t like Jews very much. They’re just useful to him, and he knows that he’s got problems with the Christian traders. Don’t forget the baggage that I’ve already talked about, you know, anti-Judaism in Germany. Anti-Judaism in the old Christian world, plus of course, economic competition. “For this purpose, we’ve made an exact investigation, and they are going to decide who can live there. We establish and regulate, hereby, no other Jews are to be tolerated except those in the lists and are attached to the end of the list. List of tolerated communal officials.” He’s already said he needs his privileged Jews like his mint masters, like the people who have set up factories. He needs them there, but he’s going to allow others in so they can live a Jewish life. “One rabbi or vice rabbi, four assistant judges, a chief and assistant cantor with his bases and sopranos. These latter must not be married.” He’s going to keep the numbers down.
“Four criers, one of whom must report daily to the police officer the arrival of foreign Jews.” These are the people who would check the gates. And foreign Jews, that’s from any other part of Germany was not allowed in, except just to trade for a day. “Two employees in the synagogal school.” So the Jews were allowed to set up the infrastructure of a community. “Six grave diggers who do other work for the Jewish community.” They’ve now got a burial ground. “One cemetery guard, three stewards, three butchers, one secretary of the meat market and his supervisor.” Of course, Jews are living a completely Jewish life. “Three bakers and one restaurant keeper, a communal scribe, two doorkeepers and one assistant.” And the doorkeepers examine the papers of the immigrant Jews. “Two hospital attendants.” As Jewish hospital, paid for by the wealthier Jews. “One physician, one male and one female bath attendant.” Of course, their mikveh. “A fattener of fowl and cattle. Eight attendants for the sick, two Hebrew printers, two teachers for girls, both must be married.” A distinction to be made between regular protected Jews and special protected Jews who are merely tolerated during their lifetime, regular protected Jews are the ones who are allowed to settle their eldest son there. And it goes on how much money they should pay for being in Berlin, but it gives you a list of the trades that they’re allowed in. And also, this is interesting, “The Jews must pay their taxes quarterly, and all the Jews are responsible as a body for the payment of taxes.” This is why Jewish communal responsibility goes on right to this day. It’s always been a part of Ashkenazi and, I believe, Sephardi history. “The Jew must not pursue any manual trade. We hereby establish regulated and order earnestly that in the future, no Jew shall presume to engage in any manual trade nor venture upon any except steel engraving, painting, the grinding of optical glasses, diamonds and jewels, gold and silver embroidery, fine-cloth needlework, the collecting of gold dust by a sieving process, and other similar trades in which vocational associations and privileged guilds are not found.”
We’re letting you in to those guilds where the Christian world does not work. “Particularly therein joined not to brew, nor not to distil spirits. However, they are allowed to undertake the distilling of spirits for the nobility, government officials, and others with the undertaking that only licenced Jews and their sons are to be taken for this task. However, those Jews who have received or received special concessions for the establishment of particular types of factories or for the sale of goods of Christian manufacturers are protected in the future as in the past. Jews are forbidden the smelting of gold and silver. The Jews in Berlin are not allowed to have dealings in raw wool or woollen yarns or to manufacture woollen goods.” But they were allowed to sell the domestic finished products. “Jews are further allowed to sell one another, beers and spirits, but with the exception of kosher wine, they are not allowed to do business in wine. Jews must not sell strong drink to non-Jews.” Now, this is very much a canon. In Poland, the majority of the innkeepers were Jews and much of the anti-Jewish rhetoric was that, in fact, the idea was that Jews were trying to get the peasants drunk so that they could diddle them, which was a horrible accusation. “Jews are not allowed to deal in raw cattle and horse hides, plain or dyed leather, and foreign wools, except those which are specifically proper and permitted. Under special conditions, they may sell choice groceries and spices to other Jews. They’re forbidden to trade in raw tobacco, to manufacture tobacco, and to carry a line of staple groceries.
Okay, precisely the kinds of goods which the protected Jews are allowed to do business. With gold cloth.” Now, this will give you a notion of why they’re there. “With gold cloth, silver cloth,” you know, who do you think is furnishing the clothes of the court? “Fine fabrics and ribbons, native and foreign embroidered goods, domestic gold and silver laces, neck bands of lace, Spanish lace, gold and silver thread, and pearl, likewise, jewellery, jewels, broken gold and silver, and lots of all sorts of old pocket watches and similar things. They are permitted to deal in money exchange and pledges, money brokerage, and the buying and selling of houses and estates to other people. They’re also permitted to do business in all sorts of Brabant, Dutch, Silesian, and electoral Saxon fine cloth.” You see, think where the Jewish community is. They are dealing with each other. They have a common language. They are literate. And so, this is totally pragmatic. “They’re allowed to deal in laces, muslin, and all white domestic course linens, domestic linens, thread and table cloth, especially allowed to deal with domestic silk goods. Also, with foreign and native undyed dress leather and domestic velvet, all sorts of wool. They’re permitted to deal in horses, in undressed calf, feathers, wigs, et cetera. They are free to do exchange, do all sorts of business in old clothes, old furniture, et cetera, et cetera.” And then it goes on to state that Jews can only do business in things that they are not excluded.
So, important to understand that Frederick, he is a figure of the Enlightenment because he’s not just having his Court Jew there with the rest of the Jews in the ghetto. He is allowing other Jews into Berlin to allow Jews to live a Jewish life. And the notion of who is a Jew is also going to become interesting to figures of the Enlightenment. Can we see the next slide, please, Judi, if you don’t mind? This is a edict forbidding the entrance of Jewish beggars into Prussia. You can’t have the poor here. Thank you. Can we see the next one, please? These are Jewish beggars at the Berlin Gate. The wealthy are there because he wants them there. Plus, of course, those who will come keep a Jewish life. And frankly, the Jews already there did not want Jewish beggars in either. Can we go on, please? Here you see the home of Veitel Heine Ephraim. Now, who was he? He was actually the court jeweller. That’s his house. We haven’t got a picture of him, but you can see he has a splendid house. Now, one of the perks of being a privileged Jew is you could live in Berlin where you’d like, and you could have a grand palace. His dates were 1703 to 1775, and he is the court jeweller to Frederick II. And already, he had a good relationship with him from before he was king, when he was the crown prince. And in 1748, he had leased a lace factory in Potsdam, and he also brought in Jewish orphans and non-Jewish orphans to actually teach them how to produce lace.
As the community develops, after the charter, he becomes the senior elder of the community, and he was also responsible for the silver at the Prussian mint. Jews were usually mint masters. He worked later on with a man called Daniel Itzig, who I’m going to come on to in a minute. And one of the problems was that one of the ways that Frederick financed his wars was in the debasing of currency, which wasn’t very popular. And what they did was, they debased coins by adding 70% copper. The king has ordered this to happen, but they were called Ephraimites after Veitel Heine Ephraim. He also ran the mints of both Konigsberger and Cleves, and the Leipzig mint he ran and in return, he gave Frederick 20%. So he’s a very, very wealthy man, and he is one of the Court Jews, and he’s a privileged Jew. He is there in Berlin, living a very important life. And of course, he’s a distant ancestor of Heinrich Heine, who I’ll be talking a lot about in this course. Can we see the next slide, please? Here you see Daniel Itzig. Now, he’s a very important man. He was the Court Jew to Frederick the Great and also to his son Frederick William. He’d been born in Berlin. He was the son of a privileged Jew. He was a banker. He was a mint master with Veitel Ephraim.
He becomes chairman of the Jewish congregation in Berlin. And in 1756, he becomes the mint master of Saxony. And he’s also, a jeweller to the Prussian Court. These individuals are well versed in knowing what the court wants. They bring in the most choice jewellery. Don’t forget that they have contacts all the way to India. This is the Jewish merchant princes who work with other Jews from country to country to country. He also was a silk entrepreneur. And you know where, of course, the silk is coming from. He later worked with his son-in-law, David Friedlander, who’s also going to figure very importantly in the story of the Jews of Berlin. He led the committee to actually improve Jewish civil and social standing and had quite a lot to do with the charter of 1750. You know, Frederick needed information on the Jews. Daniel Itzig is important to the economy. Evidently, he was a man of huge charm, and he does believe in helping his people. In 1761, he actually opened a school for poor Jewish boys, and adjacent to it, was a printing house, which later on, is going to become one of the main institutions of the Haskalah of Berlin. At the same time, he funded the Yeshiva, and he brought in Rabbi Hirschel Levin from London to Berlin and Rabbi Joseph from Lemberg to Berlin to take over the Yeshiva and the Jewish school. He wants to walk both worlds. He’s a pious Jew. He’s a Court Jew, and what he wants more than anything else is to walk both worlds. Is it possible?
He himself, was a student of rabbinic literature and a very learned man. And he remains head of the Jewish community between 1764 and his death in 1799. He was very happily married to the daughter of a banker. He had 13 children. Two of his granddaughters married two of Moses Mendelssohn’s sons. Remember, there are only 333 Jewish families, and they were all known to each other. Now, can we come to the next slide, please? Because what I want to talk about now is the European Enlightenment itself. And this is one of the main figures, a man called Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, who is going to figure very, very importantly in the Jewish story because he’s going to write two plays. One in 1843 called “The Jews” and the second, sorry, in 1849. And the second in 1782 called “Nathan the Wise”. He came from a small town in Saxony. His father was a Lutheran minister, and his father wrote theological tracts. He studied at a Latin school. His father very much wanted him to enter the ministry, but he goes to the University of Leipzig. He takes a degree in theology, in medicine, and philosophy. He very much breaks away from his religious past. He has a relationship with a French actress, which meant he translated several plays for her in the theatre. He developed an absolute passion for the theatre, and he writes his first play, “The Young Scholar”. And he’s going to move, finally, to Berlin. Then he goes back and takes a master’s degree, and he is going to be right at the centre of the European Enlightenment.
His first play “The Young Scholar”, he writes… The Enlightenment is becoming more secular. Look, the majority of people who turn to the Enlightenment as a response to the horror of war and also the very tight restraints of religion, you’ve got to remember so much has happened in the past 300 years. The Renaissance, the Reformation, the expansion of countries, the expansion of knowledge coming to tut with other societies, and it really makes individuals think. His plays are about human behaviour. Now, at that stage, the educated German spoke in French. French was the language of the court. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was one of those who wanted to really develop a proper German theatre, a proper German literature. And he was very much, in many ways, a German nationalist. And he is partially a journalist, but he also becomes more and more interested in philosophy. He becomes a very important book reviewer and a book editor. He’s very, very clever and is very much part of these circles of young people who are meeting at court and also in the homes of wealthy people. Now, this is interesting because in the homes of the wealthy Jewish bankers and merchants, many of them have very interesting, attractive wives and daughters. And you have the sort of development of what’s known as the Jewish salons. Now, in these salons, figures of the Enlightenment meet for the first time wealthy Jews, and they see that each other are actually human, and it becomes a very, very important phenomenon in Germany.
And it’s fascinating how many of the great writers of Germany, including Goethe, are actually going to make their first appearance in the salons of some of these very wealthy Jews, but more about that later on. He wants a break with classical French drama. And one of his first plays is actually about middle class characters who have the burden of tragic fate. Up until then, people would only write about aristocrats, and he goes in for a tradition which is going to be later expanded by Goethe. Now, in his play, “The Jews”, it’s a huge break because he makes a Jew a hero. Now, this is absolutely fascinating because when the play, he’s already successful, his play, “The Young Scholar”, he’s becoming one of the most important playwrights in Germany, but how is “The Jew” going to be dealt with? Now, this is a reviewer, Professor Johann David Michaelis, “The unknown traveller in all his character traits, so perfect that it might not be impossible, but improbable that amongst this people, the Jews, exist such a noble man, but even a person of normal virtue is so rare that the few examples cannot reduce the hatred as one might wish.” Now meanwhile, Moses Mendelssohn has come into Berlin as the tutor of a silk merchant, more about him later. Because he’s the tutor of a silk merchant and because he’s an incredibly clever man, not only is he versed in Jewish scholarship, he swallows whole the language, the culture, the philosophy of Germany. He falls in love.
He walks both worlds, much more about that later. And he writes to a friend about this play, “What do you think they didn’t like about ‘The Jew’? The main character who is as they say, much too noble and too liberal? What humiliation of our hard-pressed nation. What exaggerated disdain. How can anyone, and had he only a bit of probity in him, deny a whole nation the probability of having a single honest man amongst its people? ‘The Jews’ fail on the Berlin stage because nobody can imagine that a Jew can have heroic propensities.” And it’s not until “Nathan the Wise” is written much later in Lessing’s life, he meets Moses Mendelssohn soon after “The Jews”, that by that time, Moses Mendelssohn becomes the most famous philosopher in Germany. And that means that Lessing realises that the noble Jew is possible. It’s Lessing who really does demand a truly national drama belonging to the German people, and he urged German playwrights to take Shakespeare as their model. Now, in fact, “Nathan the Wise” was not performed in his lifetime. “Nathan the Wise”, if you haven’t seen it, I know it was performed in England just quite recently.
It’s set in Jerusalem at the time of Saladin, the wise Muslim ruler. It’s the time of the crusade, and it describes how a Jewish merchant, Nathan, goes on his travels, and he comes back to see his home burnt down. But his beloved ward, Recha, who he has adopted and brought in and saved her, has been saved by a Templar. And the Templar falls in love with Recha, but because she is a Jew, it can’t go further. And of course, in the end, it’s discovered that, in fact, Recha is a Christian who was adopted, and in fact, she is the Templar’s sister. It’s a strange play, but it accepts the fact it is Nathan. Nathan is the wise. And Lessing, Lessing believes in a Christianity of reason. Having said that, he did have a downgraded view of the Jew. This is one of the problems, and this is what Lessing actually writes to that professor once he’d met Moses Mendelssohn. “He, Moses Mendelssohn, really is a Jew. He’s in his early twenties and has succeeded through his own efforts to master European languages, mathematics, philosophy, and poetry. I believe he’ll bring great respect to his people.” And you see, but even Lessing was still shocked that such a Jew existed. So despite the ideas of the Enlightenment, it’s important to remember that non-Jewish society, even the enlightened thinkers had a very downgraded view of the Jews. The figures of the Enlightenment, they are interested in creating a humanistic culture, which they were fascinated by science. Remember, it’s the Age of Reason.
They wanted it to be vested in man’s intellectual and scientific achievements. Now, they believed in natural religion, some of them actually moved to deism. Now, it’s at this stage, of course, that I really need to begin to talk about the extraordinary Moses Mendelssohn. Now, who was Moses Mendelssohn? Moses Mendelssohn, can we see the next slide, please? 1729, Moses Mendelssohn was, in fact, born in a ghetto. He was born in the ghetto of Dessau. His father was a scribe. He, a very poor man. He was orphaned very young, but he actually did claim descent from the great Polish Rabbi Moses Isserles, who of course, is buried in the cemetery in Krakow. And those of you who visit Krakow will know that the grave of Moses Isserles is very much a pilgrimage stop spot for Jews. And during the war years, when Krakow was under Nazi occupation, what happened was a group of very, very brave Jews managed to cover the grave up so it was not despoiled by the Nazis. And he did claim descent from this great rabbi. Now, he’s orphaned, he’s poor. He had a rabbi, David Frankel. Now, David Frankel was a very interesting man because he also was a man who was interested in the ideas of the Enlightenment. And Moses Mendelssohn, he’s already regarded as a got on. He’s very much at the centre of Jewish rabbinic fault. But he wants to go to Berlin, he wants to follow his rabbi. So he goes to Berlin where he becomes a tutor to the silk merchant who I’ve already mentioned. And what he does there, he has a huge proclivity for knowledge.
And as it’s already been described by Lessing, he soon acquires many, many languages, and he very much has a strong education. He learns perfect German, he studies philosophy, he studies other languages, and he becomes a great figure of the Enlightenment. His first real contact with non-Jewish society comes in 1754 where he met Lessing in a salon over a game of chess. Can we go on, please, to another slide? That’s the home he was born at in the ghetto of Dessau. That’s where he actually came from. As I said to you before, Jews outside Berlin in some of the city-states, they lived in ghettos, and the ghetto wall was shut at night. Can we go on, please? Here you see his house when later on, he becomes the great figure of the German Enlightenment. And there you see Micha Ullman and Mendelssohn House in Dessau. Can we go on, please? He marries Fromet Mendelssohn born Gugenheim. It’s a very, very happy marriage, and they’re going to have a lot of children. I’m going to be talking a lot about those children of theirs. Now, can we go on, please? I’m going to talk about him in a minute. Can you jump on, Judi, and go back to him? Here you see Lessing and Johann Caspar Lavater who was a Christian theologian, but part of the Enlightenment. Here you see them all playing chess. And let me just give you a bit more background to him. And he develops this relationship with Lessing. He’s a brilliant chessman. They’re all brilliant chessmen.
He’s really introduced into Berlin intellectual society, and in 1755, he himself, writes a treatise called “Philosophical Conversations”, and it’s written in excellent German. Can you imagine how stupefied the German intellectual public was by this? A Jew, from those downgraded people, has written a philosophical essay, and it’s brilliant. He also had the chutzpah, if I may use that term, to actually argue that German, rather than French, should be used by the Prussian Court in Potsdam. He also falls in love with Germany. He falls in love with the idea of Bildung. Now, let me say very carefully, he never ever deserts Judaism. He is Torah true. He keeps a completely kosher home. He goes to the synagogue regularly. He keeps up his rabbinic studies. He walks just as Daniel Itzig also did. He walks both worlds, and he actually won a prize in 1763 offered by the Berlin Academy for a philosophical essay. And he won the prize as opposed to Immanuel Kant. In the same year, because he’s becoming so famous, they begin to call him the Jewish Socrates. He is given the special status of protected Jew. It gave him the right of residence in Berlin as of right. And in the following year, he publishes another treatise called “Phaedon”, in which he argued for the inherent value of the human soul. And he now becomes very much part of society in Berlin. He still was subjected to a certain amount of anti-Jewish prejudice.
He wasn’t allowed into the Berlin Academy, even though they offered him a prize, and that was on the orders of Frederick II. So even though Frederick II, he needs his Jews, he sees himself as a figure of the Enlightenment, but to allow a Jew into the Berlin Academy is a step too far. This is what he writes about in his diary, “At times I go for an evening stroll with my wife and children. "Papa,” the innocent asks, “why is that boy shouting after us? Why do they throw stones at us? What have we done to them?” You see, this is the baggage. This is the baggage of theological Jew hatred. Now, in 1769, he is drawn into a big public controversy, and he’s brought into a controversy by Lavater. Now, Lavater actually challenges his him. He says, “How is it that you are a Jew of the Enlightenment and you remain a Jew?” Now, it’s at this stage, Mendelssohn is developing ideas for the Jewish community, which he called Verbesserung, self-improvement. And he actually replies to, let me just find the reply. I think, Judi, we have a slide of it. It might not be in the right, yes. So he’s been publicly, “Why on earth, you are part of the Enlightenment. Why do you remain a Jew?” “If a Confucian or a Solon were to live amongst our contemporaries, I could according to my religion, love and admire them a great man without the ridiculous desire to convert him. What for?
Since he’s not a member of the tribe of Jacob, our religious laws do not apply for him. Do I think he can be saved? It seems to me that whatever leads men to virtue in this life cannot be damned in the next.” You see, Judaism believes that provided you abide by the Noahide Commandments, he will inherit the kingdom to come. And he’s saying to Lavater, “I’m a Jew.” He hated controversy. So my path is the Jewish path. If you live according to a moral law, why on earth should you convert? Because don’t forget that Lavater was a Christian, and he believed he liked Moses Mendelssohn. He wants to save him. “At no time has my heart whispered to me, what a pity that this beautiful soul be lost. Only the man who believes there is no salvation outside his church will be troubled.” So, although he’s an observant Jew all his life, he does take on, the problem was that as a figure of the Enlightenment and Verbesserung, he did take on the view that the majority of Jews living in Germany lived downgraded lives. Can we go back on the slides, please, if you don’t mind, Judi? Can you go back for me now? Yes, I need to go back another one. I’m sorry, I didn’t… Yes, now, this is Christian Wilhem von Dohm, another very, very interesting man who had written a pamphlet on the amelioration of the civic rights of the Jews. He was in favour of Jews being admitted into the body politic, but he believed, like many of the figures of the Enlightenment, that of course Jews were downgraded. This is one of the problems with the Enlightenment. They looked at the Jewish world and said, “Yes, the Jews are downgraded, but it’s our fault that we’ve downgraded them.” They didn’t actually look into the Jewish world to see anything positive about it.
He said, “If we raise them up to us, then perhaps they will be worthy of becoming part of us.” Which I personally find this very, very problematic. Can we go back on again, Judi, if you don’t mind? Sorry to muck you around. So I want to go back to Lavater, and go, I mean, go forward, I beg your pardon. Okay, now, can you go on the next one? Go on. Yes, David Friedlander. Leave it there while I talk a little more. Now, Mendelssohn, as he’s a creature of Verbesserung, are there rules within Judaism that are a problem? He’s becoming very, very important. And what happens is, there’s a criminal case where a Jew has been murdered, and the Duke of Mecklenburg wants to exhume the body. Now, you all know that Jews have to be buried within 24 hours and there can be no autopsy. Mendelssohn actually was in a difficult position. He publicly, he confirmed the logic of the prohibition, but he did believe that the Jewish law of burial could, perhaps in certain circumstances, be altered. He also decided that as part of raising the level of the Jews, he publishes the first translation of the Hebrew Bible into German. How does he do it? Using Hebrew letters. He also brings in a commentary compiled with the assisting, he has a lot of followers, including David Friedlander, and this is when we begin to see the problems with some of the rabbis. They were beginning to think that he is muddling with the law because when he translates the commentaries, he begins to omit certain commentaries because he said they did not equate with pure reason.
And he said, “My translation at first was only intended for ordinary people, but I also find it need for rabbis.” And it’s the Biur more than the Bible that leads a certain amount of controversy. So he’s beginning to have controversy with the rabbinic community. But remember, he falls in love with Germany, and he puts forward the idea that you could be a Jew at home, and a man in society. He wanted the Jews to walk. He’s not really a political reformer, but he’s the Jewish Socrates. He’s got a huge reputation now in Germany. And what he wants is that he wants other Jews to be able to be part of the world that he is now falling in love with. He doesn’t take the whole of Germany and compare it to the whole of the Jews. He takes this very rarefied part of the Jewish establishment, the German establishment, but somehow for him, the Jews need to be raised up, Verbesserung. And in some ways, I believe that he’s really taking on some of the criticisms people like Wilhem von Dohm, that the Jews have become downgraded. Because in a certain sort of way, yes, but in another kind of way, male Jews were always literate, not just literate in theology, but they also studied mathematics, anything that was useful for the study of prayer. And this is where you really begin to see the clash. And it’s far more marked in Germany, I think, than any other European country, because Jews are going to fall in love with Germany, and this is really the beginning. So, this is important.
You should be involved in general society and just be a Jew at home. It’s interesting because not long before Mendelssohn died, Kant actually published his “Critique of Pure Reason”, and Mendelssohn really never understood it. But when he died in 1786, it was a huge funeral, and the whole of Berlin mourned him. So he was a great figure in his day. You know, I remember, long, long time ago when I was teaching in London, I had a phone call from an acquaintance of mine. Her daughter was studying at Carmel College in those days, the great Jewish boarding school. And she was studying modern Jewish history, and she was also studying Jewish studies, and the rabbi who taught her Jewish studies had said that Moses Mendelssohn was a traitor to his people. And the Jewish historian said he was absolutely central to any understanding of Jewish history. And basically, her grandmother phoned me up and said, would I go down and talk to her. And so he’s a terribly controversial figure. He is, if you’d like, the opener of the gate. Being a Jew at home and a man in society, he didn’t coin that phrase. It was actually coined by a Russian maskil. But that really was his life attempt, and he wants to bring the Jews up. So I will stop there.
Q&A and Comments:
And Barbara’s asking me to write down the names of the books.
Q: This is from Robert, “Was it the 16th century the Jews to pay for government including an army. Jews didn’t have to serve in the military?”
A: Jews weren’t allowed to serve in the military. It wasn’t because of that. They just had to pay taxes.
This is from Gillard, “My family is from Germany. My ancestors were able to save documents from the late 1700s including,” oh, sorry, my video’s off. Thank you. “My family is from Germany. My ancestors were able to save documents from the late 1700s, including a marriage contract as well as a permit from one of our ancestors to be able to leave the ghetto during daylight hours.” Oh, that’s absolutely fascinating. For the purpose of doing business, yes. That is so interesting.
Q: “Who made the picture Jewish beggars in Berlin Gate?”
A: I can’t remember, Louise. I will look it up. I think it’s Daniel Oppenheim. I will look it up for you.
“It’s pronounced Ephraim.” Thank you.
Marion says, “In high school in Switzerland, German was our second language, and we started ‘Nathan the Wise’.” Thank you.
Of, ephra eem, Ephraim, yeah. I am very bad at pronunciation. I have been diagnosed as dysphasic, that’s my excuse.
And Mosse is sending us “Nathan the Wise”, the complete play. Fabulous.
Q: “Why did Lessing have the middle name Ephraim?”
A: Never forget, Rod, that Christianity took on the Hebrew Bible.
Q: How many non-Jewish kids do you know who have Jewish names?
A: It’s Ephraim and Manasseh, one of the 12 tribes of Israel.
Q: “Were the anti-Jewish feelings of the Enlightenment based on religion or race?”
A: This time it’s religion. Racial anti-Semitism, I’m going to give you two sessions on that, unfortunately, it doesn’t come in until the middle of the 19th century, and it’s about blood. At this stage, it’s the baggage of anti-Judaism. It’s going to turn as a result of extreme nationalism, the ideas of race, and blood, and spurious philosophy known as social Darwinism, which divided people into races, but I’ll talk a lot about that, Shelly. Good question.
Rose says, “Some people claim he was the father of reformed Judaism, which he was not. However, four of his children devoted to Christianity.” Actually, more of them, Rose, but don’t preempt. We’ll do that next time.
Yes. Rita’s thanking us for the pictures.
Q: “How did Moses Mendelssohn earn a living?”
A: He started out as a silk merchant and tutor, but then as he became a philosopher, more of his books were translated, and he made money out of his publishing. And most of his children married very rich families, and in fact, one of his sons, the only one who remained Jewish, set up the Mendelssohn bank, which went on until 1933.
“The goal of the Enlightenment was epistemologically inspired by Bacon who wrote, ‘The problem was not what we believe as much as how we thought,’ in what is probably the most important book of the Enlightenment, ‘Preliminary Discourses to the Encyclopaedia of Diderot’. The point made is, idealism is a flawed form of reasoning. To be enlightened requires identity with empiricism. They were skeptical of idealism. They were just as skeptical as Christianity with Judaism. They were equally skeptical of political ideologies such as socialism and communism.” I agree with you to an extent, Peter. Some of the figures of the Enlightenment like Lavater were still Christian though. Some were moving towards deism. Look, what I’ve tried to do, and this is what you’ve just pinpointed, one of the problems of teaching Jewish history. This is not a course on the European Enlightenment. We have had lectures on the philosophy of the Enlightenment in other stages by philosophers, and maybe I will invite one of them in at some stage to do it. I looked at Diderot when I was looking up France. What I need to do is to give you enough of the outside world so that you have more, you can understand how the Jews fit in.
Yes, Hadas is telling us Ephraim and Manasseh were the sons of Joseph. They were the beloved. So Joseph was so beloved that his two sons were each given their own tribes.
Q: “Were there any meaning to men putting their hands into the jacket?”
A: I didn’t notice that, Maria.
This is from Josie, “Your talk illuminates our maternal ancestral history in Berlin. Documents, artefacts, one of our great-great-great-grandfathers was a silk merchant to the then Kaiser. I use KPMG white china cookery from KPMG, compulsory bought from the Kaiser’s factory.” Oh, Josie, that’s extraordinary.
Yes, Marilyn’s reading “Berlin: Life and Loss in the City That Shaped the Century”, which deals with Berlin in 20th century. That’s also a brilliant book, yeah.
“Our family, the Wickersheimer Jewish family, lived in the outcast colonies for five generations. In 1789, Enzo Levy married the daughter of Prince Bishop’s protected Jew. In May 1817, since secularisation, all Jews had been under the protection of the new sovereign, the king of Bavaria. All Jews in the village were appointed to the office of Rotterdam. There, they had to testify that they follow the constitution and obeyed the laws of the kingdom and wanting to be loyal to the king as well as taking the family name. Until then, they’d only been called by their first names, usually with the addition, Jud.
Enzo Levy called himself , hence our family name.” You know, those of you who are fortunate enough to know your ancestry, it’s absolutely fascinating. And of course, it’s much a later addition in Poland. “It is pronounced Ephraim.”
And, Rose, to pick up on your point, some people claim he was the father of reformed Judaism. I don’t think he was. He was Torah true. Remember, the real difference with reformed Judaism, and it’s just the subject I never teach because I like to keep a harmonious group, reformed Judaism, it’s about theology. That was the real problem. Reformed Jews grew to believe that the Torah was not the word of God as dictated to Moses on Mount Sinai. That is the theological problem.
“Mussorgsky’s musical piece, ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ was about an actual art exhibition. Two paintings that exhibition depict Jews called Samuel and Schmuyle respectively. I wonder if this was intended as a form of satire to compare wealthy, enlightened Samuel with poor, traditional Schmuyle.” That is very interesting, Serena. I’d love to know more about that.
Oh, this is from Riva Karstadt, “My father, my husband,” beg your pardon, “of blessed memory was a member of the famous Karstadt department store family. Stories handed down from the mid-1700s and shared with me, much not recorded, but non-Jewish Germans have told me some of the same stories. Fascinating.” Yeah, yeah. You see, it was such a success story. That is the point. Such is such. In one level, I’m not talking about money, I’m talking about the artistic and scientific endeavour. It was very, very special.
Oh, this is Elie Strauss, “If you need help with genealogy, my husband is an expert and has devoted his life. I’m glad to pass on any question.” Now don’t, this is important. Those of you, please, I’ve already mentioned that we have some brilliant genealogists on board, and if you need help, we’re having a wonderful offer here. Okay, take care, darling. Lots of love.
- [Judi] Thank you, bye-Bye.