Aaron Bernstein

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Aaron David Bernstein in the magazine Die Gartenlaube - Illustrirtes Familienblatt from 1861
Aron Bernstein around 1883. Photograph by Wilhelm Fechner

Aaron David Bernstein (pseudonym: A. Rebenstein), (born April 6, 1812 in Danzig ; † February 12, 1884 in Berlin ) was a German-Jewish writer and a co-founder of Reform Judaism in Berlin.

Life

Aaron Bernstein grew up in Danzig as the son of a rabbi and received a thorough Jewish religious education, but no secular education. At the age of 20 he traveled to Berlin, where he learned the German language as well as literature and natural science subjects as an autodidact . For a few years he earned his living selling antiquarian books. He began his literary career in 1834 with the publication of an annotated translation of the Biblical Song of Songs .

In 1848 he fought for democratic ideals during the March Revolution . In 1849, when the revolutionary vigor had subsided, he founded the Urwähler newspaper , in which he called for moderate political reforms under the pseudonym A. Rebenstein. This brought him into conflict with the authorities, which suspended the newspaper in the spring of 1853 and sentenced Bernstein to four months in prison. In the Volks-Zeitung, founded as the successor to Franz Duncker , he worked as an editorial writer, in which his political and popular science articles appeared for over 30 years. He was a co-founder of the liberal Jewish reform community in Berlin and editor of the monthly Reform newspaper . In 1860 he published the novellas "Vögele der Maggid " and "Mendel Gibbor", which sentimental glorify the Jewish people's life in the German small towns and were a novelty in this area. They were reissued in 1934 and 1935 and translated into several languages. On March 27, 1861, Bernstein joined the Society of Friends .

However, his main interest was in the natural sciences. His natural science folk books were published in 21 volumes from 1855 to 1856, later published repeatedly and became very popular. They apply u. a. also as an important influence on the intellectual development of the young Albert Einstein . As early as the first edition of 1855, Bernstein presented reflections on space, time and the speed of light, which "an unknown keen-sighted thinker" in the anonymous work Die Gestirne und die Weltgeschichte. Thoughts about space, time and eternity . It was not until the edition of this publication from 1874 that the author was named Felix Eberty . Einstein wrote a foreword for the new edition from 1923. Bernstein himself was an applied scientist and carried out numerous experiments in the fields of telegraphy and photography .

In a description of Bernstein by Isidor Kastan it says: “Bernstein was by no means a radical according to the popular view; but he was a staunch and fearless advocate of democratic principles. In spite of all the sharpness in the journalistic fight against the enemy, there was a certain phlegm, an ironic calm, peculiar to him. He smiled even in the bitterest arguments with his opponent, which he often incited to disastrous carelessness. Once he had got his opponent into this mood, he disheveled him mercilessly, letting him feel the full caustic acuteness of his mockery, but without ever violating literary communication. He possessed a natural, unmistakable taste and an efficient addition of humor with which he knew how to meet his opponent and how to disarm him. "

One of his sons was the physiologist Julius Bernstein . The social democrat Eduard Bernstein was his nephew.

Aaron Bernstein died in Berlin in 1874 at the age of 71. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery at Schönhauser Allee . The grave has not been preserved.

Works

  • “Striking numbers! or the Prussian financial administration "(Berlin, 1843)
  • "The history of the revolution and reaction of Prussia and Germany from the March days to the most recent times" (1883–1884, 3 vols.)
  • “Vögele the Maggid. Mendel Gibbor. Two Novellas «(1860, 7th ed. 1892)
  • "Origin of the sagas of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" (1871)
  • "Nature and Spiritual Powers" (1874, 2nd ed. 1884)
  • "Nature and Culture, Considerations" (Leipz. 1879)
  • "Natural science books" (5th edition by Potonié and Hennig, Berl. 1897–1899, 21 parts)

literature

Web links

Commons : Aaron Bernstein  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Aaron Bernstein  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andreas W. Daum: Science popularization in the 19th century. Civil culture, scientific education and the German public, 1848–1914 . 2nd, supplementary edition. Oldenbourg, Munich 2002, p. 288, 326, 454, 475 .
  2. Jürgen Renn : On the shoulders of giants and dwarfs. Albert Einstein's unfinished revolution . Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2006, pp. 61 and 143.
  3. ^ Karl Clausberg Between the Stars: Lichtbildarchive / Felix Eberty: Die Gestirne und die Weltgeschichte. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-05-004043-2 , p. 12
  4. Felix Eberty : The stars and the world history. Thoughts about space, time and eternity. With a foreword by Albert Einstein. Edited by Werner Graf. Comino, Berlin 2014 eBook ISBN 978-3-945831-01-4
  5. Isidor Kastan : Berlin as it was. 8th edition. Mosse, Berlin 1925, p. 179
  6. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 350.