Aaron Samuel Gumperz

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Aaron Samuel Gumperz or Aaron Emmerich Gumperz (born December 10, 1723 in Berlin ; died April 10, 1769 in Hamburg ; also Aaron Solomon Gumperz ; ן אמריך גומפרץ) was a German medic, mathematician, philosopher and scholar.

Life

Coming from a rich and well-educated family, the pious family of Aaron Samuel had several German and Polish schoolmasters teaching at a young age. In later years Gumperz moved to the educational institution of Veitel Heine Ephraim , where he was instructed by Israel Samosc , an astute scholar and pioneer of the early Haskala . Through relationships with his father and years of teaching Latin, Gumperz was finally able to take part in numerous philosophical disputations from pastors and Christian teachings.

As the "secretair" of Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis and the Marquis d'Agens , "the literary friend of Frederick the Great", Gumperz first gained access to the early modern scholarly society in the 1740s . In 1743, just a few years later, Gumperz was already communicating with the enlightened literary theorist and writer Johann Christoph Gottsched . While the latter was still responding condescendingly to Gumperz's first letter, a lively intellectual exchange soon developed. In 1751 Gumperz even sent him his medical dissertation De temperamentis ( On Temperaments ), with which he was the first Jew in Prussia to receive his doctorate on March 19 of the previous year in Frankfurt an der Oder . In the years that followed, Gumperz made numerous acquaintances among the scholarly public of modern times and established himself primarily with mathematicians. In the autumn of 1749, for example, Leonhard Euler proposed him as editor of the Almanach juif , which had been commissioned by the Jewish community and the Academy of Sciences in Berlin .

Gumperz did mathematics, continued early studies of the Hebrew language and wrote a meta-commentary with Megalleh Sod on one of the many commentaries by Abraham Ezras . He probably didn't work as a doctor. In later years Gumperz moved to Hamburg, where he married and died in 1770. The Marquis d'Agens mourned the move from Berlin "lya à Hambourg un Medecin nommé Gumpert qui a beaucoup de connoissance & d'éruditio."

meaning

Friedrich Nicolai remembered Gumperz as a “Jewish scholar who, in addition to his knowledge of Arzney, had a good knowledge of mathematics and philosophy and also understood and spoke the newer languages, especially French and English.” He was a friend and mentor of Moses Mendelssohn, whom he probably met at Israel Samosc in Berlin and whom he later made acquainted with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , Marquis d'Argent and the President of the Berlin Academy, Pierre Louis de Maupertius. Gumperz also taught Mendelssohn in English and French and recommended the works of Leibniz and Wolff to read. After Gumperz's death, Mendelssohn noted that he “gained a taste for the sciences by interacting with the subsequent doctor of remedy, Mr. Aaron Gumperz, and also received some guidance from him.” According to an autobiographical memo the famous enlightener only three people: his father, Rabbi Frankel and Aaron Gumperz.

Trivia

Aaron Samuel was the grandson of Elias Gumperz, who acted as a supplier and agent for Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, the Great Elector.

Selection of works

  • De temperamentis . Frankfurt on the Oder 1751.
  • Megalleh Sod.
  • Ma'mar ha-Madda '. Berlin 1765.

literature

  • Detlef Döring : The enlightened Jew as an enlightened German. Aron Salomon Gumpertz, a Jewish 'lover of wisdom' in correspondence with Johann Christoph Gottsched . In: Stephan Wendehorst (Ed.): Building blocks of a Jewish history of the University of Leipzig . Leipzig 2006, pp. 451-471.
  • Ludwig Geiger : Gumpertz, Aaron Emmerich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 10, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1879, p. 121.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Ludwig Geiger: Gumpertz, Aaron Emmerich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB) . tape 10 . Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1879, p. 121 .
  2. ↑ Ludwig Geiger: History of the Jews in Berlin . tape 1 . Berlin 1871, p. 521 ff .
  3. ↑ a b c Julius H. Schoeps : The legacy of the Mendelssohns. Family biography . 3. Edition. Frankfurt am Main 2009.
  4. ↑ Detlef Döring: The enlightened Jew as an enlightened German. Aron Salomon Gumpertz, a Jewish 'lover of wisdom' in correspondence with Johann Christoph Gottsched. In: Stephan Wendehorst (Ed.): Building blocks of a Jewish history of the University of Leipzig . Leipzig 2006, p. 451-471 .
  5. ^ Richard Gottheil, M. Seligsohn: Gumperz, Aaron Solomon. In: The Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved September 22, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Gumperz, Aaron Samuel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gumperz, Aaron Emmerich; Gumperz, Aaron Solomon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physician, mathematician and philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH December 10, 1723
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH April 10, 1769
Place of death Hamburg