Bruno Bauer (philosopher)

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Portrait of Bruno Bauer
Honorary grave of Bruno Bauer

Bruno Bauer (born September 6, 1809 in Eisenberg , Duchy of Saxony-Altenburg , † April 13, 1882 in Rixdorf near Berlin ) was a German theologian , Bible critic , philosopher and historian .

life and work

Study and first effectiveness

Bruno Bauer was the son of the porcelain painter Friedrich Wilhelm Bauer († 1853) and his wife Caroline Wilhelmine . His brothers were Egbert Bauer (* 1809; † after 1882) and Edgar Bauer . He attended the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Gymnasium in Berlin and studied Protestant theology at the Berlin University with the Hegelian Philipp Konrad Marheineke and Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg . He received his doctorate and habilitation in March 1834.

Bauer began his journalistic career in 1835 when he defended speculative theology against the historical-critical criticism of the Gospel by David Friedrich Strauss . As a representative of right Hegelianism , he was given the task of editing the second edition of Hegel's philosophy of religion , which was completely different from the first Marheineke edition .

Gospel criticism

A few years later he turned himself into a critic of the gospels and took the view that no historical person Jesus of Nazareth could be proven. In the Critique of the Evangelical History of John and the Critique of the Evangelical History of the Synoptics , he developed his theses on the literary origin of the Gospels . These are free productions of religious self-confidence with little or no historical basis .

Above all, his participation in the oppositional Welcker serenade meant that the venia legendi for theology was withdrawn for life. His work The Good Cause of Freedom and My Own Matter (1842) refers to this measure . The habilitation of his friend Karl Marx , which he previously sponsored at the University of Bonn , failed together with his own academic career.

Bauer as a critic of religion

At the beginning of the 1840s, Bruno Bauer became, alongside Ludwig Feuerbach, the leading figure in left Hegelianism . These two ex-theologians who had been expelled from the university competed in establishing an atheistic philosophy for the first time in Germany . While Feuerbach, who was more anthropologically oriented towards sensualism, relied more on German tradition, Bauer drew on French materialism, namely the work of Holbach . Bauer presented his point of view in the book Das Entdeckte Christianentum (1843). It was only known to close friends because it was immediately confiscated by the censorship authorities. It was considered lost until 1927. One of the few who knew it at the time was Max Stirner , who criticized it in The One and His Own .

In December 1843, Bauer and his brother, the publisher Egbert Bauer , founded the Allgemeine Literaturzeitung, a monthly magazine, the last edition of which appeared in October 1844. His younger brother Edgar Bauer also published there. Here he developed his theory of pure criticism in several articles . Karl Marx ridiculed it in his polemic The Holy Family (March 1845), in which his co-author Friedrich Engels was only involved to a small extent, as "critical criticism". As early as 1843/44, not least because of Marx's criticism of his self-confidence philosophy, there was a break with his left-Hegelian comrades. Bauer turned to historiography and politics.

Turning to conservative and anti-Semitic positions

After the March Revolution in 1848 and the restoration that followed it, Bruno Bauer, like many radical thinkers and writers of the Vormärz , adapted to the new political conditions. It is true that he could not return to the civil service; but he became an important contributor to the conservative Prussian Kreuzzeitung Hermann Wageners and anonymously wrote numerous articles for its 23-volume state and society lexicon . In these articles, especially in the essay Das Judentum in der Fremde , Bauer combined the - avant la lettre - anti-Semitic polemics of the various anti-Semitic currents of his time into a true "compendium of anti-Semitism" (Hans Engelmann). Bauer had already published his anti-Jewish work Die Judenfrage and The Ability of Today's Jews and Christians to Become Free in 1843 , to which Karl Marx wrote his well-known reply on the Jewish question .

Bauer's relationship to the Tübingen school and his conviction about the beginnings of Christianity

The Tubingen school was Bauer foreign to and held in opposition to it and the letters of Paul not authentic for. In contrast to David Friedrich Strauss , the author of the life of Jesus , he relocated the beginnings of Christianity solely to the consciousness of the Roman Empire, saturated with Stoic and Alexandrian philosophy, and made Seneca and Philon of Alexandria responsible for it. Ignoring written mentions, including Romano-pagan historians , Bauer attributed the emergence of Christianity primarily to Philon's writings. Roman historians, such as Suetonius , were not contemporary witnesses of the events surrounding Jesus, but only lived a little later. Nonetheless, all logic suggests that they use oral traditions from Roman (and not Christian) contemporary witnesses, which gives a more objective picture.

Bruno Bauer is buried in the New St. Jacobi Cemetery in Berlin-Neukölln. His grave is designated as the honor grave of the city of Berlin .

Fonts (selection)

  • The Evangelical Church of Prussia and Science 1840.
  • Critique of the Evangelical History of John. Schünemann, Bremen 1840 digitized .
  • Critique of the Evangelical History of the Synoptic Leipzig 1841–1842, 3 volumes.
  • The trumpet of the Last Judgment over Hegel the atheist and the antichrist. An ultimatum Leipzig 1841 - digitized .
  • Hegel's doctrine of religion and art judged from the standpoint of faith. Otto Wigand, Leipzig 1842 digitized .
  • The good cause of freedom and my own business. Publishing house of the literary company, Zurich and Winterthur 1842 digitized .
  • The discovered and the undiscovered Christianity in Zurich and a dream. A trifle. Containing excerpts from Bauer's work confiscated in Zurich and the Christian Dr. Dedicated to Bluntschli by the Antichrist. Printed and published by Jenni, Sohn, Bern 1843.
  • The Jewish question . Friedrich Otto, Braunschweig 1843 digitized .
  • History of Politics, Culture and Enlightenment of the Eighteenth Century. 2 volumes, published by Egbert Bauer, Charlottenburg 1843–1845.
  • Allgemeine Litteraturzeitung , published by Egbert Bauer, Charlottenburg, (Dec. 1843 - Oct. 1844) Controversy between criticism and modern contradictions. With contributions by Bruno Bauer, Edgar Bauer, Ernst Jungnitz, Szelige u. a. Contains: general literature - newspaper. Monthly. Published by Bruno Bauer. Year 1843/44 Issue 1 - 12 digitized .
  • Correspondence between Bruno Bauer and Edgar Bauer during the years 1839–1842 . Egbert Bauer, Charlottenburg 1844 digitized .
  • Egbert Bauer, Bruno Bauer: Charlottenburg Democrats Hunt. Horror scenes in Charlottenburg or the slaughter of the Democrats on Sunday August 20th . Ferdinand Reichardt & Co., Berlin 1849.
  • The bourgeois revolution in Germany from the beginning of the German-Catholic movement to the present (Berlin 1849) - digitized .
  • The explanations of the national newspaper about Bruno Bauer. Egbert Bauer, Charlottenburg 1853
  • The fall of the Frankfurt Parliament. History of the German constituent national assembly. Friedrich Gerhard, Berlin 1849 digitized .
  • Critique of the Gospels and History of Their Origin Berlin 1850–1852, 4 volumes. - Digital copy, volume 2 , digital copy, volume 3 .
  • Critique of the Pauline Letters Berlin 1850–1852
  • Russia and Germanicism. 2 volumes, Egbert Bauer, Charlottenburg 1853 Volume 1 digitized Volume 2 digitized .
  • Russia and England. Egbert Bauer, Charlottenburg 1854 digitized .
  • Aberdeen. Egbert Bauer, Charlottenburg 1854 digitized .
  • Judaism abroad. F. Heinicke, Berlin 1863 digitized .
  • Philo, Strauss, Renan and early Christianity. Hempel, Berlin 1874.
  • Christ and the Caesars. The origin of Christianity from Roman Greece. Grosser, Berlin 1877.
  • The original gospel and the opponents of the scripture "Christ and the Caesars". Grosser, Berlin 1880.
  • Influence of English Quakerism on German culture and on the Anglo-Russian project of a world church. Berlin 1878.
  • For orientation about the Bismarckian era. Schmeitzner, Chemnitz 1880.
  • Disraeli's romantic and Bismarck's socialist imperialism. Schmeitzner, Chemnitz 1882.
  • Ernst Barnikol (Ed.): The discovered Christianity in the Vormärz. Bruno Bauer's fight against religion and Christianity and first edition of his martial arts pamphlet Diederichs, Jena 1927.
  • Richard Laufner, Karl-Ludwig König: Bruno Bauer, Karl Marx and Trier. An unknown letter from Bruno Bauer to Karl Marx and radical pre- March literature in the Trier City Library (= writings from the Karl Marx House . Issue 20). Trier 1978.

Newer editions:

  • Campaigns of pure criticism. Ed. U. Nachw. V. Hans-Martin Sass, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1968, contains nine articles by Bruno Bauer from his period of “Pure Criticism” as well as commentary and references.
  • Heinz Pepperle, Ingrid Pepperle (Ed.): The Hegelian Left . Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig 1985, contains u. a. The Trumpet of the Last Judgment and six other works by Bauer as well as his letters to Karl Marx and Arnold Ruge.

literature

  • Samuel Hirsch : Judaism, the Christian State and Modern Criticism: Letters to illuminate the Jewish question by Bruno Bauer . Heinrich Hunger, Berlin 1843 ( digitized in the Google book search).
  • Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels: The Holy Family or The Critique of Critical Criticism. Against Bruno Bauer & Consorten . Literary institution (J. Rütten). Frankfurt a. M. 1845. (digitized version)
  • Max Heinze :  Bauer, Bruno . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 46, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1902, p. 236 f.
  • Karl Löwith : From Hegel to Nietzsche , Complete Writings Vol. 4 (first 1941), Stuttgart 1988.
  • Walter Buff:  Bauer, Bruno. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 636 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Aldo Zarnado: Bruno Bauer Hegeliano e Giovane Hegeliano . In: Revista Critica di Storia Della Filosofia 21 (1966), pp. 189–210 and 293–327 (most extensive bibliography of Bruno Bauer's works to date).
  • Lothar Koch: Bruno Bauer's "Critical Criticism". Contribution to the problem of a humanistic atheism. Inaugural dissertation 1969
  • Lothar Koch: Humanistic atheism and social engagement . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1971.
  • Ernst Barnikol : Bruno Bauer. Studies and materials . Selected from the estate and compiled by Peter Reimer and Hans-Martin Sass . Van Gorcum & Comp., Assen 1972, ISBN 90-232-0917-6 (most extensive biography of Bruno Bauer to date).
  • David McLellan: Die Junghegelianer und Karl Marx (original title: The young Hegelians and Karl Marx , translated by Renate Zauscher) (= dtv Wissenschaftliche Reihe . 4077). dtv, Munich 1974, ISBN 978-3-423-04077-8 .
  • Godwin Lämmermann: Critical theology and criticism of theology. The genesis of Bruno Bauer's theory of religion and self-awareness (= Contributions to Protestant Theology, Volume 84). Kaiser, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-459-01225-0 (also dissertation at the University of Munich , Protestant theological faculty, 1977).
  • Zvi H. Rosen : Bruno Bauer and Karl Marx . Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague 1977.
  • Andreas Urs Sommer : Bauer, Bruno . In: Markus Vinzent, Ulrich Volp, Ulrike Lange (eds.): Metzler Lexicon of Christian Thinkers . Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2000, p. 74 ff.
  • Massimiliano Tomba: Crisis and criticism in Bruno Bauer. Categories of the political in post-Hegelian thinking . Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2005.
  • Douglas Moggach: Philosophy and Politics in Bruno Bauer. Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-631-56653-4 .
  • Hermann-Peter Eberlein: Bruno Bauer. From Marx friend to anti-Semite. Dietz, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-320-02180-1 .
  • Klaus-Michael Kodalle , Tilman Reitz (eds.): Bruno Bauer (1809–1882). A “partisan of the world spirit”? Königshausen and Neumann, Würzburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8260-4424-3 .
  • Manfred Lauermann : Bruno Bauer after two hundred years. A research report. In: Marx-Engels-Jahrbuch 2010. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-05-005073-7 , pp. 163–176.

Web links

Commons : Bruno Bauer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Bruno Bauer  - Sources and full texts

Footnotes

  1. ↑ One of his related articles online ("What is the subject of criticism now?")
  2. ↑ Hans Engelmann: The Development of Anti-Semitism in the 19th Century and Adolf Stoecker's “Anti-Jewish Movement”. Theol. Dissertation, Erlangen 1953, p. 133.
  3. ↑ Bruno Bauer: The Jewish Question , 1843
  4. ↑ Bruno Bauer: The ability of today's Jews and Christians to become free , according to Bruno Bauer, campaigns of pure criticism , afterword by Hans-Martin Sass, Frankfurt / M., Suhrkamp Verlag, 1968, pp. 175-195.
  5. ^ Karl Marx: On the Jewish question , 1843
  6. ↑ anonymous. See Ernst Barnikol: Bruno Bauer. Studies and materials. P. 331.
personal data
SURNAME Bauer, Bruno
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philosopher, bible critic and writer
DATE OF BIRTH September 6, 1809
PLACE OF BIRTH Eisenberg , Duchy of Saxony-Altenburg
DATE OF DEATH April 13, 1882
Place of death Rixdorf near Berlin