Constantin Brunner

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Constantin Brunner (1862-1937)

Constantin Brunner (born on August 27, 1862 in Altona ; died on August 27, 1937 in The Hague ) was the pseudonym of the German-Jewish philosopher, writer, literary critic and agent Arjeh Yehuda Wertheimer (first name: Leo Wertheimer ). Because of his nickname, there is also a false statement about his person that his full name was Leopold Wertheimer . Brunner is regarded as a representative of holism and spoke extensively against anti-Semitism in several writings . In addition, he expressed himself hostile to Zionism , as this endangered Jewish emancipation , for whose strongly assimilatory variant he argued.

life and work

Youth and studies in Altona, Cologne, Berlin and Freiburg

Alois Riehl (1844–1924) taught Brunner the Kantianism that was later sharply criticized by him.

As the grandson of Akiba Wertheimer , the chief rabbi of Altona and Schleswig-Holstein , Leo Wertheimer was brought up in the Orthodox Jewish faith and studied in Cologne at the Jewish teachers' college. In search of the “best” religion, he broke off his studies. Comparative religious studies were now the focus of his interest. From 1884 to 1888 he studied philosophy and history in Berlin and Freiburg . Hatred against Jews and anti-Semitism , as encountered there, became his central occupation. In 1882 he wrote his first work, “Rede der Juden” (first published in 1918), in which he deals with anti-Semitism, the history of religion, the possibility of Jewish emancipation in Germany and philosophical questions.

Baruch de Spinoza (1632–1677) was highly venerated by Brunner and was considered one of the great "intellectuals" for him.

Brunner learned from the neo-Kantian Alois Riehl and was at times connected to the philosophy of Immanuel Kant . He later became one of the harshest critics of Kantianism . He acquired knowledge of Greek philosophy from Eduard Zeller . The Indology and philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer , which Paul Deussen conveyed to him, also influenced Brunner during his studies . Added to this are the thinking of Wilhelm Dilthey and that of Julius Ebbinghaus , the more recent ethnology of Adolf Bastian and lessons from the zoologist August Weismann . Brunner criticized Darwinism .

His studies in Kantian philosophy were followed by a thorough discussion with Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and finally with Baruch Spinoza . What he appreciated about Spinoza was the “true” and “active” philosophy and how it can be implemented in practical life. Brunner saw in Spinoza as well as in Moses , Socrates , Buddha and Jesus people whom he describes as geniuses or "spiritual ones", who combine life and work and convey the one, everlasting and everywhere the same absolute, spiritual truth.

As a literary critic and mediator in Hamburg

After graduation, Constantin Brunner worked as a literary critic in Hamburg from 1891 . Brunner became friends with Detlev von Liliencron , Gustav Falke and Richard Dehmel . He founded a literary agency, which in 1893 gave rise to the magazine “Der Viewer”, which he published together with Leo Berg and Otto Ernst (the “friend nevertheless” in his later work Materialism and Idealism ). He also uses his pseudonym Constantin Brunner in it. He then had this name registered as a civil name. “The Viewer” is aimed at multipliers in the literary world. The magazine represents a practical aesthetic that must be based on empirical science. The plea is for sensual and imaginative poetry and the vivid representation of abstract concepts. On the other hand, the “brooding seed”, from the “ influence of Max Stirner and Nietzsche , with the great confusion of terms that has come into so many heads through socialism , individualism , and pessimism ” is criticized as unproductive for artistic creation. Since 1893 Brunner has clearly opposed scholastic conceptual thinking, the Judeo-Christian religion and hatred of Jews.

As a philosopher and writer in Berlin and Potsdam

Gustav Landauer (1870–1919) was a close friend and supporter of Brunner for a long time.

Although Brunner still published the essay “On the Technique of Artistic Creation”, which was important for his philosophy, while he was still in Hamburg, it was only after he had moved to Berlin at the end of 1895 that a more extensive elaboration of his philosophy began. The reason for the change from professional activity to concentrating on one's own philosophy was an art experience: during a visit to a museum in London in 1895, Brunner was fundamentally inspired in his philosophy by the sculpture " Exchange sisters ".

In the same year 1895 he married Rosalie, b. Auerbach , who in future was called Leonie , based on Brunner's nickname Leo . With her daughter Elise Charlotte, b. Auerbach , which from then on bore the name Lotte Brunner , later connected Brunner to an intensive exchange on literature and philosophy. Lotte Brunner published under the pseudonym EC Werthenau and from 1903 to 1932 kept a diary of Brunner's comments on his philosophy and of visits and conversations in the Brunner house. Leonie and Lotte Brunner were imprisoned in Westerbork camp in February 1943 and murdered in Sobibor extermination camp in March 1943 .

After moving from Hamburg, Brunner devoted himself almost exclusively to his family, friendship and the like. a. with Gustav Landauer and his philosophy. With the support of his girlfriend Frida Mond and her son Lord Alfred Melchett , he was financially independent in Berlin and free from the constraints of gainful employment.

In 1908 the thirteen years of elaboration of his philosophy culminated in the publication of his work "The Doctrine of the Spiritual and the People". Gustav Landauer, with whom Brunner worked and was on friendly terms at that time, supported Brunner with the publication.

Brunner worked intensively on Spinoza and maintained close contacts with the Spinoza researchers of his time, such as Carl Gebhardt , Adolph S. Oko , and Stanislaus von Dunin-Borkowski . He inspired Ernst Altkirch to do the works “Spinoza in Portrait” (1913) and “Maledictus and Benedictus” (1924). He was involved in the editing of KO Meinsma's book “Spinoza und seine Kreis” (1909) in German and wrote a foreword to this work, which was published in 1910 under the programmatic title “Spinoza against Kant and the matter of spiritual truth” for Brunner. was published independently.

Among the students around Brunner who gathered in the "Constantin Brunner Association" founded by Fritz Blankenfeld in Berlin were George Goetz , Fritz Ritter and Ernst Ludwig Pinner .

More important for the discussion with Brunner, however, was the Brunner study group led by Friedrich Kettner in Czernowitz , the so-called "Ethical Seminar". These included the biologist Israel Eisenstein , author of the book "Error and Truth in Biology - Critique of the Doctrine of Descent", and the psychologist Walter Bernard . The "Brunner Circle of Friends" formed from the seminar included both Lothar Bickel , the estate administrator appointed by Brunner, and the poet Rose Ausländer , a long-time close friend of Brunner.

In exile in The Hague

Brunner warned of the dangers of National Socialism early on and had become a declared enemy of the Nazis not only because of his Jewish origins, but also because of his statements against National Socialism and fled into exile in The Hague in 1933 . There he was looked after by his student Magdalena Kasch . His books were burned and banned.

In exile, Brunner sought to complete his work “Our character or I am the right one!”. Brunner depicts a person who is “caught up in self-deception” who does not want to admit “his natural egoism” and “arrogantly moralizes that he is right.”

Posterity

The Friends of Brunner were brutally smashed by the National Socialists. Even after 1945 there was no continuation.

Magdalena Kasch, who was able to save many of Brunner's writings, founded the Internationaal Constantin Brunner Instituut (ICBI) in The Hague with survivors .

Brunner's thinking is characterized as holism . Important political positions mark his commitment to the emancipation of Jews in Germany and Judaism as well as his anti-Zionist attitude and criticism of ideology .

Yehudi Menuhin , Ferdinand Alquié , André Breton and the Hamburg literary historian and essayist Heinz Stolte referred to the thinking of Constantin Brunner.

ancestry

Brunner comes from a family of Altona Torah scholars. Best known is his grandfather, the first chief rabbi of Altona and Schleswig-Holstein, Akiba Israel Wertheimer.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Akiwa Wertheimer (?? - ??)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Awigdor Wertheimer (?? - 1826)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Akiba Israel Wertheimer (1778-1835)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Moses Ekiva Wertheimer (1807-1887)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Vogel (Fanny) Meyer (?? - ??)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 born Arjeh Yehuda Wertheimer (1862–1937)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Rachel (Rieke) Levy (?? - ??)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


philosophy

Brunner's three faculties of thought

The “Internationaal Constantin Brunner Instituut” (ICBI) describes Brunner's The Doctrine of the Spiritual and the People (1908), which lays the foundations of his philosophy, as follows: “By distinguishing between three ' faculties ' of thought - the practical, the intellectual and analogical - Brunner lays the foundation of his philosophy in this book. Since, according to him, the practical thinking of man is necessarily based either on the true, spiritual or on the fictitious , analogical principle, he comes to the thesis of an antagonism between those who think spiritually and superstitiously throughout history . Analogical thinking is not pure, but rather confused absolute, that is, absolutized practical thinking. Fundamental to his teaching is the no further researchable distinction between absolute, spiritual and relative, practical thinking, which goes back to Spinoza's difference between substance and attribute. (...) His theory of movement leads to a 'psychology without a soul', and finally to a ' pneumatology ' in which Brunner derives the origin of our consciousness from the animated nature of the world. In numerous digressions he highlights the scholastic moralism of Kant, which he contrasts with the consequently well thought-out philosophy of Spinoza. "

Brunner and anti-Semitism

Elias Rottner: “In the book [ Der Judenhaß und die Juden (1st edition, 1918)] the term“ hatred of the Jews ”has its due place, namely in the term “ hatred of people ” , which is developed psychologically as thoroughly as it is original. (The word anti-Semitism is rejected by Brunner as a euphemistic, misleading cover word .) Furthermore, hatred of Jews is unequivocally demonstrated as a mass psychosis that corrupts and destroys people, the people and the state. The topic is closely linked to the terms state, nation, politics, political parties, individual, culture and cultural thoughts. "

Fonts

  • Speech of the Jews: We want him back! (Created in 1893 / not published; published in 1918 modified in: Der Judenhaß und die Juden. See there) Stuttgart 1969.
  • The teaching of the spiritual and of the people. Stuttgart (1908, 1927) 1962.
  • Spinoza against Kant and the cause of spiritual truth. (1909, 1910) Assen 1974.
  • The hatred of Jews and the Jews. (Written in 1913, 1918, 1919, 1974) Berlin 2004.
  • The rule of pride (Memscheleth sadon). Last word about hatred of Jews and the Jews. (1920) Stuttgart 1969.
  • Our Christ or the essence of genius. (1921) Cologne-Berlin 1958,
  • The hatred of Jews and thinking. (1922) The Hague 1974.
  • Love, marriage, man and woman. (1924) Stuttgart 1965.
  • From the hermit Constantin Brunner Potsdam. 1924.
  • From my diary. (1928) Stuttgart 1967.
  • Materialism and idealism. (1928, 1959) Cologne-Berlin 1976.
  • Of the duties of the Jews and of the duties of the state. Berlin 1930.
  • Hear Israel and Hear non-Israel. (The Witches) (1931) The Hague 1974.
  • The exposed human. (Created in 1933, shortened in 1951) The Hague 1953.
  • Our character or I am the right one! (posthumously 1939), 1964.
  • Art, philosophy, mysticism. (Collected Articles), Zurich 1940
  • Legacy. The Hague 1952, in it: rules of life, on March 6th, on the necessary self-emancipation of the German Jews, epilogue to my testament, speech on the seventieth birthday a . a.
  • Of the spirit and of folly. (Collected articles) Hamburg 1971.
  • Selected letters 1884–1937. Edited by Jürgen Stenzel and Irene Aue-Ben David, Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2012, 608 pages, ISBN 3835310941 .

Introductions to the philosophy of Brunner

  • Robert Zimmer , Jürgen Stenzel (Ed.): "What you don't think right, you have to live wrong." A Constantin Brunner reader . Würzburg 2019. ISBN 978-3-8260-6493-7 .
  • Hans Goetz: Philosophy as quality of life (essays and lectures). Münster 2006, ISBN 3-86582-401-3 .
  • Martin A. Hainz : "more [...] than external form" - the poetry of Rose Ausländers and its philosophical influences. In: Jacques Lajarrige and Marie-Hélène Quéval (eds.): Lectures d'une oeuvre - Poems de Rose foreigners. Nantes 2005, pp. 69-82.
  • Maria Behre: Eva, where are you? Effective power of the feminine in the work of Rose Ausländers. Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-86575-271-3 . (especially the chapter on Rose Ausländer's mythical concept Eva as relational thinking according to Constantin Brunner. pp. 52–64)
  • Jürgen Stenzel: The philosophy of Constantin Brunner. Essen 2003, ISBN 3-89924-024-3 .
  • Jürgen Stenzel: Philosophy as Antimetaphysics. To Constantin Brunner's picture of Spinoza. Würzburg 2002, ISBN 3-8260-2071-5 .
  • Hendrik Matthes: Constantin Brunner, An Introduction. Düsseldorf 2000, ISBN 3-930450-52-6 .
  • Hendrik Matthes: Waarheid en Bijgeloof. Leende 1999, ISBN 90-5573-075-2 .
  • Hans Goetz: To live is to think. Translation: Graham Harrison. New Jersey 1995, ISBN 0-391-03946-6 .
  • Hans Goetz: Life is thinking. Frankfurt 1987, ISBN 3-610-09215-7 .
  • Phöbus Grünberg: The concept of philosophy in Brunner's teaching. The Hague 1985.
  • Evert Bekius: Het fictional thinking. Assen 1984, ISBN 90-232-2028-5 .
  • Hans Goetz: Liv er Taenkning. Copenhagen 1982, ISBN 87-500-2401-9 .
  • Walter Bernard: De Filosofie van Spinoza en Brunner. Assen 1977, ISBN 90-232-1512-5 .
  • Heinz Stolte: Het Vuur der Waarheid. The Hague 1969.
  • Heinz Stolte: On the fire of truth. Hamburg 1968, Husum 1990 (extended edition), ISBN 3-920421-57-4 .
  • Walter Bernard: The Philosophy of Spinoza and Brunner. New York 1934.

literature

  • Reichs Handbuch der Deutschen Gesellschaft - The handbook of personalities in words and pictures . First volume, Deutscher Wirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1930, ISBN 3-598-30664-4
  • Lotte Brunner: There is no end. The diaries. Hamburg 1970.
  • Eli Rottner: The Ethical Seminar in Chernivtsi. The cradle of the International Constantin Brunner Circle. Dortmund 1973.
  • Abraham Suhl: Constantin Brunner. His life and work. In: Philosophia Activa. [1.] Volume 2, No. 2/1991, pp. 73-127; [2.] Volume 2, No. 3/1991, pp. 77-122; [3.] Volume 3, Issue 1/1992, pp. 52-102; [4.] 3rd volume, No. 2/1992, pp. 58-102; [5.] 3rd vol., Heft 3/1992, pp. 54-104; [6.] Volume 4, Issue 1/1993, pp. 57-111.
  • Jürgen Stenzel (Ed.): "I left a sting ..." Contributions to the Constantin Brunner Symposium Hamburg 1995. The Blue Owl, Essen 1995.
  • Brunner, Constantin. In: Lexicon of German-Jewish Authors . Volume 4: Brech-Carle. Edited by the Bibliographia Judaica archive. Saur, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-598-22684-5 , pp. 229-249.
  • Werner Röder; Herbert A. Strauss (Ed.): International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933-1945 . Volume 2.1. Munich: Saur, 1983 ISBN 3-598-10089-2 , p. 161
  • Robert Zimmer : Constantin Brunner. Philosopher and wisdom teacher. Jewish Miniatures Vol. 207. Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2017.

Brunner research

Letter editing project

With the aim of publishing an edition of Brunner's letters, a cooperative project between the Department of German Philology at the University of Göttingen and the Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is working between May 2010 and April 2013 . The project is funded by the Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture . The edition will close a gap in the German-Jewish intellectual, cultural and political history, as Brunner's extensive, historically and philosophically exemplary, and also literary-historical impressive correspondence remained almost completely unedited and almost unknown. As part of the project, all of Constantin Brunner's letters are made publicly available in a full-text edition on the Internet, via the server of the Göttingen Digitization Center (GDZ) in the Göttingen State and University Library and via the National Library of Israel .

The letters should appear transcribed in full text (but without commentary). They are collated on the originals, diplomatically faithful and provided with text-critical commentary (information on sources, tradition, dating, possibly external features and readings) and arranged chronologically. The philosophically and literarily valuable and historically and documentarily meaningful letters have already been critically edited, commented and provided with an introduction and registers in a volume under the title Selected Letters and published on October 15, 2012 by Wallstein Verlag Göttingen.

Letter delivery

The tradition of Brunner's letters is sketchy and fragmentary. This is mainly due to the persecution of Brunner's correspondents during the Nazi regime . Many of them, often of Jewish origin, perished in extermination camps or found their way into exile with great difficulty.

Many letters were only able to survive the Nazi period and the Second World War because they were buried behind the philosopher's grave or hidden in other places by Brunner's confidante Magdalena Kasch. Only with luck they were not discovered by the German occupiers of the Netherlands or did not fall victim to bomb attacks.

After the Second World War there was no prospect of publication. Brunner's correspondence initially belonged to the holdings of the Brunner Archive, the Internationaal Constantin Brunner Instituut (ICBI), in The Hague , which Magdalena Kasch was in charge of, and some of it was handed over to the Leo Baeck Institute in New York in the 1970s . Other letters are in the Swiss Literary Archives in Bern, in the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem, in the Archives of Columbia University New York, in the International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam, in the State Library in Berlin , in the Federal Archives in Koblenz and in the Berlin Academy of the Arts . In 2008, however, the two large Brunner letter collections from the Leo Baeck Institute New York and from the archive of the International Constantin Brunner Instituut The Hague in Berlin were merged. They are now under the roof of the Jewish Museum in the Leo Baeck Institute Berlin and are currently being cataloged there.

Brunner's correspondence partners include many well-known people, including:

Reviews

“I am comforted that you are here. I believed there was no one left. Like in a dream: when everyone has left. Time seems livable again to me. "

- Walther Rathenau (1867–1922) : German industrialist, writer and liberal politician ( DDP ). Victim of an attack by the Consul organization .

“Even if you resist, if you also think: What he says does not matter much; The way he says it is magnificent –– Perhaps you will mean it that way at first. Because you will definitely come to this: that you will be delighted by the fire, the great sermon, the wild prophetic tone of the man. "

- Gustav Landauer (1870–1919) : was involved in the Munich Soviet Republic in April 1919, after which he was brutally suppressed by Freikorps soldiers.

“Brunner does not say: 'Spirit against world' ', but' Spirit in spite of the world '. We too can learn a lot from Constantin Brunner; the more we read, the more we gauge our ignorance. "

- Claude Mauriac (1914–1996) : French journalist and writer.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Eli Rottner: The Ethical Seminar in Chernivtsi. The cradle of the international Constantin Brunner Circle. Dortmund 1973, p. 48.
  2. ↑ http://www.brunner.uni-goettingen.de/Projekt.html
  3. ↑ http://www.brunner.uni-goettingen.de/Die_Briefe.html
  4. ↑ http://www.brunner.uni-goettingen.de/Ververzeichnis_der_Briefpartner.html
  5. ↑ a b c ICBI (ed.): Constantin Brunner. Directory of works. (without place / year)
personal data
SURNAME Brunner, Constantin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wertheimer, Arjeh Yehuda; Wertheimer, Leo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Jewish philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH August 27, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Altona , Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH August 27, 1937
Place of death The hague