Franz Joseph Molitor

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Franz Joseph Molitor, also Joseph Franz Molitor (* July 7, 1779 in Oberursel (Taunus) ; † March 23, 1860 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German philosophical-historical and mystical-cabbalistic writer and active Freemason .

Life

Molitor was born the son of an Electorate of Mainz , did his preparatory studies in Bingen and Aschaffenburg and then studied from 1797 at the University of Mainz and from 1799 at the University of Marburg, initially law, but then dealt with history and philosophy, i.e. mainly with Kant , Reinhold , Fichte and Schelling . From 1802 he was co-editor of the short-lived magazine for a future jurisprudence based on the principle of transcendental realism . Under the influence of the theosophical approaches of Franz Xaver von Baader , he tried in his writings to reconcile philosophical realism with idealism.

Molitor's epitaph in the main cemetery in Frankfurt am Main

In 1806, Molitor became a member of the board of directors of the Jewish Philanthropin School in Frankfurt am Main, but soon afterwards only worked as a teacher at this institute and at the same time taught geography and physics at the Catholic high school Fridericianum. In 1812 Molitor became professor of philosophy at the new Lyceum Carolinum in Frankfurt, which Karl Theodor von Dalberg had set up on the French model; after the end of 1814 he received a permanent pension from there, which - in addition to income from private tuition and his work at the philanthropist - could make a living.

His grave is in the Frankfurt main cemetery (Gewann F 250)

Freemasonry and Kabbalah

Made famous by the philanthropist with Judaism and this own symbolic language Molitor came on May 19, 1808 in Frankfurt Masonic Lodge to rising dawn one could be Jews member; at times he was their master of the chair . Later he donated the Frankfurt Lodge Carl to the rising light under the protectorate of Landgrave Carl von Hessen .

From around 1813 onwards, Molitor began to study Jewish mysticism, as it is shown in the Kabbalah ; it determined his further work. The Jewish mystic and high-grade Freemason Ephraim Joseph Hirschfeld , who lived in Offenbach am Main at the time, was likely to have had a major influence on him . Molitor learned Hebrew and Aramaic , studied the Talmud and studied the Book of Zohar intensively . His endeavor was to put Kabbalah and Christianity in mutual connection and to unite both on a new, higher level, an approach that is not unlike Hirschfeld's.

As a result of many years of study, he published the first volume of his Philosophy of History or Tradition in 1824 , which gave him the support of noteworthy scholarships for further work in this direction, including from Christian von Hessen-Darmstadt and (mediated by Schelling) from Ludwig I. of Bavaria . His apartment gradually became a gathering point for mystically interested men and women from Frankfurt and the surrounding area. He was unable to complete his five-volume work.

The main starting point of his argumentation was the fight against pantheism , atheism and materialism , based on the assumption that the Kabbalah contains a higher mysticism that could also be inherent in Christianity, especially in the case of the latter, especially in its "awakened" form , but only about a mystically transfigured Judaism. In this respect, his title as a " Christian Kabbalist " is well justified.

Works (selection)

  • About the turning point of the ancient and the modern, an attempt to reconcile realism with idealism. Frankfurt am Main 1805.
  • On the Philosophy of the Modern World, an epistle to Privy Rath Sinclair in Homburg . Frankfurt am Main 1806.
  • Ideas for a future dynamic of history . Frankfurt am Main 1805
  • Philosophy of history or of tradition . Volumes 1-4. Frankfurt am Main 1827-1834-1839-1855. ( Online edition )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Guide to the graves of well-known personalities in Frankfurt cemeteries . Frankfurt am Main 1985, p. 29

literature

  • Carl von Prantl:  Molitor, Joseph Franz . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, pp. 108-110.
  • Kurt Rainer Meist: Identity and division. Molitor's philosophy of history and the Homburger circle , in: Homburg before the height in the German intellectual history. Studies on the Friends of Hegel and Hölderlin , ed. by Christoph Jamme & Otto Pöggeler, Stuttgart, Klett-Cotta, 1981, pp. 267-299.
  • Katharina Koch: Franz Joseph Molitor and the Jewish tradition. Studies on the Kabbalistic Sources of the "Philosophy of History". With an appendix to unpublished letters from F. von Baader, EJ Hirschfeld, FJ Molitor and FWJ Schelling . Berlin: de Gruyter 2006.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Molitor, Franz Joseph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Molitor, Joseph Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH July 7, 1779
PLACE OF BIRTH Oberursel (Taunus)
DATE OF DEATH March 23, 1860
Place of death Frankfurt am Main