George Goetz

George Goetz (born November 13, 1892 in Copenhagen ; † 1968 ) was general secretary of the Association for Liberal Judaism in Germany , editor-in-chief of the Jüdisch-Liberalen Zeitung , preacher at the Jewish-liberal Hermann Falkenberg synagogues , as well as in the Jewish community Berlin . He had to break off his rabbinical studies at the College for the Science of Judaism because of the National Socialist persecution of Jews during the November pogroms in 1938 . Goetz first went into Danish and then Swedish exile, where he a. a. an exchange of letters with Hermann Hesse began. After the war he became a founding member of the International Constantin Brunner Instituut (ICBI) and later its president. He published articles in German-language newspapers and gave monthly lectures on Jewish topics on Norddeutscher Rundfunk from 1964 to 1968 .

Life

Youth, training and first job

George Goetz was born on November 13, 1892 in the Danish capital Copenhagen. However, at the age of five he came to Hamburg , where he grew up with his grandfather. Contrary to his wish to begin a rabbinical degree, it was decided by his family that he should complete a commercial apprenticeship. So he started out in business and moved to Gdansk in 1917 . There he married in 1919 and the sons Wolfgang and Hans resulted from the marriage. Goetz was active in Gdańsk's Jewish community life and learned there a. a. the dentist Dr. Bretsch know, who introduced him to the works of the German-Jewish philosopher Constantin Brunner (1862–1937), which was to prove important for Goetz's later activities.

Commitment to liberal Judaism and rabbinical studies

Goetz soon began an exchange of letters with Brunner, which, after the Goetz family moved to Berlin in February 1925, also resulted in a personal friendship. Goetz ended his commercial activity in Berlin and instead became increasingly committed to liberal Judaism. From 1925 to 1934 he was general secretary of the Association for Liberal Judaism in Germany and from 1930 to 1935 was editor-in-chief of the Jüdisch-Liberalen Zeitung . He also worked as a preacher in the liberal Hermann Falkenberg synagogues from 1926 to 1938 and, at the same time, from 1936 to 1938 in the Jewish community in Berlin . At the College for the Science of Judaism he began in 1936, encouraged by the Berlin Jewish Community, to study with the aim of becoming a rabbi . However, he could not finish this. In connection with the Reichspogromnacht he was arrested by the National Socialists, was initially released and was forced to leave the country with his family.

Exile in Denmark and Sweden, private studies and correspondence with Hermann Hesse

The Goetz family had lived in Copenhagen since November 13, 1938. There Goetz did private studies in the Danish university library, a. a. on atomic physics and the philosophical atomic theory , which should be central topics of a book manuscript. In October 1943, the Nazis began to persecute people of Jewish origin in Denmark as well. The Goetz family escaped persecution with the help of fishing boats , which secretly evacuated many of the persecuted to Sweden. Goetz lived in Stockholm until the end of the Second World War in May 1945 , worked for various Swedish libraries and gave lectures in the circles of exiles. During this time he began an exchange of letters with the writer Hermann Hesse .

Post-war period, philosophical engagement and lecturing

In May 1945 the Goetz family initially returned to Copenhagen. Goetz's wife died there at the end of the same year. He then worked for British occupation authorities in Hamburg in 1946, where he also made contacts in the field of culture. a. to the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation . Still connected to Constantin Brunner's philosophical work, he went to Brunner's exile in The Hague in the Netherlands in autumn 1946 to (re) establish contacts with surviving Brunner supporters and friends. In autumn 1947 he moved to Holland for a longer period and stayed until June 1949. He became a founding member of the Internationaal Constantin Brunner Instituut (ICBI), a foundation which was dedicated to the re-edition of the works of Brunner destroyed by the Nazis. His second wife Truus Klijn also came from the Dutch Brunner network. The couple moved to Copenhagen in 1949 and got married there. After the death of Lothar Bickel in 1951, the first President of the ICBI, Goetz became his successor. From Denmark, Goetz published articles in German and German-language newspapers, gave lectures and ensured that Brunner was included in Danish lexicons. Between 1964 and 1968 he gave monthly lectures on Jewish topics for the Norddeutscher Rundfunk before he died in 1968.

His younger son Hans Raphael Goetz (1921–2013) became a musician and philosopher. He published posthumously (1991) lectures and essays by his father under the title Philosophy and Judaism .

Fonts

• George Goetz; Hans Goetz (ed.): On the history of atomistics. Confusion of the atoms of philosophy with the atoms of physics. A Scientific Essay (1948). Monsenstein and Vannerdat : Münster 2009. ISBN 3865829953
• George Goetz; Hans Goetz (ed.): Philosophy and Judaism. Lectures and essays from the years 1924–1968. Hansa-Verlag: Husum 1991. ISBN 3-920421-59-0

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} George Goetz; Hans Goetz (ed.): Philosophy and Judaism. Lectures and essays from the years 1924–1968. Hansa-Verlag: Husum 1991, pp. 7-11.