Hermann Engelbert

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hermann Engelbert (born July 30, 1830 in Gudensberg , † February 5, 1900 in St. Gallen ) was a German and most recently active in Switzerland Israelite religion teacher and rabbi .

Life

Itzig Engelbert and his wife Regina, née Stern, from Kirchheim are given as parents of Hermann Engelbert . However, the later Rabbi Moses Engelbert, who was born in Gudensberg on June 18, 1830, just a month earlier, cannot have been his brother. A businessman Hermann Engelbert is named as his father. But together they did (Hermann Engelbert: 1844 to 1852) studies on Jewish-religious literature with the chief rabbi in Gudensberg, Mordechai Wetzlar. Both then attended Seligmann Bär Bamberger's Talmud school in Würzburg . Hermann went to Frankfurt am Main and was among the Dajan (judge at the rabbinical court) Bär Adler. He finally passed the Absolutorium (Abitur) in Frankfurt in 1852 .

Subsequently he studied history (among others with Leopold von Ranke ), philosophy and theology at the University of Berlin and became friends with Meyer Kayserling . In 1856 he received his doctorate in Marburg with a dissertation on the relationship of the Old Testament to the doctrine of immortality. From 1857 to 1861 he was employed as an Israelite preacher and religion teacher for the Jewish community in Elberfeld . In 1861 - after two successful trial sermons - he was given the same function in Munich , where he also worked as a substitute for Rabbi Hirsch Aub at the Royal Maximiliansgymnasium as a religion teacher until 1866 . In 1864 Engelhart applied for the position of rabbi in Königsberg and was invited to a trial sermon with two other candidates, but did not take the position.

Engelbert's rabbinate authorization was given by the rabbinates in Kassel and Stuttgart . On the recommendation of Kayserling, who had already started a rabbinate in Switzerland in 1861, he was appointed rabbi of the Israelite community in St. Gallen on August 1, 1866, after an independent "religious association" had been founded here on September 17, 1863. Engelbert promoted the religious consolidation of the community " in the spirit of moderate religious progress " and in 1866, for example, took over the "Federal Prayer Day" in German. In 1868 he took part in the assembly of liberal rabbis in Kassel, at which he successfully requested the insertion of a German prayer before the Kaddish. However, he vehemently opposed a ban on slaughter , especially after the St. Gallen town council had banned "slaughter according to the Jewish rite" in 1874.

During his tenure between 1880 and 1881, the Zurich architects Chiodera and Tschudy built a new synagogue in the Moorish-Byzantine style and inaugurated it on September 21, 1881 with a ceremonial address. In 1891 he celebrated the 25th anniversary of the rabbinate. He died at the age of 70 in St. Gallen and was buried in the Jewish cemetery. The funeral speech was given by the rabbi of the Zurich reform community, Martin Littmann (1864–1945). Emil Schlesinger from the Jewish Theological Seminary in Wroclaw , who remained in office until 1938, was elected as his successor .

Engelbert's reputation extended far beyond the borders of Switzerland. At his suggestion, several charities were founded within the Jewish community. But he also supported municipal institutions. Nevertheless, his work was not without controversy. On the occasion of his death, a critical appraisal appeared in the conservative-orthodox magazine “Der Israelit” on February 15, 1900: “The rabbi of the local community, Dr. Engelbert, died at the age of 71. Its long-term effectiveness here has not been able to control the religious decline of the local community; yes, she has sponsored the same many times (...). "

Fonts

  • The negative merit of the Old Testament for the doctrine of immortality. Dissertation to obtain the philosophical doctorate of the Löbl. Philosophical Faculty of Marburg presented by Hermann Engelhart from Gudensberg. Marburg 1856. - W. Adolf & Co., Berlin 1857.
  • Is the slaughter of animals according to the Jewish rite cruelty to animals? A word about safekeeping and defense. Zollikofer'sche Offizin, St. Gallen 1867.
  • Statistics of Judaism in the German Empire - exclusively Prussia - and in Switzerland edited by Dr. Hermann Engelhart, rabbi of the Israelite religious association in St. Gallen. J. Kauffmann, Frankfurt am Main 1875.
  • The Schächten and the Bouterole. Memorandum for the high Grand Council of the Canton of St. Gallen to illuminate the relevant government council proposal and based on the latest reports that have also been printed. St. Gallen 1876.

Literature (selection)

  • (Obituary), in: Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, 64th year, issue 7, February 16, 1900, p. 3.
  • Engelbert, Hermann, in: Salomon Wininger, Große Jüdische National-Biographie. Volume 2, Dafiera – Harden. Chernivtsi 1927.
  • Lothar Rothschild: In the flow of time. Anniversary publication for the centenary of the Israelite community of St. Gallen 1863–1963. Volksstimme publishing house, St. Gallen 1963.
  • Hermann I. Schmelzer: Testimony and Perspective. The Israelite community of St. Gallen from 1863 to 1988. St. Gallen 1988.
  • Michael Brocke, Julius Carlebach (ed.), Carsten Wilke (arrangement): Engelbert, Hermann / Engelbert, Moses , in: Biographisches Handbuch der Rabbis. Part 1: The rabbis of the emancipation period in the German, Bohemian and Greater Poland countries 1781–1871. KG Saur, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-598-24871-7 , p. 282 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Historical Lexicon of Switzerland (online)
  2. ↑ not “in Wetzlar”, as stated in the Historical Lexicon of Switzerland
  3. ↑ His sermons, which breathe a moral seriousness and a conciliatory spirit and are pervaded by inner warmth and devotion to our holy religion, gain even more from the powerful and melodious organ. Hence the large audience and the tied attention of the audience. , in: Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, Volume 26, May 20, 1862, p. 271
  4. ↑ Der Israelit, Volume 2, Issue 38, September 18, 1861, p. 461
  5. ^ Annual report on the k. Maximiliansgymnasium in Munich for the school year 1863/64, p. 28: Israelite religious instruction: H. Aub and preacher Dr. Engelhart; likewise 1864/65, p. 31, and 1865/66, p. 25; in the school year 1866/67, p. 25: H. Aub and Dr. Wolfsheimer. The address book Munich 1862 lists him as an Israelite preacher, Herrnstr. 22; 1864: Frauenstr. 1; 1866: Marienplatz 24
  6. ↑ Der Israelit, 5th year, December 21, 1864, p. 673
  7. ↑ Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, Leipzig, October 16, 1866
  8. ↑ Der Israelit, Volume 9, Issue 35, August 26, 1868, p. 650
  9. ↑ Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, February 16, 1900
  10. ^ Thomas Metzger: Anti-Semitism in the City of St. Gallen 1918–1939. Academic Press Friborg 2006, p. 70 (note)
  11. ↑ http: //www.jüdische-gemeinden.de/index.php/gemeinden/st/1840-st-gallen-schweiz
  12. ↑ Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, October 16, 1891
  13. ↑ Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, April 13, 1900
personal data
SURNAME Engelbert, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israelite religion teacher and rabbi active in Germany and Switzerland
DATE OF BIRTH July 30, 1830
PLACE OF BIRTH Gudensberg
DATE OF DEATH 5th February 1900
Place of death St. Gallen