Hermann of Cologne

Hermann of Cologne ( Hermannus Coloniensis , Hermann von Scheda , Hermannus quondam Iudaeus , Judah ben David ha-Levi ; * 1107/08; † after 1181) was a Jewish convert and Prämonstratenser - canon .

Judah ben David ha-Levi was born to wealthy Jewish parents around 1107/1108 and was involved in his family's business affairs from an early age. Around 1130 he helped Bishop Ekbert von Münster (1127–1132) in Mainz with a loan, which he accompanied him for twenty weeks until it was repaid. Meanwhile, at his request, Abbot Rupert von Deutz presented himself to him for a dispute about their various religions and he got an insight into the monastery community of the Premonstratensians in Cappenberg . Around this time - between 1127 and 1134 - he converted to Christianity. Together with a little stepbrother whom he had secretly fetched from Mainz for this purpose, he was baptized in St. Peter in Cologne , taking the name Hermann. Thereupon both entered the Cappenberg monastery as canons.

In Cappenberg, Hermann is said to have written the autobiography De conversione sua opusculum , which is controversial in historical research , probably between 1145 and 1150. In it, the author describes - with references to the Cappenberg founding history - his conversion, which takes a different form in the life story of Count Gottfried von Cappenberg , who found Vita Godefridi . The same authorship of opusculum and vita is therefore partly assumed, partly at least not excluded.

Hermann is said to have become the first provost of the newly founded Premonstratensian monastery of Scheda before 1147, probably 1143 ; but this assumption has been largely rejected in recent historical research. Hermann died after 1181.

literature

• J. Greven: The writing of Herimannus quondam Judaeus "De conversione sua opusculum". In: Annals of the Historical Association for the Lower Rhine. Volume 115, 1929, pp. 111-135
• Peter Hilsch : The conversion of Hermannus quondam Iudaeus and the question of its authenticity. In: German Archive for Research into the Middle Ages 66 (2010), pp. 69–91.
• Hermann of Cologne . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 4, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-7608-8904-2 , Sp. 2166 f.
• G. Niemeyer: The Vitae Godefridi Cappenbergenis. In: German Archive for Research into the Middle Ages. Volume 23, 1967, pp. 405-467
• G. Niemeyer and I. Ehlers-Kisseler (eds.): Viten Gottfrieds von Cappenberg. Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum editii 74, Hannover 2005
• Gerlinde Niemeyer:  Hermann. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , p. 646 ( digitized version ).
• Jean-Claude Schmitt : The conversion of Hermann the Jew. Autobiography, History, and Fiction. (first French 2003), Stuttgart 2006.

Web links

• Hermannus quondam Iudaeus in the repertory "Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages"