Samuel Hugo Bergman
Samuel Hugo Bergman (n) , also Hugo Bergman (n) or Schmuel Hugo Bergman (n) (born December 25, 1883 in Prague , Austria-Hungary ; died June 18, 1975 in Jerusalem ) was a German-speaking pioneer of the New Hebrew philosophy , Writer and librarian.
biography
Hugo (Shmuel) Bergmann came as the second son of the married couple Siegmund Bergmann and Johanna, geb. Fischer, born in Prague. His parents came from rural Bohemia and ran a traditionally Jewish household. He attended the Old Town high school in Prague, where he made friends with one of his classmates, Franz Kafka .
Bergmann studied philosophy and natural sciences in Prague and Berlin . During his student days he met Martin Buber and Franz Brentano , whose thinking had a great influence on him. His school friends also included the close Kafka friends Max Brod and Felix Weltsch . All three maintained strong friendships for decades as far as Israel.
Bergmann joined the Zionist student group Bar Kochba Prague, named after Bar Kochba , and began promoting the idea of a Jewish state in articles. After completing his studies in 1907, he took a job as a librarian at the University Library in Prague . In 1908 he married Else Fanta , daughter of the committed theosophist, later anthroposophist Berta Fanta, in Prague . During this time he began his lifelong occupation with the anthroposophy of Rudolf Steiner , whose lectures he attended several times from 1909. This resulted in a personal acquaintance and an intensive exchange of ideas.
On a trip to Palestine in 1910, he decided to devote himself to building the Jewish National Library, founded in 1892 . During the First World War he served in the Austrian army and after the end of the war he traveled to London as head of the cultural department of the Zionist movement in order to raise funds for his project. Just one year later , he emigrated to Palestine and began working on the Hebrew National Library, which has now also become the university library of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem . Bergmann managed the library until 1935, when his friend Felix Weltsch took over this position in 1940 a few years later. In April 1925 teaching was opened at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Bergmann began teaching there in 1928 at the chair of philosophy, in 1935 he became a full professor and took over the presidency.
Services
Bergmann was co-editor and co-author of the Encyclopaedia Hebraica , the 16-volume Encyclopaedia Judaica and the philosophical quarterly Ijun (Reflection). In 1924 he initiated the Israeli National Bibliography Kiryat Sefer . With Franz Rosenzweig , Walter Benjamin , Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy and Ernst Simon he belonged to the circle of authors of the Christian-Jewish magazine Kreatur published by Martin Buber, Joseph Wittig and Viktor von Weizsäcker .
He was a member of the Zionist socialist workers' party HaPoel HaZair (the young worker) and, together with Martin Buber, Hans Kohn , Robert Weltsch , Gershom Scholem and other mostly German-speaking immigrants, co-founder of the Brit Schalom (German “Confession to Peace”) association. Covenant of Peace ”), which had the goal of a binational state in Palestine in which Jews and Arabs live together on an equal footing. In 1947 he headed the Jewish delegation at the conference on inter-Asian relations in New Delhi in this capacity .
In addition to his political commitment, Bergmann was particularly interested in science and religion. He wrote in Hebrew about Kant , Maimonides, and 20th century philosophers. For his work, especially his introduction to logic , he received the Israel Prize in 1954 , the highest award of the State of Israel for the humanities. He received the Israel Prize again twenty years later for his special contribution to society and the state.
Bergmann was so interested in the spiritual approaches of anthroposophy that he regularly held courses on Steiner's Philosophy of Freedom at the Hebrew University and translated some of his writings into modern Hebrew . a. How do you gain insights from the higher worlds? (1904/05, printed Tel Aviv, 1978)
Bergmann's religious thinking was particularly shaped by his encounter with Martin Buber. He dealt intensively with religious thinkers such as Franz Rosenzweig and Aurobindo . For him, faith was direct experience, a dialogical encounter with God . In his main work, Thinkers and Believers , on the philosophy of religion , he summarizes these thoughts. With faith and reason , he provided an introduction to contemporary Jewish thought.
estate
Bergmann's extensive written estate , including his correspondence and manuscripts, is kept in the National Library of Israel .
literature
- Schmuel Hugo Bergman: Diaries and Letters. Edited by Miriam Sambursky. With an introduction by Nathan Rotenstreich . Volume 1: 1901-1948 . Volume 2: 1948-1975 . Jüdischer Verlag bei Athenäum, Frankfurt / Main 1985, ISBN 3-7610-0381-1 or ISBN 3-7610-0382-X .
- Miriam Sambursky: Zionist and Philosopher. The habilitation problem of the young Hugo Bergmann. Bulletin of the Leo Baeck Institute 58.
- Dieter Wiechmann: The dream of peace: the bi-national concept of the Brith-Schalom for the solution of the Jewish-Arab conflict in the period 1925–1933. Schwalbach / Ts. 1998, ISBN 3-87920-416-0 .
- Bergman, Samuel Hugo. In: Lexicon of German-Jewish Authors . Volume 2: Bend Bins. Edited by the Bibliographia Judaica archive. Saur, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-598-22682-9 , pp. 199-208.
- Peter Normann Libra: A challenging encounter. Schmuel Hugo Bergmann and Rudolf Steiner . Pforte, Dornach 2006 ISBN 978-3-85636-168-6 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Samuel Hugo Bergman in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by and about Samuel Hugo Bergman in the German Digital Library
- Biography on jewish-life.de
- The Hugo Bergmann Family Papers (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Arik Shoitman, "70 years of Israel" in "Acta Studentika" resulted in 207 / December 2018, p. 8ff
- ^ Gerhard Wehr: Between Martin Buber and Rudolf Steiner. Hugo Bergman in Martin Buber's Biography. In: Judaism and Anthroposophy . Ed. Fred Paddock and Mado Spiegler. Great Barrington, MA: 2003, p. 109
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bergman, Samuel Hugo |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Bergmann, Samuel Hugo; Bergman, Shmuel Hugo |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian philosopher |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 25, 1883 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Prague |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 18, 1975 |
| Place of death | Jerusalem |