Isaschar Falkensohn Behr

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Isaschar (Zacharias) Falkensohn Behr , Russian : Айсар Фалькенсон Бер (* 1746 in Salantai , Žemaitėjė , Lithuania ; † 1817 in Kamjanez-Podilskyj , Ukraine ; from 1781 also Gabriel Grigorjewitsch ) was a German-Jewish military doctor and lyricist . He is considered the first German-speaking Jewish poet and, in addition to Hebrew and German, also spoke French, Russian and Latin .

Life

Behr, a “typical Eastern Jewish climber of the Enlightenment period ”, was born either in Zamość ( Poland ) or in Salantai (Polish: Sałanty) in today's Lithuania. In any case, he came from a poor background, grew up in Salantin, did an apprenticeship as a merchant and initially tried - already married - like most of his Jewish compatriots in trade. At that time he was probably already living in Hasenpoth ( Kurland ). After a first study visit from 1768 to Königsberg (Prussia) , he came to Berlin in 1770 to continue his medical studies , where he was supported by the philosopher and Jewish enlightener Moses Mendelssohn and was among his friends. Then he studied medical science in Leipzig and was on December 4, 1772 Halle (Saale) with the dissertation Animadversiones quaedam ad illustrandam phenitidis causam in Halle (Saale) PhD (certificate of 15 December 1772). He then worked as a doctor in Hasenpoth from 1773 to 1775, from 1775 for some time in Mogiljow ( Belarus ) and later in Saint Petersburg , where he passed another medical exam in 1781 in order to be allowed to practice there. Also in 1781 he broke with Judaism and converted to the Russian Orthodox faith under the name Gabriel Grigorjewitsch , which also earned him full medical license in Russia. He then practiced as a quarantine doctor in Kamianets-Podilskyi . In 1795 Behr was appointed councilor . Only in 1817 - and not already in 1781 - did he die in Kamianets-Podilskyi.

He wrote his works in German, which he had learned in Konigsberg. He later learned French. In 1772 he published his poems about a Polish Jew anonymously in Mitau and Leipzig . They were reviewed by the young Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on September 1, 1772 in the Frankfurter Gelehrtenanzeiger , ie panned: "hated mediocrity" . Behr dedicated this work Friedrich Ewald von Fircks , the Kurzeme District Administrator of the district Pilten who had supported him with other Freemasons.

Friedrich von Matthisson recorded several poems by Behr in his 9th volume of his lyric anthologies , published in Zurich in 1805 . Behr had written “dandy love poems in the gallant Rococo style and graceful Rococo style based on Wieland's example ”.

Literature (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ EEVA , the digital collection of Estonia's older writers
  2. ^ A b Andreas Wittbrodt: Multilingual Jewish exile literature (reports from literary studies). Shaker, Aachen 2001, ISBN 3-8265-9336-7 , p. 65.
  3. ↑ Aschkenas , Volume 6, Böhlau, 1996, p. 217.
  4. ↑ His first work "Poems of a Polish Jew" indicates with its title the Polish Zamość as the place of birth.
  5. ↑ Heinz Ischreyt: The two Nicolai. Correspondence between Ludwig Heinrich Nicolay in St. Petersburg and Friedrich Nicolai in Berlin (1776-1811) . Nordostdeutsches Kulturwerk, Lüneburg 1989, ISBN 3-922296-38-6 , p. 109 ( limited preview in the Google book search)
  6. ↑ When he enrolled at the University of Leipzig, he stated Hasenpoth as his place of origin.
  7. ↑ Erduin Julius Koch : Outline of a history of the language and literature of the Germans , Volume 2. Königliche Realschul-Buchhandlung, Berlin 1798, p. 115 ( digitized in the Google book search).
  8. ^ Johann Friedrich von Recke , Karl Eduard Napiersky : General Lexicon of Writers and Scholars of the Provinces of Livonia, Esthland and Courland , Volume 1. Steffenhagen, Mitau 1827, p. 92 ( digitized in the Google book search)
  9. ↑ Many sources assume 1781 as the year of death, which may be due to the baptism and change of name, so that Behr's trace was lost in Russia.
  10. ↑ Willi Jasper : German Jewish Parnassus, literary history of a myth . Propylaen, Berlin / Munich 2004, ISBN 3549072104 , p. 66 ( limited preview in the Google book search)
  11. ↑ Detailed biography in: Andreas Wittbrodt (Ed.): Isaschar Falkensohn Behr. Poems by a Polish Jew (= Volume 40 of the Small Archive of the Eighteenth Century). Wallstein, Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-89244-511-7 , p. 66 ff. ( Limited preview in the Google book search).
  12. ^ Andreas Wittbrodt: Multilingual Jewish exile literature (reports from literary studies). Shaker, Aachen 2001, ISBN 3-8265-9336-7 , p. 67.
  13. ↑ With the provocative title “Poems from a Polish Jew” , Isachar Falkensohn Behr played with the common prejudices of distinguished readers and - above all - female readers, as the Eastern Jews in the German metropolises were considered pious, but uneducated, black-hooded figures with dark eyes and bearded faces . [1]
  14. ↑ Andreas Wittbrodt (ed.): Isaschar Falkensohn Behr. Poems by a Polish Jew (= Volume 40 of the Small Archive of the Eighteenth Century). Wallstein, Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-89244-511-7 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  15. ^ Gero von Wilpert : German Baltic Literature History . CH Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-53525-9 , p. 127 ( limited preview in the Google book search)
personal data
SURNAME Behr, Isaschar Falkensohn
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Behr, Zacharias Falkensohn (full name); Бер, Айсар Фалькенсон; Grigoryevich, Gabriel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Jewish military doctor and poet
DATE OF BIRTH 1746
PLACE OF BIRTH Salantai , Žemaitėjė , Lithuania
DATE OF DEATH 1817
Place of death Kamianets-Podilskyj , Ukraine