Johann Andreas Eisenmenger

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Johann Andreas Eisenmenger (* 1654 in Mannheim ; † December 20, 1704 in Heidelberg ) was Professor of Hebrew Language at Heidelberg University . He is considered a pioneer of modern anti-Semitism .

Life

Johann Andreas Eisenmenger was a son of the Electoral Palatinate tax collector Johann David Eisenmenger († 1666). He studied in Heidelberg and Amsterdam from 1670 to 1680 . During his stay in Amsterdam 1680-81 he witnessed the conversion of three Christians to Judaism and critical statements on Christianity by David Lyda, the rabbi of the Amsterdam Ashkenazi community at the time, which shocked him deeply. After he was appointed archivist in the Palatinate Chancellery, in 1700 he was given a chair in Hebrew at the University of Heidelberg.

In 1694 in Frankfurt am Main, in collaboration with the theologian and Hebraist Johann Leusden, he published a non- vocalized edition of the Bible, to which the Kabbalist David ben Nathan Grünhut wrote a friendly preface. As Frankfurt Jews in 1700 learned that Eisenmenger the publication of his book Discovered Judaism or Thorough and Wahrhaffter report, the obdurate Jews who shape the most holy Drey unity blaspheme and dishonor ... planned, they turned in fear of pogroms of Samson Wertheimer , the imperial Court factor in Vienna who, together with Samuel Oppenheimer , managed to have the book confiscated from Emperor Leopold I and blocked for forty years. This prompt response shows that the book was deemed dangerous.

While the process led by Eisenmenger's heirs lasted for decades, they found another sponsor. In 1711, on the recommendation of Karl Konrad Achenbach , a reprint was made, which the Prussian King Friedrich I ordered with the imprint Königsberg - in terms of its form outside the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation , but de facto in Berlin. It was not officially published in the Reich until 1751, and an English translation was carried out in 1732.

The changed title of the edition of 1740 reads as follows: Johann Andreä Eisenmengers, professor of oriental languages ​​at the University of Heydelberg, Discovered Judaism, who was arrested by the Jews for the 40th year, but now more relaxed through the authority of a High Imperial Vicariate, ... .

The title reveals Eisenmenger's intention: he tried to create the impression that the Jews were keeping secrets in order to hide their true nature. The work, comprising 2120 pages in two volumes, also impresses with its erudition. Eisenmenger mastered Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic and knew all of the rabbinical literature known at the time . In part he learned from Jewish scholars in Amsterdam and Frankfurt. It is alleged and not unlikely, but also not proven, that he posed as a convert .

Eisenmenger's book is based on a multitude of anti-Judaic stereotypes rooted in the Middle Ages , which he tried to underpin by means of passages from medieval sermons, the Kabbalah and other Jewish texts as well as quotations from polemics . In doing so, he did not falsify the quotations, as he was assumed, but interprets them tendentiously, so that an image develops that is far removed from the real attitudes of the Jews. He also called for the restriction of the rights of Jews and the destruction of synagogues in order to alienate the Jews from their religion . He repeated the accusation of well poisoning and the ritual murder legend , because of the u. a. 200 years earlier, a Frankfurt Jew, Gompich, had been slandered and charged. The anti-Semite August Rohling relies on him .

Eisenmenger collected everything that was disadvantageous to Judaism from over 200 writings and, without criticism, put together the Jewish abuse of Christianity and various dogmatic and ethical teachings of Talmudic Judaism. The selection is one-sided, some things have been misunderstood and interpreted in a tendentious manner, the translation of the Jewish quotes is partly incorrect. That is why “Discovered Judaism” cannot and cannot be used as a source work. Eisenmenger spent 19 years of his life on this diatribe in order to prevent further Christians from converting to Judaism. In the period that followed, this work, including partial editions and translations, served as an arsenal of anti-Jewish polemics, not least for the modern anti-Semites of the 19th and 20th centuries. Century

Selection of works

  • Johann Andreas Eisenmenger: ... Discovered Judaism or thorough and truthful report, which shape the stubborn Jews the holy Drey unity, God the Father, Son and Salvation. Blaspheme and dishonor the spirit in a terrible way, the salvation. To disdain the Mother of Christ, to mock the New Testament, the Evangelists and Apostles, and to mock the Christian religion, and to despise and curse the whole of Christianity in the most extreme ways: besides many other things, bithero among Christians either not at all or only partly known. ..; everything from her own and indeed very many books, read through with great effort and indefatigable diligence, with the extraction of the Hebrew words and their faithful translation into the German language, vigorously proven and written in two parts, each of which has its relevant chapters, each dealing in detail with a certain subject contains; Prepared for trustworthy news to all Christians and provided with perfect registers . - Frankfurt / Main 1700, Berlin 1711, Königsberg 1711, Berlin 1740, Dresden 1893. 2 vols. ( Digital copies in the digital library Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)
  • Biblia Hebraica non punctata, Frankfurt / Main 1694

exhibition

  • 2010: Leipzig Jewry in City and University , Leipzig University Library

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Eisenmenger, Johann Andreas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Hebraist, professor for Hebrew language at Heidelberg University
DATE OF BIRTH 1654
PLACE OF BIRTH Mannheim
DATE OF DEATH December 20, 1704
Place of death Heidelberg