Johann Jacob Martin Philippi

Johann Jacob Martin Philippi (around 1785)

Johann Jacob Martin Philippi (born November 20, 1761 in Altona ; † July 29, 1850 in Elberfeld ) was a Jewish scholar, publicist and royal Prussian court advisor .

Life

Martin Philippi was born as Moses Alexander David. He was the son of Philipp Alexander David and grandson of the well-known Brunswick court factor Alexander David.

He was the first Jewish student to successfully complete the continuing Selekta of the royal school of scholars in Altona, the Christianeum. His classmates included Naphtali Hartwig Wessely , the son of Lessing's friend Moses Wessely (1737–1792), Salomon Maimon and Salomon Ludwig Steinheim (his studbook from this period is on display in the Jewish Museum in Berlin).

In his senior year at the Christianeum in 1784 he went to the “Fideicommisscomtoir” of his uncle Meyer Michael David’s banking house in Hanover as “accountant and manager”; there he stayed for 28 years. During this time he changed his name according to Jewish tradition and called himself from then on Moses Alexander Philipson (Philippsohn) - son of Philipp (not to be confused with Moses Philipsohn from Dessau).

In the Meyer school foundations, which his great-uncle and grandfather-in-law Meyer Michael David had founded and which was now run by his cousin, he was involved in the administration and required to teach there himself. He was the educational and the personnel director. According to Meyer's will and the statutes of 1794 of the “Educational Institute for Poor Children” he was responsible “for drawing up the regulations and for examining the children in writing and French a few times a week, even with the will of my heirs, to accept and abolish teachers and with them accorded the salary ”. Philippi spoke several languages: French, English, Italian and Latin.

As a Jewish scholar he was involved in the political and philosophical discourse of the Maskilim as well as that of the non-Jewish Enlightenment. This is shown by his journalistic activity since 1786 with a biography of Spinoza and an expert report commissioned by the government “On the improvement of the Jewish oath” (1794). He followed the path of emancipation through conversion to Christianity: in 1801 he and his family were baptized in Stolzenau.

Due to his many years of experience as a managing director and financial expert, supported by his publications, he became a Prussian civil servant at the Chamber of Finance and Accounts. He initially worked at the Chamber of Accounts in Berlin, and later at the newly created Provincial Tax Directorate in Cologne, where he was promoted to office conductor and councilor. In his later years he published a specialized collection of laws. In 1821, at the age of 60, he retired in this position and moved to Poppelsdorf, where his daughter Maria looked after him. At the age of 89 he died in Elberfeld on July 29, 1850, where he had spent his old age with his son Johann Friedrich Hector, and was buried there in the Lutheran cemetery.

family

Martin Philippi married Marianne Amalia Wertheimer, daughter of Samuel Wertheimer and Bella / Bejle Michael David from Hanover on October 2, 1793 in Hanover. His mother-in-law is the granddaughter of Michael David (his great-uncle, brother of Alexander David ), i.e. a 2nd cousin. The marriage had five children, three of whom reached adulthood:

• Franz Eduard Friedrich (born February 21, 1797 in Hanover † November 21, 1879 in Frankfurt / O.), Born Jewish under his name Eduard Isaac, senior government councilor there, was married to Ella Friedländer, daughter of Benoni Friedländer and Rebecca von Halle.
• Maria (born April 24, 1798 in Hanover † September 9, 1854 in Elberfeld), born Jewish under the name Molly, unmarried
• Johann Friedrich Hector (born March 16, 1802 in Hanover, † January 1, 1880 in Poppelsdorf near Bonn) was a German lawyer and national liberal member of the Prussian House of Representatives.

Jacob Martin Philippi and Louis Asher are nephews .

Works

His enormous journalistic activity in the early years shows - not least in view of his great admiration for Mendelssohn and Lessing - clear parallels to the activities of his uncle Simson Alexander David alias Alexander Daveson alias Karl Julius Lange (1755-1813).

• In 1786 he wrote a little pamphlet on the dispute between Moses Mendelssohn and Jacobi.
• 1788-89 followed by named contributions in Friedrich Burchard Beneken's “ Jahrbuch für die Menschheit” [3] , Jahrbuch für die Menschheit or contributions to promoting domestic education, domestic happiness and practical knowledge of human nature .
• In 1790 the well-reviewed biography of Benedikt von Spinoza was published by the Braunschweigische Schulbuchhandlung Verlag
• In 1791, at the suggestion of theater director Gustav Friedrich Großmann , he wrote the text of a cantata on Lessing's death. After Großmann had turned in vain not only to Johann Joachim Eschenburg and Jakob Friedrich Heusinger, but also to Christian Adolph Overbeck in Lübeck and Johann Jacob Engel in Berlin about a cantata in honor of Lessing , he won a "local", i.e. Hanoverian friend, as the author . His music director Bernard Anselm Weber created the corresponding composition, but not the text. According to Berend Kordes' lexicon of the now living Schleswig-Holstein and Eutinian writers from 1797 , Großmann owed this to Moses Alexander Philipson , who worked as an accountant at the Fideicommisscomtoir in Hanover and who had already provided translations from English and Italian for Großmann's stage.
• In 1792 he published his “Comments on the Representation of Jews on the Stage”. He wrote poems, created translations from English and worked as a reviewer for the “Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung” published in Leipzig.
• In 1797 his report “About the improvement of the Jewish oath” was published in 1792 on behalf of the royal judicial office . Neustrelitz 1797
• 1804–22 he had developed a lively activity as a reviewer for the then newly published “ Jenaische Allgemeine Literaturzeitung” . In doing so, he only covered the subject area of ​​“ action science ” and, by 1822, had at least 43 reviews.
• 1823 As a textbook author, with his work " Letters on Commercial Accounting" (Hanover 1813), he introduced the textbook as a new variant for the didactic discussion of accounting lessons: There is a risk that the teaching work will focus too much on the assignment of pre-formulated business cases restrict. However, this is rather detrimental to an understanding of the actual relationships, because it encourages "imitating", i.e. memorizing standard booking records. This problem was recognized as early as the early 19th century. As early as 1813, Philippi said that " the worst thing would be that young people who were taught according to the usual method (i.e. rather imitating) learn to practice this science merely as an art" (Schaub 1993).
• 1830–36 Collection of all new Prussian laws on indirect taxes. With explanatory notes, explanations, rejections and enclosures, edited by Dr. Johann Jacob Martin Philippi, Royal. Prussia. Councilor and Bureau conductor at the Royal. Provincial Tax Directorate in Cologne a. Rh. [4]

literature

• Matthias Blazek: The Electorate of Hanover and the years of foreign rule 1803-1813 . ibidem-Verlag: Stuttgart 2007. ISBN 978-3-89821-777-4
• Arno Herzig / Hans Otto Horch / Robert Jütte: Judaism and Enlightenment . Jewish self-image in the bourgeois public . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht: Göttingen 2002. ISBN 3-525-36262-5
• Franklin Kopitzsch : The Jewish students of the Christianeum in the Age of Enlightenment. A chapter from the history of the Jews in Altona . In: Christianeum , vol. 33, 1978, issue 2, pp. 19–28, also in: Peter Freimark / Franklin Kopitzsch (ed.): Making traces of the past visible. Contributions to the history of the Jews in Hamburg . 3rd edition, State Center for Political Education: Hamburg 2000, pp. 93-100
• Franklin Kopitzsch: Basics of a social history of the Enlightenment in Hamburg and Altona . 3rd edition. Hans Christians: Hamburg 1992. ISBN 3-7672-0790-7 , contributions to the history of Hamburg 21, ISSN  0175-4831
• Berend Kordes: Lexicon of the now living Schleswig-Holstein and Eutinian writers . Published by Johann Gottlob Röhss: Schleswig 1797
• Wilhelm Kosch : German Literature Lexicon. Biographical-bibliographical manual . Continued by Carl Ludwig Lang. Edited by Hubert Herkommer. 3rd, completely revised edition de Gruyter: Berlin 1968 - current.
• Carl August Malchus: Handbook of finance and finance management . Part two: financial management . Cotta, Stuttgart et al. 1830, also: Unchanged reprographic reprint. Gruber: Dillenberg 1998. ISBN 3-89753-087-2 ( reprints for older economics 24)
• Holger Wittges: Connection of business process modeling and workflow implementation . With a foreword by Helmut Krcmar . DUV: Wiesbaden 2005. ISBN 3-8244-8310-6 , Gabler Edition Wissenschaft. Information management and computer aided team , at the same time: Hohenheim, Univ., Diss., 2004

Web links

• Biography on Haskala.de [5]

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wertheimer family tree [1] .
2. ^ Lessing Academy, Wolfenbütteler Studies for the Enlightenment, Volume 3, Jacobi: Bremen 1976, p. 279.
3. ^ Ed. By Friedrich Burchard Benecken, Hannover 1788-91, Hildesheim 1992-1998. On 25 Diazofiches, Kirchner No .: 705. 4 years. (12 pieces each). German Magazine 18./19. Century: Series 2, I 559.424.
4. ↑ Großmann, Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm, Lessings Monument, A Fatherland History. Presented to the German public for a certificate. Hanover near Hahn 1791 and 1793. Reprint: Hildesheim 1997.
5. ^ Letters from 1765 to 1802 from Johann Jacob Engel [2] .
6. ^ Lessing Academy, Wolfenbütteler Studies for Enlightenment, Volume 3, Jacobi: Bremen 1976, p. 278.