Joseph Mendelssohn (writer)

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Joseph Mendelssohn (born September 10 or October 4, 1817 in Jever , † April 4, 1856 in Hamburg ) was a German author and publicist. He belonged to the German-Jewish merchant, scholar and artist family Mendelssohn from Jever , which goes back to his father Moses Mendelssohn. His eldest brother is the gymnastics teacher Salomon Mendelssohn , his nephew the classical philologist Ludwig Mendelssohn .

Life

Joseph Mendelssohn and his brother Salomon attended the Israelite Free School from 1823 to 1831 under the direction of Dr. Eduard Kley in Hamburg. Since his father returned to Jever after his mother's death, Joseph Mendelssohn spent the decisive childhood and youth without parents. After finishing school, he moved to Braunschweig , where he completed an apprenticeship as a typesetter at the Friedrich Vieweg publishing house . From 1836 to 1839 he worked there as a typesetter and in 1839 published his first book “Blüthen. Poems and short stories by a typesetter ”. Then he returned to Hamburg. With the financial support of the Hamburg banker Salomon Heine , the uncle of Heinrich Heines , he was able to undertake a two and a half year trip to Paris, the literary result of which was the three-volume “Pariser Letters” in 1841. In this travel diary, which was inspired by Junge Deutschland , especially Ludwig Börne's “Letters from Paris” (1832–1834), Mendelssohn provides a lively snapshot of the Seine metropolis (“a gigantic madhouse, from New Year's Eve to New Year's Eve”) under the rule of the Citizen King Louis Philippe . After personal encounters, he also describes Victor Hugo , Alexandre Dumas and Heinrich Heine. Despite Mendelssohn's partisanship against the book "Heinrich Heine on Ludwig Börne" (1840), Heine Mendelssohn remained friendly and supported him in a literary controversy with Karl Gutzkow , who at the time also lived and worked in Hamburg. Mendelssohn dedicated a biography to the French heir to the throne Ferdinand Philipp , Duke of Orleans, in 1842.

After his return to Hamburg he worked as a writer and journalist, became editor of the short-lived, fiction-critical magazine "Panorama der Gegenwart" (1842), a permanent member of the "Jahreszeiten" (1843/44) as well as the "Hamburger Wochenlichen Nachrichten" ( 1844-1848). In addition, he wrote for the numerous other periodicals of the Vormärz. In 1844 he paid tribute to his sponsor Salomon Heine with a biography that appeared shortly after his death and quickly reached three editions. These “sheets of appreciation and memory for his friends” have remained a fundamental source for the life and work of the Hamburg banker and benefactor to this day.

He had already traveled to Oldenburg in 1836 and 1839 and corresponded with Julius Mosen and published poems in the "Mitheilungen aus Oldenburg" published by Christian Friedrich Strackerjan since 1835. In the spring of 1845 he undertook a third journey with the aim of an audience with the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, whom Mendelssohn wanted to ask for support. The audience took place, but it is not known whether he received support from the Princely House. But his father, who had been suffering from cataracts since 1839, was given an allowance for an eye operation in Berlin, but the name of his son Joseph was not mentioned in the relevant files.

Following his third trip, Joseph Mendelssohn published his book “Eine Ecke Deutschlands.” In 1845 in the Gerhard Stalling publishing house in Oldenburg. Travel silhouettes, Oldenburg pictures and characters and conditions ”(reprint 1979). As he himself says, he originally did not intend to publish the “fleeting travel impressions” as a book, but then said he wanted to make his original homeland better known in more distant areas. The focus of the book is on the description of the literary and cultural circles of Oldenburg. Mendelssohn spoke in detail about the deputy principal and writer Adolf Stahr, who was particularly close to him, the poet and dramaturge Julius Mosen and the artistic director Ferdinand von Gall . In addition to Hamburg-Harburg and Bremen , he also portrays the state and city of Oldenburg and his native Jever in detail . He also devotes a separate chapter in his book to the efforts of his brother Solomon to spread gymnastics and treat the Jews.

In 1846 Mendelssohn married Radisch (Rose) Berendsohn, the daughter of the Jewish bookseller and publisher Bernhard Salomon Berendsohn (today Berendsohn AG ). She died in childbed on November 28th that same year.

Mendelssohn's particular love for the theater was reflected in numerous relevant publications. So he translated several comedies from French and wrote the Schwank “Ueberall Jesuits!”. In 1848 he published the humorous-satirical almanac “Der Theaterteufel” with original contributions by Adolf Glaßbrenner , Johann Nestroy and Moritz Gottlieb Saphir , to which he himself contributed a number of smaller articles. Several of these publications appeared in his father-in-law's publishing house.

Mendelssohn died in the Hamburg General Hospital in 1856 without any offspring. An overall appraisal of his journalistic writing work is missing, which Werner von Melle already pointed out in 1906 in the "Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie". Today one can only speculate about Mendelssohn's undoubtedly close relationship with Junge Deutschland, since there is no literary legacy. Mendelssohn's career shows the late bourgeois emancipation of Judaism in the northwest and at the same time points to the liberal climate in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg.

Works

  • 1839: flowers. Poems and short stories by a typesetter
  • 1841: Paris letters , three volumes
  • 1842: Ferdinand Philipp, Duke of Orleans, Crown Prince of France. Biography and characteristics.
  • 1842: Wild flowers. Seals
  • 1844: Salomon Heine. Sheets of appreciation and memory for his friends and admirers
  • 1845: A corner of Germany. Travel silhouettes, Oldenburg images and characters and conditions
  • 1845: He has to go to the country. Comedy
  • 1846: Jesuits everywhere. A sway.
  • 1848: The theater devil. Humorous-satirical almanac for 1848 (ed.)

literature

Web links

  • Known people from Jever , accessed October 9, 2017.

swell

  1. ^ Joseph Mendelssohn: Paris letters. Vol. 1. Leipzig: Weber, 1841, p. 1
  2. ↑ Harald Schieckel , epilogue, in Joseph Mendelssohn, Eine Ecke Deutschlands, 1979 (reprint); Jörg Deuter, Josef Mendelssohn from Jever ,. A forgotten young German, in: Oldenburg house calendar. 153, 1979, pp. 60-63
  3. ↑ Harald Schieckel, 1979
personal data
SURNAME Mendelssohn, Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German author and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH September 10, 1817 or October 4, 1817
PLACE OF BIRTH Jever
DATE OF DEATH April 4, 1856
Place of death Hamburg