Leo Baeck

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Special postage stamp of the Deutsche Bundespost (1957) on the first anniversary of Leo Baeck's death

Leo [Arje Lipmann] Baeck (born May 23, 1873 in Lissa , Province of Posen ; died November 2, 1956 in London , United Kingdom ) was a rabbi , at his time the most important representative of German liberal Judaism and an undisputed leader and representative for years of German Jewry.

Life

Birth house in Leszno
The grave of Leo Baeck and his wife Natalie (Golders Green Jewish Cemetery, London)
Stolperstein , Fritz-Elsas-Strasse 15, in Berlin-Schöneberg

Leo Baeck grew up in the predominantly German-speaking town of Lissa as the son of Rabbi Samuel Baeck (1834–1912) and his wife Eva, nee. Placzek (1840–1926) with four sisters. He attended the Johann-Amos-Comenius-Gymnasium in his hometown. After studying at the rabbinical seminary in Breslau , where he also studied philosophy at the university, he switched to the liberal college for the science of Judaism in Berlin in 1894 , where he studied history and religious philosophy at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in addition to philosophy May 1895 when Wilhelm Dilthey on Spinoza's first actions on Germany doctorate .

In 1895 he accepted a rabbinical position in Opole . It was there that his main work, Das Wesen des Judentums , appeared in 1905. In it he dealt critically with the positions of the Protestant theologian Adolf von Harnack and defended himself against the portrayal of Judaism as an outdated religion of the law. In 1896 he married Nathalie Hamburger , the granddaughter of a fellow rabbi. The couple's only child, Ruth, was born in Opole, Upper Silesia. From 1907 to 1912 he officiated in Düsseldorf . In 1912 he became a community rabbi in Berlin (at that time the Jewish Community Berlin had around 150,000 members), where he also worked as a lecturer at the College for the Science of Judaism from 1913 until it was closed by the National Socialists on July 19, 1942.

At the First World War Leo Baeck took over as Feldrabbiner part. During the Weimar Republic he became the best-known representative of German liberal Judaism and held several representative offices in Jewish organizations. In 1922 he became chairman of the general association of rabbis in Germany and from 1924 to 1937 he was president of the grand lodge of the German section of B'nai B'rith , which at that time comprised more than a hundred individual lodges . From 1925 Leo Baeck was chairman of the Central Welfare Office for Jews in Germany .

In 1933 Leo Baeck became President of the Reich Representation of the German Jews , which was an umbrella organization for the Jewish organizations and for whose leadership he was particularly well suited to mediating. The tasks of the Reich Representation at the time of the most severe anti-Semitic persecution ranged from providing humanitarian support for the impoverished Jewish population and providing education for the schoolchildren who were driven out of schools to assisting with emigration. The Nazis removed from 1939 other Jewish institutions, the independence that created National Association of Jews in Germany as a forced merger and tried over the Gestapo to directly control their activities. Under this pressure, too, Leo Baeck turned down offers to emigrate and maintained contacts with the resistance group around Carl Friedrich Goerdeler . In 1943 Leo Baeck (with the number: 187.894), like most of the other representatives of the Reichsvereinigung, was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp , where he lived as a celebrity with special rights. The "Reich Association of Jews in Germany" was closed by the Gestapo.

In Theresienstadt Leo Baeck became a member of the council of elders and took care of the community under the most difficult conditions, supported by Regina Jonas and Viktor Frankl . He also initiated a series of lectures together with Professor Maximilian Adler from Prague and Professor Emil Utitz from Halle, which he himself began with a lecture on Plato . There is a list of his lecture topics (written in Sütterlin script ), on which are named: Plato, Maimonides , Spinoza, Kant , Mendelssohn , Hermann Cohen , The Jewish Philosophy of Religion of the Middle Ages , The Jewish Mysticism of the Middle Ages , The Problem of Body and Soul , The Unity of life in body and soul , The meaning of history , The writing of history , The centuries from the destruction of the first to that of the second temple , The time of the Maccabees . As far as is known, he gave his last lecture entitled Galileo Galilei and the End of the Middle Ages on December 23, 1944.

As early as August 1943, Baeck had learned in Theresienstadt that Auschwitz was an extermination camp, but made the decision not to tell his fellow prisoners about it. He survived the Holocaust (badly mistreated, his four sisters had perished in the ghetto) and moved to London on June 5, 1945 . There he worked as President of the World Union for Progressive Judaism , which he co-founded in 1924 ; an office to which he had been elected in 1938 and which he held until 1955. In 1947 he founded the "Institute for Research into Judaism in Germany since the Enlightenment", which was later named after him. From 1948 to 1953 he also took over a professorship at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati .

Memorial stone for Leo Baeck at the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee

He died in London on November 2, 1956 and is buried in Golders Green Jewish Cemetery . There is a memorial stone for Baeck and his wife at the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee .

Quotes

“For us Jews in Germany, an epoch of history has come to an end. Such a thing comes to an end whenever a hope, a belief, a confidence has to be finally buried. It was our belief that the German and the Jewish spirit could meet on German soil and become a blessing through their marriage. This was an illusion - the era of the Jews in Germany is over once and for all. "

- Leo Baeck

Awards

Honors

Facade of the Leo-Baeck-Haus in Berlin

Many institutions bear his name in his honor: schools, lodges, synagogues and community centers in many countries around the world. Here are some important facilities.

  • In 1938, Rabbi Dr. Meir Elk founded the Leo Baeck Education Center in Haifa .
  • The Leo Baeck Institute has locations in New York , Jerusalem and London as well as a working group in Berlin, and since 1978 it has been awarding the Leo Baeck Medal at irregular intervals .
  • Since 1956, the Central Council of Jews in Germany has been awarding the Leo Baeck Prize to people who campaign for Baeck's ideals (“to propagate religiosity, respect for humanities, charity and humanity”). The building of the Central Council of Jews in Berlin, the former seat of the college (educational establishment) for the science of Judaism that Baeck was last headed, was named after him.
  • The Leo Baeck College in London is a rabbinical seminary for progressive Judaism in Britain, founded 1956th
  • The Leo Baeck Program has existed since 2005, promoting school and extracurricular projects that pursue an integrative approach to German-Jewish history. It is a joint initiative of the Foundation EVZ and the commission of the Leo Baeck Institute for the dissemination of German-Jewish history.
  • In 2006 the Studienstiftung launched the Leo Baeck Fellowship Program , an international scholarship program that honors dissertations on German-Jewish history.
  • The former building of the University for the Science of Judaism in Berlin's Tucholskystraße 9 has been the seat of the Central Council of Jews in Germany since 1999 and has been called Leo-Baeck-Haus since then .
  • The Leo Baeck Foundation in Potsdam was established on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Baeck's death with the approval of his family at the turn of the year 2005/06. It is dedicated to promoting the Abraham Geiger College at the University of Potsdam and thus the training of rabbis and community staff for continental Europe as well as the dialogue between the religions.
  • On September 11, 2012 , a stumbling block was laid in front of his former home in Berlin-Schöneberg , Fritz-Elsas-Straße 15 .
  • In Opole (Poland), a plaque of honor in memory of Baeck was unveiled next to the monument to the destroyed Opole synagogue in autumn 2013.

Fonts

Work edition

  • Works . Edited by Albert H. Friedlander , Bertold Klappert and Werner Licharz . On behalf of the Leo Baeck Institute, Gütersloher Verlagshaus, New York, Gütersloh 1998–2003 [special edition: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2006].
    • Vol. 1: The essence of Judaism. 1998, ISBN 3-579-02334-9 .
    • Vol. 2: This people. Jewish existence. 1996, ISBN 3-579-02335-7 .
    • Vol. 3: Ways in Judaism. Essays and speeches. 1997, ISBN 3-579-02336-5 .
    • Vol. 4: From three millennia. The Gospel as a document of the Jewish history of faith. 2000, ISBN 3-579-02337-3 .
    • Vol. 5: After the Shoah - why are Jews in the world? Writings from the post-war period. 2002.
    • Vol. 6: Letters, speeches, essays. 2003.

Single fonts

  • The essence of Judaism. Nathansen & Lamm, Berlin 1905. (Writings of the Society for the Promotion of the Science of Judaism).
    • The essence of Judaism. 6th edition 1960.
  • Jewish religious education. In: Handbook of Pedagogy. Edited by Hermann Nohl. Volume 3. Langensalza [u. a.], 1930.
  • Romantic religion. 1922.
  • The Pharisees . Schocken, Berlin 1934. ( Schocken Verlag library . 6.)
  • Religion and World Peace: Overcoming Wars. Collective publication with contributions by Leo Baeck, Günther Dehn, Alfred Klee . Edited by the Working Group of Denominations for Peace. 1930.
  • Chaim Nachman Bialik . An introduction to his life and work. 1935.
  • The Gospel as a document of the Jewish history of faith. 1938.
  • The meaning of the story. 1946.
  • Maimonides , the man, his work and his effect. 1954.
  • This people - Jewish existence. 1955.
  • From three millennia. Scientific studies and treatises on the history of the Jewish faith. 1958.
  • From Moses Mendelssohn to Franz Rosenzweig : Types of Jewish Self-Image in the Last Two Centuries. 1958.
  • Paul, the Pharisees, and the New Testament. Three essays. Ner-Tamid Verlag, Frankfurt 1961.
  • Lectures and speeches. With a foreword by Leo Baeck. Published by Grand Lodge Germany VIII UOBB 2., verb. Edition, Maximilian Stein, Leo Baeck.
  • For the 50th anniversary of the Bne Briss order in Germany. UOBB (also contains: Alfred Goldschmidt: The German district of the order Bne Briss. Arthur Löwenstamm: Sociology of the Lodge. Brother's words. Compiled by Paul Rosenfeld.) Leo Baeck, introduction.
  • History of the Jews. 3 volumes, 1954–1959, 1965.

Lectures

  • Spirit and blood. Lecture given at the anniversary conference of the Society for Free Philosophy in Darmstadt on November 25, 1930, Philo-Verlag, Berlin 1931. Gr.-8vo. 14 p. Orig. Brochure (= morning series 9th writing).
  • The meaning of the story. Three lectures from the series Lebendiges Abendland of the German service of the London radio (May 5th, 12th and 19th 1946).
  • Maimonides, the man, his work and his effect. Lecture on the occasion of the commemoration of the 750th anniversary of the death of the great scholar Moses Maimonides on July 7, 1954 in Düsseldorf.

literature

Web links

Commons : Leo Baeck  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Waldtraut Lewin, Leo Baeck - History of a German Jew: A novel biography . Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2012. p. 23.
  2. ^ Walter Homolka, Elias H. Füllenbach: Leo Baeck - A sketch of his life . Gütersloh publishing house, Gütersloh 2006.
  3. ↑ EG Lowenthal: In the service of humanity. Retrieved October 14, 2018
  4. ^ Theresienstadt Lexicon on celebrities
  5. ^ List of speakers in the Theresienstadt ghetto ( Memento from June 11, 2004 in the Internet Archive ). See Elena Makarova, Sergei Makarov, Victor Kuperman: University Over the Abyss. The story behind 520 lecturers and 2,430 lectures in Theresienstadt concentration camp 1942–1944 . 2nd edition, Verba Publishers Ltd., Jerusalem 2004, ISBN 965-424-049-1 .
  6. ^ Leo Baeck after his liberation from the Theresienstadt concentration camp, New York 1945; quoted in Nachum T. Gidal: The Jews in Germany from Roman times to the Weimar Republic . P. 426.
  7. ↑ Ernst Wolfgang Becker, Martin Vogt, Wolfram Werner (eds.) Theodor Heuss. The federal president. Letters 1949-1954. De Gruyter, Munich 2012, p. 438, ISBN 978-3-598-25127-6 .
  8. ↑ FUNDING PROGRAM FOR TRANSMITTING GERMAN-JEWISH HISTORY ( Memento from July 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Homepage of the Leo Baeck program
  9. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Homepage of the Leo Baeck Fellows [1] German National Academic Foundation, Leo Baeck Program @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.leo-baeck-fellows.de
  10. ^ Marlies Emmerich: Leo-Baeck-Haus will open in mid-April. In: Berliner Zeitung . March 9, 1999, accessed June 9, 2015 .
  11. ↑ Opole commemorates Leo Baeck ( memento from November 19, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
personal data
SURNAME Baeck, Leo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Rabbi and representative of liberal Judaism
DATE OF BIRTH May 23, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Lissa , Poznan Province , Kingdom of Prussia
DATE OF DEATH November 2, 1956
Place of death London , UK