Leopold Silberstein

This article describes the Slavist. For the entrepreneur and investor, see Leopold D. Silberstein .

Leopold Silberstein (born August 28, 1900 in Berlin , † probably July 23, 1941 in Tartu ) was a German Jewish Slavist .

Leopold Silberstein

Life

School and study time

Leopold Silberstein was born in Berlin in 1900. His father Wilhelm Silberstein was an Austrian citizen and had studied economics in Switzerland. His father was successively director of several technical and chemical companies. He bought real estate in Berlin. He died of illness early in 1913. Leopold Silberstein's mother, Cäcilie Silberstein, née Elias, had died in 1929 after an appendix operation. Leopold Silberstein attended the Kaiser-Friedrich-Gymnasium in Berlin-Charlottenburg from 1906 to 1917 and graduated from high school here.

In 1917 he enrolled in the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Berlin . First he studied pure philosophy. He then developed a keen interest in the Slavic languages ​​and learned Russian in the seminar for Eastern European History and Regional Studies and deepened his knowledge of Russian literature. He then learned Polish, Byelorussian, Serbo-Croatian, Czech and Old Bulgarian.

From 1918 onwards, Silberstein majored in Slavic Studies with Alexander Brückner and the history and culture of Russia with Karl Stählin . Wilhelm Schulze introduced him to Latvian and Lithuanian as the basis for Indo-European studies. He took philosophical lectures with Ernst Cassirer , Max Dessoir , Benno Erdmann , Alois Riehl , Georg Runze , Carl Stumpf and Max Wertheimer . During the years 1921 and 1922 Silberstein wrote an inaugural dissertation " Chernyshevsky as a fiction writer". The work was supervised by Alexander Brückner and Karl Stählin. In 1922 he received his doctorate in philosophy.

First research work

After obtaining his doctorate, Silberstein deepened his Slavic knowledge at the University of Berlin. At Stählin's work he dealt with problems in Russian history. At the same time he attended lectures by the Slavist Max Vasmer , where he mainly dealt with problems of Russian folklore. In the meantime he began to independently examine Polish progressive literature, such as the poet Maria Konopnicka , especially from the point of view of the abolition of serfdom of women and their creative contribution to cultural heritage. Numerous reviews of the history and literature of Poland followed. From 1927 he became increasingly concerned with Czech history and literature. Until 1933 he was a permanent contributor to a large number of German-language magazines on Slavic studies and the history of the Slavic peoples. The yearbooks for culture and history of the Slavs , the Slavische Rundschau , Eastern Europe and the magazine for Eastern European history should be mentioned here.

The thesis “ Belinskij und Černyševskij . An attempt at an orientation sketch in the history of ideas ”. In 1929 Silberstein took part in the First International Congress of Slavists in Prague. In doing so, he came into close contact with the leading figures in Czech cultural life. Then he developed the plan to write a post-doctoral thesis on the establishment of the Czechoslovak state. One of the first fruits of this new direction of his research is the book "The Origin of the Czechoslovak State According to Benesch's Memoirs".

In 1930 and 1931 he studied documents on the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in the archive and library of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Czechoslovakia in Prague. In 1927 LS acquired German citizenship, as he was still Austrian from his father. In 1931 Leopold Silberstein became engaged to the Romance studies student Jenny Herrmann (born on July 4, 1904 in Frankfurt an der Oder ). In 1932 the daughter Cäcilie was born (she got the name of LS's mother), and in the same year Leopold Silberstein and Jenny Herrmann married. In addition to studying Czech history, he did not stop paying attention to Russian problems. He became a member of the Society of Friends of the New Russia, whose secretary was Klaus Mehnert . In this context, a bibliography "The Sovet Union 1917–1932" was compiled with K. Mehnert, which listed the most important works on the Soviet Union with short presentations. K. Mehnert was secretary and editor of this publication. At that time LS edited the standard works on Russian history and the works of the Russian revolutionary leaders other than Lenin. In 1932 he and K. Mehnert founded a Slavic study group based on the model of the Prague Linguistic Circle at Berlin University. But as a result of Hitler's takeover of power on January 30, 1933 and the onset of terror against left-wing forces and Jews, the working group had to cease its activities.

Emigration to Prague

After Hitler came to power, the young Silberstein couple was extremely endangered as a Jewish and socialist household. In addition, there were no longer any work or publication opportunities for a Jew at the university. Silberstein had to give up his plan to do his habilitation at Berlin University with a thesis on the development of Czechoslovakia. Therefore the Silberstein couple decided to leave their place of work in Berlin and emigrated to Prague on March 31, 1933. The young family was safe in Prague, but their existence remained extremely precarious. In Czechoslovakia, foreigners were not granted work permits due to the high level of unemployment. So for Silberstein only the publication of scientific papers remained.

Silberstein wrote articles for Czech and German Prague magazines as well as for Le Monde Slave on philosophical, sociological and historical topics.

In the summer of 1933, the Silberstein family received the news that the Reich German authorities had initiated a lawsuit against them for the so-called Reich flight tax and that they were immediately demanding the amount of over 55,000 marks. The process lasted until 1935 and resulted in the de facto expropriation of Silberstein's property. In 1935 their son Thomas Karl was born.

Silberstein and his wife took an active part in the rich scientific and cultural life in Prague, particularly from 1934 to 1937. Particularly noteworthy here are the Pražský linguistický kroužek (PLK - Prague Linguistic Circle ) and the Literárně historická společnost čsl (Czechoslovak Literary History Society). A lecture on an analysis of the Czech philosophical terminology by Silberstein, which he gave on December 2, 1935, emerged from the circle of the PLK. After this lecture he became a full member of the PLK at a plenary meeting in March 1936. In this group he gave another lecture on January 18, 1937, "Historické pojmosloví, sociologie vědění a sémantika" (historical terminology, sociology of knowledge and semantics).

According to the documents on the Prague Linguistic Circle, the participation of Silberstein and his wife in 28 meetings between October 1935 and April 1938 is documented. In the Prague press there are 25 short reports from Silberstein about these meetings. These figures show his intense interest in the work of Prague linguists and that he tirelessly promoted the activities of the PLK in the Prague press . He also participated in the Cercle philosophique de Prague pour les recherches sur l'entendement humain (Prague philosophical circle for research on human understanding) founded in 1934 based on the model of the PLK. In the same year he took part in the 8th International Congress of Philosophers in Prague. The following essential philosophical works by Silberstein emerged as the fruit of this work, in which he repeatedly attacked the inhuman racial ideology of the Nazis, including their forerunners and followers: In the two writings “Národní a rasová ideologie nového Německa a jeji myšlenkové předpoklady” (The Volkish race theory in the new Germany and its spiritual forerunners) and "Vývoj rasových theorií" (The Development of Race Theories) he exposed the Nazi race theory based on the philosophical forerunners.

In the book “Fighting Reason - the Example of TG Masaryk and Dr. Edvard Beneš ”, he praised the two statesmen he admired, philosophically and politically, as“ critical realists in whom the fundamental and the concrete political are intimately intertwined ”. He saw in their political actions a model for the power of human reason. Finally, at the 9th International Philosophers' Congress in Paris in August 1937, he gave a lecture on "Indéterminisme et point du vue normatif" (Indeterminism and the normative aspect), in which he contrasted rationalism with irrationalism in philosophy. He showed that irrationalism led to race theory. In 1934 he took part in the 2nd International Congress of Slavists in Warsaw with two contributions dedicated to the stylistic peculiarities of the Polish writer E. Orzeszkowa and the importance of sociology for research into inter-Slavic cultural relations.

Silberstein also worked in the Czechoslovak Society for the Study of National Problems (Československá společnost pro studium národnostních otázek), which was dedicated to the nationality problem in Czechoslovakia and European countries. She invited him to participate in a study on the development of the national question in the Soviet Union. As a result, his book "Výstavba národnostní kultury v SSSR" (The construction of national culture in the USSR) was created.

His respect for the statesmen of Czechoslovakia, TG Masaryk and E. Beneš, who, in his opinion, placed their politics on the basis of high ethical and moral standards, he expressed in the work "Fighting Reason: the Example of Masaryk and Beneš" (see above ) and “A Portrait of President TG Masaryk”. His lively interest in the work of the Czech philosophers was reflected in the analysis "Philosophical endeavors and works in the country of Masaryk".

Proofreading at the University of Tartu

In the spring of 1936 LS undertook a lecture tour to Estonia and Finland on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic. In his lectures he presented the philosophical foundations of the politics of the statesmen Masaryk and Beneš, described the development of racial theories and highlighted the status of the women's question in Europe. At the suggestion of the Judaicist Lazar Gulkowitsch , whom he had met at the University of Tartu, he proposed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czechoslovak Republic to set up a lectureship for Czech language and culture at the University of Tartu.

In 1937 LS was appointed lecturer for Czech language and culture in an academic process. He received the Czechoslovak citizenship from the ČSR. In Estonia he devoted a detailed review of the comprehensive work “History of Russia” to the work of his teacher Karl Stählin, to whom he was always warmly attached. From the Beginning to the Present ”and a necrology after he learned of his death on August 29, 1939. In the first semester of 1939, in addition to the Czech lectures at the University of Tartu, he read a free course on comparative Slavic literary studies (with the special topic of literary criticism, Belinsky, Brzozovskij and Šalda ). He gave numerous lectures, for example in the Estonian Historical Society (1938 and 1939), in the Literary Society (1936 and 1938), in the Philosophical Society (1936, 1938) and in the Pedagogical Society (1939).

After the collapse of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, he no longer had any funding at the university because his position had been paid for by the Czech government. Therefore, he initially worked for a full year as an unpaid lecturer for Czech language and culture at the University of Tartu. In September 1939 he divorced Jenny Silberstein so that she could better protect her two children, who were considered "half-Jewish" in Nazi-occupied Prague, under her newly adopted maiden name Herrmann. From 1939 to mid-June 1941, he maintained an intensive correspondence with Jenny Herrmann. In 1940 he married the lawyer Malka Schliefstein . After the collapse of Czechoslovakia, LS had little income from publications and lived largely on the support he received from the Gulkowitsch family and his wife. At the beginning of July 1941, shortly after Hitler's Germany attacked the Soviet Union, M. Silberstein had given birth to a child about whom nothing more is known.

After Estonia was incorporated into the Soviet Union, the University of Tartu was also reorganized. There was no longer any possibility of giving lectures on Czech literature. But since the Estonian students were supposed to listen to the lectures in Russian, LS was able to work as a teacher for Russian at the State University of Tartu.

Assassination of Leopold Silberstein by the fascists

The fate of LS in the last days of his life, after the German army attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, emerges from an interrogation report by the Estonian SS. Apparently, after the bombing of Tartu ended, he tried to flee the city. But he was picked up by members of the Estonian Omaikatse (“self-protection”) and handed over to a department of the Estonian SS, which interrogated him as a foreigner. In the "Leopold Silberstein" file of the Estonian Security Police, a division of the SS, it is noted: Started: July 22, 1941 (on this day the interrogation took place), Done: July 23, 1941 (obviously this means that Leopold Silberstein was executed that day).

Services

About 100 publications by Leopold Silberstein on Slavic topics (history and literature of Czechoslovakia, Poland and Russia), philosophical and sociological problems in the form of books, articles and reviews are known. He had also written over 80 articles for the newspaper Prager Presse , which reported on scientific life in Czechoslovakia during the 1930s.

Works

• Černyševskij as a fiction writer , inaugural dissertation, University of Berlin (1922).
• Belinsky and Černyševskij. An attempt at an orientation sketch on the history of ideas, year books for culture and history of the Slavs, Ost-Europa Institut (Breslau) Franz Steiner Verlag, New Series, Vol. 7, No. 2 (1931) 163–189.
• The emergence of the Czechoslovak state according to Benesch's memoir , European Talks. Hamburg Monthly Issues for Foreign Policy, 6 (1928) 3, 127–147.
• Travaux et documents sur l'histoire recente de la Tchecoslovaquie (Works and documents on the recent history of Czechoslovakia), Le Monde Slave (1935) April, pp. 81–111.
• Le travail philosophique et sociologique en Tchecoslovaquie (The philosophical and sociological work in Czechoslovakia), Le Monde Slave (1935) May, pp. 286-315.
• Les Tchechoslovaques et les revolutions europeennes de 1848 a nos jours (The Czechoslovaks and the European Revolutions from 1848 to Our Time), Le Monde Slave (1934) July, pp. 58–86.
• Česká terminologie filosofická (Czech philosophical terminology), Slovo a slovesnost 2 (1936) 83–98.
• Národni i rasová ideologie nového Německa a jeji myšlenkové předpoklady (The ethnic and racial ideology of the new Germany and its spiritual precursors), Národnostní obzor (1934), 3, 171–185, 259–268.
• Vývoj rasových theorii (Development of Racial Theories ), Orbis Prague (1936).
• Výstavba národnostní kultury v SSSR (Building the Nationality Culture in the USSR), Nakladelství “Orbis” Prague (1937).
• A portrait of President TG Masaryk , Prager Rundschau (1934), no. 2, pp. 7-19.
• Philosophical striving and work in the country of Masaryk , Prager Rundschau 8 (1938) No. 1, 13-29, No. 2, pp. 95-113.
• Fighting reason: the example of Masaryk and Beneš , International Library of Philosophy, B. Jakowenko Publishing House, Prague (1937).

literature

• Konrad Hermann: Jenny's life . About the life of Jenny Hermann (1904-1982), BoD Norderstedt 2012, ISBN 978-3-8482-0240-9
• Konrad Herrmann: Leopold Silberstein - Life and Work , European cultural magazine Sudetenland, 2013 No. 1, pp. 2–18, ISSN  0562-5173
• Tatjana Shor: Zhertva cholokosta professor-slavist Leopol'd Zil'berstejn (1900–1941) (The Holocaust Victim, the Slavist Professor Leopold Silberstein (1900–1941)), Conference “Questions of Jewish History”, Proceedings of Sefer Center 2007 , Scholarly Conferences in Jewish Studies, Moscow (2008)
• Petr Čermák, Claudio Poeta, Jan Čermák: Pražský linguistický kroužek v dokumentech (The Prague Linguistic Circle in Documents), Academia, Praha (2012), ISBN 978-80-200-2097-0
• Konrad Herrmann: Leopold Silberstein - A Berlin Slavist , Hentrich & Hentrich Berlin, 2014, ISBN 978-3-95565-043-8
• Konrad Herrmann: Fighting Reason - Leopold Silberstein's Lecture Tour 1936 , BoD Norderstedt 2014, ISBN 978-3-7322-9536-4
• Konrad Herrmann: Scientific life in Prague 1930 to 1938 according to reports by Leopold Silberstein for the "Prager Presse" , European cultural magazine Sudetenland, 2013 No. 4, pp. 402-421, ISSN  0562-5173
• Konrad Herrmann: Leopold Silberstein - Slawist and Philosopher , be.bra Wissenschaft verlag Berlin, 2015, ISBN 978-3-95410-056-9

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Anonymous: Tax profiles and confiscation of assets . In: Official Gazette of the Reich Finance Administration . tape 17 , 1935, pp. 24 .