Moritz Geisenheimer

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Moritz Geisenheimer (* 1818 ; † March 27, 1878 in Düsseldorf ) was a German businessman , playwright , activist of Jewish emancipation and the German gymnastics and national movement , one of the first sports officials in Düsseldorf as well as a publicist and politician of the democratic movement during the German Revolution 1848/1849 .

Life

The merchant Moritz Geisenheimer had a spice and colonial goods store in the middle of Düsseldorf's old town , on Bolkerstraße , and later on Bahnstraße 41 (today the Stadtmitte district ). Literary and interested in contemporary issues of Judaism in Germany , he wrote an article in 1841 for the Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums , published in Leipzig , in which he introduced the philologist and poet Ludwig Wihl . His brother, the painter Lazarus Wihl , belonged to Geisenheimer's circle of friends in the pre- March period .

Geisenheimer first appeared in public life in his city through a drama that he had submitted as a previously unknown playwright under the title Der Bravo to the management of the Düsseldorf theater and which had its world premiere on March 30, 1847 with only moderate success experienced. The subject matter of the play was taken from the novella The Bravo by James Fenimore Cooper , published in 1831, and presented in the form of a romance the story of Carlo , a freedom fighter for popular sovereignty and republicanism , who after being rescued from prison prefers to emigrate , but announces that he is going to emigrate better time to want to return. The critics were neither enthusiastic about the end of the piece nor about the performance.

In the summer of 1847 Geisenheimer also appeared politically. The occasion was an anti-Jewish remark that the Prussian Minister of State Ludwig Gustav von Thile had made in the “three-tier curia” of the First United State Parliament in the course of deliberations on the Jewish Act of 1847 and which was then distributed via press releases. At a meeting of this body on June 14, 1847, von Thile had asserted that “the Jew in and of himself cannot have a fatherland other than that to which his faith refers him. Zion is the fatherland of the Jews. ”For this reason, Jews could never become Germans and were consequently unable to take on government offices. Geisenheimer protested against this together with the painter Louis Bacharach and the doctor Salomon Heinemann in the liberal Deutsche Zeitung published in Heidelberg with the following public statement:

“We declare loudly and to the whole world: We Jews of Prussia have and long for no other fatherland than the country, whose fame and greatness our fame and our greatness, whose language is ours, whose customs are ours, whose fall and rise we as one To feel vividly part of the whole, for whose freedom we know how to fight and to die. Germany resp. Prussia is the land in which we were born, in which our dead rest, whose brothers are our brothers. We have no other fatherland than our Germany, our Prussia with its history and future. The spirit of reconciliation and unity, of which we are also aware, will finally sink into the heart of the most intolerant. Until then, we and all our fellow believers, to talk to Uriel Acosta , are 'of those who die on the way.' "

In 1847 Geisenheimer was socially active in the field of gymnastics . In that year he was one of the founders of the "Gymnastics Club for Adults", one of the oldest gymnastics clubs in the Rhineland, which still exists today under the name Düsseldorfer Gymnastics Club from 1847 . In the years 1848, 1850 and 1851 he led the board of this association, whose task was also seen in making the people defensive.

As in Dusseldorf the March Revolution of 1848 broke out and one of Lorenz Cantador led vigilante publicity paraded through the streets of the city, developed at the local level clubs, publicly articulated political interests. In April 1848 Geisenheimer was one of the founders of the Association for a Democratic Monarchy . As one of the leading figures of the association, which was able to push through its candidates with a clear majority in the elections to the Frankfurt National Assembly and the Prussian National Assembly , Geisenheimer represented the Düsseldorf Democrats at the Rhenish-Westphalian Congress on August 12, 1848 in Cologne . He also acted as publisher and editor of the association organ Die Volksstimme .

Geisenheimer died - mourned by his wife, offspring and brother-in-law - after long suffering at the age of 59 in Düsseldorf.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Moritz Geisenheimer: Jewish portraits: Ludwig Wihl . In: Ludwig Philippson (ed.): Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums. An impartial organ for all Jewish interests in politics, religion, literature, history, linguistics and fiction . Baumgärtners Buchhandlung Verlag, 5th year, Leipzig 1841, p. 314 ff. ( Google Books )
  2. ↑ Arno Herzig : Political goals of Jewish intellectuals from the Rhineland and Westphalia in the Vormärz and in the revolution of 1848 . In: Walter Grab , Julius H. Schoeps : Jews in the Vormärz and in the Revolution of 1848 . Burg Verlag, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 978-3-9228-0161-0 , p. 283
  3. ↑ Heinz Kapp: Revolutionaries of Jewish origin in Europe 1848/49 . Konstanzer Schriften zur Schoah and Judaica, Volume 12, Hartung-Gorre Verlag, Konstanz 2006, ISBN 978-3-8662-8092-2 , p. 492
  4. ^ "The Bravo" by Moritz Geisenheimer . In: Düsseldorfer Kreisblatt and Daily Anzeiger . Issue No. 94 from April 6, 1847 ( digitized version )
  5. ^ Barbara Strenge: Jews in the Prussian Judicial Service 1812-1918. Access to the legal professions as an indicator of social emancipation . Dissertation Humboldt University Berlin 1993, individual publications by the Historical Commission, KG Saur, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-598-23225-X , p. 65 ( Google Books )
  6. ^ German newspaper . Issue No. 3, July 3, 1847, p. 19 ( Google Books )
  7. ^ Wilhelm Herchenbach : Düsseldorf and its surroundings in the revolutionary years from 1848–1849 . Düsseldorf [1882], p. 55 ( digitized version )
  8. ^ Wilhelm Herchenbach, p. 89 ( digitized version )
  9. ↑ The People's Voice. A free organ for town and country . Issue no.1 on June 1, 1848 published by PJ Engels, discontinued in 1849
  10. ^ Lothar Schröder: 1848 - the Rhineland awakes . Article from July 31, 2012 in the portal rp-online.de , accessed on December 25, 2018
  11. ↑ Erhard Kiehnbaum: The unknown friend or: Who was Kleinerz alias Reinartz? Attempt a biographical sketch . In: Lars Lambrecht (Hrsg.): Umstürzende Ideen - Radical Theory in the run-up to the 1848 revolution . (= Research on Young Hegelianism, Volume 20), Peter Lang Edition, p. 191 ff. Footnote 31 ( PDF )
  12. ^ Obituary in the Düsseldorfer Volksblatt , issue No. 84 of March 28, 1878 ( digitized version )
personal data
SURNAME Geisenheimer, Moritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German businessman, playwright, activist of Jewish emancipation
DATE OF BIRTH 1818
DATE OF DEATH March 27, 1878
Place of death Dusseldorf