A Debate On Jewish Emancipation And Christian Theology In Old Berlin

by Crouter, Richard; Klassen, Julie; Friedlander, David; Schleiermacher, Friedrich; Teller, Wilhelm Abraham

• ISBN13: 9780872207196
• ISBN10: 0872207196
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-09-01
• Publisher: Hackett Pub Co Inc

Summary

When wealthy Jewish industrialist David Friedländer proposed in 1799 that Berlin's Jews undergo a sham conversion to Christianity in return for full German citizenship, he touched off a political and theological debate that would continue to define the relation between Jewish and German identity for more than a century. In the series of provocative letters collected here, Friedländer, Protestant leader Wilhelm Abraham Teller, and young Christian theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher debate Friedländer's radical proposal. In so doing, they grapple with many of the thorny problems -- such as citizenship, religious tolerance, and assimilation -- that continue to vex world political leaders today. Richard Crouter's Introduction provides the cultural, religious, and historical context for this compelling exchange; a postscript by Julie Klassen reveals the ways in which Germany's minorities continue to be marginalised more than two hundred years after Friedländer made his passionate appeal for political liberty and human rights.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Chronology	viii
A Note on Translations	xi
Further Reading	xiii
Introduction	1	(30)
Two Judaic Voices (March and April, 1799)	31	(48)
``Political-Theological Task concerning the Treatment of Baptized Jews,'' Berlinisches Archiv der Zeit und ihres Geschmacks (Berlin 1799), Teilbd. 1, 228-39	32	(9)
Anonymous
Open Letter to His Most Worthy, Supreme Consistorial Counselor and Provost Teller at Berlin, from Some Householders of the Jewish Religion (Berlin: August Mylius, 1799)	41	(38)
David Friedlander
Two Protestant Christian Responses (July, 1799)	79	(66)
Letters on the Occasion of the Political-Theological Task and the Open Letter of Jewish Householders (Berlin: Friedrich Franke, 1799)	80	(33)
Friedrich Schleiermacher
First Letter	81	(8)
Second Letter	89	(5)
Third Letter	94	(7)
Fourth Letter	101	(6)
Fifth Letter	107	(3)
Sixth Letter	110	(3)
Response to the Open Letter to Me, Provost Teller, from Some Householders of the Jewish Religion (Berlin: August Mylius, 1799)	113	(32)
Wilhelm Abraham Teller
A Postscript: Contemporary Parallels and Permutations	145	(28)
Index	173