Between Jewish Posen and Scholarly Berlin

The life of Philipp Jaffé (18191870), from his youth in Posen; his studies with Leopold von Ranke and career as a close friend of Theodor Mommsen at the pinnacle of historical scholarship in Berlin, first at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica and then, after his feud with Georg Heinrich Pertz, with his unprecedented 1862 appointment, while still a Jew, to a Berlin professorship; and on to his baptism in 1868 and suicide in 1870, was a life of transition between East and West and between Judaism and Christianity and a life of devotion to scholarship, of loneliness, of success and of frustration. Forgotten today, except by medievalists who depend on his numerous editions of Latin texts, Jaffé was a central figure in the heydays of German scholarship. His career illustrates the working conditions of such scholars, their friendships and feuds, and also the limits that hemmed Jews in and the ways they could be overcome. This volume documents Jaffé's life, accomplishments, and struggles, and also offers insight into his soul via more than two hundred of his letters (in German) about half to his parents in Posen and half to colleagues around Europe, especially Pertz and Mommsen.

Auteur

Daniel R. Schwartz, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

Texte du rabat

The life of Philipp Jaffé (1819?1870), from his youth in Posen; his studies with Leopold von Ranke and career ? as a close friend of Theodor Mommsen ? at the pinnacle of historical scholarship in Berlin, first at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica and then, after his feud with Georg Heinrich Pertz, with his unprecedented 1862 appointment, while still a Jew, to a Berlin professorship; and on to his baptism in 1868 and suicide in 1870, was a life of transition between East and West and between Judaism and Christianity ? and a life of devotion to scholarship, of loneliness, of success and of frustration. Forgotten today, except by medievalists who depend on his numerous editions of Latin texts, Jaffé was a central figure in the heydays of German scholarship. His career illustrates the working conditions of such scholars, their friendships and feuds, and also the limits that hemmed Jews in and the ways they could be overcome. This volume documents Jaffé's life, accomplishments, and struggles, and also offers insight into his soul via more than two hundred of his letters (in German) ? about half to his parents in Posen and half to colleagues around Europe, especially Pertz and Mommsen.

Résumé
"Dobrze przez Schwartza rozpoznany i znakomicie udokumentowany przyklad Jaffégo, choc z pewnoscia nietypowy, rzuca oczywiscie swiatlo na szersza problematyke losów zydowskich i losów nauki historycznej w Niemczech po polowie XIX w."Jerzy Strzelczyk in: Roczniki Historyczner 83 (2017), 318-321 "Insgesamt liefert der Vf. eine sehr gründliche und gut lesbare Fallstudie über die Schwierigkeit, als deutscher Jude Mitte des 19. Jh. eine akademische Karriere einzuschlagen, eine Fallstudie auch über Heimtücke und Opportunismus in der Wissenschaft, und beleuhtet damit eine dunkle Seite in der Geschichte der MGH."In: Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters Band 73.2 (2017), 754-755 "Schwartz leistet mit seiner Edition der Briefe Philipp Jaffés einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Gelehrten- und Universitätsgeschichte einer im Umbruch begriffenen Zeit."Ralf Lutzelschwab in: ZfG - Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft 4 (2018), 367-369 "Schwartz hat mit seiner Studie und der Briefedition in hervorragender Weise einen wichtigen Beitrag zur deutschen Historiographiegeschichte der 1840er bis 1860er Jahre geleistet, zugleich aber am Beispiel Jaffés die persönliche Problematik des wegen seiner Konfession nicht gleichberechtigten jüdischen Wissenschaftlers in Preußen vor der Reichsgründung 1871 verdeutlicht."In: Bibliothek und Medien 38.1-2 (2018), 54