Jewish Philosophical Politics in Germany, 1789-1848

Jews between Volk and Proletariat { 171

of an entity that is structurally incapable of fulfilling them. Supporters of Jewish

emancipation willy-nilly support the cause’s particularistic framework instead

of opposing the very principle of division and privilege, which Bauer sees as the

fundamental obstacle to universal liberation.

David Leopold underscores the inconsistency in Bauer’s treatment of Chris-

tianity and its relationship to Judaism in his writings on the Jewish Question.

On the one hand, Bauer casts Christianity as superior to and indeed a super-

session of Judaism. On the other hand, he considers Christianity as merely one

manifestation of the egoistic principle undergirding all religion.^94 Within the

framework of a general critique of religious egoism Bauer urges Jews and Chris-

tians alike to overcome their religious limitations and embrace universal human

self-consciousness. Although he states at the end of “Die Fähigkeit der heutigen

Juden und Christen, frei zu werden” that this will be much more difficult for

Jews than Christians, he at least appears to consider it possible for Jews as well.

However, the thrust of the competing framework—Bauer’s secularized Chris-

tian supersessionism—defines Jews as essentially unable to achieve free subjec-

tivity and participate in the unfolding drama of infinite self-consciousness.

Moggach has attempted to square Bauer’s writings on the Jewish Question

with his mode of “republican rigorism,” an austere form of republicanism that

demands that citizens accord with (an essentially Kantian model of ) universal

moral principles—not only outwardly, in their actions, but also inwardly, in their

interests and motivations.^95 Bauer’s demand to transcend religious conscious-

ness inwardly does indeed appear to apply to all potential citizens. Jews, it is

true, would have to stop being Jews, but Christians would likewise have to stop

being Christians. Bauer’s more pernicious strain, however, reveals the paral-

lelism in his treatment of Jews and Christians to be only apparent. As I read

Bauer, he understands the enunciatory Catch- 22 in which he sees Jews caught

whenever they demand civil rights to be, finally, ontologically determined and

inescapable. He argues not only that Jews need to do more work than Christians

to achieve human freedom, but also that they are incapable of doing precisely

this work. This strain in Bauer excludes Jews from humanity and makes his po-

sition on Jewish emancipation incompatible with any republican model worthy

of the name.

As Moggach points out, the key to Bauer’s version of the Hegelian unity of

concept and being lies in a teleology of human freedom, an understanding of

human history as in constant development toward greater freedom and self-

determination. By fusing ontology and history in defining human essence as

the historical development of free self-consciousness, Bauer defines people,

such as Jews, whom he deems to have outlived their contribution to this te-