Jewish Philosophical Politics in Germany, 1789-1848

54 } Jewish Philosophical Politics in Germany

science, faith in reason, and trust and faith in yourselves. The courage of truth

and faith in the power of the spirit is the primary condition of philosophical

study; man should honor himself and consider himself worthy of the highest

[things]. He cannot overestimate the greatness and power of the spirit; the

closed essence of the universe contains no force, which could withstand the

courage of cognition; it must open up before it, and afford it the spectacle and

enjoyment of its riches and its depths.^42

Hegel encourages students to understand thinking (with him) in the most gran-

diose, and politically grandiose, terms possible. He takes “youth” extremely se-

riously and considers his students—largely on the basis of their youth—to be

potentially transformative intellectuals. He tells them that they are singularly

poised to grasp, and thus to help finally realize, the essence of history: the prin-

ciple of human freedom. Hegel paints thinking as a heroic activity (“Mut der

Wahrheit,” “Mut des Erkennens”). He says: the door to freedom, realized self-

consciousness, and ethical community is open before you; trust in the power of

reason and boldly think your way through it!

If Hegel cast his brand of philosophy as a form of transformative engagement

and public service, I am suggesting that the Vereinler conceptualized their proj-

ect of making Jews the subjects and objects of Wissenschaft as precisely this sort

of theoretical intervention. The society met frequently in the short period be-

tween its founding in November 1819 and its collapse in January 1824. In an Un-

terrichtsanstalt, or pedagogical institute, its members tutored students, mostly

from Eastern Europe, in the knowledge and skills needed to pursue studies in

Germany. The society’s core members comprised a wissenschaftliches Institut,

or academic seminar. They shared papers and, under Zunz’s editorship, put out

the historically important, if short-lived (only three issues appeared, between

spring 1822 and spring 1823 ) and virtually unread, Zeitschrift für die Wissen-

schaft des Judenthums. At its height the Berlin Verein had twenty-five mem-

bers, but many were not active in the association, which was also true of most of

the twenty-three members of a Specialverein founded in Hamburg in 1821. The

number of members in attendance at the Berlin Verein’s weekly meetings rarely

exceeded ten.^43

Gans quickly emerged as the most charismatic, energetic, and organization-

ally talented member of the group. He became the Verein’s president on March

11 , 1821 , and remained so until the end. A student whom Hegel considered

among his most talented, Gans—not Hegel—would go on to teach the likes of

Young Hegelian upstarts David Friedrich Strauss, August von Cieszkowski, and

Karl Marx the intricacies of Hegel’s political philosophy.^44 He would likewise