The research project focused on the work of the Jewish Enlightenment thinker Joel Löwe (יואל ברי"ל Joel Bri’l, 1761–1802) in Breslau (now Wrocław in Poland). In 1790, Löwe was appointed headmaster and a member of the board of governors of the newly founded Jewish Wilhelmsschule there. From then on, he exerted a decisive influence on the local Enlightenment discourse.
Löwe’s work has been reconstructed through the historical-critical edition of the Wilhelmsschule’s programme writings, published between 1791 and 1800, as well as other texts from his time in Breslau. The publication of these writings made an important part of the work of a central figure in the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah) accessible for the first time. Furthermore, the project provided new insights into the context surrounding the early days of a school that was significant for German-Jewish educational history in ideological, linguistic, cultural, epistemological and socio-historical terms. The school programme writings served as invitations to the annual public examinations at the Wilhelmsschule. They contain not only internal school reports but also scholarly treatises penned by Löwe, which illustrate his diverse and wide-ranging interests as an educator, linguist, biblical exegete and historian.
Joel Bril Löwe: Die Breslauer Schulschriften im Kontext (1791–1801): Abschlussbericht des DFG-Forschungsprojekts 421572806 – DOI: 10.21248/gups.96679
Pictures:
1: Joel Löwe: Etwas über Chronologie zur Jüdischen Geschichte. Breslau 1794. Titelblatt der Schulprogrammschrift. Universitätsbibliothek Wrocław, Signatur: 302 770. urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:1-158669
2: Joel Löwe: Assaph über ächte und unächte Religiosität. Breslau 1796. Titelblatt der Schulprogrammschrift. Universitätsbibliothek Wrocław, Signatur: 302 772. urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:1-158684
Medal below:
Copper engraving of the medal distributed at the inauguration of the Wilhelmsschule. In: Report on the institution established in Breslau under the name ‘Wilhelms-Schule’ for the improved education of the children of the local Jewish community, and on its ceremonial inauguration on 15 March 1791. Hamburg Teachers’ Library, call number: Pd 57:35. katalogplus.sub.uni-hamburg.de/vufind/Record/1768125244
Project managers:
Dr. Uta Lohmann
E-mail: uta.lohmann[at]igdj-hh.de (Institute for the History of the German Jews, Hamburg),
Dr. Kathrin Wittler (Peter Szondi Institute for General and Comparative Literature, Freie Universität Berlin)
Project staff:
Maria Röger (student assistant, FU Berlin)
Lisa Trzaska (student assistant, IGdJ, February 2020 to March 2021)
Marcel Layher (student assistant, IGdJ June 2021 to August 2021, October 2021 to May 2022)
