The lecture explores the German patriotism of the eminentJewish philosophers Hermann Cohen and Franz Rosenzweig. While Cohen thought that his messianic ideas found their realization in the Kaiser’s German Reich, Rosenzweig was more sober and modern. He equally did not see any contradiction between his Jewishness and his Germanness, however, less naive than Cohen, he supported Friedrich Naumann’s idea of a German hegemony in Central Europe. Afterthe Holocaust, this seems almost incredible! However, were theirideas really that wrong and do we not owe justice to them? Was there a Jewish cause in it after all?
Micha Brumlik is Professor Emeritus at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt/M. His recent publications include: Kurze Geschichte:Judentum (2009), Entstehung des Christentums(2010), Zu Eduard Fuchs „Die Juden in der Karikatur”(2013), Messianisches Licht und Menschenwürde, Politische Theorie aus Quellen jüdischer Tradition (2013).
