Lohmann, Uta
Senior Fellow: October 2019–February 2020
Research Project: Scepticism in the Educational Philosophy of the Berlin Haskalah. The Example of Joel Bril Löwe
One of the most important Berlin maskilim was Joel Bril, also known as Joel Löwe (1760–1802). He had connections to some intellectual protagonists of the Haskalah, such as Moses Mendelssohn, Aaron Wolfssohn, and David Friedländer, in whose home he was employed as a teacher. Löwe edited Mendelssohn’s translation of the book of Psalms and the Song of Songs, and he himself translated the book of Jonah (all with commentaries) and wrote an introduction to the sceptical book of Kohelet. He also published numerous works on German linguistics. Moreover, he was a member of several of the Berlin Haskalah’s social associations, a contributor and at times the co-editor of the journal Ha-Meassef, and among the founders of the Königliche Wilhelmsschule in Breslau. This research project intends to put this largely forgotten representative of the Berlin Haskalah centre stage. The aim is to relate Löwe’s sceptical attitude to the Haskalah’s central thoughts on human’s purpose of perfection (Bestimmung des Menschen zur Vervollkommnung), and to search for modes of sceptical strategies in his pedagogical concepts, linguistic approaches, translation method and throughout his educational philosophy (Bildungsphilosophie).
Uta Lohmann wrote her PhD on the biography of the Jewish enlightener David Friedländer. Since 2012, she has headed her own DFG project at the Universität Hamburg, which aims at the study of the Haskalah’s programme of education (Bildungskonzept) and the interaction between the Berlin Jewish enlightenment and the neo-humanistic theory of education (Bildungstheorie).