Ludwig Philippson

Ludwig Philippson (28 December 1811, at Dessau – 29 December 1889, at Bonn) was a German rabbi and author, the son of Moses Philippson, a printer, writer, teacher, translator, publisher and a member of Haskala, an intellectual movement dedicated to the overcoming the ignorance and religious formalism of Jews. .

Luwig published his first effort (published under his brother's name), a translation of the prophets Hosea, Joel, Obadiah, and Nahum, when he was fifteen years old.

He was educated at the gymnasium of Halle where his older brother Phöebus was studying medicine.

1839 saw him continuing his education at the University of Berlin with a major in classical philology. As scholarships were not available to Jews and the family had exhausted their funds on educating Phöebus in medicine, Ludwig supported himself by tutoring and by doing literary work (some which became published).

In 1830 he translated and annotated the works of two Judæo-Greek poets of Alexandria. A philological treatise on medical terms (Hyle Anthropine, 1831, etc.) which revealed his qualities as a scholar, and his versatility was emphasized by the publication in 1832 of a vindication of Spinoza.

After graduating the University of Berlin at the age of 22 in 1833, he was invited to be a preacher/rabbi for the Magdeburg Jewish congregation. He was to remain in Magdeburg for the next 28 years.

After being introduced to the Wolffstein family of five daughters in Magdeburg, he married the youngest, Julianne Wolffstein, in 1836. They were to have 3 daughters: Johanna, Bertha (1839) and Rosalie (1840). A son, Emil, was born in 1843 but died later in 1845.

In 1837 he founded the Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums (subtitled “a non-partisan organ for all Jewish interests”) in order to promote the interests of Judaism. It was the longest continuously published Jewish newspaper in Germany. Allgemeine is “German Jewry’s most important newspaper,” and is one of the most frequently cited sources of nineteenth-century German Jewry. Allgemeine merged with the CV-Zeitung, the official publication of the Central Association of German Jews until the Nazis closed it down in November 1938 The content of Allgemeine would be Jewish enlightenment and reform, the place of Jews in society and their emancipation. However, after the 1871 unification of German states and the establishment of the second Reich, Allgemeine began to respond to the pernicious increase in anti-Semitism. Philippson would continue to edit that journal until his death in 1889.

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