Meno Burg

Meno Burg
Major Meno Burg
Nickname(s)	Judenmajor
Born	(1789-09-19)September 19, 1789 Berlin
Died	August 26, 1853(1853-08-26) (aged 63) Berlin
Allegiance	Prussia
Service/branch	Army
Years of service	1813-1847
Rank	"Character of a Major"
Unit	United Artillery and Engineer School
Awards	Order of the Red Eagle IV. Class
Other work	Publications on the art of drawing; autobiography

Meno Burg (9 October 1789 – 26 August 1853), also referred to as Judenmajor (Jew major), was a Prussian field officer. Burg reached the highest rank ever attained by a Jew in the Prussian Army of the 19th century. However, his military career is also an example for the discrimination against Jews in Prussian government service.

Meno Burg was born into a Jewish family of poor circumstances in Berlin, Margraviate of Brandenburg. After visiting Jewish schools, Burg entered in December 1802 the Berlin Municipal School (German: Berliner Stadtschule), a secondary school later known as Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster. He left the school in 1804 to become an apprentice to his cousin Salomo Sachs, a royal building inspector. He visited the Berlin Building Academy (German: Berliner Bauakademie), where he finished in 1807 the exam as field-surveyor (German: Kondukteur und Feldmesser). Like his cousin who was the first Jew who had entered the Prussian civil service under Frederick William II, Burg became a civil servant under Frederick William III. In doing so, Burg had entered into a field which was outside of the professions Jews were allowed to enter in Prussia according to the prevailing regulations of the 'Revised General Concession and Regulation' (German: Revidierte General Privilegium und Reglement) dated 17 April 1750. It appears that due to the political circumstances, the regulations governing the Jews in Prussia were not strictly followed. According to the legal situation at the time, Burg could have been denied to enter his chosen profession. Burg was already a government employee, when the new Prussian civil rights legislation for Jews (German: Edikt vom 11. März 1812 betreffend der bürgerlichen Verhältnisse der Juden in dem Preußischen Staate) was enacted on 11 March 1812. This law naturalised Jewish inhabitants of Prussia as Prussian citizens, a franchise established in 1810 when doing away with the prior estates (nobility, serfs, burghers, Huguenots, etc.), but the admission to government positions was not called for and was reserved for future legislation.