2024-03-28T20:50:21Z
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oai:jgo:source-72.en
2017-08-15T00:00:00Z
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Appeal by Dr. Hirsch Marcus Cohn, published in: Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums (AZJ), Leipzig, April 30, 1849, vol. 18, pp. 236-237.
https://dx.doi.org/10.23691/jgo:source-72.en.v1
Dr. Hirsch Marcus Cohn
Institute for the History of the German Jews
Online Ressource
In its edition of April 30, 1849, the Allgemeine Zeitung des
Judenthums (AZJ) published a five and a half-page article from Hamburg
written by physician Dr. Hirsch Marcus Coh(e)n Both spellings are
possible. (1800-1874). The AZJ was the most widely read weekly
newspaper among German Jews. Covering topics such as society,
literature, religion, and politics, it mainly attracted readers from
liberal, reform-minded, middle class circles. In the first part of the
article, headlined “appeal,” Coh(e)n solicited readers’ support
for a project that had been agreed upon two months earlier by a group
of progressive Jews. The initiators belonged among the protagonists of
the emancipation movement, and they knew each other from Jewish and
political associations where they campaigned for equality for Jews and
for a new, democratic constitution. Due to their professional
achievements and social position, they displayed a middle class
habitus. Yet Hamburg’s citizenship law Bürgerrecht: The right of
self-government; the precondition for acquiring civil rights was
inherited real property, the swearing of a citizen's oath, and the
one-time payment of "Bürgergeld" [citizenship fee]; members of the
nobility were excluded from this; until 1814 citizenship was granted
exclusively to members of the Lutheran church [see: Helmut Stubbe-da
Luz, Bürgerrecht, in: Franklin Kopitzsch / Daniel Tilger (eds.),
Hamburg Lexikon, Hamburg 1998, pp. 92f., which was tied to the
Lutheran faith, denied them crucial rights and opportunities. By this
time, Jewish life had opened up to general society through several
reforms. One of the most prominent champions of the Jews’ political
emancipation both at the local and the national level was Dr. Gabriel
Riesser. Since the 1820s he had repeatedly petitioned Hamburg’s
senate on behalf of the Jewish community and campaigned for equality
in several publications. At the same time Christian citizens
increasingly demanded constitutional reform, which was to include
legal equality for the Jews. However, the hesitant senate was
ultimately unable to prevail against opposition in the city assembly
and the citizens’ councils bürgerliche Kollegien. Until February
1849 all initiatives proved unsuccessful, and the Regulation on Jews
of 1710 Judenreglement and its special regulations remained in
effect.
2017-08-15