Bachelor Thesis Natuur- en Sterrenkunde Einstein and Spinoza in Weimar Germany by Nicolaas J. Geijer October 2019 Studentnumber 11000058 Supervisor Prof. Dr. Jeroen van Dongen Table of Contents Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 2 Jewish Emancipation ....................................................................................................... 4 Spinoza .......................................................................................................................................... 5 Einstein .......................................................................................................................................... 7 Einstein and the Jewish Renaissance ....................................................................... 11 World War I ............................................................................................................................... 12 Ostjuden ...................................................................................................................................... 14 Spinoza the Authentic Jew ............................................................................................ 16 The Heidelberg Affair ............................................................................................................. 18 Anti-Semitism and Zionism ......................................................................................... 19 Assimilationists ........................................................................................................................ 21 Integrationists .......................................................................................................................... 22 Einstein and Zionism .............................................................................................................. 23 Tolerance ........................................................................................................................... 26 Science and Spinoza ....................................................................................................... 29 Pre-Weimar Empiricism ........................................................................................................ 29 Towards Spinozism ................................................................................................................. 32 Concluding Remarks ...................................................................................................... 36 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 38 1 Introduction Weimar Jews lived in a tense time. After years of unprecedented progress during the Jewish Emancipation all seemed to come to a sudden halt. A rise in anti-Semitism following World War I jeopardized years of economic and social advances. Just as Jews were able to move freely through society, becoming ministers and professors, a rise in anti-Semitism demanded a response to pressing questions. Is Judaism still a guide of conduct now that we have left the Ghettos? Can Jews and Germans understand one another? Is it possible to be both Jew and German and what is the future of German Jewry? Interestingly, this is also a time at which Jews in Weimar Germany (1918-1933) became increasingly drawn to the philosopher Benedictus de Spinoza (1632-1677). His philosophy and the stories concerning his life circulated widely in Weimar Germany while he was passionately honoured on his 300th birthday and on the day marking 250 years since his death. Among the German public, Spinoza was heralded as a liberal, he was seen as authentic and to have had major influence on intellectuals in the country. He was also a Jew who had not associated himself with Jewish institutions. He was described as atheist but also as ‘a man drunk with God’1. He was known to have lived in solitude but also to have written at length about politics and the necessity of freedom for all people. Public discourse concerning Spinoza was often riddled with contradictory claims about his life. However, the contradictions did not blemish his reputation and he was not seen as ingenuous. In fact, despite public awareness of the conflicting claims that were made about his life, Weimar Jews who held different views on matters admired Spinoza simultaneously. As we shall see, in many discussions between communities of Weimar Jews who held opposing political standpoints, both sides used Spinoza to justify their arguments. Spinoza was grand and ambiguous enough for Jews of almost every political stream to appreciate and use him to express their points of view. 1 Wertheim, David J. Salvation through Spinoza: a Study of Jewish Culture in Weimar Germany. Brill, 2011, p.45. 2 In the face of the growing adversity to Weimar Jewry, disagreeing Jewish communities developed different responses yet almost all used Spinoza in their defence. Integrationists, for example, promoted a universalism that stood above Jewry and German nationality. They highlighted how Jews and Germans had influenced one another and as evidence, pointed out that Spinoza’s philosophy had been a source of inspiration to German Romanticism. Zionists on the other hand, branded attempts at integration naïve. They wanted to see a greater self-determination among Jews and saw in Spinoza a man who had taken matters into his own hands, by leaving the intellectual oppression of 17th century Amsterdam. Both these and other Jewish communities saw in Spinoza a banner man for their cause. Albert Einstein (1879-1955), famous for his contributions to science, was a Jew who lived in Germany during the Weimar years. Like many Weimar Jews he also admired Spinoza. While he appreciated Spinoza throughout his adult life, the literature suggests that Einstein’s fondness of Spinoza strongly increased throughout the Weimar years. In this paper I will explore how Albert Einstein related to Spinoza within the context of Weimar Germany. For instance, in what ways might his experience of the Weimar years have amplified his attraction to Spinoza? Research has already been done regarding Einstein’s relationship to Spinoza, and, separately, into the reception of Spinoza by Weimar Jewish communities. In this paper we can use both to come to conclusions about Albert Einstein. One way to do so is to compare Einstein to Weimar Jewish communities in his reception of Spinoza. Specifically, by looking at the ways through which the Weimar Jews appreciated Spinoza and seeing if they also apply to Einstein. Studying Einstein against the backdrop of Weimar Jewry’s relationship to Spinoza will help provide us with a specific formulation of his relationship to Spinoza. The above is possible because Einstein is, as we shall see, in some respects a typical representative of Weimar Jewry. Hence, commonalities between Einstein and Weimar Jewry allow us to investigate to what extent Einstein’s relationship to Spinoza can be understood as an expression of his participation in Weimar Jewish culture. For example, the popularity of Spinoza among the Weimar Jews rose, in part, due to an 3 increasing anti-Semitism. As Weimar Jews sought to develop a new culture in the face of these changing circumstances they looked to Spinoza for inspiration. Einstein was confronted with the same rising anti-Semitism and we will see how Einstein, as is typical of Weimar Jewry, used Spinoza to formulate a response to the situation in Weimar Germany. However, there are also ways in which Einstein’s relationship to Spinoza is unique, making Einstein an atypical representative of the Weimar Jews. Einstein and Spinoza were both intellectuals. Einstein was impressed by Spinoza’s philosophy and at various times read Spinoza’s masterpiece the Ethics. He also repeatedly said he believed in ‘Spinoza’s God’. Many of Einstein’s ideas of the universe, especially after the Weimar years, resembled Spinoza’s ideas of the universe. Although in his youth Einstein had read Kant, and was later influenced by the philosophies of Hume and Mach, by 1920, Spinoza stood out as Einstein’s “favourite philosopher” 2 . Furthermore, due to his background as a scientist he was prone to consider the philosophical propositions that Spinoza had written about. Einstein’s intellectualism distinguished him among Jews in Weimar Germany in his relationship to Spinoza. Hence in studying Einstein’s relation to Spinoza in the context of Weimar Germany, we cannot treat him as only a representative of Weimar Jewry, nor is his relation to Spinoza strictly unique. We will see that Einstein is at times a typical and an atypical representative of the Weimar Jews. By making make use of a combination of ideas applicable to the Weimar Jews’ relationship with Spinoza and ideas applicable only to the Einstein-Spinoza relationship I hope to explore Einstein’s relationship to Spinoza in the context of Weimar Germany. Jewish Emancipation In this chapter we will look at the historical context that underlies the relationship between Einstein and Spinoza. Their relationship cannot be adequately understood without considering the Jewish Emancipation, which led to the secularization of Jewish culture that made Einstein’s admiration of Spinoza possible. Firstly, because 2 Jammer, Max. Einstein and Religion Physics and Theology.