Bernhard Blechmann’s Body: The “Jewish Race” in Nineteenth-Century Physical Anthropology in Transnational Perspective

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The dissertation “Ein Beitrag zur Anthropologie der Juden” (A Contribution to the Anthropology of the Jews) by Berhard Blechmann was the first major study in physical anthropology that focused on the examination of Jews. It has been hitherto discussed as an early example of the othering of Jews in German nineteenth-century anthropology. Based on close reading and by exploring the circumstances of its writing, this essay reclassifies the dissertation in several ways. It emerges that the work belongs in the Russian (Baltic) academic and political context, and that Blechmann was Jewish. With this new perspective, the article discusses Blechmann’s conception of what constitutes a scientific approach to anthropology and to Jews as a racial group. Moreover, it sheds light on the transnational space in which the dissertation was created and enquires into Blechmann’s self-conception as a Jew.