Scholarship and Worldliness: The Life and Work of Fritz Bamberger

Abstract

In one of his most important scholarly writings, on the intellectual stature of the German-Jewish philosopher of the eighteenth century, Moses Mendelssohn, Fritz Bamberger marvelled at Mendelssohn's extraordinary embodiment of Judaism, philosophy, and humanity all within a single personality.1 My intent in this essay is to show, against the background of his times in Germany and America, just how the significant Jewish scholar Fritz Bamberger was likewise able to put together these elements in a fruitful, highly diverse career. It is a task not previously undertaken, a lacuna that has been waiting to be filled.2 Fritz Bamberger was born on 7 January 1902 in Frankfurt am Main, and grew up in the small town of Gelsenkirchen near Essen, where his father owned furniture stores. His parents were Liberal Jews, who visited the local synagogue occasionally and observed Jewish holidays. During the First World War the young Bamberger assisted...