Ha-Gila Hebräische und jiddische Schiller-Übersetzungen im 19. Jahrhundert

Abstract

The Weimar Classicism author Friedrich Schiller became a role model for Jewish modernity during the nineteenth century not only for German but also for East European Jews in the shtetl from Hungary to Galicia, and Russia. This article points out the outstanding impact of Schiller’s work for the formation of Jewish modernity. The “Ode to Joy” in its numerous Hebrew and Jiddish translations of serves as paradigmatic example. With this example and the overall Jewish reception of Schiller the cultural dynamic of Jewish modernity becomes more discernible. Originally it was driven by the almost unshakable optimism that Schiller’s ideas of Bildung, freedom, and universal solidarity could indeed become reality. Part of this dynamic was, however, that at the end of the nineteenth, and all the more facing the catastrophe of the twentieth century, doubts arose about the project of a German–Jewish culture, first perceiving its limitations and finally experiencing its failure. (ABK; in German)