Saul Ascher
Saul Ascher (6 February 1767 in Berlin – 8 December 1822 in Berlin) was a German writer, translator and bookseller. Life. Saul Ascher (born Saul ben Anschel Jaff), was the first child of Deiche Aaron (c. 1744 Frankfurt – 1820 Berlin), and bank broker Anschel Jaffe (1745 Berlin – 1812 Berlin). In 1785, he attended high school in "Landsberg an der Warthe" (today Gorzów Wielkopolski). Ascher married Rachel Spanier on 6 June 1789 in Hanover. Spanier was the daughter of Nathan Spanier, the head of the Ravensberg Jewish community. On 6 October 1795, their only child, a daughter Wilhelmine, was born . On 6 April 1810 Ascher was arrested in Berlin, but was released on April 25 due to political pressure. On 6 October, he was awarded a doctoral degree "in absentia" from the University of Halle. In 1812, the year his father died, Ascher received his letter of citizenship. Ascher stepped forward in 1816 in the Jewish reform-oriented "Gesellschaft der Freunde" (Society of Friends). At the book burning at the Wartburg festival on 18 October 1817, Ascher's writing ""Die Germanomanie"" ("The German Mania") was also burned. In October 1822 Saul Ascher fell ill, and on 8 December 1822 he  died of "exhaustion." Activity. Ascher met and befriended Heinrich Zschokke in 1789. He also became friends with Solomon Maimon, Johann Friedrich Cotta and Marx's teacher Eduard Gans. Throughout his life, Ascher was rejected as a Jewish theorist and writer. Leopold Zunz remarked in 1818 that Ascher was an "enemy of all fanaticism, against the "Deutschtümler" ("those displaying jingoistic Germanness"), and his that his upstanding moral character was often not appreciated". Ascher was a prolific writer. His work can be divided into three different areas: author, translator, and editor/publisher. Early on, Ascher worked as a publisher. His editorial work , as well as his authored works, bore various pseudonyms. Ascher was a member and correspondent for various magazines, including the "Berlin Monatsschrift", "Berlin Archive of Time and Taste", "Eunomia", "Literary Newspaper Hall", "Morning Paper for the Educated Classes" of Cotta, "Miscellany for New World Client" by Zschokke, "Journal de l'Empire". Ascher founded and distributed at least two magazines himself. In 1810, a politically difficult year for Ascher, he founded the ""World and Spirit"," which was published until 1811 in six issues. Teaching. In his first publication, ""Bemerkungen über die bürgerliche Verbesserung der Juden"" ("Remarks on the Civil Improvement of the  Jews"), Ascher noted: Unlike other Jewish writers, Ascher was against Jews being forced to military service as this would only involve Jews of limited means, and not the upper classes. In 1799, his ideas on natural history of the political revolutions were banned. Legacy. Historically effect emancipation is Ascher behind other contemporary representatives of the fallen significantly. In his "Harz Journey", Heinrich Heine speaks of him. Ironically, he describes Ascher as a "reason doctor" and leaves him after his death as a ghost appears, with the help of the teachings of Kant's "witching hour" the non-existence of ghosts  seeking to prove-in. At the same time, Heine points out, however, Ascher had influenced him in his development. The literature professor Reinhold Steig addresses in his book, "Heinrich von Kleist's Berliner struggles" (Stuttgart 1901) the one-sided and distorted view of Ascher and his disputes with Kleist. Based on a dissertation by Fritz Pinkuss of 1928, Walter Grave in 1977 was the first to represent an in-depth essay by Ascher. Even Peter Hacks has in 1989 and 1990 in two papers, the title "Ascher against Jahn" were grouped under the order political classification and appraisal Asher tried  one. An important role as a counter-figure to Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim played Ascher in the context of recent research on the relationship between romance and anti-Semitism (see "Literature" the study by Puschner). In his two-part essay, "The Falcon" André Thielelast in his collection "A world in ruins," (2008) has presented preliminary work for a comprehensive biography of Ascher, as well as a bibliography of the primary title, 50% more extensive compared to previously known titles. In 2010, two new editions of works by Saul Ascher announced a one-volume selection from the work in  the Böhlau Verlag, Bonn, and the first volume of a comprehensive edition of works published by André Thiele, Mainz. Works. "Translations" Published post-mortem