THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
Auerbach, Berthold an edition of the
ritual code of Abraham of Narbonne, Halberstadt, 1863; and (6) "Geschichte der Israelitischen Gemeinde Halberstadt," Halberstadt,
berg under
1866.
literary activity.
Bibliography:
corps,
Geiger's Jlld. Zcit. 1. 127, 195, 253; Alia. Zett. d. Jud. 1857, pp. 269, 282; Dr.B. H. Auerbach, ein Lebcnsbild, in Meyer's Kalender lor 5645, Halberstadt, 1884 various reports in the newspapers of his time also private communications from his grandson, Dr. Isaac Auerbach, at Leipzig. Fiirst, Bibl. Hebr. i. 72; Jost, Annalen, 1839, Nos. 33, 37, 43; Jost, Neuere Geschielitc der Inraeliten von 1815 bti 18hS, i. 17, iii. 160 Fuenn, Kcneset Yixracl, p. 279 Zeitlin, Kiryat Sefer, 8.
D.
S.
AUERBACH, BERTHOLD German author; born of Nordstetten,
in the Black Forest village
Germany, Feb.
Cannes, France, Feb.
8,
(BARTJCH)
1882.
He
1812; died at was one of eleven
28,
300
Daub and
came Auerbach 's
Schlosser.
Spinoza
now
be-
and guide, and remained so throughout the whole period of his ideal philosopher
Like others
among
the student-
Auerbach manifested something of the demo-
cratic spirit; and, as the result of a
investigation, he
Hohenasperg
governmental
was imprisoned for three months
at
(1837).
The period was one of petty despotism in Germany, and Auerbach suffered the rigors of university discipline to such an extent as to compel him to abandon his university career and to turn to literature In 1836, in reply to Wolfgang Menzel's attack on the "Junge Deutschland," for all of whose literary and political sins he held the Jews responsible, Auerbach had published his first pamphlet, " Das Judenthum und die Neueste Literatur " (Stuttgart), wherein he pleaded for a fuller recognition of Jewish ideals but the age was hardly ripe for such progress the days of '48 had not yet for a livelihood.
He
under the pseudonym of Theobald Chauber " (an anagram of His his name), a biography of Frederick Early the Great, Stuttgart, 1834-36, and nuWritings. merous articles for periodicals. His early works were romances illustrating various types of Jewish thought and activity. Thus, in 1838, together with N. Frankfurter, he continued the " Gallerie der Ausgezeichneten Israeliten Aller
dawned.
also wrote,
"
Jahrhunderte Hire Portraits und Biographien " (3d and 4th instalments), begun by Spazier. Along this same line was his other book, " Spinoza, ein Historischer Roman in Zwei Theilen " (Stuttgart, 1837, newest edition, with supplement, "Ein Denkerle;
ben," 1880); half story, half philosophical dissertation, in which his admiration for the Jewish thinker attained the point of glorification. It was followed by "Dichter und Kaufmann" (Stuttgart, 1839; 4th revised ed., 1860; 7th ed., 1871), based on episodes in the life of Moses Ephraim Kuh, a luckless Breslau poet, and wherein he drew a lively picture of the Jews in the time of Moses Mendelssohn. Auerbach's idealism, however, was not to limit itself to heroes of the Ghetto he was to enter a broader field and do his share in arousing the German people to a sense of national unity long before the battle of Sedan. To familiarize the German of the North with the character and temperament of the German of the South (after having published, in 1841, a German translation of Spinoza's works, with biography, in five volumes, and, in 1842, a popular treatise, " Der Gebildete Burger, ein Buch fur den Denkenden Menschenverstand "), he published his incomparable " Schwarzwalder Dorfgeschichtcn," Mannheim,
Berthold Auerbach.
and received
his earliest training from a well-equipped German teacher named Frankfurter and from the local Protestant minister. Intended by children,
his father for the rabbinical profession,
Auerbach
was
early initiated into Jewish studies, and in his twelfth year was sent to the Talmud school at Hechingen, and afterward to Carlsruhe, to complete his
In the latter town, however, he soon gave up his Talmudical studies entirely, and devoted himself to secular branches. He attended the Stuttgart Obergymnasium to prepare for the university, and at Tubingen (1832) studied law. Coming, however, under the influence of David Friedrich Strauss, author of " Das Leben Jesu (whom he ever held in reverence), he exchanged the study of law for that of history and philosophy, to which subjects he continued to devote himself (1832-35) at Munich under Schelling, and at Heidelrabbinical training.
which at once gave their author international It was an epoch-making work in the history of German literature, and was translated into almost all European languages. What is particularly noteworthy therein is the success of Auerbach, a Jew, in describing all the depth of the religious life of the Christian peasant. That an atmosphere of " Spinozism " breathed through these most artless tales did not materially detract from their charm. In his second collection of " Dorfgeschichten " (Mannheim, 1848, 1853), stronger characters and more complex plots were substituted for the idyllic backgrounds 1843,
fame.
