Ephraim Moses Kuh - a Jewish poet and merchant

Das Gedicht „An die Kritiker“ von Ephraim Moses Kuh (Ausschnitt)

In the 12th Ephraim Veitel Soirée, Dr. Kathrin Wittler presents the eventful life of the writer, a nephew of the court jeweller Veitel Heine Ephraim.

In 1840, the writer Berthold Auerbach created a literary memorial to his fellow writer and merchant Ephraim Moses Kuh (1731-1790) - a contemporary of the philosopher Moses Mendelsshon - under the title "Poet and Merchant". For Auerbach, his eventful life was representative of the challenges of Jewish emancipation in Europe during the Age of Enlightenment. This makes his fate interesting even today.

In the 1760s, Kuh moved from his native city of Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland) to Berlin and found a job as a cashier with his uncle, the financial entrepreneur Veitel Heine Ephraim, whose name the Ephraim-Palais museum bears. in 1768/69 he undertook a journey through Europe. In the 1770s and 1780s, he emerged as one of the first Jewish poets in the German language with religious praise and perceptive short poems. Increasingly limited by a serious mental illness, Kuh died in Breslau in 1790 at the age of barely sixty. The poems he left behind were published in Zurich (Switzerland) after his death in 1792.

The soirée offers an opportunity to rediscover this forgotten poet. It will be revealed: Kuh's masterful wit, who coquettishly introduced himself as a "little hummingbird" in his short poem "To the Critics", has lost none of its freshness to this day.

Lecture: Dr. Kathrin Wittler (Berlin/Heidelberg)
Readings: Tucké Royale
Music: Flora Jörns (piano) & Katja Schröder (soprano) with songs by Carl Bernhard Wessely (1768-826), music director of the Royal Prussian National Theater and Kapellmeister in Rheinsberg

No registration required.

Following the lecture, we invite our guests to join us for a discussion over water, wine and pretzels.

Translated with DeepL

Price: €10.00

Next date:

• Date Thursday, 19/September/2024 19:00 bis 21:00
• Venue Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin (ZLB) – Berliner Stadtbibliothek
• Address Breite Straße 36, 10178 Berlin-Mitte