Chapter 1 The Young Oppenheimer’s Utopian Horizon: Socialism, Darwinism and Rassenhygiene

Abstract

Franz Oppenheimer was born on March 30, 1864, in Berlin’s Spandauer Vorstadt, the city’s old Jewish Quarter. Like many of his generation, he grew up in an accultured German Jewish home. His birth house on Krausnick Street was just around the corner from the grand New Synagogue, which would open its portals two and a half years after his birth. Oppenheimer’s father, Julius, was a reform rabbi serving in the Johannis Street Synagogue, Berlin’s first reform temple. Hence, the logical starting point for an inquiry into Oppenheimer’s Jewishness would be his upbringing in reform Judaism and its ingrained social message. In his autobiography Oppenheimer framed his major career turning points in the ethical core of his upbringing,which included scorn for “Mammonism” widespread among educated Jewish middle class families like Oppenheimer’s.2 This was a guiding principle both in his initial decision to pursue a career in medicine following in the footpaths of his maternal grandfather, and in his later transition to academic sociology and social reform.3 Accordingly, biographers commonly explained Oppenheimer’s Jewish identity by reference to tikkun olam, which literally means “to repair the world,” and is a central precept of Liberal Judaism calling for positive action to improve the lot of the socially deprived.4 Following Oppenheimer’s self-proclamations would not be necessarily wrong, but it could be misleading in reference to the centrality reform Judaism played for him. As will be seen in the discussion of Oppenheimer’s Zionist inclinations, he was certainly influenced by the universal message of the prophets of Israel, an important staple of reform Judaism. Yet all too often Oppenheimer downplayed the influence of Judaism on his thinking, as in this example: