Markus Herz

Markus Herz was a German Jewish physician and lecturer on philosophy, born in Berlin on 17 January 1747 and dead there on 19 January 1803. He came from very poor parents and was first intended for a mercantile career. In 1762 he went to Königsberg, Prussia, but soon left his work as a clerk and entered the University of Königsberg. There he became a pupil of Immanuel Kant, though lack of money forced him to stop his studies.

Herz’s early life moved between necessity and learning. After leaving the university, he became secretary to the wealthy Russian Ephraim and travelled with him through the Baltic Provinces. On 21 August 1770, Herz travelled from Berlin and acted as respondent when Kant presented his Inaugural dissertation at the University of Königsberg for the post of ordinary professor. That connection with Kant remained important: for many years the two corresponded, and their letters are considered to be of great philosophical importance.

In 1770 Herz returned to Germany and studied medicine at Halle, becoming a Doctor of Medicine in 1774. That same year he established himself in Berlin and was appointed physician at the Jewish hospital. Beginning in 1777, he gave public lectures on medicine and philosophy. These lectures were well attended by students and by leading figures of the Prussian capital, and at some of them even members of the royal family were present. His life combined medical practice with philosophical teaching, public speech, and learned exchange.

Herz married Henriette de Lemos in 1779. For a long time, their house served as a meeting place for Berlin’s political, artistic, scientific, and literary intellectuals, including Friedrich Schleiermacher, Friedrich Schlegel, and the young Alexander von Humboldt. Herz was also a friend and pupil of Moses Mendelssohn and was well acquainted with Lessing. These friendships and circles show the atmosphere in which he thought: medicine, philosophy, Jewish intellectual life, literature, and public discussion met under one roof.

His writings ranged across philosophy, medicine, physics, satire, and social questions. Among his works were Betrachtungen aus der Spekulativen Weltweisheit in 1771, Freimüthige Kaffeegespräche Zweier Jüdischer Zuschauerinnen über den Juden Pinkus in 1772, Versuch über den Geschmack in 1776, Briefe an Aerzte from 1777 to 1784, Grundriss der Medizinischen Wissenschaften in 1782, Versuch über den Schwindel in 1786, Grundlage zu den Vorlesungen über die Experimental-Physik in 1787, and a 1789 letter on too-early burial of the dead among Jews. In 1801 he strongly condemned compulsory vaccination in an open letter titled Ueber die Brutalimpfung.

In 1791 Herz received the Prussian royal title of Professor of Philosophy and the title Hofrat of Waldeck and Pyrmont. By then he lectured only for a few years more and gave most of his time to his medical practice, after illness from overstudy had once forced him to stop lecturing until a stay in Bad Pyrmont restored his health. His words still carry interest because they come from a man who stood at the meeting point of care for the sick, philosophical argument, public teaching, and the intellectual life of Berlin.