Franz Joseph Molitor, or Joseph Franz Molitor (July 7, 1779 in

Oberursel Oberursel (Taunus) (, , in contrast to " Lower Ursel") is a town in Germany and part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. It is located to the north west of Frankfurt, in the Hochtaunuskreis county. It is the 13th largest town in Hesse. In ...

Taunus The Taunus () is a mountain range in Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, located north west of Frankfurt and north of Wiesbaden. The tallest peak in the range is '' Großer Feldberg'' at 878 m; other notable peaks are '' Kleiner Feldberg' ...

– March 23, 1860 in

Frankfurt/Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

) was a German writer and

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

Life

Molitor was born the son of a Kurmainz civil servant. Beginning in 1797, he studied at the

University of Mainz The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz () is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany. It has been named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. it had approximately 32,000 students enrolled in around 100 a ...

and from 1799 at the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg () is a public research university located in Marburg, Germany. It was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Prote ...

. He initially studied law but then switched to history and philosophy. He studied the works of

Kant Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, et ...

Reinhold Reinhold is a German language, German, male given name, originally composed of two elements. The first is from ''regin'', meaning "the (German)Gods" or as an emphatic prefix (very) and ''wald'' meaning "powerful". The second element having been re ...

Fichte Johann Gottlieb Fichte (; ; 19 May 1762 – 29 January 1814) was a German philosopher who became a founding figure of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, which developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kan ...

and Schelling. From 1802, he was co-editor of the short-lived '' Zeitschrift für eine künftig aufzustellende Rechtswissenschaft nach dem Princip eines transscendentalen Realismus''. Under the influence of

theosophist Theosophy is a religious movement established in the United States in the late 19th century. Founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and based largely on her writings, it draws heavily from both older European philosophies such as Neo ...

Franz Xaver von Baader Franz von Baader (27 March 1765 – 23 May 1841), born Benedikt Franz Xaver Baader, was a Catholic theologian, philosopher, and mining engineer from Germany. Resisting the empiricism of his day, he denounced most Western philosophy since ...

, he attempted in his writings to reconcile philosophical realism with idealism. In 1806 Molitor joined the board of directors of the Jewish educational institution

Philanthropin The Philanthropin (Greek for "place of humanity") is a Jewish elementary school and gymnasium in Frankfurt, Germany. It was founded in 1804 by Mayer Amschel Rothschild. History Formally, the school was established by , the chief accountant of ...

in Frankfurt am Main. In 1812 Molitor became professor of philosophy at the new Lyceum Carolinum in Frankfurt, which

Karl Theodor von Dalberg Karl Theodor Anton Maria von Dalberg (8 February 1744 – 10 February 1817) was a Catholic German bishop and statesman. In various capacities, he served as Archbishop of Mainz, Prince of Regensburg, Arch-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire, ...

had set up on the French model; after the end of 1814 he drew a permanent pension from there, with which he - in addition to income from private tuition and his work at the philanthropist - could make a living.

Freemasonry and Kabbalah

After becoming acquainted with Judaism and its own symbolic language, Molitor entered the Frankfurt Freemason's Lodge "Zur Aufstieg Morgenröthe" on May 19, 1808, in which Jews could also be a member; at times he was their

chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

. Later, with the support of the landgrave Carl von Hessen, he founded the Frankfurt Lodge "Carl zum aufgehenden Licht". In 1813, Molitor began to work intensively on Jewish mysticism. The Jewish mystic and Hochgrad -

Freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

Ephraim Joseph Hirschfeld exerted a major influence on him. Molitor learned the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

and

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

, studied the

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

and

Zohar The ''Zohar'' (, ''Zōhar'', lit. "Splendor" or "Radiance") is a foundational work of Kabbalistic literature. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material o ...

. His endeavor was to put Kabbalah and Christianity in mutual connection and to unite both on a higher level, an approach that is not dissimilar to Hirschfeld's. As the fruit of many years of study, he published the first volume of his ''Philosophy of History or Tradition'' in 1824, which gave him the support of scholarships from Christian von Hessen-Darmstadt and (mediated by Schelling) Ludwig I. from Bavaria. His apartment gradually became a gathering point for mystically interested men and women from Frankfurt and the surrounding area. He was unable to complete his five-volume work. The main starting point of his argumentation was the fight against

pantheism Pantheism can refer to a number of philosophical and religious beliefs, such as the belief that the universe is God, or panentheism, the belief in a non-corporeal divine intelligence or God out of which the universe arisesAnn Thomson; Bodies ...

atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the Existence of God, existence of Deity, deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the ...

and

materialism Materialism is a form of monism, philosophical monism according to which matter is the fundamental Substance theory, substance in nature, and all things, including mind, mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. Acco ...

, based on the assumption that the Kabbalah contains a higher mysticism that could also be inherent in Christianity. In this respect, his title as " Christian Kabbalist" is well justified. Molitor's ''Philosophie der Geschichte oder über die Tradition'' was an influence on

Gershom Scholem Gershom Scholem (; 5 December 1897 – 21 February 1982) was an Israeli philosopher and historian. Widely regarded as the founder of modern academic study of the Kabbalah, Scholem was appointed the first professor of Jewish mysticism at Hebrew Un ...

and

Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin ( ; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German-Jewish philosopher, cultural critic, media theorist, and essayist. An eclectic thinker who combined elements of German idealism, Jewish mysticism, Western M ...

. Benjamin's first encounter with the Kabbalah was through Molitor's work and Benjamin proudly displayed Molitor's works on his bookshelves until his untimely death.

Literary works

* Ideen zu einer künftigen Dynamik der Geschichte, 1805 * Philosophie der Geschichte, 4 vols., 1824–1853

Bibliography

Katharina Koch, ''Franz Joseph Molitor und die jüdische Tradition. Studien zu den kabbalistischen Quellen der "Philosophie der Geschichte". Mit einem Anhang unveröffentlichten Briefe von F. von Baader, E. J. Hirschfeld, F. J. Molitor und F. W. J. Schelling'', Walter de Gruyter Verlag, Berlin 2006

References

External links

Andreas Korpás: ''Ein rätselhafter Philosoph. Katharina Koch stellt Franz Joseph Molitors Kabbala-Rezeption vor.''
Book review (German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Molitor, Joseph Franz 1779 births 1860 deaths People from Oberursel (Taunus) 18th-century German philosophers 19th-century German philosophers People from the Electorate of Mainz Burials at Frankfurt Main Cemetery German male writers Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz alumni