Moritz Güdemann


Moritz Güdemann was an Austrian rabbi and historian. He served as chief rabbi of Vienna.

Biography

Moritz Güdemann attended the Jewish school in Hildesheim, and thereafter went to a Catholic Gymnasium. He was educated at the University of Breslau, and took his rabbinical diploma at the newly founded Jewish Theological Seminary there. In the latter year he was called to the rabbinate of Magdeburg; in 1866 he went to Vienna as preacher, where he became rabbi in 1868, and chief rabbi in 1892.
He married his first wife, Fanny Spiegel, in 1863. After her death he married Ida Sachs, with whom he had four children.

On Zionism

Güdemann protested the proposal to strike from the prayer-book all passages referring to the return of the Jews to the Holy Land. He threatened to resign over this issue. There are conflicting versions of his support for Theodor Herzl's Zionist schemes. Herzl wrote that Güdemann believed his book Der Judenstaat could "work wonders," but Güdemann later denied this and dissociated himself from any nationalist interpretation of the Bible and its promise of Jewish redemption.

Published works

Güdemann wrote on the history of Jewish education and culture, and was associated with the Wissenschaft des Judentums movement. In addition to dozens of articles, he published the following monographs: