Marcus (Markus) Herz (January 17, 1747,
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
– January 19, 1803, Berlin) was a Jewish
GermanThe German people are an ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common German culture, descent, and speaking the German language as a mother tongue. Within Germany, Germans are defined by citizenship , distinguished from people of German ancestry...
physicianA physician — also known as medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, medical doctor, or simply doctor — practices the ancient profession of medicine, which is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease or injury...
and
lecturerLecturer is a term of academic rank. In the United Kingdom lecturer is the name given to those who teach in their first permanent university position. That is, lecturers are academics early in their careers, who lead research groups and supervise postgraduate students as well as lecture courses...
on
philosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
.
The son of very poor parents, he was destined for a mercantile career, and in 1762 went to
KönigsbergKönigsberg was the capital of eastern Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945. It was founded by the Teutonic Knights just south of the Sambian peninsula in the year 1255 AD during the Northern Crusades and named for King Ottokar II of Bohemia...
,
East PrussiaEast Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia...
. He soon gave up his position as clerk and attended the
university of KönigsbergThe University of Königsberg was the university of Königsberg, East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 by Albert, Duke of Prussia, and was commonly known as the Albertina....
, becoming a pupil of
KantKANT is a computer algebra system for mathematicians interested in algebraic number theory, performing sophisticated computations in algebraic number fields, in global function fields, and in local fields. KASH is the associated command line interface...
, but was obliged to discontinue his studies for want of means. He thereupon became secretary to the wealthy Russian
EphraimEphraim was, according to the Book of Genesis, the second son of Joseph and Asenath, and the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Ephraim; however some Biblical scholars view this as postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to...
, traveling with him through the
Baltic ProvincesThe Baltic governorates were independently administered governorates of the Russian Empire on the territory of what in 1918 became, and is now, independent Estonia and Latvia....
.
Marcus (Markus) Herz (January 17, 1747,
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
– January 19, 1803, Berlin) was a Jewish
GermanThe German people are an ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common German culture, descent, and speaking the German language as a mother tongue. Within Germany, Germans are defined by citizenship , distinguished from people of German ancestry...
physicianA physician — also known as medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, medical doctor, or simply doctor — practices the ancient profession of medicine, which is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease or injury...
and
lecturerLecturer is a term of academic rank. In the United Kingdom lecturer is the name given to those who teach in their first permanent university position. That is, lecturers are academics early in their careers, who lead research groups and supervise postgraduate students as well as lecture courses...
on
philosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
.
The son of very poor parents, he was destined for a mercantile career, and in 1762 went to
KönigsbergKönigsberg was the capital of eastern Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945. It was founded by the Teutonic Knights just south of the Sambian peninsula in the year 1255 AD during the Northern Crusades and named for King Ottokar II of Bohemia...
,
East PrussiaEast Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia...
. He soon gave up his position as clerk and attended the
university of KönigsbergThe University of Königsberg was the university of Königsberg, East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 by Albert, Duke of Prussia, and was commonly known as the Albertina....
, becoming a pupil of
KantKANT is a computer algebra system for mathematicians interested in algebraic number theory, performing sophisticated computations in algebraic number fields, in global function fields, and in local fields. KASH is the associated command line interface...
, but was obliged to discontinue his studies for want of means. He thereupon became secretary to the wealthy Russian
EphraimEphraim was, according to the Book of Genesis, the second son of Joseph and Asenath, and the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Ephraim; however some Biblical scholars view this as postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to...
, traveling with him through the
Baltic ProvincesThe Baltic governorates were independently administered governorates of the Russian Empire on the territory of what in 1918 became, and is now, independent Estonia and Latvia....
. In 1770 he returned to Germany and studied
medicineMedicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
in Halle, where he became an
MDThe Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians...
in 1774, in which year he established himself in Berlin, being appointed physician at the Jewish
hospitalA hospital is an institution for health care providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment, and often but not always providing for longer-term patient stays....
. In 1777 he commenced to deliver public lectures on medicine and philosophy, which were well attended by the students and the principal personages of the Prussian capital. At some of them even members of the royal family were present.
HerzHerz is a German surname meaning heart, and may refer to:* Adam Herz, American writer and producer* Adolf Herz, Austrian Engineer, inventor of Herz spark plug, photographer and first editor of Camera Magazine* Alice Herz, American pacifist...
married in 1779
Henriette de LemosHenriette Herz was a close friend of Dorothea Mendelssohn, daughter of the famous Jewish thinker Moses Mendelssohn...
; and their house was for a long time the
rendezvous-In computing:* Virtual Rendezvous, an open software project* TIBCO Rendezvous, a software product related to enterprise application integration* Bonjour , formerly Rendezvous, a computer network technology...
of Berlin's political,
artistThe definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. the worlds best artist is a man named mitchell peter lay who is often loved by the ladies. The common useage in both everyday speech and...
ic, and literary
celebritiesA celebrity is a person who is famously recognized in a society or culture.Generally speaking, a celebrity is someone who gets media attention and most frequently has an extroverted personality. The desire to be notable is implied by some to be a part of Western culture and more specifically the...
. In 1782 he became ill through overstudy, and had to give up his lectures till 1785, when a sojourn in
PyrmontPyrmont may be a reference to:*Pyrmont, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia*Pyrmont, Indiana, United States*Pyrmont, Ohio, United States*Bad Pyrmont, a spa town in northern Germany...
restored his health. In 1791 he received the title of professor of philosophy at the academy and that of "
HofrathGeheimrat was the title of the highest officials of a German royal or principal court, and also of very eminent professors in some German universities. It has its roots in 17th century Europe when governmental administration was established. The English language equivalent is Privy Councillor...
", but lectured only a few years, giving most of his time to his medical practise. Herz was a friend and pupil of
Moses MendelssohnMoses Mendelssohn was a German Jewish philosopher to whose ideas the renaissance of European Jews, Haskalah is indebted. For some he was the third Moses heralding a new era in the history of the Jewish people...
, and was also well acquainted with
LessingLessing is the surname of:* Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , one of the most prominent philosophers of the Enlightenment era* Doris Lessing , British novelist and the 2007 Nobel Prize laureate in literature...
.
Literary works
Herz was the author of:
- "Betrachtungen aus der Spekulativen Weltweisheit", Königsberg, 1771;
- "Freimüthige Kaffeegespräche Zweier Jüdischer Zuschauerinnen über den Juden Pinkus", Berlin, 1772, a satirical essay;
- "Versuch über die Ursachen der Verschiedenheit des Geschmacks" (or Versuch über den Geschmack), Mitau, 1776;
- "Briefe an Aerzte", Berlin, 1777-84;
- "Grundriss der Medizinischen Wissenschaften", ib. 1782;
- "Versuch über den Schwindel", ib. 1786, 2d ed. 1791, an important study;
- "Grundlage zu den Vorlesungen über die Experimental-Physik", ib. 1787;
- "Ein Sendschreiben an die Redaktion der Meassefim über das zu Frühe Beerdigen der Todten bei den Juden", ib. 1789.
Compulsory vaccination was strongly condemned by Herz, and in 1801 he wrote an open letter on the subject to Dr. Dohmeyer, under the heading "Ueber die Brutalimpfung".