Meno Burg
Encyclopedia
Meno Burg also referred to as Judenmajor (Jew major), was a Prussian field officer
. Burg reached the highest rank ever attained by a Jew in the Prussian Army
of the 19th century. However, his military career is also an example for the discrimination against Jews in Prussian government service.
Meno Burg was born into a Jewish family of poor circumstances in Berlin
, Margraviate of Brandenburg
. After visiting Jewish schools, Burg entered in December 1802 the Berlin Municipal School (German: Berliner Stadtschule), a secondary school later known as Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster
. He left the school in 1804 to become an apprentice to his cousin Salomo Sachs, a royal building inspector. He visited the Berlin Building Academy (German: Berliner Bauakademie
), where he finished in 1807 the exam as field-surveyor
(German: Kondukteur und Feldmesser). Like his cousin who was the first Jew who had entered the Prussian civil service under Frederick William II
, Burg became a civil servant under Frederick William III
. In doing so, Burg had entered into a field which was outside of the professions Jews were allowed to enter in Prussia according to the prevailing regulations of the ‘Revised General Concession and Regulation’ (German: Revidierte General Privilegium und Reglement) dated 17 April 1750. It appears that due to the political circumstances, the regulations governing the Jews in Prussia were not strictly followed. According to the legal situation at the time, Burg should have been denied to enter his chosen profession. Burg was already a government employee, when the new Prussian civil rights legislation for Jews (German: Edikt vom 11. März 1812 betreffend der bürgerlichen Verhältnisse der Juden in dem Preußischen Staate) was enacted on 11 March 1812. This law naturalised Jewish inhabitants of Prussia as Prussian citizens, a franchise established in 1810 when doing away with the prior estates (nobility, serfs, burghers, Huguenots, etc.), but the admission to government positions was not called for and was reserved for future legislation.
Burg was awaiting his final exam at the Academy of the Arts (German: Akademie der Künste
) in Berlin, when he volunteered on 14 February 1813 for the military service to fight for ‘Prussia’s freedom and rebirth’, as he put it. The troop of his choice was the Guard Infantry Battalion (German: Garde-Normal-Bataillon) in Breslau, an elite unit of the infantry. After only a few days, he was discharged from this unit on the grounds that Jews were “under the existing laws and the prevailing circumstances” not allowed to serve in the Guard. The rejection of Jewish soldiers in the Guard appears to have been a matter of course for the established circles. State Chancellor Karl August von Hardenberg
, usually a supporter of equal rights for the Jews, left Burg’s two requests for re-enlistment in the Guard unanswered. Hereupon, Burg decided to apply at the artillery
, a branch of the service, which was considered less prestigious by the Prussian nobility and more suitable for the middle-classes. To not risk another discharge, Burg applied to the service chief of the Artillery (German: Generalinspekteur der Artillerie), Prince August of Prussia, who secured for him the admission. Since Burg’s accomplishments were widely recognized, the lieutenants of his unit recommended him after just nine months of service to become an officer. However, the promotion was vetoed by the base commander (German: Platzkommandant) Captain Karl Moritz Ferdinand von Bardeleben, stating that “as long as (he) had something to say, no Jew shall be officer in the artillery”. Consequently officer cadets, who had been trained by Burg, were promoted before him. Even his transfer to a combat unit did not help him to get promoted earlier. Only a mention of bravery could have accelerated his promotion. But his unit did not receive a front deployment.
Burg was not the first Prussian officer of Jewish faith. Other Prussian Jews had already become officers at the beginning of the war. They were soldiers in combat units who had been promoted during combat, or they belonged to the militia, the Free Corps
(German: Jägerdetachements) or the Landwehr (National Guard). Burg became finally second lieutenant on 18 August 1815 and was transferred to the First Artillery Brigade (East Prussia
) in Danzig as a company officer.
, on which science he wrote a text-book that attained great popularity, being frequently republished and translated into several languages. On 4 July 1826, Burg was promoted to first lieutenant, on time and according to his seniority. It is noteworthy that Burg received his promotion, while other Jewish volunteers, who claimed their legitimate rights to employment in the civil service, had been rejected because of their faith.
Despite the highest protection by August Prince of Prussia, Burg nearly had not been promoted to the rank of a captain. In this promotion drama, Burg initially had to compromise to be promoted to the rank of a “captain of the army” only, a rank that was not equivalent to a captain of the artillery. Then he was invited to be baptized, to make the promotion possible, what Burg ultimately rejected. It must be noted, that Burg requested the baptism once in 1824, but that he postponed his request “because of family relationships” on 16 November 1824.
On 6 December 1830 Burg had to learn, that the King did not even want to appoint him to the rank of a captain of the army, because he had not attained “the salvation of the Christian faith”. Burg’s accomplishments in the service and the fact that he was a well-known book author and a respected military educator. were not taken into consideration. Since it simply came down to discrimination based on his belief, Burg considered quitting the army. Completely unforeseen, he was finally promoted to the rank of a captain of the artillery, on time and according to his seniority. He could not, however, wear the uniform of the artillery, but only the uniform of an armory captain (German: Zeugkapitän), a special branch in the Prussian army that ranked at the bottom.
it needed a new chief of the artillery, Prince Adalbert of Prussia
, and a new king Frederick William IV to remove the injustice of the discriminatory Waffenfarbe
(German for: “corps [or troop-function] color”). Through a cabinet order of 16 April 1844, Burg was allowed to replace the black epaulettes of the armory with the red epaulettes of the artillery.
That was not the end of the discrimination. As the rank and quarter lists of the Prussian Army show, Burg was passed over by others who had entered the service after him. On 27 March 1847, Burg was granted the “character of a Major in the artillery” (German: Charakter als Major der Artillerie). That was actually not a real promotion. His uniform showed to the outside that he was a major, but in reality he did not serve on an established post of a major. He did not receive the salary of a major and he was not “in line” for another promotion. That was the end of his military career. The grounds given, that Burg’s post would have exceeded the budget for a field officer is not convincing. There were always two to three younger majors on fully paid positions at the school, younger officers without Burg’s merits. The political circumstances did not allow Jews to enter into the Prussian government positions or to get promoted if they had already a government position. A typical example is what Otto von Bismarck
said on 15 June 1847 in the Vereinigten Landtag
(Prussian Parliament). He said that he would “give the Jews all rights, but not to hold positions of authority in a Christian State”; if he had to obey a Jew, he would feel “deeply depressed and knuckled down”.
Burg had to endure similar experiences when it came to the award of military medals. Although he had been recommended since 1838 by the commander of the United Artillery and Engineer School for the Order of the Red Eagle
(German: Roter Adlerorden) Class IV, it took more than three years until the medal was finally awarded to him by king Frederick William IV. The value of the medal can be explained with the fact that in the Artillery Brigade, which Burg belonged to until his promotion to captain, had been – at the moment of the award of the medal to Burg – under eighteen captains only one who had the medal and among the eight captains at his school, where he worked as an instructor, Burg was the only one. It appears that the Prussian kings did not hesitate as much when it came to awarding civilian medals to Jews. Burg repeatedly received high civilian awards.
Burg tried to strictly separate between his government service and his religion. This proved to be nearly impossible, because both his government, which described itself as “Christian”, as well as his congregation, who considered itself “orthodox”, did not adhere to a strict separation between church and state. As a soldier, Burg was not able to strictly follow the Jewish ceremonial laws. That means that he had to disengage himself from a strict orthodoxy. In this respect, he is an example for a neo-orthodox, who felt that government service does not preclude the ceremonial law.
Burg described himself in his memoirs as a Prussian loyal to the crown and devoted to the king. Religiously he was rooted in Judaism. One did not exclude the other. He shared his political views and his patriotism with many in the educated German Jewish community, with whom he socially interacted, who wanted to assimilate into German society and who felt increasingly accepted.
During the years 1847 to 1849 Burg was engaged in writing his autobiography, which was published in 1854 in Berlin under the title Geschichte meines Dienstlebens (History of my life in service).
On 26 August 1853, Burg died as one of the first victims of the cholera epidemic. The funeral, which was conducted on 29 August with military honors, was a big event for the city of Berlin. The police estimated that about 60,000 people had gathered.
Field officer
A field officer is an army, marine, or air force commissioned officer senior in rank to a company officer but junior to a general officer; in some navies, it is an officer who is a Lieutenant Commander, Commander, or Captain....
. Burg reached the highest rank ever attained by a Jew in the Prussian Army
Prussian Army
The Royal Prussian Army was the army of the Kingdom of Prussia. It was vital to the development of Brandenburg-Prussia as a European power.The Prussian Army had its roots in the meager mercenary forces of Brandenburg during the Thirty Years' War...
of the 19th century. However, his military career is also an example for the discrimination against Jews in Prussian government service.
Education and civilian career
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Margraviate of Brandenburg
Margraviate of Brandenburg
The Margraviate of Brandenburg was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1157 to 1806. Also known as the March of Brandenburg , it played a pivotal role in the history of Germany and Central Europe....
. After visiting Jewish schools, Burg entered in December 1802 the Berlin Municipal School (German: Berliner Stadtschule), a secondary school later known as Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster
Berlinisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster
The Berlinisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster is the oldest Gymnasium in Berlin and continues to this day as the Evangelisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster. It is a private school with a humanistic profile and known as one of the most prestigious schools in Germany...
. He left the school in 1804 to become an apprentice to his cousin Salomo Sachs, a royal building inspector. He visited the Berlin Building Academy (German: Berliner Bauakademie
Bauakademie
The Bauakademie in Berlin, Germany, built between 1832 and 1836, is considered one of the forerunners of modern architecture due to its theretofore uncommon use of red brick and the relatively streamlined facade of the building.Designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, the Bauakademie was built near...
), where he finished in 1807 the exam as field-surveyor
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
(German: Kondukteur und Feldmesser). Like his cousin who was the first Jew who had entered the Prussian civil service under Frederick William II
Frederick William II of Prussia
Frederick William II was the King of Prussia, reigning from 1786 until his death. He was in personal union the Prince-Elector of Brandenburg and the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel.-Early life:...
, Burg became a civil servant under Frederick William III
Frederick William III of Prussia
Frederick William III was king of Prussia from 1797 to 1840. He was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel .-Early life:...
. In doing so, Burg had entered into a field which was outside of the professions Jews were allowed to enter in Prussia according to the prevailing regulations of the ‘Revised General Concession and Regulation’ (German: Revidierte General Privilegium und Reglement) dated 17 April 1750. It appears that due to the political circumstances, the regulations governing the Jews in Prussia were not strictly followed. According to the legal situation at the time, Burg should have been denied to enter his chosen profession. Burg was already a government employee, when the new Prussian civil rights legislation for Jews (German: Edikt vom 11. März 1812 betreffend der bürgerlichen Verhältnisse der Juden in dem Preußischen Staate) was enacted on 11 March 1812. This law naturalised Jewish inhabitants of Prussia as Prussian citizens, a franchise established in 1810 when doing away with the prior estates (nobility, serfs, burghers, Huguenots, etc.), but the admission to government positions was not called for and was reserved for future legislation.
Enlistment in the Prussian Army during the War of Liberation
Akademie der Künste
The Akademie der Künste, Berlin is an arts institution in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 1696 by Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg as the Prussian Academy of Arts, an academic institution where members could meet and discuss and share ideas...
) in Berlin, when he volunteered on 14 February 1813 for the military service to fight for ‘Prussia’s freedom and rebirth’, as he put it. The troop of his choice was the Guard Infantry Battalion (German: Garde-Normal-Bataillon) in Breslau, an elite unit of the infantry. After only a few days, he was discharged from this unit on the grounds that Jews were “under the existing laws and the prevailing circumstances” not allowed to serve in the Guard. The rejection of Jewish soldiers in the Guard appears to have been a matter of course for the established circles. State Chancellor Karl August von Hardenberg
Karl August von Hardenberg
Karl August Fürst von Hardenberg was a Prussian statesman and Prime Minister of Prussia. While during his late career he acquiesced to reactionary policies, earlier in his career he implemented a variety of Liberal reforms...
, usually a supporter of equal rights for the Jews, left Burg’s two requests for re-enlistment in the Guard unanswered. Hereupon, Burg decided to apply at the artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
, a branch of the service, which was considered less prestigious by the Prussian nobility and more suitable for the middle-classes. To not risk another discharge, Burg applied to the service chief of the Artillery (German: Generalinspekteur der Artillerie), Prince August of Prussia, who secured for him the admission. Since Burg’s accomplishments were widely recognized, the lieutenants of his unit recommended him after just nine months of service to become an officer. However, the promotion was vetoed by the base commander (German: Platzkommandant) Captain Karl Moritz Ferdinand von Bardeleben, stating that “as long as (he) had something to say, no Jew shall be officer in the artillery”. Consequently officer cadets, who had been trained by Burg, were promoted before him. Even his transfer to a combat unit did not help him to get promoted earlier. Only a mention of bravery could have accelerated his promotion. But his unit did not receive a front deployment.
Burg was not the first Prussian officer of Jewish faith. Other Prussian Jews had already become officers at the beginning of the war. They were soldiers in combat units who had been promoted during combat, or they belonged to the militia, the Free Corps
Lützow Free Corps
Lützow Free Corps was a voluntary force of the Prussian army during the Napoleonic Wars. It was named after its commander, Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow. They were also widely known as "Lützower Jäger" or "Schwarze Jäger" .-Origins:...
(German: Jägerdetachements) or the Landwehr (National Guard). Burg became finally second lieutenant on 18 August 1815 and was transferred to the First Artillery Brigade (East Prussia
East Prussia
East 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. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
) in Danzig as a company officer.
Officer during the Restoration
Since 1816 as an instructor at the United Artillery and Engineer School (German: Vereinigte Artillerie- und Ingenieurschule) in Berlin, Burg's principal subject of instruction was drawing and geometryGeometry
Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....
, on which science he wrote a text-book that attained great popularity, being frequently republished and translated into several languages. On 4 July 1826, Burg was promoted to first lieutenant, on time and according to his seniority. It is noteworthy that Burg received his promotion, while other Jewish volunteers, who claimed their legitimate rights to employment in the civil service, had been rejected because of their faith.
Despite the highest protection by August Prince of Prussia, Burg nearly had not been promoted to the rank of a captain. In this promotion drama, Burg initially had to compromise to be promoted to the rank of a “captain of the army” only, a rank that was not equivalent to a captain of the artillery. Then he was invited to be baptized, to make the promotion possible, what Burg ultimately rejected. It must be noted, that Burg requested the baptism once in 1824, but that he postponed his request “because of family relationships” on 16 November 1824.
On 6 December 1830 Burg had to learn, that the King did not even want to appoint him to the rank of a captain of the army, because he had not attained “the salvation of the Christian faith”. Burg’s accomplishments in the service and the fact that he was a well-known book author and a respected military educator. were not taken into consideration. Since it simply came down to discrimination based on his belief, Burg considered quitting the army. Completely unforeseen, he was finally promoted to the rank of a captain of the artillery, on time and according to his seniority. He could not, however, wear the uniform of the artillery, but only the uniform of an armory captain (German: Zeugkapitän), a special branch in the Prussian army that ranked at the bottom.
Officer in the Pre-March Era
In the Pre-March EraVormärz
' is the time period leading up to the failed March 1848 revolution in the German Confederation. Also known as the Age of Metternich, it was a period of Austrian and Prussian police states and vast censorship in response to calls for liberalism...
it needed a new chief of the artillery, Prince Adalbert of Prussia
Adalbert of Prussia
Prince Adalbert of Prussia was a son of Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and Landgravine Marie Anna of Hesse-Homburg. He was a naval theorist and admiral. He was instrumental during the Revolutions of 1848 in founding the first unified German fleet, the Reichsflotte...
, and a new king Frederick William IV to remove the injustice of the discriminatory Waffenfarbe
Waffenfarbe
Waffenfarbe is a means the German military uses to distinguish between different corps or troop functions in its armed services...
(German for: “corps [or troop-function] color”). Through a cabinet order of 16 April 1844, Burg was allowed to replace the black epaulettes of the armory with the red epaulettes of the artillery.
Otto von Bismarck
Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg , simply known as Otto von Bismarck, was a Prussian-German statesman whose actions unified Germany, made it a major player in world affairs, and created a balance of power that kept Europe at peace after 1871.As Minister President of...
said on 15 June 1847 in the Vereinigten Landtag
Preußischer Landtag
Preußischer Landtag or Prussian Landtag was the Landtag of the Kingdom of Prussia, which was implemented in 1849 after the dissolution of the Prussian National Assembly, building on the tradition of the Prussian estates that had existed from the 14th century in various forms and states in Teutonic...
(Prussian Parliament). He said that he would “give the Jews all rights, but not to hold positions of authority in a Christian State”; if he had to obey a Jew, he would feel “deeply depressed and knuckled down”.
Burg had to endure similar experiences when it came to the award of military medals. Although he had been recommended since 1838 by the commander of the United Artillery and Engineer School for the Order of the Red Eagle
Order of the Red Eagle
The Order of the Red Eagle was an order of chivalry of the Kingdom of Prussia. It was awarded to both military personnel and civilians, to recognize valor in combat, excellence in military leadership, long and faithful service to the kingdom, or other achievements...
(German: Roter Adlerorden) Class IV, it took more than three years until the medal was finally awarded to him by king Frederick William IV. The value of the medal can be explained with the fact that in the Artillery Brigade, which Burg belonged to until his promotion to captain, had been – at the moment of the award of the medal to Burg – under eighteen captains only one who had the medal and among the eight captains at his school, where he worked as an instructor, Burg was the only one. It appears that the Prussian kings did not hesitate as much when it came to awarding civilian medals to Jews. Burg repeatedly received high civilian awards.
Devout Jew
Burg was a devout Jew and participated actively in the Jewish community life. He served for many years on the board of the Kulturverein (cultural association) and on the board of the Auerbach orphanage. He was active on various comities in the Jewish congregation of Berlin and served for one year (1849–1850) as one of the elders on the board of the congregation. Burg resigned, when the board lost its legitimacy because it failed to comply with the General Concession for the Jews (German: General-Juden-Privileg) dated 17 April 1750 and when the board decided to file a complaint with the court. As a royal officer, Burg did not want to share “the insubordination against the government”.Burg tried to strictly separate between his government service and his religion. This proved to be nearly impossible, because both his government, which described itself as “Christian”, as well as his congregation, who considered itself “orthodox”, did not adhere to a strict separation between church and state. As a soldier, Burg was not able to strictly follow the Jewish ceremonial laws. That means that he had to disengage himself from a strict orthodoxy. In this respect, he is an example for a neo-orthodox, who felt that government service does not preclude the ceremonial law.
Loyal monarchist Prussian
During the years 1847 to 1849 Burg was engaged in writing his autobiography, which was published in 1854 in Berlin under the title Geschichte meines Dienstlebens (History of my life in service).
On 26 August 1853, Burg died as one of the first victims of the cholera epidemic. The funeral, which was conducted on 29 August with military honors, was a big event for the city of Berlin. The police estimated that about 60,000 people had gathered.
See also
- Jewish Encyclopedia, article about Meno Burg
- Meno Burg in the German-speaking Wikipedia
External links
- Major Meno Burg: A Prussian officer of Jewish faith(17891–853) by Renatus F. Rieger, Dissertation (in German), available at Olms
- Judentum, Staat und Heer in Preußen im frühen 19. Jahrhundert by Horst Fischer probably the leading work about Jews in the Prussian government (in German)
- Jews in Berlin by Andreas Nachama, Julius Hans Schoeps, Hermann Simon
- Die Judenbürgerbücher der Stadt Berlin, 1809–1851 by Jacob Jacobson probably the leading work for Berlin Jewish genealogy (in German)
- The Invisible Wall: Germans and Jews: a Personal Exploration by W. Michael Blumenthal
- Catholics and Jews in Germany, 1800–1914 by Helmut Walser Smith
- The Pity of It All: A Portrait of the German-Jewish Epoch, 1743–1933 by Amos Elon
- Hitler's Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military, by Bryan Mark Rigg
- Tensions and Convergences: Technological and Aesthetic Transformations of Society by Reinhard Heil
- German-Jewish History in Modern Times: Emancipation and Acculturation, 1870–1871 by Michael Brenner et al., the author incorrectly claims that Burg was the only Jewish officer in the Prussian army
- The limits of the confessional state: conversions to Judaism in Prussia 1814–1843 by Christopher Clark
- Lexikon des Judentums by Julius H. Schoeps