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Dr. Julius Samuel Spiegler

Dr. Julius Samuel Spiegler  (1838-1916)

Rabbi Dr. Julius Samuel (Gyula Sámuel) Spiegler z'tl, was born at Balassagyarmat in 1838, died at Budapest in 1916. 

He spent his childhood in Moravia. He studied at  Brno,  Prague, later at Budapest, graduated as a philosophical doctor.  Later on he set up a private school, which was attended by the children of the jewish upper middle class.

His main research area was the Philosophy of the Judaism and its history.  He wrote in German, lived abroad for a long period. He is less than sixty years old when he retired, and became a chronicler of his neighborhood, Erzsébetváros (Elisabethstadt) and Lipótváros (Leopoldstadt) (today  District VII and V of Budapest)
He wrote the history of the Hungarian independence war of 1848/49 and the history of the Hungarian nation in German language.

   

His person is a typical example of the slowly assimilating jews of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.  Her wife was Teréz Pollák, daughter of Herman Pollák, who was a soldier in the 1848 Hungarian Revolution. She tought languages and music in the instutute of her husband. The oldest of their  four children was  their daughter, Arabella (born in 1868), who graduated as a teacher.  She turned her name first to Bella Bogdán, then to Satanella  in her publications. A collection of her writings was published in 1894 with the title of  "Feuilleton of Satanella" .

   

She met the entrant writer, Gyula Krúdy (who later became one of the greatest hungarian writers and novellists of the 20th century) at this time. They maybe met at a literature meeting held at their apartment in the Pekári-House at Király st., Budapest. Despite the large age difference, (she was appr. 10 years older then Krúdy) they engaged on February  1898, and married in the end of 1899.  (Marriage was registered at Budapest District VII. civil marriage registry No.  1454/1899.)
After their marriage she didn't publish any longer. Their son, Gyula was born in 1900, their daughters, Ilona in 1902, Mária in 1907,  (a daughter, Veronika, was born in between, but she died as an infant).

 

Meanwhile their marriage fails, they divorce.  After that she lived lonely and worked as a teacher. She died in 1952.

Works of Dr. Julius Samuel Spiegler:

  • Philosophische Reflexionen über die israelitische Religion (Philosophical reflexions  on the Israelite religion - in German) (Kassa - now:Košice, Slovakia, 1860)
  • Indictment against blood libel (Kassa, 1883).
  • Hebrew philosophy (Budapest, 1885).
  • Die Philosophie der Kabbala (Philosophy of the Kabbalah  - in German) (Lepzig, 1886)
  • Die Geschichte der Philosophie des Judenthums. Nach den neuesten Forschungen dargestellt. (History of the Philosophy of Judaism, according the latest research results. in German) (Leipzig, 1890)
  • History of the Hebrew Philosophy, particularly the works of Arab and Christian philosophists  (Budapest, 1893.)
  • Die Unsterblichkeit der Seele (The immortality of the soul - in German)  (Leipzig, 1895).
  • Der Freiheitskampf der ungarischen Nation (1848 - 1849) (Liberty war of the Hungarian Nation 1848-1849 - in German). (Leipzig, 1898.)
  • Geschichte der ungarischen Nation (History of the Hungarian nation) (Budapest-Vienna, 1900)
  • Additions to the history of the capital city of Budapest: Erzsébetváros. (Budapest, 1902)
  • Additions to the history of the capital city of Budapest. Terézváros and  Erzsébetváros. (Budapest, 1904)
  • Additions to the history of the capital city of Budapest.  Lipótváros. (Budapest, 1907)

    Sources:

 

The book "Die Geschichte der Philosophie des Judenthums"  is fully available in German original on  .

(Yechiel)

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