Christian Wilhelm von Dohm

Christian Wilhelm von Dohm (German: [doːm]; 11 December 1751 – 29 May 1820) was a German historian, political writer, and official for the Prussian state.^[1] His work, On the Civil Improvement of the Jews, went on to influence the process of Jewish emancipation.^[2]

Christian Wilhelm von Dohm; portrait by Karl Christian Kehrer (c.1795)

Biography

Dohm was born in Lemgo on 11 December 1751. The son of a Lutheran pastor at Lemgo's St. Mary's Church [de], he was a radical advocate for Jewish emancipation. He entered Prussian officialdom in 1779, first as archivist in Berlin. In 1781, Dohm published a two-volume work entitled Ueber die bürgerliche Verbesserung der Juden ("On the Civil Improvement of the Jews"), which argued for Jewish political equality on humanitarian grounds. It was widely praised by the Jewish communities in Berlin, Halberstadt, and Suriname. In 1786 he was ennobled (untitled nobility), gaining him the nobiliary particle von before his surname.

Dohm died on his Pustleben [de] estate near Nordhausen on 29 May 1820.

Jewish emancipation

Many Enlightenment thinkers were skeptical about Jewish commitment to Enlightenment ideals. Enlightenment philosophers generally believed that man had power over his own nature, and so, saw pathways for Jewish assimilation which often involved the shedding of some aspects of Jewish identity.

Dohm was one of these liberal minded Enlightenment advocates. Based on his friendship with Moses Mendelssohn, Dohm advocated for emancipation. Dohm acknowledged many of the "negative characteristics" that were troubling to liberal minded Enlightenment philosophers – moral corruption, clannish and unsociable behaviors, unproductive and primarily commercial occupations – but he argued these traits were the product of centuries of oppression by Christians and the coercive power of Talmudic Judaism over the Jewish community. Dohm believed emancipation would pave the way for Jewish assimilation into Enlightenment society.^[3]