Rahel Levin Varnahagen

Rahel Levin Varnahagen was born in Berlin, in 1771, into a Jewish merchant family and was raised in a traditional home. She became famous for the social gatherings taking place at her house, which turned into an informal center for literary, social, and politic discussions. In “O How Painful To Have Been Born a Jewess”, Rahel narrates her struggle with her own identity as a Jewish woman. She describes herself as a “fugititive from Egypt and Palestine”, whose whole life is a “slow bleeding to death (…). Every attempt to stop the bleeding is to die anew, and immobility is only possible for me in death itself….I can ascribe every evil, every misfortune, every vexation that has befallen me from that.” She falls in love with a minor Prussian diplomat Karl August Varnhagen von Ense, and she converts to Protestantism.

In Tewarson’s piece “Rachel Levin Varnhagen: Chapter I Beginnings”, Rahel’s life is described in detail. She grew up in Berlin along with 4 other siblings. During this time period, King Frederic William invited wealthy Jews from Vienna in 1670 to settle in Berlin. The Jewish community of Berlin suffered great loss after the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) and so the King needed Jews to come in and settle in Berlin so they would pay taxes to him. The Jews coming from Vienna were merchants who were accused of having poisoned the wells because the Christian merchants wanted to get rid of the competition. The Jews of Berlin represented 2% of the Jewish population in Prussia. Only wealthy Jews were allowed in Berlin. Overall, the Jewish community had 4 classes: the middle class, about 8%, of artisans, rabbis, and community officials, then 40% petty tradesmen, then 20% household servants and peddlers, and 30% beggars and vagabonds. The wealthy Jews received letters of Protection from the King and they were granted privileges according to their status.

However, they had to pay taxes, they had no citizenship, and they were barred from holding most occupations, such as all trades, farming, and civil service. Only the eldest son and with some exception the second son could inherit the right to live in Berlin if they had enough money, however daughters were excluded from this category.
The policies towards the Jews were determined by the political and economic interests of the Kings who were interested in collecting taxes for wars of conquest. The Edict of 1750 narrowed the occupations of the Jews mainly to the field of banking. There were challenging times for the Jewish community. Most Jews were working as merchants, in money lending and banking jobs which increased their contact with the outside world. In Jewish homes, there were social gatherings in which Jews met with artisans and aristocracy. Rahel learned from these social gatherings taking place in her own home the art of conversation and how to be a hostess. She grew up in a patriarchal family, where her father was the dominant figure. In this milieu, she developed a talent for understanding human nature, and how to have empathy towards others. She had an intelligent and quick-witted nature.

Due to the limited role that society expected of women during her day, Rahel was excluded from all education institutions and professions. As the ideas of the Jewish haskahlah were spreading in the Jewish community, Jewish thinking became more secular and more receptive towards German culture. Through social circles, theater, philosophy, and literature both Jews and Christians could interact and exchange ideas. The Jews became interested in modern thought. Moses Mendehelsohn was one of the pioneering scholars, who came to Berlin and learned German, Latin, mathematics, music, wrote his own philosophical treaties and literary criticism, and translated the Hebrew Bible to German, as one of the first attempts which enabled other Jews to learn German and to acculturate. In the next couple of generations, the young Jews began pursuing a modern education and became increasingly acculturated in the surrounding German society. However as Jews they had a hard time finding jobs. However, girls did not receive a formal education. Their education included household chores, sewing, reading, writing, through personal tutors and from their male siblings.

Rahel was admired for her original thoughts and erudition. Rahel’s father broke with Jewish tradition and practice, and no longer went to synagogue, while her mother was more traditional. Rahel’s father encouraged her daughter to get a modern education. Rahel learned Yiddish, German, French, took music, and piano lessons, she was interested in composition, social dance, learned sewing, embroidery, and household chores. The education of Jewish girls was superior to that of the girls of the Gentile bourgeoisie, and similar to that of aristocratic girls. Rahel adopted the ideas of the Enlightenment and Humanism. She was much more immersed in German culture than her predecessors. As such, she became known for being a salonniere and an epistolary writer. She learned Italian, English, German, and French, violin and composition lessons. Her theory of education emphasized active participation and practical application (31), in order to help children find their talent, to learn the languages from the respective countries where they’re spoken, and to help them acquire a trade. She thought children need to expand their knowledge, guided by their own free will without interference from the part of the teacher except to guide them. Her approach sounds like the approach of the methods applied in Montessori education. However, she did not also envision female education. She criticized the system of learning by rote and learning facts without critical thinking. She emphasized the ethical and social education, and she stressed “the evolution of the self through effort, experience, love and wisdom” (32). She related that her self-education, not going through the system, carried with it certain weaknesses such as insecurity, shyness, no systematic thinking, though she possessed intellectual independence and originality. Her role as a hostess and writers of epistles proved to be more of a profession for her. The education of Jewish women freed them from the narrow lives their mothers were subjected to. Rahel embraced Jewish and Enlightenment thinking on the highest level.

There were also limitations that she had to withstand, from being a woman and a Jew. She established for herself a famous salon and had an extensive network of correspondences. However, throughout her life, she viewed her identity as a Jew as a stigma. Moreover, she tried to rise above the limitations imposed on her by her society. She sought to integrate herself as an assimilated Jew and to seek integration for the marginalized groups. She assumed a circle of friends where she was committed to egalitarian social relations. Moreover, in her “open house” or “society” she stressed the importance of sociability which would enable more egalitarian human relationships, as this contained the potential for social change. The art of conversation was stressed in her circle. She envisioned a “refined society” in which there would be people of mixed social background, different interests and philosophical leanings, yet intellectual, sophisticated, and tolerant. She was also criticized for her openness towards tolerance, and lack of discrimination in choosing the people in her society. She disregarded social hierarchies. Her circle was a mixed society with both men and women, Christians, Jews, noblemen, poets, actors, singers, theater folk (37), where social rank was not emphasized, however, intelligence, character, and talent was. There were other “open houses” in Berlin, out of which at least nine were presided by Jewish women.
However, it is noteworthy to mention that though people from the higher ranks of society came to visit Rahel’s gatherings, there was the absence of reciprocity as she was not invited into their homes also. Rahel was not regarded as being part of the high society. Being a Jew, she was not accepted in the homes of the highborn hosts that frequented her house.

As compared to the salons in Paris which had a political orientation, the Berlin salons represented a social institution, held by the aristocracy and high bourgeoisie, whereas the Berlin ones were not as significant, but rather more modest, and led by women from the margins of society.

These facts show how Jewish women who were assimilated in the German culture sought to stop being outsiders and to integrate the ideas of Enlightenment into the reality of their lives. Women could only achieve equality in terms of education like men, but could not ascend the social ladder on their own. However, there was an evolving gender ideology and the beginning of a process of social transformation. Rahel was challenging this society and envisioned a more egalitarian thinking as she regarded both men and women to be morally responsible for improving the future of humanity.

She stressed sociability “as the essence and point of departure of all that is moral” (43). She viewed the individual as morally responsible for the wellbeing of the others. She believed an individual’s happiness depends on engaging in social justice. She foresaw that marginalized groups should be integrated in a more egalitarian society, and that the social ideology of her society contributed to keeping the rigid class structure in place. The Berlin salons promoted social equality and integration as a model for change. Rahel’s open house also served as a milieu for literary criticism.

Rahel also engaged in epistolary writing. There was a long tradition of women engaging in this activity. A woman’s education included learning the art of letter writing. Receiving a letter was a significant moment, as the letter was read not only by the person to whom it was addressed to, but also by other family members, friends, and acquaintances. This eventually gave rise to the epistolary novel. For Rahel, letter writing constituted a revered form of expression, though she preferred to be anonymous so she would not be singled out as a Jewish woman.

In a world that circumscribed Rachel as a woman and a Jew, Rachel created through her own independent means a social environment where she could bring people together without being circumscribed by their social class, ethnicity and gender. This was her attempt to challenge her society to incorporate the ideas of the Enlightenment further through tolerance and humanistic thinking at a deeper level in spite of the fact that society at large was elitist and insisted on maintaining social and gender divisions.