Biography

Constantin Brunner, whose name was originally Leo Wertheimer, was born on 27 August 1862 in Altona, near Hamburg. He came from a prominent Jewish family that had lived in the vicinity of Hamburg for generations. His grandfather, Akiba Wertheimer, was chief rabbi of Altona and Schleswig-Holstein.

Raised as an orthodox Jew, Brunner first studied at the Jewish teacher's training college in Cologne. When he was about twenty years old, he broke with his religious background and dedicated himself to the study of comparative religion in order to find the 'best religion'. His search was not for dogmas and rituals, which he later characterised as 'superstition', but for the philosophical core of both the Jewish and Christian religions. In Brunner’s view, this core involves not man’s relation to a transcendent being, but rather his capacity for spiritual reflection, that is to say, consciousness of his connection to the Absolute.

Commencing in 1884, Brunner studied philosophy and history in Berlin and Freiburg. His teachers were for example Alois Riehl, who clearly influenced Brunner’s interpretation of Kant, Eduard Zeller (Brunner highly valued his “History of Greek Philosophy”), the Indologist and Schopenhauer expert Paul Deussen, the philosophers Wilhelm Dilthey and Julius Ebbinghaus, and also the zoologist August Weismann, who probably influenced Brunner in his criticism of Darwinism.

Brunner initially leaned towards Kantianism, then turned to Hegel. But, finally, it was Spinoza who drew Brunner's unwavering admiration. Spinoza's gift for putting 'real', 'practical' philosophy into everyday life was one reason that Brunner counted the Dutch free-thinker among the 'great geniuses' who, like Moses, Socrates, Christ and Buddha, in Brunner's eyes had revealed absolute, spiritual truth in their life and work.

Brunner felt that academic life at both Berlin and Freiburg was divorced from reality. He condemned academic dogmatism, nihilism, and pretensions to omniscience as scholastic pseudo-thinking. Brunner independently studied those thinkers he considered to be his ideal exemplars and to whom he felt himself spiritually connected. The completion of his much too-ambitiously planned historical-philosophical dissertation was delayed many times, and in the end it never came to academic completion.

Starting in 1891, Brunner worked as a free-lance professional writer and literary critic. He ran a literary agency, negotiating the publication of texts for magazines and publishing companies. He also delivered lectures and published essays and poems. He was befriended with the poets Detlev von Liliencron (whom Brunner, in his role of critic, appreciated less), Gustav Falke and Richard Dehmel. Brunner’s philosophical discussions with Otto Ernst are recalled in his philosophical dialogue “Materialismus und Idealismus”, which was published 35 years later; in it Ernst appears as the debating opponent, named 'Friend Nevertheless'.

Between 1893 and 1895 Brunner published, first with Leo Berg and later with Otto Ernst the high-profile literary magazine “Der Zuschauer” ("The Spectator"). The magazine carried philosophical, literary-critical and political essays, some written by Brunner himself. The pseudonym Constantin Brunner, which dates from this period, he later had officially registered as his civil name.

The year 1895 brought a decisive turn in Brunner’s personal, spiritual and professional life. He married the divorced Rosalie ('Leoni') Müller née Auerbach and became the stepfather of her gifted daughter Elise Charlotte ('Lotte'). He often discussed with Lotte the literary implications of his philosophical thoughts. Lotte published a number of works, usually under the pseudonym E.C. Werthenau, including a treatise on Brunner’s relation to Nietzsche. From 1903 to 1932 she kept a diary in which she took special note of statements made by her stepfather, thus contributing considerably to our insight into his thinking and his way of life.

1895 was also marked by a momentous spiritual change. During a visit to the British Museum in London, Brunner came upon the Greek "Fates", a group-sculpture from the Parthenon façade, and, in a moment of mystical insight, the outline of his philosophical doctrine dawned upon him. He dedicated the rest of his life to its elaboration, without ever changing the essential framework. That same year Brunner abandoned his literary and publishing activities and moved to Berlin, where he retired into the privacy of his family. Part of his time he spent teaching at a boarding school for girls and working as a critic and literary adviser for publishing companies. Thanks to the financial support of a friend, Frida Mond, the wife of the English industrialist Ludwig Mond, and later of her son, Lord Alfred Melchett, he was not altogether compelled to provide for himself.

Thirteen years later Brunner’s voluminous principal philosophical work came out: “Die Lehre von den Geistigen und vom Volk” ("The Doctrine of the Spiritual Élite and the Multitude"), which was published in 1908 with the assistance of Gustav Landauer, who was one of Brunner's friends during these years.

In this two-volume book, Brunner laid the foundation of his philosophy by identifying three 'faculties' of thinking: the ‘practical’, the ‘spiritual’ and the 'analogical’. As man’s everyday practical thinking is either based on the true, spiritual faculty or on the fictitious, analogical one, Brunner arrives at his thesis of the conflict between ‘spiritual’ and ‘superstitious’ thought. This conflict can be found throughout the history of mankind. ‘Analogical’ thinking is not pure, but is instead a kind of confusion in that it does not make a clear distinction between practical relativity and absolute truth. This distinction between absolute, ‘spiritual’ thought and relative, ‘practical’ thought is the basis of Brunner’s doctrine and comes close to Spinoza’s distinction between ‘substance’ and ‘attribute’.

Brunner defines the ‘practical understanding’ as a dimension of man’s natural egoism, which, when confined to its proper sphere, plays an essential role in daily life. Brunner’s main intent is to show that all concrete experience, all thinking of and about things, can be abstracted to a single, fundamental law, namely, the law of universal motion. This doctrine of motion leads to a ‘psychology without soul’, and thence to a ‘pneumatology’ in which life and consciousness are attributed to all things in the universe.

Universal motion also implies universal causality. The philosophic affirmation of universal causality, which, according to Brunner, is fundamental to our rational ‘practical understanding’, derives from Spinoza, who in Brunner’s view, thus continued early Greek thinking and liberated the Western world from the belief in miraculous causes.

As a Spinoza expert Brunner had a lively contact with Spinoza researchers like Carl Gebhart, Adolph S. Oko and Stanislaus von Dunin-Borkowski. Ernst Altkirch’s books “Spinoza im Porträt” (1913) and “Maledictus und Benedictus” (1924) were inspired by Brunner. Brunner edited the German edition of K.O. Meinsma’s book “Spinoza en zijn Kring” ("Spinoza and his circle") in 1909 and wrote the foreword, which was also published separately in 1910 as “Spinoza gegen Kant und die Sache der geistigen Wahrheit” ("Spinoza versus Kant and the nature of spiritual truth"), a title which is indicative of Brunner's philosophical orientation in this period.

Brunner criticised, often very polemically, much that was generally held to be valid at the time. This included not only the philosophy of Kant, but also the ideas of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Spengler and Darwin. He criticized or ignored the main philosophical currents of his time. It is possible to find some parallels with Husserl, Heidegger and Wittgenstein, but actual influences from these contemporaries have not as yet been demonstrated. Brunner’s thinking can be fully understood not from its contemporary context, but rather from the spiritual-mystical tradition of thinking: from Socrates and Plato, from ‘spiritual’ Judaïsm and Christ, from Master Eckhart and Spinoza, right up to Hegel and Schelling.

Originally it was Brunner’s intention, after elaborating on the first faculty of thinking, the ‘practical understanding’, to deal with both other faculties, the ‘Spirit’ and the 'Analogon’, systematically in the same way in separate books. But he soon gave up this idea, evidently because he realised that a separate discussion of the three faculties was not feasible. Already in “Die Lehre” it became evident that practical understanding cannot be described unequivocably unless the principle of its connection to the spiritual or analogical is made clear at the same time. In the books that followed, Brunner deals mostly with the faculties of ‘Spirit’ and ‘Analogon’ in combination, sometimes explaining both from a theoretical point of view, at other times dealing more with the practical application of these principles in individual and social life, as ‘rational’ or as ‘superstitious’ thinking.

After a severe crisis in his health, Brunner started to elaborate his political views. Starting from an examination of the nature of anti-Semitism, he developed, still before the first world war, his political and historical theory. “Der Judenhaß und die Juden” ("Jew-hatred and the Jews") was finished in 1914 and printed in 1918. This book made an indelible impression on the German minister of Foreign Affairs, Walther Rathenau; as a result Brunner and Rathenau became personal friends. The book also contained the essay “Rede der Juden: Wir wollen ihn zurück!”, in which the significance of Christ as Jewish prophet is stressed.

In the twenties and the beginning of the thirties, Brunner continued to expand on these topics, embedding them in ever-larger psychological and sociological contexts: “Die Herrschaft des Hochmuts” (1920), “Der Judenhaß und das Denken” (1922), “Höre Israel und Höre Nicht-Israel: Die Hexen” (1931), “Der entlarvte Mensch” (posthumously, 1953), as well as a second work on legal philosophy: “Von den Pflichten der Juden und von den Pflichten des Staates” (1930). In all these books and in some other essays Brunner aims to reduce man’s arrogance and prejudices and his natural propensity for superstition. The tendency to see oneself as superior to others due to race, nation party, or any other particular quality is presented as a kind of egoistic superstition. In this sense Brunner not only turns against the then-ascendant German nationalism and anti-Semitism, but equally against Zionism, which tries to provide the aspiration for the establishment of a Jewish state with a religious or moral foundation.

In these years Brunner demonstrated the applicability of his doctrine of the faculties to the analysis of not only social-political phenomena, but also to many other vital questions. He examined love and marriage ("Liebe, Ehe, Mann und Weib"), art ("Künstler und Philosophen", "Ein Idealporträt Spinozas"), literature ("Liliencron und alle seine unsterblichen Dichter", "Goethes Tagebuch", "Jonathan Swift"), medicine ("Aberglaube an die Ärzte und an die Heilmittel", "Natura sanat, medicus curat") and psychiatry ("Über den Aberglauben in der Betrachtung von Geisteskranken", "Keine Psychiatrie und die Psychoanalyse").

At the same time, Brunner further elaborated his theory of the ‘Spirit’. In his book “Unser Christus oder das Wesen des Genies” (1921), translated as “Our Christ: the revolt of the mystical genius”, he demonstrates the direct link between genius and spirituality. The spiritual function of genius is epitomized by Christ, whom Brunner does not consider as the founder of a new religion, but rather as a mystical prophet, incarnating the true 'spirit of Judaïsm’. In “Materialismus und Idealismus” (1928), which appeared together with “Aus meinem Tagebuch”, a collection of brief philosophical notes, Brunner describes the contrast between the relative and the absolute as the divergence between the material which can be scientifically understood and the ideal which cannot be grasped conceptually. He cites Plato’s doctrine of ideas as one of his inspirations, but above all he points to Spinoza’s distinction between attribute and substance.

During all this time Brunner lived in Berlin (1895-1913 and 1930-1933) and Potsdam (1913-1930). Apart from several voyages, notably to his beloved Norway, the ‘hermit’ as he called himself (in 1924 the autobiographical “Vom Einsiedler Constantin Brunner” was published), stayed at home. He did not want to appear in public and hardly took notice of the academic world. The various Spinoza associations could not entice him to give lectures any more than could the Kant Association or the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith. He was even unwilling to address the Constantin Brunner Society, founded in 1925 in Berlin without his cooperation. Only in the privacy of his home did he discuss the many philosophical themes and practical issues to which he was intensely committed.

His charismatic personality gave rise to an enthusiastic group of followers, who sometimes tended toward idolatry. Brunner also fascinated such diverse personalities as Walther Rathenau, Gustav Landauer (with whom he finally fell out over political disagreements), the Zionist Max Nordau, the Kantian Arthur Liebert, the writer Hermann Kasack, rabbi Norden and Lou Andreas-Salomé. Martin Buber, who payed several visits, disapproved of Brunner’s distinction between the ‘Spiritual Élite’ and the ‘Masses’, the 'Multitude', which he evidently misinterpreted as an aristocratic slight to anyone of opposing viewpoint.

In the years between the world wars, Brunner's popularity as a philosopher grew. “Die Lehre“ and "Der Judenhaß und die Juden" underwent second printings. His work “Unser Christus oder das Wesen des Genies” was intensively discussed, not only by Jews but especially by Christians. In his doctoral thesis (1933) the Dutch theologian K.H. Miskotte dealt with Brunner’s doctrine in depth.

In the twenties the circle of Brunner's devotees quickly grew. There were the writers Frederick Ritter and Georg Goetz, and the lawyers E.L. Pinner and F. Blankenfeld. It was Blankenfeld who founded in Berlin the Constantin Brunner Society, the membership of which was comprised for the most part of Brunner's Jewish friends and admirers.

Of much greater influence however, were the ‘Ethical Seminars’, a Brunner study-group led in the early twenties by Friedrich (Frederick) Kettner in Czernowitz (the capital of Bukovina, formerly in Austria, later in Romania, now in Ukraine). This group included Israel Eisenstein, Leo Sonntag and Walter Bernard. Bernard published a book in English called “The Philosophy of Spinoza and Brunner” (New York, 1934). There was also Lothar Bickel, Brunner’s most gifted pupil, who elaborated Brunner’s thinking in a series of books and whom Brunner selected to administer his legacy. The poet Rose Ausländer, who felt very much connected with Brunner all her life, also belonged to the ‘Ethical Seminars’ and later to a circle of Brunner's devotees.

In the spring of 1933 Brunner felt compelled to leave Germany. Not only his Jewish descent, but also his anti-fascist statements made him a declared enemy of the Nazi regime. Brunner spent his last years in exile in The Hague, the Netherlands, where a German disciple, Magdalena Kasch, lovingly looked after him after his daughter Lotte married and left the paternal home. Kasch’s diary provides important information about this last period of Brunner’s life, during which he worked on his last, unfinished book: “Unser Charakter oder Ich bin der Richtige!” (published posthumously in 1939 under the direction of Lothar Bickel). In this work, Brunner shows how man, in the grip of self-deceit, perverts his natural egoism, and with ever-increasing moral arrogance believes himself always in the right. Much of what was destined to be included in this book, as well as some other notes and essays which he wrote in his last years, was published by Magdalena Kasch in the compilation “Vermächtnis” (posthumous, 1952).

Brunner died of heart-disease on 27 August 1937, his seventy-fifth birthday. During the German occupation of the Netherlands some years later, his wife Leoni and step-daughter Lotte perished in a concentration camp, a fate which was shared by many of Brunner’s friends and pupils.

During the Nazi dictatorship the Brunner circles dissolved; after the war only small, dispersed groups remained in Israel, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Romania, the USA, Uruguay, Argentina, and Canada. These were able to resume their former activities only to a limited extent.

In spite of everything, Magdalena Kasch managed to save the bulk of Brunner’s writing from destruction by the Nazis. In 1948, she, with the help of some of Brunner’s other surviving friends, founded the ‘Internationaal Constantin Brunner Instituut’ (ICBI) in the Hague. The ICBI, registered as a foundation since 1950, preserved for a long time the contents of Brunner’s last workplace, maintained an extensive archive, and ran a small study centre. The Institute has succeeded in republishing all the works destroyed by the Nazis and is currently working to publish previously unpublished work and letter correspondence.

After the war, Brunner's work received some critical attention, mainly in Israel and in France. Since 1957 there has been a Brunner Foundation in Hamburg. Initially led by the literary scholar Heinz Stolte, the Foundation aims to make Brunner’s work better known in Germany. In 1995, the Foundation organised a three-day symposium in Hamburg on Brunner’s work.

The renowned musician Yehudi Menuhin was deeply influenced by Brunner’s thought, and served on the Board of the ICBI in the Hague until his death. Menuhin came into contact with Brunner’s work in 1938 and always considered him his ‘spiritual mentor’.

To his contemporaries, Brunner was not easily accessible. On the one hand, his sharp attacks on religion, metaphysics and morals did not make him popular with theologians, scholastic philosophers and ethical idealists; on the other hand, his spiritual philosophy with its tendency toward mysticism made him suspect to the sceptical positivism of modern critical thinking. In no way did Brunner want to develop a ‘new’ philosophy of his own; he only intended, by drawing on Greek philosophy and prophetic Jewish thought, to describe in its natural simplicity what he saw as the one eternal, spiritual truth. Brunner wished to demonstrate that thinking through, to the end, about the relativity of the phenomenal world, leads inevitably to a spiritual foundation in absolute thought.

Many people today seek a spiritual principle upon which they can build meaningful lives. For many, neither the old, inert orthodoxies nor the ceaseless flux of popular culture seem able to inspire lasting confidence. For those who find themselves unable to accommodate themselves to a rootless inner life, Brunner's ideas may prove of enduring interest.

(J. Stenzel, H. Matthes)