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loch, ernst
which he had begun it. As he once stated: “I do not propose or
desire to attempt a reconstruction of the music of the Jews….
It is rather the Hebrew spirit that interests me – the complex,
ardent, agitated soul that vibrates for me in the Bible; the
vigor and ingenuousness of the Patriarchs, the violence that
finds expression in the books of the Prophets, the burning
love of justice, the desperation of the preachers of Jerusalem,
the sorrow and grandeur of the Book of Job, the sensuality of
the Song of Songs. All this is in us, all this is in me, and is the
better part of me. This it is which I seek to feel within me and
to translate in my music – the sacred race-emotion that lies
dormant in our souls.”
Bibliography: M. Tibaldi Chiesa, Ernest Bloch (1933), incl.
bibl.; D.Z. Kushner, “Ernest Bloch and His Symphonic Works” (unpubl.
dissert. 1967); G. Saleski, Famous Musicians of Jewish Origin
(1949), 18–27; D. Ewen (ed.), New Book of Modern Composers (1961),
86–97; G.M. Gatti, in: Musical Quarterly, 7 (1921), 20–38; D. Newlin,
ibid., 33 (1947), 443–59; California University, Autograph Manuscripts
of Ernest Bloch at the University of California (1962); Sendrey, Music,
index; Grove, Dict; Baker, Biog Dict.
[Dika Newlin]
BLOCH, ERNST (1885–1977), German philosopher. Bloch
was born in Ludwigshafen, studied philosophy, musicology,
and physics at the universities of Munich and Wuerzburg,
and became doctor of philosophy under the direction
of O. Kuelpe with a dissertation on “Rickert und das Problem
der modernen Erkenntnis.” From 1908 to 1912, he studied in
Georg Simmel’s seminary of philosophy and sociology in Berlin;
from 1912 to 1914, he lived in Heidelberg, where he was a
permanent guest in Max Weber’s seminary. Living in Munich
and Garmisch from 1914 to 1917, he was close to the expressionist
painters. As a pacifist and opponent of the regime of
German Emperor William II, he lived in exile in Switzerland
from 1917 to 1919. In his essay “Symbol – die Juden” (1911/12),
which begins with the assertion, “The pride in being Jewish is
now again awakened,” Bloch analyzes the principal characteristics
of Jewish identity in the era of modernity. His first book,
Geist der Utopie (1918, 1923; Spirit of Utopia, 2000), which includes
“Philosophy of Music,” is a metaphysical inquiry into
the question of self-recognition and self-identity, marked by
the influence of romanticism, mysticism, socialist utopianism,
and both Christian and Jewish religiosity. Thomas Muenzer als
Theologe der Revolution (1921) is marked by a revolutionary
romanticism and simultaneously by the effort to bring to the
fore the forgotten and repressed history of a radical messianic
tendency in German Protestantism (linked to the Peasant’s
Revolt in the 16th century) opposed to Martin Luther. Three
years after the publication of Spuren (“Tracks,” 1930) – a book
which has often been compared to the Einbahnstrasse by Walter
*Benjamin, he was forced to leave Germany and live as a
refugee in Switzerland, Austria, France, and Czechoslovakia.
Erbschaft dieser Zeit, published in Zurich in 1935, explains the
rise of Nazism by the phenomenon of “uncontemporaneousness
(Ungleichzeitigkeit) in the consciousness of the German
middle class. Leaving Prague in 1938, six months before the
invasion of the Czech Republic by Nazi Germany, he emigrated
via Poland to the United States, where he wrote his major
work, Das Prinzip Hoffnung (The Principle of Hope), whose
original title had been Träume vom besseren Leben (“Dreams
of Better Life”) – a great compendium of all the forms of wishful
and utopian thinking in culture, religion, architecture,
music, etc., based on the theory of the “antizipierendes Bewusstsein”
(“consciousness in anticipation”). It also outlines
a “philosophy of praxis” as “humanity in action, linking messianic
hope and the Marxist project of the transformation of
world. By the mediation of the category of “possibility,” wishes
are to be transformed into real human praxis. The second
volume, Freiheit und Ordnung Abriss der Sozialutopien, is not
only a synopsis of all manifestations of utopian thought in the
history of philosophy, literature, architecture, music, etc., but
also contains a chapter on Zionism (“Altneuland, Programm
des Zionismus”), where Bloch’s main concern is to criticize
Theodor Herzl’s “bourgeois Zionism” and to assert that Judaism
should not become a territorial nationalism but acknowledge
and preserve the best that was in Moses Hess’ Utopia and
transform it into a messianic international socialism. During
his exile in the United States, Bloch also wrote Subjekt-Objekt.
Erlaeuterungen zu Hegel (1951, enlarged ed.1962). In 1949, he
returned to Europe, accepting a professorship in philosophy
in Leipzig and the direction of the Institute of Philosophy. In
December 1956, after the bloody repression of the Hungarian
uprising by the Russians, he was publicly denounced by the
Neues Deutschland (the official journal of the East German
Communist Party S.E.D.) as a “revisionist,” an “idealist,” and
a “mystical” philosopher, distracted by historical and dialectical
materialism. After a political campaign against him, he
finally was obliged to accept compulsory retirement in 1957.
In August 1961, during a visit to the German Federal Republic,
frightened by the news of the construction of the Berlin wall,
he resolved not to return to Leipzig but to stay in Tuebingen,
where he taught until his death. During the Six-Day War in
June 1967 he was the most vocal speaker in an assembly organized
at Frankfurt University to proclaim Israel’s right to exist
(“Frieden im Nahen Osten,” 1967). During the 15 years of his
last period, Bloch dedicated himself entirely to the publication
of his complete writings (Gesamtausgabe) in 16 volumes,
published by Suhrkamp. These included Naturrrecht und menschliche
Wuerde (1961; Natural Law and Human Dignity), Philosophische
Aufsaetze zur objektiven Phantasie (1969), Atheismus
im Christentum (1968), Politische Messungen, Pestzeit,
Vormaerz (1970), and Experimentum Mundi (1975). Tendenz-
Latenz-Utopie, including the Gedenkbuch fuer Else Bloch-von-
Stritzky (Memorial Book for Else Bloch-von-Stritzky, Bloch’s
first wife), followed in 1978.
Bibliography: S. Marcun, Ernst Bloch in Selbstzeugnissen
und Bilddokumenten, rowohlt (1977); B. Schmidt (ed.), Materialien
zu Ernst Blochs “Das Prinzip Hoffnung” (1978); R. Traub and H. Wieser
(eds.), Gespraeche mit Ernst Bloch (1975); Utopie-marxisme selon
Ernst Bloch. Hommages publiés par Gérard Raulet (1976); A. Muenster
(ed.), Tagtraeume vom aufrechten Gang.Sechs Interviews mit Ernst
760 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3