Ludwig Börne

• Name — Karl Ludwig Börne • Birth Name — Juda Löw Baruch • Born — 6 May 1786 • Birthplace — Free Imperial City of Frankfurt • Died — 12 February 1837 • Place of death — Paris, France • Resting Place — Pere Lachaise Cemetery • Occupation — Writer Political philosopher • Education — Gießen Halle University University of Heidelberg • Notable Works — (1820) "Juden in der freien Stadt Frankfurt" (1822) Der Esskunstler (1826) Denkrede auf Jean Paul (1829) Mono graphie der deutschen Postschnecke (1829–1834) Dramaturgische Bltter (1837) Menzel der Franzosenfresser

Karl Ludwig Börne was born Loeb Baruch on 6 May 1786, at Frankfurt am Main, to a Jewish family living in the Frankfurter Judengasse. He was the third son of Jakob Baruch, a banker. His grandfather had been a government bureaucrat and funded the construction of a community synagogue.

Börne and his brothers were privately tutored by Jacob Sachs, and later by Rector Mosche. At age 14, he studied medicine with Professor Hetzel at Gießen. After a year, he was sent to study medicine at Berlin under a physician, Markus Herz, in whose house he lived. At age 16, Baruch became infatuated by his patron's 38-year-old wife, Henriette Herz. After her husband died in 1803, he expressed his adoration in a series of letters. When he enrolled at Halle University, she was influential in his boarding with Professor Reil. He abandoned his medical studies in favor of constitutional law and political science at the University of Heidelberg and Giessen. There, he received his PhD in 1809 with the dissertation Ueber die Geometrische Vertheilung der Staatsgebiete. He was admitted to Freemasonry in Frankfurt's lodge in 1808.

On his return to Frankfurt, now constituted as a part of the grand duchy of Frankfurt under the sovereignty of the prince bishop Karl von Dalberg, who had granted the Jewish community broader citizenship rights, he received the appointment of police actuary in 1811. In 1814, he was forced to resign his post because he was Jewish and those limited civil rights were revoked. Embittered by the oppression suffered by Jews in Germany, he took to journalism and edited the Frankfurt liberal newspapers Staatsristretto and Die Zeitschwingen.

In 1818, he converted to Lutheran Protestantism and changed his name from Juda Löw Baruch to Ludwig Börne, in part because he hoped to access better professional opportunities. From 1818 to 1821, he edited Die Wage, a paper distinguished by its lively political articles and its powerful but sarcastic theatrical criticisms. In these years he also wrote some of his major works on the history of Jewish Frankfurt, including Juden in der freien Stadt Frankfurt (1820). Die Wage was suppressed by the police, and in 1821, Börne took a pause from journalism and led a quiet life in Paris, Hamburg, and Frankfurt. After the July Revolution (1830), he hurried to Paris, expecting to find society nearer to his own ideas of freedom. Although to some extent disappointed in his hopes, he did not look any more kindly on the political condition of Germany; this lent additional zest to the brilliant satirical letters (Briefe aus Paris, 1830–1833, published Paris, 1834), which he began to publish in his last literary venture, La Balance, a revival of Die Wage. The Briefe aus Paris was Börne's most important publication, and a landmark in the history of German journalism. Its appearance led him to be regarded as a leading thinker in Germany.

Ludwig Börne is recorded with the occupation opinion journalist. Recorded as a citizen of Free City of Frankfurt. Recorded with the occupation literary critic. Recorded with the occupation poet lawyer.