Emanuel Rosenzweig (1843-1906) – a Маn of Modern Time in Austrian Chernivtsi

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the analysis of public activities in a social space of a representative of an economic and social elite of Chernivtsi –a merchant of Jewish origin Emanuel Rosenzweig (1843 – 1906). The characteristic feature of a modern Jewish elite in Chernivtsi during the 19th century was the symbiosis of a Jewish religious tradition on the one hand and of modernity and bourgeois life style on the other hand. The identity and worldview of E. Rosenzweig had been forming under the influence of the ideas of Haskalah, values of the German «higher culture» and of a modern society. The main motive of his activities was the desire for qualitative changes in a sociocultural space of Chernivtsi and self-realization in public life at the same time. The property in the form of a musical store, membership in a number of societies, being in charge of a charitable society, the title of «emperor’s counselor» proved his high positions as a social actor.

Keywords: the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the duchy of Bukovyna (Herzogtum Bukowina), Chernivtsi, мodernity, social space, economic capital and cultural capital, bourgeoisie, social actor