Eine jüdisch-deutsche Geschichte: Heines Rabbi von Bacherach

This paper discusses Heine's controversial relationship to Judaism, considering Jewish culture and tradition as a complementary side of Modernity; I focus in particular on the fragmentary and unaccomplished historic novel Der Rabbi von Bacherach. The genesis of this text goes from the beginning of the 20's to 1840 when, under the choc of the so called 'Damascus affair', Heine returned to the work, but was not able – or refused – to bring it to an end. This is not the only case of unfinished prose; on the contrary, in Heine's prosaic works fragments seem to prevail on finished texts. This study tries to establish a correlation between Judaism, Modernity, and loss of Totality; on the other hand, the Rabbi is also important for the way Heine considers History. Although one of his major models was Walter Scott's historic novel, one could hardly find a more drastic opposition to a kind of historical approach, which considers the past as definitely accomplished. Even in his dynamic way of considering past events more in the light of Future and Messianic Awaiting of Redemption, we could see a consistent link to materialistic idea of History and of the past which reaches its own actuality only entering into a constellation with the Jetztzeit of its reception.