Derenburg (pedigree)

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Derenburg, Dernburg, Derenbourg is a Franco-German family of Orientalists.

• Jacob Derenburg
  • Hartwig Zebi-Hirch Derenburg
    • Jacob Derenburg (1794-), lawyer
      • Joseph Naftali Derenbourg
        • Hartwig Derenbourg
• Heinrich Dernburg (1829-1907)
• Friedrich Dernburg (1833–1911)
  • Bernhard Dernburg, (1865–1937), politician and banker, son of Friedrich D.
  • Hermann Dernburg, (1868–1935), architect

Their original home was Derenburg, a town near Halberstadt, Saxony, whence they moved successively to Offenbach, Frankfort-on-the-Main, and Mayence. Concerning Jacob Derenburg, the first known member of the family, nothing is ascertainable.

His son, Hartwig (Ẓebi-Hirsch) Derenburg, was the author of a comedy, "Yoshebe Tebel" (Inhabitants of the Universe), written in imitation of the "La-Yesharim Tehillah" of Moses Ḥayyim Luzzatto, and published in Offenbach in 1789. He moved to Mayence about this time, as is shown by the fact that he calls himself in his preface "tutor in the family of Mdm. Brendeli, widow of Beer Hamburg, in Mayence". The play was dedicated to "the philanthropist and scholar Solomon Fürth of Frankfort-on-the-Main", of whose son Derenburg had been teacher. Derenburg was buried in Mayence, but his tombstone gives no information regarding the date of his death.

The "Yoshebe Tebel" consists of a dialogue in which eight characters hold converse with one another, each of them in turn representing one of the capital sins, which the adjuster of wrongs, the "Prince of Peace" ("Sar Shalom"), representing the pastor of the community, condemns. Hartwig Derenburg abstains from mentioning names, as, in 1803, did Goethe in his "Natürliche Tochter". But as, in the case of Goethe, the originals of the characters which he put upon the stage under the veil of anonymity could be identified, so the contemporaries of Derenburg must have recognized the members of the Jewish congregation in Mayence to whom the "Prince of Peace" (R. Noah Ḥayyim Hirsch) had addressed a well-deserved rebuke. The "Yoshebe Tebel" was the author's sole preduction of this nature.

Hartwig's eldest son, Jacob Derenburg, born at Mayence in 1794, was a lawyer; his youngest son was the French Orientalist Joseph (Naftali) Derenburg, born at Mayence, France, Aug. 21, 1811; died at Bad-Ems, Germany, July 29, 1895.

[edit] References

This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.

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By : Isidore Singer & Hartwig Derenbourg