JELLINEK, HERMANN (1822–1848), writer, journalist, and revolutionary; younger brother of Adolf *Jellinek. While living in Prostejov (Prossnitz) and Prague, he studied independently and was taught languages by his brother. He studied in Prague and Leipzig. Jellinek first attracted attention through his lecture opposing the philosophy of Leibniz, delivered at Leipzig University on the occasion of Leibniz's 200^th anniversary. Although Jellinek received a doctorate, he was expelled from Leipzig for his political activity. In reaction, he published Das Denunciation System des saechsischen Liberalismus und das kritisch-nihilistische System Hermann Jellineks (1847). Moving to Berlin, where he was in close contact with Bruno *Bauer, he pursued his radical revolutionary course, thereby alienating his brother Adolf. A third brother, R. Haraszti-Jellinek, owned the trolley car company of Budapest, Hungary. Expelled from Berlin for political reasons, Jellinek went to Vienna in March 1848. As a means of supporting himself, Jellinek turned to journalism, writing fiercely radical articles against the Hapsburg regime in the Allgemeine Oesterreichische Zeitung and later in Der Radikale. With the failure of the 1848 Revolution in Vienna, and with the declaration of martial law, his friends advised him to escape, but he remained and was arrested. Field Marshal Windischgraetz blamed the press for the events of the revolution and accused Jellinek and his friend A. Becher. A military tribunal sentenced both to death by hanging, but only Jellinek was executed on November 23. Adolf *Fischhof has suggested that Jellinek was selected for execution because he was a Jew and Becher, a Protestant. Jellinek's works include Uriel Acostas Leben und Lehre (1847) and Die Taeuschung der aufgeklaerten Juden und ihre Faehigkeit zur Emancipation (1847). In the latter he mocks the aspirations of Jews who attempt to attain equal rights by presenting Judaism as an enlightened religion which suits the demands of the age of Enlightenment.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

E. Lehmann, H. Jellinek zur Erinnerung (1848); C. Wurzbach (ed.), Biographisches Lexikon, 10 (1863), 157–60; ADB, 50 (1905), 649–50; J.A. Helfert, Die Wiener Journalistik im Jahre 1848 (1877), index; Oesterreichisches Biographisches Lexikon, 3 (1962), 102; A. Kober, in: JSOS, 10 (1948), 133–62 passim; S.W. Baron, ibid., 195–218 passim.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.