16 Facts About Moses Hess

Moses Hess was a German-Jewish philosopher, early socialist and Zionist thinker.

Moses Hess's theories led to disagreements with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

Moses Hess was born in Bonn, which was under French rule at the time.

Moses Hess's father was an ordained rabbi, but never practiced this profession.

Moses Hess married a poor Catholic seamstress, Sibylle Pesch, "in order to redress the injustice perpetrated by society".

Moses Hess was an early proponent of socialism, and a precursor to what would later be called Zionism.

Moses Hess was a friend and important collaborator of Karl Marx, who was the editor of the, following his advice, and befriended with Friedrich Engels.

Moses Hess initially introduced Engels to communism, through his theoretical approach.

Marx, Engels and Moses Hess took refuge in Brussels, Belgium, in 1845, and used to live in the same street.

The work of Moses Hess was criticized in part of The German Ideology by Marx and Engels.

Moses Hess fled to Switzerland temporarily following the suppression of the 1848 commune.

Moses Hess became reluctant to base all history on economic causes and class struggle, and he came to see the struggle of races, or nationalities, as the prime factor of history.

Moses Hess interprets history as a circle of race and national struggles.

Moses Hess contemplated the rise of Italian nationalism and the German reaction to it, and from this he arrived at the idea of Jewish national revival, and at his prescient understanding that the Germans would not be tolerant of the national aspirations of others and would be particularly intolerant of the Jews.

Moses Hess's book calls for the establishment of a Jewish socialist commonwealth in Palestine, in line with the emerging national movements in Europe and as the only way to respond to antisemitism and assert Jewish identity in the modern world.

Moses Hess's work did not stimulate political activity or discussion.