Moses Mendelssohn

Moses Mendelssohn
Portrait by Anton Graff (1773)
Born	(1729-09-06)6 September 1729 Dessau, Anhalt-Dessau
Died	4 January 1786(1786-01-04) (aged 56) Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia
Children	Joseph Abraham Nathan Brendel Recha Henriette
Era	18th-century philosophy
Main interests	Metaphysics · Philosophy of religion
Signature

Moses Mendelssohn (6 September 1729^{[note 1]} – 4 January 1786) was a German-Jewish philosopher and theologian. His writings and ideas on Jews and the Jewish religion and identity were a central element in the development of the Haskalah, or 'Jewish Enlightenment' of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Born to a poor Jewish family in Dessau, Principality of Anhalt, and originally destined for a rabbinical career, Mendelssohn educated himself in German thought and literature. Through his writings on philosophy and religion he came to be regarded as a leading cultural figure of his time by both Christian and Jewish inhabitants of German-speaking Europe and beyond. His involvement in the Berlin textile industry formed the foundation of his family's wealth.

His descendants include the composers Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn; Felix's son, chemist Paul Mendelssohn Bartholdy; Fanny's grandsons, Paul and Kurt Hensel; and the founders of the Mendelssohn & Co. banking house.
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