Wilhelm Jerusalem

Austrian Jewish philosopher (1854–1923)

Wilhelm Jerusalem (11 October 1854 in Dřenice – 15 July 1923 in Vienna) was an Austrian Jewish philosopher and pedagogue.

Jerusalem studied classical philosophy at the University of Prague and prepared a doctorate entitled "The Inscription of Sestos and Polybios". Until 1887 he was a teacher at grammar schools in Prague and Nikolsburg. In 1888 he became a member of the staff of teachers at the grammar school "k. k. Staatsgymnasium im VIII. Bezirk Wiens" (Bundesgymnasium Wien 8) in Vienna. In 1891 he was an outside lecturer at the University of Vienna. One of his interests was education, and he demanded a change of the educational system in the Austro Hungarian monarchy. Another of his fields of interest was the education of minorities. He wrote a monograph about the education of the deafblind. In 1890 he published a psychological study about the deafblind Laura Bridgman. He is regarded as the discoverer of the literary talent of the deaf blind writer Helen Keller and corresponded with her. They never met personally. From scientific work about the deafblind he developed the Austrian direction of the philosophical method of "Pragmatism". In 1907 he translated William James's "Pragmatism" into German. After World War I he became an associate professor of philosophy and educational theory at the University of Vienna In 1919 he became one of the teachers of the "Schönbrunner Schule" (Schönbrunn School) which came about after the Vice Mayor of Vienna Max Winter had obtained a considerable part of the Viennese Schönbrunn Palace to be used for the advancement of the education of young women, and a small number of men, to become educators and teachers. In 1923, Jerusalem became a Professor of the University of Vienna. He died of a heart attack on 15 July 1923, in Vienna. Among his students were the writer Stephan Hock, the politician Karl Renner, the composer Viktor Ullmann, the poet Anton Wildgans, the philosopher Vladimir Dvorniković and Otto Felix Kanitz.