Thanks for downloading the in our time podcast for more details about in our time and for our terms of use

Please go to bbc.co.uk forward slash radio for I hope you enjoy the program

Hello in 1763 the philosopher Immanuel Kant entered an essay competition organized by the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin

His effort was highly commended by the judges, but he came second the man who beat him to the top prize worked in a silk factory

His name was Moses Mendelsson

Mendelsson, grandfather of the composer Felix, was one of the most brilliant thinkers of the 18th century

He was a literary critic and philosopher whose works were translated into all the major European languages

Mendelsson was also one of the founding figures of modern Judaism a man who translated the Hebrew scriptures into German

Are good powerfully for religious tolerance and believe that European Jews should not live apart from the rest of society

His writings exerted considerable influence, and today he's widely regarded as one of the key architects of the Jewish Enlightenment

With me to discuss the work of Moses Mendelsson are Christopher Clark, professor of modern European history at the University of Cambridge

Abigail Green, tutor and fellow in history at Brazenose College, Oxford, and Adam Sutliffe, senior lecturer in European history at King's College, London

Chris Clark, we're talking about Prussia

Mendelsson was born in Prussia in 1729. What sort of place was Prussia before we particularised on him?

Well in 1729 when Mendelsson was born Prussia is a pretty unremarkable place

It's not the powerhouse it will later become and there are very few signs of its later remarkable career in German and world history

It's a fairly poor composite monarchy

The heartland of Prussia is the is the province known as Brandenburg around the city of Berlin

But there's a sprinkle of other provinces as well all the way from near the French border up to the Baltic coast

So this is a typical 18th century composite monarchy

But not a very distinguished place by German standards far poorer and less culturally interesting than for example neighboring Saxony to the south

The king was a man by the name of Frederick William I who's become known in history as the soldier king

...