What does Enlightenment taste like? On nine Sundays in May, June and July the Jewish Museum Berlin and the Museum Café Lina are offering a journey into the Enlightenment era with breakfast.
The Fromet Mendelssohn Brunch will dish up special culinary discoveries from the Jewish Enlightenment, also known as Haskahlah. On the menu you will find, for example, kurkumen fricassee, broken pea salad, and mulberries with macaron cream. The brunch can be enjoyed before the tour.
Past event
Where
Old Building, ground level, “Meeting Point” in the foyer
Lindenstraße 9–14, 10969 Berlin
The tour into Fromet Mendelssohn’s era begins at 1 pm. In Berlin’s salons, men and women, Jewish and Christian alike, would meet to discuss the issues of their times. It was not only literature and music that were discussed, but also questions of emancipation and belonging – neither women nor Jews had equal rights in Fromet’s era, but much seemed possible.
Fromet, born Gugenheim, met her future husband Moses Mendelssohn in Hamburg. Moses was a frequent guest at her parents’ house. Even back then, culture and politics were discussed at the table – and you can continue this tradition at the Fromet Mendelssohn Brunch!
Portrait of Fromet Mendelssohn née Gugenheim (1737–1812), lost, Fig. in: Moses Mendelssohn: Brautbriefe (Bridal Letters), Berlin 1936; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Roman März
Portrait of Fromet Mendelssohn née Gugenheim (1737–1812), lost, Fig. in: Moses Mendelssohn: Brautbriefe (Bridal Letters), Berlin 1936; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Roman März
Who was Fromet Gugenheim/Mendelssohn?
Fromet Mendelssohn, née Gugenheim (1737–1812), businesswoman and homemaker from Altona, daughter of a merchant, love marriage with Moses Mendelssohn in 1762; their letters document their relationship as intellectual equals
Who was Moses Mendelssohn?
Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786), a leading philosopher of the Enlightenment who championed legal equality for Jews in Germany
A Glimpse of the Menu
Broken Pea Salad: Vegetable Salad with Peas and a Side of History
In the eighteenth century, unripe legumes began to be “broken” out of their shells and were either used fresh or elaborately preserved. Peas were an expensive vegetable. At first they were only available at court, but later the middle classes also profited from this new discovery. Recipes for “broken” peas could be found in all the cookbooks of the late eighteenth century.
Spinach-green Tree Frogs with Kurkumen Fricassee
These frogs are vegetarian! A recipe from the first printed Kochbuch für Israeliten (Cookbook for Israelites), written by Josef Stolz, a Catholic. In the Enlightenment period, he visited Jewish households and peered into people’s cooking pots. And by the way: kurkumen are cucumbers!
Fresh Mulberries on Macaron Cream
The Enlightenment began with mulberries: when Moses Mendelssohn came to Berlin, he was working as a silk merchant. Silk worms eat the leaves of mulberry trees and there must have been a lot of them in and around Berlin. Now you can find out what mulberries taste like!
