Leopold Zunz and the Meanings of <i>Wissenschaft</i>.

When Jewish historians narrate the history of their field, they often point to Leopold Zunz (1794-1886) as its founder. My article challenges the notion that Zunz's early understanding of Wissenschaft was primarily historical. Reconstructing the meaning of Wissenschaft for Zunz in its context, I argue that it was more philosophical than historical and closely linked to an ideal of character formation. Zunz's view of Wissenschaft reveals the ways in which German idealist philosophy, neo-Humanist manifestos, and a Romantic religious reform agenda could produce a scientific interest in the human past that seems at odds with central tenets of historicism.