In a class of its own within the Jewish Jesus literature stands the weighty tome (715 pages!), Our Christ, or the essence of genius, by the lately immortalized philosopher, Constantin Brunner (Leopold Wertheimer). Only some essential passages of the content-heavy book can be indicated here. Christ is a mystic, and in order to understand him, we must understand the essence of mysticism.

En 1924, pendant que Hitler, emprisonné après son putsch manqué, rédige Mein Kampf, le parti nazi connaît ses premiers succès en Thuringe. Aussitôt Brunner, philosophe spinoziste, toujours au fait de l'actualité, publie un pamphlet qui s'adresse à tous les Allemands, Juifs et non-Juifs, pour dénoncer les dangers de l'État de non droit qui se dessine.

The Center for Jewish History Digital Collections catalogs a number of artworks depicted Constantin Brunner. There is a portrait by Max Busyn, a wooden head of unknown authorship and Brunner's death mask. All are said to be in the possession of the Leo Baeck Institute in New York, but I have seen a death mask at the Brunnerzimmer in The Hague.

...

A while ago, I posted an item about a portrait of Brunner by Julie Wolfthorn that appeared in the journal Ost und West, and is made available through a digitization project called Compact Memory, "the science portal for Jewish Studies." The database is searchable, and a number of articles by and about Brunner can be found in it. One item that I found was what appears to be a most compelling portrait of Brunner.

The Bulletin Trimestriel de la Fondation Auschwitz has dedicated a special issue to Constantin Brunner (announced here, pdf, p.5-6). Included are an editorial, an introductory essay and an extract from Brunner's Das unglück unsres deutschen Volkes und unsre Völkischen (The Misfortune of our German Folk and our "Folkish").

The impetus for this publication comes from Jacques Aron, a Belgian architect who has made many contributions to discussion of urgent social concerns, and has now taken a great interest in Brunner, whom he discussed in a forum sponsored by La Maison du Livre, an organization devoted to the promotion of "books, literature and writing."

There is much in Aron's introductory essay to reinforce the conviction of Brunner's growing importance for an adequate understanding of our times.

It appears that the Bulletin eventually will place the whole text of the issue (N°98) on its website.

Dr. Aron M. Rappaport was a great Canadian medical innovator. He was also a leading Brunnerian, overseeing the English translation of Our Christ. In 1982, Rappaport gave the annual Sarrazin Lecture (text available here) of the Canadian Physiological Society in which he gave full credit to Brunner's philosophy for providing the intellectual foundation for his scientific insights. Rappaport's contributions to medical science are commemorated in his entry in Milestones of Research in Gastroenterology by Canadians (available here), and in the naming of a University of Toronto laboratory in his honour.

The University of Toronto has a large archive of Rappaport's documents. I am hoping to go through this archive with the object of providing a full assessment of this man's tremendous achievements, which provide an enduring witness to the practical utility of Brunner's thought.