Moritz Daniel Oppenheim (born 1800 in Hanau, died 1825 in Frankfurt am Main) was the first Jewish artist of the modern era to receive academic training. Born in what was once the Jewish ghetto of Hanau, the invasion of Napoleonic troops enabled the young Moritz to access secular education at the local humanistic grammar school and the drawing academy. After educational trips through France and Italy, Oppenheim settled in Frankfurt am Main in 1825, where he painted portraits of contemporaries such as Heinrich Heine, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and the Rothschild family, among others, and became known as the ‘painter of the Rothschilds and the Rothschild of painters’.
But it is not only Oppenheim’s artistic career that makes the subject so fascinating. Moritz Daniel Oppenheim’s life and works are above all testimonies to the democratic aspirations surrounding St. Paul’s Church, as well as Jewish emancipation and the struggle of Jews for legal and social equality in 19th-century Germany, a country marked by revolutions.
The M.D.Oppenheim – learning environment
The learning environment ‘Moritz Daniel Oppenheim macht Schule’ (Moritz Daniel Oppenheim sets a precedent) brings the story of this extraordinary artist to life through multimedia and digital technology!
Consisting of a 39-minute documentary film, extensive accompanying teaching materials, an interactive Moodle course, a free app and an interdisciplinary project week format, this learning environment is unique on the German educational media market. Its aim is to expand knowledge of German-Jewish history beyond the narrative of victimhood.
The Hessian Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs and the Saarland State Institute for Pedagogy and Media / Education Campus have already licensed the digital ‘Oppenheim Learning Environment’ (consisting of the film, accompanying teaching materials and Moodle course) at the state level, so that all schools connected to the state media servers can use it in their lessons!
The film + accompanying teaching materials
The educational film ‘Moritz Daniel Oppenheim macht Schule’ (Moritz Daniel Oppenheim sets a precedent) draws on the first evidence of Jewish life in Germany more than 1,700 years ago and uses the life and work of the painter to trace a line from Judengasse, through the struggle for legal equality and the first democratic aspirations of the Paulskirchen Assembly, to the beginning of the German Empire.
The 39-minute documentary premiered at the end of 2021 in the presence of the Hessian Minister of Culture and has since been awarded the rating ‘particularly valuable,’ among others.
Idea, concept, direction & editing: Isabel Gathof, production: FEINSHMEKER FILM
A comprehensive booklet (PDF) with notes, sample tasks and themed excursion offers for project days and weeks is available as a resource for teachers and allows the film to be used outside of digital environments.
The moodle course
To complement the film, EUROKEY worked with the director to develop a comprehensive, interactive Moodle course.
The course is structured thematically and provides additional information and well-prepared educational questions for further study on the individual thematic focal points of the film. The course can be integrated into the school’s Moodle instance and used both in class and as a supplementary self-study module.
The app
A free discovery app allows users to relive places in the cityscape that have become partially invisible, with themes related to Jewish emancipation, on their own smartphones – enriched with texts, images and short video sequences filmed on location with presenter Eric Mayer (who is particularly popular with the younger target group). Quiz questions turn exploring the city into an exciting scavenger hunt.
A tour of Frankfurt, where Oppenheim later worked, is currently in preparation!
The project week format
Tried and tested in schools throughout Hesse for three years now with top-class cooperation partners: an ‘MDO macht Schule’ project week, which is ideal for the last week(s) of school before the holidays begin, for example, to give pupils creative, interdisciplinary access to German-Jewish history, with Moritz Daniel Oppenheim at the heart of it all.
As an additional offer, school classes, inspired by the ‘M.D. Oppenheim macht Schule’ app, can design their own discovery world app to research, prepare and implement the Jewish history of their hometown as a project.
The cooperation
With her first feature-length cinema documentary after graduating from film school (HFF Munich), filmmaker Isabel Gathof took on the life story of the first Jewish painter with academic training, born in Hanau in 1800, in 2013. After several years of international festival tour with the 2017 release of the world’s first feature film about the ‘painter of the Rothschilds and Rothschild of painters,’ a new educational film was produced specifically for use in schools, created in collaboration with TV presenter Eric Mayer, who is particularly popular with young audiences.
Starting with the question of how to digitally distribute the educational material accompanying the film in a way that was appropriate for the target group, an intensive collaboration developed between Isabel Gathof and EUROKEY. This resulted in the creation of a series of high-quality e-learning materials that accompany the film and round off the offering for schools and further education institutions.
source of supply
The film and all accompanying materials can be licensed through Isabel Gathof, Feinshmeker Film:
Further information
Facebook: facebook.com/oppenheimmachtschule
Instagram: @mdomachtschule
Further projects
We also develop comprehensive accompanying materials for your project based on your content. Please feel free to contact us: