The Aesthetics of the Musical Salon and Jewish Reform at the Home of Amalie Beer (1767–1854)

Among the Jewish salonnières of post-Napoleonic Berlin, Amalie Beer (1767–1854) was one of the few to remain a committed Jew throughout her life. The home where she regularly entertained her friends and musical celebrities was also host to a popular yet controversial Sabbath service known as the Beer Temple, an early attempt to align Jewish worship more closely with the surrounding German culture. This essay investigates points of contact and exchange between the Beer Temple and the salon of Amalie Beer, placing the aesthetics of the musical salon in conversation with “bourgeois Judaism” and early Jewish reform. Though the organ, choir, and chorales characteristic of the Beer Temple are commonly framed as adaptations of contemporary Lutheran practice, I find that the Temple was equally marked by its parallels with the salon – not only its domestic location, but its visual trappings, sociability, gender politics, and musical functions.