This study investigates the function of the recourse to the messianic tradition of Judaism among German-Jewish intellectuals in the first third of the 20th century. Messianic figures of thought play an important role in the Jewish discourse of identity. Moreover, they are used productively in the creation of general theories in the realm of cultural studies, especially regarding the philosophy of language and history and the theological-political complex. Here, all the considered authors (Benjamin, Bloch, Broch, Buber, Landauer, Rosenzweig, Scholem) secularize Jewish Messianism in one way...