This study on conceptual history indicates how German-Jewish authors writing between 1750 and 1850 pitted definitions of their own against the general notions of 'nation', 'fatherland', 'patriotism', and 'nationalism' emerging in that period. This process is regarded against the background of their cultural and (incomplete) legal emancipation. The definitions were influenced not least by the Jewish origins of the authors in question. As a response to the dangerous growth of nationalism in the 19th century, they are very largely geared to the cosmopolitan view of patriotism typical of the German enlightenment.