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RSRH- perhaps you think Rabbiner Hirsch was not aware of Zionism?
He was. Did he declare austritt?
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Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch wrote:
“We mourn over the sin which brought about that downfall (the Temple destruction — author), we take to heart the harshness which we have encountered in our years of wandering as the chastisement of a father, imposed on us for our improvement, and we mourn the lack of observance of the Torah which that ruin has brought about. Not in order to shine as a nation among nations do we raise our prayers and hopes for a reunion in our land, but in order to find a soil for the better fulfillment of our spiritual vocation in that reunion and in that land which was promised, and given, and again promised for our observance of the Torah. But this very vocation obliges us, until G-d shall call us back to the Holy Land, to live and to work as patriots wherever He has placed us, to collect all the physical, material and spiritual forces and all that is noble in Israel to further the weal of the nations which have given us shelter. It obliges us, further, to allow our longing for the far-off land to express itself only in mourning, in wishing and hoping; and only through the honest fulfillment of all Jewish duties to await the realization of this hope. But it forbids us to strive for the reunion or possession of the land by any but spiritual means. Our Sages say G-d imposed three vows when he sent Israel into the wilderness: (1) that the children of Israel shall never seek to reestablish their nation by themselves; (2) that they never be disloyal to the nations which have given them shelter; (3) that these nations shall not oppress them excessively (Kesubos 111a).”
And, again, in his commentary on the Siddur, Rav Hirsch writes:
“During the reign of Hadrian when the uprising led by Bar Kochba proved a disastrous error, it became essential that the Jewish people be reminded for all times of an important, essential fact, namely that (the people of) Israel must never again attempt to restore its national independence by its own power; it was to entrust its future as a nation solely to Divine Providence.”
The contradiction between loyalty to the lands in which the Jewish people dwell in their exile and Zionism, was also explained by Rav Hirsch:
“This close connection with states everywhere is not at all in contradiction to the spirit of Judaism, for the independent national life of Israel was never the essence or purpose of our existence as a nation but a means of fulfilling our spiritual mission.”
“Land and soil were never Israel’s bond of union…”
“For this (Messianic — author) future which is promised to us in the glorious predictions of the inspired prophets as a goal of the Galus (exile — author), we hope and pray, but actively to accelerate its coming is prohibited to us.”