The Mirwitz Family

Collection description

Scope and content:: The collection of the Mirwitz family includes materials and correspondence on personal issues, as well as papers and correspondence reflecting the family's business activities: correspondence on the management of real estate in Berlin and corporate data on D. Mirwitz and Sons, the company owned by the family.

Archival history:: The materials constituting the current collection were acquired by the Central State Historical Archive of Estonia, predecessor of the current Estonian Historical Archives, in 1947.

Administrative/biographical history:: The founder of the joint-stock company D. Mirwitz and Sons, David (Davet) Sholom Mirwitz, was a native of Lithuania. He settled in Tartu in 1872, where he founded a retail business and owned real estate. In interwar Tartu, the firm specialised in selling household and lighting goods.

The firm was nationalised after the Soviet occupation of Estonia in 1940. Two of David Mirwitz's sons were arrested by the Soviets, exiled eastward and died in exile.

Subject terms:: Correspondence; Personal records; Real estate; Trade and commerce

Access, restrictions:: The collection is open for reference at the Estonian Historical Archives, Tartu.

Finding aids:: Basic data on the collection is available at the web portal of the National Archives of Estonia: http://ais.ra.ee, Detailotsing – Leidandmed – EAA.1444.

Data on the members of the Mirwitz family and on the family business can be found in the files of the University of Tartu (EAA.402, EAA.2100), and in the files of the Estonian and the Soviet-Estonian authorities (ERA.891; ERA.916; ERA.R-13).

Yerusha Network member:: Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People

Author of the description:: Tatjana Schor, Historical Archives of Estonia, and Alex Valdman, Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, 2015