Metadata: Collection, No. 16 – Göttingen Jewish congregation
Collection
- Country:
- Germany
- Holding institution:
- Göttingen Municipal Archives
- Holding institution (official language):
- Stadtarchiv Göttingen
- Postal address:
- Stadtarchiv Göttingen, Hiroshimaplatz 4, 37083 Göttingen
- Phone number:
- +49 551 400 3122
- Web address:
- www.stadtarchiv.goettingen.de
- Email:
- stadtarchiv@goettingen.de
- Reference number:
- G 1, No. 16
- Title:
- Collection, No. 16 – Göttingen Jewish congregation
- Title (official language):
- Sammlungen, Nr. 16 - Jüdische Gemeinde Göttingen
- Creator/accumulator:
- Göttingen Jewish congregation
- Date(s):
- 1934/1971
- Language:
- German
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The extensive collection includes over 3,400 sheets in 32 series, 1 journal, 2 booklets, 1 brochure, 3 small objects (1 seal, 1 stamp, 1 door plate) and contains among others: statute of the congregation; entry of the congregation in the register of associations (no. 1); 1 seal, 1 stamp and 1 door plate of the Jewish congregation (no. 2); alphabetical name register with Jewish names (purpose unknown) (no. 3); member lists of the Jewish congregation of Göttingen from the years (1943) 1945-1952; foundation of an association “Jüdisches Altersheim e.V. Hannover“ ("Jewish Retirement Home Hannover") (no. 4); quarterly reports on the membership status of the Jewish congregation, probably to the Association of Jewish Congregations of Lower Saxony (no. 5); correspondence of the Jewish congregation with offices/departments and private persons (nos. 6-9); correspondence of the Jewish congregation with the Landesverband Jüdischer Gemeinden von Niedersachsen (Association of Jewish Congregations of Lower Saxony) in Hannover (no. 10); notices/circulars of the Landesverband Jüdischer Gemeinden von Niedersachsen in Hannover, the Jewish congregation of Hannover, and the Zentralwohlfahrtsstelle der Juden in Deutschland (Central Welfare Office of the Jews in Germany; ZWST) in Hamburg (no. 11); head of the Jewish congregation (no. 12); restitution documents and compensation claims of Jewish inhabitants of Göttingen and Rosdorf (nos. 13; 14; 15); financial affairs, land register entries etc. (no. 16); account book with income and expenditure of the Jewish congregation (2 pages filled, otherwise blank pages) (no. 17); quarterly statements of revenue and expenditure of the Jewish congregation (no. 18); annual financial reports (nos. 19-21); the Jewish cemetery in Göttingen (nos. 22-23); protests against film screenings by antisemitic director Veit Harlan in Göttingen (no. 24); materials for the Judaica exhibition in 1973 in the Municipal Museum Göttingen (nos. 25-26); correspondence of the Jewish congregation with the Landesverband Jüdischer Gemeinden von Niedersachsen (no. 27); activity report on the Assembly of the Landesverband Jüdischer Gemeinden von Niedersachsen on 4 September 1966 in Hannover as well as minutes of the meeting (no. 28); relations of the Jewish congregation with other Jewish organisations (no. 29); warning circulars from the Zentralwohlfahrtsstelle der Juden in Deutschland, Frankfurt (nos. 30-31); draft of a restitution bill, passed by the Board of Property Control of the Länderrat (“District Council“) in Stuttgart on 20 February 1947.
- Archival history:
-
The 32 titles of the inventory "Jewish Congregation Göttingen" listed so far in the finding book "G 1 Sammlungen" have been revised (review of the contents and terms of the individual items, changes, additions and extensions of the titles, improved indexing). For each consecutive number a header has been added, which is attached to the files. However, since the collection has been used and cited many times, no files have been altered or new ones created. File management is largely unsatisfactory and the content of the files is sometimes inconsistent, with many files neither ordered chronologically nor according to the commercial filing technique ("from bottom to top"). [Status of 2 November 1994].
History of the Municipal Archive: On 1 April 1900 the magistrate transferred the position of an archivist from Dr. Priesack to Dr. Ferdinand Wagner. In the winter of 1902-3, Wagner's first major act was the move from the Hardenberger Hof to the new townhouse. Here, Wagner devoted himself primarily to the cataloguing of the letter collections and provided for the extension of the archive library. In 1934, Dr. Wilhelm van Kempen became Wagner’s successor, the first archivist to practice this profession on a full-time basis. In 1935, the archive was able to expand its premises by purchasing the building of the fraternity "Saxonia" and in 1936 the archive was relocated to the so-called "Sachsenhaus". Until June 1936, a reorganisation of the archive followed. With few exceptions no more files had been transferred to the archive since 1850. Therefore much had to be made up after the enlargement of the premises. In June 1942 many collections were stored outside the city to protect them from air raids. After the war, the collections were brought back without losses. Volunteers and part-time employees helped with the inventory of the material in the following years. From 1974 to 1996, the archivist and historian Helga-Maria Kühn was head of the Municipal Archive of Göttingen. At the time of writing (2018), the archivist and historian Ernst Böhme heads the Municipal Archive and the Municipal Museum in Göttingen.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Göttingen was officially recognised as a town in 1230 as a subject of the duchy (later electorate) of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, but the settlement was already at least 500 years old. Though being a subject of Braunschweig-Lüneburg with a governor residing in the town, it had also been granted self-administration to some degree. As early as the 12th century the town was thus semi-autonomously self-administered by a municipal council consisting of 24 councillors. Jews settled in the town in the late 13th century. On 1 March 1289 the dukes of Braunschweig and Lüneburg gave permission to the Göttingen council to accept the Jew Moses in the city. The Jews lived mainly near the St. Jacobi Church in today's Jüdenstraße. The history of the Jews in Göttingen in the Middle Ages was marked by great suffering. After duke Otto III. had ceded the right of jurisdiction over the Jews to the city in 1369-70, it repeatedly came to bloody pogroms and evictions. From 1460 to 1599 no Jews lived in Göttingen. From 1611 the city councillors were elected by all Göttingen residents with citizen rights. The council elected the mayor. As of 1669 there were only 16 councillors, later twelve. From 1690 on there was a more differentiated government of eight councillors, a city secretary, a special counsel (“Syndikus“), two mayors and a court official (“Gerichtsschulze“). During the existence of the Napoleonic satellite state “Kingdom of Westphalia“ the city was governed by a “Maire“. In 1814 it became a part of the kingdom of Hannover, which in turn became a Prussian province in 1866. During the years of National Socialism (1933-1945) the NSDAP appointed the mayor. After that the British military government formed in 1946 a communal administration based on the British model, when the city became a part of the new German state of Lower Saxony. From then on the heads of the city were an elected “Oberbürgermeister“ (“General Mayor“) and an “Oberstadtdirektor“ (“General City Director“) as head of the administration. The latter position was abolished in the year 2000.
- System of arrangement:
- Files are arranged either by subject order or chronologically.
- Finding aids:
- Printed finding aid: “G 1 Sammlungen“.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Institute for the History of German Jews
- Author of the description:
- Matthias Springborn, 2018