Metadata: Leer City
Collection
- Country:
- Germany
- Holding institution:
- Leer Municipal Archive
- Holding institution (official language):
- Stadtarchiv Leer
- Postal address:
- Rathausstrasse 1, 26789 Leer
- Phone number:
- +49 491 9782-546
- Email:
- archiv@leer.de
- Reference number:
- Rep. 01
- Title:
- Leer City
- Title (official language):
- Stadt Leer
- Creator/accumulator:
- Leer city council
- Date(s):
- 1550/1962
- Language:
- German
- Extent:
- 4,361 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- This collection includes, among others: Purchase of the synagogue at Heisfelderstrasse 44, the Jewish school at Ubbo–Emmius–Strasse and a pasture at the Jewish cemetery according to the purchase contract dated 6 June 1939; demolition of the ruins of the synagogue; instructions; bills; 1938-1939 (no. 953); request of Isaak Hirsch concerning licensing, 1853 (no. 1021); Jewish traders, 1871-1874 (no. 1226); building request of the butcher Meier Pels, 1898 (no. 1566); construction of a new synagogue for the Jewish Congregation of Leer, 1793-1794 (no. 3301); inventory of the synagogue congregation, 1849 (no. 3302); applications of Jews to carry out a trade, 1824-1846 (no. 3303); marriage contracts of Jews, 1820-1869 (no. 3304); the annual records of births, Bar Mitzvahs, marriages and deaths in the Jewish Congregation, 1816-1854 (no. 3305); the requests of foreign (fremde) Jews for the right to live in this city, 1835-1852 (no. 3306); elections for head of the synagogue congregation, 1872-1889, 1893-1925 (no. 3307; 3308); school and congregational affairs of the Jews, 1881-1905 (no. 3309); payment for religious education in the Jewish congregation, 1886-1902 (no. 3310); Jewish affairs: general affairs (Generalia) and particular affairs (Specialia), 1820-1885, including instruction for Jewish teachers, 1855 and statute for the Israelite Congregation of Leer, 1866 (no. 3311); collection of contributions to the salary of the rabbi from the Jews of Leer, 1820-1840 (no. 3312); requests of Jews for the permission to start a trading business, 1846-1860 (no. 3313); statute of the local Israelite congregation, 1865-1913 (extensive), including a brochure, 1866 (15 pages), with a name list of the seating arrangement, 1880 (no. 3314); amendment of §23 of the statute of the Synagogue congregation, 1896-1921 (no. 3315); negotiations on the establishment of an auxiliary butcher in the Israelite congregation of Leer and amendment of §22 of the congregational statute, 1878-1883 (no. 3316); birth, marriage and death lists of the Jews, 1843-1876 (no. 3317); the Jewish congregational parnasses and their salaries in the city of Leer, 1775-1811 (no. 3318); synagogue congregation of Leer (no. 3319); complaints about disturbing the service in the synagogue of the Jews, 1816-1865 (no. 3320); school fees to be paid by the Jews, 1803-1809 (no. 3321); administrative calculation by the synagogue congregation of Leer, 1937 (no. 3322; 3323); Jewish (congregational?) income register (Hebebuch), 1937 (no. 3324); various affairs regarding Jews, 1818-1888 (no. 3325); affairs of the Jewish Congregation of Leer, 1866-1916, including the congregational statute of 1866 (no. 3326); unauthorised shechita (kosher slaughter), 1889-1923 (no. 3327); election of the heads of the Jewish Congregation, 1844-1870 (no. 3328); the “Fortsetzung“ [? deportation] of Jews, including a list of Jews with date and place, 1945 (no. 3329); Jewish affairs: general affairs (Generalia) and special affairs (Specialia), 1888-1891 (no. 3330); investigations against the Israelite Gerson Stokvis and Gertrud Wenninga from Leer for living together without being married, 1849-1855 (no. 3331); admission of Jewish servants from other territories, 1825-34 (no. 3332); implementation of the federal law on the “residence of support“ (Unterstützungswohnsitz) in context of the Israelite Congregation, 1872 (no. 3333); new building of a Jewish school, 1889-1910 (no. 3334); employment of teachers [? for the Jewish school], 1825-1887 (no. 3335); admission of Jews as citizens, 1844-1857 (no. 3336); school matters of the Jews, 1843-1880, including a building outline, a listing of Jewish teachers and a parental complaint letter 1880 to the magistrate (no. 3337); provisional employment of Hameide de Vries as a needlework teacher at the Jewish elementary school in Leer, 1891-92 (no. 3338); disturbance (Ruhestörung) in the synagogue, 1868-1934 (no. 3339); building of a new synagogue, 1879-1892, including a festive program for the inauguration of the new synagogue, 1885 (no. 3340); building of a new synagogue, 1880-1917 (no. 3341); decree of a cemetery order in the Jewish congregation, 1893-1897 (no. 3342); statutes of the Synagogue congregation, 1887-1937 (no. 3344; 3345); Jewish matters in general, 1939-1940, including the passport of family de Levie, 1937 (no. 3346); Jewish matters in general and “actions“ (against Jews), 1938 (no. 3347); synagogue congregation and Jewish school, 1932-1940 (no. 3348); Jewish property, 1938-1944 (no. 3349; 3352); Jewish real estate, 1938-1940 (no. 3350; 3351); general pverview of the Jewish houses in the district of Leer, 1767 (no. 3390); application for a redemption bond (Ablösungsanleihe) with draws (Auslosungsscheinen) for the bondholder 438, the Synagogue congregation of Oldenburg, 1926-1927 (no. 3477); a by-pass (street) on (former) Jewish property, including a copy of a visit on 7 February 1939, 1937-1939 (no. 4007); acquisition of Jewish properties for the bypass, 1939 (no. 4124); staff (personnel) forms of the “Jewish unskilled workers“ employed by the city administration, 1938-1940 (no. 4318); sale of land to the Jewish congregation in the Groninger Strasse to enlarge and straighten the Jewish cemetery, 1930-1931 (no. 4635; 4636; 4536), the purchase of the property of the Jewish cemetery at the Groningerstr., 1940-1950 (no. 3856); resident registration cards of the Jewish inhabitants, n.d. (no. 4589).
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
From 1464 to 1806 the region East Frisia (Ostfriesland) formed the county of East Frisia, becoming the Principality of East Frisia in 1667. During this time it was a part of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1744 the area fell to Prussia, from 1806 to 1810 it was a part of the Napoleonic satellite state "Kingdom of Holland", from 1810 to 1813 a part of Napoleonic France, until finally from 1815 to 1866 Prussia again became a part of the kingdom of Hannover. With the annexation of Hannover by Prussia, the area was again administered by Prussia and in 1871 also became part of the Prussian-dominated German Empire. This remained the case beyond the time of the Weimar Republic. During National Socialism from 1939 to 1945 it formed part of the so-called “Gau Weser-Ems“. After the Second World War it became in 1946 a part of the newly formed federal state of Lower Saxony in the administrative district Aurich. Since then it has been a part of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Jewish residents in the city of Leer can be tracked in sources from the year 1602. For Jewish traders the market of Leer was interesting for the trade of grain, flax, wool, livestock, colonial goods or textiles, not for luxury goods or financial business. In a general decree of 1645 about the Jews in East Frisia by count Ulrich II three Jewish names of 35 can be definitely located in Leer. The Jewish cemetery at Groninger Strasse was probably created in the first half of the 17th century. A storehouse functioning as a synagogue is known since the year 1695 and was located at Kirchstrasse. For the year 1767 it is recorded that 26 Jewish families lived in Leer. From the year 1852 on, the religious education could be organised in the building of the Jewish Congregation at Kirchstrasse, where the apartment of the Jewish teacher was also located, as well as the congregational poorhouse. Between 1883 and 1885 the Jewish Congregation constructed a new synagogue at Heisfelder Strasse. This synagogue was destroyed by the Nazis in the so-called Reichspogromnacht on 9-10 November 1938. About two third of the Jews of Leer were soon after murdered in the Holocaust [Information on the Jewish population of Leer taken from Manfred Wagner: Die jüdischen Familien in Leer und ihre Herkunft. Aurich 2015.]
- Access points: persons/families:
- de Levie family
- Hirsch, Isaak
- Pels, Meier
- Stokvis, Gerson
- Vries, Hameide de
- Wenninga, Gertrud
- Subject terms:
- Antisemitism
- Bar and Bat mitzvah
- Cemeteries
- Citizenship
- Education
- Education--Schools and universities
- Education--Teachers and professors
- Jewish community records
- Real estate
- Residency issues of Jews
- Ritual slaughter
- Synagogues
- Trade and commerce
- Vital records
- Vital records--Birth records
- Vital records--Death records
- Vital records--Marriage records
- System of arrangement:
- The material is arranged in thematic order.
- Finding aids:
- The AUGIAS database can be accessed online only.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://www.stadtarchiv-leer.findbuch.net/
- Yerusha Network member:
- Institute for the History of German Jews
- Author of the description:
- Matthias Springborn, 2019
