Max-Samuel-House

Collection

Country:: Germany

Holding institution:: Max-Samuel-House

Holding institution (official language):: Max-Samuel-Haus

Postal address:: Schillerplatz 10, 18055 Rostock

Phone number:: +49 381 492 32 09

Web address:: http://www.max-samuel-haus.de/index.html

Email:: info@max-samuel-haus.de

Reference number:: no current reference number

Title:: Max-Samuel-House

Title (official language):: Max-Samuel-Haus

Creator/accumulator:: Max-Samuel-House

Date(s):: 1800/1999

Date note:: 19th/20th century

Language:: German; Hebrew; French; Swedish

Extent:: 46 boxes, 22 folders

Type of material:: Textual material; Audio; Photographic images

Physical condition:: good

Scope and content:: The archival collection in the Max Samuel House in Rostock is arranged thematically according to families and individuals (collections on exhibitions), subjects, estates and general information; there is also an extensive photo archive. The relevant 46 archive boxes and 22 ringbinderss mainly contain exhibition and research material in original and copy form, such as letters (correspondence) with descendants, biographical details, photos; film and interview material on CD, DVD and cassette tape. The materials in the individual boxes and binders are generally not arranged.

1. Families:

Greve family (1 box) contains interview with descendant, 3 CDs, 1 folder on Heinrich Otto Greve;

Samuel family (2 boxes) includes correspondences with individual descendants, CD with interview, photos of family members, copy of photo EMSA works, antisemitic leaflets, Samuel in Güstrow, memoirs of Max Samuel's brother-in-law's life (original), "Das Goldene Buch der deutschen Schuh- und Leder-Wirtschaft" 1857-1932 (original);

Zucker/Zur family (2 boxes) contains mostly materials for honorary promotion and citizenship of Yaakov Zur, CD with speech for honorary promotion 1998, texts by Y. Zur (Hebrew and German), Original and reproduced images, 5 CDs, Film by Roza Berger-Fiedler about Yaakov Zur, DVD about Honorary Citizenship;

Katz family (1 box) contains tape with conversation with descendant 1995, DVD film family of David Katz, biographical details of David Katz (1884/1953), 4 CDs and photos;

Josephy family (5 boxes) persons A-Z, family history, photos, 17 exhibition CDs i.a. lists of names and places of origin, 1 CD NDR-Nordmagazin;

Family of Bernhard Dargun from Rostock (1 box) contains biographical details, memoirs, photo reproductions;

2. Individuals:

Gustav Landauer (1 folder) contains copy of essay “"Erschlagt mich doch! Daß Ihr Menschen seid!". Gustav Landauer zum Gedenken”(Ernst Schumacher), biography;

Marie Bloch (2 boxes) 5 CDs for the exhibition 2011, Certificate “Soziale Frauenschule Rostock”, “Pestalozzi-Fröbelscher Privat-Kindergarten. Director Marie Bloch”, inauguration book kindergarten "Marie Bloch" 1989, letters between Marie Bloch and Elly Heuss-Knapp;

Erich Salomon (1 folder) exhibition Erich Salomon 2016;

Kate Diehn-Bitt, painter, and Josif Elgurt, painter, (1 box) contains photos, biographical details of Josif Elgurt, materials exhibition opening, pictures of the painter Diehn-Bitt in postcard format;

Hanning Schröder, composer (1 box) materials from an exhibition 2017-2018, 3 CDs, 1 record composer portrait, copy commemorative publication on Cornelia Schröder-Auerbach (2007), photos (copy);

Bruno Gimpel, painter, (3 boxes, 10 folders) exhibition CD, illustrations of the works, large photo archive, biography, directory of the works in private possession;

Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger, poet (1 folder), loan exhibition 2014 "Die Lyrikerin Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger 1924 - 1942", correspondence (Zentrum für verfolgte Künste, Solingen and Rose Ausländer-Stiftung, Cologne);

Lotte Eisner (2 folders), exhibition 2009 includes exhibition CD: laudatory speech, newspaper interview and correspondence (German, French), copies of newspaper articles (including Völkischer Beobachter);

Dr. Leo Glaser (1 box), chemist, pharmacist, entrepreneur: “Haliflor, Chemische Fabrik für Parfümerie und Kosmetik Doberan/Rostock”, contains mainly correspondence with foreign companies, Haliflor advertisements, house plans, photos;

3. Subject files:

Jews in the GDR (1 box, 2 folders) Exhibition 2015 with newspaper articles, 1 CD film by Ursula Hoffmann (GDR), 1 CD " Zurück ins Leben";

Jewish companies (1 box), exhibition 2017, materials on individual entrepreneurs and shops i.a. Wertheim, EMSA-Werke, Möbelhaus Schoeps, Gimpel und Söhne, Haliflor Compagnie GmbH;

25-year anniversary of Max-Samuel-House (1 box, 1 folder) Photos, construction plans and history of the building, posters, statutes of the foundation meeting place; “Exile in Sweden. Licht und Schatten der Emigration 1933-1945”, exhibition 2014-2015 (3 folders), CD, overview of refugees in Sweden, copies of life reports (Swedish);

“Kunst im Bann der Ersten Weltkrieges“ (Art under the Spell of WWI) exhibition 2014 (1 folder) on the artistic representation of World War events, artists also with reference to Rostock, pictures on CD;

Jewish life in Mecklenburg, general (1 box), collection of typescripts on German history 1933-1945, Jewish organisations, newspapers (1920s), census of the Jewish population 1905, statistics of Jews in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 1901-1933, portfolio Nazi and war crimes (names, events, treatment in GDR and FRG);

Jewish Property/Claims Conference (1 box), list of ownership transfers, streets with photos of buildings formerly owned by Jews, property issues, list of Jewish house and land ownership 1930s, 1945, 1992;

Old Jewish cemetery (1 box) and cemetery (1 box);

Jewish property (1 box) and cemetery (1 box); including documentation from 1992 with photos, list of names, gravestone list, Hebrew inscriptions;

land register Rostock A-Z (copies, 3 boxes);

Rostock synagogue and rabbi (1 box) contains 4 CDs about synagogue and rabbis, exhibition material (photos, construction plans);

Israelitische Gemeinde (Israelite Congregation) Rostock (2 boxes) contain list of members, Weinberg case 1922, copy of congregation order 1906, photo of burning synagogue, Jewish population in Rostock and antisemitic movement;

Neue jüdische Gemeinde (New Jewish Congregation) Rostock (1 box) includes several newspaper articles on Rabbi William Wolff, founding meeting of the “Förderverein Bau der Synagoge Rostock e.V.” (Association for the Promotion of the Construction of the Rostock Synagogue) (5 June 2000), ”Vereinigung für jüdische Geschichte und Kultur in Rostock e.V.” (Association for Jewish History and Culture in Rostock) 1990, negotiations between Max-Samuel-House and Jewish congregation, correspondence between Max-Samuel-House and Ignaz Bubis, building plan of the house at Wilhelm-Külz-Platz, portrait of Rabbi Andrew Steinman in Frankfurter Rundschau, collection of newspaper clippings, correspondence between Jewish congregation Schwerin and Jewish congregation Rostock (1990s), lists of members of the Jewish State Congregation;

“Israelitische Landesgemeinde” and “jüdische Landesgemeinde” (Israelite State Congregation and Jewish State Congregation) (1 box) Correspondence (copy) from the 19th century;

Synagogues in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and cemeteries (1 box) contains documents for the exhibition 1998-99, exhibition concept;

4. Bequests:

Bequest Max Lichenheim (1 box), mainly contains framed views of Rostock, typescript "Escape to Shanghai" (the story of Lichenheim’s escape, recorded in 1983), photocopy of passport and identity card;

Bequest Dr. Siegfried Silberstein (1 box) contains only copies of photos and articles by Silberstein, correspondence;

5. General:

This collection, consisting of 9 cartons, contains newspaper and press articles, books, photos and views, film rolls and tapes; records regarding the renovation of the Max Samuel House, foundation and construction documents, purpose of the house, history of Rostock.

Archival history:: The archive and library in the Max Samuel House are part of the meeting place in the former home of the family of Max and Berta Samuel. The beginnings of the archive date back to the private initiative of Frank Schröder, city archivist in Rostock, and others who began collecting Judaica in GDR times. The building was restituted in 1991 to the son Herbert Samuel, who in the same year established the ‘Stiftung Begegnungsstätte für jüdische Geschichte und Kultur in Rostock" (Foundation Meeting Place for Jewish History and Culture in Rostock) there. The foundation preserves the memory of the Samuels and the other Jews of Rostock and expands it by researching their history and culture in regular exhibitions, publications and events. The association “Freunde und Förderer des Max-Samuel-Hauses" (Friends and Sponsors of the Max Samuel House) was founded in 1994 from among those who had already researched and presented Jewish history and culture in GDR times.

Administrative/biographical history:: Max Samuel was head of the Jewish congregation in Rostock from 1923 to 1938. He ran the office of the Israelitische Landesgemeinde Mecklenburg-Schwerin (“Israelite Congregation of Mecklenburg-Schwerin”, based in Rostock from 1926) from his private residence. In 1992 the Jewish Congregation of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was reestablished. Two years later it was divided into the congregations of Rostock and Schwerin, since Jewish emigrants from the former USSR had moved to Wismar and Schwerin in the 1990s. The first location of the Jewish congregation was the Max Samuel Haus, where services also took place until the Rostock congregation moved into a building at Wilhelm-Külz-Platz 6. For their 10th anniversary in 2004 the congregation moved into their new centre at Augustenstraße 20, only a few metres from the location of the old synagogue (located from 1902 to 1938 at Augustenstraße 101).

Access points: locations:: Doberan; Güstrow; Mecklenburg; Rostock; Schwerin

Access points: persons/families:: Berger-Fiedler, Roza; Bernhard family; Bloch, Marie; Bubis, Ignatz; Diehn-Bitt, Kate; Eisner, Lotte; Elgurt, Josif; Gimpel, Bruno; Glaser family; Greve family; Heuss-Knapp, Elly; Josephy family; Katz family; Landauer, Gustav; Lichenheim family; Meerbaum-Eisinger, Selma; Samuel family; Schoeps; Schröder-Auerbach, Cornelia; Schröder, Hanning; Silberstein, Siegfried; Steinman, Andrew; Weinberg; Wertheim; Wolff, William; Zucker family; Zur, Yaakov

System of arrangement:: The collection is arranged in thematic order.

Finding aids:: A directory is available at the archive only. It comprises index cards sorted alphabetically by name, which include details such as address, date of birth, some occupations, biographical notes and notes about location.

Yerusha Network member:: Institute for the History of German Jews

Author of the description:: Christine Schatz, Hamburg

European Jewish Archives Portal

Metadata: Max-Samuel-House

Collection

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