Hamburger, Ernest, 1890-1980

The life of Ernst Hamburger was extraordinarily rich and varied; regrettably, his literary estate does not completely document it. In his flight from Nazi Germany, Hamburger had to leave all his papers behind. With a few exceptions, the same was the case in 1940. It appears he made it a practice to periodically weed his papers. At his request, a friend went through his papers after his death and destroyed two cartons full of personal and confidential material. Consequently, the remaining matter is only a fragment of a much larger life’s work.

The Leo Baeck Institute was founded by representative organizations of Jews from Germany for the purpose of collecting material on and sponsoring research into the history of the Jewish community in Germany and in other German-speaking countries from the Emancipation to its dispersion. The Institute is named in honor of the man who was the last representative figure of German Jewry in Germany during the Nazi period. The Leo Baeck Memorial Lecture is an annual event at the Leo Baeck Institute in New York, when esteemed academics and scholars talk about various aspects of the German-Jewish experience and history, as well as to other, related topics.

The collection contains documentation of the Lessing family of Danzig, including citizenship documents; correspondence with the Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin confirming family members' birth and marriage dates and other genealogical information; letter to the Leo Baeck Institute discussing recent family history; identity card; and family photographs.