Samuel Meyer Ehrenberg Collection

Samuel Meyer Ehrenberg was born Samuel Meyer around 1773 and studied at home until he went to the Samson'sche Talmudschule in Wolfenbuettel, a small town near Braunschweig, in 1798. After 5 years spent under difficult conditions he moved in with his brother in Berlin and later became a private teacher in Brandenburg. He then moved to Hannover, where he became friends with his Professor and moved on to Braunschweig, where he was able to become acquainted with Professor Israel Jacobson and other famous intellectuals of the time. Because of his academic surroundings he was asked to become the Inspektor for the Samson'che Freischule in Wolfenbuettel, a school created by merging the preexistent Jakobsonschule and the Samson'sche Talmudschule in 1807. There he was responsible for the reformation of the whole organization, among other things by introducing an ordered schedule, something that had not previously existed in those schools. His system was founded on the ideals of Enlightenment, which was still a controversial thing in the small town of Wolfenbuettel.

In 1808 he married his cousin, Henriette (Jette) Maas and changed his name to Samuel Meyer Ehrenberg. He died on October 21, 1853.

Philipp Ehrenberg (1811-1882) was the son of Samuel Meyer Ehrenberg; he married Julie Fischel in 1847.

Seligman Meyer Ehrenberg (1770-1842) was the brother of Samuel Meyer Ehrenberg and the warden (Hausvater) at the Jacobson-Schule in Seesen.