Ostwald Family Collection
Scope and Content Note
Series I contains material relating to the Ostwald family. A eulogy for Philippine Ostwald from the year 1934 is included as well as a letter Hedwig Ostwald wrote in Theresienstadt. An English translation of both texts is enclosed. Newspaper obituaries for Max Ostwald belong to this series as well.
Series II relates to the Tendlau family. A short genealogical chronicle that was written by Siegfried Tendlau sheds light on the Tendlau family tree. A translation into English is enclosed.
Most of the material in Series III relates to Alice Witte. Personal writings, official documents, letters (among them is a letter from Karl Siche), the dissertation which Witte wrote on Mercantilism and Maritime Law, references and different certificates and curricula vitae.
Dates
- 1816-1976
- Majority of material found within 1889-1947
Creator
- Ostwald, Lore (Person)
- Ostwald, Martin (Person)
Language of Materials
The collection is in German and English.
Access Restrictions
Open to researchers.
Access Information
Collection is digitized. Follow the links in the Container List to access the digitized materials.
Use Restrictions
There may be some restrictions on the use of the collection. For more information, contact:
Leo Baeck Institute, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011
email: lbaeck@lbi.cjh.org
Biographical Note
Max Ostwald, born on June 6, 1884, in Sichtigvor (Westphalia), was the youngest of the four children of Philippine and Markus Ostwald. He married Hedwig Ostwald née Strauss in 1920 (?), who was born in Arnsberg in 1889. Together they had two children, Martin and Ernest Ostwald. In 1910, Max Ostwald received his doctorate for his dissertation Der Uebergang des gesetzlichen Hypothekentitels bei der Abtretung einer Werklohnforderung from the University of Heidelberg (Ruprecht-Karls-Universitaet). Two years later, in 1912, he opened his law office in Dortmund.
Max Ostwald was involved in the community life of conservative Jews in Dortmund as well as in Bielefeld. In the district of Westphalia he was also the head of the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland.
In 1942 Max Ostwald and his wife Hedwig were sent to Theresienstadt, where he died from disease (a calculus, enteritis and cardiac insufficiency had been diagnosed; a prostate operation had been scheduled). He was survived by his wife and his sons Martin and Ernest Ostwald. In 1944 Hedwig Ostwald was murdered in Auschwitz. Martin Ostwald immigrated to Canada, and Ernest to the United States via England.
The link to the Tendlau family is Martin Ostwald's wife Lore Ostwald.
Alice Witte née Cohen (1889-1976), daughter to Salomon Alfred Cohen and Eugenie Sophie Stern, was the stepcousin of Martin Ostwald. Born in Strasbourg, she divorced her husband emigrating to the United States in 1940.
Extent
0.5 Linear Feet
Abstract
Documents refer to the Ostwald, Tendlau and Cohen families. One focus is on the life of Alice Witte née Cohn. Of special significance is a letter that Karl Siche wrote to Alice Witte. Together with Alice Witte's former husband Max Witte, Karl Siche was detained in a concentration camp. Here Max Witte passed away. There is also a remarkable letter from Hedwig Ostwald, which she wrote in Theresienstadt in 1944, prior to her deportation to Auschwitz where she died. Her husband Max Ostwald, a lawyer and the head of the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (district Westphalia) had already died in 1942 in Theresienstadt from disease.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in 3 series.
Separated Material
Photos have been removed to the photograph collection.
- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
- Berlin (Germany)
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Correspondence
- Eulogies (documents)
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
- Manuscripts (documents)
- Munich (Germany)
- New York (N.Y.)
- Obituaries
- Official documents
- Ostwald family
- Ostwald, Hedwig, 1889-1944
- Ostwald, Max, 1884-
- Ostwald, Philippine, -1934
- Palaestina Treuhand-Stelle
- Photographs
- Siche, Karl
- Strasbourg (France)
- Tendlau family
- Tendlau, Siegfried
- Theresienstadt (Concentration camp)
- Westphalia (Germany)
- Witte, Alice, 1889-
- Title
- Guide to the Papers of the Ostwald Family 1816-1976 AR 11029
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by Matthias Hertle
- Date
- © 2010
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English.
- Edition statement
- This version was derived from OstwaldFamily.xml
Revision Statements
- July 17, 2013 : Links to digital objects added in Container List.
Repository Details
Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository
