Germany -- History -- 1789-1900

The Baerwald Family Correspondence Collection primarily consists of a bound volume of handwritten correspondence of members of the Baerwald and related families. The correspondence is arranged chronologically, and dates from 1889 through 1919, with a gap between 1908 and 1919 and only a few letters from each year. The bulk of the correspondence is from Hermann Baerwald, director of the Philanthropin School in Frankfurt am Main, to his sons Paul and Emil and especially to his son-in-law Johannes Behrendt (called Hans) and daughter Elise (called Lieschen), although letters of other extended family members are also present.

Various decrees issued by rulers before emancipation to the Jewish communities of the towns and provinces of Alsace, Augsburg, Austria, Baden, Bamberg, Berlin, Bohemia, Brandenburg, Braunschweig, Breslau, Cassel, Cologne, Dresden, Eisenach, Frankfurt am Main, Hanau, Hanover, Helmstaedt, Hessen, Karlsruhe, Leipzig, Nassau, Nuremberg, Palatinate, Potsdam, Prussia, Rawicz, Rheinfels, Saxony, Schleswig, Schwerin, Vienna, Weinheim, Wolfenbuettel, and Wuerzburg. The decrees concern many aspects of life, including economic activity and taxation, settlement rights, and the regulation of the internal life of the Jewish communities.

Next to a short genealogical abstract, folder 1 contains two handwritten, German letters (one of them in Hebrew script) from Salman Ben M. Warburg (1789) and F.S. Warburg (1827), respectively.

This collection contains the papers of the lawyer and historian Franz Kobler (1882-1965), with the major focus of the papers here on his historical works. Included here are manuscript drafts, correspondence, official papers, notes, newspaper clippings, and a few photographs.

The bulk of the collection consists of materials pertaining to the Friedlander/Friedlaender families, descendents of the prominent banker and member of the Prussian House of Lords, Dagobert Friedlaender (1826-1904) from Kolmar, Posen (Chodzież, Poland). Also included are correspondence and other materials, documenting the efforts of Frieda Friedlander to assist the work of OSE in France and in the United States after World War II.

The Itzig Family Collection contains papers documenting the history and genealogy of the Itzig and related families. Particularly prominent are the careers and significant achievements of Daniel Itzig (1722-1799) and his son Isaac Daniel Itzig (1750-1806). The collection includes family trees, many photocopies of official certificates and letters, an unpublished typescript for a book on Isaac Daniel Itzig and a few copies of photographs of family members.

Correspondence of Karl Adler with individuals, including Theodor Baeuerle, Martin Buber, Alexander Dillmann, Theodor Heuss, Paul Hindemith, Otto Hirsch, Kurt Georg Kiesinger, Paul Rieger, and Hans Walz; correspondence with family members, including letters written as a soldier during World War I and the November Revolution.

This collection contains a wide variety of documents and papers pertaining to the family of Ernst Mathias, including several documents pertaining to his ancestors, some of whom were physicians, and others who were manufacturers who served the Prussian court in the 19th century.

This collection contains documents on the history of the Berolzheimer family, as well as family trees of the Berolzheimers and related families.

The Milch Family, Breslau Collection consists of documents pertaining to the Milch, Kauffmann and Silbergleit families, including official documents, family trees, correspondence, unpublished manuscripts and newspaper clippings. The bulk of the collection consists of the papers of the literary historian Werner Milch.

The collection documents a very wide spectrum of Paul Rieger’s writings and interests. Series I contains personal documents such as his ordination certificate as well as Rieger’s correspondence. The most extensive part of the collection is Series 2: Writings, which contains a variety of manuscripts, articles, notes, index cards, correspondence, excerpts and lectures. Rieger’s articles cover a wide scope of topics, incuding Jewish and non-Jewish issues. His main work however, was Zur Geschichte der Juden in Rom. Series 3 holds a vast amount of off-prints about different subjects, such as on Jewish and non-Jewish topics, on Palestine and Israel as well as on Leo Baeck. Series 4 consists of Jewish, Yiddish, Israeli and German newspapers, and newsletters of Jewish communities in Germany. Series 5: Varia covers miscellaneous documents, such as letters of protection, legal documents, an abundance of marriage contracts, original signatures of Jewish personalities such as of Martin Buber and a record of the first meeting of the Centralverein deutscher Staatsbuerger juedischen Glaubens. There are also various pictures and drawings of different places, synagogues and people. Series 6: Oversized Materials contains Hebrew learning material, newspapers and fliers of Germany as well as Nazi propaganda.

The Rosenfeld Family Collection comprises several generations of official and personal papers of this family of cantors and physicians. Included are a large number of certificates and other official documents from government and military offices, religious authorities, and academic and professional institutions. There are also a few family letters and essays, notes, family trees and genealogical descriptions and various other material.

This collection includes material on the Simonis family as well as genealogical notes for four hundred Jewish families from Sweden, Berlin, and northern Germany, covering the period from the sixteenth through the twentieth century.

Certificates of honor, titles, clippings, and offprints by and about the physician Dr. S. Theodor Stein, most noteworthy letters from crowned European individuals.

This collection contains a copy of a privately printed genealogical chronicle of the Windmüller family and of the Jewish community of Beckum, as well as original materials regarding the Windmueller's resettlement from Germany to the United States, including appraisal and sale documents for their factory in Beckum.