Koblenz (Germany)

The collection contains 77 letters and essays by Daniel Lessmann. The letters start in 1813 when Daniel Lessmann was just 19 years old and they continue to the year 1831 when he died.

The diaries in this collection were kept by Sophie Dann and two of her children, Sidonie and Ludwig. In addition to recording the ups and downs of family life, including illnesses, births, and deaths, the contents also reflect various shifts in sentiment and lifestyle over two generations of German Jews. All of the diaries except for the booklet of toasts in folder 9 are accompanied by English translations or summaries.

Various archival materials from archives in Hesse, Nuremberg, Trier, Oldenburg, Regensburg, Maarburg, Mecklenburg, Frankfurt, Cologne, and Luebeck, pertaining mainly to the history of conversion and assimilation of Jews in Germany. The materials were collected by Deborah Hertz for her research on the book “How Jews Became Germans”.

This collection contains a large amount of correspondence and documents of Adolph Bernd's (the father of Janet Isenberg) restitution claims, as well as five family trees documenting the genealogy of the Bernd, Schild, Drucker, Wolff, and Heine families.

The collection holds materials pertaining to the physician and musician Kurt Singer, including some of his musical writings; reviews of his books; correspondence, including letters from Max Friedlaender, Wilhelm Furtwaengler, and Siegfried Ochs, and others. Also included are papers of Kurt Singer’s father, the Hungarian-born Moritz Singer, who served as rabbi in Koblenz, including letters from Helmuth von Moltke and Duke Friedrich I of Baden; and documents from his studies at the universities of Berlin and Jena, including a thesis, as well as academic reports signed by Moritz Lazarus, Heymann Steinthal, and Theodor Mommsen.