Max Samuel House

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Max Samuel House

The Max-Samuel-Haus is a villa in Rostock that has housed the Foundation Meeting Center for Jewish History and Culture in Rostock since 1991 . Cultural events such as readings, exhibitions and concerts take place in the house, and an extensive library offers non-fiction literature on Jewish history and culture .

History of the house

The Villa Schillerplatz 10 in the Steintor-Vorstadt was built in 1912 by the Laager architect and master builder Paul Korff for the physiologist Hans Winterstein , who sold it in 1919 when he left Rostock. In 1921 they bought Max Samuel (1883–1942), a Rostock shoe manufacturer (EMSA-Werke). The house was demolished on November 9, 1938 . The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Plant Research then used the house as a laboratory until 1945 . After the end of the war, the Rostock Kulturbund sat here, and later the municipal school authorities. From 1955 to 1991 the house was used as a day care center.

In August 1991 Max Samuel's son Herbert Samuel donated the restored villa in Rostock to the newly established foundation.

Establishment and activities of the foundation

The first initiatives to research more closely the Jewish history of Rostock, which had been forgotten after the expulsion and extermination of the Jews, came about in the final phase of the GDR. In 1990, in the year of reunification , the first association was founded, from which the Foundation Meeting Center for Jewish History and Culture in Rostock emerged . The purpose of the foundation is to promote active tolerance for people of different religions, nationalities, worldviews and ways of life. So the foundation is not limited to Jewish issues.

The foundation organizes events and projects on Jewish culture and history in Rostock and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . Another focus is the suppression of xenophobic and anti-Semitic attitudes in society, which is to be promoted through relevant youth and educational work. The focus was initially on helping the Rostock Jewish community , which has been reorganized since 1990, as well as maintaining contact with Jewish people with roots in Rostock such as Yaakov Zur , who were able to flee the city from the Nazi persecution and are now scattered around the world. Several study trips to Israel were also carried out.

The Max-Samuel-Haus is funded by the city of Rostock and the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The foundation has been supported by the Association of Friends and Patrons of the Max-Samuel-Haus eV since 1993 .

For 2013 the Ministry of Education cut the grants by 7,000 euros. According to the employees, this endangers the existence of the foundation. The Ministry of Education is considering a repayment of 32,000 euros due to the use of funds not in accordance with the application in the past. The Rostock public utility, OstseeSparkasse Rostock and the municipal housing company WIRO have pledged financial aid .

The Max Samuel family

Max Samuel

Samuel took over the chairmanship of the Israelite community in Rostock in 1923 , succeeded in moving the state rabbinate from Schwerin to Rostock in 1926 and was also chairman of the Israelite Upper Council of the Israelite state community Mecklenburg-Schwerin , the regional association of the Jewish communities in Mecklenburg-Schwerin , from 1930 to 1938 . From 1933 he took care of, among other things, the possibility of emigration for oppressed Jews and the Jewish cemeteries. In the spring of 1938, Max Samuel also went to Blackburn , England , where he died in 1942.

Herbert Samuel

Herbert Samuel, the son of Max Samuel, was born in Güstrow in 1907 , passed his Abitur in 1925 at the Large City School Rostock and completed his law studies at the University of Rostock with a doctorate in 1932 . Because he was not allowed to practice law because of the racial laws, he emigrated to England in 1934, where he successfully set up a subsidiary of his father's factory near Blackburn. Many Jewish emigrants received his support. After the war he worked as a lawyer in Great Britain. Herbert Samuel died in 1992 in Lower Darwen near Blackburn. In his memory, the foundation annually awards the "Herbert Samuel Prize for special services to the promotion of active tolerance".

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ max-samuel-haus.de accessed on August 1, 2011.
  2. ↑ Ministry of Education, Science and Culture Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: Continuation of the work of the Foundation Meeting Center for Jewish History and Culture in Rostock secured for 2005. Rostock / Schwerin, February 14, 2005 (online ; accessed July 26, 2008)
  3. ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: benefit concert to save Max-Samuel-Haus. ) In: Ostseezeitung. April 2, 2013 (accessed April 4, 2013)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.ostsee-zeitung.de
  4. ↑ See Herbert Samuel's matriculations in the Rostock matriculation portal

Coordinates: 54 ° 4 ′ 40 ″  N , 12 ° 8 ′ 12.1 ″  E