Adolf Eckstein

Adolf Abraham Eckstein ( June 10, 1857 in Nitra , Austrian Empire - January 12, 1935 in Bamberg ) was a German rabbi and representative of liberal Reform Judaism in Germany. As a historian, he wrote numerous monographs and essays on the history of the Jews in Franconia . In his work, he repeatedly addressed the Bavarian Jews' love of their homeland and their ties to German culture.

Life

Adolf Eckstein received Jewish lessons in the Bible and Talmud and attended a grammar school in the Hungarian-Slovakian Nitra. From 1875 he studied at the teacher training college in Berlin. After his exams in 1878 he was first a teacher in Schwerin and from 1882 a teacher and preacher in Kwidzyn (German: Marienwerder). From 1883 to 1886 Eckstein studied at the Institute for the Science of Judaism and at the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin. At times during his studies he was also a listener at the Veitel Heine Ephraim School. In June 1886, Adolf Eckstein received his doctorate in Leipzig with a dissertation on the history of the ancient city of Shechem .

From April 1887 to June 1888 Eckstein was assistant preacher and director of the religious school in Leipzig. In 1888 he became district and city rabbi in Bamberg . He held this office until 1926 without reforming the liturgy. Since its founding in 1890, Eckstein was responsible for the Israelite religious instruction at the New Gymnasium . The construction of the New Synagogue in Bamberg , which opened on September 11, 1910, took place during Eckstein's tenure . Eckstein played a key role in the planning of this representative structure, which contemporaries described as “monumental”. Particular emphasis was placed on the abandonment of the use of Greek-Classical and Oriental formal language, attributed to Eckstein, and the reference to the Romanesque and the architectural style of medieval synagogues.

Adolf Eckstein wrote numerous monographs and essays on the history of the Jews in southern Germany. In his journalistic work, Eckstein endeavored to highlight the Bavarian Jews' love of their homeland and their ties to German culture. These included writings on the political emancipation of the Jews in Bavaria and the role of Jewish soldiers in the First World War . Outstanding was his history of the Jews in the former Principality of Bamberg , based on ten years of research and published in 1898 , with a supplementary volume published in 1899. In 1902 his study on the Bavarian parliamentarians of the Jewish faith was published as the first volume in a discontinued series of articles on the history of the Jews in Bavaria. In 1905 his work The Struggle of the Jews for their Emancipation in Bavaria followed , Eckstein took up this topic again and again in essays during the following decades. In 1907 the history of the Jews in the Margraviate of Bayreuth was published . Even during the war, Eckstein dealt with the role of Jewish soldiers in the First World War. In 1928 his writing Do the Jews in Bavaria have a right of home? on statistical material from the war. When the high losses among the Jewish soldiers mentioned by Eckstein were publicly questioned in papers such as the Völkischer Beobachter , he provided extensive clarifications in articles in the Central-Verein-Zeitung . Eckstein wrote local history contributions for the Jewish Encyclopedia and for the Encyclopaedia Judaica .

He was a member of the Free Conference of Bavarian Rabbis, Chairman of the Association for Jewish History and Literature in Bamberg and a member of the Hebrew Literature Association Mekize Nirdamim .

Adolf Eckstein was married to the daughter of the Wrocław rabbi Manuel Joël and, with his brother-in-law Bernhard Pretty, was editor of Joël's posthumous sermons. His daughter Helene Eckstein (born January 31, 1893; died 1944), an employee of the Bamberg Jewish community , was murdered in Auschwitz . She is one of those Bamberg victims of National Socialism, in whose memory a stumbling block was laid in Bamberg .

Fonts (selection)

literature

Wolfgang Kraus , Berndt Hamm and Meier Schwarz (eds.): More than stones ... Synagogue memorial volume Bavaria. Volume I. Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg im Allgäu 2007, ISBN 978-3-89870-411-3 .
Eva Groiss-Lau: Jewish cultural property in the country. Synagogues, realities and immersion baths in Upper Franconia (Landjudentum in Oberfranken, Volume 2), Munich 1995, ISBN 3-422-06142-8 .
Joseph Walk (ed.): Short biographies on the history of the Jews 1918–1945. Edited by the Leo Baeck Institute, Jerusalem. Saur, Munich 1988, ISBN 978-3-598-10477-0 .

Web links

Literature by and about Adolf Eckstein in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Michael Brocke and Julius Carlebach (eds.): Biographisches Handbuch der Rabbis. Part 2: The rabbis in the German Empire 1871-1945. Volume 1 Aaron-Kusnitzki. KG Saur, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-11-048569-1 (two volumes, brochure), pp. 167-169, online database and digital copies , accessed on August 3, 2017.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Max Katten: In memory of Rabbi Dr. Adolf Eckstein, Bamberg. In: Bayerische Israelitische Gemeindezeitung , February 1, 1935, pp. 54 and 59, digitized version , accessed on August 3, 2017.
↑ Alphonse Levy: History of the Jews in Saxony. S. Calvary, Berlin 1900, p. 105, digitized version , accessed on August 5, 2017.
↑ Eugen Brand: The first 25 years of the new grammar school Bamberg (1890-1915) . Gärtner, Bamberg 1915, p. 10, digitized version , accessed on August 5, 2017.
↑ ^a ^b without author: Rabbi Dr. Adolf Eckstein (Bamberg). In: Israelitisches Familienblatt für Groß-Berlin , February 7, 1935, ZDB -ID 551968-8 .
↑ EGL: Rabbi Dr. Adolf Eckstein. In: Central-Verein-Zeitung of January 17, 1935, digitized version , accessed on August 5, 2017.
^ For example, Adolf Eckstein: The war losses of the Bavarian Jews. In: Central-Verein-Zeitung of February 8, 1929, digitized version , accessed on August 5, 2017.

personal data
SURNAME	Eckstein, Adolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Eckstein, Adolf Abraham (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Rabbi and author of books on the history of the Jews in Franconia
DATE OF BIRTH	June 10, 1857
PLACE OF BIRTH	Nitra
DATE OF DEATH	January 12, 1935
Place of death	Bamberg

[Rabbiner-1] Michael Brocke and Julius Carlebach (eds.): Biographisches Handbuch der Rabbis. Part 2: The rabbis in the German Empire 1871-1945. Volume 1 Aaron-Kusnitzki. KG Saur, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-11-048569-1 (two volumes, brochure), pp. 167-169, online database and digital copies , accessed on August 3, 2017.

[Gemeindezeitung-2] Max Katten: In memory of Rabbi Dr. Adolf Eckstein, Bamberg. In: Bayerische Israelitische Gemeindezeitung , February 1, 1935, pp. 54 and 59, digitized version , accessed on August 3, 2017.

[3] Alphonse Levy: History of the Jews in Saxony. S. Calvary, Berlin 1900, p. 105, digitized version , accessed on August 5, 2017.

[4] Eugen Brand: The first 25 years of the new grammar school Bamberg (1890-1915) . Gärtner, Bamberg 1915, p. 10, digitized version , accessed on August 5, 2017.

[Familienblatt-5] without author: Rabbi Dr. Adolf Eckstein (Bamberg). In: Israelitisches Familienblatt für Groß-Berlin , February 7, 1935, ZDB -ID 551968-8 .

[6] EGL: Rabbi Dr. Adolf Eckstein. In: Central-Verein-Zeitung of January 17, 1935, digitized version , accessed on August 5, 2017.

[7] For example, Adolf Eckstein: The war losses of the Bavarian Jews. In: Central-Verein-Zeitung of February 8, 1929, digitized version , accessed on August 5, 2017.