Ansel Hertz

Ansel Hertz (* 1730 in Hamm ; † April 24, 1811 ibid) was between 1763 and 1784 the Shtadlan of the Jews of the County of Mark and lived in Hamm. He is one of the most outstanding personalities in Hamm's Jewish community .

Heart family tree

family

The Anschel Hertz family had lived in Hamm for five generations in the year he was born. Nathan Simon was the first family member to live in Hamm. He probably came from Werne and moved to Hamm in 1644. In 1653 he was granted residence and trade rights, the so-called escort.

Nathan Simon had a son named Simon Nathan , who is mentioned frequently in the Jewish registers.

This in turn had a daughter whose name has not been passed down. She was married to Elias Marcus and died in 1724. Elias Marcus (1645 - between 1707 and 1714) worked as a pawnbroker according to a document dated January 30, 1687.

The couple had two sons: Marcus Elias (1672-1736) and Simon Elias († 1725). Like Anschel Hertz later, Marcus Elias made a name for himself as the head of the Brandenburg Jews. He and his wife Judith (1670–1736) left eight children. Most of them, probably five, had to emigrate because they were not escorted in Hamm. Of these, Aron Marcus and Reske Marcus are known by name.

Hertz Marcus (1697–1773), Aron Marcus and Elias Marcus (1715–1781) stayed in Hamm . Hertz Marcus was escorted by his grandfather, Elias Marcus took over his father's privilege in 1736. The two brothers were successful as merchants in Hamm.

Elias Marcus is documented as head of the Jews for 1707. That year he obtained a petition against peddling foreign Jews. According to a document from 1751, Elias Marcus was married to Sara Josef, who was the same age . They had several children, Wolff (then 12 years old), Markus (10 years), Jordan (7 years) and Rahel (13 years). He had his own house, in whose household Isaak Hertz , the eldest son of his brother Hertz Marcus, lived alongside his 80-year-old mother and a maid .

Said Hertz Marcus is the father of Anschel Hertz. He is also mentioned in a document in 1751. His wife Fricke Jordan was forty at the time. Several children are named: Anschel (then 21 years old), Gelle (14), Marcus (10), Eva (7) and Elias Hertz († 1833). Rachel, another daughter of the two, was already living outside the home at the time. The family employed a maid and a schoolmaster, both of whom lived in their household. Hertz Marcus had to pay 45 Reichstaler protection and recruitment money to the city of Hamm every year. In 1751, his fortune was between 4,000 and 5,000 thalers. Hertz Marcus worked as a money lender and also traded in cloth goods.

Anschel Hertz was married to a woman named Rahel (or Rachel or Rachael) David (1735–1798) since 1755 , daughter of David Josef from Beverungen . The marriage remained childless. Therefore, Hertz later handed his company over to his nephew Elias Marks , who returned from Kamen to Hamm.

Ansel's brother Elias Hertz was married to Lea David , a sister of Rachel David. The couple had six children and owned eight houses, land and other property worth 18,000 Reichstalers.

Life

marriage

The marriage contract for Anschel Hertz, concluded between his father Hertz Marcus and David Josef, the father of his bride Rachel David, dates to the year 1753. With royal permission of October 1, 1754, the copy of November 29, 1754 from Kleve on January 7, 1755 was received by the city council of Hamm , Anschel Hertz was allowed to marry. He was also given the right to sit with his father with him and thus to stay in Hamm. After the general privilege he needed his own fortune for this, which he could show. In addition, his wife brought 1,500 Reichstaler dowries into the marriage.

Commercial activity

As merchants, Anschel Hertz and his brother Elias Hertz, who also lived in Hamm, achieved some prosperity. In 1761, Anschel Hertz bought the house at Oststraße Nro 58, today's Oststraße 12. In contrast to many other Hammer buildings that were destroyed in the hail of bombs of World War II, this property has been preserved to the present day. Today the Pfaff-Bröker specialist shop for sewing machines and fabrics is located in the building. Hertz lived in this house until his death, which then passed on to Hertz Elias, the son of his brother and universal heir Elias Hertz. This was followed by Wilhelm Salomon Kaufmann (documented as early as 1831), who married Rosa Hertz , a daughter of Anschel's brother Elias Hertz. Then the house was passed on to the appellate judge Hartog (occupied from 1866), who lived there in 1878. In 1886 the building was owned by pastry chef Carl Buschmann .

A letter from the Märkische War and Domain Chamber to the Magistrate of the City of Hamm on November 20, 1768 proves that Anschel Hertz and his brother Elias were given permission to operate an open shop in which they were allowed to trade in all non-prohibited goods. However, attached to this letter was a list of all goods that Jews were not allowed to sell. These included raw cattle and horse hides, specialty products such as raisins, almonds, mustard, caraway seeds, as well as raw tobacco and hacking goods such as herrings, butter, cheese, fish, plaice, soap, light, eggs, Schmeer, millet, linseed, grits, barley, pearl barley , Beets, peas, cereals, vegetables and fruits. In general, they were only allowed to purchase food for consumption, as this was a typical commodity of Christian market people. They were only allowed to buy beer and brandy from Christians and sell them only to Jews. They were not allowed to brew or burn themselves. They were not allowed to trade in wine at all. They were allowed to trade in gold and silver, textiles, money, real estate, furrier goods, tea, coffee, chocolate, smoking tobacco, clothing, furniture, household and kitchen appliances. This detailed regulation was intended to prevent Jewish merchants from competing with Christian farmers, craftsmen and shopkeepers in the future.

In addition to his business activities, Anschel Hertz also did business as a pawnbroker.

Schtadlan of all Jewish communities in County Mark

Eventually Hertz was named the shtadlan of all Jewish communities in County Mark . The administrative offices had become necessary because Brandenburg-Prussia , to which the county of Mark had belonged since 1614, had introduced the total tribute in 1656 . Until then, every Jew had to pay an individually determined amount for his escort. From now on all Jews in Kleve and Mark were obliged to membership in a Jewish community and at the same time to pay a community tribute, so that the communities had to pay for their less wealthy members. The community leader had the task of collecting the amount owed from the community members in good time. For the year 1686 this sum can be put at 800 Reichstaler. The community leader should report defaulting payers to the government, which then terminated them. He was also obliged to collect other taxes that had been imposed on the Jews. The office of headmaster was therefore not particularly popular, especially since it had to be carried out on a voluntary basis. At the general days of the Jews , the distribution of the total attribute to the individual members was determined. In this context, the chiefs, who also presided over the state parliaments, were elected. Initially, the state parliaments took place every three years, so that the head of the parliament was also elected for three years. In 1770, however, Anschel Hertz successfully applied for an extension of the period to five years based on the general parliament.

Hertz was elected head of the Brandenburg Jews for the first time in 1759/60. He found a tribute arrears of 1,500 thalers. He was able to correct the default in payment within just a few days and thereby gained recognition from both the Jewish community and the authorities. In February 1763 the Jewish community asked the Prussian king to appoint Anschel Hertz as a shtadlan for life. This was in contrast to the General Privilege, which provided for a term of only three years. War Councilor Nattermöller supported the community's cause in view of the services Hertz had earned for the office. The king thereupon complied with the request of the general assembly of Jews of the County of Mark and appointed Anschel Hertz as headmaster for life. Hertz only resigned from office in September 1784 due to his age and health problems.

During his tenure, Hertz compiled lists of the registered protection Jews in the Märkische cities and districts north of the Ruhr, along with the professions they performed. He recorded the assets that were assessed for the payment of the protection money, issued certificates of the personal and economic circumstances of those Jews who wanted to apply for an escort, and made sure that no unmoved Jews were in the city and the county.

But he also stood up for the interests of individual members of the Jewish community. In 1767 he succeeded in persuading the king to allow the teacher Josef Jordan, son of the deceased protective Jew and chief Jacob Jordan from Unna , to settle in Kamen. He also tried to avert unjustified taxes from the Jews, as z. B. from a letter to the War and Tax Council dated March 31, 1772.

In Hamm, Anschel Hertz made a name for himself through his work for the Jewish cemetery. The Jews were not allowed to be buried in the “Christian churchyard”. Therefore, they were assigned a cemetery on the north wall, which was between the city ​​castle with the attached Renteihof and the Franciscan monastery . After the cemetery wall fell into disrepair, the cemetery was used by Renteihof as a storage place for wood. In 1768, Anschel Hertz signed a contract with General Karl Friedrich von Wolffersdorff which obliged him to build a new wall around the cemetery for 300 Reichstaler raised by the Jewish community so that it could be restored to its original purpose. Around 1800 he succeeded in getting the Jewish community to continue using the old Jewish cemetery on the Nordenwall. The use of the cemetery was actually supposed to end with the opening of the Jewish section of the Ostenfriedhof in Hamm .

The construction of the first synagogue in Hamm in 1768 falls during the term of office of Anschel Hertz. Hertz secured her livelihood by contractually guaranteeing her the interest on a loan that he had granted to the headmaster Marcus Hertz from Hamm, Marcus Elias from Soest, Hertz Josef from Schwelm and Levi Elias from Hamm. For the loan amount of 1,000 Reichstalers, the borrowers had to pay 3% interest annually from August 1807, i.e. 30 Reichstalers, to the Hammer Synagogue. From these funds were u. a. the chandelier needed for the service and the wall for the Jewish cemetery are financed. Ansel Hertz himself donated the property for a school and prayer house.

Mentor and sponsor

Since he himself remained childless, Anschel Hertz used his fortune to support the other members of his family. He took Alexander Haindorf into his house and made sure that he was one of the first Jews to be accepted into the Illustrious Gymnasium , the Hammer Gymnasium, and was able to take his Abitur there in 1807. After that, Anschel Hertz financed Haindorf's medical studies until his death. Hertz was not an Orthodox Jew, but a representative of reform Judaism that was ready for acculturation. As such, he advocated important issues and reforms. He owned a library, paintings, and engravings. So his house was just as influential and cultured, so that the foundation stone for Haindorf's broad educational horizon was laid here. In 1810 Haindorf got engaged to Sophia Marks . Her father was the sole heir of Marcus Hertz, a brother of Anschel Hertz. Her mother was also the eldest daughter of Elias Hertz, who inherited his brother Anschel Hertz.

Haindorf's daughter Sophie, who was married to Jacob Loeb and shared the father's interest in art and culture, later took up her father's art collection in her Caldenhof house , which also includes a painting by Anschel Herz and his wife Rachel David. These paintings have survived to this day and are still owned by the family.

Anschel Hertz also appeared as a promoter of art and culture. For the edition of Bloch's Atlas Natural History, he paid for the copperplate engraving depicting Sciana Linata, a fish from the Mediterranean region.

Testamentary dispositions

The will of Anschel and Rachel Hertz from 1777 shows that the couple also supported other children of the family financially. As the guardian of his sister's children from his first marriage in Kamen, he was responsible for their maintenance until they were themselves in the working life.

Anschel Hertz appointed his brother Elias Hertz and Lea David, the sister of his wife Rachel Hertz, as universal heirs.

On September 11, 1792, Hertz expanded the will. If Anschel Hertz died before his wife and she carried out the Jewish custom of taking his shoes off on him, her brother or brother-in-law Marcus Hertz, who lived in Kamen, should be left with a certain amount as a legacy.

The Hertz couple also decreed that Hertz Elias, son of their brother and brother-in-law Elias Hertz, who wanted to devote himself to his studies, should receive the house at Oststrasse 58, including the back buildings, living space, garden and inventory, including the oil paintings and copperplate engravings , the Müntz cabinet and the book collection. However, the Hertz couple made it a condition that Hertz should marry Elias with the consent of his parents. In the event of his unmarried death, the legacy would go to his younger brother David Elias; in the event of his death, in turn to his father Elias Hertz. In fact, the two brothers died in Heiligenstadt in 1833 .

So the family tried to form a social network in which the weaker person was helped at all times and intelligent family members who wanted to study were given economic security.

See also

• History of the Jews in Hamm

literature

• Mechthild Brand: Between social reality and personal decision. Three generations of women in the Herz family . In: Antje Flüchter-Sheryari, Maria Perrefort (ed.): The forgotten story. 775 years of women's life in Hamm. Workshop reports . Gustav-Lübcke-Museum, Hamm 2001, ISBN 3-9806491-6-4 , ( Notes on City History 7), pp. 237–243.
• Anna Dartmann: The social, economic and cultural development of the Jewish community in Hamm (1327-1943) . City of Hamm, Hamm 1976, ( facts and reports 24, ZDB -ID 236623-x ), p. 44 and P. 47.
• Dörte Wels: Anschel Hertz (1730-1811) and the Jewish community in Hamm . In: Maria Perrefort (Ed.): "There are excellent minds here." The Prussian Hamm around 1800 . Gustav-Lübcke-Museum, Hamm 2008, ISBN 978-3-941100-56-5 , ( Notes on city history 14), pp. 151-164, (exhibition catalog, Hamm, Gustav-Lübcke-Museum, February 8th - May 17th 2009).

Web links

• Hamm-Wiki for Anschel Hertz
• Hamm-Wiki for Pfaff-Bröker