David Selver

David Selver, probably around 1890. Source: Darmstadt City Archives

David Selver (born February 24, 1856 in Chajowa (about 15 kilometers southeast of Biaszki ), † May 12, 1926 in Darmstadt ) was a liberal rabbi who had to give up his office in 1907 in a dispute with the Jewish community of Darmstadt. Before their respective emigration, his nephew Heinrich Selver and his daughter Elisabeth taught at the private forest school Kaliski .

Origin and education

David Selver came from the Zelwer family, who lived in a part of Poland “who came to Russia after the Congress of Vienna and was therefore also called ' Congress Poland '. Seen from the southern part of the Prussian province of Posen , Kalisch first came just across the border ; Biaszki was about 30 km southeast of Kalisch ; from there it was another 90 km in an east-northeast direction to Lodsch . The family was probably already resident in this region when the first ancestor took a Polish surname. Linguistically, it could be derived from a town called Zeléw, which was about 25 km southwest of Lodsch, according to the well-known pattern of Jewish name formation (Hamburger, Krakauer, etc.). The name was not uncommon in the region. ”Unlike his three years younger brother Abraham, the father of Heinrich Selver, David was not born in Biaszki, but in Chajowa (also: Chajów), 15 kilometers away. Busemann interprets this as a sign that at the time of David's birth, the father's family was not yet properly established, as Biaszki later became the family's residence. However, she also has nothing to report about David and Abraham's parents.

In the curriculum vitae attached to his dissertation, Selver reported on his training:

“I, David Selver, was born in Chajowa, a Polish village in the vicinity of the town of Blaszki, in 1857, was educated in the Jewish religion and, at an early age, was intended for theology, up to the age of 16, primarily in the writings of the OT u. who teaches rabbis . After I had prepared myself for visiting the university , partly privately and partly at the Gymnasium zu Nakel , I studied in Munich a. Berlin Philosophy, Philology a. oriental languages. Since Easter 1878 I turned back to studying Jewish theology again and attended the lectures given by Mr. DD at the Berlin University for the Science of Judaism . Cassel , Frankl , Lewy , Steinthal . "

What Selver says nothing about here is when he came to Germany and when he latinized his original name Zelwer . There is also no reference to the fact that he was admitted to university without a school leaving certificate , as can be seen from his doctoral file, and that he was also a student at the Veitel Heine Ephraim School in 1881/1882 .

Selvers doctorate took place in 1885 by the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Leipzig, where his admission to the examination was applied for by the linguist Ernst Windisch , who proposed Wilhelm Wundt and Max Heinze as the main reviewer for the dissertation . In Windisch's application for admission it says: “The Matura certificate is missing because Cand. attended grammar school only until Secunda. I accepted the candidate at his risk because he assured that he had studied Latin and Greek diligently, as the Latin of his dissertation here proves, because he is ready to undergo a special examination in Latin, and because he has great confidence in himself Work has. ”At Windisch's suggestion, Selver's work was unanimously accepted“ as a dissertation with the Censur IIa ”and the candidate was admitted to the oral examination, which he passed with the same grade.

Selver had his dissertation “To his teacher, Professor Dr. H. Steinthal ", by which Heymann Steinthal was meant, who had also taught at the HWJ since 1872, but was mainly a professor at the University of Berlin (today Humboldt University in Berlin ). In the curriculum vitae attached to the dissertation, he thanks a large number of previous teachers, but emphasizes one in particular: “I would also like to speak to Prof. Dr. W. Wundt in Leipzig for the benevolent support that he received from him, my warmest thanks. "

The reasons why David Selver went to Gothenburg in 1885 or shortly thereafter are not known . Brocke / Carlebach only know to report that he was rector there, while Busemann concludes from the textbook published by Selver together with OL Löfgren that “he taught German in Gothenburg”. It is also unknown how long he stayed in Sweden, but in 1889 he passed the rabbinate examination at the HWJ and then started his professional career in Darmstadt.

Rabbi in Darmstadt

The calling

Former home of the Selver family at Landwehrstrasse 12

In December 1889 David Selver began as head of the religious school in Darmstadt and, as a rabbinical candidate, was deputy to rabbi Julius Landsberger . As the “Grand Ducal State Rabbi of Darmstadt” and head of the Jewish reform community, Landsberger was a personality who had shaped an era in Darmstadt that lasted almost 30 years. It is not known which reasons were decisive for the fact that the parish council appointed the relatively inexperienced Selver as Landsberger's deputy and a year later, in 1890, as his successor. However, this appointment also established a provisional arrangement that lasted about six years, as can be read in an article in Der Israelit , the “Central Organ for Orthodox Judaism”, from 1893 , written by an orthodox-conservative congregation member : “Probably not a major one The community is likely to have a longer interim provision by the rabbinate than Darmstadt; no municipality also has a board of directors who, with so little energy, urges its superior authority to finally settle the situation as it is now in the municipality and in the province.
The religious community, that is the main community of the residence, has been in existence since the death of Blessed Rabbi Dr. Landsberger without a permanently employed rabbi, since the government, as is allegedly said, will not allow a definitive vote until the question about the relationship between urban and rural Jewry has been resolved. The main community of Darmstadt suffered most from this provisional arrangement, and it is impossible to see when this relationship will end. ”At the time, Selver was appointed director of the religious school for life and also held the office of rabbi, but without a grand ducal appointment .

In March 1891, in addition to a Protestant and a Catholic pastor, Selver had also become a member of the municipal school board, and he remained true to his academic background through membership in the Mekiȥe Nirdamim association .

Memorial stone for the Jewish fallen in World War I at the Jewish cemetery in Darmstadt, Seekatzstr. Paul Selver's name is also engraved on the plaque.

Also in 1891 David Selver married Amalie Neustein (born August 27, 1867 in Nuremberg - † May 17, 1948 in Rugby (Warwickshire) . The marriage had two children: Paul Friedrich, born January 10, 1893, died in the first World War I, and the aforementioned daughter Elisabeth (1895–1991), later married Paul. The couple, and later the young family, initially rented at different addresses in Darmstadt, before they rented an apartment in the one they built in 1908 and which they now have today The existing house at Landwehrstrasse 12. The land on which the house was built was acquired by Amalie Selver's father, Heinz Neuenstein, around 1900 and was bequeathed to his daughter after his death.

On the way to split the Jewish community

There are no traditions from David Selver that could provide information about his understanding of religion and ministry. Busemann describes him as a “culturally assimilated Jew” (which she sees confirmed by the choice of first names for his two children) and as an “important figure in Darmstadt's cultural life. He was friends with Karl Wolfskehl , the expressionist poet and member of the circle around Stefan George . ”And one of the few references in the book Jews as Darmstädter Bürger published by Eckhart G. Franz relates to Selver's closeness to the Wolfskehl family:“ A close confidante of the family, the rabbi of the liberal Jewish community David Selver, was the first critic of the doctor and young writer , who was awarded summa cum laude ... As for your presentation: Your expressions and terms are always factual and appropriate, betrayal trained thinking. The sentence structure and transitions etc. are just elegant. Your remarks on the relationship between cult and myth were particularly interesting for me… ” Friedrich Gundolf and the conductor Willem de Haan were among the circle of friends in which his daughter Elisabeth was later included . On the death of Heinrich Blumenthal he gave the funeral oration in 1901 and in early 1911 he dedicated an obituary to Sigmund Gundelfinger , who died in December 1910 .

→ Main article : The Selver family's cultural environment

The firm anchoring in the assimilated Jewish bourgeoisie could not, however, bridge the rifts that had long been opening within the Jewish community. In a renewed request from Orthodox parishioners to divide the parish as early as 1890, religious differences played a role, as did the size and population of the district, which included around 90 rural parishes in addition to Darmstadt. And these Orthodox-Conservative parishioners soon turned their criticism on the person of David Selver. In the article in the Israelit of November 6, 1893, already cited , it says that Selver “did not understand how to win the favor of the congregation during the four years he was here. The religious school also under this direction, i.e. the performance of the pupils is so poor that even pupils who have been dismissed with bonuses, i.e. those who have passed the age of 13, do not know what is being prayed at the relevant times of the day, yes gives those who have barely reached the age of 16 who are no longer able to read Hebrew. ”The following sentence shows that Selver still enjoyed the support of the community council at this time, which put it in the line of fire of the conservative critics : "If the community board now considers the school's performance to be sufficient, if it believes that what the students are learning is sufficient, this is because the majority of the board themselves do not, or at least very little understands Hebrew because most of the main task, to which the worship service belongs, pays too little attention, yes the worship service annually I only visited two or three times. What good can be done with such role models? "

If you compare this criticism with Selver's commitment to the poetics, aesthetics and rhetoric of the Bible, as he put it in his laudation for his revered teacher Steinthal, or the emphasis on Steinthal's sentence, holy writings, 'in which we do not merely speak truth at all, but Looking for the highest truth, must also give testimony on the part of its author of absolute truthfulness', then one can imagine that two fundamentally opposing conceptions of religion have collided here. Selver seems to have been the representative of a comprehensively enlightened Judaism that lacked orthodox piety completely. This is shown again by another passage from the Israelite article in which Selver is said to have replied to the proposal to found a minyan association: 'Gentlemen! Also consider when you found such an association how often you have to go to the synagogue! ' The author of the article is indignant about this: “It is unbelievable, you will say, dear reader, but - it is true, - sad naked truth - and the board of directors of the community, it does not care, it deals with such trifles not for what synagogue, for the uneducated, for ordinary people the house of God is necessary. Can a church move forward under such circumstances, can Judaism be maintained, or doesn't everything in this church perish? In one of the largest cities in our neighboring state of Bavaria, I hear, the daughter of the teacher of religion got engaged to a gentleman who keeps his shop open on the Sabbath; We are truly sailing towards similar conditions in our congregation. ”How right he was can be seen in the biography of Selver's daughter Elisabeth, who was born two years later. With all the facts about her upbringing and life, there is no evidence of any religious affiliation; she was only made a Jew by the National Socialists.

In 1897 the Orthodox critics had achieved their goal, not the replacement of Selver, but the division of the community. “In March 1897 the [Grand Ducal Hessian] Ministry of the Interior decided that the Darmstadt Rabbinate should be divided into two rabbinates, both with the official seat in Darmstadt, one for the liberal communities and the other for the Orthodox. As rabbi of the liberal rabbinate Darmstadt, Dr. Landsberger's successor in office since 1889/90, Dr. David Selver, as Rabbi of Rabbinate Darmstadt II Dr. Lehmann Marx, to whose support the religious society founded his son Dr. Moses Marx appointed as rabbinate assessor or deputy rabbi. ”The orthodox Jakob Lebermann, the“ leader of the orthodox teachers of Hesse ”, commented:“ This is how the long-awaited wish of those abiding by the law in the rabbinical district of Darmatadt m. GH met. After decades of heavy fighting, in which the opposing side ruthlessly used their superior power, but the law-abiding in town and country loyally and incessantly persevered and did not shrink from any sacrifice, the goal had finally been achieved: the gathering of all orthodox of the Darmstadt rabbinical district under their own state recognized independent rabbinate. "

In the period that followed, there were further divisions in the subdivisions of the congregation and apparently an increasing number of members of the Orthodox rabbinate. “Thanks to the committed work of father and son Marx, the Orthodox movement gained further growth at the turn of the century. Also not strictly religious communities sought connection to Rabbinate II. "

It has not been proven whether David Selver was unable or unwilling to counter this. It is known, however, that he lost his support in the community council and was pressured to give up his offices.

Protection against dismissal for a rabbi

In a proceeding before the Grand Ducal Administrative Court (GVGH) from November 1905 about the "conflict of jurisdiction concerning: complaint of the Israelite religious community Darmstadt against the rabbi Dr. Selver there “it is said that the disputes between the Jewish community and David Selver go back to 1902. In the file it is mentioned that the community council had already passed the resolution in its meetings of December 16, 1902 and January 6, 1903 to dissolve the contract concluded with Selver on January 14, 1898. The proceedings before the GVGH did not concern the substantive conflict between the community and its rabbi, but only concerned the question of whether the community had a right of termination at all. Why the church wanted to separate from David Selver can no longer be determined. It is also impossible to understand whether it was actually the Jewish community that wanted to get rid of Selver, or just their community board. The file states that there had been "protests by a large number of respected members of the Darmstadt Israelite religious community against the actions of the board", and one witness, a Mr. Langenbach, reported that "he was aware of hostile relations between board member Adolf Simon to Dr. Selver ". It is not clear from the file who this Mr. Langenbach was, but there are only two possible persons whose reputation can hardly be doubted: either the Jewish member of the Landtag, Wilhelm Langenbach, or the lawyer and later Privy Counselor Bernhard Langenbach. It is also astonishing that Ludwig Trier strengthened Selver's position in the process, because at least in 1901 he was still the chairman of the Israelite religious community in Darmstadt, and so did Otto Wolfskehl .

The Grand Ducal Ministry of the Interior refused to approve the decisions of the community council to separate from David Selver with a decree dated March 5, 1903, expressly pointing out that “the board of directors of the Israelite religious community in Darmstadt is wrong if it with Dr. According to the ministry, only a continued breach of duty would have entitled the congregation to termination at any time - with the approval of the ministry of the interior - an offense that the ministry apparently did not consider to have been fulfilled .

The municipality board then had a legal opinion drawn up, which came to the conclusion that “the employment relationship as a rabbi is public and non-terminable as that of a state official, but as a teacher and preacher, the rabbi is a mere functionary of the municipality, and in this capacity he is subordinate the termination. ”On the basis of this report, the Selver parish council resigned from its position as preacher and religion teacher. Selver appealed against it to the district office and was right. This in turn opposed the community council and blocked Selver's salary. Thereupon the authority ordered “the compulsory budgeting of the salary. The community now shared Dr. Selver with the fact that after a certain termination date she no longer considers him to be authorized to exercise the profession of preacher and that she may herself prevent the exercise of this office by force. The result was that the district office felt compelled to order a civilian police force to attend the Israelite service in the synagogue in order to protect Dr. To be able to protect Selver if necessary. "

At this point, the parish council tried to take civil legal action in order to have a lawsuit established that Selver's resignation as a religious teacher and preacher was right. The problem with this: According to an order from 1841, the Israelite religious community was not allowed to take legal action without the approval of the authorities. The board asked the district office for approval. It also granted this, "however, subject to the right to surrender the conflict of competencies". Selver's lawyer rejected the declaratory action brought by the community council as inadmissible, which prompted the grand ducal administration to push for the conflict of jurisdiction to be resolved. “The ordinary court proceedings have therefore been discontinued and the issue has been referred to the Administrative Court. Before the Administrative Court, the representative of the public interest asserted that the employment relationship with Dr. Selvers should not only be understood from his capacity as a rabbi as a public law teacher, but also from his position as a religion teacher, since according to the elementary school law the government has a right to oversee the relationships in religious education of all denominations. "

Before the Grand Ducal Administrative Court , before which David Selver appeared as the defendant and the community board as the plaintiff, “the conflict of jurisdiction in the matter of the complaint of the Israelite religious community in Darmstadt against Rabbi Dr. Selver ”negotiated and decided. There were three main questions to be answered:

• Does David Selver continue to have the authority to serve as preacher and religion teacher?
• Is the municipality empowered to withdraw the functions delegated by the state as civil servants? "Can the plaintiff community circumvent the ruling of the head of state, by which an official was assigned an office with the related functions, by withdrawing some of his functions from the official?"
• Is the Israelite religious community in Darmstadt authorized to reverse an order of state authority by means of a private contractual declaration?

The representative of the Grand Ducal Ministry requested that the conflict of competences be declared justified and stated that he shared the view of the defendant's representatives, i.e. Selvers, on all points. The court obeyed and found that the statements of the witness Trier, "reinforced by the statements of the witness Wolfskehl, - provide full evidence that the Grand Ducal Government has not given the board of the Israelite community an independent right of dismissal." The court also referred expressly to Wolfskehl's statement “that when the contract of January 14, 1898 was being prepared and concluded, no one had thought of the possibility of a separate termination for the functions of preacher office and religion teacher”, and found: “The contract is a unified one. "That in turn meant: The inadmissibility of the civil legal process was given in the opinion of the Administrative Court," the matter [was] to be referred to the administrative authorities for settlement ".

Effects and side effects of the dismissal dispute

David Selver was represented in these proceedings by the lawyer Dr. Friedrich (Fritz) Mainzer (born March 17, 1875 in Darmstadt - † August 15, 1955 in London). His practice was attacked and devastated during the pogrom night in 1938 and he was subsequently banned from working. In the spring of 1939 he emigrated to Great Britain and from May 1940 was able to work in London as a "lawyer on continental law". The house in Mainz, which belonged to Osannstrasse until his emigration. 11 in Darmstadt was the center of the Jewish community in Darmstadt after 1948 and until autumn 1988.

After the Second World War, Fritz Mainzer also worked as a lawyer for Elisabeth Paul in London and represented her in the reparation proceedings that she carried out in the name and as heir of her mother, who died in 1948. A claim made in the proceedings related to Amalie Selver's pension claims. "The persecuted woman received a widow's pension from the Israelite religious community in Darmstadt, which, according to a letter from the board of this community of April 8, 1926, was set at RM 3,000 annually, with a letter of September 30, 1935, the board of the community, whose income was reduced as a result of the Nazi measures against its members, the widow's salary was reduced to RM 2,400 from January 1, 1936. This amount was no longer paid until she emigrated (1.VII.1937) and from then until her death (17.V.1948). ”Whether this could lead to a claim for compensation that had passed to Elisabeth Selver was determined by the compensation authority at the Darmstadt regional council disputed, and there was a lawsuit. In the course of this, Fritz Mainzer issued an affidavit in which he once again dealt with David Selver's dismissal and the trial in 1906.

Mainzer does not say anything about the background of the termination and only speaks of tensions between Selver and the community that would have led to the termination. He describes the situation at that time as a factual coexistence of two existing contracts: an employment contract between Selver and the municipality approved by the grand ducal district office and an appointment as a grand ducal rabbi by a decree of the grand duke, which includes the award of an official seal and the associated authorization to carry out certain official acts. "Dr. Selver was active on the one hand through a civil law contract approved by the district office, on the other hand he had become a civil servant on the basis of a state act of sovereignty. "

As Selvers' lawyer, he, Mainz, presented the matter to the then provincial director and convinced him that the Jewish community was not entitled to dismiss a grand ducal official. As a result, the conflict of jurisdiction was then raised at the regional court - with the outcome already mentioned. Selver and Mainzer had won a legal victory, but by no means a solution for the messy situation between Selver and the community:

“The situation that this created was practically untenable and negotiations were therefore made to settle.
This came about in such a way that Dr. Selver asked for his release from office (this was granted to him), that the employment contract was canceled and that he was personally assured a pension for his lifetime and his possible widow. "

It was against this background that the announcement, published in the Hessian Government Gazette, was made: “His Royal Highness the Grand Duke has graciously rested: [...] on July 25th [1906] Rabbi Dr. David Selver zu Darmstadt, in recognition of his beneficial services, to retire. ”Mainzer was pleased that the matter had turned out favorably for his client in this way, but his affidavit also comes to more extensive assessments:

“Even then I gained the conviction that I have held to this day that Dr. With the settlement and his dismissal, Selver ceased to be a civil servant and that the pension payments were exclusively of a civil law nature. […] On the other hand, the thing stuck in my mind because the whole procedure still had a certain feudal character. The procedure at that time made it possible to withdraw the decision of the ordinary judge through the intervention of the administrative authority and a court partly composed of non-judges.
I have therefore raised the case many times in my later life when discussing the question of whether the German court proceedings at that time corresponded in every respect to the principles of a democratic legal order. "

Mainzer's legal opinion that David Selver had not been a civil servant since his dismissal from the grand ducal service and that the pension payments subsequently granted to him were exclusively of a civil law nature, the Compensation Chamber of the Regional Court in Darmstadt agreed on August 10, 1954 in a basic judgment and the Complainant, Elisabeth Paul, awarded compensation for the widow's allowance withheld from her mother. The reasoning for the judgment states, among other things, that reparation is incumbent on the State of Hesse “if and to the extent that the bearer of the burden of supply no longer exists as a result of measures taken by the Nazi tyranny [...]. It is obvious, and no further justification is required, that the formerly existing Israelite religious community in Darmstadt, as the former provider of provisions, cannot be used for reparation, because it was dissolved by the known persecution of the Jews in 1942. The Jewish community in Darmstadt today is, as is known in court, unable to make amends due to the small number of its members (around 50/60 compared to 3000 in the past), which is based on reasons of persecution [...], so the amends here is to be carried out by the defendant country. ”The court also recognized that the claim for reparation had passed to the heiress.

It is a strange irony of history that David Selver and his lawyer Fritz Mainzer successfully denied the termination of a civil-law contractual relationship with reference to a higher sovereign right, but then the granting of the pension benefit from this civil-law contract between Selver and the Jüdische Community had to take place. The community was not allowed to fire or sue, but they had to pay. This helped David Selver and his future widow to secure a material livelihood and, decades later, to reparation for their daughter by the State of Hesse. The feudalistic act, rightly criticized by Mainzer, which prevented Selver's dismissal from a contractual relationship under civil law, was, conversely, constitutive for the continuation of a contractual relationship under civil law between David Selver and the Jewish community, which only began when Selver's daughter was granted reparation in the mid-1950s ended.

The forgotten rabbi

Gravestone for David Selver in the Jewish cemetery in Darmstadt

David Selver (right row, 3rd from above) in the exhibition Paths of Life - Polish Traces in RheinMain

In the museum room of the Jewish Community Center in Darmstadt, photos of well-known Jewish personalities hang on a wall, including photos of David Selver's predecessor (Julius Landsberger) and successor (Bruno Italiener) as rabbis of the liberal synagogue. A photo of David Selver, which is stored in the city archives, can neither be found there nor a reference to him in the museum's information desk. Also on the website of the Friends of Liberale Synagoge Darmstadt e. V. one finds hardly any noteworthy references to him, and even in the book Jews as Darmstädter Bürger published by Eckhart G. Franz , which contains many short portraits of well-known Jewish citizens, including of course Landsberger and Italians, only a few sparse statements can be made about the register of persons collect via Selver. David Selver's grave is in the Darmstadt Jewish cemetery; but in the city where the house he built still stands, he seems to have been forgotten. His library has been in the archives of the Warburg Institute in London since 1937 . The daughter, who was already living in England at the time, was able to get her out of Germany. With the books, Amalie Selver also turned her back on Darmstadt; she died in rugby in 1948.

The house expropriated by the Nazis had to be returned to Elisabeth Paul in November 1949; she sold it on April 22, 1958.

On March 15, 2019, the exhibition Paths of Life - Polish Traces in RheinMain opened in the Darmstadt House of History . It deals with Poles who have immigrated to the Rhine-Main region for more than a century and presents selected people and their biographies in more than fifty portraits. One of those portrayed is David Selver.

Works

• The development of Leibniz's theory of monads up to 1695: presented historically and critically on the basis of the sources , inaugural dissertation to obtain a doctorate from the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Leipzig, Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig, 1885 ( version digitized by Google )
• German conversations, phrases, proverbs and proverbial sayings. In grammatical order. Designed and edited for German teaching by Ph. D. Selver. Swedish and German published by OL Löfgren, ordentl. Teacher at Gothenburg High School , Gothenburg, 1891
• Professor H. Steinthal , in: Rabbi Dr. A. Brüll's popular scientific monthly sheets , HL Brönner's Druckerei, 13th year, 1893 (article on Steinthal's 70th birthday). The essay, which focuses on the linguist and philosopher Steinthal, but also honors him in the second part for his “contributions to the poetics and aesthetics of the Bible”, can be read online: Professor H. Steinthal , Part 1: pp. 169–173 ; Part 2: pp. 274-279.
• In memory of our… mother Mrs. Elise Neustein geb. Elsinger נ"ע , funeral speech, delivered on her bier on March 4th, 1894.
• Obituary for Sigmund Gundelfinger , in: Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums of January 20, 1911.

swell

• Hertha Luise Busemann: The headmaster - Heinrich Selver , in: Hertha Luise Busemann, Michael Daxner, Werner Fölling: Island of security. The private forest school Kaliski 1932 to 1939 , Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1992, ISBN 3-476-00845-2 .
• David Selver, in: Michael Brocke, Julius Carlebach (eds.): Die Rabbis im Deutschen Reich 1871-1945 , Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 2009, ISBN 978-3-598-24874-0 , pp. 570-571.
• Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt, signature HStAD, G 21 A, 1831/12: Dissolution of the contractual relationship between the Israelite religious community in Darmstadt on the one hand and Rabbi Dr. David Selver, on the other hand .
• Texts on the history of the rabbis of the Israelite religious community in Darmstadt on Alemannia Judaica . In this:
  • Rabbi Dr. David Selver becomes a member of the municipal school board (1891)
  • Criticism of director Dr. David Selver as head of the religious school of the main parish (1893)
  • Address to congratulate the rabbis of the Grand Duchy on the marriage of the Grand Duke (1894)
  • Rabbi Dr. David Selver is appointed rabbi of the Grand Ducal Rabbinate Darmstadt I (1898)
  • Legal disputes with Rabbi Dr. David Selver (1905)
• Stadtarchiv Darmstadt : Historical register of the city of Darmstadt for David Selver (inventory ST 12)
• Leipzig University Archives: Doctoral File David Selver, Signature: Phil.Fak.Prom. 02945
• Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Wiesbaden: Amalie Selver reparation case, HStAW 518, No. 27881

literature

• Eckhart G. Franz (Hrsg.): Jews as Darmstadt citizens. Roether, Darmstadt, 1984 ISBN 978-3-7929-0139-7 .
• Jakob Lebermann: Das Darmstädter Landesrabbinat , in: Yearbook of the Jewish-Literary Society in Frankfurt am Main, JJLG 20 (1929), pp. 181-251. ( Digitized version of JJLG 20 (1929) )

Web links

• History of the Jewish community in Darmstadt

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hertha Luise Busemann: The headmaster - Heinrich Selver , p. 129
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Hertha Luise Busemann: The headmaster - Heinrich Selver , p. 132
3. ↑ ^{a b} David Selver: curriculum vitae in the appendix to the dissertation
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} David Selver, in: Michael Brocke, Julius Carlebach (ed.): The Rabbis in the German Empire 1871-1945
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Leipzig University Archives: Doctoral Files David Selver
6. ^ The development of Leibniz's theory of monads up to 1695
7. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} texts on the history of the rabbis of the Israelite religious community in Darmstadt on Alemannia Judaica
8. ↑ “The association Mekiȥe Nirdamim (awakeners of the slumbering), founded in 1862 and still in existence today, was dedicated to the scientific original language edition of rare, barely accessible Hebrew manuscripts and printed works as well as the international exchange among Jewish scholars and researchers. Its seat followed the center of life of its leading members from the East Prussian Lyck via Berlin to Frankfurt am Main and Copenhagen; since 1934 it is based in Jerusalem. Mekiȥe Nirdamim submitted over a hundred edited works by 1970; since its founding, the association has combined traditional Jewish textual orientation and erudition with academic standards and scientific communication. ”(Mirjam Thulin: Mekiȥe Nirdamim, in: Dan Diner (ed.): Enzyklopädie Juden Geschichte und Kultur, Volume 4: Ly - Po, Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart, 2013, ISBN 978-3-476-02504-3 , p. 114)
9. ↑ According to Eckhart G. Franz he was one of 34 fallen Jewish soldiers from Darmstadt. (Eckhart G. Franz (ed.): Jews as Darmstadt citizens , p. 106). On the memorial stone for the Jews who died in World War I, only the names of 28 people are listed. In the historical register of the city of Darmstadt , under the entry for David Selver, the date of death for Paul Friedrich Selver is May 27, 1915.
10. ^ Stadtarchiv Darmstadt: Historical register of residents; District court Darmstadt: Land register file for Volume 26, Sheet 1251 of the Land Register of Darmstadt, District III (House Landwehrstrasse 12 in Darmstadt)
11. ↑ Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Wiesbaden: Amalie Selver Compensation File, Reg. D / 00804/95 (A), inventory 518, no. 27881. For the fate of the house during the Nazi era and in the post-war period, see: Elisabeth Paul # Asset Management and Expropriation
12. ↑ Eckhart G. Franz (ed.): Jews as Darmstadt citizens , p. 254
13. ↑ Eckhart G. Franz (ed.): Jews as Darmstadt citizens , p. 239
14. ↑ ^{a b c} Eckhart G. Franz (ed.): Juden als Darmstädter Bürger , p. 113. The story of Jakob Lebermann that led to the division is presented in great detail, albeit from an orthodox point of view: The Darmstädter Landesrabbinat .
15. ↑ Quoted from: Professor H. Steinthal , in: Rabbiner Dr. A. Brüll's popular scientific monthly papers
16. ↑ Jakob Lebermann in memory
17. ↑ Jakob Lebermann: Das Darmstädter Landesrabbinat , p. 251.
18. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt, signature HStAD, G 21 A, 183112
19. ↑ Appointment of Judicial Councilor Bernhard Langenbach to the Privy Councilor of Justice (1906)
20. ↑ Ludwig Trier, chairman of the Israelite religious community in Darmstadt
21. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Legal disputes with Rabbi Dr. David Selver (1905)
22. ↑ The fate of Jewish lawyers in the Darmstadt District Court district: Dr. Friedrich (Fritz) Mainzer
23. ↑ On the history of the Jewish community in Darmstadt after 1945
24. ↑ ^{a b} HStA Wiesbaden: Signature 518, No. 27881.
25. ↑ ^{a b c d} The following statements are based on Mainzer's affidavit of July 25, 1953 in the Amalie Selver reparation file, HStAW 518, No. 27881
26. ^ Government Gazette 1906, Supplement 21, p. 194
27. ↑ See also: Elisabeth Paul # Wiedergutmachungsverfahren Amalie Selver
28. ↑ Dorothea McEwan: Fritz Saxl - A biography. Aby Warburg's librarian and first director of the Warburg Institute in London , Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar, 2012, ISBN 978-3-205-78863-8 , p. 172
29. ↑ In a written communication from Eckart Marchand, Warburg Institute Archive, dated September 17, 2018, it is stated that contact with the institute was probably made through Gertrud Bing and Elsbeth Jaffé. Corresponding correspondence is available in the archive. Elsbeth Jaffé (* December 8, 1889 in Posen - † March 23, 1971 in London) was also an institute employee. Part of her estate is in the West Sussex Record Office ; The catalog of The National Archives provides an overview of this .
30. ↑ See: Elisabeth Paul # Asset Management and Expropriation