Fromet Mendelssohn

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fromet Mendelssohn

Fromet Mendelssohn, b. Gugenheim (also Guggenheim) (born October 6, 1737 in Altona ; † March 5, 1812 ibid) was a German housekeeper and businesswoman .

Live and act

Fromet Gugenheim was born as the eldest daughter of the businessman Abraham Gugenheim in Hamburg . The Viennese court banker Samuel Oppenheimer (1630–1703) was one of her ancestors .

The doctor Emmerich Gumpertz (1723–1769) introduced her to the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn in 1761 . He informed his friend Gotthold Ephraim Lessing in a letter that Fromet Gugenheim had no assets at the time and was "neither beautiful nor learned". They both decided to get married. Moses Mendelssohn arranged private lessons with Johann Joachim Christoph Bode for his future wife . In the period before the marriage they exchanged letters, of which Mendelssohn's remarks have been preserved. It can be seen from the documents that both really loved each other. Contrary to the customs of the time among Jews, they did not sign a marriage contract when they married on June 22, 1762 in Berlin .

Fromet Mendelssohn gave birth to ten children from 1763 to 1782, four of whom died early. In addition to the three daughters Brendel , Recha and Henriette , the sons Joseph , Abraham and Nathan reached adulthood. Her grandchildren included the painter Philipp Veit , the geographer Georg Benjamin Mendelssohn , the bankers Alexander Mendelssohn and Paul Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, and the composers Fanny Hensel and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy .

In addition to household chores, Fromet Mendelssohn also took on her husband's business correspondence when he was not present. She was considered a passionate theatergoer. Since she maintained contacts with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Johann Jakob Engel , she also had an influence on cultural life in Berlin. This is documented in the few letters that have survived from her between 1773 and 1775.

Fromet-und-Moses-Mendelssohn-Platz at the Jewish Museum Berlin

Moses Mendelssohn died in early 1786. The widowed Fromet Mendelssohn lived from 1787 to 1800 with her daughter Recha Meyer in Neustrelitz and after her divorce went back to Altona with her . From her time in Berlin she had brought with her a Torah curtain , which she and her husband had commissioned in 1774/75 , which had probably been made from her wedding dress. This Torah curtain was given to the great Altona synagogue in 1805 . Today it can be viewed at the Jewish Museum Berlin in the “Applied Art” collection.

Fromet Mendelssohn died on March 5, 1812. Her burial took place three days later at the Jewish cemetery in Altona , where her gravestone, restored in 2009, is one of the most prominent graves in the cemetery.

Restored grave of Fromet Mendelssohn in the Jewish cemetery in Altona

Honors

After lengthy quarrels on April 26, 2013, Fromet-und-Moses-Mendelssohn-Platz in front of the Jewish Museum in Berlin-Kreuzberg was named after the Mendelssohns .

literature

  • Arno Herzig : Gugenheim, Fromet . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 1 . Christians, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7672-1364-8 , pp. 114-115 .
  • Sebastian Panwitz: The will of Fromet Mendelssohn, b. Gugenheim (1737-1812) from December 31, 1792 . In: Mendelssohn Studies 19 (2015), pp. 27–43.
  • Siegfried Silberstein : Moses Mendelssohn's widow in Neustrelitz . Addendum Max Freudenthal . In: Journal for the History of the Jews in Germany, 2–3, 1931, pp. 123–129 Link to the full text
  • Hannah Karminski : Jewish-religious women's culture in typical forms and expressions. In: Emmy Wolff , Ed .: Generations of women in pictures. Herbig, Berlin 1928, p. 163ff. (on Fromet p. 168f.)
  • Michael Studemund-Halévy : The Mendelssohns in Hamburg. Archive from Stein, Vol. 2, Hamburg 2009

Web links

Commons : Fromet Mendelssohn  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Mendelssohn Torah curtain in the Jewish Museum Berlin (with photo and description) , Jewish Museum Berlin, accessed on February 3, 2016.
  2. ^ Uwe Bahnsen: The Mendelssohns - A family dynasty. Die Welt, June 18, 2012, accessed February 3, 2016 .
  3. ^ Matthias Gretzschel: Fromet Mendelssohn's grave reconstructed. Hamburger Abendblatt, May 5, 2009, accessed on February 4, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Michael Kröger: Berliner Platzposse: Der Fromet-und-Moses-Kompromiss. Der Spiegel, April 24, 2013, accessed January 26, 2016 .
  5. ↑ an intellectual-historical classification of Fromet in the time between Glückl von Hameln and the later Salonnièren on the basis of their letters
personal data
SURNAME Mendelssohn, Fromet
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gugenheim, Fromet (maiden name); Guggenheim, Fromet; Gugenheim, Frumet; Guggenheim, Frumet; Mendelssohn, Frumet
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German house and business woman
DATE OF BIRTH October 6, 1737
PLACE OF BIRTH Altona
DATE OF DEATH March 5, 1812
Place of death Altona