Joseph Rosenthal (Antiquarian)

Joseph Rosenthal (born February 20, 1805 in Fellheim , † July 15, 1885 in Munich ) was a German Jewish tailor , market trader and antiquarian .

Life

Joseph was born as the fourth child of Nathan Rosenthal and Babet. Schwab was born in Fellheim in what was then the Kingdom of Bavaria . He attended the weekday school there and trained as a tailor with Carl Schäfler in Fellheim. Around 1820, 55 Christian and 75 Jewish families lived in Fellheim, mostly on the southern main road towards Memmingen in the Jewish community of Fellheim . In 1821 he received an apprenticeship from the Babenhausen district court . An examination certificate dated September 23, 1830, entitling him to practice a tailoring trade with German bookkeeping . On March 8, 1837, an official “residency and marriage permit” identifies him as a “concessioned trader” or market trader in Fellheim. On this day he married Dorlina (Dorlene) Bacharach from Fellheim. The bride brought in a marriage good in the amount of 1300 guilders . Dorlene's father promised to pay the amount in cash at a later date. The wedding in the Fellheim synagogue took place on March 13, 1837. On March 8, 1837, Nathan Rosenthal also gave his son Joseph the "Gewerbs Concession" and a quarter of House 64d with stables and land in Fellheim. The other residents of the house were the Abraham Ochs family, Salomon Gerstle and Philipp Rosenthal's widow. The marriage with Dorlene resulted in the four children Ludwig , Jette, Nathan and Jakob .

Head of the Jewish community in Fellheim

Former synagogue in Fellheim (2012)

Together with Heinrich Einstein, Rosenthal was head of the Jewish community in Fellheim . The community had a difficult relationship with the then Rabbi Marx Hayum Seligsberg, who had succeeded Joel Seligmann in 1830. In complaints before the Illertissen regional court, Einstein and Rosenthal accuse Seligsberg of insufficient administration, neglect of poor relief and embezzlement of funds. In 1850 the synagogue was renovated under Einstein and Rosenthal for 2000 guilders. The relationship between the community and its rabbi remained tense, and there were even tumults during the sermons of Rabbi Seligsberg, who was in office in Fellheim until his death in 1877. Then the community was subordinated to the Rabbinate Memmingen.

Move to Munich

All in all, life for the Jews in rural Fellheim was more than depressing. High tax burdens and an inadequate legal status vis-à-vis their Christian neighbors forced many Jews to seek their fortune in larger cities such as Munich or Augsburg. Dorlene Rosenthal died on the night of July 28th to 29th, 1858. She is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Fellheim . Joseph had broken off a business trip that day. Her death intensified his efforts to emigrate from Fellheim. On July 27, 1859, his trace can be found in the "Ochsengarten" at Müllerstrasse 49 in front of the Sendlinger Tor in Munich. As the holder of a market trader concession, he was authorized to do business in the German states and Switzerland. On May 1, 1867, after drawing up a certificate of citizenship for his son Ludwig, he moved to Munich with his other sons. Your first apartment is on the second floor of Adalbertstrasse 2c behind the Ludwig Maximilians University. On October 14th of the same year they lived on the second floor of Promenadenstrasse 11 and in 1876 they moved to Hildegardstrasse. 16 (new numbering of the street January 1, 1914 Hildegardstr. 14). The sons Ludwig, Nathan and Jakob founded the “Rosenthal Antiquariat” in Munich with a house and shop at Brienner Straße 47 . Joseph Rosenthal died on July 15, 1885 in Munich.

As early as October 1872 the family sold their quarter of the stake in the main street in Fellheim with the number 64d for 800 guilders to Lorenz Boeckel. This house complex opposite the synagogue burned down in 1927. The house in which his wife Dorlene Bacharach grew up has been preserved to this day.

literature

• Fellheim an der Iller. An illustrated tour through the former Jewish town center of Fellheim , ed. from the Working Group on History, Customs and Chronicles in cooperation with the Office for Rural Development and the community of Fellheim. Fellheim 2007.
• City archive Munich (ed.): The Rosenthals. The rise of a Jewish family of antiquaries to world fame. With contributions by Elisabeth Angermair, Jens Koch, Anton Löffelmeier, Eva Ohlen and Ingo Schwab, Böhlau, Vienna a. a. 2002, ISBN 320577020X .
• Bernard M. Rosenthal: Cartel, Clan, or Dynasty? The Olschkis and the Rosenthals 1859-1976 . In: Harvard Library Bulletin 25, 4, 1977, pp. 386-397.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Munich City Archives (ed.): The Rosenthals. The rise of a Jewish family of antiquaries to world fame. Böhlau, Vienna a. a. 2002, p. 54.