Martin Riesenburger

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Martin Riesenburger (left) and Hans Seigewasser unveil a memorial stone on November 9, 1960 on Große Hamburger Strasse
tomb
Memorial plaque , Martin-Riesenburger-Strasse 1, in Berlin-Hellersdorf

Martin Riesenburger (born on May 14, 1896 in Berlin ; died on April 14, 1965 there ) was a German rabbi .

Live and act

After graduating from high school, Riesenburger first studied dentistry , but dropped out during the First World War . After 1918 he graduated from the University for the Science of Judaism in Berlin to study religious philosophy . He also studied music and trained as a concert pianist .

Riesenburger's official service in the Berlin Jewish Community began on June 1, 1933, under the threat of National Socialism . He was a preacher and pastor in the Jewish old people's home on Grosse Hamburger Strasse and in the attached Jewish hospital. The Nazi authorities arrested him for a short time in 1942; Because of his Christian wife (who had converted to Judaism) he was released, but he was obliged to report to the police. From June 1943 he worked as a rabbi in the cemetery of the Jewish community . In his position in the cemetery, Riesenburger was able to help refugees, hold secret services, arrange for an appropriate burial for deceased Jews, and assist in the rescue of 5,000 Torah scrolls and prayer books.

He had his apartment on Lothringenstrasse (later Herbert-Baum-Strasse). His grave is in the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee .

Reconstruction of the Jewish community in Berlin after 1945

After 1945, Martin Riesenburger did his best to rebuild the Jewish community in Berlin, and in May 1945 he led the first Jewish church service in Berlin after the end of the war. In 1953 he was appointed community rabbi, and he particularly campaigned for the development of an independent Jewish community in the GDR because it had already split in the four-power city. He was now also responsible for the pastoral care of Jewish prisoners in Berlin, as an ID card from 1953 in the Jewish Museum shows. In 1961 the GDR government officially appointed Martin Riesenburger as regional rabbi for the Jewish communities in the GDR.

Doubts about the rabbinical community

According to current knowledge, it is doubtful whether Riesenburger was a rabbi at all . Lothar Mertens explains that Riesenburger could neither finish his entire rabbi training within two years, nor that he was properly ordained because the three necessary rabbi signatures could not be obtained. The same material contains evidence that in 1950 he did not consider himself a rabbi and was also not accepted as a rabbi by the Jewish communities in the GDR. The rabbis' biographical handbook, published in 2009, also notes that Riesenburger worked as a preacher and pastor without ordination.

honors and awards

In 1956 Riesenburger was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver and in 1961 in gold.
In 1961 he also received an honorary doctorate from the Law Faculty of the Humboldt University in Berlin .
Since 1987, a street in the first new development area in Berlin-Hellersdorf has borne his name.

Publications

  • So your brother speaks. Sermons. Union Verlag, Berlin 1958
  • The light didn't go out. A testimony from the night of fascism. First: Union Verlag Berlin 1960

literature

Web links

Commons : Martin Riesenburger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nadja Bethlehem: Soulful pastor. Memories of Rabbi Martin Riesenburger. Reproduction of an article about Martin Riesenburger in the Jüdische Allgemeine from July 31, 2003.
  2. ↑ Regina Scheer: Connections. No Good place for Gerda W . ( Memento from January 1, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) In: der Freitag 42/1999.
  3. ^ "Service ID" from Martin Riesenburger ( memento from September 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) in the Jüd. Museum Berlin
  4. ↑ a b Lothar Mertens : Star of David under hammer and sickle . Hildesheim 1997; zugl. Univ. Habil-Schrift 1996, p. 160f and further comments on the GDR era
  5. ↑ Katrin Nele Jansen, Jörg H. Fehrs, Valentina Wiedner: Biographisches Handbuch der Rabbis . Part 2 The rabbis in the German Empire 1871-1945. Ed .: Michael Brocke, Julius Carlebach. tape 1 . KG Saur, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-598-24874-0 , p. vii .
  6. ↑ Honors for Martin Riesenburger , In: Neues Deutschland , May 15, 1961, p. 2
  7. ↑ Honorary doctorate for Rabbi Riesenburger , In: Neues Deutschland, June 17, 1961, p. 2
personal data
SURNAME Big burger, Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German rabbi
DATE OF BIRTH May 14, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH April 14, 1965
Place of death Berlin