Mendel Beer

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Mendel Beer (* 1788 in Forbach ; † January 27, 1870 in St. Ingbert ) was proven to be the first Jew in the city of St. Ingbert, a respected businessman and ancestor of many respected descendants. As a result of the Holocaust , many descendants now live in the United States and Israel.

Beer came to St. Ingbert on May 13, 1811 together with his wife Philippina (born August) from Spiesen to the north , where he established himself as a fruit and flour trader. He had previously bought a house on Blieskasteler Strasse. Jews were already exposed to great hostility at that time. The city belonged to France until 1816 , where in 1808 a “ decree on restrictions on trade and credit transactions for Jews” was issued, which was intended to prevent Jews, who were limited to a few professional fields, from “haggling and usury”. His house was infected in the first year. The third of a total of nine children was the daughter Rosina, who was born on May 20, 1815. This made her the first Jewish woman born in St. Ingbert. The other children were Mendel (1810–1869), Apolonia, Alphons, Augustine, Henriette, Seligmann, Karolina and Josef (1831–1906). In contrast to the German Jews on the right bank of the Rhine, they at least had citizenship here , which the Bavarian Constitution confirmed again in 1818. In 1829 the prosperous place received city ​​rights .

In 1850 Beer and another Jewish citizen, his son-in-law and soap manufacturer Wolfgang Kahn, approached King Maximilian II of Bavaria with the request to be exempted from the obligation to provide certificates of morality - a kind of certificate of good conduct . These measures caused the Jewish businessmen to win the favor of buyers with special guarantees, discounts and the like. Beer's youngest son Josef (* 1831) is a prime example of this business approach: In 1867, together with forty other citizens, he founded the advance payment association , a credit union that has been called Volksbank St. Ingbert since 1906 . The association was organized on the model of Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch and the first in the Saar area . It helped many citizens to do business successfully and, especially in the early years, it has been proven to stimulate economic activity in the city.

Until the mid-1880s, the St. Ingbert Jews were buried in Blieskastel , as they did not have their own cemetery. Only in the course of 1886 was a cemetery laid out here, albeit a modest 10 × 20 m. Mendel Beer is buried with his wife in Blieskastel; the tombstone still exists.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ According to Heiner Baus: Two buildings of the former Jewish community St. Ingberts , in: Saarpfalz, Blütter für Geschichte und Volkskunde , 2010/2; ISSN  0930-1011 , p. 56: as early as 1810
  2. ↑ Land registry office St. Ingbert, file from 1848, field no. 438/9
  3. ↑ Wolfgang Krämer: History of the City of St. Ingbert, Vol. 2, 1955, p. 148
  4. ↑ Josef Buhmann: The history of the Jewish community in St. Ingbert, in: “Saarpfalz. Sheets for history and folklore ”, ISSN  0930-1011 special issue 1989
  5. ^ A b Christoph Nimsgern, Eva Zutter: Jews in St. Ingbert, Wassermann-Verlag, ISBN 3928030213 ; 3rd edition 1997
personal data
SURNAME Beer, Mendel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Jewish trader and 1st citizen of St. Ingbert
DATE OF BIRTH 1788
PLACE OF BIRTH Forbach
DATE OF DEATH January 27, 1870
Place of death St. Ingbert