Michael David

Michael David (* 1685 in Halberstadt ; † October 24, 1758 in Hanover ) was electoral Hanoverian and royal British court and chamber agent and head of the Jewish community in Hanover.

Life

Michael David, born in Halberstadt as the son of the learned David Alexander Federschneider, came from a wealthy protective Jewish family . His brothers Alexander and Abraham worked as chamber agents in Braunschweig and Kassel .

Hanover Chamber Agent

Michael David, called Michael Hanover ha-Levy in Jewish documents, the eldest of the three adult sons of Alexander David called Federschneider, completed his "apprenticeship" in Hanover with Leffmann Behrens , the famous electoral chamber agent and head court factor. Here he was responsible for the office. He probably owed this to the work and foundations of the Saxon court Jew and royal Polish resident Issachar Berend Lehmann (whose widow later became his second wife), who lived in Halberstadt . His contacts to the Guelph courts and their protection paved the way for him to settle in Hanover as a court Jew. And that, although Michael is only 15 or 16 years old (17 years old he already has sons). He went into business for himself, initially still very close to Leffmann Behrens. But his trading house soon grew into a competitor of the Behrens company, after the privilege granted to Leffmann had been extended to him as early as 1713. In 1714 Michael received his official appointment as court and chamber agent with the elector. After the downfall of the Behrens company, he also largely took over its business area. However, this position suffered due to the appointment of the Hanoverian Elector George I to the English royal throne (1714) and the relocation of the residence to London, since the English Guelph kings now had their business dealt mainly with the London bankers. After all, Michael David and his descendants were able to assert themselves for almost a century in the position of Kur-Hanoverian court and chamber agents or war agents.

Foundations

Michael David and his father-in-law Salomon Düsseldorf (both Levites) acquired the old synagogue built by Leffmann and his son Herz in 1703 in the tragic collapse of the Leffmann Behrens Cohen's house under his grandchildren in order to keep them, including Torah scrolls and Torah jewelry, the Jewish one To give to the community. When the grandchildren went bankrupt, the family's properties, including the house with the synagogue, were to be auctioned off. To prevent this, Michael David and Salomon Düsseldorf decided to buy the plot of land with the synagogue from the curator Lüdemann. The two buyers kept the house, but left the synagogue and its inventory to the community under conditions (1741):

• Michael and Salomon Düsseldorf can choose two places in the synagogue for themselves and their wives, which remain in the family as inheritance.
• The places in the synagogue are to be rented for an annual fee. Three synagogue rulers are said to have the administration in their hands. Two of them should always be elected from the family of Michael David and Salomon Düsseldorf and the third from the middle of the community by municipal resolution, but only the tax-paying members can hold such an honorary position.
• The income from renting the synagogue spaces may only be used for synagogue purposes.
• The children or other heirs do not have the right to claim the synagogue space occupied by the father.
• The parishioners whose circumstances are not such as to rent a synagogue site should be given a position free of charge that corresponds to their worthiness.
• The distribution of the positions is to be carried out by the land rabbi I. Selig Karo, the rabbis Samson Düsseldorf and Juda Lissa.

The owners of the synagogue property subject to the tax were still one after the other in the city registers Michael David, his son Meyer and his heirs and finally Michael's great-grandson Ezekiel Simon. An inscription on the ceiling girder of the synagogue entrance commemorated the generous donation. In the course of time, the family donated many other community facilities such as schools, scholars ' apartments, orphanages, etc., some of which still existed in the 20th century.

Scholars Foundation

The most consistent of his life's work was the scholars' foundation brought into being by his testamentary decree of 1756, the predecessor of the free schools that his sons founded from it. Most of the boys left school after the bar mitzvah to learn a trade or craft. There is then the opportunity to deepen the study of Talmud and Torah at the yeshivoth, the Talmud universities, the other important traditional school institution. The main purpose of this institution is to train rabbis. In the course of emancipation and acculturation, these traditional institutions are increasingly disappearing, and the learning content is also changing. The educational ideal is now based on that of the Christian, bourgeois environment. In addition, the function of vocational training by schools is becoming more important. This process finds its expression in the establishment of so-called free schools since the end of the 18th century, which offer not only religious but also primarily secular subjects.

Marriage policy

With his children, just as he did for himself, Michael David pursued a - at least from a business point of view - smart marriage policy. His son Moses married into the Goldschmidt family, which ruled Kassel, with which he also provided advantages for Michael's brother Abraham, who was based in Kassel. Son David married into the Bösing (Hirschel) family, coin suppliers of the Breslauer Münze. Salomon, his later very successful business successor, married into the Gomperz family in Amsterdam (after being married to his niece at a young age and first marriage). But the daughters also served the company with their marital connections: Bela married into the Gumpel family of Wolfenbüttel court factors, and Golde became the daughter-in-law of Issachar Berend Lehmann, the most influential court factor in Germany . Her husband Berend was also her half-brother, both had the same mother Sara Hanna Beer-Oppenheim († August 23, 1757 in Hamburg). In this way he networked his business activities across Europe.

Grave complex Friedhof Oberstrasse in Hanover

Michael David's grave row on the Jewish cemetery in Oberstraße : left with grandchildren, in the middle Hindchen and Michael David, beginning in front with the sons Joseph and Kalman, Serle Alexander and Salomon

Michael David's row of graves in the Oberstrasse cemetery is - next to that of the Berend, Oppenheim and Cohen families - one of the most prominent on the middle of the hill

family

Michael David was married twice: in his first marriage to around 1699 with Hindchen Düsseldorf († March 11, 1729) old cemetery Oberstrasse 249, Td Salomon (Salman) Levi Düsseldorf ud Blümchen Gans.

In second marriage with on March 15, 1731 with Sara Hanna Beer-Oppenheim † Hamburg August 23, 1757, widow d. Berend Lehmann, Td Head of Mendel Beer-Oppenheim from Frankfurt / M. Sara Hanna (Hannerle) brought her two sons Gumpert Berend and Mose Kosman Berend (* 1713 † 1769) from her first marriage to Berend Lehmann. The latter married Michael David's daughter Golde. Children (all from 1st marriage):

• Bermann († 8 years old)
• Moses Alexander (* around 1702 in Hanover; † April 27, 1741 ibid; [] old Jewish cemetery Oberstrasse grave no. 239) ⚭ Bune Goldschmidt († 1752 in Hanover; [] old Jewish cemetery Oberstrasse grave no. 264, daughter of Levy Goldschmidt from Kassel and sister of Benedikt Goldschmidt )
• David (* around 1703 in Hanover; † January 30, 1766 there; [] old Jewish cemetery Oberstrasse grave no. 247) ⚭ 1. Serle Bösig (born October 26, 1745 in Hanover; [] old Jewish cemetery Oberstrasse grave no. 238 , Daughter of Philipp Lazarus Bösig (Hirschel), imperial factor and coin supplier in Breslau, partner of Lehmann Berend in Dresden and Helene Gomperz, daughter of Ruben Elias Gomperz ) ⚭ 2. Vogelschen Minden († 1794 in Copenhagen)
• Joseph (* around 1706 in Hanover; † April 11, 1747 there; [] old Jewish cemetery Oberstrasse, grave no. 236)
• Kalman († March 19, 1747 in Hanover; [] old Jewish cemetery Oberstrasse grave no. 237)
• Salomon (* approx. 1718/24 in Hanover; † March 20, 1791 ibid; [] old Jewish cemetery Oberstrasse, grave no. 241) ⚭ 1. Rebecka Lea (little flower; daughter of David Michael David and Vogelschen Minden (his niece), † 1794 in Copenhagen, daughter of Meyer Minden) ⚭ 2. Wunstorf 1763 Susanna Schönchen Cleve Gumpertz (* in Amsterdam; † 29 December 1797 in Hanover; [] old Jewish cemetery Oberstrasse, grave no. 243, daughter of the headmaster Marcus Gomperz from Amsterdam )
• Bela (* around 1719 in Hanover; † 1741 in Wolfenbüttel) ⚭ Meyer Gumpel Moses, Wolfenbüttel (* around 1700; † 1764)
• Golde (* approx. 1720 in Hanover; † November 17, 1735 ibid; [] old Jewish cemetery Oberstrasse grave no. 284) ⚭ Mose Kosman Berend (* 1713 in Halberstadt; † 23 December 1769; [] old Jewish cemetery Oberstrasse grave No. 141), son of Berend Lehmann (born April 23, 1661 in Essen; † July 9, 1730 Halberstadt) and Sara Hanna Beer-Oppenheim (her stepbrother)

literature

• Heinrich Schnee : The institution of court factors in Hanover and Braunschweig, Saxony and Anhalt, Mecklenburg, Hesse-Kassel and Hanau. Volume 2, Berlin 1954
• Eduard Duckesz : Alexander David. Chamber agent of the Duke of Braunschweig (1685-1765). His family in Hamburg-Altona. In: Yearbook for the Jewish communities of Schleswig-Holstein and the Hanseatic cities. Volume 3, 5692, 1931/32, pp. 39-45
• Herbert Obenaus , David Bankier, Daniel Fraenkel, Andrea Baumert: Historical manual of the Jewish communities in Lower Saxony and Bremen.
• Mendel Zuckermann (ed.): Documents on the history of the Jews in Hanover. Hanover 1908, p. 44, family table XIV
• Selig Gronemann : Genealogical studies on the old Jewish families of Hanover

Web links

• Emil Lehmann, Collected Writings, 1899 [1] (PDF; 182 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Family tree Michael David | House of Hanover
2. ↑ Reinhard Bein: Contemporary Witnesses from Stein Volume 2 Braunschweig and its Jews. Braunschweig 1996, p. 9.