Minna Kleeberg

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Minna Kleeberg , née Cohen (born July 21, 1841 in Elmshorn , † December 31, 1878 in New Haven ) was a German poet.

Life

In the sixties and seventies of the 19th century, the rabbi's wife gained a reputation in Germany and in Jewish German-speaking circles in the United States as a poet who campaigned for women's and civil rights.

Her best-known work is the “Song of Salt”, which was published in 1865 in the Leipziger Gartenlaube . In it she spoke out against an enormous increase in the salt tax , which should be raised in Prussia in favor of the military. Minna Kleeberg died - only 38 years old - in New Haven (Connecticut), where a statue still commemorates the poet in the Mischkan Israel Cemetery.

Minna Kleeberg came from a family of tough lone fighters for civil rights in modern German society. Shortly before her death, the immigrant wrote the following lines in her new home: “... We are no longer a withered sapling of German oak. / We are blooming in the free kingdom, an oak tree proud and noble! / And keep German customs and Germans Geistesbund / We German settlers on open land ... "

Family history

At the end of the 18th century, Minna Kleeberg's great-grandfather had already tried to settle down as a merchant in Meldorf from Elmshorn , where he impressed Governor Heinrich Christian Boie with his "liberal views", but it was not until his son was given special permission by the Danish king in 1817 to to be the first Jew to buy citizenship in this area of ​​Süderdithmarschens, which is only inhabited by Christians. His son, Markus Cohen, studied medicine in Kiel and returned to Elmshorn with the family, who had to contend with great financial difficulties in Meldorf in the 1830s. There the respected doctor was immediately elected to the board of directors of the Jewish community. For his daughter Minna, Dr. Markus Cohen received an exceptionally comprehensive and liberal upbringing.

The Cohen family from Elmshorn belonged to the tiny Jewish minority in Schleswig-Holstein, who had hoped that the duchies would finally be eased since 1814, when legal equality for Jews was introduced in the Danish mother country . Until now, Jews had only been allowed to live in a few places such as Altona , Elmshorn or Friedrichstadt and had competed with each other in these places as peddlers or traders - because they were not allowed to practice other professions - and thus deprived of the opportunity for professional success. It took a long time, in the Duchy of Holstein until 1863, for freedom of movement and professional mobility to become legally guaranteed basic rights for Jews too.

swell

  • Minna Kleeberg: Poems. Louisville, New York 1877
  • Leopold Kleeberg: Eulogy in Commemoration of the deceased Poetess Minna Kleeberg Pronounced in the Temple of the Congregation "Mishkan Israel" in New Haven, on the 11th of January, 1879 as a Tribute of his Love and Affection, by Her Husband. New Haven 1879

literature

Marie-Elisabeth Rehn: Jews in Süderdithmarschen. Foreigners in their own country: Duchy of Holstein 1799-1858. Constance, 2003.

Web links

Individual evidence

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