Moses Wolfenstein

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Moses Wolfenstein (born January 4, 1838 in Obersitzko , Samter district , † April 8, 1907 in Steglitz ) was a German Jewish merchant in Berlin and founder of the Steglitz synagogue in the Berlin district of the same name. In his honor, part of Berlin's Birkbuschstrasse was renamed Wolfensteindamm on March 15, 1966. A nephew of Moses Wolfenstein was the poet Alfred Wolfenstein , whom he sponsored .

Life

Moses Wolfenstein was born in 1838 as the son of Koppel Wolfenstein in Obersitzko, a strongly Jewish town in the Prussian province of Posen . In the middle of the 19th century the family moved to Berlin, where they ran a textile business. Wolfenstein took part in the third war of unification in 1870/71 and after his return to Berlin in 1872 built a residential and commercial building at Düppelstrasse 41, in whose backyard he set up a synagogue in 1897 by converting a horse stable. From the time when the Jewish community of Steglitz was founded in April 1878, Wolfenstein was its chairman until his death. In this role, Wolfenstein had a decisive influence on Jewish life in Berlin for decades.

Others

Moses Wolfenstein was the younger brother of Heymann Wolfenstein (1836–1890), a merchant in Halle (Saale) and father of the writer Alfred Wolfenstein . After the early death of his brother, Moses Wolfenstein supported his nephew financially and enabled him to complete his school career from 1901 at the Askanisches Gymnasium Berlin and from 1905 to study law at the University of Berlin . Wolfenstein's son Kurt emigrated to the USA in 1939. His descendants now live in Seattle .

swell

literature

  • Initiative Haus Wolfenstein (Ed.): From Jews in Steglitz. Berlin, 1987.
  • Galliner, Nicola: Guide through Jewish Berlin. Berlin, 1987.
  • Severens, Horst: mirror wall Berlin-Steglitz. Berlin, 1995.
  • Shriver, Donald W .: Honest patriots. Loving a country enough to remember its misdeeds. New York, 2005.
  • Finally, Stefanie: ways to remember. Memorial sites and locations for the victims of National Socialism in Berlin and Brandenburg. Berlin, 2007.
  • Spring, Bernhard (Ed.): Alfred Wolfenstein . A reader. Hall, 2011.
  • [1]
  • Klaus hardening: mirror reflexes. The memorial and the loss of memory in Steglitz. In: Die Zeit , May 13, 1994 [2]

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ StA Steglitz death register, No. 113/1907
personal data
SURNAME Wolfenstein, Moses
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Jewish merchant in Berlin and founder of the Steglitz synagogue in the Berlin district of the same name
DATE OF BIRTH January 4, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH Obersitzko , district of Samter
DATE OF DEATH April 8, 1907
Place of death Steglitz