Rachel Apple

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Studio portrait of Rahel Bürger-Apfel

Rahel Apfel (also: Rachel or Rahel Bürger-Apfel , born January 28, 1857 as Rahel Bürger in Siegburg ; † December 6, 1912 in Cologne ) was a Cologne poet, writer and Zionist . She was the center of a literary circle in her house in Cologne and co-founder of the National Jewish Association . After her death, a contemporary described her as “one of the most interesting and outstanding Jewish women in Cologne”.

Life

Rahel Bürger was born in 1857 as the daughter of real estate agent Samuel Bürger and his wife Carolina Levisson into a respected Rhenish-Jewish family - her other relatives included Heinrich Heine and Walter Benjamin . Her father was a longtime chairman of the Jewish community, founder of the Jewish teachers' college for the Rhineland and city councilor and Deputy Mayor of the town of Siegburg.

With Engelbert Humperdinck - also from Siegburg - she was close friends from youth; In addition to Adelheid Wette, she was also involved in the libretto of his opera Hansel and Gretel and, in addition to her personal relationship, exchanged letters with him.

On May 20, 1879 married from Bad Münstereifel originating gynecologist Simon apple (1852-1932); the family first moved to Düren.

In 1882 their son Alfred was born as the eldest child of a total of four surviving sons and one daughter and three years later (1885) the family moved to Cologne. Simon Apfel opened a practice in Mauritiussteinweg, where the family also lived; In 1894 they bought a house at Elisenstrasse 15. Here Rahel Apfel organized her so-called Friday evenings as a kind of literary-scientific salon , in which, among others, Heine researchers Gustav Karpeles and Martin Philippsohn took part and that became the “gathering point for literary and aesthetic people Educated ”in Cologne. She exchanged letters with Karpeles and Max Bodenheimer .

Together with Max Bodenheimer, Fabius Schach, Moritz Levy and David Wolffsohn , she founded the National Jewish Association in Cologne in 1896 , which later became the Zionist Association for Germany .

Grave site in the Jewish cemetery in Deutz
Grave site in the Jewish cemetery in Deutz. The inscription, which was probably originally made of metal, has not been preserved, the later inscription reads: "Rahel Apfel / 1857-1912"

In 1912 Rahel Apfel died of diabetes at the age of 55 in the Israelite Asylum in Ehrenfeld . She was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Cologne-Deutz ; in a funeral oration it was said:

"You don't say too much if you claim that their prologues, songs, dramatic plays and other occasional poems represent a chronicle of our Cologne community development over decades."

- Rabbi Dr. Rosenthal : Obituary on the grave

progeny

Rahel Apple's husband Simon survived his wife by 20 years and died as a secret medical adviser in 1932. One son, Berthold (* 1883), died in 1914 as a foreign legionary in North Africa. Her son Alfred, who became known as a criminal defense attorney in the Weltbühne trial , died on February 14, 1941 in Marseille after stays in internment camps , the youngest son Ernst (* 1896) was murdered in Auschwitz . Daughter Carolina (1889–1972), who emigrated to Paris, and son Samuel (1885–1965), who had successfully emigrated to Argentina in 1940/41, survived the Second World War . Among the great-grandchildren is the French mathematical physicist Uriel Frisch , a grandson of Carolina.

Fonts

  • Ghetto stories; Collection of stories. Inside: The school knocker. A true story from a small Rhenish town, printed in: Mitteilungen des Verband der Jewish Jugendvereine Deutschlands. Vol. 4 No. 1, 1913, p. 5 f. ( Digitized version )
    • Reprint and context in: Philip Vilas Bohlman ( Philip V. Bohlman ): The School Knocker. A true story from a small Rhenish town. From Rahel Apple . In: Jüdische Volksmusik: a Central European intellectual history (=  writings on folk music . No. 21 ). Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2005, ISBN 978-3-205-77119-7 , p. 211-222 .

Further material

literature

  • Barbara Becker-Jákli: Jewish Cologne - past and present . Ed .: NS Documentation Center of the City of Cologne. Emons, Cologne 2012, ISBN 978-3-89705-873-6 , p. 123-125 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Samuel Bürger. In: epidat ─ Research platform for Jewish tombstone graphics. Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute , accessed on March 17, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Hanover: A wreath on Rachel Apple's grave [obituary] . In: Kölner Israelitisches Gemeindeblatt [special print] . Cologne December 9, 1912 ( digitized in the Rahel Apfel Collection, Leo Baeck Institute, New York - "Hanover" possibly Siegmund Hanover (1880–1964), 2nd rabbi in the Glockengasse synagogue).
  3. ↑ a b c d e timetable . In: Heinrich Schwing (Ed.): Alfred Apfel "My dear little animal ... in deep love your Alfred" Letters and cards to his daughter Hannah Busoni . epubli, 2014, ISBN 978-3-7375-1278-7 , pp. 148 .
  4. ↑ Holger Klein: On the trail of Jewish life. In: ksta.de. November 8, 2007, accessed on March 17, 2018 (information on a guided tour by Bertrand Stern ).
  5. ^ Henriette Hannah Bodenheimer: The breakthrough of political Zionism in Cologne, 1890-1900. Documentation: letters, minutes, leaflets, speeches . Bund-Verlag GmbH, Cologne 1978, ISBN 978-3-7663-0162-8 , p. 33 .
  6. ↑ a b c Ludwig Rosenthal: Obituary on the grave . In: Kölner Israelitisches Gemeindeblatt [special print] . Cologne, December 9, 1912 ( digitized in the Rahel Apfel Collection, Leo Baeck Institute, New York ).
  7. ^ Wilhelm Levison: Rachel Bürger . In: The Siegburg Levison family and related families . Ludwig Ruhrscheid Verlag, Bonn 1952, p. 94 .
  8. ↑ Notes . In: Heinrich Schwing (Ed.): Alfred Apfel "My dear little animal ... in deep love your Alfred" Letters and cards to his daughter Hannah Busoni . epubli, 2014, ISBN 978-3-7375-1278-7 , pp. 128 .
  9. ^ Zvi Asaria : The Jews in Cologne . JP Bachem, Cologne 1959, p. 307 .
  10. ^ Jehuda Reinharz (Ed.): Documents on the history of German Zionism 1882-1933 (=  series of scientific treatises of the Leo Baeck Institute . Volume 37). Mohr Siebeck, 1981, ISBN 978-3-16-743272-3 , ISSN  0459-097X , p. 36 .
  11. ↑ MI Bodenheimer: Prelude to Israel: The Memoirs of MI Bodenheimer . T. Yoseloff, New York 1963, p. 72, 78, 81 : “By the time I returned to Cologne Wolffsohn and my friend Rahel Apfel had secured some new members, and we now proceeded to establish in Cologne the Jewish National Association, of which I undertook the leadership. (P. 81) "
  12. ↑ Rahel Apfel's death certificate. In: civil status register, civil registry office Ehrenfeld, deaths, 1912, vol. 01 December 1912, accessed on 22 March 2018 .
  13. ↑ a b Heinrich Schwing: Traces of the Jewish Apple family from Münstereifel. Hans-Dieter Arntz, accessed on March 23, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Notes . In: Heinrich Schwing (Ed.): Alfred Apfel "My dear little animal ... in deep love your Alfred" Letters and cards to his daughter Hannah Busoni . epubli, 2014, ISBN 978-3-7375-1278-7 , pp. 136 .
  15. ↑ Simon Apfel - Rachel Bürger. In: Family book Euregio. Retrieved March 18, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Bibliography . In: The Leo Baeck Institute Year Book . tape 29 , no. 1 , January 1, 1984, p. 507-509 , doi : 10.1093 / leobaeck / 29.1.507 .
personal data
SURNAME Apple, Rachel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Apple, rachel; Apple, Rachel; Citizen Apple, Rahel (full name); Bürger, Rahel (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German poet, writer and Zionist
DATE OF BIRTH January 28, 1857
PLACE OF BIRTH Siegburg
DATE OF DEATH December 6, 1912
Place of death Cologne