Siegmund Salfeld

Siegmund Salfeld

Siegmund Salfeld (also Sigmund; born March 24, 1843 in Stadthagen ; died May 1, 1926 in Mainz ) was a German rabbi , educator and author .

Life

Siegmund Salfeld was born in 1843 in Stadthagen in schaumburg-Lippe with the first name Sigmund as the son of Benjamin and Adele Salfeld. Shortly before he started his studies, he changed his first name to Siegmund . After studying at the University of Berlin , he first became a teacher. At the beginning of this activity he met his future wife Zipporah Herzberg from Oschersleben (Bode) . Shortly afterwards he continued his studies at the University of Berlin and the University for the Science of Judaism in Berlin, where one of his teachers was Moritz Steinschneider . He finished these studies with the award of a doctorate in philosophy and humanities . After completing his studies, Siegmund Salfeld married his life partner Zipporah Herzberg. His first job as a preacher was in 1870 with the Jewish community in Dessau in what is now Saxony-Anhalt. As an award and incentive for his work for the Jewish community in Dessau, he finally became city ​​councilor in Dessau in 1876 . After studying further, he finally became a rabbi in 1878. In order to earn additional money, they are now starting a pension for Jewish boys. During their presence in Dessau, Siegmund and Zipporah Herzberg had four children: Erich (1877–1951), Heinz, Albert and Ludwig.

In 1880 Siegmund and Zipporah Herzberg left Dessau and moved to the Jewish community in Mainz. They moved to the Hebrew School in Mainz. Here he became a rabbi and pastor of the liberal Jewish community of Mainz, the "Israelite Religious Community". At the same time he also became chairman of the responsible rabbi district. In 1898 he published his most important work, which dealt with the history of the Jews in Nuremberg and throughout the country. It was called Das Martyrologium des Nürnberger Memorbuches . As a result, he became a teacher at both the Mainz Hebrew School and the municipal high school in Mainz. He also created an important library that contained scholarly works from Hebrew, Biblical, and Jewish literature. His treatment of Jewish aspects of Mainz's history in the Middle Ages made him famous at home and abroad. As a result, Siegmund Salfeld was primarily active as an author. He not only published his sermons as writings, but he also wrote numerous publications on the history of the city of Mainz and the history of Rheinhessen . One of his most important works for the Mainz region was the revision and addition of the almost 100 year old book The History of the Jews of Mainz . His works, too, such as pictures from the past of the Jews of Mainz , in which he deciphered the new first names of Jews from the Middle Ages that became known for the first time, have become standard works of science. He was also active as an author for the Jewish Encyclopedia , Germania Judaica and for Meyers Konversations-Lexikon .

At the end of his career, Siegmund Salfeld received numerous awards. In 1905 he received the Knight's Cross, First Class, because he was rabbi of the Jewish community of Mainz for 25 years that year. Shortly before his 70th birthday, he was appointed professor by the Grand Duke of Hessen-Darmstadt Ernst Ludwig for the inauguration of the new Mainz synagogue on Bonifazius-Strasse in 1912 . In the meantime the number of members of the Jewish community in Mainz was 3,000. When the First World War began in 1914 , Siegmund Salfeld and his wife Zipporah Salfeld were heavily involved in the defense of their fatherland. In 1917 he finally fell ill. This resulted in his retirement on March 9, 1918. After the end of the war, Siegmund Salfeld was again awarded a first-class knight's cross in 1918 for defending the fatherland. After a long illness, Siegmund Salfeld finally died on May 1, 1926 at the age of 83 in Mainz. He was buried on the Judensand . The funeral service took place on May 4, 1926 in the new Mainz synagogue that he had initiated. In his obituary, the board of directors of the Israelite religious community in Mainz described his work as "historical treatises" with which he had created an "immortal monument".

Publications (selection)

• Pictures from the Past of the Jews of Mainz (1903)
• The Song of Solomon among the Jewish Explainers of the Middle Ages (1879)
• The Martyrology of the Nuremberg Memorandum (1898)
• The old Israelite cemetery in Mainz (1898)
• Dr. Salomon Herxheimer (1885)
• Philip the Magnanimous' Jewish Policy (1904)
• Five Sermons (1879)
• Nuremberg in the Middle Ages (1894-1896)
• Heralds of the emancipation of the Jews in Kurmainz (1912)
• On the history of the protection of Jews in Kurmainz (1916)
• On the news of Mainz's Jewish club life in the eighteenth century (1919)

literature

• Wolfgang Balzer: Mainz - personalities of the city's history. Volume II: Persons of religious life, persons of political life, persons of general cultural life, scientists, writers, artists. Printing and publishing house Gebr. Kügler, Mainz 1989, ISBN 3-924124-03-9 , pp. 36-37.
• Michael Brocke , Julius Carlebach , Carsten Wilke : Biographical Handbook of the Rabbis Part 1: The Rabbis of the Emancipation Period in the German, Bohemian and Greater Poland Countries, 1781-1871 . KG Saur, Munich 2004, p. 767 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

• Guide to the Papers of Siegmund Salfeld on the website of the Center for Jewish History of the Leo Baeck Institute
• Biography on the website of the Israelite Religious Community Mainz eV

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Guide to the Papers of Siegmund Salfeld on the website of the Center for Jewish History of the Leo Baeck Institute
2. ↑ Erich Salfeld , at Claims Resolution Tribunal (CRT) , 2005
3. ↑ Ludwig Salfeld , * 1880, matriculation 1905 at the University of Rostock , see also: Abram Games
4. ↑ ^{a b c} biography  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the Israelite religious community Mainz eV  
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Wolfgang Balzer: Mainz - personalities of city history. Volume II, Kügler, Mainz 1989, pp. 36-37.