Soncino Society
The Soncino Society of Friends of the Jewish Book eV was a bibliophile association dedicated to the care of Jewish book culture through annual meetings of the members and through the publication of bibliophile prints as well as the book journal Soncino-Blätter . It was founded in 1924 and dissolved during the Nazi era.
history
The Soncino Society was founded on May 15, 1924 in Berlin . The name of the association was based on the important family of printers of the same name, originally from Germany, which had been printing Hebrew in Italy since around 1475. The initiative to found the association came from the then 23-year-old student Herrmann (M. Zadok) Meyer, who was able to convince the publishers Abraham Horodisch and Moses Marx of his idea. Within a few years, the association had around 800 members. They came mainly from Berlin, but also from the rest of Germany, Europe and outside of Europe. According to the statutes, non-Jews and non-Jewish institutions could also become "extraordinary" members of the Soncino Society. Both individuals and institutions such as libraries have made use of this. The writing and managing director was Herrmann Meyer, the office was in Kaiser-Wilhelm-Str. 12 in Berlin. The chairman was Siegfried Wolff, followed by Heinrich Loewe .
Prints made by the Soncino Society
Bibliographers count more than a hundred prints that were produced by or in connection with the Soncino Society, donation and occasional prints, association printed matter and also periodicals such as the communications and news and especially the Soncino sheets, contributions to the customer of the Jewish book . The publications include facsimile editions such as the 1925 woodcuts illustrated Yiddish collection of fables Sefer Meschalim (originally 1697) and in 1927 the reading book for Jewish children by David Friedländer (originally 1779), which was almost lost at the time , or works such as the memorial volume for the philosopher Franz Rosenzweig von 1930 and 1930–1932 the Chamischa Chumsche Thorah ( Pentateuch ) with a Hebrew type drawn by Marcus Behmer based on a historical model.
Many of these prints were shown in the exhibition The Soncino Society of Friends of the Jewish Book eV (1924–1937) in December 2006 as part of the Cologne Antiquarian Book Fair . The Jewish Museum Berlin has an "almost complete" collection from Herrmann Meyer's estate, which is accessible in the reading room.
Outside the book trade, for example, the Minnelieder des Suezkint, the jew from trimberg, appeared in small editions . After manes Malaysian liederhandschrift to heidelberg, pressure Gebr. Mann Verlag , Berlin 1926, when publication of the Soncino Society.
literature
- Abraham Horodisch: The cultural significance of bibliophilia (lecture at the annual meeting of the Soncino Society Berlin 1926), again in: Kalonymos 11 (2008), issue 4, pp. 6-8 ( online, PDF ).
- Abraham Horodisch: A Spiritual Adventure. The Soncino Society of Friends of the Jewish Book . In: Bibliotheca docet - Festgabe for Carl Wehmer . Erasmus bookstore publisher, Amsterdam 1963, pp. 181–208.
- Michael Brenner : Jewish Culture in the Weimar Republic . CH Beck, Munich 2000, pp. 190-194.
- Ulrich Heider: The Soncino Society of Friends of the Jewish Book e. V. (1924-1937) . Private printing (= publication series of the Kölner Antiquariattage, issue 1), Cologne 2006.
- Harald Lordick: Hit me in van Geldern! Enjoy the beautiful book and the Soncino Society . In: Kalonymos 10 (2007), Heft 2–3, 2007, pp. 1–4 ( online, PDF ).
- Karin Bürger, Ines Sonder, Ursula Wallmeier (ed.): Soncino Society of Friends of the Jewish Book. A contribution to cultural history . de Gruyter, Berlin 2014. ISBN 978-3-11-028928-2 .