Louis Lamm (1871–1943): a Short Biography of a Dedicated Judaica Publisher and Bookseller

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Louis Lamm (1871–1943): A Short Biography of a Dedicated Judaica Publisher and Bookseller

Gad Freudenthal* CNRS, Paris (emeritus)

Abstract

Louis Lamm was a famed bookseller and publisher of Judaica in Berlin and Amsterdam during the four decades preceding his assassination in 1943. Yet even Internet fails to provide elementary biographical details about his life and work. The aim of this short paper is to partially fill this lacuna and contribute to the perpetuation of the memory of a dedicated lover of Jewish books.

Keywords

Louis Lamm – book publication – German Jewry – Berlin – Amsterdam – Shoah

Louis Lamm was a famed bookseller and publisher of Judaica during four decades, mostly in Berlin and for the last decade of his life, in Amsterdam. A catalogue search for books published by him yields a respectable harvest. Yet even Internet fails to provide elementary biographical details about him.1 One

* I am grateful to two anonymous referees for their helpful observations and suggestions. Special thanks go to Dr. Johannes Mordstein of Buttenwiesen for his helpful observations on a draft of this paper and for having made available the photos included in this article. 1 On Monday 14 June 2010, Jürgen Gottschalk gave a talk about Lamm at an event of the ‘Berliner Bibliophilen Abend.’ The account of this talk states: ‘An sich ist heute über diesen Mann und sein Leben nur sehr wenig bekannt.’ See http://bba-veranstaltungen.blogspot.fr/2010/06/ jurgen-gottschalk-louis-lamm-1871–1943.html (accessed 21 December 2014). Gottschalk then nonetheless describes Lamm’s biography in brief, but without any references. I am grateful to Dr. Gottschalk for some of the links indicated in this paper. On 2 September 2012, the Day of European Jewish Culture, Dr. Johannes Mordstein, Archivist of the town of Buttenwiesen, gave a talk ‘Louis Lamm (1871–1943) – ein berühmter Berliner Buchhändler und Verleger mit

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��7 | doi 10.1163/18750214-123412Downloaded88 from Brill.com09/27/2021 07:25:15AM via free access 126 Freudenthal short biographical account of Lamm was published a few years ago, but it is incomplete and not free of errors.2 The aim of the following lines is to partly fill this lacuna and contribute to the perpetuation of the memory of a dedicated lover of Jewish books. Louis Lamm was born (as Yehuda Lamm) on 12 December 1871 in Wittelshofen, near Ansbach in Bavaria to Max Lamm (1842–1917) and Hanna née Altmayer (1836–1906).3 He was their third child (out of seven) (see Fig. 1). In 1874 the family moved from Wittelshofen to Buttenwiesen. Max Lamm, whose family had lived in Franconia (now Bavaria) for many centuries, was a creative and enterprising individual: as a tinsmith he created artful Judaica,4 and also established the weekly calendar ‘Max Lamms jüdisch-deutscher Wochenkalender’ (later: ‘Lamm-Heller’sche Wochenkalender’), famous in its time.5 The family was Orthodox – Max Lamm was active in the commu- nity and Der Israelit. Ein Centralorgan für das orthodoxe Judenthum repeatedly

Wurzeln in Buttenwiesen.’ Online at http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/images/Images%20 331/JKM_Programm_ETdjK_2012.pdf (accessed 2 January 2017). I am very grateful to Dr. Mordstein for having sent me the PowerPoint of the presentation he gave on that day. The scarcity of biographical accounts is due to the fact that Lamm, just as innumerable other Jews, was put to death at a time (1943) when necrologies were no longer written, nor even graves dug. 2 I refer to P.M. Menasse, Louis Lamm (1871–1943): Antiquar und Verleger in Berlin und Amsterdam, translated by Katja B. Zaich (Aerdenhout 2009; 2nd ed. 2011; I add the ISBN of this very hard-to-find book: 978 90 79567 02 7); this is a German translation of Louis Lamm (1871–1943). Antiquaar en uitgever in Berlijn en Amsterdam (Aerdenhout 2007); non vidi. It is a privately published account, whose format is that of an article (10 pages of text + 17 pages of bibliographical lists and some reproductions). It is based in part on interviews, where the pitfalls of inter-generational memory, enhanced by the language barrier, may be the source of some of the (fortunately inconsequential) errors. See also P.M. Menasse, ‘Lamm, Louis,’ in Rena Fuks-Mansfeld, ed., Joden in Nederland in de twintigste eeuw. Een biografisch woordenboek (Amsterdam 2007) 177–178 (non vidi). See also http://www.maxvandam.info/ humo-gen/family/humo9_/F33032/I87859/; and the summary of the talk by Gottschalk (n. 1). A short but undocumented account is given in G. Römer, Schwäbische Juden. Leben und Leistungen aus zwei Jahrhunderten (Augsburg 1990) 68–72. 3 See http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/images/Images%20267/FS-LAMM-MAX.pdf. 4 See the documents shown on http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/buttenwiesen_texte.htm (accessed 21 December 2014). For data on the family (not all exact) see also http://www .alemannia-judaica.de/images/Images%20267/FS-LAMM-MAX.pdf. 5 Anon., ‘Kleines Feuilleton: Verlagsbuchhandlung Louis Lamm in Amsterdam,’ Der Israelit 75(8) (22 February 1934) 5 (see http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/images/Images%20 297/Buttenwiesen%20Israelit%2022021934.jpg). See also the 1890 advertisement for ‘Max Lamm’s hebr. und deutscher Wochen-Abriss-Kalender pro 5651,’ online at http://www .alemannia-judaica.de/images/Images%20138/Ichenhausen%20Israelit%2025081890.jpg;

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Figure 1 Max Lamm with a grandchild. Source: Gemeindearchiv Buttenwiesen, Sammlung Franz Xaver Neuner (1923–2012). Published with kind permission. prided itself of having the Lamms among its readers and contributors – but also pursued general Bildung with enthusiasm: Louis Lamm thus wrote an homage to Isak Bernhard Lamm (1804–1881, likely a brother of his grandfather Israel Lamm [1801–1878]), ‘the first Jewish primary-school teacher in Bavaria.’6 From 1881 onward, Louis Lamm lived with care families, especially in Frankfurt on the Main,7 and in 1899 he became an apprentice in the book trade in A.J. Hofmann’s antiquarian bookshop and publishing house in Frankfurt, specialized in Judaica and Hebraica,8 concomitantly devoting time to scholar- ship. He was then very interested in mysticism, especially in the thought of Jacob Frank: he collected ‘Frankiana’ and in 1899 exposed them in a Frankfurt bookshop; he also published an article describing in detail the 52 exhibited items.9 Among other things, the collection included manuscripts dealing

and in 1900, online at: http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/images/Images%20194/Ichenhausen %20Israelit%2030071900.jpg. 6 Isak Bernhard Lamm: Der erste jüd. Volksschul-Lehrer in Bayern; aus alten Papieren (Berlin 1915). 7 Mordstein, ‘Louis Lamm.’ 8 See, e.g. Katalog des antiquarischen Bücher-Lagers von A.J. Hofmann, Verlags-, Antiquariats- u. Sortimentsbuchhandlung hebräischer Litteratur in Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt 1893). 9 ‘Eine eigenartige Ausstellung; Beitrag zur Geschichte Jakob Frank und seiner Anhänger,’ Der Israelit. Central-Organ für das orthodoxe Judenthum 40 (1899), 47 (15 June 1899), Belletrist. Beilage 8, [917]–921, also published in Offenbacher Zeitung (15 July 1899), 3 pages.

zutot 14 (2017) 125-132 Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 07:25:15AM via free access 128 Freudenthal with Frank by the Offenbach poet and writer Emil Pirazzi (1832–1898), whom Lamm describes as a friend. Almost thirty years later, he was still attentive to this topic and published a scathing critique of the young Gershom Scholem’s Bibliographia kabbalistica (Leipzig 1927), stating that the bibliography was very incomplete, and that in particular many publications on Frank were not listed.10 Another topic to which Lamm was attracted throughout his life was local Jewish history, especially in southern Germany: his first publication in this domain appeared in 1901, followed by others.11 Lamm’s master in Frankfurt quickly recognized the talents of his apprentice and made him promise that at the end of his apprenticeship he would not open his own business within a radius of 500 km.12 In 1900 Lamm thus moved to Berlin, and in June 1903 he opened a business there that was both an antiquarian bookshop (see Fig. 2)and (from 1906), a publishing house, a com- bination he believed was necessary for commercial success.13 In the following years, many valuable libraries of scholars in Jewish studies were sold through Lamm, who prided himself of not having dispersed them (the first was that of the Leipzig scholar Franz Delitzsch; 1813–1890); by 1919 he had published 26 book catalogues, some quite substantial. He became one of the best known antiquarian booksellers, especially of Judaica, was reputed to be very eru- dite, and was in contact with many scholars, including, e.g., Steinschneider,

10 Lamm, ‘[Review of G. Scholem’s Bibliographia Kabbalistica],’ Der Israelit 68 (33) (18 August 1927), ‘Litterarische Warte,’ 3. Scholem collected reviews of his Bibliographia, and his collection included Lamm’s critique (Scholem Library, Jerusalem, call number SCH 36.2). Scholem was a client of Louis Lamm, even after the latter’s emigration to Amsterdam; see, e.g. Scholem Library, Jerusalem, ‘Article Collection on Jacob Frank’ (call number 5503) 114. 11 ‘Das Memorbuch in Buttenwiesen,’ MGWJ 45 (5) (1901) 540–549 (also published separately: Berlin 1902); Zur Geschichte der Juden in Lauingen (Mainz 1903; 2nd ed. Berlin 1916); Nehemias Jehuda Leib, ein Martyrer fur den Jedenleibzoll (Berlin 1910); Zur Geschichte der Juden im bayerischen Schwaben (Berlin 1912). Zur Geschichte der Juden im bayerischen Schwaben. 1. Die jüd. Friedhöfe in Kriegshaber, Buttenwiesen u. Binswangen (Berlin 1912); 2. Zur Geschichte der Juden in Lauingen und in anderen pfalz-neuburgischen Orten (Berlin 1915, 2nd ed.); Das Memorbuch von Oettingen (Berlin 1932), 15 pages. A further publication on the history of Lamm’s own family is its genealogical chart: Durch drei Jahrhunderte: Stammtafel der Levittenfamilie Lamm aus Wittelshofen in Bayern (Berlin 1914). Lamm also published a number of articles in the pages of Blätter für Jüdische Geschichte und Literatur (literary supplement of Der Israelit), in 1902–1904. 12 Gottschalk at http://bba-veranstaltungen.blogspot.fr/2010/06/jurgen-gottschalk-louis -lamm-1871–1943.html (accessed 21 December 2014); Manasse, Louis Lamm, 6. 13 Louis Lamm gave an account of his enterprise in: ‘Mein Verlag,’ and ‘Meine Buchhandlung,’ Neue jüdische Monatshefte, 1919–1920, Heft 2–4 (25 October 1919) 78–79 and 80–81, respectively. The business was located at 61–63 Neue Friedrichstrasse.

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Figure 2 Louis Lamm in his bookshop. Source: Gemeindearchiv Buttenwiesen, Sammlung Franz Xaver Neuner (1923–2012). Published with kind permission.

in whose modest apartment, ‘furnished in a petit-bourgeois fashion,’ Lamm passed many hours.14 In the next years, Lamm published numerous titles, some scholarly, some directed to the ‘educated layman’; he devoted special efforts to republishing important works that had gone out of print. To judge from its title, Lamm seems to have been particularly proud of the publication of Hagadah shel Pesah, Lamm’s Pracht-Hagadah, neu übersetzt von B. Königsberger, illus- triert von M. Kunstadt (Berlin 1922). As his business flourished (his publishing house rose to be one of the five biggest in the domain of Jewish letters15), he had a number of assistants, one of whom was Reuben Maas (1894–1979), who later became a well-known publisher in Israel.16 He also participated in such enterprises as the founding of the ‘Soncino Gesellschaft’ (Berlin 1924).17 Soon after having established his business, on Lag ba-Omer 1904, Lamm celebrated his engagement to Julia Pinczower (b. 9 April 1880 in Sandomitz;

14 ‘. . . Prof. Dr. Steinschneider, bei dem ich manches Plauderstündchen in seiner kleinbürgerlich eingerichteten Wohnung in der Wallnertheaterstrasse zubrachte . . .,’ ‘Meine Buchhandlung,’ 80. 15 Mordstein, ‘Louis Lamm.’ 16 Manasse, Louis Lamm, 7. 17 Manasse, Louis Lamm, 7.

zutot 14 (2017) 125-132 Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 07:25:15AM via free access 130 Freudenthal d. 10 November 1940 in Amsterdam) from Breslau;18 they were married in 1905 and were to have three children.19 The family belonged to the Orthodox com- munity ‘Adass Jisroel,’ of which Lamm was a central member; in 2009 the com- munity inaugurated a memorial plate for Lamm.20 During World War I, Lamm displayed a ‘patriotic attitude,’ as did most German Jews.21 He thus published Makkabäa: jüdisch-literarische Sammlung für unsere Krieger, ausgew. von Louis Lamm (Berlin 1915) and a catalogue of Jewish writings related to the war, which, among other things, listed the seven volumes of ‘Lamm’s Jüdische Feldbücherei’ (Lamm’s Jewish field book collection; 1915) and the 22 war-postcards published by Lamm.22 This was Lamm’s own modest contribution to the German war effort. Sometime before 1929, Lamm travelled to Tunisia. He wrote an account of his impressions in a booklet, which he himself published.23 Lamm does not say whether this tour had a specific purpose, but, as his numerous comparative observations suggest, he had a taste for travel and had visited many countries. He followed both ‘general’ and specifically Jewish interests. As to the former, he recounts, not without some pride, that he was fortunate to get acquainted with a ‘European prince,’ namely Max zu Hohenlohe (1897–1968), with whose help he was able to enter several private palaces. As to the latter, he went to many synagogues and noted their specific customs. He saw cheders and, as befits a publisher, remarked that the copies of the Talmudic texts in use were worn out. He also visited a Hebrew printing press. Naturally, he took note of the

18 Announcement reproduced at http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/buttenwiesen_texte .htm (accessed 21 December 2014). Julia Pinczower may be a distant relative of the author of these lines. 19 See Manasse, Louis Lamm, 7 for details of the children and their lives; see also http://www .alemannia-judaica.de/images/Images%20267/FS-LAMM-MAX.pdf. 20 See http://www.adassjisroel.de/adass-jisroel-neuigkeiten/gedenktafel-zu-ehren-von-louis -jehuda-arieh-lamm-1870-1943-s-a-eingeweiht.html. 21 Noted in Gottschalk at http://bba-veranstaltungen.blogspot.fr/2010/06/jurgen-gottschalk -louis-lamm-1871–1943.html (accessed 21 December 2014). 22 L. Lamm, Verzeichnis Jüdischer Kriegsschriften (Berlin 1916). An advertisement inserted in this catalogue informs that Lamm himself published David Mannheimer, Gedichte und Lieder für die Soldaten- und Verwundeten-Abende (1915); he also announced Felix A. Theilhaber, Jüdisches Heldenbuch aus Deutschlands grossen Tagen, but it does not seem to have been published. Two of the cards published by Lamm can be viewed at http:// objekte.jmberlin.de/person/jmb-pers-444061;jsessionid=63ECED54ADCB68DB3EDDD4 B6896C051C. 23 L. Lamm, Reise-Eindrücke in Nord-Afrika (Berlin 1929), 11 pages. See also K.-L. Barkhausen, Reiseberichte aus Tunesien (Soltau 2010) 10, 19–24. Apparently this account was also published in Der Israelit: see Der Israelit 75 (8) (22 February 1934) 15.

Downloadedzutot from 14 Brill.com09/27/2021 (2017) 125-132 07:25:15AM via free access Louis Lamm (1871–1943) 131 important role of the Alliance israélite universelle. Lamm observed that most Jews there are artisans, especially goldsmiths, and in this context makes the following interesting remark: ‘I was surprised to see Hebrew scientific books in the workshop of a goldsmith. He said that his father had been chief rabbi and that he himself had “studied” much in his youth.’24 In the Jewish quarter he was impressed by the strict observance of the Shabbat and by the fact that official announcements were displayed mostly in Hebrew, occasionally also in Judeo-Arabic or in French. Very soon after the seizure of power by the Nazis Lamm decided to leave Germany: ‘We can’t stay here,’ he said after having been hit on the street because he was a Jew. Two of his children emigrated to Palestine, but he did not wish to follow them, both on account of the climate and because ‘no one there has money to buy books.’25 In February 1934, we already find him in Amsterdam, Amstel 3, where he resumed his business in a ‘spacious space.’26 Lamm suc- ceeded in moving most of his collections and very large book stock with him (it is said that nineteen Rhine barges were necessary to move his books) and continued his commercial activities as an antiquarian bookseller and publisher.27 Lamm had prior connections to Amsterdam;28 for example, already in 1930 he wrote and published Die Rosenthaliana in Amsterdam: zum 40-jährig. Amtsjubiläum ihres Leiters Jeremias Hillesum. On his arrival, the mayor of Amsterdam greeted him as the ‘significant new citizen.’29 To mark Lamm’s 70th birthday, on 12 December 1941, the Dutch Jewish weekly Het Joodsche Weekblad published a short article on Lamm, with a picture.30 After the German occupation of Holland in May 1940, Lamm did not go into hiding. At an unknown date he was arrested and deported with his youngest

24 Lamm, Reise-Eindrücke in Nord-Afrika, 9. 25 Römer, Schwäbische Juden, 71. 26 Anon., ‘Kleines Feuilleton,’ 5. See also Lamm’s ad on p. 15. See P.J. Buijnsters, ‘The Antiquarian Book Trade in the Netherlands,’ Quaerendo 36 (4) (2006) 251–292, on p. 289. 27 Advertisements for books for sale were published, e.g. in Der Israelit 75 (8) (22 February 1934) 15; Het Joodsche Weekblad of 25 April 1941 (viewable at http://www .communityjoodsmonument.nl/person/204044?lang=en). In Amsterdam he published, e.g. Louis Lamm, . . . Werke von und ueber Moses Maimonides: Zu seinem 800. Geburtstag . . . (Amsterdam 1935), 15 pages; E. Biberfeld, Der Reisebericht David Rëubêni’s (Amsterdam 1936?). 28 Manasse, Louis Lamm, 7. 29 Römer, Schwäbische Juden, 71. 30 Het Joodsche Weekblad, vol. 1 (35) (1941) 7. Viewable at http://www.joodsmonument .nl/person/534004?lang=en. On Lamm’s activity in Amsterdam see also Manasse, Louis Lamm, 9.

zutot 14 (2017) 125-132 Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 07:25:15AM via free access 132 Freudenthal daughter, Ruth Fanny (b. 1911), to Westerbork and from there to Auschwitz, where they were put to death on 19 November 1943.31 The books Lamm left be- hind were in part plundered,32 the rest were sold at auction in 1950.33 In 1957, Hans Lamm (1913–1985), a nephew of Louis Lamm, back in Munich after having spent the war years in the USA, founded the publishing house Ner Tamid, inspired, he said, by the example of his uncle.34 My very limited goal in these few pages was to offer a brief sketch of Louis Lamm’s biography. A fuller account, which Lamm deserves, will have to con- textualize Lamm’s activity in relation to contemporary Jewish publishers and booksellers in Germany and analyze the tendencies of the books Lamm published and sold.35

31 See online at http://www.joodsamsterdam.nl/louis-lamm/; https://www.joodsmonument .nl/nl/page/214832/louis-lamm (accessed 26 December 2016). 32 Manasse, Louis Lamm, 10. For an eye-witness report, see R.E. Feilchenfeldt and Jutta Weber, eds., Bruno Cassirer Publishers Ltd. Oxford 1940–1990: An Annotated Bibliography (Göttingen 2016) 448. 33 Veilingcatalogus, boeken van Louis Lamm . . . [et al.], 13 tot 14 december 1950 (Leiden 1950). A list of books today at the Staatsbibliothek Berlin that once belonged to Lamm is given at http://stabikat.de/DB=1/CMD?ACT=SRCHA&IKT=8518&SRT=YOP&TRM=Louis +Lamm+Berlin (accessed 26 December 2016). 34 A. Sinn, ‘Und ich lebe wieder an der Isar’. Exil und Rückkehr des Münchner Juden Hans Lamm [Studien zur jüdischen Geschichte und Kultur in Bayern; Bd. 1] (München 2008) 121. 35 A list (incomplete and with typos) of the books published or authored by Lamm is given in Manasse, Louis Lamm, 11–18, 18–20, respectively. A number of references to articles in the Jewish press can be found in D. Pfister, Dokumentation zur Geschichte und Kultur der Juden in Schwaben, ed. by P. Fassl, III. Bibliographie (Augsburg 1993), accessed 27 December 2016 at https://www.yumpu.com/de/document/view/2254642/dokumentation-zur-geschichte -und-kultur-der-universitat-augsburg/139. Similarly F. Wiesemann, Judaica bavarica. Neue bibliographie zur Geschichte der Juden in Bayern (Essen 2007), Index, s.v. ‘Lamm, Louis.’ A major source for a future biography of Lamm will be his large personal archive, held at The Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People Jerusalem (CAHJP) (Call Number: P 16: inventory at http://cahjp.nli.org.il/content/lamm-louis); it consists of private papers as well as many documents bearing on local, mainly Jewish history. Dr. Johannes Mordstein, town archivist of Buttenwiesen, kindly informed me that the municipal archive holds a large collection of materials on local Jewish families, including the Lamms, gathered by the historian Franz Xaver Neuner (1923–2012). Further leads toward archival material are given in Sinn, ‘Und ich lebe wieder an der Isar,’ 47 n. 3. See also ‘Lamm Family Collection,’ New York, Leo Baeck Institute Archives, Call number AR 6137 (online at https://archive.org/details/lammfamilyf001; accessed 26 December 2016). A correspondence on business matters between Lamm and Markus Brann (1849– 1920), not always very friendly, is kept at The National Library of Israel (= NLI), Archive M. Brann (ARC. Ms. Var. 308 01 752). One letter is preserved in the Zunz Archive at NLI (ARC. 4* 792 09 Z8b) and also in the G.G. Scholem archive.

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