John Hildesheim Diary Translation
JOHN HILDESHEIM’S NOTES [Translated and annotated by Mark Hill] [EDUCATION AND EARLY YEARS 1845-64] [I was] born on April 9, 1845, in Hamburg. I went to school with Joh[ann] Roeloff, left that [school], under Ro[eloff’s] successor Dr. Friedrich Dörr on March 1, 1859. The same day, I was accepted as a trainee with N.H. Bernhard & Co., Hamburg. I became a clerk On January 1, 1862, with a salary of 500 p[fennig] courant.1 I traveled on June 3, 1862, on a pleasure trip to England through Hartlepool to Manchester, Nottingham, [and] London (Sydenham), for the [Great] Exhibition. Then I traveled back through Nottingham (I visited Matlock), and Hull, to Hamburg. July 1, 1862. On September 4, 1862, I left Hamburg and joined Dagron & Co. Paris as a clerk, with 150 francs p[er] month. For this [Dagron’s] house, I went on October 21, 1863, to Gex, near Geneva, where I remained until December 31 of the same year.2 From January 1 to May 15, 1864, I stayed in Paris (salary 3000 francs), and traveled then through Cologne to Solingen, and, three days later, to Hamburg for the wedding of my sister Caroline.3 1 The mark courant was currency in use in Hamburg and neighboring cities at that time. 2 Dagron was an early photographer who was known for producing microscopic lenses (the “Stanhope” lens). Dagron's lens factory was located in Gex, Switzerland. 3 Caroline married the banker, author and journalist Gustav Tuch. He advocated for German unification and founded Jewish community organizations.
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