THE MENDELSSOHNS IN JÄGERSTRASSE A TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION The Mendelssohns in Jägerstraße Texts for the guide to the exhibition tour by Thomas Lackmann. Design by André Leonhardt. Sponsored in 2018 by a grant from Lotto-Stiftung Berlin on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Mendels- sohn-Gesellschaft. Illustrations Titles Sebastian Panwitz/Manfred Claudi P. 3, 13 MG/Manfred Claudi. P. 5, 7 Above: private collection, below: MG, photos: Manfred Claudi. P. 9 Above: SBB/MA, below: private collection, photos: Manfred Claudi. P. 11 Top: MG/Manfred Claudi, bottom: MG / Sebastian Panwitz. P. 13 MG / Manfred Claudi. P. 15 Private collection / Sebastian Panwitz. P. 17 Top: MG / Manfred Claudi, bottom: bpk / SBB, Mendelssohn-Archiv. P. 19 Landesarchiv Berlin / Thomas Platow (2), Geheimes Staatsarchiv PK. Contact information Mendelssohn-Gesellschaft Mendelssohn-Remise, Jägerstraße 51, 10117 Berlin, Germany Tel +4930 817047-26 Fax +4930 817047-27 Email [email protected] www mendelssohn-gesellschaft.de Open daily from 12 noon to 6 pm (exceptions will be noted under www.mendelssohn-gesellschaft.de) The exhibition The Mendelssohns in Jägerstraße was first mounted in 2004 as part of the Jüdische Kulturtage (Days of Jewish Culture) by Sebastian Panwitz and Ernst Siebel. It was developed further by Thomas Lackmann together with the curators Christiane Meister and Elena Sanchez. Sponsored by Lotto-Stiftung Berlin Stiftung Preußische Seehandlung Hermann-Reemtsma-Stiftung Senatsverwaltung für Kultur (Berlin Senate Administration for Culture) You will find additional Mendelssohn exhibitions in Berlin at the Museum Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf / Villa Oppenheim, at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Potsdamer Straße Reading Room) and at the Drei- faltigkeitsfriedhof I cemetery near Hallesches Tor. The exhibition “The Mendelssohns in Jägerstraße” was first mounted as part of the Jüdische Kulturtage (Days of Jewish Culture) in 2004. It was re-opened on a permanent basis in 2006 in the “Remise.” This space, originally designed as a cash hall for Mendels sohn & Co. 1729 Birth of Gotthold by Martin Gropius and Heino Ephraim Lessing 1740 - 86 Rule of Frederick II Schmieden in 1882, later served as 1750 Revision of Prussia’s laws on the Jews; a carriage house and as a cafeteria death of Johann Sebastian Bach for the bank’s staff. 1756 - 63 Seven Years’ War 1769 Invention of the steam engine. The tour of the exhibition proceeds 1775 - 83 US War of Indepen- dence in a clockwise direction. Banners 1784 Immanuel Kant: “What is Enlightenment?” with texts and photos explain the individual topics. You will find 1729 – 88 additional information on the ex- 1729 Birth of Moses Mendelssohn hibited objects in the boxes on the 1743 Moses Mendelssohn arrives in Berlin display case side and on the music 1762 Marriage to Fromet Gugenheim stands. 1764 - 81 Birth of their children Brendel, Recha, Joseph, Jette, Abraham, and This brochure will guide you Nathan 1767 Mendelssohn’s “On the through the various topics and Immortality of the Soul” becomes a bestseller epochs presented in the exhibition. 1783 Mendelssohn’s “Jeru- salem: Or on Religious Although it is not set up chrono- Power and Judaism” is published logically, its timeline of key dates 1786 Death of Moses Mendelssohn will help you place the history of the Mendelssohn family in a wider historical context. Living room décor from the home of Paul Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, the banker who lived in the building at Jägerstraße 51 and later at Französische Straße 35 The Jägerstraße in Friedrichstadt with the homes and offices of the bankers 1789 Outbreak of the French Revolution 1791 Death of W. A. Mozart 1804 The Code Napoleon is issued; emancipation of the Jews in France 1806 Prussia is defeated by Napoleon 1806 - 14 French occupation of Hamburg 1806 End of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation 1789 – 1811 1795 Foundation of the Men- delssohn Bank in Berlin 01 1797 Abraham Mendelssohn - 1803 trains as a banker in Paris 1799 Divorce and departure from Berlin of Brendel Veit, née Mendelssohn; the Mendelssohn bank grants a loan to fund Alexander von Humboldt’s expedition to South America 1804 - 11 The Mendelssohn Bank operates in Hamburg 1805 / 09 Birth of Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn in Hamburg 1808 / 10 Conversion to Catho- The Friedrichstadt district, laid out in a grid pat- licism by Dorothea (Brendel) and Friedrich tern in the early 18th century, became the trend- Schlegel, as well as by iest address of its day with its many luxury shops, Jonas and Philipp Veit banks, and salons. In 1815, the Mendelssohn bank- ers moved their firm into a rented building at Jägerstraße 51, between two Prussian state banks. By the time of the 20th century, the banking fam- ily had owned six buildings along this street at various times. The crane with the stone, family emblem of the Mendelssohns, used on a leather armchair owned by Laura Mendelssohn, wife of the publisher. Bookplates from the collection of her publisher son, Walter Mendelssohn. Excursus: A banker’s son becomes a publisher 1812 The Edict of Emancipa- tion grants civil rights to the Jews in Prussia 1813 - 15 Wars of Liberation against Napoleon 1814 - 15 The Congress of Vienna 1817 German students at the Wartburgfest festival call for national unification 1819 Anti-Jewish pogroms in Germany 1821 - 29 Greek War of Indepen- dence 1827 Death of Ludwig van Beethoven 1827 / 28 Alexander von 02 Humboldt holds his Cosmos Lectures 1812 – 1830 1815 - 19 Mendelssohn & Co. handles war-reparations business 1816 / 22 Baptism of Abraham Mendelssohn’s children, conversion of Abraham and his wife The Jewish bank founder Joseph Mendelssohn had 1817 The Nazarene painters create their frescoes been forced to become a merchant in order to se- for the Casa Bartholdy cure his Prussian residency permit, even though in Rome 1822 Abraham Mendelssohn his father would have preferred to see him become exits as partner of the a scholar. Joseph’s grandson Hermann, though the bank 1823 Formation of the Berliner eldest son, did not take over the bank from his fa- Kassenverein banking ther, senior director Alexander Mendelssohn, but association under the aegis of Joseph became a publisher in Leipzig instead. He pub- Mendelssohn lished works by and about Moses Mendelssohn 1826 Felix MB composes his “Overture to a as well as the letters of his famous uncle Felix, Midsummer Night’s along with books on history, theology, and the Dream” 1829 Marriage of Wilhelm natural sciences. His wife Laura, who decorated Hensel to Fanny MB; leather arm chairs with pokerwork as a hobby, Felix MB conducts St. Matthew’s Passion used the Mendelssohn family emblem – the crane by Johann Sebastian clutching the stone – as a motif. Their son Walter, Bach an aficionado of bookplates, carried on the pub- lishing house’s operations. The banker Ernst (von) Mendelssohn Bartholdy, painted by Ludwig Passini. His sister Fanny von Richthofen, painted by Adalbert Begas. Ancestral portrait gallery of the bankers and their daughters 1829 / 45 Catholics and Jews are emancipated in England 1830 / 47 The Tailors’ Revolt and Potato Rebellion in Berlin 1832 Death of J. W. v. Goethe 1835 The first German railway line opens 1837 Dismissal of the liberal professors known as the “Göttingen Seven”; invention of the tele- graph 1844 Revolt of the Silesian 03 weavers 1831 – 1847 1835 Death of Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy 1840 The Mendelssohn Bank begins expanding its business in Russia 1830 - 47 Fanny Hensel oversees the Sunday concerts at Leipziger Straße 3 1833 / 35 Felix MB serves as music director in Düs- The portraits that were displayed in the Ances- seldorf and as director of the Gewandhaus tors’ Gallery of the bank emphasized tradition Orchestra in Leipzig and probity. The paintings that hung in the fam- 1843 Philipp Veit resigns as director of the Städel ily’s living rooms, meanwhile, served to remind Museum after a dispute later generations of their commitment to a over cultural policies 1846 Arnold Mendelssohn shared legacy. In this part of the exhibition, the is on the run from the photos of the bankers on the banner are supple- police after becoming entangled in the mented by paintings of the Jewish banker Joseph “Cassette Affair” (first generation of bankers) and Alexander Men- 1843 - 45 Georg B. Mendelssohn edits the writings of his delssohn (second generation), along with their grandfather Moses baptized relatives Paul Mendelssohn-Bartholdy 1847 Death of Fanny Hensel and Felix Mendelssohn (second generation) and his son Ernst (third gen- Bartholdy eration). The life stories of the latter’s sisters Käthe, Fanny, and Pauline give us broad insights into the lot of women in the 19th century. The oldest portrait of the devout and learned Jew Moses Mendelssohn (1767). The so-called Turkish Cross, a souvenir from Italy that Fanny Hensel kept in her music room. Excursus: The religious 1848 The Communist faith of the Manifesto by Karl Marx is published; uprisings in Paris and Berlin; the Mendelssohns German National As- sembly convenes in St. Paul’s Church 1850 Richard Wagner publish- es “Judaism in Music” 1853 - 56 Crimean War 1861 - 65 US Civil War 1864 Second Schleswig War 1870 / 71 Franco-Prussian War; foundation of the Second German Empire 1870 Unification of Italy, end of the Papal States 1871 - 73 Rapid German indus- trialization during the so-called Gründerzeit 04 1876 The term “anti-Semitism” is coined 1848 – 1880 1848 Death of the banker Joseph Mendelssohn; his son Alexander becomes senior partner of the bank 1850 The building at Leipziger Str. 3 is sold to the gov- ernment; Mendelssohn & Co. expands its business in the railway The title of this Excursus – written on the hanging sector and in Russia 1849 - 54 Arnold Mendelssohn banners in Hebrew, Latin, English and German goes into exile in the – refers to the Mendelssohn family’s wanderings Middle East, serving as a physician and conversions between cultures and faiths and 1867 Agfa is co-founded follows them into exile in some cases.