By Karola NICK
From 2006 until 2008 I archived, in the Jewish Museum Frankfurt (henceforth JMF), the extensive bequest named Nachlass Hans Julius Wolff . There I found, among many other important papers, a collection of 123 letters, written between 1863 and 1910. With very few exceptions, these were written by Moritz Pinner (1828-1911), who lived in the USA, and addressed to his brother Adolf Pinner (1842-1909), who lived in Berlin. In a small envelope I found 13 letters from Moritz to Adolf, obviously singled out from the main collection. Also, in a special envelope, there was a long letter to Adolf, but with the order to give it to Mr. Gerson Bleichroeder, the banker of Imperial Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Altogether, I transcribed 137 letters between 2009 and 2011.
When I first read the letters, I was deeply impressed by the scope and richness of the letters, and by all the information that they conveyed. These are not the usual, run-of-the-mill, family letters. These are authentic reports about a unique bond to family and homeland, that I have never seen before. Moreover the letters gave insight on the political and economic situations of those times in Germany, during the Empire, and also in the early America, that was now the new homeland of Moritz. He himself was a very remarkable man: highly gifted and with an unusual perspective. He clearly saw all the specific trends of his time and was constantly thinking how they could be used.
When I transcribed all these letters between 2009 and 2011, I have had the pleasure to be in contact with Doron Zeilberger, USA, a great-grandson of Adolf Pinner. From his website we know how intensively he is trying to trace his roots, in particular this German family, searching details about his ancestors and documenting important facts about their lives. Because of his groundwork, and also thanks to his friendly interest in my transcription work, I could finally learn to understand the two protagonists, Moritz and Adolf Pinner. Of course, it was easier to understand Moritz than Adolf, because we don't have any letters by the latter.
First, I tried to figure out the connections between the Pinner and Wolff families. I learned from Moritz's letter that he himself emigrated to America in 1851, at the age of 23. When, in 1863, he visited his homeland for the first time after his emigration, he contacted his brother Adolf, 14 years his junior. (We do not know whether there was any contact by letters before that time, as there are not any letters from this time in the bequest). It is very possible that the letters survived in the Wolff- Nachlass through Adolf's daughter Käthe Pinner (1877-1960), because she married into the Wolff family. Her son, Hans Julius Wolff (1902-1983) (See "International biographical dictionary of central European emigres 1933-1945, II", München-New York-London- Paris 1983, p. 1261) was a jurist and a very distinguished historian, and he saved all his family's documents, and took them with him when he fled to Panama in 1935. But it is also possible that his mother Käthe brought the bequest to the United States in 1939, when she joined him, after he moved there from Panama. Both of them deserve credit.
In Panama's new founded university Hans Julius Wolff was teaching Roman Law and Civil Law. But, as mentioned above, in 1939 he emigrated to the States, where he has had a very difficult start with different temporary jobs. After this tough beginning, he was able to teach in several universities and he enjoyed a very good International reputation in his chosen areas of specialization. After the war, in 1952, Hans Julius Wolff accepted an invitation from the University of Mainz (Germany), and he returned to Germany, bringing the bequest with him. Shortly after, he accepted an offer from the University of Freiburg, where he lived till his death. In 1988, His daughter, Katherine Elena Wolff, donated the whole bequest to the then newly founded Jewish Museum Frankfurt, following her father's wishes, thereby making it publicly available. The voluminous bequest Hans Julius Wolff (of the JMF) should be very important for students and researchers, providing deep insight into Jewish life and Jewish thoughts during the 19th and and the early 20th century.
From the very beginning of my transcription work, Doron was on my side with interest, praise, encouragement and advice. Many thanks are also due to Michael Lenarz, the historian of the JMF, for his intense help, and also for his always very instructive explanations. I myself would never have undertaken to do this work without his encouraging interest in these letters and his particular opinion as a historian about the importance of this special bequest. Because Michael Lenarz has a very broad knowledge, he was able to solve many of the difficult questions that arose in some of the letters (especially those using the Hebrew alphabet). He was always eager to search the living conditions, particularly of Adolf, and put everything in the context of the time. Because of his great expertise, it was possible for me to understand the historical background of these letters. It was very important for me that Michael Lenarz was always eager to read my transcriptions and discuss them with me.
Last but not least I wish to thank my husband, Klaus Nick. He critically checked all the transcriptions with me. I could learn a lot from our conversations regarding these letters. He was always very helpful and sensitive for the special contents of the letters. This gave me the required energy and stamina to compete this project.