Adolf Leschnitzer Collection

The Adolf Leschnitzer Collection documents the life and professional activities of Adolf Leschnitzer, researcher, historian, and teacher. The collection includes brochures, booklets, clippings, correspondence, financial, vital, and immigration documents, minutes, notes, photographs, printed materials, and writings, by Adolf Leschnitzer as well as other authors.

Materials constituting this series shed light on various aspects of Adolf Leschnitzer's personal and professional life, teaching, research and writings in the fields of German-Jewish history, culture and relations, Anti-Semitism and languages.

Most of the personal and related materials are grouped in Subseries 1: Personal, 1921-1980 but can also be found throughout the collection, in particular in Subseries 2: Professional, 1921-1986, due to the fact that in many cases Adolf Leschnitzer was involved with many of his colleagues personally as well as professionally. In such case professional and personal correspondence was difficult to separate and was put in either the Personal or Professional section of the correspondence, depending on notes and professional judgment.

In many cases folders consists of both, incoming correspondence and copies of Adolf Leschnitzer's responses.

Series I: Leschnitzer, Adolf is the largest one and includes such personal materials as correspondence, financial, official, immigration, and family documents, and materials pertaining to his and his wife’s, Maria Leschnitzer, restitution case. There is an abundance of correspondence between Adolf Leschnitzer and his acquaintances as well as with family members.

In addition to correspondence with friends and family, personal materials also include the Leschnitzer family’s restitution case and their immigration. It also consists of correspondence with German, American, and British authorities and organizations, lawyers, as well as German banks.

Adolf Leschnitzer’s professional activities are well documented by materials such as professional correspondence, printed materials, that include his articles and reviews, and his writings. In many cases manuscripts found in this collection are fragmentary, with complete manuscripts constituting just a small portion of the Subsubseries E: Writings.

In many cases these are drafts of just a few chapters of his works. His writings include drafts of articles, reviews, and books. There is a considerable amount of notes and some correspondence regarding Dr. Leschnitzer’s publications. Additionally, there are some unpublished manuscripts, such as Die deutsch-jüdische Symbiose .

Most of the correspondence regarding Leschnitzer’ publications can be found in Series I: Leschnitzer, Adolf, Subseries 2: Professional, Subsubseries B: Correspondence.

Furthermore, there are manuscripts by other authors, including Leschnitzer’s students from the Freie Universität. These writings cover such topics as German-Jewish relations, Anti-Semitism, as well as Psychology and Social Services.

General professional correspondence consists of communication with organizations and individuals and covers such topics as academic research, publishing of Leschnitzer’s works, the American Institute of Modern Languages, charitable work (in particular helping foreign scholars in the US), job search at American universities, and grants. There are also materials dealing with Leschnitzer’s involvement with City College of the City University of New York, where he taught from 1946 till 1966, and Freie Universität Berlin, where he was a visiting professor one term each year, starting in 1952 and until 1972. These materials are represented by correspondence with colleagues, various departments of the Universities, correspondence with the Fulbright Commission regarding grants for teaching in Germany as well as correspondence with other grant giving organizations.

There are also materials pertaining to the Leo Baeck Institute, of which he was a founding member, and for which - for many years - he served as a member of the Board. These consist of correspondence concerning exhibitions, publication and various LBI projects, financial documents, such as reports and statements, minutes of meetings, beginning with the very first meeting of the LBI in 1956, and by-laws.

There is also a considerable amount of notebooks, belonging to both, Adolf and Maria Leschnitzer.

In addition to the materials directly dealing with Adolf Leschnitzer’s personal and professional life, there are also materials pertaining to the members of the Leschnitzer family and their friends. These materials include materials pertaining to Leschnitzer’s mother-in-law, Elly Bratz, née Michael, his wife, Maria Leschnitzer, née, Bratz, their son Michael Lesch (also known as Michael Leschnitzer) and the friends of the Bratz family, Adolf and Albert Frank, who were renewed chemists.

Materials dealing with Elly Bratz include correspondence with friends and family, and immigration authorities in England and the United States, and also include various documents and property reports.

Materials dealing with the Frank family include correspondence, both personal and professional, family papers, minutes, notes, patents, a guest book, and materials dealing with the Frank family’s immigration efforts.

Materials dealing with Maria and Michael Leschnitzer include school materials and correspondence, with personal one constituting the larger portion ,. In addition, there are legal, court, travel, and vital documents, and materials pertaining to Maria Leschnitzer’s efforts to collect compensation from the German government. Other materials include Sag es auf English, a book written by Maria Leschnitzer, and student and teaching materials, including a copy of Maria Leschnitzer’s dissertation.

There is also a small amount of printed materials that include clippings, publications by Adolf Leschnitzer and by others, reviews of Leschnitzer’s work and reviews written by Leschnitzer.