Schwabacher Family, Wuerzburg
Scope and Content Note
The collection is arranged in three series. Series I includes some official documents of Benno Schwabacher's ancestors, i.e. his grandfather Anton and his father Adolf Schwabacher. Included in this series is a bill of enfeoffment from 1746 issued by the Bishop of Wuerzburg to a Johann Christoph Adam Grantz Wilhelm von Wolfskeel. It remains unclear how this document is related to the Schwabacher family. There are, furthermore, some letters by members of the Klotz family. Emilie Klotz was the sister-in-law to Joseph Schwabacher, Adolf's brother.
While information about Anton, Adolf and other members of the Schwabacher family is scarce, there are a lot of documents regarding Benno Schwabacher and his wife Aenne (née Dannenberg) in Series II. Subseries 1 contains official documents by educational and governmental authorities in Germany and a vast amount of letters and postcards to Aenne Schwabacher, some to Benno Schwabacher and quite a few to both of them.
Particularly prominent in this collection is the meticulously documented process of emigration from Nazi Germany and immigration to the U.S.A. in 1941 as well as the process of becoming U.S. citizens, which is included in Subseries 2. It holds a vast amount of correspondence between the Schwabacher family and the respective authorities in Germany and the U.S.A. It also contains information material about how to become a U.S. citizen.
The last series, Series III, consists of a huge amount of visual material (predominantly photos), most of which were taken on Aenne and Benno Schwabacher's vacations. These photos provide a glimpse at how they liked to spend their vacations, i.e. sight-seeing and outdoor activities with other people. There are, furthermore, many photos from World War I, which provide an officers perspective on the war. In addition to these photos, the series holds many photos of family members.
The non-photographic visual material in this series comprises many blank picture-postcards, professional postcard collections from several of the Schwabachers' vacation locations and some transparency slide boxes and a transparency slide viewer.
The collection does not provide any evidence of either Aenne or Benno's date and/or cause of death.
Dates
- Creation: 1746-1985
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1914-1960s
Creator
- Schwabacher, Benno (Person)
- Schwabacher, Aenne (Person)
Language of Materials
The collection is primarily in German and English with some documents in French and Hebrew.
Access Restrictions
Open to researchers.
Access Information
Collection is digitized. Follow the links in the Container List to access the digitized materials.
Use Restrictions
There may be some restrictions on the use of the collection. For more information, contact:
Leo Baeck Institute, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011
email: lbaeck@lbi.cjh.org
Historical Note<extptr actuate="onload" altrender="Portrait of Benno and Aenne Schwabacher" href="http://digital.cjh.org/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=1558613" linktype="simple" show="embed" title="Portrait of Benno and Aenne Schwabacher"/>
The Schwabacher family lived in Wuerzburg, Germany, at least since 1834. In this year, Anton Schwabacher, Benno Schwabacher’s grandfather, was granted citizenship. In 1833 he agreed to a "Verlobungsabkommen" (an engagement agreement) to Therese Goldsohn. Anton was a jeweler and goldsmith. Benno Schwabacher's father, Adolf, was born on May 10th, 1848. Adolf was married to Babette Schwabacher (née Suesser) and owned a mill. While no more biographical information about Benno Schwabacher's ancestors can be gathered from the documents in the collection, his and Aenne Schwabacher's (née Dannenberg) biography can be reconstructed fairly well.
Benno Schwabacher was born March 3rd, 1889, in Wuerzburg. He was a "Reserveoffizier" (reserve officer) in the Bavarian army and served as first lieutenant in the Bavarian "Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 15" (Infantry-Regiment) during World War I. After World War I, Benno Schwabacher joined the Freikorps Wuerzburg for a few months. The Freikorps Wuerzburg, among other Bavarian Freikorps, fought against the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic (Bayerische Raeterepublik).
Aenne Schwabacher (née Dannenberg) was born March 31st, 1907, in Wuerzburg, to Albert and Paula Dannenberg (née Heilbrun). Benno Schwabacher and Albert Dannenberg later ran a crop and flour business. Aenne went to the Sophienschule in Wuerzburg, a higher education facility for girls. She married Benno Schwabacher on January 9th, 1928.
Benno and Aenne Schwabacher immigrated to the U.S.A. on June, 12th, 1941. In January 1947 Aenne Schwabacher became a naturalized citizen of the U.S.A.; Benno in July 1947. It remains unclear why there is a gap of six months. Benno and Aenne Schwabacher spent the biggest part of their U.S. life in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
Extent
2.0 Linear Feet
Abstract
This collection holds papers, correspondence and visual material of Benno and Aenne Schwabacher (née Dannenberg) and their ancestors. Prominent topics are Aenne and Benno Schwabacher's vacations, their emigration from Germany and their immigration to the USA. The papers in this collection include a vast amount of visual material (predominantly photos), official documents, most of which related to the Schwabacher’s emigration and immigration as well as quite lot of correspondence.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in three series.
Separated Material
Tourist Guide: Praktischer Rhein-Fuehrer. Beschreibung zum Rhein-Panorama von Mainz bis Coeln, 1909 has been removed to the LBI Library.
A large number of the Schwabachers' photos can be found in the LBI photograph collection.
Processing Information
Several oversized documents, such as the marriage agreement, legal and tax documents and two letters in Hebrew, from Series I were placed in an oversize folder. Material removed from Series II to an oversize folder includes educational documents regarding Benno and Aenne Schwabacher, a folder with Aenne's drawings from arts class, an information letter about vacations in Sugar Maples Resort, and a program for the "I am an American Day" from May 15th, 1947. A city map of Venice, probably from the 1930s, was removed from Series III and put in an oversized folder.
The photos were put in envelopes and these were labeled with some keywords about their content. The photos were assembled according to their date, if known, and/or the place at which they were taken, if known, and/or according to the information gathered from other sources in the archival material.
Subject
- Letzsch, Joseph (Person)
- Schwabacher, Aenne (Person)
- Schwabacher, Benno (Person)
- Straus, Max Gordon (Person)
- Wallenstein, Eva (Person)
- Klotz family (Family)
- Schwabacher family (Family)
- United States. Consulate General (Stuttgart, Germany) (Organization)
- United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation (Organization)
- Freikorps Wuerzburg (Organization)
- United States. Immigration and Naturalization Service (Organization)
- Reichsbund Jüdischer Frontsoldaten (Organization)
- Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (Organization)
Genre / Form
- Card photographs (photographs)
- Correspondence
- negatives (photographs)
- Official documents
- Photographic postcards
- Photographs
- Picture postcards
- slides (photographs)
Geographic
Topical
- Title
- Guide to the Papers of the Schwabacher Family, Wuerzburg 1746-1985 AR 6335
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by Joern Esch
- Date
- © 2012
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English.
- Edition statement
- This version was derived from SchwabacherFamily_Wuerzburg.xml
Revision Statements
- October 28, 2014 : Links to digital objects added in Container List.
Repository Details
Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository
