Guide to the Papers of Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929),
1832-1999

AR 3001

Series I: Personal, n.d., 1904-1929.

Arrangement:

Alphabetical.

Scope and Content:

Personal papers of Franz Rosenzweig make up this series. Two sorts of material stand out. They are the texts for a festschrift published for Franz Rosenzweig’s 40th birthday in 1926 containing personal congratulations from many prominent German Jewish scholars. The other material that stands out are obituaries and commemorative articles, including reports by his physicians Richard Koch and Dr. Tuteur that document the last stages of Franz Rosenzweig’s illness.

The doctoral degree from the University in Freiburg im Breisgau is in this series, as well as Franz Rosenzweig’s ordination certificate after Leo Baeck ordained him a morenu (our teacher).

Series II: Writings, n.d., 1905-1945.

Arrangement:

Topical.

Scope and Content:

Subseries 1: Diaries contains the diaries of Franz Rosenzweig that he started to write when he began university in 1905 and wrote until he joined the army in 1914. In 1922, expecting an early death, he resumed writing his diary, but the progress of his illness prevented him from continuing. One of the notebooks also holds notes on the history of the family Rosenzweig. Unlike his earlier diaries, the later writings disclose personal thoughts of Franz Rosenzweig and reflections on his readings.

Subseries 2: Lectures and papers holds the papers of Franz Rosenzweig that he wrote during his university studies in Freiburg im Breisgau and Berlin, some of them annotated by his professors. Besides the university papers and some occasional lectures the subseries also contains lectures and drafts that Franz Rosenzweig prepared for the Freie Juedische Lehrhaus (The Free Jewish House of Teaching).

Subseries 3: Manuscripts holds manuscripts of Franz Rosenzweig’s philosophical, historical, theological, and philosophical texts. The researcher can find here drafts of his published dissertation Hegel und der Staat (Hegel and Sate), and a copy of Rosenzweig’s important work Der Stern der Erlösung (The Star of Redemption), with his own notes and corrections for the second edition. One can also see manuscripts of his smaller political pieces, that can be found gathered under the title Prolegomena zur Politik. Many of them are hand-written originals, others are typed. Especially interesting are the self-addressed letters from the war front from the year 1916. Filed here under the title Paralipomena, they were lost and reappeared only in March 1977.

Subseries 4: Reviews researchers can study this subseries to uncover the reaction of Franz Rosenzweig’s contemporaries to his works. Nearly seven hundred clippings or copies of articles are assembled in this subseries. The largest amount is reviews of Martin Buber’s and Franz Rosenzweig’s translation of the Bible.

Subseries I: Diaries,  1905-1922.

Arrangement:

Alphabetical and further within folder chronological.

Scope and Content:

This subseries contains the diaries of Franz Rosenzweig, covering the time period of 1905 through 1914, and the year 1922, both in originals and in typescripts. The original of the diary from May 10 through July 9, 1914 is lost and it is available only as typescript. The entries from November 8, 1907 through October 31, 1908 follow the notes on the history of the family Rosenzweig, that Franz Rosenzweig wrote down after conversations with his great uncle Adam Rosenzweig.

The earlier diaries contain just utterances and remarks and hardly anything personal, later Franz Rosenzweig started to note his impressions and reflections on interesting or challenging passages he was reading.

Subseries 2: Lectures and papers,  n.d., 1909?-1925.

Arrangement:

Alphabetical.

Scope and Content:

This subseries contains lectures and papers of Franz Rosenzweig. Some of them were written during Franz Rosenzweig’s university days in Freiburg im Breisgau and Berlin, and include annotations by his professors. These papers were most likely written in 1909-1910 when Franz Rosenzweig studied with Friedrich Mienecke. The arrangement of papers was maintained and often titled by Franz Rosenzweig. The donor of these papers, Nahum Glatzer, had these materials arranged according to their size. This arrangement was not preserved and manuscripts are now arranged by their genre.

In 1920 Franz Rosenzweig moved to Frankfurt am Rhein and founded the Freie Juedische Lehrhaus (The Free Jewish House of Teaching). His lectures from this institution are also to be found here together with other smaller lectures.

A) Freiburger Paper on Hegel

B) Freiburger Paper on Kant

C) Freiburger Paper on von Humboldt

D) Lectures in Cassel

E) Lectures of the Freie Juedische Lehrhaus, Frankfurt am Main

F) Other

Subseries III: Manuscripts,  1915?-1961.

Arrangement:

Alphabetical.

Scope and Content:

Franz Rosenzweig did not deal only with philosophical and theological issues of the relationship between Judaism and Christianity or relationships between Jewish and German identity, but also with broader historiographical problems and questions of the philosophy of history. In 1912 Franz Rosenzweig submitted his PhD thesis to Friedrich Meinecke in Freiburg im Breisgau. This work was published under the title Hegel und der Staat in two volumes in 1920. The manuscripts to many of his works can be found in this series. In 1921 Franz Rosenzweig’s most famous philosophical work, Der Stern der Erlösung (The Star of Redemption), was published. Even if this subseries mostly holds manuscripts of Franz Rosenzweig's earlier texts, this book is to be found here too.

Franz Rosenzweig translated with Martin Buber the Bible Die Schrift (1926) and liturgical texts and medieval poems by Jehuda Halevi. The texts that were created during the First World War are of political character. The original order was maintained. Under "Prolegomena to Politics" are collected smaller texts that dealt with political issues and that were mostly written during the year 1917. The texts are not dated, but the years were determined with the help of the critical edition of Franz Rosenzweig’s collected works Franz Rosenzweig: Der Mensch und sein Werk. Gesammelte Schriften. Volume 3. Zweistromland. Dordrecht 1984: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and L. Anckaert and B. Casper: Franz Rosenzweig. A primary and secondary Bibliography. Leuven: 1990: Bibliotheek van den Fakulteit der Godgeleerdheid. “Globus – Studien zur weltgeschichtlichen Raumlehre“ were also written in 1917. Some of the texts are written under pseudonym.

The Paralipomena – collection of letters that Franz Rosenzweig addressed to himself from the front from January to September 1916 were originally lost, but reappeared in March 1977.

A) Das Büchlein vom gesunden und kranken Menschenverstand

B) Globus – Studien zur weltgeschichtlichen Raumlehre

C) Prolegomena to Politics

D) Other

Subseries IV: Reviews,  1918-1955.

Arrangement:

Alphabetical.

Scope and Content:

A large part of the collection is newspaper and magazine articles with reviews of Franz Rosenzweig’s works. There are nearly 700 clippings or copies of articles, many of them on the translation of the Bible by Buber and Rosenzweig. The reviews were organized according to the work.

The correspondence concerning Franz Rosenzweig’s works, both to him and to his widow Edith Rosenzweig, is part of Series III: Correspondence.

Series III: Correspondence, 1910-1969.

Arrangement:

Alphabetical.

Scope and Content:

Subseries 1: Family contains transcripts of letters of Franz Rosenzweig to his parents Adele and Georg Rosenzweig written during the First World War. These letters contain not only descriptions and observations of the regular days of a German soldier stationed at various European battlefields, but also some thoughts and reflections on his readings, and letters to his wife, Edith Rosenzweig.

Subseries 2: Friends, collaborators, and colleagues is the largest part of this series. This subseries includes Franz Rosenzweig’s correspondence with more than fifty various figures, among them Martin Buber, Leo Baeck, Friedrich Meinecke, Eugen Rosenstock, and also some of Franz Rosenzweig’s relatives, i.e. Rudolf Ehrenberg. Letters of Franz Rosenzweig’s are mostly typewritten copies or hand-written copies (Durchschriften). Because of his illness Franz Rosenzweig did not write most of his letters, but had to dictate them. Some were written by his wife Edith Rosenzweig, others are written by an unidentified hand. However, several of the earlier letters (i.e. to Friedrich Meinecke or to Eva Ehrenberg) are written by Franz Rosenzweig’s hand. Those letters addressed to his wife are filed in Subseries 1: Family.

Subseries 3: Letters related to Franz Rosenzweig’s writings contains letters that comment on publication of Franz Rosenzweig’s works and also on publication. Correspondence concerning Franz Rosenzweig's Briefe (1935), addressed to his widow Edith Rosenzweig.

Subseries 1: Family,  1914-1969.

Arrangement:

Alphabetical.

Scope and Content:

Subseries 1: Family: contains transcripts of letters of Franz Rosenzweig to his parents Adele and Georg Rosenzweig written during the First World War. These letters contain not only descriptions and observations of the regular days of a German soldier stationed at various European battlefields, but since Franz Rosenzweig read extensively also some thoughts and reflections on his readings. While the letters seem to be transcribed in their entirety, the excerpts from 1914-1918 are basically identical with excerpts which later appeared in the first volume Briefe und Tagebücher 1900-1918 of Franz Rosenzweig’s collected works Franz Rosenzweig: Der Mensch und sein Werk. Gesammelte Schriften. Haag 1979: Martinus Nijhoff, 602 p.

Subseries 2: Friends, collaborators, and colleagues,  1910-1960.

Arrangement:

Alphabetical by name of the correspondent.

Scope and Content:

The largest part of this series is correspondence between Franz Rosenzweig and his friends and colleagues. Among them are Martin Buber, Leo Baeck, Friedrich Meinecke, Eugen Rosenstock, but also some of Franz Rosenzweig’s relatives, i.e. Rudolf Ehrenberg. Letters of Franz Rosenzweig’s are mostly typewritten copies or hand-written copies (Durchschriften). Because of his illness Franz Rosenzweig did not write most of his letters. Some were written by his wife Edith Rosenzweig, and some are written by an unidentified hand. However, several of the earlier letters (i.e. to Friedrich Meinecke or to Eva Ehrenberg) are written in Franz Rosenzweig’s hand.

Subseries 3: Related to Franz Rosenzweig’s writings,  1920-1935.

Arrangement:

Alphabetical by the title of the book.

Scope and Content:

This subseries contains letters that react to publication of Franz Rosenzweig’s works. Mostly original letters, the correspondence concerning Buber’s and Rosenzweig’s translation of the Bible is mostly copies written to Martin Buber. The subseries also contains letters written to Edith Rosenzweig after publication of Briefe in 1935.

Series IV: Family, 1832-1966.

Arrangement:

Alphabetical by the name of person.

Scope and Content:

This series contains material about the parents of Franz Rosenzweig, Georg Rosenzweig and Adele Rosenzweig neé Alsberg. Even though Georg Rosenzweig was a relatively successful local entrepreneur who managed to expand the family-owned drug store to the plant Lackfabrik Rosenzweig & Baumann and was publicly active and even became one of the members of the Municipal Council, there is little on his life besides obituaries and several photos. The life of Franz Rosenzweig’s mother is better documented, especially through her own memoirs, that were inspired by Franz Rosenzweig in early 1921.

Materials pertaining to the whole Rosenzweig-Ehrenberg family are also part of this series. The main part of this section is one hundred and sixty one letters that can provide a scholar with an interesting view of the early-19th century-family and the role of women in German society in the 19th century.

Franz Rosenzweig’s grandfather Louis Rosenzweig was a chemist, a disciple of Justus von Liebig, and a businessman. He married his cousin Amelie Ehrenberg who is the author of many letters in this series. Father of Amelie Ehrenberg, Samuel Meier Ehrenberg was a teacher and later a school inspector. Louis and Amelie Rosenzweig had two children, Traugott and Georg Rosenzweig.

The letters of Amelie Rosenzweig are addressed either to Adelheid Zuns, a friend of Amelie, 20 years her senior, or to Adelheid and Leopold Zunz. Louis Rosenzweig often made additions to Amelie Rosenzweig’ letters. Other additions to her letters are from her father S.M. Ehrenberg or from her brother Philipp Ehrenberg. Philipp Ehrenberg married Julia Fischel in August 1847, shortly before the marriage of Louis and Amelie Ehrenberg, and Amelie Rosenzweig’s letters are from the time prior to and directly after the marriage. Julie Fishel, who died in 1922, annotated some of the letters.

The memoirs of Samuel Meier Ehrenberg "Meine Lebensbeschreibung" (ME 788) and the biography of Amelie Rosenzweig that was compiled from her correspondence by Adele Rosenzweig under the title "Grossmutter Malchen. Vom Kind bis zur jungen Frau" (ME 789) were removed to the LBI Memoir Collection. Some of the photographs were moved into the LBI Photographic Collection.

1) Rosenzweig, Adele neé Alsberg 

2) Rosenzweig, Georg  

3) Rosenzweig-Ehrenberg Family 

4) Portraits 

Series V: Varia, 1914-1946?.

Arrangement:

Alphabetical.

Scope and Content:

Series V: Varia contains material that was not included into the original arrangement of that part of the Franz Rosenzweig Collection that was donated by Nahum Glatzer, or material that was added to the collection in the course of time and did not fit the layout of the arrangement. One of the items is a circular letter with no return address that suggests nominating Dr. Joseph Prager as a leader of the Freie Juedische Lehrhaus and Erich Fromm as one of his collaborators. It also contains a festschrift in honor of the seventieth birthday of Eduard Strauss, Aufsaetze und Anmerkungen. 1919-1945 with articles on Franz Rosenzweig and his works.

Series VI: Addenda, 1921-1999.

Arrangement:

Chronological by date of acquisition date.

Scope and Content:

Series VI: Addenda contains various material that arrived later and was not included into the already arranged collection. The latest addendum is the old inventories that were added to the collection in 2003, once it was consolidated. Addendum 1 contains several photos of Franz Rosenzweig, reminiscences of Eric Ahrens on the beginning of the Freie Juedische Lehrhaus written in 1971, and other commemorative articles. Addendum 2 contains among other materials copies of correspondence between Rudolf Stahl and Franz Rosenzweig and other colleagues, and catalogs of the Freie Juedische Lehrhaus. Addendum 3 holds a letter to Rudolf Hallo from Franz Rosenzweig. Addendum 4 contains letter from Franz Rosenzweig to Irene Darmstaedter from 1928 together with some 4 German Imperial banknotes from 1920 of 4 000 RM of nominal value. Addendum 5 includes eleven documents written by or related to Franz Rosenzweig found in books belonging to Edith Rosenzweig-Scheinmann (poems, drafts of manuscripts, newspaper, and clippings).