Guide to the Papers of Leopold Zunz (1794-1886) and Adelheid Zunz (1802-1874), 1815-1959
 
AR 3648

Series I: Personal, 1817-1959.

Arrangement:

Topical

Scope and Content:

This series contains items related to Leopold and Adelheid Zunz, such as articles, images, and photocopies of documents. The highlight of this series is a handwritten notebook, in which Leopold Zunz listed his personal library (Bücherkatalog). Also included is an inventory of the list of the Zunz collection at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin, compiled by Franz Biermann in 1939. The articles include a short note on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Leopold Zunz's death and an article about Adelheid Zunz published in the Blätter des Jüdischen Frauenbundes. In addition there a photographs of lithographs and etchings portraying Leopold Zunz as well as photocopies of autographs and a copy of a document related to the establishment of the Zunz-Stiftung in 1866. There is also a letter from Luitpold Wallach discussing Leopold Zunz's psydonym L.L. Hellwitz.

Series II: Calling Cards, undated.

Arrangement:

Alphabetical.

Scope and Content:

This series holds over 800 calling cards that were left with Leopold Zunz. Over 270 of these have autographs. People whose calling cards can be found in this series include Leopold Auerbach, Philipp Ehrenberg, Abraham Geiger, and Moritz Steinschneider.

Series III: Correspondence, 1815-1884.

Arrangement:

This series is arranged in four subseries.

Scope and Content:

This is the largest series of the collection. It contains correspondence of Leopold Zunz and his wife, Adelheid (nee Berman). Letters from friends and relatives addressed to Leopold and Adelheid Zunz can be found in Subseries 1. Subseries 2 holds letters that Leopold and Adelheid Zunz wrote to each other. Correspondence from Leopold Zunz to Philipp Ehrenberg, Samuel Meyer Ehrenberg, Salomon von Hönigsberg, and Meyer Isler are in Subseries 3. Subseries 4 contains letters from Adelheid Zunz to Julie Ehrenberg (née Fischel).

Subseries 1: To Leopold and Adelheid Zunz,  1816-1884.

Scope and Content:

This subseries contains 264 letters by forty-six senders (relatives, acquaintances and lifelong friends) to Leopold and Adelheid Zunz. Some letters are invitations or announcements (birth, marriage, death); others are correspondences lasting through many years and discussing a variety of topics. The largest collection are 100 letters by Soliman von Hönigsberg and his wife Dorothea. Hoenigsberg belonged with Georg Feigl and S. Hock to a group of friends from Prague. Numerous letters are written by friends from England, among them William Evans Fletcher, Anna M. Goldsmid, Adolph and Amelia Heimann, Mary Maugham, and William Yates. Some friends are from Italy: Pietor Perreau, Leonardo Vallardi, and Elia Valtey.

Subseries 2: Between Leopold and Adelheid Zunz,  1819-1852.

Scope and Content:

This subseries contains letters Leopold and Adelheid Zunz exchanged between 1815 and 1881. Thirty-five letters were written by Adelheid; Leopold wrote forty-one letters. The first eleven letters in this subseries were written before their marriage in 1822.

Subseries 3: By Leopold Zunz,  1815-1871.

Scope and Content:

This subseries contains letters written by Leopold Zunz. However, many letters contain additional notes written by his wife. Section A holds 128 letters written to Samuel Meyer Ehrenberg (1773-1853) and his son Philipp Ehrenberg (1811-1882). Both served as director of the Samson'sche Freischule in Wolfenbüttel. Forty-four letters to Meier Isler (1807-1888), a nephew of Samuel Meyer Ehrenberg, who was a librarian in Hamburg, can be found in Section B. Two additional letters can be found in Section C: one from Leopold and Adelheid Zunz to Louis and Amalie Rosenzweig (1873), and one from Leopold Zunz to Dr. Jolowicz in Königsberg (1864).

A) Samuel Meyer and Philipp Ehrenberg

B) Meier Isler

C) Various

Subseries 4: By Adelheid Zunz,  1844-1873.

Scope and Content:

This subseries holds 176 letters written by Adelheid Zunz to Julie Ehrenberg (née Fischel), wife of Philipp Ehrenberg. Many letters contain addenda by Leopold Zunz.

Both Adelheid and Leopold Zunz were friends with D.G. Fischel and his family; Julie was one of his daughters. Adelheid and Julie became close friends after they had first met in Prague in the fall of 1844, even though Adelheid was twenty-five years older than Julie, who was sixteen at the time.

It was Leopold Zunz who established contact between Julie Fischel and Philipp Ehrenberg. The couple married in August 1847.

The first letters date from 1844, shortly after Adelheid's and Julie's first meeting, and the last letter was written eights months before Adelheid Zunz's death. Most of the letters were written in Berlin, but Adelheid Zunz also wrote from Wolfenbüttel, Dresden and Pyrmont.