Guide to the Mendelssohn Family Papers,
1717-1993(bulk 1800-1889)

AR 7156

Series I: Papers of Moses Mendelssohn, 1717-1820,1977,1993.

Scope and Content:

Series I is comprised of the papers of Moses Mendelssohn. Almost all of the papers are correspondence to family members and acquaintances, including to Fromet, Moses’ wife, and to his friend Friedrich Nicolai. Four folders contain correspondence exchanged between Moses Mendelssohn, Elise Reimarus, and F.H. Jacobi from 1783 through 1786. In addition to correspondence, there are also a few folders of notes and manuscripts by Moses and others, as well as three folders of addenda that contain articles about Moses Mendelssohn.

Series II: Papers of Joseph Mendelssohn and his Wife Henriette, 1890-1854.

Scope and Content:

This series contains mainly correspondence to and from Joseph and Henriette Mendelssohn. In addition, Henriette’s diary from the years 1851-1854 is also available.

Much of the correspondence in this series concerns family members. Letters from Joseph to his children contain greetings, accompaniments to gifts, news, and letters from trips. Other letters from Joseph concern business matters. His letters to Professor Buschmann focus on the project they were working on to write a biography of Jospeph’s father, Moses. Joseph’s letters to his wife Henriette (often referred to as Hinni) concern various topics, but give detailed descriptions of the cities he visited. It includes depictions of Paris in 1809 including the celebration of holidays, the Paris stage, Napolean, the bad reputation of Prussians in France, and life in France. Other topics include the middle class in Holland and old friends of his from Hamburg.

A few folders of correspondence related to this series may be found in Series VII: Correspondence and Papers of Other Family Members. These folders contain letters from Henriette to her niece Fanny and her brother Abraham and his wife, as well as one folder of correspondence from Joseph to his son Alexander.

Series III: Papers of Benjamin Mendelssohn and his Wife Rosa, 1800-1882.

Scope and Content:

Series III holds mostly correspondence, with a few folders of personal documents such as army and academic papers and poetry concerning the war with Napolean. One folder of travel diary entries is also present.

Some of the correspondence here is from Benjamin’s parents to him and his wife, as well as letters from other relatives and friends. His letters discuss his academic studies and university career as well as his army service, and there are several letters to and from Benjamin when he was in the field. Some letters describe travels he took to Italy, Switzerland, Kiel, and the Pyrenees. Correspondence with friends often include comments on the doings of mutual friends.

Series IV: Correspondence of Alexander Mendelssohn, 1835-1859.

Scope and Content:

This series is comprised entirely of correspondence. Almost all of the correspondence in this series is between Alexander Mendelssohn and Alexander von Humboldt, although there are also two folders of Alexander von Humboldt’s correspondence with other people, including other Mendelssohns.

Much of Alexander von Humboldt’s correspondence was written while he was in residence in Berlin, and is mostly concerned with planned meetings, introductions of individuals, and inquiries including concerning financial questions about the Mendelssohn banking house.

Two folders holding correspondence of Alexander Mendelssohn may be found in Series VII: Correspondence and Papers of Other Family Members. One is a folder of excerpts of Alexander von Humboldt’s letters to Alexander Mendelssohn, the other is a folder of correspondence which was sent to Alexander Mendelssohn.

Series V: Correspondence of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, 1835-1847.

Scope and Content:

This is the smallest series of the collection and contains three folders of correspondence of one of the most well-known members of the Mendelssohn family, the composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.

Correspondence in this series is to and from Felix’s parents, sister Fanny, wife Cécilie, and cousin Benjamin. Topics found in the correspondence include his academic studies and family matters such as planned and missed visits, reports on family events, health of family members, and several letters concerning a horse Felix’s cousin Benjamin was planning to buy for him. There are two folders of correspondence with the lawyer J.A. Schleinitz, who assisted Felix in procuring his position at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, and who became a close friend of Felix’s. Much of their correspondence concerns appointments to meet each other and greetings.

Series VI: Papers of Franz von Mendelssohn and his wife Enole, 1834-1889.

Scope and Content:

Series VI is the largest series in the collection, and consists of four subseries arranged by type of document: Subseries 1: Correspondence, Subseries 2: Manuscripts and Notes, Subseries 3: Speeches and Addresses, and Subseries 4: Personal Documents.

Subseries 1: Correspondence is mainly family correspondence, especially between Franz Jr. and his parents. Interestingly, Franz Jr. and his father corresponded in German, while he wrote his mother in French. Most of the correspondence with Franz Jr. occurred from 1884 to 1886 when Franz Jr. was serving in the cavalry. Correspondence with other family members include topics such as health and employment possibilities of family members’ children, their own health, family news, and travel correspondence. Franz Mendelssohn’s correspondence also often concerns financial and business matters, especially concerning the family banking house.

The second subseries contains Franz’s manuscripts and notes on subjects which interested him. Many of his manuscripts and drafts of manuscripts focus on business and financial issues, although a few also discuss political themes.

Subseries 3: Speeches and Addresses holds speeches, toasts, and public addresses given by Franz on various occasions. Most of these occasions are related to business events, although a toast at his nephew’s marriage is also present.

Several folders of personal documents are available in Subseries 4. This subseries includes items referring to the deaths of Franz and Enole Mendelssohn, as well as to the death of Marianne Mendelssohn, Franz’s mother. Franz’s childhood documents, such as school certificates, are also present, as are comments by a representative of the Emperor on Franz’s ennoblement and clippings from his participation in royal birthday festivities.

A scrapbook containing obituaries of Franz von Mendelssohn’s son Franz Jr. is available in Series VIII: Correspondence and Papers of Other Family Members.

Subseries 1: Correspondence,  1840-1889.

Subseries 2: Manuscripts and Notes,  1851-1884.

Subseries 3: Speeches and Addresses,  undated, 1885-1887.

Subseries 4: Personal Papers,  1834-1889.

Series VII: Correspondence and Papers of Other Family Members, 1793-1907,1936.

Scope and Content:

Series VII is comprised of the correspondence and papers of family members whose diminutive amount of documentation does not require a separate series of their own. The vast majority of papers in this series is correspondence. Papers come from many branches of the Mendelssohn family, including Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Veit, Dirichlet, von Schlegel, and Hensel families. Besides correspondence, other papers also include Nathan Mendelssohn’s diary and Veit family papers.

In addition to papers focusing on specific family members of branches of members, there are also a few items which pertain to the family in general. These items may be found in the folder “Press Clippings Concerning the Mendelssohn Family” and in “Addenda - “Die Mendelssohns - Geschichte Einer Familie”.”

Series VIII: Material Relating to the Collection, 1959-1969.

Scope and Content:

Series VIII contains documents which are related to the collection, but which are not comprised of original Mendelssohn family documents. Included in this series are two finding aids for a collection of the records of the Mendelssohn family banking house. Of interest to potential researchers may be the commentaries on family correspondence prepared by Dr. Fred Reissner in the 1960s. These commentaries not only describes correspondence of family members of which there is a substantial amount, but also of family members of which there are only a few folders.