The history of the museum
Berend Lehmann
The Berend Lehmann Museum of Jewish History and Culture is named after the court Jew Berend Lehmann (1661 – 1730), one of the most important court Jews of his time. From Halberstadt he worked for the courts of Prussia, Hanover, Brunswick and especially Augustus the Strong in Saxony.
From this strong position, Berend Lehmann was able to do much to improve the situation of Jews in Halberstadt and beyond. His business activities attracted other Jewish entrepreneurs and merchants, and Lehmann created opportunities for the permanent settlement of poor Jews.
Lehmann was particularly concerned with promoting the religious life of the Jewish community. Around 1700 he founded the Klaussynagoge in Halberstadt as a house of learning. Another magnificent Baroque synagogue, which he donated, was consecrated in 1712.
Among other things, Berend Lehmann’s activities led Halberstadt’s Jewish community to flourish. In the 18th century, Halberstadt, with a Jewish population of 10 percent, formed an important center of Jewish life, Jewish business and scholarship, and neoorthodoxy.
In 1942, the last members of Halberstadt’s Jewish community were deported. Since then, there is no longer an active Jewish community in Halberstadt.
History of the museum
The emergence
Through the commitment of Halberstadt citizens, who had organized themselves since 1990 in the “Association for the Preservation and Further Development of Jewish Heritage in Halberstadt and the Surrounding Area”, the Moses Mendelssohn Academy Foundation Halberstadt (MMA) was established in 1996. The founder was the Berlin-based Dipl. Kfm. Manfred Wolff, who has a special relationship with the city and its Jewish history through his friendship with Raphael Nussbaum, a native of Halberstadt. Prof. Dr. Julius H. Schoeps was and is the spiritus rector for the content-related orientation.
The first goal of the foundation was to save the former Jewish community center of Halberstadt. These include the “Klaus,” i.e. the former Jewish teaching house with synagogue, in Rosenwinkel, the cantor’s house in Bakenstraße with the site of the destroyed Baroque synagogue behind it, and the ritual immersion bath (mikveh) in Judenstraße. Beyond saving the buildings, the foundation’s goal is to research and make visible Halberstadt’s rich Jewish heritage, which has evolved over centuries after receiving little recognition since the community’s extermination in Nazi Germany. A special concern is to build a bridge to the present. Here, the focus is on the long-established relationships with Jewish families originating from Halberstadt.
In order to provide the public with access to the research results, the MMA founded the Berend Lehmann Museum of Jewish History and Culture in 2001 in the former ritual Jewish immersion bath (Mikwenhaus) at Judenstraße 25/26. The museum conveys Jewish history exclusively by means of exhibits that have a clear connection to Halberstadt and were transferred to the museum as donations or loans on a large scale through close contact with former Halberstadt Jews and their descendants. The stories of the objects tell exemplarily the history of the Jews all over Germany.
In 2022, a long-term financing agreement could be concluded between the state of Saxony-Anhalt, the city of Halberstadt and the Moses Mendelssohn Foundation Erlangen/Berlin. In May 2022, a newly designed permanent exhibition has opened in both houses of the museum (Judenstraße 25/26 and Rosenwinkel 18). Today, the Berend Lehmann Museum is a firmly established institution with a wide range of cooperation partners in research and educational work, which also enjoys a good professional reputation beyond the region.
Mission Statement
Vision
Show Jewish history at an authentic place, enable encounters
Self-image
The Berend Lehmann Museum of Jewish History and Culture (BLM) is part of the non-profit foundation Moses Mendelssohn Akademie Halberstadt (MMA). The purpose of the foundation is to preserve the historical buildings – Klaus with synagogue (Rosenwinkel 18); cantor’s house (Bakenstraße 56); mikvah house (Judenstraße 26) and to preserve the site of the destroyed baroque synagogue and to impart knowledge about the basics of Judaism as well as Jewish history and culture. The BLM was founded for this purpose in 2001. In the service of society, tangible and intangible heritage is researched, collected, preserved, interpreted and exhibited with the aim of empathy and tolerance
and to counteract anti-Semitism and all forms of discrimination.
The BLM is located in the historic Jewish quarter of Halberstadt in buildings of the former Jewish community. This authentic place is the framework for telling the story of the Jews as active shapers of the Central German region. In order to achieve a concrete localization, the BLM exclusively shows objects that originate from the Halberstadt Jewish context. Thanks to donations and loans from members of the former Halberstadt Jewish community and their descendants, a collection of authentic Judaica as well as everyday objects, photos, documents, autobiographical material and video and audio documents of outstanding quality has been created. The focus of the collection is historical (before 1942). Nevertheless, the BLM always endeavors to present diverse historical and contemporary perspectives and the entire diversity of German Jewry and beyond.
The close cooperation with the former Jewish inhabitants of Halberstadt and their descendants in Israel, the USA, South America, Australia and Europe enables the collection to be constantly supplemented and expanded and the work of the MMA and the BLM to be further developed. MMA and BLM
also see themselves as a social space and a meeting place that initiates exchange between people of different religions and cultures and promotes an atmosphere of unity in diversity. The descendants of Halberstadt’s Jewish residents are actively involved in this exchange through visits and the BLM exhibition.
The collection is researched in cooperation with suitable scientific institutions and in association with Jewish museums in Europe. The central role is played by the provenance of the objects, the story of which is told in the exhibition.
The MMA and the BLM are part of the Jewish remembrance landscape in Saxony-Anhalt and beyond. The BLM has many cooperation partners at city, state and federal level and has
also has an international network. It is a member of the Museumsverband Sachsen-Anhalt e.V. Since 2021, there has been a long-term funding agreement with the state of Saxony-Anhalt and the city of Halberstadt. MMA and BLM understand a wide variety of institutions in the city and state and the state association
Jewish communities in Saxony-Anhalt as close partners with whom we work together in a trustworthy and transparent manner.
In our work, we refer to the statutes of the Moses Mendelssohn Academy Foundation, the “Ethical Guidelines for Museums of the ICOM International Council of Museums” and the “Standards for Museums of the German Museums Association.”
Digital strategy
The BLM uses the possibilities of the digital space to increase its reach and impact and to communicate its content in a versatile and inclusive way. This facilitates access to research results and enables global participation in cultural assets and knowledge. The digital offerings are seen as a supplement to analog exhibition and mediation offerings. Digitalization enables networking with partner organizations and barrier-free exchange of information
information and opens up space for new creative projects.
The aim is to give as many different target groups as possible access to topics of Jewish history and culture, to preserve scientific findings beyond the duration of exhibitions and projects and to make them accessible from anywhere.
Values
– Inclusion
The BLM is open to all people who would like to explore the history and present of Jewish life. The BLM respects the diversity of its visitors and strives to create inclusive access to information. The diversity of Jewish voices in the past and present is fundamental to our work and is reflected in our content.
– Independence
The BLM is non-partisan and works independently. It sets its own priorities and topics and designs its own program.
– Responsibility
The museum works to preserve and pass on the cultural German-Jewish heritage through concrete family stories. The BLM and MMA work and communicate ethically, professionally and with community involvement, providing a variety of experiences for
Education, pleasure, reflection and knowledge exchange. The museum recognizes the IHRA’s working definition of antisemitism and opposes all forms of antisemitism and discrimination. In their work, MMA and BLM strive to promote diversity and sustainability.
