People

Hermann Calmsohn was born in 1817 in the small village of Salzhemmendorf near Hamelin. He was the sixth of nine children born to the colonial merchant Moses Calmsohn and his wife Bronise, née Heilbronn.

Hermann received a scholarship for the Davidssohn School Foundation in Hanover, which provided him with a comprehensive religious and secular education. He left school at the age of 15 and went to work as a private tutor for a Jewish family in Schnackenburg on the Elbe, not far from Lüneburg. Calmsohn later wrote about this: “I spent six happy years there, and the kind memories that both my former students and their parents still share with me give me hope that my work there was not without beneficial success.”

In 1838, Hermann Calmsohn came to Lüneburg as a teacher for the Jewish community. There, he had to teach the children about Jewish religion and history as well as Hebrew. He also worked as a ritual slaughterer, led communal worship services as cantor, and performed weddings and funerals. Calmsohn"s appointment coincided with the increasing professionalization of the teaching profession in the Jewish communities, especially since the Hanoverian “Law on the Legal Status of Jews” of 1842. 

In 1843, Calmsohn was granted the right of residence in Lüneburg. He married Friederike Behrens, the daughter of the wealthy Lüneburg furniture manufacturer Philipp Behrens. Their son Carl August was born in 1844 and their daughter Charlotte Auguste in 1851. The family lived on Große Bäckerstraße. As adults, both children later left Lüneburg.

In 1856, Calmsohn resigned from his position as teacher of the Jewish community for health reasons. Simon Moses Warenheim became his successor.

Hermann Calmsohn had already been working as a private tutor, and now expanded this activity. In addition, he and his wife ran a boarding house for Jewish students from other places who attended school in Lüneburg. Hermann Calmsohn also joined his wife Friederike"s millinery business, which she had recently started. Finally, he became heavily involved in discussions about the Hanoverian Landrabbinate and the future direction of the Jewish school system, writing expert reports and appeals.

His biographer Harry Dörr sums it up: "This man caused quite a stir in the small Jewish community in Lüneburg, especially after he left the teaching profession. Conservatives claimed that he was lying, that he wanted to divide the community and found a new, liberal community. His letters and statements reveal how he envisioned the future of Judaism: living on equal terms with Christians and others; cooperation wherever and whenever possible; loyalty to Jewish roots. It was a rocky road that Hermann Calmsohn had to travel from Salzhemmendorf."

Hermann Calmsohn died in Lüneburg in 1888 and was buried in the city"s Jewish cemetery. His widow Friederike survived him by twelve years and was also buried in Lüneburg.

Sources and info (in German):

Harry Dörr: Hermann Calmsohn 1817-1888. Lehrer der jüdischen Gemeinde Lüneburg, in: Lüneburger Blätter 34/2014, S. 75-92. Available online

Name variants: Calmansohn