People

Bernhard Behrens - not to be confused with his relative of the same name born in 1890 - was born in Lüneburg in 1825 as a son of furniture and paper merchant Philipp Behrens and his wife Adeline, née Bramson.

Bernhard joined his father"s business and continued to expand the respected paper company. In 1855, in Hamburg, he married Emma Recha Warburg, who came from an important Hamburg Jewish family. The wedding ceremony was conducted by Anschel Stern, later Hamburg"s chief rabbi.

Bernhard and Recha Behrens lived with their growing family in the Behrens family"s large house on Lüneburg"s Marktplatz, on the corner of Große Bäckerstraße. Their four children all left town as adults and found spouses from important families of the Jewish educated middle class. Bernhard Behrens died in Lüneburg in 1893 and was buried in the Jewish cemetery. His widow Emma, who died three years later in Karlsbad, was buried next to him.