People

In 1823, Isaak Joseph Jonasson was born in Petershagen close to Minden, a small place with a relatively large Jewish community. His parents were Joseph and Hendel Jonasson née Isaac. He was a merchant and banker. In 1851, he founded the company “J. Jonasson” (later also "Hammerschlag & Jonasson), with which he moved to Lüneburg by 1855 at the latest. At that time, his business partner and later brother-in-law Moritz Alexander Hammerschlag, originally from Nienburg, had already lived there for a few years.

Like many other businesses run by Jewish residents of Lüneburg, the successful company was involved in banking as well as trading in various products, including bed feathers, manufactured goods, and sewing machines over the years.

In 1855, Isaak Joseph Jonasson married Caroline Hammerschlag, who was from Nienburg, and from then on lived with her in Lüneburg. For a long time, the Jonassons" and Hammerschlags" family home and business were located in a prime location in the large patrician house at Am Markt/Bardowicker Straße 1 in Lüneburg. A historical photo from 1870 clearly shows the lettering “J. Jonasson” above the large arches on the ground floor. Later, the Jonasson family lived on Brodbänken, and from 1896 onwards at Bardowicker Straße 11.

As a well-educated citizen and local patriot, Isaak Joseph Jonasson was involved in Lüneburg"s civic society: e.g. as one of the seven Jewish founding members of the Lüneburg Museum Association in 1878.

He had six sons with his wife Caroline. Their first son, Carl Joseph, died very young. Their sons Otto and Martin became merchants like their father and worked in their parents" business. They both died as young adults. Their son Emil, also a merchant, settled in Berlin. The youngest son, Hermann, also moved to Berlin as a merchant and then emigrated to the USA. Only the fourth son, Paul, took a different path: he became a doctor and opened a practice in his parents" house in Lüneburg around 1896.


Sources and info:

https://www.synagoge-petershagen.de/Alte_Synagoge_Petershagen/Old_Synagogue_Petershagen.html

Protocol book of the Lüneburg Museum Association, Museum Lüneburg

Name variants: Jonassohn Isaac Josef