People

Moses Selig Gans - usually called Moses Gans - was born around 1758, the son of Hanover "Schutzjude" Selig Gans. The Gans family was one of the best-known and influential Jewish families in the region. We do not yet know to which branch Moses Selig Gans belonged.

The term "Schutzjude" denoted a status granted by German sovereigns to Jewish merchants from about the 14th to the 19th century, in order to profit from their revenues and control the settlement of Jewish families. In return for the payment of high protection fees and adherence to strict restrictions of mobility, the “Schutzjuden” received a certain degree of external protection and privilege over other Jews. In the Kingdom of Hanover, the status of “Schutzjude” existed until the 1840s.

Moses Gans first worked as a bookkeeper in Hanover. In the early 1790s, he came to Lüneburg - to work and presumably also to get married. In November 1793, the Lüneburg widow Elkana (="Supplicant") wrote to the government in Hanover: "Supplicant has decided to remarry the eldest son of the Schutzjuden Selig Gans in Hanover, Moses Gans. Since her bridegroom is from a good family that has been protected in Hanover for many years and has served 14 years as an accountant in Nathan Moses Lewy"s Comtoir, thus has only done real business, and can provide the best evidence of his good behavior if necessary; Supplicant [...] therefore dares to request that the protection in Lüneburg graciously granted to her by her previous husband Meyer Mendel del Banco be graciously transferred in turn to [...] her bridegroom Moses Gans." She also asked for the concession to trade in silk goods granted in 1790 to be transferred to Moses Gans.

These requests were granted. In 1794, Moses Gans was able to marry the widow Elkana, nee Ahrons, who had no children from her first marriage. Both the status as "Schutzjude" and the trading concessions were transferred to him from her first husband Meyer Mendel del Banco. In 1797, Elkana sold him the house Am Markt 6, which she had inherited from her first husband. From now on, this was where Elkana and Moses lived and where Moses Gans conducted his banking busines.

Moses Gans stayed in Lüneburg as a "Schutzjude" for more than 40 years. He was very successful as a banker and textile merchant. An event in 1813 shows his eminence in Lüneburg: in April 1813, as a member of the powerful Lüneburg Administrative Commission, he was one of the 106 "first citizens of the city" who were arrested as hostages (and released a short time later) on the orders of Napoleonic General Montbrun.

Very early on, a trusted employee became part of the Gans/Ahrons household: Philipp Behrens from Dannenberg, a distant relative of Elkana"s who is found in the records first as "servant" and then as "trader".

Around 1815, Elkana Gans died. Moses Gans stayed in Lüneburg as a widower. He died around 1839 and was buried in Lüneburg"s Jewish cemetery. The house Am Markt 6 was transferred to Moses Selig Gans" longtime employee and sole heir Philipp Behrens. He started his own business there, as a furniture and later also paper manufacturer and merchant.

Sources and info:

Friedrich Wilhelm Volger: Die merkwürdigsten Begebenheiten in Lüneburg während der Jahre 1813 und 1814, Lüneburg 1839, S. 102/103. Online verfügbar über Google Books

Proklamation des Generals Montbrun von 1813, Stadtarchiv Lüneburg

Info on the historical concept of "Schutzjude": https://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_image.cfm?image_id=571&language=english