Leo Baerwald Collection

This collection documents the professional life, family, and interests of Leo Baerwald. Some topics found here include Leo Baerwald, the Lazarus family, Leo Baeck, and the Munich Jewish Community.

Items pertaining to Leo Baerwald will be found in four series of the collection. Series I contains most of the material pertaining to him. Here users will find some of his personal documents, writings, letters sent to him, and genealogical documents, including family trees. Series III contains correspondence, much of it handwritten, from rabbi Leo Baeck to Leo Baerwald; many of these are greetings. Series IV holds many clippings on the Munich Jewish community and its main synagogue, and includes an article by Baerwald, published in 1942, on the destruction of the synagogue. Finally, Series VI contains some biographical articles on Baerwald as well as a small amount of correspondence and notes of his.

The Lazarus family, to whom Leo Baerwald was related through his mother, Fanny Lazarus, is also documented in several places in this collection. Series II, which focuses on the Lazarus family, contains the papers of several family members: Leiser Lazarus, rabbi of Prenzlau and director of the Jewish theological seminary in Breslau; Moritz Lazarus, the philosopher; and Arnold Lazarus, rabbi in Frankfurt am Main. Among the papers on these individuals are several memorial albums, including a collection of sayings of Moritz Lazarus, and a biography of Arnold Lazarus written by Leo Baerwald. The family trees and other genealogical documents found in Series I and Series VI provide some genealogical information on the Lazarus family.

Material on Leo Baeck resides in Series III. These documents include a number of newspaper and periodical clippings on the rabbi; many of these give overviews of his life and were written in honor of significant dates or in memorial of him. As mentioned above, this series also features some correspondence written by Baeck to Baerwald.

Many newspaper articles on the Munich Jewish community will be found in Series IV: Jewish Communities. These articles describe the fiftieth anniversary of the main synagogue of Munich, its destruction by the National Socialists in June 1938, and the restoration and dedication of the new synagogue in 1947.