Fernbach family documents
Extent and Medium
1 folder
Creator(s)
- USPD
Biographical History
Having started out as a medical student and fervent Zionist, Eugen Fernbach became a financial journalist for an English newspaper (later German) and a radical socialist during the First World War. As a loyal friend of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg and an extremely dedicated political activist, he was murdered in January 1919 as one of the seven 'Spartacists', shot in the 'Vorwärts' building in Berlin.
Archival History
Provenance unknown
Acquisition
Donated March 1990
Scope and Content
A short play written to celebrate the marriage of Eugen and Ida Fernbach forms the beginning of this history of the family which Eugen Fernbach continued to write until shortly before his death in 1936. A few additional entries by Hans Rainer Fernbach, his grandson, cover some events in later years.
At the end of the chronicle there is the life story of his son, Wolfgang, a few newspaper cuttings and an itinerary of all voyages undertaken by Eugen and Ida Fernbach. A few family documents complete the collection.
The chronicle is a quite detailed description of a well-to-do, though not religious, Jewish family from the end of the 19th century to the end of the First World War. It describes their illnesses and travels as well as the education of their children- and to a much lesser extent their grandchildren. It is written from the perspective of a critical parent.
The chronicle gains an especially dramatic fascination and historical interest by the inclusion of the history of Wolfgang Fernbach.
Conditions Governing Access
Open
People
- Fernbach family
Subjects
- Family documents [doc]
- Unpublished memoirs