Ludwig Rosenberg collection

This collection pertains to the assimilated Jewish Rosenberg family which emanated from Poznan (Posen) and later Berlin. Both Felix Rosenberg (1865-1923) and his son, Ludwig Rosenberg (1898-1954), were classically trained scholars and Francophiles who taught languages at the Köllnisches Gymnasium and Französisches Gymnasium, Berlin, respectively. Ludwig, the main protagonist in this collection, went on to teach for a term at Bunce Court school in Kent and then for the remainder of his life German and French at Dartington Hall school in Devon. Ludwig married Anna Hommel, whose family came from Nuremberg. They had 3 children. Gabriele, the first, was born in Berlin but brought up along with her brothers in Great Britain. Correspondence documents Felix Rosenberg’s life as a student and teacher in the last decades of the 19th century. A detailed unpublished memoir in English by Ludwig Rosenberg documents his WWI experience and also his experience of the Weimar years. Ludwig was awarded an Iron Cross during WWI but as a result of his experiences became a committed pacifist after the war and dedicated to promoting Franco-German relations. He spent several years teaching in France, mostly in the Loire region. There is considerable correspondence, much of it in French, with friends and colleagues, which documents his views on a variety of issues. There is also correspondence during his time at Bunce Court and afterwards. Additional correspondence documents Ludwig’s attempts to assist former colleagues, friends and relations to flee Nazi Germany. Further correspondence documents Ludwig’s experience of internment. The bulk of the remainder of the correspondence relates to the family, specifically copious amounts from Rosa Hommel, Anna’s mother, whilst still in Germany and later Oxford and USA; with Carl Rosenberg, Ludwig’s younger brother, who ran a book shop near the British Museum and between Anna and Ludwig.

Donated 09.12.2011

Donor: Gabrielle Foti