Jacob Elkan and family

In 1770, Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Duchess of Saxe-Weimar and Eisenach, appointed Jacob Elkan as court factor and her "court Jew". The princess thus allowed him free passage and trade in the principality of Weimar. Elkan was 28 years old at this time.

In 1742, Jacob Elkan had been born in Schwanfeld, a village south of Schweinfurt. In Weimar, before 1788, he married Simcha Popper, six years his junior, who came from the neighboring duchy of Saxe-Meiningen. There, large rural Jewish communities existed in the villages of Dreißigacker and Walldorf, among others. The young family moved into their first shared apartment in Weimar on today's Kaufstraße (formerly called Bornberg or Bornstraße). In 1788, the eldest child of the two died. In 1771 and 1773 the two sons Meyer and Israel Julius were born here. In 1775 a girl followed, but she soon died.

"Court Jews" were court actuaries, that is, merchants employed at a court ruling center or court. They procured luxury goods, army supplies, or simply capital for the princes and often held a special position of trust. Since many court factors were Jews, the contemporary term "court Jews" played itself out. With the arrival of Elkan and a few Jewish families, there was Jewish life in Weimar again, even if no Jewish community was formed. The first evidence of Jewish life in Weimar dates from the beginning of the 14th century. After the expulsion and murder of the Jewish population in the course of the plague pogroms in 1348/1349, the city had remained strictly Protestant for centuries due to the Reformation.

In 1877 the family moved into a house on Kleine Windischengasse, today Windischenstrasse 25, for which Jacob Elkan paid 1,200 Reichstaler. He could only make the purchase as a fiefdom through the princely councilor Johann August Ludecus, since Jewish women*Jews were not allowed to acquire real estate at that time. Elkan's other nine children were born in this house, some of whom died at an early age. Here also the small Jewish community of Weimar held its services.

The house had been built at the beginning of the 18th century by the princely court hunter and builder Anton Gerhard Hauptmann. The simple three-story building features a beautiful sandstone portal, in the gable of which a window is flanked by two stylized knotted curtain panels. In a decorative frame above the window were placed the initials J.E. for Jacob Elkan. The house also had a courtyard, side buildings and a garden. The original front of the house was later greatly altered by the two shop windows installed to the right of the entrance.

Despite his large family, Elkan rented out part of the house. In a newspaper advertisement dated January 8, 1785, he offered for rent on the second floor "quarters of 3 parlors and a chamber, two of which are wallpapered, together with wooden remise and other conveniences." For 1802, the court advocate Lübeck is documented as a tenant. In addition to the living quarters, the house also contained Elkan's business premises, described in the literature as a "vault". Presumably, he also stored his goods here. In addition, he operated a stall at the market and advertised his goods - luxury goods, fine fabrics, jewelry, accessories and others - with newspaper advertisements.

Elkan's customers included not only the Duchess Anna Amalia and her sons Carl August and Friedrich Ferdinand, but also the court officials and citizens of the city. For the duchess, he mainly procured fine fabrics, as can be seen from the surviving invoices: Anna Amalia bought fine French cloth, linen, barchent, and repeatedly gold-interwoven braids (ribbons and braids), as well as gloves, buttons, and silverware. She spent astonishingly high sums on them, for example almost 1,500 Reichstaler in 1774. Her son, Duke Carl August, who took over the regency in 1775, was also one of Elkan's customers. Correspondence concerning a large army order by Carl August in 1775 - new state uniforms for the princely hunters - provides insight into the high risk involved in Elkan's business. For Elkan had to undertake to accept payment in quite a few installments of five riksstalers each. Eer himself had advanced 455 riksdaler for the business. - Money that he now lacked for the purchase at the upcoming New Year's Fair in 1776, as he wrote in a letter to the High Princely Chamber. He asked for payment of the total sum, which, however, the chamber and the duke refused.

Elkan also sold his goods to the citizens* of the city. For example, he offered wax larvae, face masks, costumes and gloves, powder, makeup, and gold lace for the great winter masquerade balls of the season, according to advertisements. To the theater in Weimar, Elkan supplied costumes and materials for stage sets. Goethe also bought from Elkan: he mentioned him by name in a poem in honor of a deceased stage designer.

Jacob Elkan's youngest sister Sara married the merchant Jacob Löser in Weimar on August 24, 1783. The latter came from Walldorf near Meiningen, where he had been born in 1752. The young couple, whose four children all died at an early age, first lived in close proximity to Jacob Elkan and his family in the small Windischengasse. Later, Sara and her husband moved into a house on the market where the "Gasthof zum Erbprinzen" later stood. Today there is a gap in the building. Jacob Löser seems to have moved to Weimar in the year of the marriage, because he presented his offer in newspaper advertisements from that year on. While in the early years he traded in second-hand goods and clothing, over time he specialized in more select articles. He offered goods that he sourced from England, such as mirrors, table and pocket clocks, Wedgwood teapots and English cotton. In addition, there were Solingen knives and hardware. During the Christmas season, one could obtain from him candied gingerbread, ice skates, presentation plates, sealing wax, smoking powder, and "many fun toys."

Jacob Löser was closely connected to his brother-in-law, privately as well as in a business sense. Thus, from 1771 to 1799, together with Jacob Elkan, he participated in silver supplies for the Eisenach Mint, the currency minted in the Duchy of Weimar.

Jacob Löser died on September 2, 1818, outliving by 13 years his brother-in-law Jacob Elkan, who had already died on June 3, 1805, at the age of 62. Jacob Löser was buried in "Elkan's Garden," the Jewish cemetery at Leibnitzallee 11, which Jacob Elkan had purchased in 1775 as a burial ground for Jewish community members. In 1824 he was followed by his wife Sara.

Alexander, the youngest son of Jacob Elkan, was born in 1791. When Alexander was 14 years old, his father died. Still living in the parental home - and gradually growing into the position and responsibilities of his late father - Alexander traded in drugstore goods (eau de cologne, tooth powder, aromatic palm soap and washing water) and in cut and fashion goods. In newspaper advertisements he announced the sale of goods, which took place from 1814 in a house on the market. In 1816 he advertised a nicely assorted stock of mousseline, battist, linen, English knitting and embroidery cotton, silk goods and more. Business must have been good, because in 1824 he purchased a four-story house on the market, located between Windischengasse and the town hall (which stood further south at the time). In the same year he bought his parents' house on Windischengasse from his mother and siblings, only to sell it on two years later. In 1826 he married Henriette Seebach from Bayreuth and Frankfurt. The couple had three children; their household also included two sons of Meyer's brother, who died in 1813, as well as their mother, a sister and several merchant servants.

The older Meyer brother, who had already been born in 1773, had also become a merchant and had married Zerline Romberg from Meiningen in 1803. The Rombergs were the court factors of the Duke of Meiningen. They had five children. When Meyer died in 1813, Zerline returned to Meiningen with three of the children; Alexander took in the two boys Jacob and Moritz. Jacob, also a merchant, later married his cousin Caroline, a daughter of Alexander. The two surviving children of this marriage, Helene (d. 1932) and Robert (d. 1912), both emigrated to England - they had been the last Elkans from Weimar.

Alexander's business suffered considerable damage in 1837 when the town hall burned down with the surrounding houses. He continued to advertise his wares with ads, and also acted as an agent for various insurance companies that came into being at the time. In addition, the city compensated him financially for his destroyed house, as the enlarged city hall was built on this site. The city also assigned him sales rooms in the left part of the first floor of the town hall in 1842. In 1848 his wife died and he himself was ill more often. The business was also no longer doing so well. Nevertheless, Alexander Elkan continued to act as a representative of the Weimar Jews. He died in 1865.

Israel was the second oldest son of Jacob Elkan and was born around 1780. He later called himself only Julius. In 1807 he married Jeannette Borchardt, who was from Berlin. In 1811, he advertised credit and money transactions in a newspaper advertisement, thus turning to a different field of business than his two brothers Meyer and Alexander. In 1816, he bought the prestigious house at Burgplatz 3, on whose entrance door the inscription "Zur Bank" was still visible for a long time (the initials J. C. W. above the entrance door refer to the previous owner Johann C. Wiegand). Here he lived until his death in 1839 and devoted himself to exchange and money transactions as well as the purchase and sale of jewels.

The banking house Julius Elkan enjoyed a very good reputation. Its customers included not only the princely court of Weimar, which Elkan served as court banker, but also the elite of classical Weimar, including Goethe, Schiller, the actress Karoline Jagemann, the von Stein couple, Johann Peter Eckermann and Franz Liszt. Many of Goethe's purchases for his collections, as well as many of his financial affairs, were arranged by the Julius Elkan banking house. The daughter Johanna, born in 1807, was a good friend of Friedrich Schiller's youngest daughter Emilie. Some of the correspondence between the two friends from later years has survived. In 1834 Johanna married the Berlin bookseller and politician Moritz Veit. Their second daughter Louise, born in 1816, married Hermann Moritz in 1850. Moritz was employed in Julius Elkan's business and later took over the bank. A sister of Jeanette, Frieda Oppenheim, née Borchardt, also lived in the household of Julius and Jeanette Elkan at Burgplatz, as well as the bank employees Samson, Siegmund and August Callmann: The three brothers, all from Rudolfstadt, were the sons from the marriage of Jette Elkan, the sister of Jacob Elkan, to August Callmann. 

Julius Elkan died of nervous fever on July 28, 1839. His gravestone in the Weimar Jewish Cemetery is the best preserved and, with its two engraved jugs, indicates the Elkans' descent from the Levites. As temple servants, the Levites had to cleanse the hands of the priests with water before blessing the congregation. An obituary in the newspaper emphasized, "In him, many in need of help have lost a benefactor, and we as a whole have lost an insightful, active and well-behaved businessman."

Hermann Moritz (1820-1885) came from Wehlau, East Prussia, and worked in the banking house of Julius Elkan. After Julius Elkan's death in 1839, August Callmann (a cousin of Julius: his mother was Jacob Elkan's sister) continued to run the bank, presumably together with Jeannette Elkan, Julius's widow. When Hermann Moritz married Louise, the second daughter of Julius and Jeannette, in 1850, August Callmann left the firm in 1854 and founded his own bank in Weimar. Hermann Moritz remained the sole owner of Bankhaus Julius Elkan as court banker and councilor of commerce until his death in 1885 and lived in the prestigious house at Marstallstraße 3. The house had a driveway separated from the street by chains, a distinguished reception room and a spacious city garden. In 1857, Hermann Moritz opened a branch in Jena, which was under the management of his younger brother Rudolf Moritz. Hermann Moritz was a member of the Weimar City Council for many years and was additionally active in various humanitarian foundations.

Hermann died in October 1885 after a short, serious illness. His only son Roderich (1851-1931) continued to run the banking house. In 1906 Bankhaus Julius Elkan merged with Magdeburger Privatbank and Roderich Moritz became a member of the supervisory board. Roderich died childless in 1931 and, like his wife, was buried in the municipal cemetery - although he had expressly forbidden himself all religious ceremonies.

On August 30, 1774, Jacob Elkan submitted an application to Duchess Anna Amalia for the granting of a piece of land for a burial ground. In the same year, on October 1, chancery servant Witzel also submitted a request for a piece of land on Webichtallee (later Leibnizallee) for the creation of a garden; he wanted to give part of it to Jacob Elkan. Both applications were approved by the Duchess under the conditions set by the guardianship authorities - since Jews*Jewesses were not allowed to acquire land. The land on the hill was considered "quite unusable and undeveloped." Elkan received the upper piece (corner of Leibnizstrasse/Musäusstrasse). Both applicants had to border the plots with saplings from the nearby forest. The small Jewish cemetery of Weimar with the name "The Good Place" served from 1775 until around 1890 for burials of the families Elkan, Löser, Callmann, Moritz, Ulmann and Lichtenstein.

In 1775, the first burial took place of Jacob and Simcha Elkan's daughter Esther, who lived only a short time. Thirty years later, Jacob Elkan, who died on June 3, 1805, was buried here. His gravestone has not survived, but that of his son Julius, born around 1780, has. It bears an oval inscription field with the initials J. E. and the year of death 1839. In addition to his gravestone, another nine memorial stones are preserved today.

In 1808, a small area was added to Gabriel Ulmann's cemetery. After the last burial in 1890, the area fell into disrepair and was used as an orchard and cultivation area for cattle feed. In 1952 some partially damaged gravestones were put back in place. Since 1983, the cemetery has been restored and also serves as a memorial and memorial site, which is explicitly pointed out by a plaque next to the entrance.