Glückel from Hamelin

Glückel von Hameln was born about 1645 as Glikl bas Juda Leib, as "daughter (of) Juda Löb", in Hamburg. She owed the epithet "von Hameln", by which she became famous, to her later home Hameln and her husband Chajim Hameln, who came from there. Her father, a well-respected diamond merchant, Löb Pinkerle, was one of the first German Jews to receive permission to settle in Hamburg. His children, "both sons and daughters, he made learn heavenly and worldly things." From about the age of three, von Hameln spent her life in what is now the Altona district of Hamburg "barely a quarter of an hour from Hamburg." From here, her father was able to trade in Hamburg through issued "passports." Thus von Hameln describes in her preserved "Memories: "Early in the morning, as soon as they came out of the prayer house, they went into the city and at night, when the gate was about to be closed, they went back to Altona. And when they had left, their lives were often not safe from the malice of evil people and riffraff, so that every woman thanked God when she had her husband with her again in peace."

Glückel von Hameln experienced political upheavals in the winter of 1657 when he was about 11 years old: "There the Swede made war with the King of Denmark [...]". Influenced by the experiences of the Thirty Years' War, the particularly cold "Swedish" winter "like no winter in fifty years" and the Swedish-Danish war fueled the fear of the Altona population. As "The Swede is coming!" the parents fled with their children to Hamburg for fear of new reprisals against Jews, like many other Altona "Schutzjuden". There they found shelter "partly with the Sefardim [Portuguese or Spanish Jews who had converted to Christianity], partly with the citizens. After the "Swedish winter", many Altaltona Jews did not return, especially since Hameln's father Löb Pinkerle was one of the first German Jews to receive a right of residence in Hamburg. Here they lived in the Neustadt next to Christian neighbors, but "lived there", according to von Hameln, "only by the grace of the council", i.e. also in constant dependence on the goodwill of the rulers and on their Christian environment. Thus, they were forbidden to build synagogues, own luxurious items, as well as many other things. 

Even as a child, Glückel von Hameln had to witness the various threats that came crashing down on Jewish life in Hamburg. Thus, because of this, it was always the "family and acquisition" that shaped her life  as "the two pillars on which the Jews' understanding of life was also Glückel's." The historian and Judaist Marianne Awerbuch characterized with it also Glückel of Hamelns life memory, which were coined throughout by these two topic fields and also their religious feelings. Glückel von Hameln was not even 12 years old when her father betrothed her to Chajim Hameln. To this she remained promised for two years, until the two married in their new home Hameln, which also gave them their names. Von Hameln's father-in-law, Reb Josef Hameln, whom Glückel von Hameln held in high esteem, and also her mother-in-law, provided the newlyweds with a wonderful time in Hameln. Nevertheless, it was well known "what Hameln had been against Hamburg". In her memoirs, she describes the narrowness she felt in Hameln, a "ragged, unfunny place". And since "Hamelin was not a place of commerce," the young couple moved together to Hamburg. 

The new beginning in Hamburg brought the newlyweds von Hameln both business success and the start of a rich family life. As merchants, the von Hamelns began doing business with gold and jewels. Thus Glückel von Hameln's memoirs tell of many of her husband's business trips and later of her own trips to trade fair cities such as Leipzig. Thanks to the relatively tension-free coexistence between the Jewish and Christian populations at this time, the von Hamelns had opportunities for economic and social advancement. Although Glückel von Hameln reported relatively little about the Jewish community life of various cities, "for them, as for all Jews, this formed the religious, social and legal basis" of their existence. On the other hand, the Jewish minority remained, for the most part, particularly dependent on the individual German states and their absolute rulers. Her business trips through the many cities enabled Glückel von Hameln to become acquainted with the "Jewish policy" of various sovereigns. In addition to her professional success, there was also private good fortune: soon after her arrival in Hamburg, von Hameln became pregnant for the first time with her first daughter. She managed the household and was responsible both for raising the children and for looking after her husband's trading activities.

As a 43-year-old widow, Glückel von Hameln began in 1691 to write down her memories during sleepless and tearful nights "amidst many worries and hardships and heartbreaks". This was no easy undertaking, since two years after the death of her husband she was now responsible for raising their twelve children. She addressed the work directly to them, but she was not "out to make and write a moral book for you". Until 1719, she wrote her memoirs, which are still of great value for the cultural as well as family and community history of Jewish women*Jews in the early modern period. The title of the seven-volume work "Sichronoth", i.e. "Memoirs", as translated from Western Yiddish, achieved renown as a testimony to Jewish life in the early modern period. Bertha Pappenheim undertook the translation into German and made the memorable writing, characterized by multiple biblical quotations and other writings of Judaism, accessible to a German-speaking readership. In addition to writing her memoirs, it was mainly the resumption of her husband's business activities, which von Hameln was now responsible for. On the one hand, she put a lot of effort into marrying all her children into respectable families. On the other hand, she became an emancipated merchant who, according to historian and Judaist Marinne Awerbach, "driven by inexhaustible love for her family," traveled from fair to fair for eleven years. 

The French Metz was the second major station in the life of Glückel von Hameln after Hamburg. Hoping not to be a burden to her children in the future, she came here in 1700 due to a second marriage to the banker Cerf or Hirz Levy. "Unfortunately, it just happened contrary." The last years of her life were marked by suffering and poverty, especially since it had not been a love marriage. Her husband, moreover, lost his entire fortune soon after von Hameln's arrival, died, and had left von Hameln "sitting in misery and gloom." In about 1724, Glückel von Hameln died at the age of 80. She left her "memoirs" to her children and to posterity, which bear witness to her life, intellect and wit. Bertha Pappenheim, in the preface to her translation of Glückel von Hameln's memoirs, summarized that she "deserves a place among those women who modestly and unconsciously embodied the best and most valuable of a woman's existence."