Galerie Lammel - Judaica and antisemitic prints. Collection

In 1977 Manfred and Christel Lammel (both born in Germany in 1943) opened an art gallery in Bad Münstereifel, Germany. Fascinated by the richness of Jewish culture and aware of the vulnerability of Jewish patrimony in post-war Germany the couple aimed to combat ignorance regarding Judaism via art. Inspired by a journey to Israel in the early 1970s Christel and Manfred Lammel created a unique network, consisting of contemporary Jewish artists from Israel, Germany, Belgium and France, whose work they presented to a broad audience. Galerie Lammel became a home away from home for Jewish artists such as painter and etcher André Goezu, who was born in Belgium but who lived in France. André designed the Galerie Lammel logo and introduced Manfred and Christel to several Jewish artists residing in Paris, including David Messer, Mordechai Morez, David Lambar, Eli Abrahami, Moreno Pincas and Gérard Koch. Among the Israeli artists represented by Galerie Lammel were Naftali Bezem, Osias Hofstatter, Menachem Lemberger, Miron Sima, David Gerstein, Jacob Pins, Hannah Peiser, Zipporah Schachaf, Baruch Urwand and Tuvia Beeri. Most of these artists had fled Nazi-Germany before or during the war. Galerie Lammel established a unique and priceless collection of contemporary Jewish art. Over the years, the activities of Manfred and Christel expanded towards the collection of books, documents and Judaica from Germany. The gallery managed over 15 000 publications, posters, postcards, letters, antisemitic documents and songs published in Germany and abroad, and represented numerous contemporary Jewish writers and poets. In 2004 Galerie Lammel relocated to Zingsheim, where it quickly became a reference in Jewish culture and spirituality, organizing pioneering cycles on the history of the German people during the interwar period and the cultural life and survival of German Jews during that period. In 2009 Galerie Lammel closed its doors permanently. Manfred Lammel passed away on 26 October 2014, his wife Christel on 8 June 2015.

In 2012 the collection of Galerie Lammel was divided into three parts. 3 500 books on Jewish history, culture and language were donated to the library of the university of Antwerp. All paintings, books and documents on the Holocaust were donated to Kazerne Dossin. 653 other works of art were donated to the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels which organized a large exhibition in 2013. In 2015 Kazerne Dossin organized the temporary exhibition “Osias Hofstatter – Kunst is een Kreet”, set up around the art of Holocaust survivor Osias Hofstatter and donated to Kazerne Dossin by Manfred and Christel Lammel.

Manfred and Christel Lammel, 2012