Erinnerungen eines Grossvaters I

The file is the first part of the memoirs of Rabbi Dr. Caesar Seligmann of Frankfurt/M. He was born in Landau on December 14, 1860. His father was a scholar and had a used bookstore. He was raised in Kaiserslautern by his father and unmarried aunt after the death of his mother, when he was six years old. He gives a recount of the Landau rabbinate elections in 1836 and the defeat of his father, who later on became an instructor at the Jewish teachers' seminary in Kaiserslautern. One of his ancestors was the legendary Saul Wahl who was King of Poland for one day. He recounts his school years as dull and boring. Relations between Christians and Jews was friendly and he did not feel Anti-Semitism as a child. He remembers the enthusiasm of the population during the war of 1870/71 and the economic boom of his hometown Kaiserslautern which was close to the battlefields. Also the poor Jewish community in Kaiserslautern thrived after the war and a new synagogue was built. He loved to read and had an excellent memory. In 1879 he moved to Munich to study philology. After finishing his studies, he decided to become a rabbi and moved to Breslau in the winter of 1880/81. Among his teachers were David Rosin, Heinrich Graetz who counted C. Seligmann to be one of his favorite students and the Rabbi Manuel Joel, who became a dear friend.