Warschauer, Malvin (1871-1955)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 1556 WL 1010
Held at	: Wiener Library   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.wienerlibrary.co.uk/ ›
Full title	: Warschauer, Malvin (1871-1955)
Date(s)	: 1899-1988
Level of description	: Collection level
Extent	: 1 box
Name of creator(s)	: Warschauer | Malvin | 1871-1955 | rabbi

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Malvin Warschauer was born in 1871 the son of a timber merchant in a small village in Kanth, near Breslau, Silesia (now Wroclaw, Poland). He was a student at Berlin University from 1890 where he studied oriental languages, Arabic and Syrian and philosophy and became a member, then later president, of the Academic Union for Jewish History and Literature. He also studied at the College of Jewish Learning at Unter den Linden where most of the students were from Eastern Europe, Austria and Hungary. It was during this time that he became a life-long friend of Leo Baeck.

He was an early Zionist and often met with opposition from his rabbinical colleagues over his ideas on the subject. He married Recha Blum in 1904 and had children in 1905 and 1907 respectively. Having been a temporary preacher at the new synagogue in Luetzowstrasse, he became a rabbi in 1906. In 1911 he took over as head of the College of Jewish Learning. He later became the Rabbi of Oranienburgerstrasse. The children having already emigrated to England earlier in the decade, Malvin Warschauer was himself forced to flee and arrived at Croydon airport in January 1939.

His years in England were spent officiating as a guest rabbi, involving himself in work with the considerable refugee community in and around Guildford and writing his memoirs. He died on 27 January 1955.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Malwin Warschauer, 1899-1988, including unpublished copy typescript account of the life and philosophy of Malwin Warschauer entitled Tradition, by his son, James J. Walters; copies of sermons; philosophical treatises; lectures; newspaper articles; correspondence with Albert Einstein and Leo Baeck and obituaries.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
German and English

System of arrangement:

Chronological by material type.

Conditions governing access:

Open

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies can be made for personal use. Permission must be sought for publication.

Finding aids:

Description exists for this archive on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

James Walters

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Entry compiled by Howard Falksohn

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
December 2007