Creator Bio

Fromet Guggenheim

1737–1812

Eldest daughter of a merchant from Hamburg, Fromet Guggenheim married the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn in 1762. Exceptional for the time, theirs was not an arranged marriage. As was the case with many premodern Jewish couples, when Mendelssohn was away, he relied on his wife to maintain his business correspondence. A great lover of the theater, Fromet Mendelssohn was acquainted with some German playwrights, Lessing among them. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel were her grandchildren. The square in front of the Jewish Museum in Berlin was named for the couple in 2013.

Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator

Primary Source

Letter from Fromet to Moses Mendelssohn

Public Access
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Berlin, 18 July 1777 Berlin, 13 Tammuz 5537 Dear Moses, may you live, I hope that my letter will find you happy and in good spirits in Königsberg. We are all, thank G-d, well and alive, and when you…
Manuscript page with two columns of writing in Yiddish and Hebrew and a decorated border.
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Related Guide

Life Writing: Biography, Autobiography, and Ego Documents, 1750–1880

The famous and the obscure, women and men, in epitaphs and private letters, ethical wills, cookbooks, and religious reflections, all reflect aspects of Jewish life in a period of great transition.