The Mendelssohn's in the Jägerstraße

The eastern section of Jägerstraße, in which the Royal Giro- and Lehnbank and the Prussian Seehandlung already existed at that time, is regarded as the nucleus of the Berlin banking district. From here, the bank developed among the descendants of Joseph Mendelssohn and Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy into the most important private bank in Berlin - until it was forced to liquidate under the Nazis.


In several stages, the exhibition recalls the exciting history of the bank and the life of the Mendelssohn Bankers, who lived in the banking houses or adjacent palaces until 1917.


The patronage of Mendelssohn's patronage, to which the Berlin museums owe important works of art, is presented as well as the family's charitable efforts. It also expands its impressive network of relationships, business partnerships and friendships established in Jägerstraße, involving representatives of business, science, music and the fine arts.


The natural scientist Alexander von Humboldt, the sculptor Christian Daniel Rauch, the composers and musicians Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim as well as the historian Leopold von Ranke came and went here as customers and as familiar guests.


The exhibition also deals with the liquidation of the Mendelssohn-Bank, which was forced by the National Socialists, and the post-war efforts to snatch away one of the most important German families from oblivion. The founding of the Mendelssohn Society in 1967 and the foundation of the History Forum Jägerstraße e. V. in 2005, which has since merged with the Mendelssohn Society, are among them. In the vestibule of the Remise, the exhibition will be supplemented by a media station where visitors can listen to interviews with descendants and compositions by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Fanny Hensel and Arnold Mendelssohn.


The digital family tree of the Mendelssohn family over seven generations, produced by the Berlin State Library in 2007, as well as a DVD documentary of the world premiere of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's first musical play fragment, recorded on the occasion of the Berlin meeting of the descendants of Moses Mendelssohn in October 2007 at the Mendelssohn-Remise, can also be viewed there.