Obermayer German Jewish History Award

Hanno Müller

Fernwald-Steinbach, Hesse

The Jews in Oberhessen had a rich history dating back several centuries, but when Hanno Müller was growing up in the postwar years, their presence had been nearly forgotten. “I wanted to collect and write down everything I could find out about the Jews of Steinbach; I wanted it to be known by the townspeople that Jews had lived here,” he said. To that end, he spent countless hours in archives over three decades searching out birth, marriage, and death records, tax ledgers, land registers, cattle trade protocols, and lists of citizens from the 19th century. His massive effort has culminated in numerous articles and six substantial books about the Jews of Oberhessen, written individually or collaboratively with other researchers.

Hanno Müller, a retired teacher, was born in 1948. His interest in German Jewish history began in his teen years when he uncovered a family secret: his own grandfather had committed suicide in 1940. After the Nazis came to power, his grandfather had continued a long-standing friendship with the Julius Katz family despite official decrees forbidding social connections between Aryans and Jews. Müller wondered if the contact with the Jewish family had created legal trouble for his grandfather. Müller’s investigation turned up no evidence of repercussions from the Nazis, and he came to the conclusion that depression probably prompted the suicide. Nevertheless, probing into his grandfather’s past made Müller quite curious about the Jews in his community before the war, and that led to a lifetime interest in preserving their heritage.
 
One issue of special concern for Müller was the fate of the local Jewish victims of the Nazi regime. He did not want them to be written out of history, and he wanted townspeople to be accountable. Immediately after the war, few people talked about this. Later, “the people whom I asked definitely named names” of the local SA members or especially those from other villages “who had demolished our little Jewish cemetery,” he said.

Müller became a teacher, married, and eventually taught chemistry, physics and geography at the Brüder-Grimm-Schule (Brothers Grimm School) in Kleinlinden. In his spare time he became a self-taught historian, focusing his energy on researching local Jewish history.  He sought out elderly people who had known the Jews personally and could provide him with the names of families and stories about them. When he obtained old school photographs, he tracked down former students to identify the Jewish children in them. Now he had faces to go with the names.

Each piece of information propelled Müller to delve further into this research. He searched the local archives, seeking all references to Jews. In a Protestant church ledger from 1858, Müller found that the minister had described Jews as being a misdirected people who did not embrace the correct teachings. Although some ministers in the church were sympathetic towards the Jews, the chronicle mostly revealed raw hatred for them. “Hitler did not need to stir these people up,” Müller concluded. “They were already hate-filled; the clergy had prepared the ground for him.” His first significant project was to trace Jewish families in Steinbach back to 1700 and compile information on each one. Tax records gave him a sense of their economic status. In 1861 there were 93 Jews out of a total population of 983. Some of the Jews were poor and lived in the countryside; others were better off and owned property in town. By the end of the 1800s, Jews started leaving the area for better opportunities elsewhere. In 1910, only 28 Jews remained. In 1938, five years into the Third Reich, only one Jew was left in Steinbach, a woman who had married a Christian. Eyewitnesses told Müller how the Nazis harassed this woman and her family: 

“In the evening, someone from the SA [the paramilitary wing of the Nazi party] would stand opposite the house to monitor who was going in. Some Nazis stole the family’s rabbits to slaughter and eat. Others dug up the family’s garden, ostensibly looking for weapons. Family members were not beaten and their windows were not broken, but they were isolated and they were afraid.”

Hanno Müller brought the lessons he learned from interview and archival research to the classroom. He taught until 2002, when a serious illness forced him to retire. In the years since Müller has continued with his Jewish history endeavors. His publications include:

• Familienbuch Butzbach (Family Book of Butzbach) This 269-page book provides detailed information about the Jewish families from Butzbach,

• Juden in Steinbach (Jews in Steinbach). Detailed information about Steinbach Jews from 1706-1945 is found in this book. A second edition was published in 2010.

• Judenfamilien in Hungen und in Inheiden, Utphe, Villingen, Obbornhofen, Bellersheim und Wohnbach (Jewish Families in Hungen and in Inheiden, Utphe, Villingen, Obbornhofen, Bellersheim und Wohnbach). This 412-page book gives detailed information about the Jewish families who made their home in Hungen and the other towns. It includes a translation of tombstone inscriptions.

• Juden in Lang-Göns: Eine Dokumentation gegen das Vergessen (Jews in Lang-Göns: A document against forgetting.) This 140-page book is divided into three sections: (1) history of the Jewish community of Lang-Göns, (2), description of the individual families, and (3) translation of tombstone inscriptions

• Juden in Lich, Birklar, Langsdorf, Muschenheim und Ettingshausen, Teil 1: Familien; Teil II: Grabsteine, Anhang Register (Jews din Lich, Birklar, Langsdorf, Muschenheim und Ettingshausen , volume I: Families; volume II: Gravestone and Appendix Register). This illustrated 720-page set of books provides descriptions of each of the Jewish communities, detailed profiles of each family in them, and photographs of gravestones in the Jewish cemeteries with German translations of the Hebrew inscriptions.

• Juden in Gießen 1788-1942 (Jews in Gießen 1788-1942). This illustrated book contains information on more than 5,000 individuals and families; 851 pages.

The writings of Hanno Müller have rescued a rich history from oblivion and enabled a new generation of Jews with roots in Oberhessen to reconnect with their own past. In the beginning, “I was alone in my work, but I found eyewitnesses in my community who shared their recollections with me.” Müller recalled. Today, he gets help from all sides – whether in deciphering Hebrew inscriptions on tombstones, or in granting access to documents in the civil registry.  An unexpected bonus for Müller is that he has connected with survivors and their families abroad. His research came full circle when he met Nomi Brautman of Israel. Her father's mother and sister had been murdered in the Holocaust, but Mueller was able to provide Ms. Brautman with a detailed accounting of her family in Hesse and took her to the six different Jewish cemeteries in Hesse where her ancestors were buried.