The presented document is a fragment of correspondence concerning the settlement of debts between the innkeeper Ernest Brühl and the Jewish merchant Nehemias Löwenstein of Leszno. The latter requested to charge the purchased property with a sum of 514 reichsthalers along with interest and register the debt in the register of mortgages.
The letter was addressed to the "Royal-Prussian Land Court Archive in Wschowa". A date stamp survived on the address page: "LESZNO/ 23rd SEPTEMBER", and there is also a trace of a wax seal. On the first page, at the top edge, there is a round revenue stamp with the national eagle emblem in the field and the inscription in the surround: "DWA DOBRE GROSZE". The document was issued in Leszno on 22 September 1820. The autograph below the text reads: "Nehemias Löwenstein". On the reverse side, there is a response from the court archive.
The letter is in the shape of a standing rectangle and is handwritten on ribbed handmade paper in brown ink. It consists of 4 pages. The text is in the German language. The sheet bears a positive watermark in the form of repeated initials: "H. Sr. M. F." and the signature marks "I.F. NITSCHE".
Nehemias Jacob Löwenstein was born around 1768. He was the son of Jacob, a senior official of the Jewish Community Council in Leszno. His second wife, Golde, came from Inowrocław. He had at least eight children – four sons and four daughters. He died on 27 February 1827 in Leszno (APL, Leszno City Files, file no. 513, pp. 37, 161; file no. 1259, suite 819, 824; L. Lewin, Geschichte der Juden in Lissa, Pinne 1904, p. 145).
The letter was donated to the District Museum in Leszno in 2014 by pr. Szczepan Jan Szymandera, a parish priest and antique collector from Pruśce near Rogoźno Wielkopolskie, who purchased it at an online auction.
Dariusz Czwojdrak
