Judaica collections in Hannover - The libraries of Gerardus Molanus and David Oppenheimer

Abstract

The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Lower Saxony State Library in Hanover is one of Germany's research libraries which do not have a special Judaica section. But the discovery of a considerable number of Judaic works in the historical holdings prompted public attention and a call for bibliographic treatment. A comprehensive cataloguing will only be possible through cooperative efforts with other libraries to set up a virtual online special library of Judaica. Investigation of relevant historical studies revealed that the primary collector of Judaica was not the universal scholar Leibniz, but rather the head of the Lutheran church of Hanover Gerardus Molanus (Molan). Since the famous library of the Jewish scholar and Rabbi David Oppenheimer was located in Hanover at the same time that Molan officiated in Hanover, there have been inquiries into the connection between the two Judaica collections. Up to now there are only indirect indications that Molan and Leibniz knew of Oppenheimer's library or that there was communication between the Jewish and Christian scholars in Hanover.