Bristol Hannover Council

** My connection with Hannover began in 1954 with the start of frequent visits to my grandmother, who lived there with her brother, my great uncle, Dr Horst Berkowitz. He was a Jewish lawyer who had survived the Nazi period and later became an important figure in the town after selling his coin collection, one of the largest ever amassed in Europe, to the city at a much-reduced price in 1975. For this he was awarded the Freedom of Hannover.

I corresponded with Ann Kennard and she showed interest in this family connection and very kindly invited me to participate in the Bristol-Hannover Council visit in September 2024. I was very pleased to accept and thus take the opportunity to make my first visit to Hannover since 1982, shortly before Dr Berkowitz’s death.

Michael Bloom and Johannes Schwartz in front of display panels about Dr Berkowitz. Picture: Detlef Jürges / Museum August Kestner, Hannover

The Saturday and Sunday visits were most enjoyable as they were to two places, Steinhuder Meer and Braunschweig, which I had not visited during my earlier stays in Hannover.

However, the highlight for me was on the Monday afternoon. Ann had used her connections to contact the Kestner museum, which now houses the coin collection. The staff readily agreed to arrange a reception, during which I would give an introduction to Dr Berkowitz for the benefit of both the Bristol-Hannover and Hannover-Bristol twinning groups, and the museum would then talk about some of the coins in the collection.

The group presentation. Picture: Detlef Jürges / Museum August Kestner, Hannover

What I did not know was that it already had a room devoted to prominent Jewish inhabitants of Hannover and their experiences during the Nazi era and that Dr Berkowitz was featured in it with wall panels in both German and English detailing aspects of his life and illustrated with photos and documents from various periods of his life, as well as some of the most significant coins from the collection.

Following my introduction, I was taken by surprise when the research officer from the museum, Dr Johannes Schwartz, talked not only about the coins but also about the extensive research he had carried out into Dr Berkowitz’s life. He told me several things I had not known or fully appreciated, and there followed an animated exchange between Dr Schwartz and myself during which we each added to the other’s knowledge and understanding.

Michael Bloom and Johannes Schwartz viewing coins in vault. Picture: Detlef Jürges / Museum August Kestner, Hannover

Apparently, observing this was appreciated by the audience and added to their knowledge of what life must have been like for Jews in Hannover during this dark time. It no doubt added a new dimension to the twinning partnership experience and reinforced the desire of both groups to foster and maintain good relations between the two cities.

Following the reception, I was escorted down to the museum vaults where the majority of the 38,000 items in the coin collection are housed, and shown several trays containing specimens of interest.

Specimens from the collection . . . and Dr Berkowitz, the collector. Pictures: Michael Bloom 

I was very pleased to have this opportunity to connect with my family history in this way and would like to thank Dr Schwartz, Katharina Rünger and the other museum staff very much for arranging this event. I felt that they in turn were pleased to meet a relative of someone whose life and work featured in their collections.

On the following day I was able to complete my experience on a personal level by visiting Dr. Berkowitz’s and my grandmother’s former house, as well as his grave and places which I remembered from childhood. In all it was a fruitful and fulfilling visit and I am most grateful to Ann Kennard and the two twinning groups for enabling my participation in it.

MICHAEL BLOOM
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