Welcome to the Reissner Family Website!

 

Rashi sculpture - Worms, 2005

This greater Reissner family traces its ancestry back to Rabbi Mordechai Moses (1760-1824) of Neustadt bei Pinne, Prussia (now Poland).  Many of the family are descendants of Mann Marcus Reissner (1810-1884, grandson of Rabbi Mordechai) of Neustadt bei Pinne and Guben / Gubin (now Germany and Poland). Family ancestral tradition includes the great medieval scholar Rabbi Shlomo Itzhaki - Rashi. The family has held meetings at various locations around the world, including Guben, Worms, and Jerusalem. We have an active email list -- the Google Group Reissner (login required).  If you are (or might be) a member of our family, you can ask to join the email list by writing to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We are updating the older web site (view old site here).  Over time, we will migrate much of the old material to the new area. We solicit historical and genealogical material for this web site.  There is a "private" area for family use that requires you to log in before use.  This is to protect more sensitive information from appearing in Internet search engines and other places.  Please contact the webmaster (above) for login details. or any questions.

 

Where to start?

Why not select "Stories" from the bar at the top of this page? A few "featured articles" appear below.

A "Stolperstein" for Walter Reissner

In May, 2008, our cousin Hans Georg Hoffmann dedicated a "stumbling block" in a street in Berlin-Mahlsdorf in honor of Walter Reissner (1879-1943).

Contents

• Background Notes by Dorette R. Schaefer
• Address on the Embedding of a Stumbling Block
  for Walter Reissner (1879-1943) by Hans Georg Hoffmann
• Comments by Hans Georg Hoffmann
• Excerpt from Master's Thesis of Margaret Ewing
• Obermayer German Jewish History Award - Gunter Demnig

Background Notes by Dorette R. Schaefer

It all began with a hint from Gubener Andreas Peter last January, to google for sculptor and painter Walter Reissner, brother of my grandfather William. To my surprise there was a lot of information on him based on several sources, of which I had no idea that they existed. Some of the information was wrong, i.e., they claimed that his brother Hans was his father, etc.

Read more: A "Stolperstein" for Walter Reissner

How did our family come together?

How did all this start?

From Ruben Frankenstein (7/16/2004):

How did the whole thing come into life? It must be about 45 years now that Hanns Guenther Reissner, the author of "Familie auf Wanderschaft" (Berlin 1938) and of this manuscript "A Generations Spiral" edited by Claude in memory of his father, started a correspondence first with my father, then with me arousing my interest in genealogy. Many years after his death, about 10 years ago I came in contact first with Chris Bjarnson (Oregon), and then with David Lewin (London) and we changed letters and information. Both came later to visit me in Freiburg. Some years ago we met Hans Georg in Berlin.

The internet of course improved the posibilities of contact and communication and one of my queries (10 years old!) must have intrigued Gabriel last year to answer and later came Dorette as well, both becoming very active to initiate our first reunion meeting.

From Gabriel Taube on (3/25/2004):

For sure you will remember that the beginning of this story was due to a letter which I have received from Andreas Peter, asking for permission to publish a poem from my mother. Then, I got in touch with Dorette, after A. Peter gave me her e-mail address. Then, Dear Ruben, I found your e-mail in Internet from last century (1994).