Hermann Simon (historian)


Hermann Simon is a German historian who was for 27 years director of the Foundation "New Synagogue Berlin - Centrum Judaicum".

Early life

Hermann Simon was born in Berlin in 1949, the son of classical philologist and philosophy historian Marie Jalowicz-Simon and the Judaizers Heinrich Simon. Hermann Simon grew up in East Berlin. His family was a member of the Jewish Community East Berlin, but which was very small because of the Holocaust and emigration in the postwar years. He studied at the Humboldt University in Berlin History and Oriental Studies, followed by graduate studies in Prague.

Career

From 1975 to 1988 he worked at the Numismatic Collection of the National Museums in Berlin. In 1988 he was involved in the first exhibition about Jewish life that in East Berlin.
Since the establishment of the New Synagogue Berlin - Centrum Judaicum in the same year he was its director. On 1 September 2015, he handed over the reins to his successor Anja Siegemund. In 2015 Simon was awarded the Order of Merit of Berlin.
In the Berlin community, he is next to Andreas Nachama as representatives of the "liberal wing".

Family

Hermann Simon is married to Deborah born Rix and lives with his family in Berlin.

Selected publications

German

Hermann Simon beschäftigt sich in seinen zahlreichen Publikationen insbesondere mit Problemen der Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland. Er ist u. a. Herausgeber der Reihen "Jüdische Miniaturen", "Jüdische Memoiren" und der Schriftenreihe des Centrum Judaicum. Außerdem veröffentlichte er einige Artikel im Bereich Numismatik und Kataloge zu Berliner Ausstellungen.