Samuel Freund

Samuel Freund (Born September 24, 1868 in Gleiwitz, Germany; Died June 28, 1939 in Hannover, Germany) was the senior rabbi of Hannover and the Landrabbiner for the German state of Lower Saxony.

The son of businessman Isidor Freund and his wife Caecilia, Samuel Freund studied philosophy at the University of Breslau from 1887-1890 while also completing his rabbinical training at Breslau's Jewish Theological Seminary. Freund continued his studies in philosophy at Heidelberg University, where he received his doctorate in 1892. Freund served as rabbi in smaller congregations in Czarnikau, and then Ostrowo, where he met and married Minna Feilchenfeld.

In 1907, Samuel Freund took a position as the junior rabbi of Hannover, where he ran the religious schools. The Romanesque synagogue in the center of Hannover served as the focal point of the city's Jewish community. Designed by Edwin Oppler of the Hanover school of architecture and completed in 1870, the building was the first large, free-standing synagogue in Germany.

During World War I, Freund enlisted in the army and served as clergy in German combat units. Returning from the war in 1918, Samuel Freund assumed the position of senior rabbi of Hannover.

In 1921, Samuel Freund took a leading role in the German Jewish community's response to the anti-Semitic charges of Dietrich Eckart, editor of Auf Gut Deutsch. Eckart, looking to spread the calumny that Jews had not contributed to the German war effort during World War I, offered a prize of 1,000 marks for proof that even a single Jewish family had sent three sons into the army to fight for more than three weeks.

"Rabbi Freund of Hannover immediately gave him a list of twenty families in his own community who sent three sons into the trenches for three weeks and more. Dr. Freund also presented a list of 50 families from various communities, some of which sent seven and eight sons to the trenches and had lost three sons in the service of their country."

Eckart refused to pay the 1,000 marks. The Patriotic League of Jewish Frontline Veterans brought a lawsuit against him and, in 1924, they prevailed. Ordered by a German court to pay 1,000 marks to the Jewish veterans group, Eckart complied.

In 1924, while continuing his work as a local rabbi, Samuel Freund became Landrabbiner of Hannover. Landrabbiners were elected by the communities they represented, but they were officers of the state and could not be removed from office without the consent of the German government. Specifically, the Landrabbiner of Hannover was charged with supervising all publicly-funded employees working in synagogues, Jewish schools, and Jewish charitable institutions throughout the German state of Lower Saxony. Samuel Freund was the last to ever hold the office of Hannover Landrabbiner and remained Landrabbiner until his death.

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