The Town where Levi Strauß was born

A man is nothing without a home where he can return, though Levi never did, here are some facts about his home town, Buttenheim, Bavaria.

This town was first mentioned in 1118 with the name of Butenheim. The Barons of Stiebar were the first who were responsible for this territory, on which Butenheim was situated, they were followed by the Barons of Seefried, after the Franconian line had died out. (Klaus Guth, Jüdische Landgemeinden, S.128)

The latter were the ones, who allowed Jewish fugitives to settle (the reasons for this are described furtheron). Not only Buttenheim was a Jewish country community, but also a lot more towns in Franconia and especially in the neighbourhood. There are a lot of traces of the Jews in those towns, for example the synagogue, which is now used by a local brewery. There are also some other remains like the socalled "Tropfhäuslein", of which one is meanwhile beeing renovated. (Simone Scheid, Bamberg) However, not many drivers passing exit Buttenheim on highway Nürnberg-Bamberg know about the famous son of this town.

It hasn´t been until 1986 that it is sure that Levi Strauß was born there. The fact, that not all jewish recordings had been destroyed in the Second World War made it possible to do research on the Strauß family. But how did it happen that this little comunity got to know about its famous son? It was in fall 1984 that a lady from Milwaukee, Mrs Betty Gruenwald requested some records for a so called "German Fest" about Buttenheim, as it was the native place of Levi Strauß. At first everybody thaught that this was a misunderstanding, but after having rummaged in old files and having done research in the public record office of Bamberg the disbelief in this fact disappeared. Comparing his birth certificate with the date of his birth on his tombstone on the cemetery of San Francisco, proved again that he was born in this nice little town. In addition to this the graves of his father and his stepmother are situated on the Buttenheimer jewish cemetery.

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The birthplace of Levi Strauß before...

...and after the renovation

The house in which he was born does still exist today (it is one of the "Tropfhäuslein" that were mentioned earlier in the text) and it is planned, after the renovation, to install a "Levi Strauß Museum" there; this is to be around the middle of 1997. At first there were considerations to only install a memorial tablet outside the house as the lodgers couldn´t be urged to move to another location beause of the common housing problem.

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