page_title: Max Samuel
section_title: Max-Samuel-Haus in Rostock
hierarchical_section_title: Max Samuel / Legacy and restitution / Max-Samuel-Haus in Rostock
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Hofgebäude der Friedrichstraße 28 in der Kröpeliner-Tor-Vorstadt, Rostock
context_page_description: Max Samuel was a businessman and self-made man, founder and managing-director of the EMSA-Werke, chair of the Jewish congregation in Rostock and head deputy of the Israelite Upper Council of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
context_section_description: By his signature on 22 August 1991, shortly before his death, Herbert Samuel donated the villa to the Stiftung Begegnungsstätte für jüdische Geschichte und Kultur in Rostock (literally: Foundation of the Meeting Place for Jewish History and Culture in Rostock), as the foundation is officially termed. Herbert Samuel decided to donate the villa in an effort towards reconciliation between Jews and others, as he explained to the attending Schröder and Prof. Dieter Neßelmann, Senator of finances of Rostock city between 1990 and 1997. In October 1991 Herbert Samuel informed the staff of the Max-Samuel-Haus that his brother-in-law Herman Geo. Kaiser fully supported Herbert's idea to donate the villa to the foundation. 
  On 2 September 1991, the 49th anniversary of Max Samuel's death, the foundation's board held its opening session. The daycare moved out and on 2 October 1991 the villa, named Max-Samuel-Haus since, was dedicated to its new purpose as the Rostock Jewish Heritage Centre, a meeting place, cultural venue and research institute, run by the foundation. In the beginning the foundation was also seen as a counter project to the Lichtenhagen riots of 1992 in Rostock. 
  On 7 July 1991 Herbert Samuel was compensated for the loss of the former EMSA-Werke at Friedrichstraße 28 with DM 200,000. The book collection of Herbert and his wife Ilse, née Steinfeld (1911–1992), including books of his parents from Rostock (and of hers), was donated to the Max-Samuel-Haus after her death through Elsie Peel. The first Samuel family members visiting the villa since its reopening as Max-Samuel-Haus were Ruth Kaiser Nelson and her niece Emily Kaiser in mid-August 1993. 
  In memory and honour of Max Samuel and his works, the foundation arranged four events in the Max-Samuel-Haus, first in 1991 on the occasion of naming of the villa after him, second from 17 February to 17 March 2006 (the exhibition: Max Samuel: Unternehmer – Gemeindevorsitzender – Flüchtling), third from 2 September 2010 to 6 February 2011 (the exhibition: Die Familie Samuel: Ein jüdischer Unternehmer in Rostock), and fourth from 20 September to 20 October 2016 (presentation of the rediscovered 1920 portrait of Max Samuel by Egon Tschirch). This was supplemented on the evening of the vernissage by an eyewitness interview with Ruth Kaiser Nelson, Max Samuel's granddaughter.
caption: Premises on Friedrichstraße 28, 2011
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