Bernhard WACHSTEIN

Submitted by Renee Steinig

Bernhard Wachstein (1868-1935), the Viennese genealogist, librarian, historian, and bibliographer, was born in Tłuste (Tolstoye/4850). Educated at a Vienna rabbinical seminary and then at the University of Vienna, Wachstein became librarian of the Vienna community in 1903. He later became the director of the library, which he nurtured and organized into one of the best in Europe. His marriage to a wealthy woman allowed him to devote his life to scholarship, which included works on such Jewish personalities as Karl Marx, Spinoza, and Moses Mendelssohn, and bibliographies of Judaic literature and correspondence. Wachstein is best known for his scholarly study of tombstone inscriptions at Vienna's oldest Jewish cemetery, at #9 Seegasse. Die inschriften des alten Judenfriedhofes in Wien, published between 1912 and 1917, included a plan and description of each stone. The cemetery, desecrated during World War II, was partially restored with the help of the meticulous details in Wachstein's study. Wachstein also published the gravestone inscriptions in the old Jewish cemetery in Eisenstadt, Austria.

This page is hosted at no cost to the public by JewishGen, Inc., a non-profit corporation. If you feel there is a benefit to you in accessing this site, your JewishGen-erosity is appreciated.

Jewish Gen Home Page

ShtetLinks Directory

Gesher Galicia