Glikl of Hameln

Glikl of Hameln (born 1645, Hamburg [Germany]—died 1724, Metz, Lorraine [France]) was a German Jewish diarist whose seven books of memoirs (Zikhroynes), written in Yiddish with passages in Hebrew, reveal much about the history, culture, and everyday life of contemporary Jews in central Europe. Written not for publication but as a family chronicle and legacy for her children and their descendants, the diaries were begun in 1691. Glikl completed the first five sections by 1699 and resumed writing in 1715, finishing the final two sections in 1719.

After the Jews were expelled from Hamburg in 1649, Glikl’s family moved not far away to Altona, where she received a traditional religious education. With her family, she returned to Hamburg in 1657. At age 14 she was married to Ḥayim of Hameln, with whom she had 12 children. After her husband’s death, in 1689, she successfully managed his business and financial affairs and raised and educated her eight children still at home. In 1700 she married Cerf Lévy, a wealthy banker of Metz, who soon lost his fortune as well as hers. Upon his death, in 1712, she lived with a daughter in Metz.

The Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln (1932; also published in translation as The Life of Glückel of Hameln, 1962) contains information about the lives of court Jews, wealthy Jewish merchants, and the status of ordinary women. Interspersed with family history and visits to such cities as Hanover and Berlin (Germany) and Amsterdam (Netherlands) are pious sayings, devotional prayers, folktales, and parables. The memoirs are a significant source for linguistic and philological studies of medieval Yiddish. Although the original manuscript was lost, Glikl’s son Rabbi Moses Hameln and one of her sons-in-law had previously copied out the entire work. It was from this copy that David Kaufman published (1896) the work in the original Yiddish, with an introduction in German.