More than 2,000 glass negatives by the Jewish photographer Abram Mittelmann were discovered in 1988 in the attic of a residential building at Peterssteinweg 15 in Leipzig’s Südvorstadt district—forgotten for decades and partially destroyed. Most of the photographs were taken around 1930 and depict the faces of women, men, and children, many of whom were Jewish. Abram Mittelmann lived and worked in the house from 1909 to 1938. The origins, life stories, and fates of many of those portrayed remain unknown to this day.
In 2022, the negatives were returned from private ownership to Nadia Vergne, Abram Mittelmann’s granddaughter. Since then, an initiative comprising Nadia Vergne, the Museum of City History Leipzig, the Ariowitsch House on behalf of the Israelitische Religionsgemeinde, and the Archiv Bürgerbewegung Leipzig e.V. has been working together to process the collection. The Museum of City History digitized all the photos in 2023 and published them in an online database in 2024—with funding from the Stiftung Sächsische Gedenkstätten.
Since 2025, the life stories of those portrayed have been systematically researched and documented in the database. This is made possible by the Ostdeutsche Sparkassenstiftung in collaboration with Sparkasse Leipzig, the City of Leipzig, and the Kulturstiftung des Freistaats Sachsen. Starting in 2026, the results will be publicly accessible through an exhibition and numerous educational programs.
