Preface

F. M. Bartholdy was born in Hamburgh on February, 3rd in 1809. The family a little later fled from the French occupation to Berlin. In 1816 his father Abraham Mendelssohn, son of the great philosopher and friend of Lessing, Moses Mendelssohn, had his children baptized reformed- protestant.

A few years later even the parents changed their Jewish religion to Christian belief. This step was taken after careful consideration. Antisemitism was nothing unusual even at that time...