Two discoveries mark the beginning of my search for Moses Mendelssohn: a notebook, which belonged to Clara Westphal, née Mendelssohn and a photograph of her 7 children. I discovered that Clara Westphal was my great-great-grandmother and a great-grandchild of Moses Mendelssohn. The story of her children is interwoven with my search through Berlin to the different locations which are connected with Moses Mendelssohn’s life. Some of those places have changed a lot during the last centuries, such as the cemetery in Grosse Hamburgerstrasse, where his grave once stood. Here I am involved in putting up a new gravestone for him, a copy of the old one. Other places have hardly changed at all, like the summer residence of Frederick the Great in Sanssouci. Mendelssohn’s books are kept in the "Staatsarchiv" library, together with his ledger and the letters to his bride.
I am accompanied on this search by the actor Tayfun Bademsoy. He reads Mendelssohn’s texts and also reflects on his own situation as a second generation Turkish immigrant. My questions about what happened to the 6 children of Clara Westphal during the Nazi period are answered by two old gentlemen, cousins of my grandmother. One of them is Robert v. Mendelssohn, the last owner of the Mendelssohn bank.
Research and directing: Tamara Wyss; Camera: Ingo Kratisch; Producer: Leon Janucek; 1990, 60 mins, ZDF.