Dear Katarina:

As before, let me remind you:

---Many Jews lived in Germany.---

In much of Germany, Jews did not have fixed surnames until 1812 or even
later. At that time, German Jews took all kinds of surnames.

Many of these names were based on the profession of the person taking
the name. Someone who ran a small shop might well have called himself
Kramer or Kraemer.

As for "Altmann", there are plenty of records of Jews taking that name.
There's no reason to expect any name (except perhaps Kohn) to be truly
"Jewish".

My great-great-grandmother Friederike Altmann was Jewish. Her father,
Leopold Altmann, was also Jewish, and was probably the person who
originally took the name. He and his daughter were not "accepted as
Jewish"--they were Jewish. Names don't have religions--people do.

Who's calling Kramer a "Jewish name"? It's a German name, and some of
the German Jews and German-speaking Jews chose that name.

Or do you mean something else by "100% German"?

Roger Lustig

Katarina wrote: