Glückel of Hameln

Glückel of Hameln was Askenhazim merchant and memoirist. She signed herself as Glikl bas Judah Leib, and David Kaufman, who edited her Yiddish text, was the first to call her Glückel of Hameln. She was born in Hamburg to the merchant Judah Leib and the businesswoman Beila Melrich. When Glückel was 14 she married Ḥayyim ben Joseph, a native of Hameln, and the couple had 14 children. Hayyim traded in gold, silver, pearls, and money, attended the German fairs, and arranged sales from Moscow to London, while Glückel helped with the account books, local pledges, and contracts. After his death in 1689 he continued business with much success.

Glückel remarried in 1699 to Hirsch Levy, provisioner to the armies of Louis XIV, and a leader of the Metz Jewish community. After his death she moved in with her daughter Esther and her banker son-in-law Moses Schwabe. Glückel remained remembered primarily because of her memoires that records her life from Ḥayyim’s until several years after the death of her second husband.