Dr. Seckel Bamberger was born in Fischach near Augsburg on April 13, 1863. His father Simon Bamberger worked there as a rabbi and had 11 children with his wife Adelaide.

Seckel Bamberger enjoyed a profound education as a teacher of religion and rabbi and finished his studies at the universities of Berlin, Würzburg, Munich, and Leipzig in 1887 with a doctorate at Leipzig University. His subjects were Hebrew, Syrian, and history of philosophy.

After he had several employments as a rabbi, among them rabbi of Schrimm (now Srem) near Posen/ Poznan (Poland), he became District Rabbi in Bad Kissingen in November 1902. He was married to Nannette Bamberger (the daughter of his uncle Dr. Moses Löb Bamberger who had been the rabbi of Bad Kissingen till 1899), with whom he had seven children. In Bad Kissingen, the Bambergers lived in Promenadestrasse, very close to the Jewish community centre and the synagogue in “Villa Adelaïde”, which had been named after his Dr. Seckel Bamberger’s mother. Nannette ran a boardinghouse there which was very much appreciated in orthodox circles.

Dr. Seckel Bamberger was regarded as one of the most orthodox and learned rabbis of his era, whose fame reached much further than the area of Bad Kissingen. His social engagement was exemplary as well: In 1905, the Israelite Children’s Hospital in Salinenstrasse was opened on his initiative, which offered four weeks of cure-treatment to ill children from Jewish families as well as from poor Christian families. And in 1927 he founded an “Israelite Sanatorium” for adults. Due to the strictly orthodox orientation there were also internal disputes with the liberal majority in the Jewish community of the town, for example, with the Chevra Kadisha (the funeral and charity society of the community) and the teacher and cantor Ludwig Steinberger. Dr. Seckel Bamberger continued teaching Israelite Religious Education at Realschule Bad Kissingen even after his 65^th birthday. In July 1932, he was forced to retire against his will after 30 years in his profession. But he couldn’t enjoy his retirement for a long time.

He died in 1934 at the age of 71 and was buried on November 26 on the Jewish cemetery of Bad Kissingen with a lot of people participating.

(Hans-Jürgen Beck: Kissingen war unsere Heimat, p. 421 ff)