The August Lamey Lodge of the Jewish order B'nai B'rith ("Sons of the Covenant") was founded in Mannheim in 1896. Jewish citizens of Mannheim's middle class founded the charitable organization with the help of Frankfurt and Heidelberg lodge brothers.

Under the presidency of Rabbi Leo Baeck, the German B'nai B'rith comprised more than 100 individual lodges and their sister associations.

Under the umbrella of the August Lamey Lodge in Mannheim, personalities as diverse as the publisher Julius Bensheimer, the rabbi Gustav Oppenheim, the doctor and Zionist Julius Moses, the women's rights activists Alice Bensheimer and Julie Bassermann and the sociologist Else Bodenheimer-Biram became involved.

Guided by the basic values of the order - charity, brotherhood and harmony - and to the exclusion of political or religious differences, they founded and supported projects for the social, spiritual and economic well-being of Jews in Mannheim - and far beyond.

The house of the August Lamey Lodge at the address C 4, 12 (rear row of houses, in the middle) on Zeughausplatz (today: Toulonplatz), 1916 (MARCHIVUM KF019786)

The lodge house at the address C 4, 12 was a popular venue for events. In 1937, the work of the order came to a violent end due to the Nazi ban. The brothers and sisters were deported or driven into exile, their services to Mannheim's urban society were destroyed and are often forgotten today.