Monday, 4 Tamus 5659 / 12 June 1899 at 09:25, Berlin C2, Gipsstraße 12a: On the passing of Rabbi Dr. Esriel Hildesheimer זצוק”ל , head of the Jewish Congregation Adass Yisroel Berlin, founder and first rector of the Rabbinical Seminary Berlin, “Die Jüdische Presse” reported on 22 June 1899 from the funeral service in the Adass Yisroel Synagogue:
(…) Rabbi Professor Abraham Berliner was the first to enter the pulpit, first to recite Psalm XVI and then to dedicate words of obituary to the departed leader on behalf of the administration of the IsJewish Community Adass Yisroel.
Rabbi Dr. Selig Aviezri Auerbach from Halberstadt conveyed the sentiments of the College of Lecturers and the thanks of the Board of Trustees of the Rabbinical Seminary.
The thanks of the Rabbinate and the societies of Adass Yisroel were recited with moving words by Rabbinate Assessor Dr. Eduard Chaim Biberfeld, who also intoned the El mole rachamim prayer in front of the open holy ark. Then the bier was carried out of the synagogue by the mourning cortege to the hearse and the immense procession began to move. The carriage was preceded by the students of the highest classes of the religious school, then by the students of the Rabbinical Seminary; the mourners were joined first by the rabbis and the community representatives and then by almost two thousand people, most of whom, despite the pouring rain, made the almost two-hour journey on foot. In almost all the streets through which the procession moved, the car traffic came to a standstill and groups of men and women surrounded the trottoirs; in Gipsstrasse the shops were closed. (…)