Born in Munich in 1913 as Fritz Rosenthal and died in Jerusalem in 1999 with the name Schalom Ben Chorin, he always remained connected to his native city in his heart. „At some point, I had to make the decision to let go,“ explains Avital Ben Chorin, his wife, who still lives in Jerusalem, referring to the decision to send her husband’s study, a room including his desk, books and photos, to Munich. The estate of the Jewish philosopher of religion, author and one of the most important peacemakers between Jews and Christians, is now located on the third floor of Munich's municipal archive: as a cultural meeting place and final home.

Therefore, that which was always spiritually at home here is now a reality “in the land between the Jordan and Isar rivers”, as he himself called Munich. As early as 1956 he returned for the first time to the city of his young years, which he left in 1935 after SA men beat him up in broad daylight. Schalom Ben Chorin was a guest professor in Munich and Tübingen, the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Protestant Theology at Ludwig-Maximilian University, as well as an honorary member of the Jewish religious community and Munich’s liberal Jewish community Beth Shalom.