On April 26, 1812, the ten members of the Committee of Separation signed a handwritten document. It would be immediately designated simply as the “Act of Separation.” The Committee of Separation was composed equally of members of the Altona and Hamburg Jewish congregations. Certainly, they had come to an agreement, but under the pressure of changed constitutional conditions.

The Act is among the earliest longer documents of the Jewish congregations in the Hamburg region. It is composed in the German language and in Latin script. In form and content it deals with contractual negotiations, essentially concerning financial assets. The contents of the Act of Separation were published in excerpts by Moses M. Haarbleicher, to whom posterity owes its knowledge of the essential paragraphs of the document (see M[oses] M. Haarbleicher, Aus der Geschichte der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde in Hamburg [From the History of the German-Israelite Congregation in Hamburg], 2nd ed., Hamburg 1886, p. 81). The complete text, with related relevant documents, is preserved in the Hamburg State Archive, Sign. STAHH Jüdische Gemeinden 112 Separations-Contract der Altonaer Gemeinde d. d. April 26, 1812.