”Aryanization” in Leipzig.
Driven out. Robbed. Murdered.
Dr. Monika Gibas, Dr. Cornelia Briel, Petra Knöller, Steffen Held
© of the German text by the authors
© of the English translation by Cynthia Dyre Moellenhoff
Touring Exhibition
The touring exhibition is generously supported by
the German Federal Cultural Foundation,
the Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future”
in conjunction with
the International Council of Museums, Germany,
the Minister of State for Culture and the Media,
pursuant to a resolution of the German Bundestag,
the Leipzig Community Foundation and
the Foundation for German-Polish Cooperation.
1
“Aryanization” in Leipzig. Driven out. Robbed. Murdered.
Based on research focusing on specific aspects of “Aryanization” in Leipzig, this exhibition shows how,
from 1933 to 1945, Jews living in Leipzig were systematically driven out of the cultural and economic life
of the city and how they were deprived of their possessions and forced to emigrate. Every Jew in Leipzig
who was unable to flee the country was eventually murdered in a Nazi concentration camp.
This exhibition attempts to take a close look at this disturbing piece of Leipzig’s history. It shows that
this plunder took place in full view of the public eye, with the full knowledge of the community.
Anyone could have seen what was happening: the customers of the Joske Department Store and the Heine
Introduction
Cloth Factory, the employees of the music publisher C. F. Peters or anyone whose neighbors happened to be
“Aryanization” – this was the term used by the National Socialists (Nazis) to describe the systematic cul-
ing executioners, beneficiaries or observers. Bureaucrats issued the orders, former colleagues took over
tural and economic repression and deprivation of that portion of the population labeled “Jews”, who were
persecuted under Nazi rule during the years from 1933 to 1945.
This expropriation of property, which, according to Nazi propaganda, was intended to lead to a “De-Jewification” of the German economy, began immediately following the completely legalized rise to power of
Hitler and his party. In the early months of 1933, the National Socialists called for a nationwide boycott:
“Don’t buy from Jews; shop at German stores!”
This was the prelude to one of the most egregious plunders in modern history, one that would play out
in Germany and, eventually, in all of Europe for the next twelve years. In 1933, even in Leipzig, which was
well-known as Saxony’s trade fair and publishing metropolis, the windows and facades of Jewish shops,
among them, the Joske Department Store on Karl-Heine Street, were smeared with anti-Semitic slogans.
Storm troopers blocked the entrance to shops and attempted to intimidate customers.
Under the “Aryan Clause” of 1933 and the notorious Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935, Jews were classified
as “racially inferior” and labelled “the ruination of the German population”. Excluding them from the
general populace was now openly declared to be the most important goal of the Nazi dictatorship. In the
ensuing years, through the practice of banning them from certain professions, through racially biased
taxation and economic policies, extortion and the confiscation of property, the Nazi regime systematically
destroyed the basic civil rights of Jews. This segment of the population, among whom some were driven to
emigrate, some forced into “Judenhäuser”, and some of whom eventually ended up in ghettos and concentration camps, was robbed by the German Reich and by local authorities of its last remaining belongings.
The policy promoted by the National Socialists for the “Aryanization” of German society meant more
than just the destruction of a segment of the population which, since the mid-1800s, had played an increasingly important role in the development of German culture and economy. The implementation of
this racist policy was characterized, above all, by the vast transfer of Jewish companies and institutions
into “Aryan” hands committed by the Nazi Regime, along with the change of ownership or liquidation of
numerous medical practices, lawyers’ offices, antique shops, art galleries, banks, department stores and
factories. In the end, the methodical confiscation of property took everything of value or which could be
assigned a value: houses, land, even synagogues and Jewish cemeteries, along with books, stamp collections,
Jewish. Numerous Leipzig residents were directly or indirectly involved – whether as bureaucrats or willthe professorships or firms of the dispossessed, neighbors watched the proceedings. Among the bidders at
the auctions held by the Klemm Auction House in Leipzig were municipal organizations like libraries and
museums, along with private individuals, who purchased works of art or other household belongings
which had been the property of Jews. In so doing, they became participants in these infamous events.
Opening this darkest chapter in Leipzig’s history was not undertaken lightly, especially for those who
regard Leipzig as a cosmopolitan city of trade and culture. The Israeli diplomat Michael Elizur was asked,
during an interview in the 1980s, what one could make of all the inhumanities that took place during the
Nazi regime, “of a God who did not prevent Auschwitz from happening. ” 1
Michael Elizur, son of Jewish parents, born in Leipzig in 1921, who, in 1933, as a 12-year-old, had been forced
to emigrate to Palestine, leaving behind the place where he and his father before him had been born,
answered: “I have to say that I don’t consider myself competent to answer this question. I personally
cannot bring myself to make any sense of Auschwitz. If I may comment from a non-religious
perspective, then I would say that I believe that today it is the responsibility of every person to make
certain that these experiences remain a part of our active consciousness. Until all of this happened, it
might have been possible to say that people didn’t know what they were doing. That innocence is now
lost. Therefore, every person has to work to make his or her own society as humane and democratic as
possible, in order to preclude the possibility that it will ever again be possible for anyone to perpetrate
such crimes. Unfortunately, even after the war, terrible things happened again. Every person in his own
community – I, as a Jew in Israel, the Germans in Germany, the Americans in America – each of us bears a
responsibility and must do everything in his or her power to ensure that such events never happen again.
But we shouldn’t preach about it. Such sermons will never be effective. In this situation, critical self-analysis is not only the best, but the only prescription.”
In this exhibition, the topic of Leipzig’s “Aryanization” is presented to the general public for the first time.
It should be regarded as a mandate to preserve the memory of these occurrences and to make clear that a
democratic culture cannot be taken for granted, but, rather, always requires individuals who will actively
work to create and support a democratic and humane society.
jewellery and art objects of every kind, down to the last silver spoon. Everything was taken from the Jews
and ended up in auction houses or in the Nazi coffers, which soon became merely a war chest.
2
1 Herlinde Koelbl: Jüdische Portraits. Photographien und Interviews. Frankfurt a. M. 1989, S./p. 63-65.
3
1933
“Aryanization” in Leipzig. Driven out. Robbed. Murdered.
The Beginnings of
Racist Social Policy
On January 30, 1933, a presidential cabinet appointed Adolf Hitler to the post of Reich Chancellor, catapulting the Nazi Party’s “Führer” to the highest position of power in the Weimar Republic. Since the founding
of the National Soziaistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei – NSDAP (National Socialist German Worker’s Party,
commonly known as the Nazi Party) in 1920, its aims were well-known: the party publicly called for the
“purification of the German race” through a resolute battle against all Jews, Marxists and Republicans,
Anti-Semitic
Advertisement by
the Hammer
Publishing Company
along with the creation of a “German society” founded on racist criteria, and the “restoration of Germany’s
honor” by means of a war of revenge, which would also serve to “conquer new living space”.
The mainstay of National Socialist ideology was a militant anti-Semitism, which was not an innovation of
(In: The German Book
Trade and Judaism,
Leipzig, 1925)
Hitler and his Party, but had been a firm element of the political culture in Germany since the final years of
the Empire. From the beginning of the modernization crisis in the 1880’s, numerous nationalistic organi-
zations and associations had played a large role in voicing public expression of anti-Semitic resentment.
These sentiments gained strength in the aftermath of Germany’s defeat in World War I, which had left the
country at the brink of political and economic collapse.
By the end of the 1920s, Saxony was also weighed down by the enormous German economic crisis. The
November Revolution, remained largely a “republic without republicans”. Under the prevailing economic
ground for the rise of the NSDAP as the party of the masses. The effects were felt in Leipzig as well.
mitic sentiment gained further ground. This could be seen in Saxony as well, where, from 1900 until the
exerted enormous influence over the state government, which it pressured into making radical social
under the long period of structural crisis. In these areas, even in the early 1920s, supporters of nationalistic
apprehensive middle class, toward the Republic. Increasingly, more voices joined the call for a change in
This was seen as the sole solution to the existing economic crisis. The first NSDAP chapter to be established
class populace of Saxony, the anti-Republican and anti-Semitic Nazi movement rapidly found increasing
in Zwickau.
By the end of 1928, the Nazi Party in Saxony had 4600 members. In Leipzig, where, until the end of the
Reichstag elections in May 1924, a coalition consisting of the NSDAP and the German Völkisch Freedom
voters, the Hitler Party began to make headway. While in 1926 there were a mere three SA-Sturmabteilun-
Movement, whose membership largely belonged to the Socialist and Communist
May 3, 1929, as he appeared at a rally prior to the Landtag elections. Even so, the Nazis won only 5% of the
A decisive element to the NSDAP’s success in Leipzig was the trade and publishing
elections, they earned 14.4% of the vote, and in the Reichstag elections of July 1932, 41.2% of Saxons voted
anti-Semitic thinking. In February 1923, more than 50% of the members of the Leipzig
ties, splintered, had to content themselves with only 8.9% of the vote. On November 22, 1932, Germany’s
ing class. As was the case throughout Germany, many organizations, clubs and publish-
Chancellor. Hindenburg resigned and named Adolf Hitler as his successor.
and publisher, Theodor Fritsch (1852–1933), head of the Hammer Publishing House in
and fervent anti-Semite. Within a very short time, Hitler supporters held key positions in German politics
publishing house was entirely devoted to racist propaganda, making this “cham-
had unsuccessfully attempted to remove the “unpopular Republic” through force, was able to take power
of a genetic and national community derived from the word volk) the intellectual
democratic means.
Germany’s first democratic government, the Weimar Republic, established in the wake of the 1918
Presidential Cabinet’s reaction to the crisis had been a policy of social indifference, which provided fertile
inflation and political tension, where violent conflict was becoming more and more common, anti-Se-
Here, the strongly anti-union Society of Saxon Industrialists (VSI), led by Wilhelm Wittke (1884–1943)
1930s, entire regions, such as the textile-industry dependent Vogtland and Erzgebirge districts, suffered
cutbacks that would benefit employers. This fueled the hatred of not only the working class, but also the
ideology called for the expulsion of Jews from economic life and for the creation of an “Aryan economy”.
acceptance.
The NSDAP established a Leipzig chapter in 1922 and, by 1923, had about 210 members. As early as the
Weimar Republic the Social Democrats and Communists had been able to count on the largest number of
Party won 7.9% of the votes. However, Leipzig was a stronghold for the Worker’s
gen (Storm Trooper units), by 1929 there were already 600. Thousands turned out to see Adolf Hitler on
Parties, and which therefore represented a formidable opponent to the Nazi Party.
vote that year in Saxony and took only 5 seats in the state parliament. One year later, in the 1930 Landtag
city’s bourgeois middle class, which had been strongly influenced by anti-Republican,
for Hitler and his party. Even in “red Saxony”, the Nazis had become the strongest party. The other par-
chapter of the NSDAP came from the middle class, while only 33% came from the work-
industrial and agricultural leaders successfully petitioned Reich President Hindenburg to appoint Hitler
ing houses which promulgated this ideology became established in Leipzig. The author
Consequently, as of January 30, 1933, the country’s highest political office was held by an avowed racist
Leipzig, had served since the 1880s as a tireless promoter of anti-Semitic propaganda. His
and would begin establishing anti-Semitism as a cornerstone of public policy. Hitler’s party, which in 1923
pion of the völkische movement” (the German term ‘völkisch’ stands for a concept
in January 1933, only a few months after the 1932 Reichstag elections, not through a coup, but by legal and
trailblazer for the aggressive concept of “anti-Semitism in action.” The 29 edition of his
In the Reichstag elections of March 5, 1933, the National Socialists won 44.1% of the vote, dashing their
appeared in 1923 and, according to Hitler, was a major contributing factor to the establish-
nullification of 81 Communist Party seats on March 8, 1933, that the NSDAP held the absolute majority. On
supported the rise of the NSDAP and were among its first active protagonists. Among
ers), to the post of Police Commissioner for the Free State of Saxony. On March 10, 1933, Saxony’s Minister-
served as Saxony’s Gauleiter and who was a fanatic anti-Semite.
series of NSDAP party leaders who would go on to hold positions in Saxony’s government.
Theodor Fritsch,
Handbook of the Jewish Question,
Hammer Publishing Company, Leipzig,
1923
4
(Saxon Workers’
Newspaper,
Leipzig, July 8, 1932)
the distribution of political power and for a new Ordnungsmacht. Particularly within the large middle
outside of Bavaria, which was known as the cradle of National Socialism, came into being on October 1921
th
Newspaper article
about death threats
against Jewish
businessmen, July
anti-Semitic pamphlet “Handbuch der Judenfrage” (Handbook of the Jewish Question)
hopes for an absolute majority in the Parliament. They won only 288 of 647 seats. It was only after the
ment of “the National Socialist anti-Semitic movement”. Entrepreneurs in Saxony also
that very day, Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler named Manfred von Killinger, leader of the SA (Storm Troop-
them was Martin Mutschmann (1879–1947), a textile merchant from Plauen, who later
President Walther Schieck resigned and von Killinger became Reichskommissar, becoming the first in a
5
1933
“Aryanization” in Leipzig. Driven out. Robbed. Murdered.
Architect of Anti-Semitism:
Theodor Fritsch
1933
“Aryanization” in Leipzig. Driven out. Robbed. Murdered.
Scientist Dedicated to National Socialist Doctrine:
Otto Reche
Theodor Fritsch, whose father was an agriculturist, was born in Wiesenena (Delitzsch
Otto Reche, ca. 1938
(University of Leipzig Archives)
district) on October 28, 1852. After his schooling, Fritsch absolved an apprenticeship in machine design and attended the Vocational Institute in Halle (Saale), after which he studied at
the Technical University of Berlin. Fritsch aspired to self-employment, and in the late 1870s
he settled in Leipzig, where he opened a mill machinery business. Along with his business
activities, he became active in industry association politics and with journalistic endeavors.
Fritsch founded the German Association of Millers and later published the technical
journal, “Der deutsche Müller” (The German Miller). His involvement in the millers’
association sparked his concern for problems faced by small and medium-sized businesses in
Germany. During the crisis years of the German Empire around 1900, Fritsch became one of the
founding members of the Deutsche Mittelstandsvereinigung (German Alliance of Small and
Theodor Fritsch
undated
(Neue Leipziger
Tageszeitung,
[daily newspaper],
September 8, 1943)
Medium-Sized Businesses), whose purpose was to represent the interests of existing and new businesses,
Otto Reche was born on May 24, 1871 in the town of Glatz
By the end of the 1870s, Fritsch had become a radical anti-Semite and an advocate of politically-sanctioned
the oldest son of pharmacist Paul Reche. He studied zoology,
anti-Semitism. He blamed the Jews for the economic difficulties being suffered by small and mediumsized
businesses. In November 1905, Fritsch became chairman of the Mittelstandsvereinigung (Alliance of Small
comparative anatomy and anthropology in Jena, Berlin and
Breslau (Wroclaw), where he was awarded his doctorate in
and Medium-Sized Businesses) of the Kingdom of Saxony. Fritsch was a Freiheitspartei (Freedom Party)
December 1904. In 1906, he began working for the Museum für Völkerkunde (Museum of Ethnology)
of the first Germans to draft plans for a utopian “Garden City”.
return, he accepted a position as lecturer at the Hamburg Colonial Institute and was awarded tenure in his
representative to the Reichstag. He was motivated by strong populist-socialistic convictions, and was one
Fritsch viewed social democracy as an arch political threat, and viewed its rise to be the direct result of a
Jewish-funded subversive movement. He continually intensified his efforts against this perceived Jewish
threat. In 1880, he founded the Hammer Publishing House in Leipzig and, under the pseudonym “Thomas
Frey”, sporadically published anti-Semitic leaflets. In 1885, he began publishing anti-Semitic correspond-
ence. Fritsch became increasingly well-known as a writer and publisher, and expanded his anti-Semitic
activities within the professional associations to which he belonged. He became head of the German
Reform Party and, in 1886, founded the German Anti-Semitic Alliance. In 1887, he published a book under
the title “Antisemiten-Katechismus” (The Anti-Semitic Catechism). This publication, which, in 1907 was renamed The Handbook of the Jewish Question became the standard reference for the Völkische Bewegung
(the nationalist right wing) during the German Empire. When the Antisemitische Deutschsoziale Partei –
in Hamburg. From June 1908 to September 1909, Reche took part in a South-Sea expedition. Upon his
position at the Museum für Völkerkunde. Reche married and his first daughter was born.
In World War I, Reche served from 1915–1917 as an officer at the eastern front. In 1919, Reche was promoted
to professor at the Hamburg University of Anthropology and Ethnology. In 1924, he was called to a full
professorship in ethnology at the University of Vienna. In June 1927, Reche accepted a position as chair of
the Ethnology Department at the University of Leipzig. Reche was a proponent of biological anthropology.
In Leipzig, he was head of the Ethnological-Anthropological Institute, which was renamed in November
1933 to the “Institute for Ethnology and Race Studies”. Reche’s research in blood-typing led to the discovery
of florescence in the blood serum of sick persons. He played a major role in the rationale and development
of racial-biological Abstammungsgutachten (proof of lineage). During the Nazi Regime, genetic and racial
testing were primary tools in enforcing the Party’s racial policies. Reche himself also carried out such tests.
DSP (Anti-Semitic German-Socialist Party) came into being in 1891, Fritsch was among its founding mem-
Until 1933, Reche served as chairman of the Leipzig chapter of the Gesellschaft für Rassenhygiene (Society
a parcel of land in Gautzsch, known today as Markkleeberg-West.
in Reche’s writings. He considered Jews to be a separate race. However, the new political circumstances
bers. A few years later, he withdrew from the anti-Semitic political movement. In 1900, Fritsch purchased
Fritsch conceived the idea for a new anti-democratic journal, which would scrutinize the many subver-
sive emancipatory movements of the day. In 1902, he published “Hammer. Blätter für deutschen Sinn,” an
anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic, anti-freemason magazine. In 1912, he founded the Reichshammerbund
(National Hammer League), with which he hoped to usher in a new era of non-partisan anti-Semitism.
His anti-Semitic tirades landed Fritsch in court on more than one occasion, but he generally got away with
only a light sentence.
Fritsch died on September 8, 1933 in Gautzsch. The National Socialists named him the “Architect of AntiSemitism” and saw him as an important contributor to Nazi doctrine.
His funeral on September 12, 1933 had all the trappings of a state funeral and was staged as a major
propaganda event by the new power-holders. His burial was attended by NSDAP Gauleiter und Saxon
Reichsstatthalter Martin Mutschmann, Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick, Leipzig NSDAP
Kreisleiter Walter Dönicke and the National-Socialist Protestant bishop, Friedrich Coch.
6
(Polish: Kłodzko) in the province of Niederschlesien. He was
along with those of diverse segments of the economy, from small retailers to large landlords.
for Racial Hygiene). Prior to the time of the Nazi takeover, remarks regarding Jews were rarely to be found
that came into existence in 1933 led to a change in his public manner. Reche, now a public anti-Semite,
played an active role in the ostracism of Jews. On his 55th birthday, the National-Socialist newspaper,
Leipziger Tageszeitung, featured an article about him, calling him “an architect of northern racial theory”.
Reche joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1937.
In his 1938 work: “Verbreitung der Menschenrassen. Kleine Rassenkunde” (The Spread of the Races of Man-
kind. A Brief Racial Study), a wall chart with accompanying text, Reche exploited all of the familiar antiJewish stereotypes. This work was used for classroom instruction during the Nazi Regime.
Following the collapse of the Nazi dictatorship, Reche was labelled a “politically implicated professor” by
the University of Leipzig. He went to Hamburg, where, after undergoing a denazification procedure, he
was exonerated (Category 5). In 1953, Reche moved with his second wife to Schmalenbek (near Ahrens-
burg). Reche was contracted to perform anthropological-genetic paternity tests and he also continued to
publish his writings. He died on March 23, 1966 in Großhandsdorf, near Hamburg.
7
1933
“Aryanization” in Leipzig. Driven out. Robbed. Murdered.
Call to boycott in 1933:
“We will fight until Juda
capitulates!”
The Boycott of April 1, 1933:
The First Step toward the Exclusion of Jews
from Public Life in Leipzig
(Leipziger Tageszeitung
[daily newspaper],
April 1–2, 1933, p. 1)
Poster:
“Avoid all Jewish
shops! Only buy
from Germans!”
Leipzig, 1933
(German Historical
Museum, Berlin)
“The time has come. On Saturday morning at 10:00, our boycott of
all Jewish businesses will begin. On Friday, March 31, City Councilor
Rudolf Haake will give a public address in the Zoo’s Festival Hall
regarding these defense measures.”
Advertising pillar
with poster
announcing the
public address by
Rudolf Haake in the
Zoo’s Festival Hall,
Gießer Street, Leipzig,
1933
(ullstein-bild)
Defamation of Jewish
fur traders who carry
signs on Brühl (Street)
in central Leipzig that
read: “Don‘t buy from
Jews, shop at German
stores!” 3rd from left is
Chaim Bleiweiss,
1933
The huge poster on an advertising pillar on Giesserstrasse was too big to overlook, and it was not the
only method used in Leipzig to alert people to the anti-Semitic boycott to be held on April 1. On March
29, 1933, the daily Leipziger Tageszeitung ran the headline: “Jews, Be Warned!” In the days following the
Reichstag elections on March 5, 1933, several “spontaneous” boycotts had taken place in other cities and
towns. The SA (Storm troopers), members of the NSDAP and Hitler Youth posted groups of bouncers in
front of Jewish businesses and shops, waving signs which read: “Don’t buy from Jews, shop at German
(United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum,
Washington D. C.)
stores!” They smeared anti-Jewish sayings on shop windows and building walls and prevented would-be
customers from entering. Violence often erupted. Jewish business owners were mistreated, incarcerated
and extorted.
At first, the Nazi Party leaders sanctimoniously denounced these “isolated incidents” carried out by their
local branches. A decree issued by the Reich Interior Ministry on March 13, 1933 warned against threatening shop owners or forcing shops to close. Three days earlier, on March 10, Hitler had already claimed in
the official party newspaper, the Völkische Beobachter, that communist spies had instigated the violence.
He told his followers that the nation’s “rise to exaltation” was to be a systematic process directed by top
leadership and called for restraint in carrying out national socialistic goals.
The NSDAP leadership’s vision of this “systematic process” was made demonstrably clear only a few weeks
later. On March 31st, the “Central Committee for Defense against Jewish Atrocity and Boycott Propaganda“,
led by Julius Schleicher, published an appeal in the Völkische Beobachter, calling for a nationwide antiJewish boycott to take place, beginning at 10 am on April 1, 1933. It said:
“Millions of Germans have awaited this day with longing, when the German people will be awakened
in their entirety to the realization that the Jews are their enemy. Alljuda wanted this battle and it shall
have it! It shall have it for as long as it takes for it to realize that the Germany of brown battalions is
not a Germany of cowardice and surrender. Alljuda shall have the battle until victory is ours! National
Socialists! Defeat the enemy! Even if the world were full of demons, we must prevail!”
In Leipzig, too, on that Saturday, Jewish businesses, shops, doctor’s offices and law practices were ravaged
Small poster: “Jews unwanted,” 1933
(German Historical Museum, Berlin)
and their owners harassed. The 1933 April Boycott was the beginning of the racist anti-Semitic public
policy that would be carried out openly by the Nazi regime in the ensuing years, the goal of which was
the creation of a “pure German race”.
Held Brothers Department Store
in the Leipzig-Lindenau quarter
during the boycott on April 1, 1933
(Leipzig City History Museum)
8
9
1933
“Aryanization” in Leipzig. Driven out. Robbed. Murdered.
Boycotted and “Aryanized”:
The Example of the M. Joske & Co. Department Store
and the Marcus Harmelin Fur and Bristle Company
In 1904, businessman Michaelis-Max Joske opened a department store at 43 Karl-Heine-Street, in Leipzig’s
M. Joske & Co. Department
Store, 43–45 Karl Heine Street,
during the boycott on April 1,
1933
western Plagwitz district. The store was named M. Joske & Co. and was operated as a general partnership.
It was the first department store in Plagwitz. During the following two decades, the store was expanded
through reconstruction and the purchase of additional property. In 1924, Michaelis-Max Joske resigned
(Leipzig City History Museum)
from the company. He died in Leipzig on May 10, 1933, at the age of 74. His sons, Julius and Hans Joske had
become the new partners and had been managing the company since 1924. Beginning in the late 1920s,
the department store’s spacious entry area had become a popular gathering place for SA men (storm
troopers). The shop windows had been broken on more than one occasion.
On April 1, 1933, the day of the national boycott of Jewish businesses, doctor’s practices and law offices,
Hans and Julius Joske were ordered to stand at the entrance to their department store, where they were
taunted and humiliated by boycotters and passers-by. This scene served as a deterrent to the store’s
customers, most of whom were not Jewish. Many of the store’s customers of long standing stopped
shopping there and there were no new customers to replace them. The financial loss threatened the
establishment’s future. In September 1933, legal proceedings successfully kept the firm from insolvency.
The store’s fate was sealed fourteen months later, however, when, on November 8, 1934, Julius Joske filed
for bankruptcy. The company was liquidated, and in 1939 the property was sold at a forced auction.
Marcus Harmelin Company,
47 Brühl (Street): small forecourt
with staircase leading to the
business offices, entrance to the
storerooms (From: Marcus Harmelin
Childhood photo of Ruth Joske (1st row, 4th
from left), daughter of Hans Joske. First day of
school at Elementary School 47, Leipzig, ca. 1934
(Öhmigen Private Collection, Leipzig)
Fur and BristleCommission of Leipzig
1830–1930. On 100 Years of Existence,
by Wilhelm Harmelin, Leipzig 1930)
The Harmelin family was originally from Brody, a trade and manufacturing hub in Galicia.
The first family members to settle in Leipzig came to the city in 1818. In 1830, businessman
Max Harmelin,
ca. 1930
(From: Marcus Harmelin
Fur and Bristle
Commission of Leipzig
1830–1930. On 100 Years
of Existence, by Wilhelm
Harmelin, Leipzig 1930)
Wilhelm Harmelin,
ca. 1937
(Saxon State Archives, Leipzig)
Marcus Harmelin established a fur and bristle trade, which became a great financial success. In 1905, a
shop was opened in the prestigious building at 47 Brühl, and, before 1914, a store was built at 57/59 Nikolai
Street. Following World War I, Max Harmelin and Josef Garfunkel became partners in the firm.
After the Nazi takeover, business quickly declined at the Marcus Harmelin Company, which was owned at
that time by Max Harmelin. In early 1933, the Saxon Minister of Justice banned attorney Wilhelm Harme-
lin, Max Harmelin’s brother, from practicing law. Wilhelm then became a partner in his brother’s firm.
In August 1935, he was accused of committing Rassenschande (racial defilement) and sent to the
Sachsenberg concentration camp near Chemnitz. He was released after nine months. During the time
of his incarceration, the company was hit hard economically. Import restrictions on pelts and bristles
brought trade to a veritable standstill. As a consequence, the firm was almost completely dependent on its
property management and leasing business. Max Harmelin emigrated to England, where he ran a fur
trade in London. In March 1939, Wilhelm Harmelin, who was then managing partner of Ostrabor Ltd.
London, was also permitted to travel to England. Before his departure, Leipzig’s Chief Finance President
demanded a security order for Harmelin’s assets, which were then confiscated by the Reich Treasury.
10
Occupational ban against
Wilhelm Harmelin practicing law, 1933
(Saxon State Archives, Dresden)
Document on the imprisonment of Wilhelm Harmelin
in the Sachsenburg Concentration Camp, August 28, 1935
(Private Collection of Rosemary Preiskel Harmelin)
11
1935
“Aryanization” in Leipzig. Driven out. Robbed. Murdered.
The Expansion and Institutionalization
of Anti-Jewish Policy
After the boycotts and acts of violence of March and April 1933, which were primarily carried out at
the local level and which targeted Jewish businessmen, doctors and lawyers, a new phase of legalized
anti-Semitism began. In their aftermath, what had merely been anti-Semitic policy began to be made law.
In the months and years that followed, Reich and State governments enacted numerous laws and regula-
tions which provided for the official exclusion of Jews from public life in Germany. This phase began on
April 7, 1933 with the “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service” and its “Aryan paragraph”,
which prevented Jews from holding positions as civil servants. Jewish teachers and scientists were forced
into premature retirement; government and state employees were pressured to leave their jobs.
The exclusion of Jewish entrepreneurs from economic activities was also begun shortly after the 1933
boycotts. The Retail Trade Law of May 12, 1933 was designed to prevent Jews who had been forced out of
their positions in government offices, schools and universities from seeking new jobs in the economic
sector. However, in contrast to the civil service, in commerce there initially were no legal regulations regarding “Entjudung” (“De-Jewification”). The consolidation of the economy was not to be unnecessarily
disrupted, since public acceptance of the new power structure was clearly dependent on an immediate eco-
nomic upswing. In addition, a strong economy was essential to the NSDAP’s planned battle of vengeance.
For these reasons, the National Socialist leadership did not initially envisage the immediate and radical
“Entjudung” of the economic sector, a concept which had been promoted by the NSDAP and other nationalistic and conservative organizations for decades. Instead, the initiative for the expulsion of Jews
from the economic sector came from the combative grass-roots membership of the NSDAP as well as from
The Nuremberg Laws
(Reich Law Gazette I, 1935, p. 1146)
Excerpt from a list of “Aryan” shops and craftsmen:
hairdressers’ shops to pastry shops
(Leipziger Tageszeitung [daily newspaper], October 9, 1935, p. 10)
“Aryan” business competitors. Among the early protagonists for the “Aryanization” of the economy was the
Arbeitsgemeinschaft deutsch-arischer Fabrikanten der Bekleidungsindustrie e. V. – ADEFA (“The Consortium of
German-Aryan Clothing Industry Manufactures”), which was founded in 1933. The ADEFA ran a large cam-
paign in the Leipzig newspapers, promoting “Aryan businesses” and “goods produced by Aryan hands”.
Additionally, lists were compiled to aid consumers in identifying “Aryan” businesses. On October 9, 1935,
the Leipziger Tageszeitung published a list of “Aryan” shops and tradesmen. With the enactment of the
Nuremberg Racial Laws in Autumn 1935, a new phase of National Socialist anti-Jewish policy was begun.
Although this set of laws did not contain any official regulations regarding Jewish economic activity, it
legally relegated the Jews to the status of an in-
ferior race and designated them a “threat” to the
“deutsche Volksgemeinschaft” (“pure German
race”). It subsequently led to a growing practice
of discrimination and exclusion of Jews from
the economic sector. Even in the early years of
the Nazi regime, governmental harassment, denunciation and hostility, along with measures
designed to hinder trade, drove many Jews
into exile. As a result, as early as 1936, over
100 Leipzig tobacco shops were liquidated or
“aryanized”.
Advertisement for the ADEFA: The Consortium of
German-Aryan Clothing Industry Manufacturers
(Leipziger Neueste Nachrichten [daily newspaper],
November 11, 1938)
12
13
1935
“Aryanization” in Leipzig. Driven out. Robbed. Murdered.
Employees of the
Sonder & Co. Textile Store on a
company excursion,
October 1933
Criminalized and “Aryanized”:
The Example of the Sonder & Co. Textile Store
(Private Collection of Ellen Leikind,
Great Neck, New York)
In early 1928, Jewish merchant Arthur Sonder, together with a business partner, opened a large emporium
at 16 Peters Street, where he sold silk, wool and cotton fabrics, as well as curtains and rugs.
Born on May 27, 1886 in the Thuringian town of Stadtlengsfeld, Sonder attended elementary school and
then received private tutoring. Following a business apprenticeship at a textile and manufactured goods
factory in Eisenach, he studied at the Eisenach College of Trade. He then worked as procurer and depart-
ment manager for textile wholesale firms in several German cities. In 1910, he founded Sonder & Co.
Textile Store in Gelsenkirchen. Arthur Sonder married Fridel Engel and the couple had two daughters, Lore
and Ellen.
In Leipzig, Sonder ran a thriving business. Even in the wake of the world financial crisis of the early 1930s
and the boycotts and hardships imposed on Jewish enterprises by the Nazi Regime, Sonder managed to
maintain profits. The firm’s reputation for high quality and low prices had earned it a large and loyal
customer base, made up not only of Jews, but also non-Jews.
The effects of the boycott of Jewish shops soon made themselves felt at the Sonder & Co. Textile Store. In
1933, Arthur Sonder found himself the sole proprietor when his partner, Bernhard Wartensleben, pulled
out of the business.
Early in 1935, after the company held a sale of fabric remnants at reduced prices, it became the target of
planned attacks. These attacks were carried out by the National Socialistic Trade and Industry Organization (NS-Hago), whose goal was to have the company conveyed into “Aryan” hands.
Since Sonder was unwilling to agree to the sale of his company, allegations were raised regarding his
business practices. It didn’t take long to find a public prosecutor who would file complaints of unfair compe-
tition and violation of the trade competition law. A judge who would act just as quickly was also found and,
on July 25, 1935, he pronounced an unjustifiably severe verdict on a case that, at the most, should have
amounted to a misdemeanour. The Leipzig Association of Retail Traders was listed as a joint plaintiff, and
expert testimony was provided by a twenty-two year old employee from the Theodor Althoff Department
Store. Arthur Sonder was ordered to either pay a fine of 30,000 Reichsmarks or serve a jail sentence of five
months. This verdict inevitably led to the forced sale of his company, the details of which were agreed upon by the leader of the
NS-Hago and the deputy district director of the Deutsche Arbeitsfront – DAF (German Labour Front), along with a representative of
the Kreishauptmannschaft (district administrative authority). The
company was purchased by Berlin businessman Curt Hentschel,
who had been brought into the transaction by lawyers working for
Salamander AG, the owners of the property at 16 Peters Street.
In 1936, Arthur Sonder emigrated with his family to England,
where he took over a small London business. In March 1938, the
Sonders were denaturalized, robbing them of their German
Arthur Sonder, ca. 1938
(Private Collection of Ellen Leikind,
Great Neck, New York.
Photo: Ernst Hoenisch)
Inscription by the
Sonder & Co. Textile Firm
employees: “To our dear boss
Mr. Arthur Sonder and his wife
as a ‘small’ remembrance of the
‘big’ trip on the 31st of October,
1933. From the thankful participants!”
(Private Collection of Ellen Leikind,
Great Neck, New York)
Fridel Sonder, née Engel,
with daughters Lore and Ellen
Sonder, ca. 1935 (Private Collection of
Ellen Leikind, Great Neck, New York.
Photo: Ernst Hoenisch)
Advertisement for the
Sonder & Co. Textile Firm,
16 Peters Street, March 1934
(Neue Leipziger Zeitung [daily
newpaper], March 8, 1934, p. 6)
Advertisement for the
Hentschel Department Store,
16 Peters Street, March 1937
(Leipziger Neueste Nachrichten
[daily newspaper], March 21,1937, p. 12)
citizenship. This permitted the confiscation of all of the belongings and assets that they had had to leave behind in Germany.
16 Peters Street, Leipzig,
ca. 1935
(Leipzig City Archives)
14
15
1935
Mayor Rudolf Haake
“Aryanization” in Leipzig. Driven out. Robbed. Murdered.
Rudolf Haake, son of a Leipzig businessman, was born on Oct. 17, 1903. He completed
The Municipal Government of Leipzig
under the Nazi Regime
studies in trade and worked until the end of 1924 as a warehouse clerk. In 1928–29, he attended
courses at Leipzig’s Handelshochschule (College of Business). In 1922, Haake became a member
of the NSDAP. He played a large part in the development of the Hitler Youth organization in
Leipzig. In 1926, Haake moved to Kelbra/Kyffhäuser, where he worked in his father’s company.
He founded a local branch of the NSDAP in Kelbra and was leader of the Kyffhäauser district
office. In 1928, he returned to Leipzig. In 1930, by then a local Party Business Manager for
the NSDAP in Leipzig, he moved into City Hall as a City Councilor. He became the regional
During the Nazi regime, municipal governments were the local interface for the implementation of
director for municipal policy. From June 1931 until March 1932, Haake was editor of “Der Frei-
national socialist policies. Beginning in spring 1933, municipalities began to develop entire catalogues
heitskampf” (The Battle for Freedom), the publicity organ of the Saxon NSDAP.
by many years the directives issued by the Reich. In Leipzig, the city’s anti-Jewish approach was agreed
published several brochures. On January 1, 1933, Haake became director of Leipzig’s munici-
of local measures designed to individually and collectively exclude Jews, sometimes actually preceding
He represented the Party with speeches at numerous events in and around Saxony and
upon by the NSDAP regional leadership, the regional administrative authority, the head revenue office
pal National Socialist faction. In mid-March, 1933, Walter Dönicke, the State Commissioner for
and the state police.
Special Service for the Leipzig administrative region, assigned Haake to the Leipzig municipal
The Reichstag elections of March 5, 1933 were the catalyst for a wave of suspensions and firings of Jewish
civil servants, employees and artists who were employed by the municipal government. Following the
local National Socialist takeover, streets were renamed, as were Jewish charitable foundations, which
were, in effect, “aryanized” through this renaming and the subsequent redirection of their financial
resources to municipal coffers. Jewish companies were prohibited from being awarded public contracts,
government in order “to protect the interests of the NSDAP”. In May 1933, the now likemind-
Mayor Rudolf Haake,
undated
(Leipzig City History
Museum)
and municipal lending institutions were prohibited from granting them business loans. Beginning
ed City Council elected him honorary Mayor. In 1934, he rose to the paid position of full-time mayor and
deputy to the Lord Mayor, Dr. Carl Goerdeler. During Goerdeler’s administration, Haake was responsible for
nearly all of the anti-Jewish measures enacted within the municipal government. After the resignations
of Goerdeler in 1936, and his successor, Walter Dönicke, in 1938, Haake took over the management of City
Hall until the appointment of Alfred Freyberg in 1939. At the end of 1941, he began to come into conflict
in 1938, Jewish tradesmen were no longer issued Wandergewerbescheine (trade licenses for traveling
with Lord Mayor Freyberg. In November 1942, Haake was suspended from service. After a forced retirement
salesmen) or Legitimationskarten (identity cards).
in April 1943, Haake moved with his wife and seven children to Kelbra. In 1944, he became Director of the
In August 1935, the municipal government issued a list of Jewish doctors and dentists in Leipzig and
Training and Education Department for the NSDAP eastern division’s Lithuanian regional administration.
circulated it to the populace with a call to visit only non-Jewish physicians. This was followed, in
When American soldiers arrived in Kelbra on April 12, 1945, Haake had barricaded himself in the City Hall.
early 1938, with the threat of professional sanctions for non-Jewish government employees who were
After a brief exchange of gunfire, he died of a bullet wound.
observed patronizing Jewish businesses. By the end of 1938, the city’s leaders had decided to ruthlessly
Lord Mayor Walter Dönicke
press the Jews into forced labor. In April 1940, Leipzig became the first major city in Germany to institute
compulsory labor for all Jews. Central decisions made later by the Reich government would be based on
Walter Dönicke, son of a foreman, was born in Eisenach on July 27, 1899. In 1902, the family
the Leipzig model.
moved to Leipzig and, in 1914, Dönicke began an apprenticeship as a cabinet maker. At the
In 1937, the city implemented the “Aryanization” of real estate and property for communal purposes.
end of his apprenticeship in 1917, he was drafted and, until the end of World War I, spent his
Following the outbreak of WWII, the city acquired numerous properties, including the Israelite Hospital,
days in the field. After his return to Leipzig, he worked as a cabinet maker in a large local fac-
two nursing homes and a child care center.
tory.Dönicke joined the NSDAP in 1925. One year later he was appointed the Party’s Kreisleiter
The “Law Governing Property Rental to Jews”, enacted on April 30, 1939, led to the creation of a “Juden-
(district leader) in Leipzig. In 1929, Dönicke was elected a member of the Saxon Landtag (State
stelle” (Jewish area), constructed by the Office for Housing Development. By fall 1939, 47 so-designated “Ju-
Parliament), and, at the time of its dissolution in 1933, he was its President. In 1932, Dönicke
denhäuser” had been erected, in which Jewish residents and the non-Jewish spouses of “mixed marriages”
was also elected City Councilor in Leipzig.
lived under extremely cramped conditions. In January 1942, as the deportation of Leipzig’s Jews began, the
On March 11, 1933, the State Governor of Saxony, Manfred von Killinger, appointed Dönicke,
employees of the “Judenstelle” participated in compiling the names which would go onto the transport
then NSDAP Kreisleiter, to the position of State Commissar with Particular Responsibility for
lists. These radical, deeply convicted anti-Semites were the chief decision makers. They were fully aware
the Saxon District Administration (known since 1939 as the Regierungspräsidium (Regional
that the power of life or death for those people branded “Jews” lay in their hands.
Lord Mayor
Walter Dönicke,
1938
(Leipzig City History
Museum)
Administrative Authority) in Leipzig. On October 1, 1933, Dönicke was named Kreishauptmann
(District Commander). He thus embodied in his one person the combined power of the administrative
might of an intermediary government official and the political clout of an NSDAP district leader.
In 1936, when, in the wake of Lord Mayor Dr. Carl Goerdeler’s resignation, the search for a worthy Nazi
replacement for him was underway, the nod went to Dönicke. He assumed his new office on October 12,
1937. During his tenure, the city’s anti-Jewish policies intensified.
Only a few days before his probationary time in office was due to expire, the Reich Minister of the
Interior made a decision to convince Dönicke to resign. On October 12, 1938, reports of his resignation
spread. Afterward, Dönicke turned to the business world. In 1939, he was a department head at Arado
Airplane Manufacturers in Potsdam-Babelsberg. As U.S. forces advanced on Leipzig in April 1945, Dönicke,
who had been a district leader in the Volkssturm, joined other leaders of the Nazi Party who barricaded
themselves in the Neues Rathaus (new city hall). On April 19, 1945, Dönicke committed suicide.
16
17
1935
“Aryanization” in Leipzig. Driven out. Robbed. Murdered.
The Municipal Government of Leipzig
under the Nazi Regime
1935
“Aryanization” in Leipzig. Driven out. Robbed. Murdered.
Desecrated and “Aryanized”:
The Example of Leipzig’s First Jewish Cemetery
The first Jewish cemetery in Leipzig was established at the initiative of Jewish tradesmen from the village
of Brody. In October 1814, leasehold for a burial ground in Johannistal, on the eastern outskirts of the city,
was negotiated and signed by the Leipzig City Council. The first burial took place on November 28, 1814.
In the ensuing 50 years, 334 persons were buried, filling the cemetery to capacity; an expansion of the
burial grounds was impossible. In Jewish culture, the grave stone symbolizes the immortality of the soul
and is to remain permanently in place. In 1864, a new Jewish cemetery was opened and the old cemetery
was closed. This new cemetery was a thorn in the side of local residents long before the Nazi takeover.
After 1933, National Socialist Mayor Rudolf Haake, a rabid anti-Semite, was the primary force behind the
expulsion of the Jews from city life. In 1936, while Lord Mayor Carl Goerderler was away on a trip abroad,
Haake took advantage of Goerderler’s absence to make two significant decisions: he arranged to have the
memorial statue honoring Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy removed on November 9, 1936 and he also sought
approval from the Saxon Ministry for National Education to have the Johannistal cemetery levelled. In ear-
Lord Mayor Alfred Freyberg
Lord Mayor
Alfred Freyberg,
ca. 1940
(Leipziger Jahrbuch,
1940, p. 205)
ly December 1936, a response arrived at Leipzig’s City Hall. At the end of February 1937, the Municipal Real
Estate Authority notified the Israelitische Religionsgemeinde (the Israelite Religious Congregation of Leipzig) that, as of June 30, 1937, their leasehold for the Johannistal cemetery would be revoked. The justification
Alfred Freyberg, a farmer’s son, was born on July 12, 1892 in Harsleben (Halberstadt district). After gradu-
given was that the cemetery had been allowed to become overgrown, the entrance area was covered with
out, he volunteered for duty and was sent to the Western front. After the war, he completed his education.
Jewish community to intervene at the Municipal Real Estate Authority and the Ministry for National
involved in the National Socialist movement, and, in 1925, he helped found the local Quedlinburg branch
certifying that the original 1814 leasehold was irrevocable did not alter the situation. On June 12, 1937, the
and in 1926, he resigned from public service to open a private law practice in Quedlinburg. He was elected
graves. The legs of the each of the buried were kept together and buried in a common grave in the New
1932 for the post of State Minister-President, and was subsequently appointed. In 1933, this position was
for new graves. Only 17 gravestones, selected for their cultural-historical significance, were mounted at the
in the German Reich. As Prime Minister of Saxony Annex, he remained in Dessau until 1939.
the form of a pillar, on which the names of the buried would be immortalized. The pogroms of November
ation, he studied law at universities in Munich, Königsberg, Halle and Geneva. When World War I broke
debris, and that the land was needed for a public park with a children’s playground. Attempts by the
His first work experience was with a revenue office. In 1922–23, then a young lawyer, Freyberg became
Education were unsuccessful. Even the submission of a legal opinion from the Jewish community
of the NSDAP. He also joined the SS. His Party activities caused problems for Freyberg with his employer,
Jewish community bowed to the ultimatum of the municipal government and began the removal of the
City Councillor. Following the NSDAP’s victory at the polls, he was nominated during the state elections of
Israelite Cemetery. Almost all of the gravestones were destroyed and their pieces used as the foundation
renamed “Prime Minister of Saxony Annex”. Freyberg was the first National Socialist Minister-President
new burial ground. The Jewish community commissioned sculptor Rudolf Saudek to create a memorial, in
In October 1938, when Leipzig’s Lord Mayor Walter Dönicke resigned his position, the search for a successor
1938 and the utter destruction of Jewish life in Leipzig prevented this commission from being carried out.
proved difficult. Eventually, Freyberg, who was viewed as a competent administrator, was chosen.
Freyberg was a staunch anti-Semite. Under his leadership, the final phase of discrimination, exploita-
tion and expulsion of Leipzig’s Jews began. In 1942, on his 50th birthday, Hitler appointed Freyberg as
SS Gruppenführer (group leader). When, in 1945, American troops had advanced as far as Leipzig’s city
gates, Freyberg spoke out in opposition of defending the city.
During the final days of the war, the Lord Mayor took refuge in the City Hall. On April 18, 1945, Freyberg, his
wife and his daughter all committed suicide.
First Jewish cemetery in the Johannistal public garden, 1906
(Illustrierte Zeitung [illustrated weekly news magazine], no. 3308, vol. 127, Leipzig,
November 22, 1906, p. 850)
18
Site of the levelled Jewish cemetery in the Johannistal park and public
garden in Leipzig, 1937
(Leipzig City Archives)
19
1938
“Aryanization” in Leipzig. Driven out. Robbed. Murdered.
Ruins of the main
synagogue on Gottsched
Street, after the November
pogrom, 1938
The Turning Point in the “Aryanization” Process
(Leipzig City History Museum)
On November 9th and 10th of 1938, synagogues all over Germany were burning. Jewish shops and homes
were also set ablaze, including the Bamberger & Hertz Men’s Clothing Store in Leipzig. Hordes of Nazis all
over the country shattered thousands of windows, plundered shops and committed murder. According
to official reports, “The Night of Broken Glass” or Kristallnacht, claimed 91 victims, but the actual number
was probably much higher. The pretext for this orgy of violence was the assassination of the German
diplomat Ernst vom Rath on November 7, 1938 in Paris by the 17-year-old Herschel Grynszpan. Though the
attacks in Germany were most likely initiated by the Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi
leadership accused the Jews of being responsible for the “spontaneous outbreak of rage”. The “Decree on
Newspaper article: “In Place
of a Synagogue, Stores and
Apartment Houses,”
an Atonement Tax of Jews with German Citizenship” issued on November 12, 1938, imposed a penalty of
one billion Reichsmarks on Jewish citizens as recompense for economic damages brought about by the
events of Kristallnacht.
(Leipziger Neueste Nachrichten [daily newspaper], February
28, 1939)
Hermann Goering, commissioner of the Nazi’s “Four-Year-Plan”, now developed a proposal for a state-
controlled “Aryanization” of the economic sector. The November pogroms ushered in a new phase of
persecution for the Jews of the Third Reich. The year 1938 became a turning point in the Nazis’ financial
plundering of the Jews and the ultimate expulsion of Jews from the economy. Where, until this time, the
interplay of market conditions and other forces had been allowed to shape circumstances, the State now
took direct control. No longer would the lucrative takeover of Jewish businesses, usually purchased for
well under their appraised value, be left to the private economic sector. The Nazi Treasury now wanted a
larger take of the profits.
Preparations for this systematic, state-controlled plunder of the Jewish citizenry had already begun in
early 1938. First, the Nazi leadership assembled a detailed report on the number of Jewish businesses
and the financial assets of the approximately 390,000 Jews who were still in Germany. To facilitate
this, new laws were passed, such as the “Ordinance Prohibiting the Camouflaging of Jewish Businesses”
(April 22, 1938), “Ordinance on the Registration of Jewish Assets over 5000 Reichsmarks” (April 26, 1938) and
the “Third Ordinance to the Reich Civil Law” (June 14, 1938). This last ordinance called for the compilation
of lists of Jewish businesses. Armed with these documents, local finance and revenue offices began to collect the compulsory payments and special taxes that were now being levied on Jews. A long list of govern-
Fire at the Bamberger & Hertz Men’s Clothing
Store, Augustus Square, November 10, 1938
(Leipziger Neueste Nachrichten [daily newspaper],
November 11, 1938, p. 5)
ment offices, institutions and individuals took part in this logging of Jewish assets and their ultimate plun-
der. Banks provided the account balances of their Jewish customers, the Chamber of Industry and Trade,
along with municipal trade offices, made their information about Jewish companies available, and, finally,
public accountants and art experts appraised the value of land, homes and furnishings.
In this way, entire art collections and valuable furnishings were documented and, once a Jew registered
for emigration or was determined to be “in danger of fleeing”, these belongings were confiscated. Some
ended up in pawn shops and auction houses, but the most valuable of these stolen possessions, classified
as “cultural assets”, found their way into museum storage rooms. Those who tried to elude this program
of state-organized and state-executed pilferage were pursued by the Gestapo and imprisoned. The money
raised through the auctions and forced sales of Jewish belongings was put into restricted bank accounts
(Sperrkonten), to which the victims of the theft had no access. Banking institutions ultimately transferred
Jewish savings along with confiscated stocks and bonds to the Reich Finance Administration. Accord-
ing to the records of Leipzig’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce, by the end of November 1938, 1600 of
the city’s businesses had been forcibly sold to “German” buyers. Only 40 manufacturers, 900 wholesale
businesses and 450 retail companies were left in Jewish hands. On November 12, 1938, with the enactment
of the “Ordinance on the Elimination of Jews from the German Economy”, the final phase of “Aryanization” and “De-Jewification of the economy” was begun. The implementation of the law on January 1, 1939
rendered the existence of Jewish business in Germany impossible.
20
Stock share of the Heine
Brothers Textile Company,
renamed after
“Aryanization”, July 13, 1938
(Leipzig City History Museum)
21
1938
“Aryanization” in Leipzig. Driven out. Robbed. Murdered.
Meanwhile, on July 4, 1938, the authorities issued a “security order” against
Expelled from Leipzig, ghettoized in Krakow, murdered in Belzec:
Entrepreneur Elkan Tänzer and his Family
Ruchla Tänzer, blocking access to her assets and effectively removing her means
of existence. Ruchla Tänzer and her son
Wolfgang left Leipzig on November 9,
Elkan Tänzer was born on November 18, 1883 in Podgórze, near Krakow. After successfully com-
1938 and the family was reunited in Kra-
(Rózia) Lemberger (born July 10, 1891) on January 25, 1912, in Krakow. Both husband and wife
Office enacted the conversion of the fam-
began a business as a wholesale buyer and exporter, trading in raw bedsprings. To further his
at which point the Tänzers irrevocably
moved to the trade capital, Leipzig, where he intended to permanently settle, especially after
the occupation of Poland by the German
2, 1926. On May 17, 1915, he filed a petition for naturalization. In the wake of Germany’s loss in
Krakow also began to experience persecu-
ling them “nasty foreigners”. In December 1918, and again on June 9, 1920, the Leipzig Police
kow in October 1939, about 52,000 were
pleting an apprenticeship in bedspring and decorative plume production, he married Ruchla
kow. On July 12, 1939 the Leipzig Currency
were of the Mosaic faith. On May 28, 1913, their first daughter, Eugenia, was born. Elkan Tänzer
ily’s property into “frozen foreign assets”,
business, he moved with his young family from Krakow to Saxony on September 29, 1914. They
lost control over their belongings. After
both of his sons were born there: Bernhard Nathan on August 19, 1918 and Wolfgang on March
Wehrmacht on September 1, 1939, Jews in
WWI, Leipzig’s Municipal Administration tried to drive Elkan Tänzer and his family out, label-
tion. Out of 68,482 Jews registered in Kra-
Department requested that Tänzer leave the Free State of Saxony. The authorities declined his
petition for naturalization on June 19, 1920. As a merchant, Tänzer was well-positioned and re-
nowned in his profession, and he therefore found the Leipzig Chamber of Industry and Trade to
be an influential advocate. The economic importance of Tänzer’s business for Saxony’s decora-
tive plume industry convinced the authorities to abandon their expulsion plans. On March 15,
1923, together with his younger brother Izidor, owner of the Krakow-based bedspring factory
Pierz-Puch, Elkan Tänzer, still a Polish citizen, registered a company with the Trade Department
of Leipzig (known as the “Book and Trade Fair City”): the Bedspring Trading Company “Gebrüder
expelled prior to 1941. Initially, the Tänzer
“Registration
Questionnaire for the
Jewish Population in
the City of Krakow”:
Elkan Tänzer,
Krakow, November
1940
(Krakow City Archive)
family was able to avoid deportation. The Krakow authorities issued them a residence permit in 1940, and
again in 1941, because father and son worked for companies that were of crucial importance in providing
necessary goods to the non-Jewish segment of the population. Elkan Tänzer had been a wholesale buyer
in the bedspring factory Plumexsport since December 1939. The owner of the business at the time was his
sister-in-law, Izidor Tänzer’s wife Berta. His son Wolfgang was working as a decorative plume sorter at the
H. Zimmermann Company. In February 1941, the district governor of Krakow, Otto Wächter, ordered the
authorities to register all remaining Jews, street by street. Among them were Elkan, Ruchla and Wolfgang
Tänzer” (Tänzer Bros.), located at 2/5 Fleischer Square. Subsequently, on April 30, 1923, the Leip-
Tänzer. At the time, they lived at Zyblikiewczka 18/1. By March 20, 1941, 16,000 registered Jews were placed
lic, Elkan Tänzer was able to successfully expand his business. The family soon belonged to the
ran from there to the extermination camps, including Belzec and Auschwitz. In 1943, Elkan Tänzer, his wife
zig authorities issued him a residence permit. During the ensuing years of the Weimar Repub-
in Podgórze, a district of Krakow that had been set up as a ghetto. Beginning in June 1942, deportation trains
wealthy business upper-class of Saxony’s trade capital.
Ruchla (Rózia) and their youngest son, Wolfgang, were murdered in Belzec.
In Spring 1933, once the National Socialists came into power, establishing state-promoted
anti-Semitism, the situation changed drastically for the successful merchant and his family. Elkan Tänzer once again became the target of anti-Semitic attempts to drive him out. On
October 25, 1933, Werner Pfau, a tradesman from the city of Wurzen, wrote a denunciatory
letter to the Foreigner’s Office of the Police Headquarters in Leipzig. He called for the “withdrawal of German citizenship from the Jew Elkan Tänzer,” accusing Tänzer of allegedly charging
exorbitant rents. Once again, the Leipzig Chamber of Industry and Trade intervened on behalf
of Elkan Tänzer and prevented his expulsion. However, the hostilities continued. The Saxon auElkan, Ruchla and Wolfgang
Tänzer, Krakow, ca. 1940
(Krakow City Archive)
thorities filed a lawsuit against the merchant, blaming him of an alleged breach of currency regulations. On December 17, 1936, the Leipzig District Court sentenced Elkan Tänzer to a penalty
of 75,000 Reichsmarks and two years imprisonment. He served his sentence in the prison at
Bautzen. Once released on February 15, 1938, the authorities expelled Elkan Tänzer from the
country. He left Leipzig on May 12, 1938. His daughter Eugenia,
Department bears an entry from July 10, 1938, indicating that
Excerpt from the General Government’s
transport lists for the Jewish population
in the Krakow Ghetto: Elkan, Ruchla and
Wolfgang Tänzer
the Gebrüder Tänzer Company had been dissolved.
(Krakow City Archive)
2–5 Fleischer Square
Site of the Tänzer Bros. Bedspring Trading Company
Leipzig, ca. 1920
Krakow Ghetto, Board that read
“Judenwohnbezirk” (“Jewish Quarter”)
Krakow, Podgorze ca. 1941
who at that time was living in Krakow, took him in. The other
family members remained in Leipzig. A file at the Leipzig Trade
(Leipzig City History Museum, Photo: Hermann Walter)
22
“Residency Permit issued by
the General Government:
Krakow District Settlement
Chief” for Wolfgang Tänzer,
Krakow, February 8, 1941
(Krakow City Archive)
(Federal Archive, Picture 146-2006-0139)
23
1938
“Aryanization” in Leipzig. Driven out. Robbed. Murdered.
Letter from the State Commissioner
Hans Hinkel to Dr. Hans-Joachim
Hinrichsen regarding exclusion from
the Reichsmusikkammer
(Reich Chamber of Music),
November 15, 1938
Robbed and “Aryanized”:
The Example of the C. F. Peters Music Publishing House
(C. F. Peters Music Publishing House Collection,
Saxon State Archives, Leipzig)
During 19th century, Leipzig became one of the leading locations for the German music publishing indus-
try, a development that also contributed to the success
of the C. F. Peters Music Publishing House, which, since
1900, had been owned by Henri Hinrichsen. Hinrich-
sen was a successful businessman and an important
philanthropist. Under his generous sponsorship, the
opening of the Women’s College in 1911 and the purchase of a major musical instrument collection for the
University of Leipzig were made possible. C. F. Peters
was a family-run business. Beginning in 1931, Henri
Hinrichsen’s sons, Max, Walter and Hans-Joachim,
also worked in the company.
The Hinrichsen Family,
Leipzig, 1919. Henri
(far left) and Martha
Hinrichsen (5th from the
left) with their children
(from left to right): Ilse,
Hans-Joachim, Robert,
Paul, Max, Charlotte,
and Walter
(Private archive of I. Lawford, London)
In March 1933, Henri Hinrichsen, the sole proprietor of C. F. Peters, became the target of an insidious
program of discrimination and exclusion carried out by the Berufs- und Standesorganisationen der Musikverleger (Music Publisher’s Association) and the Boards of his own foundations. The publishing house’s
relationship with certain writers also underwent a transformation.
Dr. Johannes Petschull
mer (Reich Chamber of Music). Two of Henri Hinrichsen’s sons, Max and Walter, left Germany, but a third
Johannes Petschull, son of a medical councilor, was born on May 8, 1901 in
In 1936, C. F. Peters was one of 17 “Jewish” music publishers in Germany approved by the Reichsmusikkamson, Hans-Joachim, remained in Leipzig. On November 10, 1938, the firm’s premises at 10 Tal Street were
Diez/Lahn. He attended Gymnasium (secondary school) in Limburg. From 1918
ransacked and copies of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s music were burned in the company’s courtyard.
to 1920, he absolved a pharmaceutical apprenticeship, after which he studied
This was followed by the expulsion of Henri and Hans-Joachim Hinrichsen from the Reichsmusikkammer
musicology, philosophy and political science at the University of Gießen, while
on November 15, 1939. A “forced aryanization” of the company began, carried out by SS regiment leader
simultaneously studying piano at the Dr. Hoch’schen Conservatory in Frankfurt
Gerhard Noatzke, a trustee of the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightment and Propaganda. In July 1939,
am Main. In 1923, Petschull received his doctorate the the University of Gießen.
a sales contract was concluded. The new partners were Kurt Hermann and Dr. Johannes Petschull.
He accepted a position at a publishing house. In 1927, Petschull became head of the
Petschull also took over the firm’s executive leadership. The negotiated sales price for the publishing house
Main Office of the
C. F. Peters Music
Publishing House,
10 Tal Street,
ca. 1920
(University of Leipzig
Collection)
B. Schott’s Söhne Music Publishing House in Mainz.
and property, including the Peters Music Library, was one million Reichsmarks.
Following the pogroms of November 1938, the forced aryanization of Jewish pub-
Henri Hinrichsen, completely destitute, left Leipzig with his wife, Martha, in January 1940, headed for
lishing houses began to take place. Many interested parties vied to obtain the
Brussels. Two months later, their son, Hans-Joachim, followed. An attempt to emigrate to the United States
C. F. Peters Music Publishing House, with the choice finally falling on businessman
proved unsuccessful. In 1940, Hans-Joachim Hinrichsen died in a camp in the French town of Perpignan.
Kurt Hermann. Hermann brought in Petschull as a trade expert, and they became
Martha Hinrichsen died in Brussels in 1941 and Henri Hinrichsen was deported one year later to Auschwitz,
partners of C. F. Peters in 1939. Petschull ran business operations and, through the
where he was murdered.
targeted acquisition of other “aryanized” music publishing houses, especially
“Universal Edition” in Vienna, was able to build the company into a major privateDr. Johannes Petschull,
undated
(C. F. Peters Music
Publishing House
Collection, Saxon State
Archives, Leipzig)
ly-held music publishing corporation.
In June 1945, at the end of World War II, the American occupying forces declared the rightful owner of
C. F. Peters to be Walter Hinrichsen, son of Henri Hinrichsen, the dispossessed owner of the music
publishing house who had been murdered at Auschwitz. Petschull was offered the opportunity to
continue managing the firm, which he accepted, and Hinrichsen made him his general agent in Germany.
In 1947, following the first failed attempt by the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands – SED (the
Socialist Unity party of Germany) to take ownership of the company, Hinrichsen and Petschull began
to shift portions of their inventory to West Germany, where they planned to establish a new publish-
ing house. In November 1948, Petschull was arrested by Sowjetische Militär-Administration – SMAD
Staff of the C. F. Peters Music Publishing House,
May 1, 1934
(C. F. Peters Music Publishing House Collection,
Saxon State Archives, Leipzig)
24
(Soviet Military Administration) and accused of illegally transporting music supplies to the West. He
remained imprisoned until 1950, when he was unexpectedly released and allowed to return to West
Germany. He became manager of the C. F. Peters Music Publishing House in Frankfurt and died on January 9, 2001 in Königstein/Taunus.
25
Art Thieves
“Aryanization” in Leipzig. Driven out. Robbed. Murdered.
Chief Finance President Friedrich Sobe
Friedrich Sobe, son of elementary school teacher Hermann Sobe, was born
Art Treasures Expropriated and Put on Display:
Exposing the Network of Art Thieves and Profiteers in Leipzig
on December 30, 1881 in Leipzig. He attended the Wettiner Gymnasium in
Dresden and graduated in 1901. Sobe studied law in Leipzig and Marburg,
and in 1912, following his assessor examinations, began a career in Saxony’s
“Aryanization” meant not only the forced sale or expropriation of businesses. Furnishings from private
judicial service. He served as District Attorney and District Judge. In 1915, he
“Judenhäuser” and later deported to the concentration camps were included in the “transfer of Jewish
sition at the Generalzolldirektion (ministerial customs office), working first
homes, along with the last remaining belongings of those Jews who were first relegated to the cramped
made a career move to the Finance Department. In 1917, Sobe took on a po-
property into Aryan hands”, as it was propagandized.
as a revenue officer and later as a financial councilor. In 1920, Sobe moved to
In the process, private libraries, valuable stamp and coin collections, jewelry, porcelain, faience, and
antique furnishings of all kinds, including works of art – portraits, graphics, sculptures and statues – were
of art as well as entire art collections from Jewish citizens and their placement into the “Aryan hands”
memberships in financial and legal professional societies, but, in 1930, he became a member of the NSDAP.
which was organized by the Jewish art collectors themselves. Technically viewed, these sales were com-
legal office), as well as one of the earliest members of the National Socialist Lawyers‘ Association, where
culminating with Hitler’s rise to power, Jewish property owners found themselves in a historically unique
National Socialist cause during the Weimar Republic did not go unrewarded, allowing him to further his
sales that took place after 1933 were generally brought about by circumstances in which Jewish art owners
On October 1, 1933, Sobe was appointed director of the Landesfinanzamt and head of the Property and
place.
the Landesfinanzamt Leipzig. This agency’s title was later changed to Oberfinanzpräsidium (Chief Finance
of Germany’s art and cultural world. This held true in Leipzig, as well. Museums, independent art deal-
transactions involving Jews. From 1938 on, at the direction of the Reich Finance Ministry, Sobe, as Chief
being diverted to other sources. The valuable collections of Jewish art lovers, such as the families of textile
deported. With Sobe’s verbal approval, Chief Finance Ministry employees could, at no cost, remove articles
artist, Carl Sonntag, were sold at forced auctions or were confiscated. The orchestrators of this “Aryaniza-
sell them at the appraised price for their own personal profit.
of art dealers, private collectors or museums, was carried out exclusively through the sale of such items,
(Leipziger Neueste
Nachrichten [daily newspaper],
February 20, 1935, p. 9)
the Reich Finance Administration and became Division Head of the Landes-
finanzamt Leipzig (Leipzig branch of the state revenue office). In September 1921, he married Bertha Raab.
all “aryanized”. In the early years of “Aryanization”, the officially sanctioned removal of individual works
Friedrich Sobe,
ca. 1935
In 1923, Sobe was promoted to head of the Finanzamt Leipzig-Ost. Sobe initially confined his activities to
From 1931 to 1933, he was a member of the Saxony chapter of the NSDAP-Gaurechtsstelle (NSDAP regional
pletely ordinary, legal transactions. A closer look at these property transfers, however, quickly reveals that,
he served on a committee tasked with the development of National Socialist law. Sobe’s efforts for the
situation. Before 1933, the voluntary sale of art works and art collections was virtually unheard of. The
career after the Nazi take-over.
found themselves at the mercy of the new political situation. A subtle form of expropriation was taking
Transportation Tax Department of the Leipzig office. On February 1, 1935, Sobe took on the presidency of
These art treasures, which were required to be declared by their Jewish owners, whetted the appetite
Ministry). Beginning in 1935, the Oberfinanzpräsidium steadily increased its surveillance of financial
ers and municipal authorities all hastened to gain access to these cultural assets and prevent them from
Finance President, was directly responsible for the pilferage of property from Jews who emigrated or were
merchant Heine, world-renowned music publisher Henri Hinrichsen or eminent bookbinder and
from the Klemm Auction House, the proceeds from which were intended for the municipal treasury, and
tion”, which was nothing more than the pilferage of art and cultural assets, were, once again, the Finance
Ministry and its local Leipzig office, the municipal authorities (Lord Mayor, individual councilmen, and
employees of the Finance Office), and municipal cultural establishments such as museums and libraries,
as well as banks, art dealers, auction houses and removal companies, along with attorneys and notaries.
The local media, through the systematic conformity of its reporting, was, of course, also culpable. Among
Leipzig’s many advocates for the “Aryanization” of cultural artefacts were the art dealer Georg Werner,
owner of the venerable C. G. Boerner art dealership (established in Leipzig in 1836), Hans and Wolfgang
Boerner, the Hans Klemm Auction House, and Art Museum director Werner Teupser.
Entrance gate to the Association
of German Clerks administrative
building, with the Leipzig Office
of Foreign Exchange, formerly
12 Adolf Hitler Street, ca. 1939
(Leipzig City History Museum)
Leipzig Museum of
Fine Arts, Augustus
Square, ca. 1930
(Leipzig City Archives)
26
Auction announcement
by C. G. Boerner, February 18,
1942 (Kunstrundschau,
monthly art review, Berlin, vol. 50,
no. 2, [1942] p. 39)
Letter from Hans Boerner to the head
financial officer of Leipzig, regarding
the acquisition of art objects from the
Heine Collection, May 9, 1941
(Saxon State Archives, Leipzig)
27
Art Thieves
“Aryanization” in Leipzig. Driven out. Robbed. Murdered.
Art Treasures Expropriated and Put on Display: Exposing the Network
of Art Thieves and Profiteers in Leipzig
Letter from Georg Werner to the
Leipzig Museum of Fine Arts regarding
the sale of paintings from the
Hinrichsen collection, July 27, 1939
(Leipzig City Archives)
Wilhelm Leibl (1844–1900),
Portrait of the Painter Johann Herterich,
1868, oil on canvas
(Siegfried Unterberger Collection,
Photo: Ursula Gerstenberger,
Leipzig Museum of Fine Arts)
28
Joseph Fritz von Uhde
(1848–1911), In Fall, 1890,
oil on canvas
(Siegfried Unterberger Collection,
Photo: Ursula Gerstenberger,
Leipzig Museum of Fine Arts)
Newspaper article about the
exhibition of works of art
originally owned by Jews,
“Leipzigs Great New Art
Treasures”, May 1940
(Leipziger Neueste Nachrichten
[daily newspaper], May 4, 1940)
29
Art Thieves
“Aryanization” in Leipzig. Driven out. Robbed. Murdered.
Art Treasures Expropriated and Put on Display: Exposing the Network
of Art Thieves and Profiteers in Leipzig
Five-page letter from
Werner Teupser to City
Councillor F. A. Hauptmann
on September 21, 1939,
regarding the pre-emptive
right of the city of Leipzig
to pieces of art from the
Hinrichsens’ possession
(Leipzig City Archives)
30
31
1941
“Aryanization” in Leipzig. Driven out. Robbed. Murdered.
Railway bridge with
anti-Semitic poster,
Leipzig, ca. 1942
Jewish Assets Declared “Volksgut” (Public Property)
(Leipzig City History
Museum)
A 1938 ruling which entitled the Nazi State to all Jewish assets and also allowed the legal liquidation of
the Jewish sector of the economy affected only the few remaining businesses that still were in the hands
of Jewish owners. The majority of small and medium-sized retail companies had long-since been liqui-
dated or “aryanized”. Well-known companies with an international clientele, such as the renowned music
publishing house C. F. Peters, which had, for economic reasons, until now been protected from even the
most covetous “aryanizer” activists, were finally caught in the cogs of the “Aryanization” process. This final
act of economical “Entjudung” brought significantly more revenue to the coffers of the Third Reich.
By the end of 1939, the National Socialists and their clientele had, for the most part, reached their goal
of “De-Jewifying” the German economy and transferring lucrative Jewish businesses into Aryan hands.
After that began the process of appraising the last remaining possessions of those besieged Jewish citizens
who had not been able to flee the country.
In autumn 1939, Leipzig’s municipal government began to “aryanize” residential areas. Jews were forced
to relocate to so-called “Judenhäuser” (“Jew houses”). An edict issued by the Reichssicherheitshauptamt –
RSHA (Reich Security Central Office) on October 23, 1941 prevented the emigration of Jews out of Germany
and, with the implementation of the “Eleventh Decree of the Reich Citizenship Law” of November 25,
1941, all Jews were immediately stripped of their German citizenship and subjected to the confiscation
of all of their remaining belongings and assets. An edict issued by the RSHA on March 13, 1942 required
Jewish homes to carry an identifying mark on the front door. On January 21, 1942, deportations began to
be carried out in Leipzig. The sparse furnishings that the Jews had been allowed to take with them to the
miserable “Judenhäuser”, and even the baggage they had been forced to leave behind, were subsequently
confiscated.
The revenue offices contracted bailiffs and auction houses to appraise Jewish assets. This took place openly, with full public knowledge. The citizenry was informed by the press about auctions at which they could
inexpensively obtain furniture, clothing and household furnishings of all kinds. From 1942 until the collapse of the Nazi Regime, various Leipzig auction houses appraised the last remaining belongings of Jews
who had been deported to concentration camps. The most prominent player during this phase of “Aryani-
zation” was Leipzig’s Hans Klemm Auction House. At public auctions, it offered Leipzig’s “Aryan” citizens
everything from books to art objects, right down to the last shirt and the final remaining dinner plate that
had belonged to Leipzig’s Jewish residents. Surviving records from the Klemm Auction House prove that
many of Leipzig’s citizens were interested in these “abandoned” possessions. Municipal institutions, such
as libraries and museums, also took advantage of the opportunity to enrich themselves with the expropriated belongings of Leipzig’s Jewish residents. The question of why the deported Jews would no longer
need their personal belongings was one that the numerous purchasers left unasked.
Cover of a report from the Trust Office in
Prague, 1942: a graphic depiction of
“Jewish Assets Becomes National Property”
(State Archives, Berlin)
32
Excerpt from a deportation list: the transport
of Sophie Harmelin on the 19th of September,
1942,to Theresienstadt
(Israelite Religious Congregation of Leipzig)
33
1941
“Aryanization” in Leipzig. Driven out. Robbed. Murdered.
Profiteers of “Aryanization”:
The Example of the Klemm Brothers and Hans Klemm Auction House
In 1933, the Hans Klemm Auction House was the most profitable enterprise of its kind in Leipzig. The own-
ers were the brothers Hans and Karl Klemm. The sales rooms and warehouse were located in a large build-
ing at 19 Grosse Fleischer Lane. From early 1933 on, as, oppressed by National Socialist anti-Jewish policy,
an increasing number of Jews emigrated, the number of contracts received by the auction house rose
proportionately. Karl Klemm joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1937. In the course of the Polenaktion on October
28, 1938, during which approximately 1600 Jews with Polish citizenship were arrested and deported from
Leipzig to the German-Polish corridor, the household goods of the affected residents were confiscated. The
Gestapo and the Chief Finance President of Leipzig contracted the Klemm Auction House to dispose of the
property that had been required to be left behind. From 1939 on, the company’s books were primarily filled
with contracts from the Gestapo and the Chief Finance President. Contracts awarded for the appraisal of
property which had been confiscated from Jews led to an enormous increase in profits for the company,
thus making the Klemm brothers profiteers of Jewish persecution.
Letterhead of
the Hans Klemm
Auction House
The firm retained a commission of ten percent of the auction price, and costs for delivery and advertising
were reimbursed. Klemm auctioned off belongings that had been confiscated by the authorities as well
(Saxon State Archives,
Leipzig)
as household goods that had been stored with moving companies. Moreover, when Jews were forced to
move to the cramped quarters of the “Judenhäuser”, they found themselves forced to auction off their
belongings. From 1942 until the end of the Nazi Regime, the Klemm Auction House auctioned off the
last worldly goods of Jews who were deported from Leipzig. Before the auctions, Hans and Karl Klemm
would seek out the most valuable and desirable objects for themselves, which they then either gave to
friends and acquaintances or sold at a discounted price.
Hans and Karl Klemm continued to run their auction house even after the events of 1945. In 1946,
accusations regarding their activities during the Nazi Regime began to pile up. On May 26, 1948, Hans and
Karl Klemm were arrested by the Leipzig police and an investigation was begun by the District Attorney’s
office. In February 1949, a trial was held in the Leipzig District Court. The auction house’s business activi-
ties were judged to constitute active support of the Nazi Regime, along with illicit personal enrichment.
Hans Klemm received a prison sentence of two years and six months, his brother Karl was sentenced to
two years. They were incarcerated in the Brandenburg-Görden penitentiary. Their private assets became
the property of the Free State of Saxony.
Newspaper advertisement by the Hans Klemm firm
regarding the auction date of “Non-Aryan” property,
11 Färber Street, October 1942
(Leipziger Neueste Nachrichten [daily newspaper], October 28,
1942)
Announcement of the auction
of Laura Sonntag‘s belongings
at Hans Klemm Auction House,
August 1941
(Saxon State Archives, Dresden)
Itemized list of the
“Purchasers (at
auction) of Larger
Items and Valuable
Objects,” ca. 1945
(Saxon State Archives,
Leipzig)
Hans Klemm Auction
House,
19 Grosse Fleischer Lane,
ca. 1930
(Leipzig City Archives)
34
35
1945
“Aryanization” in Leipzig. Driven out. Robbed. Murdered.
The End of Nazi Rule and the Development
of East Germany’s Policy Regarding “Aryanized” Property
The legalized theft of property that was the consequence of the Nazi Regime’s “Aryanization” of companies, real estate, household belongings and cultural assets was the largest seizure of private property in
Germany’s history. Following the Allied victory in the spring of 1945, the four occupying powers concerned
themselves with the question of reparations for the crimes committed by the Germans. No reparation
could be made for the murder of six million European Jews, the deaths of millions of victims of the
devastating war in the east, the prisoners of war and the forced labourers, or the murders of people who
had been stigmatized as “gypsies”, “genetically ill” or “anti-social” and anyone who had openly opposed
National Socialism.
By 1945, most of the victims of “Aryanization” were no longer alive. It was only their heirs and the few
remaining survivors who were able to demand either the return of their property or financial recom-
pense. Even today, there are those who have not availed themselves of this opportunity. The restitution
of aryanisized property and the payment of financial compensation remains a current concern. Post-1945,
The Expropriation of the C. F. Peters Music Publishing House by the SED
In April 1945, as Leipzig was occupied by US forces, Walter Hinrichsen, who had emigrated to the USA
in 1936, entered the city as an American cultural officer. In June 1945, he was declared the rightful own-
er of the music publishing house that had belonged to his father, Henri Hinrichsen, who was murdered
at Auschwitz. C. F. Peters resumed operations under the leadership of Johannes Petschull. Hinrichsen
also had the support of the noted Leipzig attorney and notary, Dr. Martin Drucker. Leipzig fell to the
Soviet occupation forces on July 1, 1945, and in September of that year, the Soviet Military Administration of Leipzig transferred ownership of the publishing house to the Sozialidemokratische Partei Deut-
schands – SPD (Social Democratic Party of Germany). In August 1946, Leipzig’s City Council named the
local SED chapter trustee for the firm, which had been placed under SMAD Order No. 124, regulating the
“sequestration of assets of former members of the National Socialist party”. The local SED party chapter
ignored the order of restitution of the company to Walter Hinrichsen and considered “aryanizer” Kurt
Herrmann the firm’s owner. Hinrichsen appealed to the SMAD in Saxony, which resulted in confirmation by the Dresden office of the Saxon State Government of his ownership of the company. His success
was short-lived, however. At the end of January 1949, the SED again claimed the company as its own. In
1950–51, the expropriation was made complete. The company was declared public property and, in 1952,
C. F. Peters was absorbed by Druckerei- und Verlagskontor, an SED holding.
the Allied Forces were not able to agree on a uniform regulation regarding restitution and reparation. On
November 10, 1947, the American zone enacted a “Law on the Restitution of Identifiable Property”. It was
Reparation document:
written communication
of the Saxon Land
Management, March
1949
the first of its type and was quickly followed by similar laws and regulations issued by the British and
French occupied zones. The Soviet occupying forces did not issue any uniform regulation. Reparation for
the material injustice carried out by the Nazi State was not their primary concern. Of course, in certain
federal states in the Soviet zone, there was, in 1945/46, the first German initiative toward making material
(Saxon State Archives,
Dresden)
reparations. On October 21, 1946, Saxony’s State Government decreed that property that had been sold by
victims of the Nazi Regime due to “political, religious or racist reasons”, or through the passage of new
laws, or “under the pressure of the prevailing conditions” would require an official permit in order to be
resold. To prevent the tracks of injustice from being erased, courts began flagging the entries of aryanized
property in their registers, in order to make it recognizable as such.
These early attempts to secure the rights of the victims of “Aryanization” came, however, before the Soviet
Military Administration (SMAD) issued tight restrictions. On October 30, 1945, Order No. 124, providing
for the “sequestration of assets of former members of the National Socialist Party”, including businesses
which had belonged to Nazi offenders and war criminals, was issued. The beneficiary of this expropriation
of war criminals was the new Soviet State. Since those who were now being dispossessed of their property
had only gained it through the “Aryanization” process, it meant a de facto second dispossession for the
victims of “Aryanization”. As recently as 1989, the GDR Government relied on this SMAD Order to deny
the restitution of businesses and real estate. Jewish survivors in the Soviet zone and, later, in the German
Democratic Republic (GDR), were entitled to a significant amount of state money in financial restitution
through the Office for Victims of the Nazi Regime, but most of this money never made its way to the victims
Retrocession document of the
C. F. Peters Music Publishing House to
Walter Hinrichsen, February 1947
(Saxon State Archives, Dresden)
Nationalization
Document for the
C. F. Peters Music
Publishing House,
1951
(Saxon State Archives,
Dresden)
of “Aryanization”. The socialist program to nationalize key industries, banks and insurance companies,
right down to medium-sized businesses, would have easily allowed the restitution of “aryanized” small
businesses, houses, lands, art collections and other assets. However, there were only sporadic selective
attempts to undo the affects of “Aryanization”. Historical research indicates that the primary reason for
the denial of Jewish claims for restitution in East Germany lay in socialist principals, in which state-owned
property could never be privatized, even when came from the aryanized former assets of Jews. A funda-
mental change in restitution policy came about only when the Unification Treaty of 1990 established that
all open inquiries regarding estates in the former GDR would be resolved by the principle of natural restitution, meaning the return of property instead of financial compensation (“Rückgabe vor Entschädigung”).
Source: Rundverfügung vom 21.10.1946, in: Akten des Amtes für Rechtsschutz des Vermögens der DDR, 530/2. Zit. nach: Jan Philipp Spannuth:
Rückerstattung Ost. Der Umgang mit dem „arisierten“ Eigentum der Juden und die Rückerstattung im wiedervereinigten Deutschland, Essen
2007, S./p. 83.
36
37
1945
“Aryanization” in Leipzig. Driven out. Robbed. Murdered.
The End of Nazi Rule and the Development of
East Germany’s Policy Regarding “Aryanized” Property
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„Arisierung“ in Leipzig. Annäherung an ein lange
verdrängtes Kapitel der Stadtgeschichte der Jahre
1933 bis 1945. Hrsg. v. Monika Gibas. Leipzig 2007.
The Sonntag File:
A “Little Something” for the Leipzig City History Museum
On November 10, 1946, Frau Laura (Lore) Sonntag contacted Hans Klemm, owner of the Hans Klemm
Auction House, from New York. She asked for his help in reclaiming her property, which had been confiscated in 1940 by the local Leipzig Gestapo. Laura Sonntag, a Jew, had escaped the Nazi horrors with her
children when, during 1939–40, they fled into exile and eventually emigrated to the USA. What was most
important to her was the return of books that had belonged to her husband, the renowned book binder
and artist Carl Sonntag (1883–1930), whose artistic book covers had made him famous well beyond Leipzig.
Hans Klemm himself had auctioned off the widow’s household goods, taken from her home in Großdeuben
(near Leipzig), at a public auction on August 21, 1941, at which time the directors of Leipzig’s libraries and
museums had also taken a great interest in the valuable books and works of art. In 1994, a restitution agree-
ment returned certain works of art, which the City of Leipzig itself had purchased for the Museum of Fine
Arts, to the heirs of Laura Sonntag, who had died in 1979. On August 18, 1941, Leipzig’s Stadtgeschichtliche
Museum (Leipzig City History Museum) had purchased various works of art, valuing 30 Reichsmarks,
from the Hans Klemm Auction House in the 19 Grosse Fleischer Lane. They had included three watercolor
paintings, one wood engraving, one copper engraving, one color lithograph and two photos showing vari-
ous views of Leipzig and the surrounding area. It was only during research for the exhibit “Aryanization”
in Leipzig that these objects were discovered in the museum’s storage rooms and recognized as having
belonged to Laura Sonntag.
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Dritten Reich 1933-1945. Frankfurt/Main 1988.
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38
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Acknowledgements
We wish to thank the following sponsors for their generous financial support:
The Minister of State for Culture and the Media,
pursuant to a resolution of the German Bundestag
funded by the
German Federal Cultural Foundation
German Museums Association
Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future“
International Council of Museums, Germany
Leipzig Community Foundation
Foundation for German-Polish Cooperation
We also wish to thank all contributors to the exhibition, as well as the
employees of the archives in Leipzig, Dresden and Berlin, as well as our intern,
Felicitas Solbrig, who has in many ways supported this exhibition by her preparatory work. We also wish to give very special
thanks to Gina Johanningsmeier, Cynthia Dyre Moellenhoff,
and Prof. Dr. habil. Heike Jüngst, whose volunteer work made possible the
realization of the English translations of the exhibition texts
and video interviews with contemporary witnesses.
Touring Exhibition Catalog
© by the Leipzig City History Museum and the authors, 2009
Publisher: Dr. Volker Rodekamp, Head of the Leipzig City History Museum,
City of Leipzig
Editors: Dr. Monika Gibas, Petra Knöller
Text Translation: Cynthia Dyre Moellenhoff, Christine Schoenmakers
Captions Translator: Gina Johanningsmeier
Cover Concept: Ute Holstein
Layout: TOUMAart/Gabine Heinze
Printing: Merkur Druck- und Kopierzentrum GmbH Leipzig
ISBN 978-3-910034-08-2