In 1902 and 1903 the foundresses Mathilde von Rothschild and Minka Goldschmidt-Rothschild laid the financial and legal foundation for two retirement homes that met the needs of single elderly Frankfurt women. These “Women Projects” concerned different target groups: The widow Mathilde von Rothschild, committed to the conservative-religious branch, opened her former residential mansion in the city center for female religious faith comrades of bourgeois origin who, like her, came from long-established Jewish families in Frankfurt. A separate article reports about her daughter Minka who founded Rothschild´s Residential Home for Ladies, a residence for low-income elderly female tenants of all denominations. The third person who sponsored these projects was Minka’s sister Adelheid de Rothschild who had married and moved to Paris. Mathilde von Rothschild and her daughters dedicated the foundations to the memory of the deceased husband and father Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild.
The Baron Wilhelm and Baroness Mathilde von Rothschild´s Retirement Home for Jewish Women and Virgins of Higher Classes at Zeil 92
After her marriage in 1849 Mathilde and Wilhelm von Rothschild initially lived in the family mansion in the road formerly known as Prachtstrasse Zeil 92 (old house number 34), before they moved into a new mansion in Grüneburgpark. The Rothschild-Palais on Zeil, “[…] where the blessed Baron Anselm von Rothschild had lived a life of piety and the blessed Baron Wilhelm von Rothschild was incumbent on his pious studies” (quoted by the Statute of Rothschild´s Retirement Home 1907, page 3), became a Jewish Retirement Home for Women. The foundation was established on 27th March 1903 by Mathilde von Rothschild with the collaboration of her daughters Adelheid de Rothschild and Minka von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, who died shortly before the official approval which was granted on May 13, 1903. The home, to which the house at Liebigstrasse 24 was also attached, opened in the same year and offered room for 25 people. “The purpose of the foundation was granting a secure home for single Jewish women of higher classes with an immaculate lifestyle in exchange for payment which did not exceed the real costs” (Schiebler 1994:119). Like the foundresses themselves most of the residents came from old established Jewish families of Frankfurt´s ghetto time.
Despite her energy and organizational skills Mathilde von Rothschild was not part of the Foundation Board which was exclusively made up of men (possibly limited due to the Prussian law of 1850 governing organizational affairs prohibiting the membership of women in parties and organizations which was not repealed until 15th May 1908).. However, she secured broad powers for herself, for instance as the honorary president. , the last decision in questions concerning the association and the determination of her successor. In accordance with the statute “a member of the family of Baron Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild should always lead the honorary presidency, but female members should always have preference over the male members” (quoted by the Statute of Rothschild´s Retirement Home, page 7). After the opening of the retirement home, the widowed foundress, single like the residents, took up her residence there again: “Baroness Mathilde von Rothschild has reserved for her person to use the three rooms at the front side of the ground floor, the rear building as well as one basement department” (see page 6). Due to the poor sources it is not known what the communication between the foundress and the residents was like. About the staff and the interior decoration not much is known either. A note in the December 1933 edition (issue 4) of Frankfurt´s Jewish community newsletter (page 152) documents that the seniors felt in good hands: “On 1st December Miss Adelheid Stiebel […] could celebrate her 80th birthday in good health and mental acuity.” The widow Johanna Herzberg, whose daughters lived out of Frankfurt, had lived in Rothschild´s retirement home since 1930. Another resident, Karoline Bing, could flee from Nazi-Germany in 1939.
There is also little to find out about the employees of Rothschild´s retirement home. One of them was Judith Allmeyer, who worked there as a cook in 1936/37. Since 1917 Jenny Hahn (born in 1898), daughter of a cattle dealer in the Hessian community Birstein, had worked at the retirement home. Her biography was connected with the institution, where she used to live herself, and whose administrator she became in 1930. After her emigration attempt in 1939 had failed due to the beginning of the war, she held this leading position until the home was forcefully dissolved by the national socialists. On 24th September 1942 Jenny Hahn was deported from Frankfurt to Raasiku (Estonia), where she was most likely murdered. On the initiative of her niece Marianne Ockenga the artist Gunter Demnig laid a “memorial marker” (small “stumbling block” in the shape of a plasterstone) with Jenny Hahn´s picture at her place of activity on 4th June 2011 (cp. http://www.stolpersteine-frankfurt.de/dokumentation.html [24.10.2017].
After the death of her mother Mathilde in 1924, her only living daughter Adelheid de Rothschild supported the Jewish residence for female seniors inside the former Frankfurt family palais from Paris and provided assistance through the economic time of crisis; among other things she made a large donation of RM 500,000. When the faithful foundress died in 1935, her three children and heirs Miriam Caroline Alexandrine von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, Maurice Edmond Karl de Rothschild (both of Paris) and James Armand Edmond de Rothschild (London) took charge of the continued existence of the retirement home during the NS-period. They had regular reports given on its fortune. In 1938 Dr. Salomon Goldschmidt, Leon Mainz, Manfred Schames, Moritz Wallerstein and Max Wimpfheimer were members of the Foundation Board; in October 1939 Ludwig Hainebach, Leon Mainz, Martin Moses, Moritz Wallerstein (meanwhile Amsterdam) and Gustav Zuntz (cp. ISG Ffm: magistrate records sign. 9.621). On 27th September 1940 Rothschild´s retirement home was forcibly incorporated into the Empire´s association of German Jews, which had been established by the NS-authorities.
According to the report of the Gestapo officer at the Jewish welfare, Ernst Holland, the eviction of the residents of Rothschild´s retirement home took place between 1st July and 30th September 1941. “The residents were transferred to different retirement homes, primarily to the retirement home of the Jewish hospital […]. In order to increase the possible occupancy rate, the prayer room was closed and changed into a sleeping room” (quoted from Andernacht / Sterling 1963:471). The administrator Jenny Hahn accompanied the frail senior women to the Hospital of the Jewish Community on Gagernstrasse. The last remaining Jewish hospital in Frankfurt, which was not prepared for these changing requirements, had to maintain a geriatric unit at NS-behest. However, what happened to the now “Aryanized” Rothschild-Palais on Zeil in the meantime? “The main command post and the station of the police authorities dealing with homeless people were located in the house from 1942 until its destruction (by air-raids, B.S.) in 1944” (Nordmeyer 1997, part II, page 5). In 1949, four years after the end of war, the City of Frankfurt am Main handed the property Zeil 92 over to the responsible Jewish organization JRSO (Jewish Restitution Successor Organization Inc.); in 1952 it was sold to the “Hansa” department store (then “Hertie” and “Karstadt”). So far no memorial plaque has been put up commemorating the former Rothschild´s retirement home for Jewish women.
Inquiries in the internal data base of the memorial place Neuer Börneplatz of the Frankfurt am Main Jewish museum revealed that at least 20 aged individuals, who had been residents of Rothschild´s retirement home, were deported to Theresienstadt and other concentration and extermination camps. Some of these residents, also men, had been provisionally accommodated in Rothschild´s retirement home by the NS-authorities and finally “distributed” to other “retirement homes” (ghetto houses) in Frankfurt or the hospital on Gagernstrasse (cp. ISG Ffm: national register [“Hausstandsbücher ”] of Gagernstrasse 36 (part 2): Sign. 687). Of these people Bella Ackermann, Rosa Cahn, Sara Gordon, Sophie Gruenbaum, Flora Heidingsfelder, Esther E. Heilbut, Auguste Hertzfeld, Emma Hirschberg, Eugen Siegfried Jacobsen, Helene Kaufmann, Helene Liberles, Julia Mayer, Bertha Moses, Rosalie Nachmann, Johanna Nussbaum, Dorette Roos, the couple Jenny and Leopold Seliger, Karoline Strauss and Selma Strauss were killed in the Shoa.
Birgit Seemann, 2013, updated 2017
Unpublished sources
ISG Ffm: Institut für Stadtgeschichte Frankfurt am Main:
Andernacht, Dietrich/ Sterling, Eleonore (Bearb.) 1963: Dokumente zur Geschichte der Frankfurter Juden 1933-1945. Hg.: Kommission zur Erforschung der Geschichte der Frankfurter Juden. Frankfurt/M.
Arnsberg, Paul 1983: Die Geschichte der Frankfurter Juden seit der Französischen Revolution. Darmstadt, 3 Bände.
Karpf, Ernst 2004: Judendeportationen von August 1942 bis März 1945, http://www.ffmhist.de/
Kingreen, Monica (Hg.) 1999: „Nach der Kristallnacht“. Jüdisches Leben und antijüdische Politik in Frankfurt am Main 1938–1945. Frankfurt/M., New York.
Lenarz, Michael 2003: Stiftungen jüdischer Bürger Frankfurts für die Wohlfahrtspflege – Übersicht und Geschichte nach 1933, ISG Ffm,http://www.ffmhist.de/
Nordmeyer, Helmut 1997: Die Zeil. Bilder einer Straße vom 17. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart. [Bearb. u. hg. für das Institut für Stadtgeschichte, Frankfurt/M.]. Frankfurt/M.
Schiebler, Gerhard 1994: Stiftungen, Schenkungen, Organisationen und Vereine mit Kurzbiographien jüdischer Bürger. In: Lustiger, Arno (Hg.) 1994: Jüdische Stiftungen in Frankfurt am Main. Stiftungen, Schenkungen, Organisationen und Vereine mit Kurzbiographien jüdischer Bürger dargest. v. Gerhard Schiebler. Mit Beitr. v. Hans Achinger [u.a.]. Hg. i.A. der M.-J.-Kirchheim’schen Stiftung in Frankfurt am Main. 2. unveränd. Aufl. Sigmaringen, S. 11-288.
Seide, Adam 1987: Rebecca oder ein Haus für Jungfrauen jüdischen Glaubens besserer Stände in Frankfurt am Main. Roman. Frankfurt/M.
Statut Rothschild´sches Altersheim 1907: Statut der Stiftung: Freiherrlich Wilhelm u. Freifrau Mathilde von Rothschild’sches Altersheim für Israelitische Frauen und Jungfrauen besserer Stände [um 1907]. Online-Ausg. Frankfurt/M.: Univ.-Bibl., 2011, http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/judaicaffm/urn/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:1-307739.
JM Ffm: Jüdisches Museum und Museum Judengasse Frankfurt am Main (mit der internen biographischen Datenbank der Gedenkstätte Neuer Börneplatz): www.juedischesmuseum.de.
Shortly before her death, the Frankfurt Jewish foundress Minka von Goldschmidt-Rothschild turned the Zedaka (Jewish commandment of social justice through charity) into reality, when she initiated the construction of a larger rental complex for materially deprived, widowed or unmarried women of all denominations. Her mother Mathilde von Rothschild and her sister Adelheid de Rothschild who lived in Paris after her marriage, as well as Minka´s husband Max von Goldschmidt-Rothschild and their daughter Lily Schey von Koromla took charge of the extensive social residential project.
The „Residential Home for Ladies” of the Baron Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild Foundation for Charitable and Non-Profit Purposes at Hügelstrasse 142-146
Also in Frankfurt am Main construction of social housing did not regain momentum until the 1920’s. Before that time, especially single older women in Frankfurt with a low income had difficulties in finding an affordable and suitable home. Due to being the fact they they were hardly represented in the tenant-rights movement of the German Empire, they were exposed to increasing rents, termination of rental agreement without notice and harassments by some landlords. Even though having grown up prosperously, the foundresses of the Frankfurt banking family Rothschild were sensitive to these needs: In 1902 Minka von Goldschmidt-Rothschild established the Baron Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild Foundation for Charitable and Non-Profit Purposes in memory of her deceased father, among other things with the intention to create affordable housing for low-income female Frankfurt citizens. She signed the Foundation Statute, which she seemed to have written for the most part on her own, on 29th October 1902: “As a symbol of pious memory, which I, Mrs Max Goldschmidt, née Baroness von Rothschild, will ever keep for the city, where the ancestral home of my family is, I have decided to establish a foundation to the memory of my blessed father, Mr Wilhelm Carl Baron von Rothschild, which is meant to give this mindedness an outward expression. In order to obtain the rights of a legal entity for this foundation I have compiled the following statute” (quoted by the Statute of Rothschild´s Residential Home for Ladies 1904, page 1, highlighting B.S.)
A significant part of the extensive foundation was the purchase or construction of residential houses with inexpensive and separate small-apartments for Jewish and non-Jewish “less well-off women or girls of the middle class” (see page 2). Also the foundation board, whose initial members were Mayor Dr. Adickes, Counsellor of Health Dr. Marcus and Town Councilor Dr. Woell, was to be filled “irrespective of denomination” (see page 4). In 1910, seven years after Minka von Goldschmidt-Rothschild´s early death, the objective of the foundress was achieved and a large building complex erected at Hügelstrasse 142-146 in the Eschersheim district. Part of the property of the Residential Home for Ladies were the houses at Fontanestrasse 1-3 and Klaus-Groth-Strasse 81-83. What had been created was an interdenominational residential home for single senior ladies not in need of nursing care, which fulfilled the function of a home for pensioners at the same time.
In 1911 ladies could move into the building complex with 23 unfurnished one- and two-room apartments, equipped with mansards, basement, kitchen, initially a dining room as well as the flat of the property manager (cp. ISG Ffm, magistrate records V / 538 volume 3). Many of the female tenants, mainly widows of former members of the middle class, older female single teachers and social pensioners, used the possibility of having a free lunch offered in town. After the First World War Rothschild´s residential project was also affected by inflation (cp. Meyerhof-Hildeck 1923), however, it kept on providing reliable shelter. In contrast, during this time of crisis older private tenants who lived on their own increasingly feared they would lose their own four walls and independence by being referral to a retirement home. At the beginning of the 1920’s the Professor´s wife Marie Wachsmuth made herself available as a voluntary welfare worker and contact person for the Frankfurt welfare office. The files (cp. ISG Ffm: welfare office sign. 326) of the welfare office contain the names and data of some residents such as Marie Demuth (born in Frankfurt/M. in 1855), Wilhelmine Schwarz (born in Frankfurt/M. in 1854), who was paid an annuity from a previous employment and Margarete Stolzenhain [Margarethe Stolzenhayn] (born in Berlin in 1865), who was also classed as a needy person. An indication of Jewish tenants in the Residential Home for Ladies is given by the Jewish community newsletter for Frankfurt am Main, which announced the 70th birthday of the Jewish community member Rosette Goldschmidt, resident at Hügelstrasse 144. Certainly, this woman who was a native of Frankfurt had had to move out of the house in which she lived, which was mainly inhabited by non-Jewish residents, due to the anti-semitic NS-“Law on Tenancies with Jews”, which was enacted on 30th April 1939, abolishing the protection against eviction and forcing the spatial separation from non-Jewish neighbors. Rosette Goldschmidt´s last address was the Jewish Retirement Home Niedenau 25 (transit camp) from where the 74-year old pensioner was deported to Theresienstadt on 18th August 1942 and from there to the extermination camp Treblinka on 23rd September 1942 (cp. JM Ffm: database).
The National Socialists intended to wipe out all memory of the extensive philanthropic commitment of Frankfurt´s Jewish founder family Rothschild which was why they renamed the funding body to “Foundation for Charitable Purposes (Housing Assistance Foundation)”. In 1940 the Aktienbaugesellschaft für kleine Wohnungen (joint stock corporation for construction of small residences) “purchased” the building complex for small apartments. It was returned to the legal owner family four years after the end of the NS-regime (cp. Lenarz 2003) followed by re-establishing the foundation as “Baron Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild´s Foundation for Charitable Purposes” in 1950. Entirely in line with the intention of the initiator Minka von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, the social housing project assists needy pensioners up to the present day– and is, as a frail elderly tenant (she is from Odessa / Ukraine) told us, still a “residential home for ladies”.
Birgit Seemann, 2013, updated 2017
Unpublished Sources
ISG Ffm: Institut für Stadtgeschichte Frankfurt am Main:
Schiebler, Gerhard 1994: Stiftungen, Schenkungen, Organisationen und Vereine mit Kurzbiographien jüdischer Bürger. In: Lustiger, Arno (Hg.) 1994: Jüdische Stiftungen in Frankfurt am Main. Stiftungen, Schenkungen, Organisationen und Vereine mit Kurzbiographien jüdischer Bürger dargest. v. Gerhard Schiebler. Mit Beitr. v. Hans Achinger [u.a.]. Hg. i.A. der M.-J.-Kirchheim’schen Stiftung in Frankfurt am Main. 2. unveränd. Aufl. Sigmaringen, S. 11-288.
Statut Rothschild´sches Damenheim 1904:Statut der Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild´schen Stiftung für wohltätige und gemeinnützige Zwecke zu Frankfurt a.M. Frankfurt/M.: Druck v. Voigt & Gleiber.
JM Ffm: Jüdisches Museum und Museum Judengasse Frankfurt am Main (mit der internen biographischen Datenbank der Gedenkstätte Neuer Börneplatz): www.juedischesmuseum.de.
On October 11, 1874 a “stately” procession of Rödelheim citizens moved from the town hall to the new hospital and almshouse. The house was located “in the continuation of Alexander Street to the right” (Trümpert 1881: 39). The head of the district authority Rath from Wiesbaden and Frankfurt´s police president Hergenhahn were on the ground. The Catholic pastor Hungari and his Protestant colleague Trümpert held ordination speeches for which they were paid by the founders of the houses Julius and Arthur May (cp. Trümpert 1881: 39). The May brothers and to a lesser extent Recha Seligstein, one of Julius´and Arthur´s sisters, with her husband Samuel had given the hospital and almshouse to the value of 18,000 Guilders (cp. Lustiger 1988: 147) to the Municipal of Rödelheim. The donation agreement is dated May 20, 1874 and begins with the words: “Since the Municipal of Rödelheim had often felt the need of a hospital and almshouse, where needy people are cared for, the gentlemen Julius May and Arthur May have had a dwelling being suitable for medical care and poor relief, of which you find a ground plan in the enclosure, built at their own expense in Frankfurt am Main on their assigned properties of Rödelheim´s boundary cadastral section 7 No. 137.6 138.3 139.3 140.3 141.3 & 142 to the memory of their deceased parents, Mr Jos. Hirsch May and his wife Hannchen née Mayer.” The individual points in the contract are listed in the following document. The contract is signed by the donors, for the Municipal of Rödelheim by Mayor Müller and his municipal councilors and for the Executive Board of the Jewish community by Josef Neumann, J. Lehrberger, B.J. Schott, M. Ehrmann und S.M. Mandelbaum (cp. ISG Ffm: magistrate records V 339: 1-3).
For the year 1897 it is possible to reconstruct the Executive Board of the hospital from Rödelheim´s address book: The Christian Executive Board consisted of Mayor Stubberg, the physician Dr. Hermann Momberger, who was in charge of the medical care in Rödelheim´s hospital, the chemical manufacturer Franz Schulz and Wilhelm Schmidt, who ran a dry-cleaning company for bedsprings. The Jewish Executive Board consisted of the book print shop owner Mayer Lehrberger, the merchant Simon Mandelbaum and the butcher Leopold Fleisch (cp. Dippel 1995).
Rödelheim´s incorporation into Frankfurt In the course of the incorporation of Rödelheim into the City of Frankfurt am Main in 1910 the hospital changed over to the city hospital, while the Jewish community remained independent (see Lustiger 1988: 147). In accordance with a magistrate decision the board was chaired by the chairman of the institute deputation, the administration of the hospitals and almshouses of the City of Frankfurt am Main (cp. ISG Ffm: magistrate records V 339: 1).
The conversion to a nursing home In 1922 the institute deputation requested the magistrate to set up Rödelheim´s hospital as infirmary. The need for accommodation of severely ill patients had increased, and Rödelheim´s hospital was considered to be suitable for this, because its 31 beds were not all occupied by Rödelheim´s citizens and the foundation purpose “for medical care and poor relief” would not be affected by this change. The application was approved under the conditions that residents of the Rödelheim district were given preferential accommodation, that the hospital care could be re-established if necessary and that the staff would be taken on (cp. ISG Ffm: magistrate records V 339: March 17, 1922).
A dispute between the chairman of Rödelheim´s Jewish cultural community Heinrich Hammel and the magistrate shows that the consequences from the conversion to an infirmary were not really clear. In 1924 Heinrich Hammel had admitted the diseased warden of the synagogue to the Jewish hospital on Gagernstrasse and was of the opinion that he should be treated free of charge, since due to the conversion to an infirmary there were no patient beds available which shall be provided by the city. He probably justified this by §4 of the donation agreement which governed the special use by Jewish unemployables. However, the magistrate did not share this opinion, as it was not a matter of unemployability, but illness. Nevertheless he did not want to insist on the care expenses being reimbursed as a gesture of goodwill (cp. ISG Ffm: magistrate records V 339: 36-37).
The Nazi influence
Siechenhaus (Sick House) Roedelheeim, view of the courtyard in Nosbisch 1930
§6 of the donation deed of 1874 provided that “a prayer room for the Jewish worship service has to be reserved” in the hospital and almshouse (ISG Ffm: magistrate records V 339: 1-3). According to Arthur Hammel, the son of the last church warden of Rödelheim´s Jewish community, Heinrich Hammel, the prayer room still existed in 1933: “Jews who had died in hospital were laid out in this room and taken from here to the grave on the cemetery of Rödelheim, Westhausen” (Dippel 1995).
n March 1997 Frankfurt´s registered association for old-age welfare service requested the legal office of the foundation department to allow the use of the prayer room for “better purposes”, i.e. care purposes, due to a great shortage of space. Additionally, the room would be almost vacant throughout the year and only used by a few people. “It must be added that these few people as Jews are no members of the German national community, while the home is solely occupied by German national comrades” (ISG Ffm: Foundation Department 311-312: April 23, 1937). The approval for the conversion of the prayer room was based on the grounds that the original use may only be demanded by the heirs of the donors, who, however, were not alive anymore [which is incorrect, see article: “The Founding May Family” (being prepared) of the author]. Additionally, there was no public interest in the original use. The report of the foundation department of the legal office dated April 23, 1937 states: “Practically, the situation is that the chairman of the Jewish cultural community, Heinrich Hammel […] holds a worship service of about 30 minutes, one each in February and August, in this room together with 8-9 community members. The original prayer room has long-fallen victim to the rebuilding. A spare room has been set up in one of the wings. […] It had been suggested that the Jews hold these two remembrance ceremonies in Rödelheim´s synagogue, which, however, they did not want to accept.” It is further stated that also other benefits for Jews having been defined in the foundation deed (occupation of at least four rooms in the almshouse with Jews and right to ritual meals) seemed to have been given up in 1922 at the latest, when the hospital was converted to an infirmary. It is emphasized that the earlier Jewish influences on the home or its management and administration had been “completely eliminated” in the meantime (cp. ISG Ffm: Foundation Department 311-312: April 23, 1937).
As the different documents mention both gift and donation, the legal office of the foundation department of the City of Frankfurt tried to clarify the issue in 1941. It was determined that the Joseph and Hannchen May Foundation being referred to as foundation was a donation of the May brothers. Additionally, it was clarified that two further transfers were also donations: On the one hand 10,000 Marks given by Arthur May to Rödelheim´s Jewish cultural community in May 1886 for the Easter feeding of poor Jews (Lustiger 1988: 28) and 12,000 Marks given by Julius May to Rödelheim´s Jewish community in May 1891 for the support of poor people. In the documents of the Municipal of Rödelheim both amounts were referred to as bank transfers to the Josef and Hannchen May Foundation, as both were gifts. However, since state supervision was missing, it was not possible to call it a donation (cp. ISG Ffm: Foundation Department 311-312: March 12, 1941). By the classification as a gift it became easier to handle the purpose of the gift arbitrarily.
Post-war period Another rebuilding was done in the 1950s. This was also planned for the 1970s, but the building turned out to be now completely obsolete so that it was pulled down in 1983. The new building was inaugurated in 1987 (cp. ISG Ffm: Welfare Office 3,944). The current owner of the Social and Rehabilitation Center West in Rödelheim, the registered Frankfurt Association, draws attention to the origins of the home by a small exhibition (as of 2012), which has been composed by Rödelheim´s former Protestant pastor Heinrich Dippel and has limited access. This article shall support the memory of Joseph and Hannchen May in the spirt their children wished.
Edgar Bönisch 2013
Unpublished sources Abkürzung ISG Ffm = Institut für Stadtgeschichte Frankfurt am Main
ISG Ffm: Fürsorgeamt 3.944
ISG Ffm: Magistratsakten V 339 1874, 1910-1941: Krankenhaus in Rödelheim (MAYsche Stiftung), ab 1922 Siechenhaus
ISG Ffm: Stiftungsabteilung 311-312, vom 23.4.1937
Literature
Lustiger, Arnold (Hg.) 1988: Jüdische Stiftungen in Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt am Main
Nosbisch, W. (Bearbeiter) 1930: Das Wohnungswesen der Stadt Frankfurt a. M. Herausgegeben im Auftrage des Magistrats aus Anlass der diesjährigen deutschen Tagung für Wohnungswesen vom Hochbauamt und Wirtschaftsamt. Frankfurt am Main
Trümpert, Rudolph 1881: „Chronik“ der Stadt Rödelheim von Rudolph Trümpert ev. Pfarrer daselbst. Rödelheim
Exhibition documents
Dippel, Heinrich 1995: Ausstellung im Sozial- und Rehazentrum West, Alexanderstr. 96, Frankfurt am Main
The donations of the May siblings to the Municipality of Rödelheim On May 20, 1874 the sons of Joseph Hirsch May and Hannchen May, Julius and Arthur May, together with their sister Rege, donated a “dwelling plus equipment for the accommodation of sick and needy people” to the Municipality of Rödelheim in memory of their deceased parents (ISG Ffm: magistrate records V 339: 1-3). For this purpose a building with eight rooms had been erected on the property where the parents formerly had lived themselves. The building also provided a prayer room for Jewish church services facing east to the village of Hausen (cp. Trümpert 1881: 39). (See also article “Foundation History” and database entry “Institution”).
In the possession of the City of Frankfurt am Main and first renovations When Rödelheim was incorporated into Frankfurt in 1910, the management of Rödelheim´s hospital was taken over by the local hospital (cp. Lustiger 1988: 147). Consequently, it started to increase its number of beds from 26 to 35. In the course of the renovation, the plumbing system was renewed. A hot water system and electrical lighting were installed. A light and ventilation shaft, a bathing facility as well as a new cooking plant and heating system were added. The patient rooms as well as the nurses´ station were also renovated. The cost estimate was 6,850 Marks (cp. ISG Ffm: magistrate records V 339: 10). In the following years more properties were purchased. Single endowments like the heritage of 150 Marks of the widow Margarethe Kohlhoff née Melsoch von Friedrichsdorf i/T. in 1916 (cp. ISH Ffm: magistrate records V 339: 13) were received. During the First World War the building was also used as a military hospital (Kraft 1960).
In 1922 the hospital changed into an infirmary, where 32 people, including 12 men and 20 women, were accommodated (cp. ISG Ffm: magistrate records V 339: 35). A greater extension was planned in 1925: “As it has become impossible to provide an appropriate accommodation for chronically sick people, we are forced to plan the extension of Rödelheim´s infirmary” (ISG Ffm: magistrate records V 339: 49). The intention was to provide accommodation for 90 patients and to increase staff by eight to ten persons and to expand the utility, bathing and living rooms. Part of the plans was also a mortuary, a new laundry as well as a lifting crane in the bathing cell for “patients having become completely crooked and stiff by gout” (ISG Ffm: magistrate records V 339: 49). The cost estimate was 250,000 Marks. In order to be able to argue for the extension, the financing authorities calculated the possible savings. Assuming the care for about 200 care dependent people who are accommodated in hospital at a daily rate of 4,50 Marks, the aim due to the discontinuation of medical care in the infirmary was to achieve a daily rate of 2.25 Marks in an infirmary. The calculated savings were 48,453.75 Marks. Moreover, there would be more free beds provided in the hospitals (cp. ISG Ffm: magistrate records V 339: 49a).
In 1927 the executive board of the foundation agreed to the conversion, in order to preserve – in its opinion – the foundation purpose of providing accommodation for sick and needy people (cp. ISG Ffm: magistrate records V 339: 79). The planning team added some further details such as cuspidor bowls with flushing in the corridors in order to minimize the risk of TBC-infections (cp. ISG Ffm: magistrate records V 339: 106). On the occasion of the inauguration ceremony of the extension in April 1930 both the architect Max Cetto from the group around the settlement councilor Ernst May and the magistrate building officer Weber were praised that it was thanks to their work that the old and the new building had been connected to a “uniform building structure of the utmost clarity and openness [sic] and consummate practicality in the facility. The building is decorated with clear and friendly colors, and it is well-structured by wide banks of windows” (Frankfurt News April 29, 1930). The newspaper also reported of 101 beds in 18 patient rooms with two to seven beds as well as of living rooms for men and women for 45 people each. Six large halls for recumbent patients had been created; numerous bath rooms, kitchen and laundry completed the facilities. There were ventilation systems, radio in the whole house with loudspeakers in the living rooms and headphones at each bed. And the home was already fully occupied at a daily care rate of 2 Reichmarks (cp. Frankfurt News April 29, 1930).
Damages during the Second World War and the demolition in 1983 On April 17, 1944 the care manager Mr. Bales wrote: “What is most regrettable is that we had to move out of our nice nursing home. The immediate vicinity to the industrial plants has resulted in bomb damages so that it was finally impossible to expect the staff to continue the hard care work here in Frankfurt am Main” (ISG Ffm: anti-raid protection 88). After the war the home was put into operation again and extended in the 1950’s. Due to obsolescence it was demolished in 1983. The newly built Social and Rehabilitation Center West of Frankfurt´s Association was officially opened at the same location in 1987 (cp. www.frankfurt.de).
Siechenhaus (Sick House), View of a glass veranda, 1930 in Nosbisch 1930
History of People
Health insurances for Rödelheim´s hospital and almshouse The members of Rödelheim´s three health insurances were entitled to be treated at hospital free of charge. In 1820 “Rödelheim´s Health Insurance for Single Jews” was founded. It had about 50 members and assets of approximately 15,000 Guilders. The chairman at this time was Leopold Fleisch, a butcher, who was also a member of the executive board of the hospital (cp. Dippel 1995). The “Jewish Funeral and Patients´ Assistance Fund” was also founded in 1820 and the “Jewish Patients´ Assistance Fund for Charity” in 1871 (cp. Dippel 1995). Another possibility for inexpensive treatment at Rödelheim´s hospital was the insurance by subscription issue through the employer. Such a received issue, printed by Rödelheim´s printer J. Lehrberg and Comp., bears the title “Subscription for Admission to Rödelheim´s Hospital for Farmhands, Craftsmen and Factory Workers – approved in Wiesbaden, 10th March 1875, the Royal District Administrator Rath”. In accordance with §1 of the statutes for admission to Rödelheim´s hospital of the Joseph and Hannchen May Foundation printed therein “the intention of the subscription is to effect the immediate admission to the hospital in case of illness, where help and care is granted to the patient until he has completely recovered.” The subscription issue could be ordered by employers and sold to their employees for 10 Pfennigs. This weekly contribution of 10 Pfennigs was receipted in the issue (cp. ISG Ffm: Foundation Department 312). Female physicians, patients and residents The only thing having come down from the first administrator of the hospital and almshouse is the name P. Wagner (cp. Trümpert 1881: 39). One of the first female residents seemed to have been Katharina Schaub. Pastor Trümpert reports on her in 1881: “Because it is so unusual, I report on a 97-year old woman being healthy in body and mind, who has found shelter in the hospital for several years. It is the widow [sic] Katharina Schaub, born on January 1, 1784” (cp. Trümpert 1881: 39). In 1910 the previous practitioner, the medical officer Dr. Momberger, retired from the institution, and Theodor Katz took over from him. Dr. Katz was born in Kaiserslautern on January 16, 1882, had studied in Würzburg and completed his military service in 1908. In the same year he went on a longer trip to Brazil. After having been employed in Hamburg / Eppendorf, he now was in charge as assistant physician at the local hospital (cp. ISG Ffm: magistrate records V 339: 5). In a document from 1925 his position in Rödelheim is described as additional welfare service. He was obliged to visit the institution three times a week for which he received a basic remuneration of 50 Marks plus a local special surcharge (cp. ISG Ffm: magistrate records V 339: 51).
Workers in the May’schen Siechenhaus (Sick House) around 1930 From: Ausstellung Dippel, 1995
A photo of the staff of the “old nursing home” has been preserved. The year when it was taken is unknown, but it probably shows the staff of the nursing home that existed inside the building from 1922. It can be concluded from the floor plans that at least a few of them seemed to have lived in the home.
Around 1930 Mrs. Julie Roger was the manageress of the home. She also chaired Frankfurt´s registered association for old-age welfare service (cp. ISG Ffm: magistrate records 339, April 30, 1930). Medical director was the medical officer Dr. Pfannmüller (cp. Frankfurt News April 29, 1930).
Up to which date and in which number Jewish residents used to live in the home could not be investigated. One note is from March 1937, when Frankfurt´s registered association for old-age welfare service states in an application to the magistrate that the home is “only occupied by German comrades” (ISG Ffm: Foundation Department 311-312: April 23, 1937). During the war the residents were joined by people who had lost their homes by air raids. Due to the bombing raids, a few nurses as well as some residents of the home were transferred to “Rheinhöhe im Rheingau” during the war (cp. ISG Ffm: magistrate records 3813: 81). The literature provides the names of the two head nurses, Anni Bohne and Mrs Satzinger. The care manager Bales reports of the head nurse Satzinger in April 1944 and states she has taken over a few guesthouses in Bad Salzhausen after having left Dornbuschheim when it was destroyed [see Budge-Home] and also been bombed out of her premises at 50 Gärtnerweg and Leerbachstrasse (ISG Ffm: air-raid protection 88).
Edgar Bönisch 2013
Unpublished Sources Abkürzung ISG Ffm = Institut für Stadtgeschichte Frankfurt am Main
Kraft 1960: Stadtkanzlei G. Kraft in ISG Ffm: Stiftungsabteilung 311-312, 30.5.1960
ISG Ffm: Luftschutz 88: Die Fürsorgeleitung, Ziehen-Oberschule, Frankfurt am Main, Dir. Bales an Julie Roger, Villa Roger, Jugenheim an der Bergstraße 17.4.1944.
ISG Ffm: Magistratsakten V 339 1874, 1910-1941: Krankenhaus in Rödelheim (MAYsche Stiftung), ab 1922 Siechenhaus
ISG Ffm: Magistratsakte 3813: 81, vom 1.2.1944
ISG Ffm: Stiftungsabteilung 312
Literature
Trümpert, Rudolph 1881: „Chronik“ der Stadt Rödelheim von Rudolph Trümpert ev. Pfarrer daselbst. Rödelheim
Lustiger, Arnold (Hg.) 1988: Jüdische Stiftungen in Frankfurt am Main. Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurter Nachrichten 118, vom 29.4.1930
Nosbisch, W. (Bearbeiter) 1930: Das Wohnungswesen der Stadt Frankfurt a. M. Herausgegeben im Auftrage des Magistrats aus Anlass der diesjährigen deutschen Tagung für Wohnungswesen vom Hochbauamt und Wirtschaftsamt. Frankfurt am Main
…where old people, who got a raw deal in the battle of life, may pass away in peace.”
(Elkan Nathan Adler, 1895)
Title page of the Statutes of the Rothschild Elder’s Home. University library Frankfurt am Main: Statutes of the Charity (electronic resource): Baron Wilhelm and Baroness Mathilde von Rothschild’s Elder’s Home for Jewish Women and maiden women from better circumstances
Had the institutions not been destroyed during the Nazi era, Frankfurt am Main could look back on nearly 170 years of unbroken tradition of institutionalized Jewish care for the elderly. Due to the growing demand for care services outside the home also in Frankfurt´s two Jewish communities, the Jewish Elder’s home (Versorgungsanstalt für Israeliten) and the´Gumpertz´ infirmary were established by generous donations in the second half of the 19th century. In the first third of the 20th Century they were followed by the Freiherrlich Wilhelm and Freifrau Mathilde von Rothschild´s retirement home for Jewish women and maids of higher classes, the Home for Female Jewish Teachers and Students (registered association), the retirement home of the Hospital of the Jewish Health Insurances as well as two Jewish-Christian institutions with the retirement home of Frankfurt´s association for elderly care (in former times Rödelheim Jewish Hospital and nursing home) and the Henry and Emma Budge Home for single old people. During the Nazi era the homes were forcefully dissolved, “aryanized” and misused as transit camps prior to the deportations. However, two re-established institutions could continue the tradition of Frankfurt Jewish elderly care and aged care work unlike Jewish nursing which was not re-instated after the Shoah: the senior center of the Jewish community (on the premises of the former Frankfurt Jewish hospital on Gagernstrasse) and the Jewish-Christian retirement and nursing home of the Henry and Emma Budge Foundation
Retirement Homes, Nursing Homes and Foundations The first senior citizens residence, the Jewish Elder’s home (Versorgungsanstalt für Israeliten) of Frankfurt´s Jewish community, was opened in 1845 at former “Wollgraben 8”, near the former “Judengasse” (Jews Alley) (Kirchheim 1911; Arnsberg 1983, Bd. 2, S. 87; Schiebler 1988, S. 129f.) At first it gave needy Jewish Frankfurt citizens “whose inability to work was due to infirmity” from the age of 60 up a home, , , but also people from the age of 40 up, who dropped out of employment early “due to illness or afflictions”. Schiebler 1988, page. 129. The home was not equipped for any nursing or care for persons confined to bed: The applicants had to be either insured (until the introduction of the statutory disability and old-age insurance in 1889) with the Jewish health insurance for men and women or had to prove they had a care option outside the retirement home in case they should become ill or bedridden. The proposed gender parity occupancy in the statutes could not be always observed, since there were more female than male applications. In 1847 the Jewish retirement home accommodated six, and after having moved to neighboring “Wollgraben 6” in December 1852 even 11 “nurslings” (citation as above, page 130.) In 1889 it moved into its new domicile at Röderbergweg 77 with room for 47 people. Around 1925 the number of beds occupied by women was 24 and by men 15 (Segall/ Weinreich 1925, page. 3). On October 23, 1939 the Nazi authorities incorporated the institution, rich in tradition, into the “National Association of Jewish people in Germany”. The last head was Rosa Schuster, who was supported by her daughters Bertha Schuster (Betty Kale) and Margot Schuster. In May 1941 (Kingreen 1999b, S. 147) the Nazi authorities evacuated the retirement home and placed it at the Wehrmacht´s disposal. The residents were moved to the transit camp (referred to as “collective accommodation for Jews” by the Nazi authorities from November 1, 1942) at Hermesweg 5-7 where later also the last Jewish hospital ward was located. In August 1942 the frail and partly very elderly people were deported to Theresienstadt senior ghetto and transit camp (Kingreen 1999b, S. 384f.) followed by Rosa Schuster and her two daughters one month later. Only Bertha Schuster survived the Shoah.
In 1888 Betty Gumpertz founded Gumpertz´ infirmary for poor fellow Jews, which was named after her and last located at Röderbergweg 62-64. It brought together, under one roof, nursing, care of the elderly and severely disabled, and poor relief, as well as hospice care for dying people. The care was managed by Matron Thekla Mandel from about 1894 until her marriage in 1907, followed by Matron Rahel Spiro, both of whom were trained by the Association for Jewish Nurses of Frankfurt am Main. Ferdinand Gamburg, Charles L. Hallgarten and Julius Goldschmidt officiated, among others, as chairmen (presidents) of the infirmary. In addition to Betty Gumpertz, further founders/foundresses like Träutchen Höchberg, Raphael Ettlinger, as well as Minna Caroline (Minka) von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, committed themselves to the home. After Betty´s death (in 1903) the Minka von Goldschmidt-Rothschild Foundation was established and affiliated with the Gumpertz Foundation – which was why the nursing home was also known as Rothschild´s infirmary. Minka´s widower Maximilian Benedikt von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, their daughter Lili Schey von Koromla and other family members took care of the foundation. Among the dependent persons were personalities like Gerson Mannheimer and Salomon Goldschmidt, who were well known in the Jewish community life of the state of Hesse. The beneficial work of Gumpertz´ infirmary ended in 1938 with the Aryanization measures of the Nazi rulers. It was finally located on 15 Danziger Platz (until 1941). Since 1956 a nursing home of the worker´s welfare has been located on the former premises of the Jewish infirmary with the August-Stunz-Center (today at Röderbergweg 82).
The smaller Sussmann-Una-Foundation provided care for frail, elderly and very needy Jewish men with a “strict religious moral conduct in accordance with the standards of traditional Judaism” (Schiebler, 124, see also Andernacht/Sterling 1963, S. 144). It was founded on October 18, 1901 with money left in the will of the pensioner Sussmann Una, who had died on June 23, 1899. On November 27, 1939 the Nazi authorities also forced this foundation into the “National Association of Jewish people in Germany”. The “Michael und Adelaide Rothschild née Honig and their children Josef and Emily Foundation”, which also supported “Jews in old age and illness” and of which little is known so far, fared no different. It appears that these two foundations did not maintain their own homes so that they seemed to make everyday assistance, drug supply and outreach care possible.
In memory of her husband Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild, who had died in 1901, Hannah Mathilde von Rothschild formed a foundation on March 27, 1903. It was her aim to provide a secure home” to “single needy Jewish” women from the age of 60 up “residing in Frankfurt am Main or within an air-line distance of 100 km […] (statute of Rothschild´s retirement home 1907, page 3). In the same year the Freiherrlich Wilhelm and Freifrau Mathilde von Rothschild´s retirement home for Jewish women and maids of higher classes was referred to as “Rothschild´s retirement home”, opened within the old Rothschild´s Palais at Zeil 92, providing room for 25 people; the house at Liebigstrasse 24 additionally belonged to the foundation´s assets (Arnsberg 1983 Bd. 2, S. 86f.; Schiebler 1994, S. 119f.). As the honorary president of the board, Hannah Mathilde von Rothschild got actively involved in the management of the home making use of her own rooms. The seniors’ home, whose female residents came from the upper educated class and had to lead an irreproachable life according to expectations of the time, corresponded to the concept of a Christian convent for noblewomen: Should a resident get married, she had to leave the home. Residents who started to need permanent nursing care were transferred to institutions like Gumpertz´ infirmary which were appropriately equipped. After the death of her mother, Hannah Mathilde and her also dedicated sister, Minka von Goldschmidt-Rothschild Adelheid de Rothschild continued to support the home generously from Paris, including a large donation of RM 500,000. Also closely connected with the history of the institution is the biography of Jenny Hahn, who had been employed from 1917 and worked as the administrator of Rothschild´s retirement home between 1930 and 1940. On September 27, 1940 the Nazi authorities incorporated the foundation into the “National Association of Jewish people in Germany”. About one year later the residents of the home were forcefully evicted, and were transferred to different retirement homes (NS- transit camps) and the elderly care department of the Hospital of the Jewish Frankfurt am Main Community on Gagernstrasse (cp. Andernacht/Sterling 1963, page 471). The old people as well as the administrator Jenny Hahn were deported and murdered. In 1902 Minka von Goldschmidt-Rothschild initiated a residential project for single, older, female tenants of all confessions: The „Residential Home for Ladies“ of the Baron Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild Foundation for Charitable and Non-Profit Purposes was officially opened at 142-146 Hügelstrasse in 1911. Rothschild´s Residential Home for Ladies still exists today.
A smaller Jewish retirement home for women, the “Jewish Home for Female Teachers and Students” was founded by Clara and Isaac Bermann at Rückerstrasse 53 with room for 8 persons (Segall/Weinrich 1925, S. 4f; Schiebler 1994, S. 202; siehe auch Kirchheim 1911, S. 21; Arnsberg 1983 Bd. 2, S. 110).. The home, in which female students also used to live temporarily, accommodated “female teachers, nursery school teachers, kindergarten workers, house officials and other female civil servants as well as further higher educated female employees”, who could no longer practice their profession due to age or infirmity. In addition to 10 years of work experience, they usually had to be older than 45 years. A home for female Jewish teachers was established in response to the “celibacy for female teachers” which was introduced in the Wilhelmine Empire in 1880: If female teachers and civil servants married, they had to retire from professional life which was why many remained unmarried and childless. This affected female Christians and Jews equally. : “And yet, “we Jewish women also have to fight with special difficulties which a Jewish woman has to face everywhere” (Löffler 1932, S. 40; siehe auch Bericht 1911).. On May 20, 1932 the home commemorated its co-foundress and “first and oldest board lady” Ida Dann, who had died at the age of almost 79 years on April 14, 1932. In February 1933 two long-term residents, Ida Bernstein and Rosalie Heinemann, celebrated their 75th and 85th birthdays in the home. An anniversary celebration for the 25th year of the home´s existence was planned for autumn 1933. From June 1, 1942 the Nazi authorities managed the Jewish home for female teachers as “Jewish retirement home Rückertstrasse” (see below).
The Jewish hospital of the Joseph and Hannchen May Foundation at Alexanderstrasse 96, which was opened in Rödelheim in 1874 and assigned to the municipal hospital as a result of Rödelheim´s incorporation to Frankfurt am Main in 1910, was turned into a retirement home of Frankfurt´s Association for Elderly Care in 1922. The institution remained interdenominational: Jewish and Christian senior citizens spent their retirement years there together – until the Nazi break in 1933. Apparently, there was still a Jewish prayer room until July 1937. Today with the Social and Rehabilitation Center West there is still a (non-Jewish) retirement and nursing home located at Alexanderstrasse 94-96, in which a little exhibition commemorates its Jewish history.
Like the Jewish hospital of the Joseph and Hannchen May Foundation in Rödelheim, the Hospital of the Jewish Health Insurances at Röderbergweg 18-20 was increasingly used as a retirement home from the beginning of the 1920´s with room for 18 (health insurance for women) and 15 (health insurance for men) (Segall/Weinreich 1925, S. 4f.). The history of Frankfurt’s oldest Jewish nursing institution stretching across at least two centuries and rooted in the ghetto times ended as a NS-transit camp prior to the deportations. Allied air raids destroyed the “aryanized” buildings.
The retirement and nursing home of the Henry and Emma Budge Foundation, located on Wilhelmshöher Strasse in Frankfurt´s district Seckbach since 1967, has committed itself to vision of Jews and Christians living together after the Shoah. This is how it continues the tradition of the previous Henry and Emma Budge Home for old and single people, opened on Edingerweg in 1930, but already donated by Emma and Henry Budge in 1920. Its statute provided for a bed occupancy of one half each of Jewish and Christian residents. In 1938 the national Socialist Lord Mayor of the City of Frankfurt enacted the racial segregation of the residents into a Jewish and Aryan department. At this time the home still had 60 Jewish residents, who, however, had to leave the Budge Home by March 31, 1939. Now the Budge Home was referred to as “Heim am Dornbusch” ; nothing was to commemorate the Jewish donor couple anymore. In 1942 former Jewish residents of the Budge Home were deported into extermination. Due to the air raids the Christian residents were transferred to other homes in Frankfurt´s district before being evacuated to Bad Salzhausen. Finally, they were accommodated in Wächtersbach Castle. Following the surrender, authorities of the American Army took over the severely damaged building on Edingerweg, which they still used as renters after the Henry and Emma Budge Foundation was revitalized in 1956.
In addition to the institutions maintained in the city of Frankfurt, there were homes of the Jewish elderly care in health resorts, which were initiated and administered from Frankfurt am Main, like the rehabilitation and retirement home for Jewish teachers, cantors and scholars located in Bad Ems (Rhineland-Palatinate), a spa town and health resort, and opened in 1930. It existed until 1939.
Nazi era: From a retirement home to a ghetto house A particularly depressing and shameful chapter concerns the establishment of Jewish “retirement homes” as transit camps in Nazi Frankfurt. The need of Jewish places in retirement and nursing homes increased also by moves into the city from the surrounding Hesse region and the emigration of younger people who were persecuted for anti-Semitic reasons and had to leave their frail family members behind – also due to immigration restrictions of host countries . In addition to the increased use of existing institutions like the Jewish Elder’s Home and the Hospital of the Jewish Health Insurances, also ghetto houses (“Jews´ houses”) were occupied. Due to high fluctuation the homes were finally often managed by staff not trained in nursing or care of the elderly. The following Nazi transit camps for old people have been identified up to this time (Andernacht/ Sterling 1963, S. 481, S. 507-533): : – the last Jewish hospital ward at Hermesweg 5/7 which was referred to as “collective accommodation” – “Jewish retirement home” at Feuerbachstrasse 14, last managed by Erna Blum. Nora Gottfeld, who had to give up her profession as a porcelain painter during the Nazi era, was a member of the caring staff. Then she worked as a nurse in the hospital of the Jewish community, in the retirement home on Feuerbachstrasse and finally in the Niederau retirement home. Residents of the Jewish Elder’s Home, including the widowed trader Salomon Hirschberger, were also transferred to Feuerbachstrasse. – “Jewish retirement home” at Hans-Handwerk-Strasse 30, managed by the former shop assistant Jenny Dahlberg. To this transit camp Nazi authorities committed, in particular, people cared for by the Jewish Welfare services, including Johanna (Hannchen) Löwenberg. – “Jewish retirement home” at Niedenau 25, managed by Dora Kaufherr. On behalf of the residents, Rosa Natt-Fuchs is mentioned here. – the above-mentioned hospital of the Jewish health insurances at Rechneigrabenstrasse 18-20 (management unknown so far) – “Jewish retirement home” at Reuterweg 91, managed by Rosa (Rosel) Möser, who survived the Shoah – “Jewish retirement home” at Rückertstrasse 49 (management unknown so far) – “Jewish retirement home” at Sandweg 7 (management unknown so far) – “Jewish retirement home” at Wöhlerstrasse 6, 8, 13(management unknown so far) (Leiterinnen: Cilly Bachrach , Martha Katzenstein, into which the Nazi authorities forced older people who had moved from rural areas to Frankfurt.
The hospital of the Jewish community on Gagernstrasse became Frankfurt´s final institution of not just nursing, but also elderly care: “The number of beds being available could be increased […] from 324 by 49 to 373. At the end of September 1941 the hospital was filled with 248 persons in total of which 120 were patients and 128 old and frail people.” The prayer room was changed into a dormitory and the kosher-run kitchen into an emergency kitchen. The hospital’s laundry also offered its services to the remaining “Jewish retirement homes”. It was thanks to committed nurses like Thea Höchster that the hospital on Gagernstrasse became the final hideaway in Frankfurt for frail and dependent Jewish people for a few months prior to the deportations. According to Hilde Steppe “almost 400 people were accommodated in the hospital as patients, in addition to 100 employees and 37 nurses” in 1942 (Steppe 1997: 246). They were deported to concentration and extermination camps during and after the Nazi eviction in September 1942 (siehe Kingreen 1999b sowie Karpf 2004). The initiated aryanization of the last Jewish hospital in Frankfurt am Main was thwarted by allied air raids in 1943, which caused severe damage to the hospital building.
After 1945: Break, continuity, new start After the end of the National Socialism, attempts failed to erect Frankfurt´s Jewish hospital to a smaller extent at Gagernstrasse 36. However, a retirement and nursing home was established in the still existing circular building in 1946, where its first heads – Rosa Möser and Else Herlitz – cared for elderly and dependent Shoah-survivors under, at first, very limited conditions. Since 1952 today´s senior center(retirement and nursing home with Ateret-Zwi-Synagogue) of the Jewish community has been developing from these harsh beginnings on the premises of the former hospital and nurses´ house on Gagernstrasse / Bornheimer Landwehr. Following extensive building work, a modern building complex with large park grounds holds one of Europe’s largest senior centers today. The residents are from many nations, a part of them is non-Jewish. Pioneering work is being carried out in the handling of old and severely traumatized people and development of an intercultural care concept. The Jewish-Christian senior center and nursing home of the Henry and Emma Budge Foundation on Wilhelmshöher Strasse was opened again in 1967 as Frankfurt´s second central institution of Jewish elderly care and aged care work after the Shoah. With its memorial, inaugurated in 2011, in which 23 persons were named, including Emma Israel, a monument was created for the murdered residents of the “old” Budge Home. The research on persons, institutions and concerns of Frankfurt´s Jewish elderly care and aged care work needs to be continued.
Birgit Seemann, 2012, updated 2017
Selected Literature
Andernacht, Dietrich/ Sterling, Eleonore (Bearb.) 1963: Dokumente zur Geschichte der Frankfurter Juden 1933-1945. Hg.: Kommission zur Erforschung der Geschichte der Frankfurter Juden. Frankfurt/M.
Arnsberg, Paul 1983: Die Geschichte der Frankfurter Juden seit der Französischen Revolution. Darmstadt, 3 Bände
Bergmann, Michel 2010: Die Teilacher. Roman. Zürich, Hamburg
Bergmann, Michel 2011: Machloikes. Roman. Zürich, Hamburg
Bericht 1911: o.Verf., Frankfurt a. M. [Bericht zur Anstellung jüdischer Lehrkräfte]. In: Im deutschen Reich 17 (1911) 2, S. 96-97, Online-Ausg.: www.compactmemory.de
Karpf, Ernst 2004: Judendeportationen von August 1942 bis März 1945, http://www.ffmhist.de/
Kingreen, Monica (Hg.) 1999: „Nach der Kristallnacht“. Jüdisches Leben und antijüdische Politik in Frankfurt am Main 1938 – 1945 Frankfurt/M., New York
Kingreen, Monica 1999a: Zuflucht in Frankfurt. Zuzug hessischer Landjuden und städtische antijüdische Politik. In: dies. (Hg.) 1999, S. 119-155
Kingreen, Monica 1999b: Gewaltsam verschleppt aus Frankfurt. Die Deportationen der Juden in den Jahren 1941-1945. In: dies. (Hg.) 1999, S. 357-402
Kirchheim, Raphael M. 1911: Verzeichnis der Frankfurter jüdischen Vereine, Stiftungen und Wohltätigkeitsanstalten. O.O. [Frankfurt/M.] – Weitere Ausg. ebd. 1917. – Online-Ausg. Frankfurt/M.: Univ.-Bibliothek, 2009, http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-181640501004
Löffler, Ilse 1932: Die Frau im akademischen Beruf. In: Frankfurter Israelitisches Gemeindeblatt 10 (1932), Juni, Nr. 10, Beilage „Jugend und Gemeinde“, Hg. von der Jugendkommission der Israelitischen Gemeinde [zu Frankfurt am Main]. Rubrik „Persönliche Nachrichten“, S. 39-40. – Online-Ausg. 2007, Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main: http://edocs.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/volltexte/2007/38011/original/Gemeindeblatt_1932_10.pdf
Maierhof, Gudrun 2002: Selbstbehauptung im Chaos. Frauen in der jüdischen Selbsthilfe 1933–1943. Frankfurt/M., New York
Müller, Bruno 2006: Stiftungen in Frankfurt am Main. Geschichte und Wirkung. Neubearb. u. fortgesetzt durch Hans-Otto Schembs. Frankfurt/M.
Schiebler, Gerhard 1988: Stiftungen, Schenkungen, Organisationen und Vereine mit Kurzbiographien jüdischer Bürger. In: Lustiger, Arno (Hg.) 1988: Jüdische Stiftungen in Frankfurt am Main. Stiftungen, Schenkungen, Organisationen und Vereine mit Kurzbiographien jüdischer Bürger dargest. v. Gerhard Schiebler. Mit Beitr. v. Hans Achinger [u.a.]. Hg. i.A. der M.-J.-Kirchheim’schen Stiftung in Frankfurt am Main. 2. unveränd. Aufl. Sigmaringen 1994, S. 11-288
Segall, Jakob/ Weinreich, Frieda (Red.) 1925: Die geschlossenen und halboffenen Einrichtungen der jüdischen Wohlfahrtspflege in Deutschland. Hg. v. d. Zentralwohlfahrtsstelle der deutschen Juden. Berlin. – Online-Ausg. Frankfurt/M.: Univ.-Bibl. 2009, http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-180015307004
Seide, Adam 1987: Rebecca oder ein Haus für Jungfrauen jüdischen Glaubens besserer Stände in Frankfurt am Main. Roman. Frankfurt/M.
Statut Rothschild´sches Altersheim 1907: Statut der Stiftung: Freiherrlich Wilhelm u. Freifrau Mathilde von Rothschild’sches Altersheim für Israelitische Frauen und Jungfrauen besserer Stände [um 1907]. Online-Ausg. Frankfurt/M.: Univ.-Bibl., 2011, http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/judaicaffm/urn/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:1-307739
Steppe, Hilde 1997: „… den Kranken zum Troste und dem Judenthum zur Ehre …“. Zur Geschichte der jüdischen Krankenpflege in Deutschland. Frankfurt/M.
Tauber, Alon 2008: Zwischen Kontinuität und Neuanfang. Die Entstehung der jüdischen Nachkriegsgemeinde in Frankfurt am Main 1945-1949. Wiesbaden
Selection of internet sources [24.10.2017]
Budge-Heim: Henry und Emma Budge-Stiftung (Seniorenanlage und Pflegeheim): www.budge-stiftung.de
JM Ffm: Jüdisches Museum und Museum Judengasse Frankfurt am Main (mit der internen biographischen Datenbank der Gedenkstätte Neuer Börneplatz): www.juedischesmuseum.de
Vor dem Holocaust Ffm: Vor dem Holocaust – Fotos zum jüdischen Alltagsleben in Hessen. Betreiber: Fritz Bauer Institut, Frankfurt/M. Idee und Konzeption: Monica Kingreen: www.vor-dem-holocaust.de
For the care of the patients, for the edification of the parish, for the good of the city of our fathers”
The opening of Frankfurt´s Jewish Ghetto (1462 – 1796) and the granting of the long sought-for status as citizens (“isaelitische Bürger”) on 1st September 1824 (Heuberger/Krohn 1988, page 37) created the framework for the resolution of the cramped and outdated hospital system of the Ghetto time. Finally Frankfurt´s two Jewish communities – the Jewish community with a liberal majority and the smaller conservative Jewish religious community – could then establish a modern medical and care system. Both Jewish-religious (with their own synagogues and kosher cooking) and inter-denominational oriented hospitals and nursing homes emerged; even the conservative-Jewish institutions admitted non-Jews in accordance with the Bikkur-Cholim-provisions.
As early as 1829, a few decades prior to the establishment of equality of Frankfurt´s Jewish population on 8th October, 1864, the “Hospital of the Jewish Health Insurances ” opened its doors at Rechneigrabenstrasse 28 – 20 (next to the “Neuer Börneplatz” memorial). The Rothschild banker family had the double building erected: “The barons Amschel, Salomon, Nathan, Carl, Jacob von Rothschild put up this house in accordance with the wishes of their immortalized father [Mayer Amschel Rothschild, d.V.); “for the care of the patients, for the edification of the parish, for the good of the city of our fathers”; a monument of filial reverence and fraternal unity” (quotation by Arnsberg 1983, book volume 2, page 123). The hospital emerged from the two Jewish insurance companies for men (established in 1738 and 1758) and the Jewish health insurance for women (established in 1761) of Frankfurt´s Jewish Ghetto. All three health insurance companies were social benefit societies with their own wards where in-patients and out-patients received treatment. In 1826 Siegmund Geisenheimer, authorized representative of the banking house Rothschild M.A. and a member of the hospital administration, managed the centralization of the health insurances under the same roof in an organizational tour de force. In 1831 the hospital had up to 30 beds (Jewish health insurance for men: about 15 beds; Jewish health insurance for women: about 12 beds); an old Frankfurt City Guide (no author [1843], page 48) also praised its “little synagogue” (“Kippe-Stubb”). Claire Simon (“Sister Claire”) became matron of the health insurance for women in 1917. By September 1942 the hospital of the Jewish health insurance companies came to a sad end as a collection site prior to the Frankfurt deportations; allied air attacks on Nazi Frankfurt destroyed the twin building of the health insurance for men and the health insurance for women (cp. Unna 1965; Schiebler 1994, page 163-141).
The Dr. Christ Children´s Hospital (1845 – 1943/44) on Theobaldstrasse (today Theobald-Christ-Strasse), in Frankfurt affectionately called “Spitälchen” , was the common project of two closely befriended physicians and founders: the Gentile Dr. Theobald Christ and the baptized Jew Dr. Salomo Friedrich (Salomon) Stiebel, both Protestants. 30 years later, the Jewish benefactress Louise von Rothschild from Frankfurt established the “Clementine Girls´Hospital” on Bornheimer Landwehr 10 which was named after her daughter Clementine. The emergence of today´s Clementine Children´s Hospital on Theobald-Christ-Strasse 16 resulted from these two respected institutions of Frankfurt´s patient care that admitted girls and boys irrespective of religion and social origin (cp. Hövels et al. 1995; Reschke 2011).
In 1870 the “Hospital of Georgine Sara von Rothschild Foundation” was founded – first as the “Foreigner’s Hospital” with six beds – at Unterweg 20. Initially, the hospital, also known as “Rothschild´s Hospital”, took care of needy Jewish patients, especially those who did not find accommodation in other Jewish treatment centers. It was called “Georgine Sara von Rothschild”, named after the daughter of the founding couple Hannah Mathilde and Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild; she was also the cousin of Clementine von Rothschild who had likewise died early and for whom the Clementine Children´s Hospital had been named. The body responsible for the “Rothschild´s Hospital” was the neo-orthodox Jewish religious community (IRG ): established in 1850; it positioned itself as guardian of Jewish tradition over against the larger liberal Frankfurt Jewish community from which it also institutionally broke away in 1876 (cp. Heuberger/Krohn 1988, page 74-77). In 1878 a new building, financed by Mathilde and Wilhelm von Rothschild, was opened, initially with 40 beds at Röderbergweg 97, followed by buildings at Röderbergweg 93 and Rhönstrasse 50 (staff residence). The senior doctor Dr. Marcus (Markus) Hirsch participated in these developments from the beginning. Seven decades later, in April 1941, the National Socialists also closed this hospital and sent both staff and patients to Frankfurt’s last remaining Jewish hospital (Gagernstrasse 36, see below). Around 1943 air attacks on Frankfurt destroyed the building and property of “Rothschild´s Hospital”. The chronicler of Jewish history, Dr. Paul Arnsberg, a qualified attorney, achieved the re-establishment of the Georgine Sara von Rothschild Foundation in 1976 (cp. Lustiger 1994; Krohn 2000).
“Jewish communities were – even in times of great hardship – exemplary in building and maintaining a number of social welfare institutions (e.g. hospitals, orphanages, infirmaries, retirement homes, soup kitchens etc.). The basis for this is the obligation in Judaism to provide assistance to the poor and the sick and to assure the strengthening and restoration of the material independence of each needy person” (Werner, Klaus et al.: Jews in Heddernheim. In: Heuberger 1990, page 46). This was also true for the once independent Jewish communities of outlying districts which are now incorporated into the city of Frankfurt am Main. Despite the fact that few historical sources are available, some information about Jewish nursing in Bergen-Enkheim, Bockenheim, Fechenheim, Griesheim, Heddernheim, Höchst, Niederursel or Rödelheim have become discovered in the meantime (cp. Arnsberg 1983, book volume 2, page 507-595; Heuberger 1990). From 1874 the small Jewish endowed hospital of the “Foundation of Joseph and Hannchen May for sick and needy people” existed in Rödelheim at Alexanderstrasse 96 (seat of the foundation), not far from today´s Josef-May-Strasse. Due to the incorporation of Rödelheim into Frankfurt on 1st April 1910, the hospital (until 1937 with Jewish prayer room) became part of the municipal hospital and was later used as a retirement home. Today (as of 2017) it houses the Social and Rehabilitation Center West, still a retirement and nursing home, albeit non-Jewish.
Further research is needed on the institutional history of the private hospitals which also offered inpatient treatment established by Jews in Frankfurt am Main. The first doctor´s office of this kind was probably the private hospital of Dr. Siegmund Theodor Stein which was opened in 1867 and later expanded to include the treatment of internal and nervous disorders. On 1st April 1904 the Frankfurt neurologist Prof. Dr. Adolf Albrecht Friedländer , of Jewish origin and born in Vienna, established the “Hohe Mark” hospital, a large hospital for psychiatry, psychotherapy and psychosomatic medicine set in the heart of the Taunus region (close to Oberursel near Frankfurt), as a private clinic for the European high nobility (cp. http://www.hohemark.de/startseite/, all following links searched dated 24-Oct-2017). The “Herxheim Clinic and Polyclinic for Skin and Venereal Diseases“ became well-known in Frankfurt; Paul Arnsberg (1983 book volume 2, page 271; book volume 3, page 187, page 277) gave various locations for the institution: Friedberger Landstrasse 57, Heiligkreuzgasse and Holzgraben (both without house numbers) as well as Zeppelinallee 47 (Herxheim villa). In 1876 Dr. Salomon Herxheimer , who along with his younger brother and successor Prof. Dr. Karl Herxheimer was recognised as being among the German pioneers of dermatology, founded the respected clinic which also helped uninsured needy persons suffering from skin diseases. In memory of her deceased husband, Fanny Herxheimer established the “Medical Councillor Dr. Salomon Herxheimer Foundation” in 1899 to provide continuing care to poor patients suffering from skin disorders. Her sister Rose Livingston (Löwenstein), who had been baptized a Christian in 1891, founded the still active “Nellini Church Foundation” with initially 25 places for single elderly women of Evangelical faith at Cronstettenstrasse 57 (cp. http://www.nellinistift.de/). A street name in Frankfurt´s Gallus neighbour recalls the merits of the Herxheimer family (Arnsberg 1983; Lachenmann 1995; also cp. Kallmorgen 1936).
The „Gumpertz‘ infirmary“ (1888-1941) founded by Betty Gumpertz at Röderbergweg 62 – 64 was an ambitious Jewish women´s project within the circle of the conservative Jewish religious community. It supported the poorest of the poor in Frankfurt´s east end whose numbers continued to increase due to the migration of refuges who were victims of anti-Semitic pogroms in East Europe. Nursing homes for patients with contagious and, at that time, incurable diseases were referred to as infirmaries up to the 18th century. The Gumpertz´ infirmary specialized in the care of socially disadvantaged individuals suffering from chronic diseases. Opened in 1888 on Rückertstrasse, it soon moved into a new building with 20 places at Ostendstrasse 75 in 1892 and into a new building with 60 beds at Röderbergweg 62 – 64 in 1907. Among the foundresses, in addition to Betty Gumpertz and Träutchen (Thekla) Höchberg, were the sisters Minna Caroline (Minka) von Goldschmidt-Rothschild and Adelheid de Rothschild, which was why the Gumpertz´ infirmary was sometimes also referred to as “Rothschild´s infirmary”. Thekla Mandel, as matron from the beginning until her marriage, was an active participant in affairs; she was followed by Rahel (Spiero) Seckbach in 1907. In 1938 the main building of “Gumpertz´ Infirmary” was sold under NS-conditions through the City of Frankfurt to the “Hospital of the Holy Spirit” (Schiebler 1994, page 135); at last (1941) it stayed at Danziger Platz 15. Since 1956, the “August-Stunz-Center ” (Röderbergweg 82), a retirement home of the Worker´s Welfare (cp. to Gumpertz´ infirmary Lenarz 2003; Otto 1998; Schiebler 1994, page 135, page 282; also cp. Müller 2006, page 97), has existed on its former premises.
On 16th October 1890 Hannah Louise von Rothschild founded the medical facility and dental hospital Carolinum at Bürgerstrasse 7 (today known as Wilhelm-Leuschner-Strasse, a different Bürgerstrasse continues to exist in Frankfurt today); it was a state-of-the-art hospital also serving people in need. The Carolinum, named after her deceased father Mayer Carl von Rothschild, developed into a central and still respected institution of dentistry in Frankfurt. Hannah Louise von Rothschild was actively supported by the non-Jewish senior doctor Dr. Dr. Jakob de Bary – chairman of the Carolinum foundation board until his death in 1915 – and his daughter, Luise de Bary, who was matron for many years. In 1910 the Carolinum moved into Ludwig-Rehn-Strasse and affiliated itself from the beginning with Frankfurt University which was founded through endowments on 26th October 1914. Due to the deft dealings of the non-Jewish board headed by Jakob de Bary´s son Dr. Dr. August de Bary , the Carolinum survived the Nazi era as the only Jewish foundation in Frankfurt. In 1978 the dental clinic moved into a new building on the clinic premises at Theodor-Stern-Kai 7 where it is still successfully and, in accordance with the wishes of the foundress Hannah Louise von Rothschild, also socially active as the Carolinum University Dental Institute of of Goethe University Frankfurt/Main (cp. http://www.med.uni-frankfurt.de/carolinum/).
With the Mathilde von Rothschild´s Children´s Hospital (1886 – 1941) at Röderbergweg 109, also known as Rothschild´s Children´s Hospital, Mathilde von Rothschild founded an institution, which offered needy Jewish (and on request also certainly non-Jewish) children free care and nutrition. Initially 12 children received free in-patient treatment, later up to 100 per year, and in 1932, the number had increased up to140. Further research in needed on the conservative-religious institution and its certainly mostly Jewish nursing staff. In June 1941 the National Socialists closed the children’s hospital. They admitted the remaining little patients together with the nursing staff to Frankfurt’s now last Jewish hospital (Gagernstrasse 36, see below), which was misused as collection site prior to deportation.
In 1904 the Jewish business couple Auguste and Fritz Gans (in 1895 baptized as Protestants) established an inter-denominational clinic called “Böttgerheim” at Böttgerstrasse 20-22 (cp. Gans/Groening 2006). A nursery and a state-recognized nursing school for the training of baby nurses were affiliated with this modern and socially progressive institution; the nurses´ house was located on the adjoining Hallgartenstrasse from 1909. In 1920 the City of Frankfurt am Main took over the Böttgerheim which was in financial need after the war, and passed it into the sponsorship of the newly founded city health department two years later. From 1921 – 1929 the well-known German-Jewish pediatrician Prof. Dr. Paul Grosser directed the children’s hospital. Under the NS-regime the Böttgerheim was called “Municipal Children´s Hospital” from 1934. The hospital and residential care facility was re-opened in 1947 and continued until the closure by the City of Frankfurt in 1975. Today (as of 2017) the old foundation building as well as an additional new building house a birthing and counseling center for the parents of babies and infants (www.geburtshausfrankfurt.de) – in accordance with the wishes of the donor couple Gans.
Due to generous donations from Frankfurt´s Jewish residents, the big “Hospital of the Jewish Frankfurt am Main Community”, which was built at Gagernstrasse 36 in 1914, became operational with initially 200 beds (cp. Hanauer 1914). The clinic with modern technologies, often called simply referred to the “Jewish hospital” (though many non-Jewish patients also sought and found treatment there), existed until the Nazi forced eviction in 1942. Its precursors were the “Old Jewish Hospital for Foreigners” (1796-1875) as well as the “Hospital of the Jewish Frankfurt am Main Community” on Königswarterstrasse (Königswarter Hospital, 1875-1914), both established in Frankfurt’s Jewish Ghetto. Senior doctor of the old Jewish Foreigners´ Hospital on Völckerschen Biergarten from 1817 was Dr. Salomo Friedrich (Salomon) Stiebel , later co-founder of the above-mentioned Dr. Christ´s Children´s Hospital . When Dr. Stiebel retired after working 40 years, the practitioner and gynecologist Dr. Heinrich Schwarzschild (1803-1878) advanced to be the second doctor in charge of the hospital. Not least due to his insistence could the founding of Königswarter Hospital at Grünen Weg 26 (later Königswarterstrasse) with 80 beds be realised in 1875; generous donors were the banker Isaac Löw Königswarter and his wife Elisabeth. Their ward for internal medicine was directed by the surgeon and obstetrician Dr. Simon Kirchheim from 1877; he was also an active promoter of professional Jewish nursing as a paid female profession. Rosalie Jüttner was probably the first Jewish student nurse at the Königswarter Hospital in Germany followed by Minna Hirsch, first matron of the Königswarter Hospital (closed in 1914) and the succeeding Jewish hospital on Gagernstrasse as well as of the “Association for Jewish Nurses of Frankfurt am Main”. Today a Christian-influenced institution is located on Königswarter Strasse (16 instead of 26), the Red Cross Hospital. (as of 2017).
Along with the new Jewish hospital, the nurses´ residence of the “Association for Jewish Nurses of Frankfurt am Main” was also opened in 1914. The internationally known diabetes researcher Prof. Dr. Simon Isaac was medical director and senior consultant of the ward for internal medicine until he was forced to emigrate in 1939, followed by Dr. Alfred Valentin Marx. Further senior medical consultants were: for the polyclinics, the medical councilor Dr. Adolf Deutsch , for the women´s hospital, Dr. Arnold Baerwald , for the Ear-Nose-Throat-Clinic, Dr. Max Meier , for the eye clinic, Dr. Isaak Horowitz and for the surgery department, Dr. Emil Altschüler, who was director from 1935 of the Bikur Cholim Hospital in Jerusalem (still operating in 2017). In April 1939, the City of Frankfurt am Main “purchased” the entire property of the hospital for RM 90,000 through so-called “Jews Contracts” in order to rent it back to the Jewish community afterwards (cp. in summary Karpf 2003). Upon arrival of staff and patients of the already closed Rothschild´s hospitals on Röderbergweg, a Gestapo report of 1942 listed almost 400 patients, more than 100 employees (including the medical and nursing staff) and 37 student nurses (Steppe 1997, page 246). In October 1942 the big Jewish hospital was also forcibly evacuated; the previously accommodated patients were deported to Theresienstadt and other death camps. From November 1942 there was only one Jewish ward in a “community accommodation” (collection and transit camp prior to deportation) at Hermesweg 5-7. Its closure in the night of the fourth to the fifth day of October meant the end of institutional Jewish nursing in Frankfurt am Main. After the war the senior citizen center of the Jewish community of Frankfurt am Main came into existence on the premises at Gagernstrasse 36. Until the present day, no Jewish hospital has been re-established in Frankfurt am Main (cp. to situation of the Jewish hospital systems after the Nazi era Arnsberg 1970).
Birgit Seemann, 2010, updated 2020 (Translated by Yvonne Ford)
Selected Literature and Links [24.10.2017]
Andernacht, Dietrich/ Sterling, Eleonore (Bearb.) 1963: Dokumente zur Geschichte der Frankfurter Juden 1933-1945. Hg.: Kommission zur Erforschung der Geschichte der Frankfurter Juden. Frankfurt/M.
Arnsberg, Paul 1970: Die jüdische Diaspora. (Referat des Vortrags). In: Zur Geschichte der jüdischen Krankenhäuser in Europa, S. 20-27
Arnsberg, Paul 1983: Die Geschichte der Frankfurter Juden seit der Französischen Revolution. Darmstadt, 3 Bände
Bolzenius, Rupert 1994: Beispielhafte Entwicklungsgeschichte jüdischer Krankenhäuser in Deutschland. Das Hekdesch der jüdischen Gemeinde in Frankfurt am Main und seine Nachfolgeeinrichtungen. Das israelitische Asyl für Kranke und Altersschwache in Köln. Das Jüdische Krankenhaus in Gailingen. Das Israelitische Altersheim in Aachen. Unveröff. Diss. med., Technische Hochschule Aachen
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Krankenhausgeschichte e.V. 1970: Zur Geschichte der jüdischen Krankenhäuser in Europa. Historia hospitalium, Sonderheft 1970
Gans, Angela von/ Groening, Monika 2006: Die Familie Gans 1350 – 1963. Ursprung und Schicksal einer wiederentdeckten Gelehrten- und Wirtschaftsdynastie. 2., durchges. Aufl. Ubstadt-Weiher [u.a.]
Heuberger, Georg [Hg.] 1990: Die vergessenen Nachbarn. Juden in Frankfurter Vororten. [Bergen-Enkheim, Bockenheim, Heddernheim, Höchst, Rödelheim; Begleitheft zu der Ausstellung des Jüdischen Museums der Stadt Frankfurt am Main […] Verantw.: Georg Heuberger; Konzeption u. Gesamtleitung: Helga Krohn]. Frankfurt/M.
Heuberger, Rachel/ Krohn, Helga (Hg.) 1998: Hinaus aus dem Ghetto… Juden in Frankfurt am Main. 1800 – 1950. Mit Beitr. v. Cilly Kugelmann [u.a.]. [Begleitbuch zur ständigen Ausstellung des Jüdischen Museums der Stadt Frankfurt am Main]. Frankfurt/M.
Hanauer, Wilhelm 1914: Zur Geschichte der jüdischen Krankenpflege in Frankfurt am Main. In: Festschrift zur Einweihung des neuen Krankenhauses der Israelitischen Gemeinde zu Frankfurt am Main. Frankfurt/M.
Hövels, Otto/ Dippel, Jürgen/ Daub, Ute 1995: Festschrift zum 150-jährigen Jubiläum des Clementine Kinderhospitals – Dr. Christ´sche Stiftung 1845 – 1995. Hg.: Clementine Kinderhospital – Dr. Christ´sche Stiftung. Gießen
Jenss, Harro [u.a.] (Hg.): Israelitisches Krankenhaus in Hamburg – 175 Jahre. Berlin 2016
Jetter, Dieter 1970: Zur Geschichte der jüdischen Krankenhäuser. In: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Krankenhausgeschichte e.V. 1970, S. 29-59 (Wiederabdruck in: Der Krankenhausarzt. Fachzeitschrift für das Krankenhauswesen, 45 (1972) 1 (Januar), S. 23-40)
Kallmorgen, Wilhelm 1936: Siebenhundert Jahre Heilkunde in Frankfurt am Main. Frankfurt/M. – [Zahlreiche Einträge zu jüdischen Ärztinnen und Ärzten und Institutionen der Frankfurter Pflege und Medizin.]
Karpf, Ernst 2003: Krankenhaus der Israelitischen Gemeinde an der Gagernstraße, http://www.ffmhist.de/
Krohn, Helga 2000: „Auf einem der luftigsten und freundlichsten Punkte der Stadt, auf dem Röderberge, sind die jüdischen Spitäler.“ Soziale Einrichtungen auf dem Röderbergweg. In: dies. (Red.): Ostend. Blick in ein jüdisches Viertel. Mit Beitr. v. Helga Krohn [u.a.] u. e. Einl. v. Georg Heuberger. Erinnerungen v. Wilhelm Herzfeld […]. Frankfurt/M., S. 128-143
Lachenmann, Hanna (Red.) [u.a.] 1995: Getrost und freudig. 125 Jahre Frankfurter Diakonissenhaus 1870-1995 [Festschrift]. Blätter aus dem Frankfurter Diakonissenhaus Nr. 386 (1995/2)
Lenarz, Michael 2003: Stiftungen jüdischer Bürger Frankfurts für die Wohlfahrtspflege. Übersicht und Geschichte nach 1933, http://www.ffmhist.de/
Lustiger, Arno (Hg.) 1994: Jüdische Stiftungen in Frankfurt am Main. Stiftungen, Schenkungen, Organisationen und Vereine mit Kurzbiographien jüdischer Bürger dargestellt von Gerhard Schiebler. Mit Beitr. v. Hans Achinger [u.a.]. Hg. i.A. der M.-J.-Kirchheim’schen Stiftung in Frankfurt am Main. 2. unveränd. Aufl. Sigmaringen 1994
Müller, Bruno 2006: Stiftungen in Frankfurt am Main. Geschichte und Wirkung. Neubearb. u. fortgesetzt durch Hans-Otto Schembs. Frankfurt/M.
Murken, Axel Hinrich 1993/94: Vom Hekdesch zum Allgemeinen Krankenhaus. Jüdische Krankenhäuser im Wandel ihrer 800jährigen Geschichte vom 13. Jahrhundert bis zum Zweiten Weltkrieg. In: Historia Hospitalium 19 (1993/94), S. 115-142
o.Verf. o.J. [1843]: Die freie Stadt Frankfurt am Main nebst ihren Umgebungen. Ein Wegweiser für Fremde und Einheimische. Mit Stahlstichen. Frankfurt/M.
Otto, Arnim 1998: Juden im Frankfurter Osten 1796 bis 1945. 3. bearb. u. Veränd. Aufl. Offenbach/M.
Reschke, Barbara [Red.] 2011: Full of talent and grace. Clementine von Rothschild 1845-1865. Zum 125-jährigen Bestehen des Clementine Kinderhospitals. Hg. v. Vorstand der Clementine Kinderhospital – Dr. Christ´schen Stiftung. [2. erg. Aufl.] Frankfurt/M.
Schiebler, Gerhard 1994: Stiftungen, Schenkungen, Organisationen und Vereine mit Kurzbiographien jüdischer Bürger. In: Lustiger 1994, S. 9-288
Seemann, Birgit 2010: Jüdische Krankenpflege in Frankfurt am Main. Ein Forschungsprojekt. In: TRIBÜNE. Zeitschrift zum Verständnis des Judentums 49 (2010) 193, S. 124-134
Seemann, Birgit 2016: Stiefkind der Forschung: Das Rothschild’sche Kinderhospital in Frankfurt am Main (1886–1941). In: nurinst – Jahrbuch 2016. Beiträge zur deutschen und jüdischen Geschichte. Schwerpunktthema: Kinder. Im Auftrag des Nürnberger Instituts für NS-Forschung und jüdische Geschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts hg. v. Jim G. Tobias u. Nicola Schlichting. Nürnberg, S. 155-170
Seemann, Birgit/ Bönisch, Edgar 2010: Die Geschichte der jüdischen Krankenpflege am Beispiel Frankfurt am Main und ihre Präsentation im Internet. In: Hallische Beiträge zur Zeitgeschichte (Hg.: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Institut für Geschichte) 2010/1 (Heft 19). Schwerpunkt: Pflegegeschichte. Focus: Nursing History. Mit Beiträgen v. Wendy Gagen [u.a.], S. 55-86
Steppe, Hilde 1997: „… den Kranken zum Troste und dem Judenthum zur Ehre …“. Zur Geschichte der jüdischen Krankenpflege in Deutschland. Frankfurt am Main
Tauber, Alon 2008: Zwischen Kontinuität und Neuanfang. Die Entstehung der jüdischen Nachkriegsgemeinde in Frankfurt am Main 1945-1949. Wiesbaden
Unna, Josef 1965: Die israelitische Männer- und Frauen-Krankenkasse („Kippestub“) in Frankfurt a.M. In: Bulletin des Leo-Baeck-Instituts 8 (1965) 31, S. 227-239
Windecker, Dieter 1990: 100 Jahre Freiherr-Carl-von-Rothschild’sche Stiftung Carolinum. 100 Jahre Stiftung Carolinum. Die Geschichte der Stiftung und die Entwicklung der Zahnklinik an der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität zu Frankfurt am Main. Berlin
The Establishment of the Ghettos In Frankfurt on Main Jewish residents were mentioned in official documents as early as 1074 (Mayer 1966, page 9). The Pogroms of 1241 and 1349 destroyed the first Jewish communities. After returning to settle in the city again, the Jewish residents continued to live without protection, legally discriminated against and constantly threatened by Christian anti-Jewish sentiment whose goal was expulsion of the Jews. There was, however, no prohibition against Jews moving into predominantly Christian areas of the city, and there were Christian citizens of Frankfurt who lived in the Jewish quarters. How Jewish nursing was organised during this time is largely unknown, although there was no strict separation so that, in case of need, Jews could be cared for by Christians and Christians by Jews. Jewish doctors were already caring for Christian patients in the 14th century. Such forms of co-existence (see, however, Grebner 2009) ended abruptly in 1460 (over one hundred years after the last pogrom) when the Frankfurt City Council ordered the establishment of a Jewish ghetto (for background on the reasons, see Backhaus et al. 2006). Two years later Jewish families had to leave their homes and were forced to live in the ghetto. We can learn more about this period from the online databank of the Jewish Museum Judengasse in Frankfurt on Main. “Judengasse, the Frankfurt Jewish ghetto, was located in what is now the eastern section of the city center. It started at Konstablerwache, ran along the Staufenmauer and stretched beyond the current Kurt-Schumacher-Street up to the area where the municipal services’ building currently stands. Judengasse was enclosed by walls and was, therefore, separated from the rest of the city. There were gates at the northern and southern ends of the ghetto, as well as in the middle, on the westside facing the city center, at the so-called Judenbrückchen. These gates were closed every night, as well as on Sundays and holidays; Jews could only leave their narrow streets on workdays.” Frankfurt’s Judengasse, „the first ghetto in Germany and one of the first in Europe“ (introduction in Backhaus et al 2006, page 10) physically separated the Jewish minority from the Christian majority. At the same time, the walls offered the Jewish inhabitants no protection. During the Milk-fat Uprising in 1614, anti-semitic attackers broke into the Judengasse, forcing the inhabitants out and plundering their houses.
Frankfurt „Judengasse“, partial view, about 1868 Foto: Theodor Creifelds (Quelle: Wikimedia)
Hospitals Only the forcible establishment of the Jewish ghetto led to separate Jewish hospitals which would endure across several centuries. The first Jewish hospital, the Hekdesch (or in new Hebrew “Hakdesch”, also called “Heckhaus”), a house “consecrated” to the poor and sick, was one of the oldest houses in the Frankfurt Jewish ghetto; it was built in 1462 on the land that is now the Konstablerwache. As a so-called „stranger’s hospital,“ it took in the poor and sick who came from outside the city, and therefore – in contrast with the inhabitants of Judengasse – had no rights to residency (Judenstättigkeit) in the city. At the beginning of the 18th century a couple, who themselves lived along with their child in the Heckdesch, cared for about 15 patients. After a large fire, the facility was re-located in 1711 from the Judengasse to the property of the Jewish Cemetery and the neighbouring Völkerschen Bleichgartens; the hospital for sick residents of the Judengasse was also re-located to the same area (Building 102 in the ghetto, opening date unknown). Since 1535 the third nursing institution had existed at this location, the so-called Blatternhaus (Blattern = smallpox) which treated patients with contagious diseases. The hospital for residents of the Judengasse and the Blatternhaus were probably connected in the same century; the single-story building with a little synagogue and a little apartment for the “orderly” were located on the same property where the Börneplatz Synagogue was later built (1882). The former “stranger’s hospital”, the Heckdesch, was given a new location comprising 6 small houses in 1718; this institution existed until it was destroyed by air raids during World War II.
Nursing The sick and those needing care in the institutions in the Jewish ghetto were attended to by so-called orderlies for the sick. Due to the separation between care of males and females, there were also female orderlies. The orderlies were regarded as low employees of the Jewish Community and, as such, received low wages and lived in simple houses near the hospitals. The administration of the nursing facilities was conducted by an unpaid volunteer known as the hospital master, a person who had a high reputation within the Jewish community administration. Coming from wealthy families, this position gave the person the opportunity to fulfill the religious obligation to perform charity deeds (“Zedaka”). Due to the population growth, among other reasons, the need for nursing care in the Judengasse increased in the 16th century. Since then, in addition to the orderlies for the sick, a “Heckdeschverwalter” or “Hekdeschmann,” was responsible for direct patient care. This man, a sort of head nurse, led the hospital through living directly in the facility. Since the 17th century, the Jewish community continuously employed two doctors; they were instructed to follow these guidelines: fees were set for the treatment of wealthy patients – the poor were treated for free. Jewish doctors, both male and female, were so well respected from the Middle Ages onward, that they were consulted by Christians patients far beyond the ghetto walls. From 1631 to 1640 the renowned doctor and scholar Dr. Josef Salomo del Medigo (also known as Joseph Solomon Delmedigo) (1591 – 1655) worked as a community doctor in the Frankfurt Jewish ghetto; he was followed in 1640 by his student and son-in-law Zalmann Bingen (dates of his birth and death unknown).
“back out of the ghetto…” In 1796 the Jewish ghetto burned down yet again, this time due to the fire of the French troops. The homeless residents were put up outside the ghetto. Although the Frankfurt city government was not able to push through legislation to rebuild the ghetto, the ghetto ordinance was not formally rescinded until 1811. After further conflicts with the Frankfurt City Council Jewish were allowed – after more than three hundred years! – to live wherever they chose in the city. Beginning in the midst of the 19th century, wealthy Jewish families increasingly settled in the Frankfurt Westend, whereas the poorer returned to the area of the former Jewish ghetto which had been torn down at the end of the 1880’s. In the year 1835 Judengasse was renamed after the political author and journalist Ludwig Börne (1786 – 1837), known at the time as Juda Löw Baruch, who had been born in the ghetto; thereafter the street was called Börnestraße. The long emprisonment was over, the way for emanicipation was free. The legal equality of Jewish and Christian citizens of Frankfurt in the year 1864 (followed in 1870/1871 throughout the newly founded German Empire) provided the impetus for the founding of modern Jewish hospitals in Frankfurt on Main; these institutions opened their doors to patients of all confessions and carried on the tradition of Jewish nursing which had begun under ghetto conditions.
Birgit Seemann, 2009, updated 2017
(Translated by Yvonne Ford)
References
Arnsberg, Paul 1983: Die Geschichte der Frankfurter Juden seit der Französischen Revolution. Darmstadt, 3 Bände
Backhaus, Fritz 2000: „Im Heckhuß die Lahmen, Blinden und Hungerleider…“. Die sozialen Institutionen in der Frankfurter Judengasse. In: Jersch-Wenzel, Stefi (Hg.) 2000: Juden und Armut in Mittel- und Osteuropa. Hg. in Verbindung mit François Guesnet [u.a.] im Auftrag des Simon-Dubnow-Instituts für Jüdische Geschichte und Kultur e.V. Köln [u.a.], S. 31-54
Backhaus, Fritz u.a. (Hg.) 2006: Die Frankfurter Judengasse. Jüdisches Leben in der frühen Neuzeit. Frankfurt/M.
Backhaus, Fritz/ Gross, Raphael/ Kößling, Sabine/ Wenzel, Mirjam (eds.) 2016: The Judengasse in Frankfurt. Catalog of the permanent exhibition of the Jewish Museum Frankfurt. History, politics, culture. Transl. into English by Adam Blauhut and Michael Foster. Munich
Bolzenius, Rupert 1994: Beispielhafte Entwicklungsgeschichte jüdischer Krankenhäuser in Deutschland. Das Hekdesch der jüdischen Gemeinde in Frankfurt am Main und seine Nachfolgeeinrichtungen. Das israelitische Asyl für Kranke und Altersschwache in Köln. Das Jüdische Krankenhaus in Gailingen. Das Israelitische Altersheim in Aachen. Unveröff. Diss. med., Techn. Hochsch. Aachen
Burger, Thorsten 2013: Frankfurt am Main als jüdisches Migrationsziel zu Beginn der Frühen Neuzeit. Rechtliche, wirtschaftliche und soziale Bedingungen für das Leben in der Judengasse. Wiesbaden.
Grebner, Gundula 2009: Gewalt im Alltag. Frankfurt am Main. In: Kalonymos. Beiträge zur deutsch-jüdischen Geschichte aus dem Salomon Ludwig Steinheim-Institut 12 (2009) 2, S. 1-6
Heuberger, Georg [Hg.] 1992: Stationen des Vergessens – der Börneplatzkonflikt. Begleitbuch zur Eröffnungsausstellung / Museum Judengasse. [Hg. i. A. … der Stadt Frankfurt am Main; Jüdisches Museum. Red.: Roswitha Nees, Dieter Bartetzko]. Frankfurt/M.
Heuberger, Rachel/ Krohn, Helga (Hg.) 1988: Hinaus aus dem Ghetto… Juden in Frankfurt am Main. 1800 – 1950. Begleitbuch zur ständigen Ausstellung des Jüdischen Museums der Stadt Frankfurt am Main. Mit Beitr. v. Cilly Kugelmann [u.a.]. Frankfurt/M., S. 13-38
Kasper-Holtkotte, Cilli 2010: Die jüdische Gemeinde von Frankfurt/Main in der Frühen Neuzeit. Familien, Netzwerke und Konflikte eines jüdischen Zentrums. Berlin; New York, NY
Mayer, Eugen 1966: Die Frankfurter Juden. Blicke in die Vergangenheit. Frankfurt/M.
Murken, Axel Hinrich 1993/94: Vom Hekdesch zum Allgemeinen Krankenhaus. Jüdische Krankenhäuser im Wandel ihrer 800jährigen Geschichte vom 13. Jahrhundert bis zum Zweiten Weltkrieg, in: Historia Hospitalium 19 (1993/94), S. 115-142
Schembs, Hans-Otto (Bearb.) 1978: Bibliographie zur Geschichte der Frankfurter Juden. 1781-1945. Hg. v. d. Kommission zur Erforschung der Geschichte der Frankfurter Juden. Bearb. v. Hans-Otto Schembs mit Verwendung d. Vorarbeiten v. Ernst Loewy u. Rosel Andernacht. Frankfurt/M.
Wolf, Siegbert (Hg.) 1996: Frankfurt am Main. Jüdisches Städtebild. Mit 21 Fotografien. Frankfurt/M. [Mit Beiträgen u.a. von Goethe zur Judengasse]
Further source material
Institut für Stadtgeschichte Frankfurt am Main (Hg.) 1996: Orte der Erinnerung. Juden in Frankfurt am Main. [Topographische Stadtkarte]. Frankfurt/M.
Wamers, Egon/ Grossbach, Markus 2000: Die Judengasse in Frankfurt am Main. Ergebnisse der archäologischen Untersuchungen am Börneplatz. Unter Mitarb. v. Jens Lorenz Franzen [u.a.]. [Hg. … vom Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Archäologisches Museum, der Stadt Frankfurt am Main]. Stuttgart
Introduction In the middle ages an infirmary mainly acted as a disease hospital (e.g. for lepers), where the “inmates” were separated from the healthy population and “kept” like prisoners, sometimes for life. In the course of industrialization the infirmary changed into an asylum for needy people with physical disabilities, chronic diseases and disabilities. Due to familiar and village networks being torn apart by migration to the cities, as well as the increasing specialization of hospitals on curable patients, no one could take care of them and they vegetated. Also old people found shelter in asylusm. Before the “first pure nursing homes and infirmaries” were established in the 19th century, they “had been accommodated in alms- and workhouses, where also ‚persons with bad reputation‘, ‚morons‘, ‚incorrigible alcoholics‘, ‚work-shy individuals‘ and offenders lived” (Graber-Dünow 2013: 245). Frail people had to work for their living, wear prison clothes and fear physical abuses. Here it was necessary to remedy the situation: Professional “Homes for the Incurable” (Stolberg 2011: 71) were the predecessors of today´s modern retirement and nursing homes and inpatient hospices. In addition to Gumpertz´ infirmary these include in Frankfurt am Main the municipal almshouse and infirmary called “Sandhöfer Allee” (later “Sandhof Hospital”), the Schmidborn-Rücker´s infirmary, the Karl and Emilie Jaeger´s children´s infirmary run by the Deaconess Association and since 1922 also the Jewish founded Rödelheim Hospital (cp. file inventory of ISG Ffm).
The accelerated industrialization in the Wilhelmine era posed new challenges also for the Jewish communities. Thus, the need for care increased in Frankfurt´s East End, where low-income Jewish people lived, and where, since the 1880s, persons displaced due to anti-Semitism had been arriving from Eastern Europe. The Jewish religious society (conservative secession community, which had left the bigger liberal Frankfurt am Main Jewish community) was worried about the appropriate ritual care of dependent Jewish people. The result of these considerations was an independent in-patient facility for frail, terminally ill and bedridden needy people of Jewish faith: Gumpertz´ infirmary, however, was,according to the provisions of Bikkur Cholim (Jewish obligation to patient visits or nursing),also open for non-Jewish people. After humble beginnings the infirmary united professional nursing, care of the elderly and severely disabled as well as poor relief under one roof. Soon it developed into an important protagonist of the local Jewish welfare system. Very impressive are the number and volume of endowments and donations by members of Frankfurt´s two Jewish communities: for free beds, equipment for medical treatment and care, books and other cultural activities, the organization of the religious festivities, the construction and maintenance of the in-house synagogue, which was officially opened in 1911 (cp. Gumpertz´ infirmary 1909 and 1913 et seqq.). The great importance of the synagogue for the residents of the facility is reflected, among other things, in the fact that the infirmary employed with Salomon Wolpert its own in-house rabbi.
Personalities of the Frankfurt Lodge Bne Briss Gut, Elias 1928: History of the Frankfurt Lodge (1888-1928). Frankfurt a.M. 1928 (between p. 70 u. 71)
The beginnings In 1888 the Frankfurt Jewish foundress Betty Gumpertz initiated Gumpertz´ Infirmary, bearing the name ofthe association which had been named after her. It was established in order to “provide accommodation and care for destitute, chronically ill, ailing people of both sexes” and to grant them competent “medical care” instead of simply custody (Gump Statute 1895: 3). According to the statutes the intention was “not to consider the religious denomination with regard to the services offered by the association. Since this aim, however, could not be achieved due to the limited resources of the association, only sick people of Jewish faith shall be considered. However, if these are not present, non-Jewish may also be accommodated by decision of the board” (ibid.: 4). The applicants shall have a “good reputation” – a certificate of “moral conduct” had to be submitted to the examining board – and should have lived in Frankfurt for at least two years. Accommodation and care were usually free of charge. In accordance with the statute there was “a room for the performance of the prayers according to strict Jewish rite” (ibid.: 5), where the foundress Betty Gumpertz herself and her deceased family members were commemorated. In 1895 the board of the Gumpertz´ Infirmary association consisted of the well-known social reformer and chairman Charles L. Hallgarten as well as Michael Moses Mainz (vice chairman), Julius Goldschmidt (secretary to the board, later president), Joseph Holzmann (counter secretary), director Hermann Rais (treasurer), Hermann Schott (economist), Raphael Ettlinger (vice secretary to the board and vice economist), the banker Otto Höchberg (assessor) and the solicitor Julius Plotke (assessor). Probably because women were not allowed to lead any associations or clubs in the German Empire until 1908 in accordance with the Prussian law governing organizational affairs, Betty Gumpertz was involved in her foundation as an honorary member and “lady of honor” (ibid.: 8); furthermore, she was authorized to nominate a second lady of honor. On 11th May 1895 Gumpertz´ infirmary obtained the status as a legal entity under public law.
The locations In 1888 Gumpertz´ infirmary started as a small inpatient facility on Rückertstrasse (Arnsberg 1983 vol. 1: 764 and vol. 2: 120; Cohn-Neßler 1920: 174; Schiebler 1994: 135, 282). The hosting capacities were quickly exhausted. Betty Gumpertz´ large donation of RM 60,000 made the purchase of the property at 75 Ostendstrasse possible, where a building with initially 20 beds was opened in 1892 (ISG Ffm: welfare office Sign. 877). The board of the association determined the 10th October 1892 as the official founding date. In September 1893 another generous foundress, Träutchen Höchberg, provided the infirmary, which was increasingly in demand, with RM 50,000 (cp. Schiebler 1994: 135). Nevertheless, the premises came up against limiting factors again due to the continuing demands for care outside the home. It was rescued by the annexation of the (dependent) Minka von Goldschmidt-Rothschild Foundation, established in 1905, to the association Gumpertz´ Infirmary: Thanks to the large donation of one million Marks initiated by Mathilde von Rothschild a new building with at least 60 beds (cp. ibid.) was built at 62-64 Röderbergweg, which was also called “Rothschild´s Infirmary”. “[…] due to this magnificent building located in the middle of the old park, the Jewish nursing home and infirmary was, like its long-term administrator Hermann Seckbach emphasized, “enabled to treat and care for its patients in case of necessary operations or the like on its own, because the foundation building had theatres, x-ray facilities, laboratory and the most diverse electrical and other baths available” (Seckbach 1917). In addition to the newly constructed “front house” the property 62-64 Röderbergweg comprised a smaller old “rear building” (building of the association “Gumpertz´ Infirmary), which caused the senior doctor Dr. Alfred Günzburg a lot of worry: “According to the express wish of the foundress [Mathilde von Rothschild for her daughter Minka who passed away in 1903, B.S.] only women are admitted to the new foundation, while men are cared for in the old house, an old villa converted for hospital purposes, in a makeshift way, where bathrooms, toilets and sculleries are missing. There is no sitting room! A lift for persons is urgently needed in order to take slow-moving persons into the garden. Now the board is approached with the urgent task of rebuilding the men´s house in such a way that it meets the most important requirements of modern health care” (Gumpertz´ Infirmary 1909, page 7 et seqq.).
Floor plan of the Minka von Goldschmidt-Rothschild’schen Siechenhaus (Sick House) (front building of the total property of the Gumpertz’sches „Sick house“), Roederbergweg 62-64, undated (ca. 1907)
The urgently needed rebuilding measures were carried out, and also the big “front house” was further modernized. The subdivision into a “men´s house” (rear building) and a “women´s house” (front house) still existed during World War I. In addition to the nursing care in “Rothschild´s Hospital” and the pediatric nursing in Rothschild´s Children´s Hospital, Gumpertz´ infirmary was the third cornerstone of care provision on Röderbergweg (also see Eckhardt 2006; Krohn 2000). All three facilities were close to the conservative-Jewish religious society and in corresponding contact.
Military hospital during World War I Right after the beginning of the First World War Gumpertz´ infirmary was involved in Frankfurt´s nursing in 1914. Run as military hospital 33, it set up an intensive care ward for officers and soldiers with up to 40 beds. Soldiers of all denominations found accommodation there so that, in addition to Jewish festivities, Christmas was also celebrated. “It was occupied from its mobilization until 12th December 1918, accommodated 671 soldiers, including 434 wounded men. Furthermore, 154 military persons were treated there as outpatients” (Jewish nurse association Ffm 1920, page 36). The administrator Hermann Seckbach also took the military hospital under his proven wing. Under the direction of his future wife, matron Rahel Spiero, some of her colleagues of the Association for Jewish Nurses of Frankfurt am Main, whose names have not been passed on yet, worked there. Also the residents of the infirmary soon became active: Some male patients solemnized a “Jahrzeitstiftung ” for dead soldiers, “…a light is lit in the synagogue of our facility daily during the year of mourning and on the day of death fburns continuously and a Kaddish prayer alternately performed by the patients” (accountability report 1914 and 1915 (1916, page 7), cp. Gumpertz´ infirmary 1913 et seqq.).
Gumertz’sches Siechenhaus (Sick House) / Title page of a report from 1916 in the university library Frankfurt am Main 2011 Report of the association of the charity „Gumpertz’sches Siechenhaus“ and the Minka von Goldschmidt-Rothschild Charity 1913 ff
In addition to the military hospital the regular care operation had to be continued: “On 1st January 1916 there were 35 women and 22 men in our facilities. In three years 24 women and 20 men newly joined us. 28 women and 25 men died or were dismissed so that on 1st January 1919 there were 31 women and 17 men in our facilities” (accountability report 1916, 1917 and 1918 (1919, page 4), cp. Gumpertz´ infirmary 1913 et seqq.). On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Gumpertz´ infirmary the administrator and author Hermann Seckbach, who also defended his protégés in a journalistic way, emphasized in the newspaper “Frankfurt´s news” in 1917: “[…] for many years we have regarded it as our most important task not to let people suffering from [sic!] long-term illnesses to simply drift-off. Thus, we find a number of cases which could be given back to life and their families or who work within our facility as employees” (Seckbach 1917). After the end of war Mathilde von Rothschild and the family of her deceased daughter Minka – her husband Max von Goldschmidt-Rothschild and their children Albert, Rudolf, Lili, Lucy and Erich – did everything to take Gumpertz´ infirmary through the difficult inflation years.
The 1920s In Fanny Cohn-Nessler´s newspaper report “The infirmary of Frankfurt” from 1920, which is still worth reading today, it says with praise: “The Minka-von Goldschmidt-Rothschild Foundation, a stately elongated building of red sandstone and bricks, near the East Railway Station (Hanau Railway) and a beautiful park, faces Röderbergweg. The infirmary, coming from a legacy of Mrs Gumpertz […], now has received its own big house in the garden of the above-mentioned foundation. Both facilities enjoy a particularly good reputation among the welfare facilities of the old empire city. […] it is a conventional figure of speech in Frankfurt: best food and best agreement among the residents can be found in these two homes that are one; because both facilities are equipped for chronically ill and frail individuals” (Cohn-Nessler 1920: 174 [pointed out in the original]). The author provides also insights into the internal architecture and furnishings: “When entering the foundation you come into the posh-looking vestibule. Marble cladding, alternating with yellow polished wooden surfaces, mirrors on the walls, wide wooden staircases with carved railings” (ibid.). On the ground floor of the front house of the Minka von Goldschmidt-Rothschild Foundation described above could be found among others, the doctors´ room, the room of the house nurse, examination rooms and theatres, the x-ray room as well as the dining room used for festivities. Visitor Fanny Cohn-Nessler was particularly impressed by a room being filled by a large Shabbat furnace (furnace for keeping food warm for the Shabbat): “The house is run in a strict ritual manner. The Shabbat furnace keeps food and drinks warm at a consistently hot (high) temperature during the whole Saturday. For a capacity of about hundred people – including the administration, care and service staff. A tunnel train connects both properties [front and rear building, B.S.]. The food train (lowry wagon) runs in both directions and carries the food including the necessary dishes, cutlery [sic] etc. to the different elevators, which are on all floors. The big kitchen, provided with all equipment of modern times, is located in the basement; also a pesah-kitchen. […] The laundry is on the second floor and equipped with steam operation following the example of large laundries in Berlin and other cities” (ibid.). The rooms of the men´s and women´s division were decorated in white. A large conservation room promoted the communication among the still mobile residents.
Due to the specialization of Gumpertz´ infirmary on long-term care it referred to itself temporarily with the name affix of “Jewish Nursing Home and Infirmary”. In order to remedy its financial difficulties – like almost all social and care institutions, the infirmary fought economic problems in the 1920s – the board strove to upgrade the infirmary to the status of a hospital. However, it continued to be classified as an infirmary and a nursing home by order of the authorities, since short-term care and outpatient clinic were missing. Probably that was why it cut down the operation of its hospital in favor of the elderly care in 1922. In 1929 Gumpertz´ infirmary had to rent its main building (front house) with 90 beds for initially 20 years to the City of Frankfurt am Main, whose aim was to expand the municipal medical care, but reserved in the lease contract the option to buy the complete property. The infirmary itself retreated into its second building (rear building), a villa with 30 beds. The City of Frankfurt agreed to pay the annual rent for the front house and took on maintenance and renovation work. It also planned building extensions with integrated apartments for the nurses. On 27th July 1931 the front house was assigned to the City Health Office as health institution in accordance with the decision of the Magistrate and run as a so-called “mixed” business – with a bigger department for chronically ill patients and a smaller infirmary department – by the chamber office of the Hospital of the Holy Spirit. As a result of the severely fluctuating occupancy of Frankfurt´s hospital beds, the concept of the Municipal Hospital East” and also of a “Municipal Infirmary” was discarded again; instead, spare beds should be made available in the “front house” e.g. for influenza epidemics (ISG Ffm: welfare office Sign. 877; magistrate records Sign. 8.957).
The NS-era After the seizure of power by the national socialists the City of Frankfurt intended to sublease Gumpertz´ front house to the military police department of the major detachment IV of the Stormtroopers (“SA”) of the NSDAP as their military police station. Since this initially could not be realized, the city suddenly terminated the lease contract in May 1933. The Gumpertz´ Foundation, represented by its chairman Dr. Richard Merzbach, instituted proceedings against the sudden termination of the contract, which was a sign that not just the loss of workplaces for the (now -predominantly Christian) nursing staff was on its way, but also the financial ruin for the whole institution. The SA-military-police-department asserted its interest in a take-over in a rude manner: If the city does not exert appropriate pressure on the Jewish landlord, the military police station would possibly move in without having permission. The department even threatened to report the infirmary because of sabotage (ISG Ffm: magistrate records Sign. 8.957: Letter of the Lord Mayor Krebs dated 02/10/1933). Finally, the infirmary had to leave the front house to the city at reduced rent and without the condition to use the building solely for hospital purposes. In accordance with a magistrate decision of 16th October 1933 the SA-military-police-department moved into the front house on 4th November 1933, where 65 persons lived in April 1934. Thus, Gumpertz´ infirmary had a National Socialist neighbor on its own property. On top of everything it was still in disputes over the lease with the city which had in the meantime stopped its payments. Official sublease for the SA-military-police-corps was the “Prussian Treasury” from 1934 until 1936 (with a renewal option until 1944) that was to share the renovation and maintenance costs in equal parts with the City of Frankfurt. However, there was an argument concerning this topic with the city, especially because the military police delayed their rental payments. After the move-out of the military police the 1st unit of hundred policemen of Frankfurt´s uniformed police was initially accommodated in the front house in 1936/37 until being transferred into “Gutleut” barracks. They were temporarily followed by “Hitler-vacationers-comradeships” (in 1937), who consisted of older national socialists “of outstanding merit” like political leaders, storm troopers and members of the shield squadron.
Due to increased demand the front house was to be used as a nursing home and infirmary again in the fall of 1937 and purchased as “inexpensively” as possible by the Gumpertz Foundation. In addition, the Office for “Social Self-Responsibility” of the Nazi German Labour Front intended to establish a research institute for slim diseases in order to counteract reduced efficiency of the Aryan labor force, whether due to overload in the workplace or unhealthy lifestyle, by targeted preventive and optimization measures. In 1937 kitchen, main pantry for food distribution, dining and dressing rooms for the staff, rooms for the storage of hospital clothes and dirty laundry, heating and domestic hot water production plants were located in the basement, on the first floor there were a hospital ward with 13 beds, a room for the medical director of the aforementioned research institute together with a secretarial pool, a room for the cardiac event recorder, a chemical examination room, two physical examination rooms, the diagnostic radiology department with darkroom and the porter´s room, on the second and third floor a hospital ward with 38 beds and adjoining rooms each. In the attic you found the living areas for a doctor, a senior nurse, 15 nurses and 14 domestic servants. In 1938 the city announced its intention to purchase the entire property 62-64 Röderbergweg extending to Danziger Platz and Henschelstrasse, which was certainly rejected by the Gumpertz´ Foundation. However, in April 1938 the foundation had to agree to the sale of its front house which was then called “Röderbergweg Nursing Home and Infirmary”, in short Röderbergweg Home. The “Hospital of the Holy Spirit” took over the management and had extensive reconstruction and renovation work done. After its official opening on 21st November the Röderbergweg Home was occupied with 26 (non-Jewish) chronically ill and ailing patients in agreement with the welfare office (ISG Ffm: magistrate records Sign. 8.958).
The (dependent) Gumpertz´ Infirmary Foundation and Minka von Goldschmidt-Rothschild Foundation were forcibly incorporated into the “Empire´s Association of German Jews” (ISG: foundation department: Sign. 146) on 28th September 1940. On 7th April 1941 the NS-authorities forced the nursing staff and the 46 patients out of the rear building (since 1932 under the address: Danziger Platz 15) transferring to the Hospital of the Jewish Community (at 36 Gagernstrasse). Their biographic data and further destiny are still unexplored: Were they deported to Theresienstadt ghetto like Siegmund Keller and the matron of Gumpertz´ infirmary, Rahel Seckbach? Did some fall prey to not only the Shoah, but also the eugenic Nazi mass murder of disabled people (T4) (see Lilienthal 2009)? In accordance with the “Hausstandsbüchern” [records kept by the local police stations that listed Frankfurt´s residents sorted by street and house number] for 36 Gagernstrasse (ISG Ffm: Part 2, Sign. 687) many displaced patients from the house at 15 Danziger Platz died still in hospital, which was not even equipped for the care of chronically ill patients. With regard to the staff, the “deportees database” of the Börneplatz memorial (Jewish museum of Frankfurt am Main) registers under the address 15 Danziger Platz, in addition to the longstanding domestic employee Rachel Kaplan, the nurse intern Edith Appel (nurse interns), Leopold Lion (porter) and Zilla Reiss (cook, teaching nurse); the “Hausstandsbücher” (ISG Ffm: Part 2, Sign. 687) listed Cornelie (Cornelia) Butwies (commercial clerk, nurse, page 16, 18) as well as Klara Strauss (cook, page 341). In the beginning of 1942 the Empire´s Association of German Jews “sold” the remaining property at 15 Danziger Platz, where the commander´s office of Frankfurt am Main immediately set up the front control center and a teaching kitchen of the Air Force, under Nazi conditions. In 1944 allied air raids destroyed the property of the “Arianized” Gumpertz´ / Rothschild´s infirmary on Röderbergweg. The (non-Jewish) residents had been transferred already before the bombings: the chronically ill patients to Lange Strasse (Hospital of the Holy Spirit) and the sick patients to the Forest Hospital of Köppern near Friedrichsdorf (Taunus). Did they get caught up in the wheels of the eugenic Nazi mass murder (cp. for Hesse among others Daub 1992; Hahn 2001; Leuchtweis-Gerlach 2001; Sandner 2003; also see Graber-Dünow 2013)?
Since 1956 the nursing facility “August-Stunz-Zentrum” of the Workers´ Welfare has been located on the property, today 82 Röderbergweg. On July 25th, 2015, a memorial plaque of the Gumpertz Infirmary is placed on the entrance area of the “August-Stunz-Zentrum”.
I thank Simone Hofmann (B’nai B’rith Frankfurt Schönstädt Lodge, Frankfurt am Main), Felicitas Gürsching (“Library of the Old” of the Historical Museum of Frankfurt am Main), Hanna and Dieter Eckhardt (Historical workshop of the Workers‘ Welfare Frankfurt am Main), Annette Handrich, and Dr. Siegbert Wolf (both City Archive Frankfurt am Main) for important leads.
Birgit Seemann, 2013, updated 2018 (Translated by Yvonne Ford)
Unpublished sources
ISG Ffm: Institut für Stadtgeschichte Frankfurt am Main:
Magistratsakten: Sign. 8.957: Städtische Krankenanstalten: Ermietung des Gumpertzschen [sic] Siechenhauses zur Unterbringung von Kranken und Weiterverpachtung an die Feldjägerei (1930–1938).
Magistratsakten: Sign. T/ 3.028 (Tiefbau- und Hochbauamt, 1904, 1916).
Stiftungsabteilung: Sign. 146: Minka von Goldschmidt-Rothschild-Stiftung (1939-1940).
Wohlfahrtsamt: Sign. 877 (1893–1928): Magistrat, Waisen- und Armen-Amt Frankfurt a.M.
Selected Literature
Andernacht, Dietrich/ Sterling, Eleonore (Bearb.) 1963: Dokumente zur Geschichte der Frankfurter Juden 1933-1945. Hg.: Kommission zur Erforschung der Geschichte der Frankfurter Juden. Frankfurt/M.
Anonym. 1909: [Rubrik ‚Vermischtes‘: Zeitungsnotiz Gumpertz´sches Siechenhaus.] In: Der Israelit, Nr. 50, 16.12.1909. Online-Ausg. Univ.-Bibliothek Frankfurt/M.: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:1-151202.
Arnsberg, Paul 1983: Die Geschichte der Frankfurter Juden seit der Französischen Revolution. Darmstadt, 3 Bände.
Cohn-Neßler, Fanny 1920: Das Frankfurter Siechenhaus. Die Minka-von-Goldschmidt-Rothschild-Stiftung. In: Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums 1920, H. 16 (16.04.1920), S. 174-175 [Online-Ausg.: www.compactmemory.de].
Daub, Ute 1992: „Krankenhaus-Sonderanlage Aktion Brandt in Köppern im Taunus“ – Die letzte Phase der „Euthanasie“ in Frankfurt am Main. In: Psychologie und Gesellschaftskritik 16 (1992) 2, Online-Ausg. 2011: http://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/handle/document/26651.
Eckardt, Hanna 2006: Der Röderbergweg, einst beispielhafte Adresse jüdischer Sozialeinrichtungen. In: Zu Hause im Ostend. 50 Jahre August-Stunz-Zentrum. Festschrift zum 50-jährigen Jubiläum. Hg. von der Geschichtswerkstatt der AWO Frankfurt am Main. Frankfurt a.M., S. 10-13.
Graber-Dünow, Michael 2013: Zur Geschichte der „Geschlossenen Altersfürsorge“ von 1919 bis 1945. In: Hilde Steppe (Hg.): Krankenpflege im Nationalsozialismus. 10., aktualis. u. erw. Aufl. Frankfurt/M., S. 245-255.
GumpSiechenhaus 1909: Sechzehnter Rechenschaftsbericht des Vereins „Gumpertz`sches Siechenhaus“ in Frankfurt a.M. für das Jahr 1908. Frankfurt/M.: Slobotzky.
GumpSiechenhaus 1913ff.: Rechenschaftsbericht des Vereins „Gumpertz`sches Siechenhaus“ und der „Minka von Goldschmidt-Rothschild-Stiftung“. Frankfurt/M.: Slobotzky, 1913ff. [Online-Ausg.: Univ.-Bibl. Frankfurt/M. 2011: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:1-306391].
GumpStatut 1895: Revidirtes Statut für den Verein Gumpertz´sches Siechenhaus zu Frankfurt am Main. Frankfurt/M.: Druck v. Benno Schmidt, Stiftstraße 22. [ISG Ffm: Sammlung S3/N 5.150].
Hahn, Susanne 2001: Köppern als Alten- und Siechenheim in der Trägerschaft zum Heiligen Geist in Frankfurt am Main seit 1934 und die „Aktion Brandt“. In: Vanja, Christina/ Siefert, Helmut (Hg.) 2001: „In waldig-ländlicher Umgebung“. Das Waldkrankenhaus Köppern: Von der agrikolen Kolonie der Stadt Frankfurt zum Zentrum für Soziale Psychiatrie Hochtaunus. Kassel, S. 196-219.
Jüdischer Schwesternverein Ffm 1920: Verein für jüdische Krankenpflegerinnen zu Frankfurt a.M.: Rechenschaftsbericht 1913 bis 1919. Frankfurt/M.
Kallmorgen, Wilhelm 1936: Siebenhundert Jahre Heilkunde in Frankfurt am Main. Frankfurt/M.
Kingreen, Monica (Hg.) 1999: „Nach der Kristallnacht“. Jüdisches Leben und antijüdische Politik in Frankfurt am Main 1938 – 1945 Frankfurt/M., New York.
Krohn, Helga 2000: „Auf einem der luftigsten und freundlichsten Punkte der Stadt, auf dem Röderberge, sind die jüdischen Spitäler“. In: dies. [u.a.]: Ostend. Blick in ein jüdisches Viertel. [Begleitbuch zur Ausstellung im Jüdischen Museum Frankfurt/M.]. Mit Beitr. v. Helga Krohn […] u. e. Einl. v. Georg Heuberger. Erinnerungen von Wilhelm Herzfeld [u.a.]. Frankfurt/M., S. 128-143.
Leuchtweis-Gerlach, Brigitte 2001: Das Waldkrankenhaus Köppern (1901 – 1945). Die Geschichte einer psychiatrischen Klinik. Frankfurt/M.
Lilienthal, Georg 2009: Jüdische Patienten als Opfer der NS-„Euthanasie“-Verbrechen. In: Medaon – Magazin für jüdisches Leben in Forschung und Bildung, Ausgabe 5, 09.11.2009: www.medaon.de.
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Zenker, Dinah 2013: Spiritualität in der Pflege. Ein Ansatz und ein Plädoyer aus der Perspektive der jüdischen Orthodoxie. In: Dachs, Gisela (Hg.): Alter. Jüdischer Almanach der Leo Baeck Institute. Hg. im Auftr. des Leo Baeck Instituts Jerusalem. 2. Aufl. Berlin, S. 127-134.
Selected internet sources (last visited 24.10.2017)
Alemannia Judaica: Alemannia Judaica – Arbeitsgemeinschaft für die Erforschung der Geschichte der Juden im süddeutschen und angrenzenden Raum: www.alemannia-judaica.de.
JM Ffm: Jüdisches Museum und Museum Judengasse Frankfurt am Main (mit der internen biographischen Datenbank der Gedenkstätte Neuer Börneplatz): www.juedischesmuseum.de.
