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, from 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. Aus: 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
