I. Buildings Integral to the Former Life and/or Persecution of Jews in Hamburg - Neustadt/St. Pauli.
Rathaus (Town Hall).
There are 56 portraits, in relief, of eminent citizens of Hamburg, on the columns in the entrance hall of the Rathaus (Town Hall). In 1938, six of the seven portraits of Jewish personages were removed. These were: Moritz Heckscher, Salomom Heine, Heinrich Hertz, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Gabriel Riesser and Isaac Wolffson.
This action took place without it being reported in the press.
The relief of Albert Ballin was not removed. It is not known whether this was purely by chance, or whether it was the fear that the erasure of the portrait of Hamburg's most renown shipowner would release questions.
In 1949, the portraits were replaced.
Albert Ballin was born in Hamburg on the 15th August 1857 to a humble Jewish family. Albert was the thirteenth child from the marriage between Joel Ballin and Amelia, née Meyer, the daughter of a Hamburg merchant. His father made his living by repairing and reselling second-hand clothes. By hard work and good fortune the family were able to establish a small clothing factory in Billwerder that, however, went bankrupt in 1843 as a consequence of the difficult economic situation following the Great Fire that raged in Hamburg between 5th and 8th May 1842. A coal delivery business also proved unprofitable. Like many Jewish families, the Ballins had to start ever new, often risky, enterprises so as to make a livelihood. In 1852, Albert Ballin's father became part owner of an emigration agency: Auswanderer-Agentur Morris und Co. that arranged boat passage to the USA for emigrants. The failed democratic movement of 1848 (the Frankfurt National Assembly, May 1848 - Spring 1849, failed to consolidate the aims of the revolution), and the economic problems in Germany and eastern Europe caused hundreds of thousands of people to emigrate to North America. There was fierce competition between the numerous emigration agencies and profits were modest. When, in 1874, his father died the seventeen year old Albert Ballin, not having attained the age of majority, had to assume his father's position and enter the business, with little education, as breadwinner for the family. Through self education he acquired the tools necessary for his future career. He was fortunate in that the economic boom in America lead to a new wave of emigration and thereby more customers for the agency. In an effort to become more competitive, Albert Ballin, teamed up with Edward Carr, from the Sloman-Linie, establishing a new shipping line to the USA. They dispenced with passenger comfort and fitted out their ships so that they carried emigrants on the outward bound journey to America and cargo on the homeward bound journey. They acquired a large part of the emigrant market by being able to charge very low fares by this very efficient exploitation of their ships. When the business prospered the Sloman-Linie was incorporated. Their Unions-Linie had to make concessions to the 1847 established Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actiengesellschaft, (Hapag). This was disquieting for Hapag, the market leader in the Hansa city of Hamburg. The Hapag shipping company decided to woo the successful businessman, Albert Ballin, and in 1886 made him head of their passage department. At the age of 31, in 1888, he became a member of the board. In international negotiations he was superlatively proficient in languages and knowledge of human nature. He initiated the building of express steamers with twin propellers, introduced "excursion voyages", was prominent in the founding of the Nordatlantischen Dampfer-Linie-Verband, a shipping cartel that attained an expansion of sea traffic and a distribution of routes. The Hapag company built an emigrants "city" in Veddel (a port area of Hamburg) that could accommodate 5,000 people awaiting the departure of Hapag ships. It included a kosher canteen, and a synagogue that was attended in particular by the numerous east European Jewish emigrants. All this proved exceptionally successful, especially in competition with other shipping companies. Born poor and a Jew, and not having even converted to Christianity, he was not accepted into Hamburg's leading society. Ballin was not a religious Jew but he did not convert to Christianity as he did not want to besmirch his father's name. Initially, he suffered from the social exclusion, but this only encouraged him to become more successful than these established Hamburg merchant families. And this he achieved. Within a decade he had made the Hapag, now called the Hamburg-Amerika-Linie, more successful than all domestic and foreign competitors to become the largest shipping company in the world. In 1897, at the age of 40, he became manager, and in 1899 the general director of the company. The company expanded and no longer restricted itself to North America and the West Indies. Ever larger ships demanded requisit technical improvement, and comfortable furnishing. The ever faster ships demanded modern safety precautions and life-saving equipment. "Mein Feld ist die Welt" (The world is my oyster) was Albert Ballin's motto, which is today to be read in the entrance hall of the Hapag-Lloyd-Haus at No. 25 Ballindamm. Ballin's expansion plans brought him together with Kaiser Wilhelm II, whose "liebstes Kind" (most beloved child) advised and endorsed his plans for the expansion of the navy. However, having built friendly connections with England over the years, Balin wanted to prevent any confrontation between Germany and England. Albert Ballin was the only Jew, not converted to Christianity, with whom Kaiser Wilhelm II had a personal relationship. However, the court including the empress, made no attempt to hide what they thought of the Jewish shipowner. The emperor maintained his close personal relationship with the man whose imposing ships flew the German flag the world over. In 1912, Kaiser Wilhelm II came especially to Hamburg for the launching of the luxury steamer Imperator. Following the assassination of Austria's crown prince, Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on 28th June 1914, Albert Ballin travelled to Berlin and London to have talks with leading politicians of both countries to contribute to a peaceful solution of the conflict. However, the jingoism of the day was more powerful than the rational assessment of the Hansa businessman. Ballin knew that the first shots of the First World War would mean the collapse of his international shipping company. In 1918, in the face of the defeat of the German Reich, Ballin once again travelled to Berlin to persuade the emperor to adopt American President Wilson's peace plan (Fourteen Points). The emperor declined. The Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey were defeated and agreed to an armstice on 11th November 1918, before being forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles on 28th June 1919. On 9th November 1918, the day Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated, Albert Ballin took his own life by taking an overdose of tranquillizers he had for his chronic insomnia.
In 1935, the steamer "Albert Ballin" was renamed "Hansa", "Ballin-Kai" (Kai = quay) was renamed "Europa-Kai", and "Ballin-Haus" was initially renamed "Bauhof" and then "Meßberghof" when the Nazis attempted to erase everything Jewish. In 1947, Hamburg re-acknowledged the importance of Albert Ballin for the city and paid tribute to him by renaming the street in which Hapag-Lloyd-Haus stands, one of the four roads that skirt the Binnenalster lake in the centre of the city, Ballindamm. An oil painting of Albert Ballin is to be seen in the permanent exhibition "Juden in Hamburg", in the Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte, No. 24 Holstenwall, 20355 Hamburg.
A bust of him is to be found to the left of the entrance hall of Hapag-Lloyd-Haus at No. 25 Ballindamm.
Moritz Heckscher was born on the 26th december 1797 in Hamburg. The Heckschers had lived in Hamburg and Altona from the 17th century, and were eminent members of the Jewish community. The family name indicates their original domicile, in and around Höxter (between Hannover and Kassel), ancestors having lived in Bruchhausen. Höxter became Hechscher in Hebrew. Moritz's father Martin Anton Hechscher, married to Eva, née Schlesinger founded the largest bank in Hamburg: Bankhaus Heckscher und Co.. It became famous by later being managed by Salomon Heine, who in 1816 gave his nephew Heinrich Heine an apprenticeship in the bank. Moritz studied jurisprudence in Heidelberg and Göttingen. Prior to acquiring a position in a large legal practice, as a converted Jew, he broadened his knowledge by making a journey to the Aegean. He was a highly intelligent, sagacious and eloquent man. In the 1840s he turned his attention to politics, and worked to reform the Hamburg constitution. He played a leading role in the 1846 founded Verein Hamburger Juristen. One of its aims was the cultivation of good understanding between Hamburg lawyers; at the same time they spiritedly discussed and passed resolutions on points of law, that had to be reformulated in view of the revolutionary movement in Germany. As a member of the Reform-Deputation, Dr. Heckscher quickly became an accepted authority concerning the Hamburg constitution. He played a leading role in the founding of the first Deutschen Anwaltsvereins (German Bar Association), and on 5th August 1846 he was chosen to inaugurate the first Deutschen Anwaltstag (German Lawyers Day). In the same year he was president of the committee that was to make preparations for the founding of a university in Hamburg.
Heckscher became renown for his participation in the revolutionary movement in Germany in 1848 and 1849. By request of its citizens he represented Hamburg in the Heidelberg Vorparlament (preliminary parliament). Following this he took part in the so-called "Funfzigerausschuß" (fifties committee), in which he, in answer to the hostility between Denmark and Hamburg, pleaded for a secure coastal defence by naval ships, and thereby for the establishment of a German navy. He devoted all his energies to the unification of Germany. In 1848, he was delegated by Hamburg to the Frankfurt Paulskirchen-Parlament, where he, as liberal, represented Hamburg's interests, particularly those of the merchants. Here he shone as a skilful debater. He was a member of the Deputation that offered Archduke Johann the sovereignty of Germany and Austria. In the desire of contributing to an all-Germany unification he accepted the appointment as Reichsminister for Justice, but, however, soon moved to the Foreign Ministry.
In the revolutionary turmoil of September 1848, an incensed rabble murdered the parliamentary members
von Lichnowsky and General von Auerswald. Dr. Heckscher had made an excursion when he was recognized
and almost lynched by armed rabble-rousers in Höchst railway station, near Frankfurt. It was only
thanks to his courage and eloquence by the mob released him after seven hours of interrogation.
Friends reported that he aged many years
during this night. His excursion was interpreted as flight and he had to leave the cabinet, but so as
not to lose face the cabinat promised him diplomatic missions. Disillusioned and disappointed
he returned to Hamburg and took up his career as lawyer once again. In Hamburg, in 1849, he edited
the periodical "Der Grobian" which, in 1850, became "Der Opponent" but because of its aggressively
closed down. Dr. Heckscher fought for the establishment and realization of legal democratic civil
rights. This included the abolition of censorship, and the equal rights for Jews.
Salomon Heine was born in Hannover on 19th October 1767. His father was a poor Jewish clothes seller. Salomon Heine arrived in Hamburg in 1784 with 16 groschen. Here he made a living running errands, selling writing implements, and worked together with the money-broker Halle. In 1797, he jointly opened a bank in Kohlhöfen, with Marcus Abraham Heckscher. In 1806 French troops marched into the city after their victories near Jena and Auerstedt. The continental blockade imposed by Napoleon, which cut off traffic with Great Britain, hit Hamburg hard. Between 1810 and 1814 Hamburg was incorporated into the French Empire and suffered a devastating decline during its occupation. However, Heine was able to break the blockade by financing the import of English textiles and colonial goods.
In 1818, having in the meantime become a millionaire, he set up his own business. Although Hamburg refused the Jews civil rights, he made himself a successful entrepreneur and respected financier. In 1835 non-Jewish citizens defended his bank in Jungfernstieg from a pogrom. Although he was not born in Hamburg, he loved the city. This was apparent when between 5th to the 8th of May 1842 the Great Fire ravaged Hamburg. He was 75 years old. Without hesitation he consented to his house being blown up to prevent the fire spreading further. He afterwards waived the insurance award. In addition to this, Hamburg's Rothschild, continued to grant the city credit, despite the catastrophy. The issuing of loans amounting to millions of RM for the reconstruction of Hamburg made up ¼ of all credit. He also financed the construction of the stock exchange, churches and synagogues.
When his son Hermann died he founded the Hermann-Heine-Stiftung (Hermann Heine Trust), to assist Hamburg citizens without means. Following the death of his wife Betty he donated a hospital in Altona for poor Jews. He was respected and honoured as a patriot, as patron to the poor, helper of those in distress, and benefactor to the city. When he died on 23rd December 1844, plagued by asthma and dropsy, thousands of Hamburg citizens followed his coffin. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Ottensen.
Salomon Heine gave his nephew Heinrich Heine, who came to Hamburg in 1816, an apprenticeship in his bank, and in 1818 a "Kommissionsfirma mit englischen Manufakturwaren" (an agency for English manufactured goods), which went into liquidation a year later. He then financed his nephew's law studies. Heinrich finally found his vocation as a poet. He wrote most of his Buch der Lieder in his uncle's country house in the Elbchaussee. Despite their differences Heinrich Heine eulogized his uncle as "bedeutenden Menschen, der bei großen Gebechen auch die größten Vorzüge hat." ("a great man who had merits as well as weaknesses").
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz was born on 22nd February 1857 in Hamburg. His father Dr. jur. Gustav Ferdinand Hertz, who had converted to Christianity, was an advocate in Hamburg, then Oberlandsgerichtsrat, and from 1887 Senator and head of the administration of justice. His mother Anna Elisabeth, née Pfefferkorn, was the daughter of the Frankfurt doctor, Dr. Pfefferkorn. After attending a private Realschule, Heinrich prepared himself, by private study, for the Johanneum at which, after only a year, he passed his Abitur (GCE A-levels), the best in his class. He showed an early interest in the natural sciences, and a practical skill in building physics equipment. He was also an enthusiastic linguist, learning Arabic and Sanskrit. After years of study and travel in Frankfurt, Dresden, Munich and Berlin, with a stopover in Kiel, in 1880 he received his Ph.D. magna cum laude from the University of Berlin with a thesis on the electromagnetic induction in rotating spheres. In Berlin he studied under Kirschhoff and Hermann von Helmholz. He became professor of experimental physics at the Karlsruhe Polytechnic at the age of 28. He carried out extensive investigations into the connection between light and electricity. He was the first to prove experimentally that electricity had a wave form and that electric waves could be relected and broken. In 1883 he began his studies of the 1865 electromagnetic theory of James Clark Maxwell, and generated waves known as Hertz Waves in the laboratory and measured their length and velosity. He showed that the nature of their vibration and their suseptibility to reflection and refraction were the same as those of light and heat waves. By so doing he established beyond any doubt that light and heat are electromagnetic radiation. In 1889, Hertz was appointed professor of physics at the University of Bonn, where he continued his research on the discharge of electricity in rarefied gases.
A lecture to professional colleagues in the autumn of 1889 in Heidelberg can be seen as the "birth" of radio and sound film. He was also the discoverer of the photoelectric effect, and contributed to the elasticity theory. He died on the 1st January 1894 in Bonn, after a long illness. His early death prevented him from experiencing the practical results of his work. He is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Ohlsdorf.
His scientific papers were translated into English and published in three volumes:
In 1925 Gustav Hertz was appointed professor of physics at the University of Halle and in 1928
professor of physics at the Technische Hochschule in Berlin. In 1932 he devised a method of
separating the isotopes of neon.
Jacob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy was born in Hamburg on 3rd February 1809. His father was the Jewish banker Abraham Mendelssohn, who later became a councillor in Berlin. His mother Lea, née Salomon was the daughter of a banker. His grandfather was the renown philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. He received his first piano lessons from his musically gifted mother. He and his sister Fanny were child prodigies of the piano. He performed at the age of 9 in Berlin. He started composing music from the age of 11. The twelve year old Felix performed his quartet for piano, violin, viola and cello in the Gartenhaus Goethe in Weimar, in the presence of his teacher C.F. Zelter. He wrote his overture "Sommernachtstraum" (A Midsummer Night's Dream) as early as 1826/27. At the age of 20 he and Zelter conducted the first revival of Bach's "Matthäuspassion" (St. Matthew's Passion), which had been neglected for almost 100 years, and initiated the Bach renaissance. After several years of cultural tours he became director of music in Düsseldorf. In 1835 he became the royal director of music and leader of the Gewandhauskonzerte in Leipzig. Finally in 1842 he became the royal general director of music in Berlin. This post he retained only briefly before, in 1843, he co-founded and became director of the Leipziger Konservatorium. He was praised for the consumate ease and remarkable sensibility of his conducting and playing.
After the devastation caused by the Great Fire which ravaged Hamburg between 5th to the 8th of May 1842 he gave two benefit concerts. He specified that a large part of the proceeds be given to the mother of his friend, who was born in the same house in Hamburg as he, and who later became director of music in Leipzig.
He acquired many honours: the University of Leipzig made him Dr. phil. honoris causa, and he received the Peace Award of the Order Of Merit.
He was the leading figure of the romantic classicism movement. He composed 5 symphonies, 2 piano and violin concertos, overtures, varied chamber music, piano works, music for drama, oratorios, choral works, lieder and organ sonatas.
He died on the 4th November 1847 in Leipzig, at the age of 38, of a stroke. He was buried in Berlin, as were his parents.
Gabriel Riesser was born in Hamburg on 2nd April 1806. Both parents were descendants of rabbi families. The family name came from Ries in Würtemburg. One grandfather was the first rabbi of the Altona-Hamburg-Wandsbek triple community, and the supreme judge of the Jews in Denmark. So it was not unexpected that Gabriel Riesser should study jurisprudence. After attending the Katharineum in Lübeck and the Johanneum in Hamburg, he sat his Abitur (GCE A-levels) at the Akademischen Gymnasium. He studied jurisprudence in Kiel, Munich and Heidelberg, and obtained a Ph.D. with summa cum laude. Despite this he was unable to pursue his intended career as university lecturer, as the Baden constitution did not permit this. An application for the position of unestablished university lecturer was also unsuccessful due to him being a Jew. And so, in 1829 in Hamburg, he applied for admission to the legal profession, the prerequisite being the possession of citizens rights, which Jews were refused in Hamburg.
He categorically refused to convert to Christianity so as to become eligible for these posts. He argued this in the publication: "Über die Stellung der Bekenner des mosaischen Glaubens in Deutschland. An die Deutschen aller Confession", 1831 ("Regarding the situation of individuals of the Jewish faith in Germany. Addressed to Germans of all faiths"). He demanded human rights and equal rights for Jews. He championed this struggle in significant economic and political publications. In 1834, he unsuccessfully petitioned the Hamburg Rat (council), for these rights, on behalf of Hamburg Jews. He had been a member of the board of the Comitee für die Verbesserung der bürgerlichen Verhältnisse der Hamburger Israeliten (Committee for the reform of the civil rights of Hamburg Jews) for a year. In 1836 he moved to Bockenheim, near Frankfurt, for four years, in the hope of acquiring citizens rights. He was also rejected as professor in Jena. He made the struggle for the emancipation of the Jews his life-work. In 1840 he was finally appointed notary public by the Hamburg Senat (executive). In 1848 and 1849 he was delegate to, and vice-president of, the Frankfurt Federal Assembly in the Paulskirchen-Parlament. He was one of its most brilliant orators. He stood for freedom of faith and conscience. Freedom and Country - Equality and Fraternity - Justice and Truth were the values he continuously advocated. He was a member of the Deputation that offered the sovereignty of the German Reich to King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia in the name of the Federal Assembly. The King was, however, only willing to accept sovereignty from princes of the Reich.
Gabriel Riesser demonstrated personal courage when he prevented a mob, incenced by the cease-fire with Denmark, from storming the parliament. In 1850 he was vice-president of the Erfurt Unions-Parlament. In 1848, in the course of liberal reform, Hamburg granted him civil rights. He was acknowledged as the 19th century representative of German Judaism, and of the German liberal democratic movement. In 1857 he facilitated generous financial aid to Austria which was in a financial crisis. In 1857 he finally attained his personal goal by being permitted to pratice as a lawyer. In 1859 he was elected to the Hamburg Bürgerschaft (parliament), and became its vice-president between 1860 and 1862. In 1860 he experienced his greatest triumph by being appointed judge in the Obergericht (High Court), the highest court in Hamburg. He was the first Jew in Germany to attain such a position. The same Hamburg Bürgerschaft that had previously denied him had now made him a judge in their highest court.
Gabriel Riesser died in Hamburg, at the age of 58, on 22nd April 1863. Thousands of mourners followed his coffin. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Grindel. In 1865 he was given an imposing gravestone with female figure with sword triumphing over a serpent: Truth triumphing, with words, over Falsehood.
When the Nazis had the cemetery vacated in 1937 Gabriel Riesser's remains were exhumed and reburied
in the Jewish cemetery in Ilandkoppel, in the district of Ohlsdorf.
Isaac Wolffson was born in Hamburg on 21st January 1817. He was the son of the respected businessman Meijer Wolffson and Zindel, née Levin. Both families had long been domicile in Hamburg. At the age of seven Isaac Wolffson entered the Israelite Freischule. He prepared for entry to university at the Akademischen Gymnasium. In 1835 he received a Ph.D., with a thesis on civil law.
To practice as judge, proxy or lawyer in Hamburg one had to possess the rights of a citizen, which Hamburg refused the Jews. In his unsuccessful application for the granting of citizenship he referred to the Bundesakte of the Deutschen Bund (Federal laws of the German Federation) which were superordinate to the laws of the individual separate German states. Jews were only permitted to advise and represent litigants in the commercial court. Dr. Wolffson participated in founding the Verein Hamburger Juristen (Hamburg Association of Lawyers) in 1846, following the German lawyers' convention in Hamburg. The purpose of this convention was to discuss the topic of Hamburg law and the administration of justice.
Isaac Wolffson was the precursor of emancipation and equal rights for Jews. He was the deputy chairman of the Gesellschaft für die sozialen und politischen Interessen der Juden (Society for the social and political interests of Jews). The Frankfurt Federal Assembly of 1848 assured the Jews equality in respect of civic and civil rights. In 1849, in Hamburg, a corresponding regulation came into force, although the granting of equal rights could only be determined in a written constitution. In 1848 Isaac Wolffson was elected to the constituent assembly in an election in which Jews had the vote. In co-operation with the lawyers Baumeister and Wiebel he drafted the memorandum for the constitution of the Free State of Hamburg, that had to wait until 1860 before it was passed.
However, in 1849, Isaac Wolffson was accepted in the Matrikel (legal register) as a lawyer. His lawyers practice, later the firm of Wolffson, Dehn and Schramm, thereby acquired a considerable boost.
He was a member of the Hamburg Bürgerschaft (parliament) from 1859 to 1889, and its president from 1861 to 1863. Here he fought for an extensive reform of the criminal law, and for improvement of civil and commercial law, and a general revision of the Hamburg administration of justice. Between 1871 and 1881 he was both a member of the Hamburg Bürgerschaft (parliament) and the German Reichstag (German parliament 1871-1945), being present at its ceremonial inaugeration in Berlin. As liberal nationalist he was a member of the free trade parliamentary opposition.
He was a spokesman for the abolition of capital punishment, the revision of the constitution, and for the reform of the criminal law. He supported the retention of the individual German states, and for compensation for widows and orphans of the Franco-Prussian war (the war of 1870-71 between France and Prussia culminating in the fall of the French Second Empire and the founding of the German empire). As a member of the commission for justice he participated in establishing the fundamentals and practical implementation of a new legal structure. He was one of the founding fathers of the Bürgerliche Gesetzbuch, BGB, (Civil Code).
In 1879 he became the first president of the newly established Hanseatischen Anwaltskammer (Hansa Law Society), which included the Hansa towns of Lübeck and Bremen. Here he also worked for progress and reform.
He died on the 12th October 1895, at the age of 78, still fully active.
At the unveiling of a bust of him in the lobby of the Oberlandgericht (Provincial High Court and Court of Appeal) in 1928 it was emphasized that, of the ten jurists appointed to formulate the Bürgerliche Gesetzbuch, BGB, (Civil Code), he was the sole lawyer and sole Jew. In 1933 the bust was bedaubed and the nose damaged by the Nazis. It was then removed to the cellar of the court, and from 1933 to 1945, remained, packaged, in the cellar of the Wolffson family house. After the war, on the initiative of the legal profession, the bust was repaired, and in August 1945, re-installed in its original position in the lobby of the Oberlandgericht, where it can be seen today.
The roads Wolffsonstieg and Wolffsonweg, in the district of Alsterdorf, are named after him.