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Grabplatte Jüdischer Friedhof Ohlsdorf
Fotograf/in: Bettina Nathan

Max Sommerfeld * 1897

Kieler Straße 594 (Eimsbüttel, Eidelstedt)

1942 Mauthausen
ermordet 15.08.1942 Mauthausen

Max Sommerfeld, born on 12 Dec. 1897 in Salzwedel, deported in the summer of 1942 from the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp to Mauthausen, date of death there 15 Aug. 1942

Kieler Strasse 594

The parents of Max Sommerfeld, Louis Sommerfeld (1870–1932) and Emilie, née Falck (1872–1935), married in 1894 and initially lived in Salzwedel, a district capital in the northern "Old March” (Altmark) in Saxony-Anhalt. In May 1895, their firstborn son was stillborn there. Over the following years, four children were born: in 1896, Hugo; in 1897, Max; in 1899, Hedwig; and in 1901, Martha Sommerfeld. In his home town of Salzwedel, Louis Sommerfeld operated an auctioneering company and he was a sworn auctioneer by trade. In the carnival season, he also rented out "elegant costume attire.” In 1920, Sommerfeld caused a stir in the small Salzwedel synagogue. The merchant disrupted the service to such an extent that the Jewish Community excluded him. The exact circumstances are not known. Probably as a result of this incident, his wife moved to Schäferkamp 32 in Hamburg around this time, whereas the husband stayed in Salzwedel until his death in 1932.

In Hamburg, Emilie Sommerfeld resided at Anckelmannstrasse 91 (Borgfelde) in the period from 1922 until 1930, among others. In July 1923, her son, the merchant Max Sommerfeld, registered his business, "Tuche engross” ("cloth wholesale”) under this address. In June 1926, his second business registration followed, as a "healer of the sick” ("Krankenbehandler”) with a practice address of Danziger Strasse 57 (in the St. Georg quarter) in the boarding school of Wilhelm Schultheis. In the course of the world economic crisis from 1929 onward, business declined for Max Sommerfeld, too, and temporarily he was also working as a drugstore employee at the time. In the 1930 Hamburg directory, he was listed, like his mother, as residing at Anckelmannstrasse 91. Starting in Oct. 1931, he was a "welfare recipient” almost without interruption.

On 31 Dec. 1932, he married the non-Jewish woman Frieda Glau (1896–1950), who came from Holstein and had been living in Hamburg since 1928. This marriage produced the children Friedemann (born in 1933) and Rita (born in 1937). In 1934, Emilie Sommerfeld and her daughters Hedwig and Martha moved to Hirtenstrasse 44 (Hamm-Nord). Her son Max along with his wife and their first child lived there as well. The next address noted is Düsternstrasse 41, on the fourth floor (Hamburg-Neustadt) and as the last residential address Kieler Strasse 594 on the second floor (Eidelstedt), a stucco building dating from the turn of the century. Just when exactly these relocations took place is not known. In late 1935, Max Sommerfeld again got employment at the drugstore of the widowed Jewish woman Martha Bernstein (born in 1876) at Marktstrasse 3 (in St. Pauli) as well as at the Loeffler & Bombay Company. Though he paid his monthly contributions into the retirement insurance in due order, he did not mention his revenues to the welfare office, however.

After being reported to the welfare department for fraud, he was imprisoned for three months starting in late July 1937. Probably because of his Jewish descent, the sentence was increased by two months over the usual penalty. Immediately following his prison term, he was forced to perform "mandatory welfare labor” ("Fürsorgepflichtarbeit”) in the Horner Moor, a bog, on six days a week for nine months because was again dependent on support. Max Sommerfeld was assigned there to a "Jews’ gang” ("Judenkolonne”). Released in mid-Aug. 1938, he was detained once more three months later in connection with the Pogrom of Nov. 1938 and transported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Only eight weeks afterward, on 11 Jan. 1939, he was released to Hamburg.

Probably, he sustained injuries to his left arm in Sachsenhausen, for in the period from 1940 to 1942, he had to seek medical attention and endure repeated operations. From Oct. 1939 until Mar. 1941, he was unemployed, as Jews had been displaced from working life almost completely by that time. From Mar. 1941 onward, he got work with Gertrud Eichenberg, née Hesse (born in 1867), a Protestant native of Hamburg with Jewish parents (she was deported to Theresienstadt on 19 July 1942). By state legislation, Max Sommerfeld was banned from working for non-Jews.
From 16 May until 6 June 1942, Max Sommerfeld was detained once more and arrested yet another time five days after his release, on 11 June 1942. The official reasons for his arrests are unknown but one may assume that these were persecution measures in connection with anti-Semitic Nazi policies.

In the cases of denominationally mixed marriages, the Nazi state often used the detention of the Jewish spouse to pressure the "Aryan” spouse into a divorce. Officially, Max Sommerfeld still enjoyed protection from deportation based on his "privileged mixed marriage” ("privilegierte Mischehe”). However, if he were found guilty or even only accused of an offense, that protection would cease to apply, and then it would be possible to commit him to a concentration camp as a "protective custody prisoner” ("Schutzhäftling”) separate from the large-scale deportations. From the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp, Max Sommerfeld was transferred on 15 Aug. 1942 to the Mauthausen concentration camp (in Austria). This camp was considered as a "KL Stufe III,” i.e. a concentration camp with the harshest living conditions.

On the very day of his arrival, Max Sommerfeld died in Mauthausen. The Mauthausen II records office issued the death certificate, according to which Max Sommerfeld died of "cardiac arrest” at 9 p.m. In most instances, however, these official documents served only to disguise the actual causes of death.

On 9 Oct. 1942, the administration of the concentration camp sent the deceased prisoner’s civilian clothes to the widow, not without asking for a receipt, however: "You are asked to sign the enclosed confirmation of receipt and immediately send it to the prisoner property administration of the K. L. Mauthausen/Oberdonau.” In this respect, too, the authorities went to great and conspicuous lengths to uphold the façade of bureaucratic normality. Four months later, the urn containing Max Sommerfeld’s ashes arrived in Hamburg; it was buried in the Ohlsdorf Jewish Cemetery on 14 Feb. 1943.

According to the information provided by the sister-in-law Elise Krüger, née Glau, Frieda Sommerfeld, née Glau, "suffered a complete physical and mental collapse due to the aftereffects of her husband’s imprisonment and death.”

Following Frieda Sommerfeld’s death in Feb. 1950, their two children, still underage, emigrated to the USA.

Hedwig Sommerfeld (born on 5 Nov. 1899 in Salzwedel), one of Max Sommerfeld’s sisters, who was deported to the Riga Ghetto on 6 Dec. 1941, is commemorated by a Stolperstein at Hirtenstrasse 44 (Hamm-Nord).

The unmarried brother, Hugo Sommerfeld (born on 27 May 1896 in Salzwedel), a sales representative by occupation and also registered with the authorities as residing at Anckelmannstrasse 91 in Hamburg, moved to Frankfurt/Main in Jan. 1935. Just when exactly he returned to Hamburg is not documented; the record shows, however, that he was imprisoned in Hamburg in 1941/42. He was murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz on 11 Feb. 1943.


Translator: Erwin Fink
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: January 2019
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; StaH 213-8 (Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht), Abl. 2, 451 a E1 und 1c; StaH 331-1 II (Polizeibehörde II), Abl. 15 vom 18.9.1984, Band 2 (1942); StaH 332-8 (Alte Einwohnermeldekartei); StaH 351-11 (AfW), Eg 121297 (Max Sommerfeld); StaH 351-11 (AfW), Eg 011196 (Frieda Sommerfeld); AB 1922, 1923, 1930 (Emilie Sommerfeld); AB 1930 (Max Sommerfeld, Wilhelm Schultheis); Bundesarchiv Berlin, Liste der jüdischen Einwohner im Deutschen Reich 1933–1945, Residentenliste 1939 (Hugo Sommerfeld); Gedenkstätte und Museum Sachsenhausen, Sonderliste u. Anweisung der Politischen Abteilung; Gräberkartei Jüdischer Friedhof Ohlsdorf (Max Sommerfeld); Stadtarchiv Salzwedel, AB Salzwedel 1896, 1902, 1910, 1925, 1929/30, 1931; Ernst Block, "Wir waren eine glückliche Familie …", Zur Geschichte und den Schicksalen der Juden in Salzwedel/Altmark, Hrsg. von den Museen des Altmarkkreises, 1998, S. 41, 55, 90; Hildegard Thevs, Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Hamm – Biographische Spurensuche, Hamburg 2007, S. 95 (Hedwig u. Max Sommerfeld).
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