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Alice Vorwahlner (née Deutsch) * 1888

Loogestieg 12 (Hamburg-Nord, Eppendorf)

1942 Theresienstadt
ermordet am 15.8.1943

Alice Vorwahlner, née Deutsch, born 8/71888 in Vienna, deported to Theresienstadt on 7/19/1942, died there on 8/15/1943

Loogestieg 12

Alice grew up in the Roman Catholic faith as the daughter of Julius and Hermine Deutsch, and attended the Mariahilf high school there. Then, she studied piano at the Vienna conservatory and became an acclaimed concert pianist. She was hired by Franz Lehar, splayed in all his operettas and won the Franz Lehar Medal. She married the Hofopernsänger ("court opera singer”) Karl Josef Johan Vorwahlner-Reichwald, born September 12th, 1889, and accompanied him and other opera and operetta singers on the piano at their concerts. Vienna, Starhemberggasse 7/28 was her main place of residence until February 21st, 1921. Her son Walter August Wilhelm Vorwahlner was born on May 20th, 1916 in Tegernsee in Bavaria, most likely on a concert tour.

In 1921, the Vorwahlners separated; their official divorce was only pronounced in 1931. In 1921, her husband was treated at the Vienna mental hospital "Landesanstalt Am Steinhof"; in September of the same year, he moved to Berlin.

At the latest in 1926, Alice Vorwahlner and her son moved to Hamburg, first to Eimsbütteler Strasse 42, and on August 26th, 1926 to a three and half room apartment at Loogestieg 12 in Eppendorf. She was a popular singing teacher and gave celebrated concerts with her students. Her master pupils Rose Adler and Vera Schwarz became stars at the Hamburg Opera. Until 1933, she continuously had approx. 30 male and female students, who, depending on talent and financial situation, payed between 10 and 25 RM per 45-minute lesson. Her annual income between 1931 and 1933 was estimated at 25,000 to 30,000 RM.

From 1934, the number of her students rapidly decreased, because the non-Jewish pupils withdrew and the Jews gradually left Germany. The anti-Jewish laws of the art and music authority Reichskulturkammer made it impossible for her to continue working, and at the latest after the 1938 November pogrom, she was forced to abandon her profession completely.

On March 11th, 1940, the Chief Finance Administrator issued a "security order” on March 11th, 1940. Her monthly allowance was lowered by 10 to 300 RM. At the time, proceedings for violation of currency regulations against her were pending, because she had ceded a sum of 4,250 RM to the company Firma W. Schenk & Co. The cession was declared void, and her assets except for 50 RM were confiscated.

From preserved letters to her attorney Walter Wulff we know that an inheritance due to her was confiscated. Frau Vorwahlner fought for her capital with desperate courage, but at the end, she could only fail. On September 15th, 1939, she again asked her attorney for help: … your intervention is now my only hope … please attend to me, a woman who, after losing her mentally ill husband, her profession and now also her only son, who is in England, can only endure in desolation.” Nevertheless, all attempts were in vain, and all her remaining assets were confiscated on July 17th, 1942.

On July 19th, 1942, 1942, Alice Vorwahlner was deported to Theresienstadt on transport VII/2 with the number 761. Her address there was Parkstrasse 12/ L514. The Jewish physician at the ghetto gave her cause of death as blood poisoning caused by an abscess on her back. She died on August 15th, 1943.

Her son Sohn Walter August Wilhelm Vorwahlner attended the Wilhelm Gymnasium high school in Hamburg from 1926 until December 1935; after graduating, he absolved a commercial apprenticeship. In 1938, he emigrated to Switzerland, and from there on to England, provided with a sports trainer’s visa from the British Consulate General. Interned in May 1940, he was shipped to Canada. He returned to England in 1941 and served in the British Army until 1946.

Later, he emigrated to Uganda, where he worked in the Colonial Administration and as principal of a commercial school; he changed his name to Walter John Bentley.

As his mother’s sole heir, he filed a compensation claim against the Federal Republic of Germany in 1963, documented and supported by affidavits supported from former students, Alice Vorwahlner was classified as a higher-level civil servant, and her son’s claim granted.


Translated by Peter Hubschmid
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: March 2019
© Ulrike Graubner

Quellen: 1; 2; 3; 5; 7; StaH 332-8 Meldewesen A51/1; StaH 621-1/87 Firma W.Wulff, 65/1939; StaH 314-15 OFP, R 1940/194; AfW 200516; Schriftliche Mitteilung Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv, Frau Dr. Ma-Kircher, MA8-B-AW3951/2010; Herzig/Rohde (Hrsg.), Die Juden, 1991.
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