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Ferdinand Isenberg * 1875

Wandsbeker Marktstraße 19 (Wandsbek, Wandsbek)

1938 KZ Fuhlsbüttel
Flucht in den Tod 18.02.1939

Ferdinand Isenberg, born on 21 Mar. 1875, detained from 1938 to 1939 in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp, suicide there on 18 Feb. 1939

Wandsbeker Marktstrasse 19 (formerly: Hamburgerstrasse 30; business address)
Maria-Louisen-Strasse 122 (residential address)

Despite his hard-pressed situation, Ferdinand Isenberg had made solid preparations for the last Christmas holiday that he would live to see in 1938. In addition to the approved monthly allowance, he submitted to the official in charge at the foreign currency office an application for 500 RM (reichsmark) on 14 December. As a reason he indicated that he wished to assist his "Aryan” wife with buying Christmas presents and his sister and brother-in-law with their planned emigration. In the months before, Ferdinand Isenberg had had to overcome all sorts of difficulties, though being able to hold on to his company until the November Pogrom of 1938. He owned the Gazelle Korsetthaus, Hamburg’s largest Jewish branch operation – and thus, he was subject to the usual general suspicion insinuated against wealthy Jews that he planned to emigrate and intended to transfer funds in circumvention of the tax authorities. For this reason, the foreign currency office had blocked his accounts by "security order” ("Sicherungsanordnung”).

In 1937, there were still 175 Jewish textiles retailers operating in Hamburg. Of the 115 specialist stores for women’s and girls’ clothing, 49 were in Jewish hands, including the ready-to-wear fashion houses Gebr. [Bros.] Hirschfeld and Gebr. Robinsohn, as well the Korsetthaus Gazelle Company. The latter sold women’s lingerie and corsets in 18 branches throughout Hamburg. Since 1907, Ferdinand Isenberg had gradually expanded his enterprise to become one of the largest of the industry in the German Reich.

He had grown up in Hamburg’s Grindel quarter in rather modest circumstances. His father, a native of Bremke in what is now Göttingen administrative district, operated a lottery business at Rutschbahn 24. This was also the location of the family’s apartment. The parents, Hermann Isenberg and Sophie, née Wassermann, having married in New York in 1872, had returned to Germany. The couple had nine children overall. The family belonged to the Jewish Community and paid the membership dues. Only during the First World War, a note of the Community indicated, "Four sons in the field, cannot pay.” However, Hermann Isenberg did not leave any outstanding debts. A the end of his life – he died in 1919 – everything had been settled.

It is not known when Ferdinand Isenberg left his parents’ home and why he went into the lingerie industry. There were, however, relatives in the extended Isenberg family who worked very successfully in the textiles sector, especially in the linen and cloth trade, and in the fur and fashion industry.

Before Ferdinand Isenberg started his own business, he had served as a sales representative for lingerie. In 1907, he acquired a stake in the OHG [= Offene Handelsgesellschaft, general partnership] Korsett-Salon Royal, Rubbel & Co., and in 1911 he took over the business as the sole owner. One year later, he expanded by founding a branch in Harburg and in 1914 another one in Hannover. That same year, he renamed the company to Korsetthaus Gazelle, Ferdinand Isenberg, and got married at the age of 39. His wife, Sophie, née Beck (born in 1879), four years his junior, did not come from a Jewish family but she converted to Judaism. Thus, support by the Jewish Community for Isenberg was preserved; though mixed marriages were in fashion, the couples often had to overcome resistance from both the Jewish and Christian side.

According to a female relative, it was supposedly a "favorable union.” Nevertheless, the couple had to wait for six years before the father of the bride approved of the marriage to a Jew. He also did not show up for the wedding. The fact that his son-in-law was Jewish weighed heavily, and that on top of that, he promoted the rampant sexual permissiveness of the times by selling his revealing collection of women’s lingerie did not make things easier. After all, corsets were not just produced as laced corsets for corpulent women and girls with weak bones but as corsages they were also part of the outfits of the demimonde, the world of revues and operettas. Isenberg had dealings with dancers, which damaged his reputation. Within his own family, there were religious relatives who deemed his business indecent and his lifestyle too secular. For his part, Isenberg did shrug off the reservations of the people around him, but for the Jewish community the "wanderer between the worlds” – as a female relative put it – remained controversial. Moreover, the ultra-conservative associations combating immorality denounced in anti-Semitic diction the general "libertinage” and the Jews as its proponents.

The (childless) Isenberg couple belonged to the liberal religious community of the Temple Association (Tempelverband) and initially, they lived at Mundsburgerdamm 50, later at Maria-Louisen-Strasse 122 on the fourth floor. The Gazelle head office with the warehouse and the offices rooms was located at ABC-Strasse 56/57 in Hamburg-Neustadt.

After the First World War and the period of inflation in 1922, Ferdinand Isenberg temporarily got into financial straits, but starting in the mid-1920s, business apparently went better again. In any case, the company decided to provide training. A woman accepted as an apprentice later reported: "When I finished school, I was fortunate to obtain an apprenticeship in the office of a company that sewed corsets and similar items. The name of the company was Gazelle. The owner was a Jew and very strict. We had to work a lot of overtime and were not allowed to express any opinion of our own. Nevertheless I stayed with the company until I had completed my training.” This may be connected to the fact that the company owner could also be very generous and willing to help. Furthermore, the Gazelle Company had a future. A look at the 1928 directory shows ten branch stores in Hamburg alone. In the early 1930s, Isenberg opened the eleventh store in Wandsbek at Hamburgerstrasse 30. Obviously, the demand for women’s lingerie and corsets was great but one can assume that the female owners of the stores existing there already viewed the new branch store as a strong competition. Thus, quite a few people probably felt a sense of satisfaction when some five years later, the branch was listed on an anti-Semitic leaflet ordering the boycott of Jewish businesses in Wandsbek. In spite of that, Isenberg paid high membership dues to the Jewish Community in 1935/36, from which one may infer excellent business transactions. Only the measures, laws, and decrees passed against the economic activities of the Jewish population in 1938 and the seizure of their assets initiated the decline.

The investigations against Isenberg began in July 1938. The authorities in charge were the Hamburg-Neustadt Tax Office and the Hamburg Customs Investigation Department. The former demanded 37,800 RM as security for the "Reich flight tax” (Reichsfluchtsteuer), which Isenberg had already covered by pawning bonds. On 23 July 1938, the Customs Investigation Department issued a preliminary "security order” with the paltry reasoning that the office had received a communication according to which a number of Jews had been named in person who frequented the casino in Baden-Baden on a regular basis. Jews intending to emigrate, it went on, gambled on a small scale, and when emigrating claimed they had lost their assets gambling, while in reality having transferred them abroad. According to this, Isenberg, too, had visited the Baden-Baden Casino repeatedly, and there was the risk of emigration. The reverse of the investigation report, however, read, "Isenberg supposedly does not intend to emigrate, though he has business relations abroad (Sweden). He has a German passport but it is no longer valid.” He was unable to dispel the suspicions of the authorities. In order not to endanger jobs and wage payments, the normal business operations of the Gazelle enterprise was exempted from the "security order,” since after all, the company comprised a large number of stores with many employees. Exceptional measures, e.g., clearance sales, were subject to approval, however.

Apart from the business assets of the Gazelle companies, the "security order” extended to a property located at Süderstrasse 70–72 as well as Isenberg’s private securities account. The investigation report went on to state, "To cover the personal living expenses of Isenberg and his wife, I have released a sum of 1000 RM at the most per month, which takes into consideration that Isenberg supposedly pays 200 RM in rent a month.”

Isenberg had to submit a statement of net assets and was to undertake trips abroad only with approval by the Hamburg foreign currency office. Isenberg’s wife was also subject to the security measures and was allowed to dispose of their property at Süderstrasse 70–72 and their savings only with written permission.

As was usual in these cases, numerous authorities and offices were informed about the "security orders,” including the Gestapo. The official went on, "In addition, I request to arrange for taking away the couple’s passports.” Although these were already invalid, the civil servant probably felt better to err on the side of caution. Isenberg though had decided to put up a fight. He had the lawyer Dr. Morris Samson file a complaint. The latter wrote, "Plans to emigrate do not exist, since Ferdinand Isenberg is already 64 years old and has no relatives abroad.” However, two weeks later, the lawyer notified the foreign currency office that he was withdrawing the complaint after consultations with his client. That was only half the truth. Prior to that, the foreign currency office had summoned the lawyer to a talk in order to make the futility of his petition clear to him.

Whether Isenberg in fact considered plans to emigrate is not known. His brother Rudolf, who had emigrated to New York, had already passed away by that time.

Meanwhile, trustees had prepared everything for breaking up the company and selling the branches. In order to put even more pressure on the company owner, it was insinuated that he had committed "racial defilement” ("Rassenschande”). It is no longer possible to clarify how the scheme against Isenberg concerning this offense was engineered specifically, who was involved in it and set the ball rolling. In any case, at the end of Dec. 1938, Ferdinand Isenberg disappeared in the Fuhlsbüttel police prison. The exact date of his arrest as well as the accusations and statements by witnesses are not known. The corresponding files of the 23rd Office of the Criminal Investigation Department (Kriminalkommissariat 23), responsible for sex offenses, including "racial defilement,” were destroyed. Deprived of his rights, full of shame and without any possibility to clear himself, Ferdinand Isenberg viewed death as his only way out. On 18 Feb. 1939, he was found hanged; according to the forensic investigation, it was a suicide.

Ferdinand Isenberg, who had enjoyed living but also let others live, not only set a last signal of self-determination but he also evaded his despair and all of the humiliations and further deprivations of his rights that would have come his way. Two days later, the Hamburger Tageblatt informed the public, in a big feature under the heading of "The end of a haggling Jew,” of the death of the "racial defiler” and "bon vivant.”

Ultimately, by going this step, Ferdinand Isenberg had saved the rest of his fortune for his "Aryan” wife, who was the sole heir. First off, the corresponding office lifted the "security order” against Sophie Isenberg. Now the lawyer Wilhelm Behrens became active as the executor and liquidator of the company. He advised the widow and ensured that she was indeed able to come into the inheritance. Before that, a few issues had to be settled. One week after Isenberg’s death, Behrens was ordered to submit, among other things, the following documents: the "Aryan certificate” of the wife, an inventory of the overall assets, a certificate of the tax office concerning the lifting of the "Reich flight tax,” and "a declaration by Mrs. Isenberg that she had not belonged to the Jewish Religious Organization [Jüdischer Religionsverband].” The last demand was delicate, as Sophie Isenberg had converted to the Jewish faith after all. On 17 Mar. 1939, she left the Jewish Community again and was thus able to submit a corresponding certificate.

She had the burial arranged by the F. Wolfson funeral home based in Hamburg-Neustadt, Peterstrasse 33. At the beginning of March, her husband’s personal effects were picked up from the criminal investigation department, including a sum of 11.52 RM and a couple of golden cuff links. Sophie Isenberg changed apartments and moved to Barmbeker Strasse 133.

The executor was successful: Isenberg’s personal assets were extracted again from the clutches of the state and went to his heir, after the "security order” against the couple had been lifted on 2 May 1939.

By this time, the enterprise no longer existed. The historian Frank Bajohr establishes that in early 1939, the trustee had sold eleven of the stores to former female salesclerks and closed the remaining seven branches without any sale. In four cases, the sales were financed through investments by private financial backers from other industrial sectors. The sales prices, very low in all cases, were made up of the liquidation value of the furniture and equipment and the goods inventories valued below market prices. The objects sold were the branches at Mönckebergstrasse 29, Steindamm 13, Hamburger Strasse 96, Schulterblatt 140, and the branch in Wandsbek.

The latter went to Paula Moths, whose apartment was located at Lesserstrasse 48 in 1942. The store did not make it through the bombing raids – nor did most of the other branches. Little by little, the Gazelle Korsett-Haus disappeared from the Hamburg cityscape.

In the 1950s, "Gazelle” was again the name of a chain of lingerie stores, this time in Austria. In its early years, the Austrian "Gazelle” still worked with a lingerie collection originally designed for Ferdinand Isenberg’s Gazelle by Else Kuschinski-Goldstein from the extended Isenberg family. Accordingly, a degree of continuity existed between Ferdinand Isenberg’s Gazelle and the Austrian company.

In 1998, Palmers Textil AG took over the enterprise, selling it off again in 2006. By then, the brand was deemed outdated and homey, even though – as a study of the lingerie market stated – a few years ago, Gazelle still achieved a brand awareness of 46 percent, leaving other, more famous firms behind. By the end of 2007, Gazelle bid farewell "for good after 50 years” when the 23 stores were taken over by the Huber Shops, as an article of the Austrian Standard dated 10 Sept. 2007 noted regretfully.

The name created by Ferdinand Isenberg has left its mark on the ideal of female beauty until this day: slender, nimble, gracile – just like a gazelle. We do not know who or what prompted him to choose this name in 1914, the year he got married. Perhaps the genealogical research of Rudolf Isenberg’s granddaughter in New York will reveal some day what this short biography is unable to answer.

Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2016
© Astrid Louven

Quellen: 1; 2 R 1938/1152; StaHH 331-5 Polizeibehörde – Unnatürliche Sterbefälle 1939/440; StaHH 332-3, Zivilstandsaufsicht, Geburtsregister des Jahres 1875: Auskunft StaHH Az. 621914/07, E-Mail von Frau Dr. Renate Bielefeld, verwandt durch Bella Isenberg, New York, am 10.9.2007; Auskunft von derselben, hier: E-Mails, insbes. vom 31.08., 10.9., 14.9.2007; Auskunft von derselben, hier: E-Mail vom 18.2. und 25.2. 2008; AB 1928 II, 1932 VI, 1941 II, 1942 II und IV, 1947; Zeitzeugenaussage Frau Winkelmann: http://www.kollektives-gedaechtnis.de/texte/weimar/winkelmann.htm Eintrag von Katharina Haas; www.marke.at Expertenplattform marke.at für Markenführung und -strategie, Quelle: Der Standard, Huber, Gazelle, Artikel vom 10.9.2007; Frank Bajohr, "Arisierung", S. 132, 234f, 249; Astrid Louven, Juden, S. 203.