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John Kronach * 1874

Hegestraße 41 (Hamburg-Nord, Eppendorf)

1940 KZ Fuhlsbüttel
Freitod am 14.07.1942

John Kronach (formerly Cohn), born 5 Aug. 1874 in Hamburg, death by suicide 14 July 1942 in Hamburg

Hegestraße 41 and Hammer Landstraße 219

The building at the corner of Haynstraße and Hegestraße in Eppendorf has gained some notoriety in Hamburg, and still occasionally mentioned in the press.

In the early 1970s, real estate investors planned to tear down the elegant apartment house, built in 1912/13. In a court battle that lasted years, the residents, most of them university students, managed to save the building. Later, various owners attempted to drive them out – without success, to this day, 40 years later. For a long time a large banner reading "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s home” hung on the building’s façade. This banner, together with a dinosaur-like sculpture in the front garden, constructed by the residents and named Spekulatenfresser (Speculativore), were symbols of the residents’ position. The tenant association Mieter helfen Mietern Hamburger Mieterverin e.V. was founded in the building’s attic in 1980. At that time untenanted residential property and squatting were current issues. Today, the building is a cultural monument.

The residents researched the history of the building and published a book called Das Haus (The House) in 1986. The banner mentioned above would have been appropriate in an earlier era as well. On page 81, the author writes of a couple who moved into one of the apartments in 1941. He spoke to the wife during his research, who told him that she and her husband had applied for an apartment with a balcony, and after a waiting period, had gotten one. The woman had met the previous tenant: "He was a carpet dealer and a Jew, and had to move to the ghetto over in the Grindel quarter, where the Jews were being sent. He had decorated the apartment nicely, with a study and real carpets.” She didn’t know exactly what had happened to him, but had heard somewhere that he died soon after.

The previous tenant was John Kronach. He was forced to vacate the two-room apartment on the third floor of the building, and move to rooms with the Levy family at Agnesstraße 39. His last registered address was the "Jews’ house” at Kielortallee 24. A year after his eviction, and one day before he was to be deported to Theresienstadt, John Kronach took his life. He was nearly 68 years old and lived alone.

John Kronach’s parents were Charlotte, née Brager, and Michael Kronach. They had both passed away before their son took his life. Both parents had lived in Hamburg. It is not known when the family changed its name from Cohn to Kronach. Like his father, John Kronach was a businessman. He first had a shop for Persian rugs on Mönckebergstraße. In the 1933 trade register he is listed as having a shop for rugs and curtains at Curtiusweg 14. He also lived in the building at this address, in Hamburg-Hamm, until he moved to Hammer Landstraße 219 in April 1936. He moved to Hegestraße in April 1937. It is unknown when he had to give up his business and from what he lived afterwards. The tax records with the Jewish Community show that he paid taxes from 1931 to 1935, and in 1941.

In May 1908, John married Ella Baumann (*1879 in Sangershausen). Their son Fritz was born in 1909. He later became an office clerk. Ella Kronach died in 1928. She was buried at the Ihlandkoppel Jewish Cemetery in Ohlsdorf.

Fritz lived in Berlin until 1935, when he and his wife Käte, née Beier (*1909), moved in with his father on Curtiusweg. The couple then rented rooms with the Steinhoff family at Sechslingspforte 7, until they found an apartment at Springeltwiete 2. Fritz must have been employed, since his tax records show that he paid religious community taxes, though minimal ones, to the Israelitic Community until October 1938, when he was listed as unemployed. In April 1939, his and his wife’s address is listed as Hegestraße 41. They were able to emigrate to Australia in January 1939.

After their departure, John Kronach had no family left in Hamburg. One can hope he at least had good friends who supported him when he was released from 12 days of "protective custody” in the Fuhlsbüttel Concentration Camp. The reason for his imprisonment is not documented. When he received his "evacuation orders” for Theresienstadt on 15 July 1942, he felt so desperate and hopeless that he took his life with an overdose of sleeping pills. He died in the Israelitic Hospital on Johnsallee. Iwan van der Walde (see: Biography, Iwan van der Walde) made the funeral arrangements. John Kronach was buried with his wife.

The residents’ association of the building at the corner of Haynstraße and Hegestraße sponsored the Stolperstein in his memory.

Translator: Amy Lee

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2016
© Sabine Brunotte

Quellen: 1, 4; StaH 213-8, Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht- Verwaltung; StaH 522-1 Jüd. Gemeinden, 992e2 Band 4; StaH 314-15 OFP, Fvg 7164; StaH 314-15 OFP, R 1939/789; StaH 331-5 Polizeibehörde – Unnatürliche Sterbefälle, 1942/1195; StaH 213-8 Staatsanwaltschaft Oberlandesgericht Verwaltung; Hamburger Telefonbuch 1933; Börsenverzeichnis von 1933; Brief von Reinhard Barth ans Stadtteilarchiv Eppendorf vom 4.11.2006; Barth, Das Haus, 1988; Mieterjournal 1/2009, www.mhmhamburg.de/mieterhelfenmietern/zeitung-112556, Zugriff 16.8.2009.
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