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Already layed Stumbling Stones


Frieda, Ernst und Marianne (später verheiratete de Zwart) v. l. n. r.
Frieda, Ernst und Marianne von der Porten (später verheiratete de Zwart)
© Privat/Bildarchiv IGdJ

Dr. Ernst von der Porten * 1884

Mittelweg 118 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

1940 Perpignan (Suizid)

see:

further stumbling stones in Mittelweg 118:
Frieda von der Porten, Friedrich Stutenbäcker, Marianne de Zwart

Dr. Ernst von der Porten, b. 5.10.1884 in Hamburg, suicide on 12.13.1940 in Perpignan (France)
Frieda von der Porten, née Alexander, b. 12.2.1885 in Hamburg, suicide on 12.13.1940 in Perpignan (France)

Mittelweg 118 (Rotherbaum)

The "von der Porten‘s" lived in the Hansa City of Hamburg for eleven generations. "The family patriarch, Salomon Knorr, came from Holland to Hamburg-Altona in 1630 and founded a business that prospered. He and several of his descendants were buried in the cemetery on Königstrasse in Altona. The family took the name ‘von der Porten’ in 1706 at the latest,” wrote Leo Lippmann in his biography. In 1735, Levin von der Porten was mentioned in the records of the Hamburg Senate in reference to a pearl business. In 1794 the firm "Sim. Val. von der Porten & Sons, Jewels, Peterstrasse” was included in the Hamburg directory. In 1806, when Napoleonic troops occupied Hamburg and the Hansa City was incorporated into the French Empire in 1810, the Jews living there were granted complete equality for the first time. In this period, according to the directory, there were two heads of the family and two firms: Isaac Sal. von der Porten, Lottery-Business, Peterstrasse 189, as well as, Sim Valent. von der Porten Sons, div. Merchandise, Peterstrasse 169 (Neustadt). In 1842, the year of the great Hamburg fire, the Hamburg directory listed three von der Porten families with home and business addresses.

The physician Dr. Sally von der Porten (1819–1875) practiced medicine in Hamburg as of 1842 and was the first of his family to work in this profession. His parents, Moses Isaac von der Porten (d. before 1840) and Caroline, née Haarbleicher, enabled him, through their lottery commission business, to attend the Johanneum preparatory school and then to study medicine at the universities of Heidelberg and Halle. In 1848, Sally von der Porten married the Hamburg native and widow Hana, née Lemos (1821–1895). The marriage took place in the home where von der Porten lived at Neuer Wall 2, likely new construction erected on the ruins of the Hamburg fire of 1842. Only after 1849 were the Jews living in Hamburg gradually granted equal rights. Thus, the Hamburg merchant Isidor (Isaac) von der Porten (1816–1882), a brother of Sally von der Porten, became the first of this name to receive the right to vote in the Hansa City in December 1854.

"Dr. of Medicine & Surgery" Maximilian von der Porten was first listed in the Hamburg directory as an assistant physician at the St. Georg General Hospital. He had studied in Heidelberg and Berlin and after the death of his father, Sally von der Porten, in 1875, took over the practice at Neuen Wall 30, where he now lived with his widowed mother. In the following year, he, too, acquired the Hamburg franchise, for which he had to show an annual income of 1200 Marks for five consecutive years. After his marriage in June 1878 to the Mainz-born Adele Goldschmidt, they moved to a home at Glockengiesserwall 18, where he now conducted his practice at the edge of the Old City (Hamburg-Altstadt). Adele’s father, Salomon Benedict Goldschmidt (1818–1906) came from Frankfurt-am-Main. Her mother Josephine Edle von Portheim descended from the hereditary Bohemian nobility, and her brother, Dr. Victor Goldschmidt (1853–1933) was a Heidelberg University professor. In 1882, the five-member von der Porten family moved to the newly-laid out Tesdorpfstrasse 5 (until 1898 Schulstrasse 5) in the suburb of Rotherbaum "outside the Dammthor” [Old City Gate]. They bought a well-situated house dating from the 1820s and modernized it. The Jewish religion played only minor role for Maximilian von der Porten. He was an adherent of the spiritual principle of monism and a member of the German Monist League, founded in Jena in 1906. He wrote a number of brochures on this theme. "In all of these writings, the youthful idealist awaited the ever greater perfecting of mankind,” wrote his son-in-law, Leo Lippmann. In the 1880s, he published, under the pseudonym A. Dehlen, three tragedies, a comedy, and, under his own name, books about antiquity, the classics, and the art of poetry. He also composed the inscription for the family burial vault in the Ohlsdorf cemetery:

And though death the best does whisk away,
There remains life’s victory and meaning:
Life itself

When Maximilian von der Porten died in 1924, the Hamburg banker, Max Warburg (1867–1946) spoke at his funeral.

Ernst von der Porten (1884) was the fourth of five children born in Hamburg to Maximilian (Max) von der Porten (1850–1924) and Adele, née Goldschmidt (1854–1941). In the spring of 1903, he graduated from the Johanneum preparatory school. On his diploma, his religious affiliation was noted as "without denomination." Paul von der Porten (1879–1964), the oldest of the brothers, and Richard von der Porten (1886–1916) had graduated with Abitur diplomas. Richard chose a commercial profession; he died as a soldier in May 1916. After his medical studies and finishing his doctorate in 1917, Paul opened a practice at Dammtorstrasse 5 (Neustadt) as a "specialist for skin and sexually transmitted diseases, x-ray, light, and heat treatments; his home was at Eppendorfer Landstrasse 15.

Ernst von der Porten studied medicine in Freiburg (1903–1905), Munich (1905/06), and Heidelberg (1906–1908) from which he graduated. He interned from 1908 to 1910 and then served as resident from 1910 to 1911 in the second surgical unit of the St. Georg General Hospital. In 1911, as general practitioner and obstetrician, he opened a private practice at Mittelweg 118. He was the house physician for the private bank M. M. Warburg & Co. and for the US Consulate in Hamburg. In addition, he published articles on anesthesia, for example, Veronal therapy (1910), on the modification of an anesthesia mask (1914), on anesthesiology as a separate specialty (1922, 1925); in 1923, he went to England to study anesthesia techniques. In the German Empire, he was one of the luminaries in this new field of medicine. In 1928, he established together with other anesthesiologists a specialists‘ journal, "Pain."

In Hamburg in 1911, he married Frieda (Friedl) Alexander. On the marriage certificate the groom was entered as "without denomination,” the bride as "Mosaic.” The father of the bride, the Hamburg citizen Jacob Alexander (1853-1921), was a home and mortgage broker and General-Agent of the German Real Estate Credit Bank Gotha and Berlin; her mother, born in Posen, was Lina Alexander, née Jaffe (1859–1934). Along with her brother Fritz Alexander (b. 11.29.1883), they lived at least since 1890 at Heimhuderstrasse 70 (Rotherbaum), which fed into Tesdorpfstrasse. The company office for the business founded by Jacob Alexander was in Hamburg Neustadt at Heuberg 5–7 (between 1890 and 1903), in the newly erected "Leopoldshof” at Poststrasse 3, Ecke Neuer Wall (between 1904 and 1909), and later in the "Hübnerhaus” at Poststrasse 2, Ecke Neuer Wall (between 1910 and 1921). The in-laws Jacob and Lina Alexander moved into the house at Mittelweg 118.

Since 1912, Ernst von der Porten was a member of the German Israelite Congregation. It is likely that this was a concession to his wife. He himself was the product of a scarcely religious parental home and had barely any connection to Judaism. Although he was a member of a Jewish congregation since 1917, the birth certificate of his daughter born in that year recorded her religion as "Mosaic, without denomination.” Although the contradiction was noted by the registrar, both parts of the entry corresponded precisely to the inner attitude of the parents.

Following the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship in Germany and in response to the ever more numerous antisemitically-driven laws, large parts of the von der Porten family emigrated. Only the aged Adele von der Porten and her daughter Anna, who was married to the discharged state councilor Leo Lippmann, remained behind. Paul von der Porten emigrated in April 1936 to the USA; he had sold his house at Böttgerstrasse 5 to his two siblings, Ernst and Anna, who were still living in Hamburg. (The house was later, in preparation for the deportations, made into a Jew house by order of the National Socialist state.) Ernst von der Porten had, even before the withdrawal of his license in 1938, emigrated to Brussels in the company of his youngest daughter. He left Germany, where his professional future as a physician had been destroyed, and went with his wife first to Zurich, where they had to wait six months for a Belgian visa. The transporting of his household furnishings to Brussels was handled by the Hamburg firm, Krauth & Co. Frieda von der Porten was said to have owned, among other paintings, some by the painter Anita Rée. After their arrival in Brussels, their youngest daughter, Marianne von der Porten, moved there from Amsterdam. Since her exclusion from the German university student body in 1933, Gerda, the oldest daughter, was already studying medicine in Zurich. The middle daughter, Irene, had died in January 1938.

Until the middle of 1938, approximately 143,000 Jews, or 30% of the Jewish population, had decided in favor of emigration. The attorney Morris Alexander Samson (1878–1959), as one of the three permitted "Jewish consultants” in Hamburg, handled the authorizations that made it possible for Ernst and Frieda von der Porten to transfer sums from their blocked accounts to relatives in Germany. Commissioned by them, he also made payments to the discriminatory state money claims, such as the "capital levy on Jewish wealth.”

After the invasion of German troops into the Netherlands and Belgium on 10 May 1940, Frieda von der Porten was briefly taken into custody in Brussels. Possibly the couple was later arrested by the Belgian administration and brought to the French border. They were handed over to French officials and brought to a camp in southern France. After 10 May 1940, Ernst von der Porten was interned in the camp at St. Cyprien (Pyrenees) near Perpignan, which was administered by the Vichy regime. Following the armistice of 25 June 1940, the French Vichy government was no more than an extension of the Nazi occupiers. Because of his poor health, Ernst von der Porten was transferred to the St. Jean Hospital in Perpignan on 3 September 1940. The couple had found housing locally, but on day of their relocation, Ernst and Frieda von der Porten ended their lives in suicide on 13 December 1940. Frieda von der Porten died at 3 PM, Ernst von der Porten at 10 PM.

Marianne von der Porten, married since 1940 to the Dutch citizen and commercial artist Dirk Johannes de Zwart (1914–1958) and therefore herself a Dutch citizen, was arrested on a train in the spring of 1943 and interned in the Westerbork camp. At the beginning of September 1944, she was sent to the Auschwitz extermination camp and deported from there to Bergen Belsen concentration camp at the end of October 1944. She died there in January or February 1945, probably from malnutrition and exhaustion. Her husband was arrested in a raid in Amsterdam in June 1944 and dragged off to Germany from which he, in the same year, escaped back to the Netherlands.

A commemorative stone for Anna Josephine Lippmann, née von der Porten, and her husband Leo Lippmann was placed in front of the house at Böttgerstrasse 5. They committed suicide together on 11 June 1943, in order to avoid the threatened deportation to Theresienstadt. Leo Lippmann, as the responsible official in charge of finances for the Jewish Religion Association of Hamburg, probably had enough information to know that Theresienstadt was not a ghetto for the Jewish elderly.

Annually since 1987, the Professional Association of German Anesthesiologists awards the "Ernst von der Porten Medal."

Translator: Richard Levy
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: February 2018
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: Staatsarchiv Hamburg (StaH) 111-1, 27031 (M. J. Fürst gegen von der Porten, 1735–1736); StaH 314-15 (Oberfinanzpräsident) F 1961 (Ernst u. Frieda von der Porten; ohne Umzugsgut-Liste und Auswanderer-Fragebogen); StaH 314-15, F 1962 (Hermann von der Porten); StaH 314-15, F 1963 (Paul u. Dora von der Porten); StaH 314-15, FVg 9560 (Adele von der Porten geb. Goldschmidt); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 128 u. 2613/ 1882 (Sterberegister, Isidor von der Porten); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 7891 u. 320/ 1895 (Sterberegister, Han(n)a von der Porten geb. de Lemos, verw. Mankiewicz); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8676 u. 377/1911 (Heiratsregister, Ernst von der Porten und Frieda Alexander); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8078 u. 570/1924 (Sterberegister, Dr. Maximilian von der Porten); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8126 u. 47/1934 (Sterbeeintrag Lina Alexander); StaH 332-8 (Alte Einwohnermeldekartei 1892–1925) Maximilian von der Porten, Richard von der Porten, Walter von der Porten, Jacob Alexander; StaH 351-3 (Unterstützungsbehörde für die Abgebrannten von 1842), 30-980 (Lederhandlung Jacob von der Porten, 1842–1843); StaH 351-11 (Amt für Wiedergutmachung), 6894 (Ernst von der Porten, 1955–1971); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 37665 (Dr. Gerda Ottenstein, 1955–1968); StaH 351-11 (AfW), 39646 (Dirk Johannes de Zwart, 1955–1962); StaH 522-1 (Jüdische Gemeinden), 992b (Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburg) Max von der Porten, Adele von der Porten geb. Goldschmidt, Paul von der Porten, Ernst von der Porten, Marianne von der Porten; Hamburger Adressbuch 1794, 1810, 1842, 1844, 1849, 1874–1875, 1877, 1879, 1881–1884, 1890, 1900, 1904, 1905, 1907, 1909, 1912, 1918, 1921; Hamburger Staats-Kalender (darin Auflistung der niedergelassenen Ärzte) 1843, S.72, 1844, S.77, 1845, S.76, 1850, S.80 (Sally von der Porten); Hamburgisches Staats-Handbuch (darin Auflistung der niedergelassenen Ärzte) 1876, S.98 (Maximilian von der Porten); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, 11. Auflage, Hamburg 1910, S.10 (Jacob Alexander); Bundesarchiv, Liste jüdischer Einwohner des deutschen Reichs 1933–1939 (Residentenliste), Auszug Hamburg; Yad Vashem, Page of Testimony (Eva Marianne von der Porten); Universitätsarchiv Halle-Wittenberg (Sally von der Porten); Leo Lippmann, Mein Leben und meine amtliche Tätigkeit, hrsg. von Werner Jochmann, Hamburg 1964, S.68–75 (Meine Frau und ihre Vorfahren), S. 32b Abbildung von Dr. Maximilian von der Porten 1917 und Adele von der Porten 1939; Prof. Dr. Johannes Schröder, Verzeichnis der Abiturienten des Realgymnasiums des Johanneums zu Hamburg von Ostern 1875 bis Ostern 1934, Hamburg 1934, S. 34 (Ernst von der Porten), S. 37 (Richard von der Porten); Realgymnasium des Johanneums zu Hamburg. Bericht über das 69. Schuljahr 1902–1903, Hamburg 1903, S. 11 (Ernst von der Porten); Realgymnasium des Johanneums zu Hamburg. Bericht über das 72. Schuljahr 1905–1906, Hamburg 1906, S. 24 (Richard von der Porten); IGdJ, Nachlass Ernst von der Porten; Anna von Villiez, Mit aller Kraft verdrängt. Entrechtung und Verfolgung ‚nichtarischer‘ Ärzte in Hamburg 1933 bis 1945, Hamburg 2009, S. 379; Michael Georig/ Jochen Schulte am Esch, Ein Pionier der Narkose: Ernst von der Porten, in: Hamburger Ärzteblatt 12/2004, S. 586–590; Eckart Klessmann, Geschichte der Stadt Hamburg, Hamburg 1981, S. 359–360 u. 465–467; Beate Meyer (Hrsg.), Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der Hamburger Juden 1933–1945, Hamburg 2006, S. 57 (Suizid von Leo Lippmann); Brita Eckert, Die jüdische Emigration aus Deutschland 1933–1941. Die Geschichte einer Austreibung, Frankfurt/ Main 1985, S. 128, 221 (Auswandererzahlen); Hans Schröder, Lexikon der hamburgischen Schriftsteller bis zur Gegenwart, sechster Band, Hamburg 1873, S. 97 (Sally von der Porten, Doktorarbeit 1841).

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