Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Felix Meyer * 1869

Zeughausmarkt neben Nr. 23 (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
DR. FELIX MEYER
JG. 1869
ENTRECHTET / GEDEMÜTIGT
FLUCHT IN DEN TOD
15.11.1938

Dr. Felix Meyer, born on 4 May 1869 in Altona, suicide on 15 Nov. 1938 in Hamburg

Zeughausmarkt, next to house 23 (Mühlenstrasse 34/35)

At the Zeughausmarkt, where Mühlenstrasse once led to Englische Planke, a few meters beside house 23, a Stolperstein commemorates Felix Meyer. The former Mühlenstrasse is today called Gerstäckerstrasse; it was shortened, developed with apartment buildings, and has thus disappeared from Hamburg’s cityscape.

Felix Meyer was born as the son of Martin Meyer and his wife Caroline/Kele, née Dessau, in the "Vorstadt [suburb] St. Pauli” at Mathildenstrasse 10. His parents, who belonged to the Jewish Community, had married on 23 May 1858. There were three older sons in the family: Rudolph Martin (born on 4 Aug. 1859, died on 15 June 1951), Otto (born on 21 Aug. 1864, died on 4 Dec. 1935), and Albert (born on 19 Mar. 1865).

The father was a teacher. In the 1860 directory, he was listed at the former Mühlenstrasse 32 as a "regular teacher at the Israelite free school, St. Pauli” (today Anna-Siemsen-Schule, vocational school). His maternal grandfather, Sussmann David Dessau, was also a teacher.

The Meyer couple had been living at Neuer Kamp 19 since 1880 and they were able to have their son Felix study medicine. On 16 Apr. 1889, one month before his twentieth birthday, Felix Meyer was baptized by Pastor Ulrich Sonnenkalb in St. Paul’s Church. Albert Meyer and Henry Ahron were named as godparents. The older brothers converted to Christianity as well.

Felix Meyer, by this time a member of the Lutheran congregation, obtained his license to practice medicine in Berlin on 21 Feb. 1894. Four months later, he established himself at Mühlenstrasse 28 in Hamburg as a general practitioner and obstetrician and married the non-Jewish Bertha Volborth, who had been born in Hamburg on 5 Mar. 1867. She had lived with her parents, the ship captain August Volborth and his wife Louise, née Borstelmann, in Rensing near Kellinghusen. The marriage took place on 4 May 1897 in Hamburg. The fathers of the young couple acted as witnesses to the marriage. Less than a year later, on 15 Apr. 1898, daughter Luise Erna Caroline was born.

In Sept. 1907, Felix Meyer was "appointed” by the "College of Medicine” ("Medizinal Kollegium”) as a "medical supernumerary” and in 1910 as a doctor for the school service. In the same year, the residential and practice rooms were relocated to the second floor of Mühlenstrasse 34/35.

Felix Meyer volunteered during the First World War and served as Oberstabsarzt [a rank of medical officer equivalent to major].

The displacement from professional life began immediately after the Nazis had assumed power. To begin with, Felix Meyer’s contract as a school physician was not extended. Daughter Luise Meyer, who worked as a doctor of philology at the Klosterschule, the school located at Holzdamm 5, was also dismissed from the teaching profession as a Studienrätin (qualified high school teacher) without a pension in accordance with the "Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service” ("Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums”) dated 7 Apr. 1933. It was not until Apr. 1935 that she found a new job as an office clerk and accountant. On 1 Jan. 1938, all "non-Aryan” physicians were deprived of their statutory health insurance license. Until 30 Sept. 1938, Felix Meyer was able to maintain his practice, presumably by treating private patients. Then, based on the "Fourth Ordinance to the Reich Citizenship Law” ("Vierte Verordnung zum Reichsbürgergesetz”), his license to practice medicine was revoked.

Due to the events during the November Pogrom, on the night of 9 to 10 Nov. 1938, when Jewish shops and facilities had been demolished and many Jews arrested, Felix Meyer also feared that he might be apprehended.

On 15 Nov. 1938, he took poison. Bertha Meyer found her husband lying lifeless on the sofa at 7:30 in the morning. During the subsequent police interrogation, she stated on the record that her husband had been thinking of suicide for some time and had often told her that she would be better off without him.

After his death, the "levy on Jewish assets” ("Judenvermögensabgabe”) amounting to 9,505 RM (reichsmark), imposed on him shortly before, was demanded of his heirs, his widow Bertha and daughter Luise. Their appeal against this measure was unsuccessful. Mother and daughter left Mühlenstrasse in 1939 and moved to Alsterdorfer Strasse 98.

Luise Meyer was able to prevail on the school administration to rehire her at the end of 1945.

Her mother Bertha Meyer died destitute on 7 May 1953 because the doctors’ association had refused to pay her a pension after the death of her husband.

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

Stand: May 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: StaH 351-11 AfW 20861 (Meyer, Luise); StaH 351-11 AfW 1137 (Meyer, Bertha); StaH 331-5 Polizeibehörde-Unnatürliche Sterbefälle, 3 Akte 1938/1762; StaH: 314-15 OFP, R 1938/3017; 352-10 Gesundheitsverwaltung Personalakten 208; StaH Lehrerverzeichnis A576/0001, 1930–1933; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 2887 u 412/1897; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 1087 u 331/1938; StaH 352-13 Karteikarten jüdischer Ärzte 15; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinden 696 f; Villiez: Kraft, S. 355.