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Ludwig Schwabe * 1868

Husumer Straße 12 (Hamburg-Nord, Hoheluft-Ost)

Freitod 14.12.1941

further stumbling stones in Husumer Straße 12:
Gertrud Levy, Pauline Schwabe

Ludwig Schwabe, born on 9 July 1868 in Heiligenstadt/Heiligenhaven, suicide on 14 Dec. 1941 in Hamburg
Pauline Schwabe, née Kaufmann, born on 3 Oct. 1864 in Dransfeld, suicide on 14 Dec. 1941 in Hamburg

Husumer Strasse 12

"I pledge and swear to God, the Almighty, that I will be true and well-disposed toward the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and its Senate, seek the best for the city and avert harm from it to the extent that is within my powers; that I will conscientiously observe the constitution and the laws, honestly and without fail pay any taxes and dues such as are in place now and such as will be agreed upon between the senate and the city parliament in future, all the while, as an upright man, never seeking my own advantage to the detriment of the city. So help me God. Ludwig Schwabe.”

Ludwig Schwabe swore this citizen’s oath in 1904, thus acquiring Hamburg civic rights. In the files, his birthplace is indicated as Heiligenstadt in the Erfurt administrative district. This is also the place where his parents, Wolf and Jeanette Schwabe, née Rose, were registered with the authorities from 1867 until 1870. However, Ludwig’s birth was not noted in the Heiligenstadt city records.

On 3 Dec. 1899, he married Pauline Kaufmann in Göttingen. After the wedding, Ludwig and Pauline Schwabe lived in Hamburg. Their marriage did not produce any children. Pauline was the daughter of Kaufmann Kaufmann and Kindel, née Oppenheim. With her siblings, Sulka, Ida, and Julius, she grew up in Dransfeld (near Göttingen) and in Göttingen.

In 1899, Ludwig Schwabe joined his brother-in-law, the medical councilor (Sanitätsrat) Julius Kaufmann, in founding the Otto Herr & Co. factory, producing roof coverings, insulation, and floor coverings in Maliss/Mecklenburg. Ludwig was the general partner and Julius Kaufmann a limited partner. He managed his company from his Hamburg office. Since 1909, the private accommodation and the office were located on the third floor to the left at Husumer Strasse 12. In 1934, his partner, Julius Kaufmann, died of a heart attack at the age of 64. Until his sudden death, he had operated a doctor’s practice in Göttingen.

Ludwig Schwabe’s plant also flourished due to inventions of his own on which he had taken out patents. Between 1926 and 1935, he took out patents in the USA, Austria, and Switzerland on his inventions related to the production of insulation materials and tar papers. In Oct. 1938, he was forced to sell his company to an "Aryan.” "When filling out the form on 27 Apr. 1938, I had a verbal offer for the sale of my plant as well as the including buildings and pieces of real estate for 67,500 [reichsmark – RM]. However, after months of negotiations, it turned out that the prospective buyer was not capable of purchasing the factory because he lacked the liquid assets. In the meantime, another, financially strong, buyer has turned up, and to him I sold the factory and the buildings and pieces of real estate belonging to it for a price of 36,000 [RM], on 14 Oct. 1938.”

Like most Jewish sellers, he too was not even able to dispose of the relatively modest selling price, since a "security order” ("Sicherungsanordnung”) was imposed on his account. Officials of the Chief Finance Administrator (Oberfinanzpräsident) assigned and arbitrarily reduced the monthly allowance toward his needs amounting to 800 RM. Thus, on 17 Sept. 1939, Ludwig Schwabe wrote to the Chief Finance Administrator:
"My wife is 75 years old and I am 71 years old. Both of us are ailing and we require medical attention and other special care. We have taken in a destitute 50-year-old niece who manages the household and whom we have to support for the entirety of her livelihood. Ludwig Israel Schwabe.”

Nevertheless, the monthly allowance was cut to 500 RM. On this amount, the three of them, the Schwabe couple and their niece Gertrud Levy (see corresponding entry), had to make ends meet. One day before the deportation of Gertrud Levy on 5 Dec. 1941, Ludwig Schwabe applied for the unblocking of 260 RM:
"I paid this sum in cash for the evacuation of my niece Gertrud Sara Levy, who belonged to my household and is scheduled to depart today; specifically, 100 RM for cash permitted to be taken on the journey, and 160 RM for pieces of equipment.”

Fourteen days later, the Schwabe couple received the order to leave the apartment and move into a room on Rutschbahn. Everyone knew that the order to "evacuate,” as the deportations were called in veiling language, would follow. Both did not want to wait for the order. They laid a hose 5 meters (some 16 ft) in length from the bathroom to their bedroom and poisoned themselves using city gas. The police officer called to the scene found them lying in their bed, clasped in a firm embrace.


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

Stand: January 2019
© Maria Koser

Quellen: 1; 2; 4; 5; StaH 331-5 Polizeibehörde – Unnatürliche Sterbefälle, 1942/307; StaH 351-11 AfW, Schwabe, Ludwig; StaH 314-15 OFP, R 1942/86; StaH 314-15 OFP, R 1938/2907; Verzeichnis Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1935, S. 363; AB 1933; Bajohr, "Arisierung", 1997; Recherche und Auskunft Jörg Janssen, Geschichtswerkstatt Göttingen, E-Mail vom 16.11.2009; Recherche und Auskunft Anne Severin, Stadtarchiv Heilbad Heiligenstadt vom 2.12.2009; Recherche und Auskunft Friedel Rehkop, Stadtarchiv Dransfeld vom 3.12.2009; E-Mail von Frits B. Kaufmann, Niederlanden vom 4.3.2010.
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