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Leo Julius Raphaeli
genannt Willy Hagen * 1878

Mundsburger Damm 38 (Hamburg-Nord, Uhlenhorst)

1941 Lodz
ermordet 04.05.1942

see:

Leo Julius Raphaeli, a.k.a. Willy Hagen, b. 11.15.1878, deported on 10.25.1941 to Lodz, dying there on 4.5.1942

Mundsburger Damm 38

The Erfurt-born Leo Raphaeli was, under the name Willy Hagen, known in Hamburg as an actor, cabaret performer, and lyricist. His debut in Strindberg’s "Miss Julie,” in which he played the role of Jean, took place in 1903. Since 1906 he regularly performed in cabarets in Hamburg and in 1913 took over the direction of the Kleinen Theater on Grossen Bleichen Street, today the Ohnsorg-Theater.

He lived with his wife, the Viennese-born Gisela Gollerstepper, who was not Jewish, at Mundsburger Damm 38. The couple had no children with each other. During the Weimar Republic Leo Raphaeli rose to writing revues for the great Hamburg theaters. In addition, since 1929, he belonged to the circle of collaborators for the North German Radio, LLC. He did almost weekly programs which were marked by humor and spirit. Numerous listener letters and loving caricatures by his colleagues spoke to his popularity.

With the Nazi takeover, it became ever more difficult for Leo Raphaeli to get engagements because of his Jewish descent. In May 1934, in the Curiohaus, he opened his cabaret show "The Very Rose-Colored Glasses," which featured a considerable ensemble of well-known Jewish musicians and actors. Initially, it played to sold-out audiences, this despite strict censorship and criticism in the Jewish press. But at the end of 1934 consequences followed after Leo Raphaeli presented "An Open Letter of a German Jew,” which he had written himself but which the censors held back. The cabaret was immediately closed and Leo Raphaeli was banned from performing and therefore unemployed.

He and his wife Gisela had to leave their common home at An der Alster 29 and move to Klopstockstrasse 30. In September 1935 came the next move to Schlüterstrasse 54a, a small two-room apartment.

In 1936 Leo Raphaeli again got a position. He took over the direction of cabaret art in the Hamburg Cultural Alliance, but was seldom permitted to perform, while most of his pieces remained unpublished.

In the fall of 1938, Leo Raphaeli got a small role in the piece, "The Little Hungarian Church Mouse" with the Jewish Cultural Alliance of Hamburg. The Centralverein newspaper reported in the edition of 29 September 1938: "Leo Raphaeli (Willi Hagen) [played] an aging lady’s man with charm, confidence, and snappy punchlines." In the summer of 1939, Leo Raphaeli was dealt the next blow of fate. His wife Gisela died on 18 June. From this point on he lived alone in the apartment at Schlüterstrasse 54a.

In his work, Leo Raphaeli gave free expression to his hatred for the Nazi regime. His programs contained almost foolhardy inventions and on the stage he improvised with ironic asides about the Nazis. In addition, there was his never-published mockery of the book burning. All this finally earned him the hatred of the organs of Nazi persecution.

On 25 October 1941, Leo Raphaeli was deported on the first transport from Hamburg to the Lodz ghetto. In the ghetto he lived at Rauch Gasse 25 and there he suffered from hunger and illness. Shortly before his death, he contracted sepsis. Leo Raphaeli died in the Lodz ghetto on 5 April 1942 at the age of sixty-three. He is remembered with numerous readings and exhibitions in the Jewish Cultural Alliance.


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


Stand: October 2018
© Carmen Smiatacz

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 8; StaHH 214-1, Gerichtsvollzieherwesen, 572; USHMM, RG 15.083 300/575; ITS/ARCH/ Getto Litzmannstadt/1203968#1 (1.1.22.1/0008/0584); "Arm wie eine Kirchenmaus" in: Central-Verein-Zeitung. Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums vom 29.9.1938, S. 4; Hagen: Du siehst, Emanuel, es geht auch so!; IGDJ: Das jüdische Hamburg, S. 104f.; Müller-Wesemann: Theater als geistiger Widerstand, S.270ff.; Offenborn: Jüdische Jugend, S. 839, S. 1180; Stengel/Gerigk: Lexikon der Juden in der Musik, S.221.
Zur Nummerierung häufig genutzter Quellen siehe Recherche und Quellen.

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