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Flora Seligmann
© Archiv Dieter Guderian

Flora Seligmann (née Isaac) * 1874

Grindelhof 55 / Ecke Rappstraße (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

1941 Minsk

further stumbling stones in Grindelhof 55 / Ecke Rappstraße:
Hans Seligmann

Flora Seligmann, née Isaac, born on 17 Oct. 1874, deported to Minsk on 8 Nov. 1941
Hans Seligmann, born on 21 Dec. 1882, deported to Minsk on 8 Nov. 1941

Flora Isaac was born on 17 Oct. 1874 as the daughter of Isaac Joseph and Pauline Isaac, née Levin. She was a sister of Ludwig and Leopold Wolf, the legendary Hamburg entertainers, the "Wolf Brothers” ("Gebrüder Wolf”).

From the register of residents, one can gather that even as a young woman, she had already seen a bit of the world. After re-registering in Hamburg coming from Dresden, she lived either with her mother or as a subtenant with unrelated people. She worked as a cook. One can no longer establish whether she had already learned this trade in Hamburg, whether she had watched and learned from her mother, or whether she was simply a natural. In 1902, she gave notification to the Hamburg authorities that she was moving to London. Obviously, it would be interesting to learn what prompted her to go to a place so far away from home. Was it the love for a man who went to Britain? Had she learned to speak English at all? These are questions no one can answer anymore today. The only certain fact is that she returned in the year 1907.

On 13 Mar. 1914, the nearly 40-year old woman married Hans Martin Seligmann, eight years her junior. Seligmann was also a Hamburg lad; he was born on 21 Dec. 1882. As far as one can ascertain, the marriage did not produce any children. Together with her husband, Flora ran a poultry shop on Grindelhof. As Johann-Hinrich Möller found out, the M. Ehrlich poultry shop at Grindelhof 55 was operated (probably from 1915 onward) by Hans and Flora Seligmann; the company belonged to them as well. The two resided in the neighboring building at no. 53. Both buildings were destroyed in the war. After the war, a new building was constructed, now bearing house number 45. In place of the former shop (intersection of Grindelhof/Rappstrasse), a small Italian restaurant called "Espresso-Bar” occupies the site today. The Hamburg directory lists the Seligmanns as late as 1939 with an address of Grindelhof 53 and 55, respectively. The 1940 directory contains no verified details, and starting in 1941, they are listed at Lehmweg 9. Persons entered for this address also include Flora Seligmann’s siblings, Helene Löwenthal and James Wolf. The house also accommodated additional Jews.

The poultry shop of the Seligmanns was "Aryanized” in 1938/39. In the 1941 directory, the entry for Grindelhof 55 indicated "Peter Heyer, food wholesale.” Flora’s and her husband’s hour came when they were deported to Minsk on 8 Nov. 1941. They did not return from there. When they had already departed Hamburg, seven hundredweight of coal they had stored for the winter were confiscated for the benefit of non-Jewish air-raid victims.

Author(s): Dieter Guderian
The author is a great-nephew of Flora Seligmann

The text above was taken – with minor adjustments – from:
Dieter Guderian, Die Hamburger Originale Tetje und Fietje – Lebensgeschichte der Gebrüder Wolf und ihrer Familie Isaac, Ochtendung: Cardamina Verlag, 2006


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

Stand: January 2019
© Dieter Guderian

Der Autor ist ein Großneffe von Flora Seligmann

Quellen: Frank Bajohr, "Arisierung" in Hamburg. Die Verdrängung der jüdischen Unternehmer 1933–1945, Hamburg 1997, S. 354
Beate Meyer (Hrsg.), Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der Hamburger Juden 1933–1945. Zeugnis. Erinnerung, Hamburg 2006, S. 188

Der vorstehende Text wurde – mit geringen Änderungen – entnommen aus:
Dieter Guderian, Die Hamburger Originale Tetje und Fietje – Lebensgeschichte der Gebrüder Wolf und ihrer Familie Isaac, Cardamina Verlag, Ochtendung 2006