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Grabmalgeschäft Eduard Berlin in der Fuhlsbütteler Straße 671/679
© Hamburgisches Architekturarchiv, Foto: Gebr. Dransfeld

Fanny Berlin (née Meyer) * 1878

Fuhlsbüttler Straße 668 (Hamburg-Nord, Ohlsdorf)

HIER WOHNTE
FANNY BERLIN
GEB. MEYER
JG. 1878
DEPORTIERT 1941
RIGA
ERMORDET

Fanny Berlin, née Meyer, born on 27.4.1878 in Hamburg, deported to Riga on 6.12.1941 and murdered

Fuhlsbüttler Straße 668 (Hamburg-Nord Ohlsdorf) (until 1929 Fuhlsbütteler Straße)
and Eppendorfer Baum 10 (Hamburg-Eppendorf) with daughter Olga Wolf and grandson Dan Wolf

Two Stolpersteine commemorate Fanny Berlin in Hamburg: In addition to the one in Ohlsdorf, one was also laid at her last residence in Eppendorf, where she lived with her daughter Olga and grandson Dan after she was forced to leave Ohlsdorf (for the first biography, see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de).

Before the National Socialists came to power, the Berlin family was closely associated with the large park cemetery and the Jewish cemetery in Ilandkoppel (formerly Ihlandstraße) in Ohlsdorf. The Berlin family's stonemasonry business at Fuhlsbütteler Straße 668 was last located right on the corner of the Ihlandstraße Jewish cemetery (now Ilandkoppel).

Fanny Meyer married the Hamburg master stonemason Eduard Berlin (born 11.9.1879) on September 8, 1905. Until then, both had lived with their parents: the husband with the colonial goods dealer Meir Berlin and Mele, called Malchen, née Holländer from Hamburg, at Grindelallee 132, and Fanny with Flora, née Jaffé, and the furniture dealer Jacob Meyer, also in Hamburg, Wandsbeker Stieg 59 c. Both fathers were Hamburg citizens and the families belonged to the German-Israelitic community in Hamburg. Eduard Berlin had, after his great-grandfather Eduard Berlin was also given the Hebrew name Elosor after his great-grandfather Rabbi Lase Berlin.

A year after the wedding, their first son Ernst Ivan was born on June 11, 1906. It was the year in which the "Association of Independent Jewish Craftsmen and Tradesmen in Greater Hamburg" was founded within the German-Israelitic community. Fanny's husband Eduard Berlin was elected as its representative in 1911. The aim of the association was to promote craftsmanship and apprenticeships, which had previously been rare among Jews as the guilds prevented this.

Eduard Berlin had acquired Hamburg citizenship on December 6, 1909. Daughter Olga was born the following year (August 27, 1910). Eduard Berlin lived with his small family at Bornstraße 26 in 1910 and ran a gravestone store. A year later, he was the tenant of the cemetery nursery of the Israelite burial ground opposite Ihlandstraße in Ohlsdorf. In the 1912 address book, Eduard Berlin, Hanseatische Granitwerke, specializing in gravestone monuments, can be found with a large advertisement at Fuhlsbütteler Straße 671/675. His business developed into a flourishing, extensive and respected business - the most important gravestone business with an attached nursery for Jewish customers in Hamburg. More than five people were always employed, as son Ernst reported in his records after the war. Eduard Berlin was later also involved in the construction of the temple in Oberstraße. For the laying of the foundation stone on October 19, 1930, he made the marble cover slab. His youngest son Herbert (born May 14, 1918 in Ohlsdorf) was born during the First World War. In the time that followed, Eduard Berlin intended to expand his gravestone business and wanted to participate in the nearby new building project in Fuhlsbüttelerstraße. Initially, the architect Fritz Höger was commissioned with the planning; at the beginning of the 1920s, modern multi-storey buildings were erected at Fuhlsbütteler Strasse 671-679 according to the plans of the architects Hans and Oskar Gerson.

Alfred Unna, a member of the German-Israelitic Community and the Henry Jones Lodge, also moved into one of the newly built apartments at no. 671. He was a dentist and had set up a practice at Fuhlsbütteler Strasse 460. His son Harry was two years younger than Fanny and Eduard Berlin's son Herbert. Harry was expelled from the secondary school for boys in Alstertal in 1935 because he was Jewish, as was Herbert Jaffé, the son of Fanny's cousin Otto Jaffé.

The Berlin family was socially connected and supported Jewish community projects. This was a family tradition; Isaac Joseph Jaffé, a cousin of her grandfather, had founded the Paulinenstift in 1884 as an orphanage for Jewish girls in the Grindel district, Laufgraben 37, and named it after his deceased wife Pauline, née Goldschmidt, "Paulinenstift". This orphanage continued to be actively supported by the Berlin family. A report by "orphan father" Raphael Plaut from 1925/26 about the German-Israelite Orphans' Institute tells us that the orphan boys from Papendamm 3 were invited to a garden party in Ohlsdorf on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Berlin business: "The children were picked up by car, driven through the city park for an hour and then welcomed with music in front of the festive garden. The children enjoyed themselves until the evening with chocolate and cake and refreshments of all kinds and were then taken home again by car." In those years, the boys were also invited to Hanukkah by the Jewish Craftsmen's Association.

The global economic crisis also caused great difficulties for Eduard Berlin's business and the planned house building project exceeded his financial means; he got into financial difficulties. At the end of 1932, Fanny Berlin took over the gravestone business at Fuhlsbüttler Straße 668. Around this time, her cousin Otto Jaffé moved with his wife Franziska, née Minden, and their three children, Walter, Susanne and Herbert, to Fuhlsbütteler Straße 677. Fanny Berlin's mother Flora Meyer, née Jaffé, and Carl Jaffé from Parchim were siblings. Their great-great-great-grandfather, Rabbi Eliezer Jaffé, came from Breslau and had taught in Berlin.
His son was the respected Rabbi Morechai (Marcus) Lazarus Jaffé in Schwerin.

The problems and burdens for the Berlin family increased in 1933 with the new National Socialist rulers. Fanny Berlin became a widow at the age of 56. On January 15, 1935, Eduard Berlin died of an embolism at the age of 55. He had suffered from diabetes and arteriosclerosis and had been undergoing medical treatment for six months.

On August 26, 1935, Fanny Berlin had herself entered in the register of tradesmen at the Hamburg Chamber of Trades Hamburg. She ran the business together with her son Ernst as managing director. Ernst Berlin, who had been chosen early on by his father as the successor to the stonemasonry business, had received the best possible vocational training: From 1920 to 1923, he completed an apprenticeship as a stonemason with the company Gebr. Reichert (formerly Reimer). Subsequently, after two years of study at the State Technical College, he successfully passed his final examination as a technician. From 1925 to 1927, he worked as a technician at the granite works Hemsbach, Rueth & Reimuth in Heppenheim an der Bergstraße and in 1927 as a stonemason technician at the Zeidler & Wimmel quarry and stonemasonry operations. Ernst then returned to his father's business. His earnings at that time were 10% higher than the usual wage for a stonemason.

Herbert Berlin, the youngest son, attended the Tedsen pre-school at Jungfrauenthal from 1924 to 1928 and then the Wahnschaff private secondary school on Rabenstraße until 1933, which was attended primarily by Jewish-liberal merchants' sons and was internationally oriented. When the National Socialists came to power, Herbert trained as a bricklayer for three years. This was to serve as the basis for his intended studies in architecture. After the apprenticeship years from 1936 to 1938, he attended the structural and civil engineering department of the Technical
State College.

After the National Socialists came to power, the Berlin stonemasonry business ran into increasing difficulties. A third of the customers were non-Jews, who gradually left. Even the Jews soon had reservations about ordering gravestones because they feared that it would be made impossible for the company to supply them, as Ernst Berlin described the situation after the war. The destruction of the economic existence of the gravestone business "Eduard Berlin" followed with a letter from the Chamber of Crafts to Fanny Berlin: "On the basis of the decree on the elimination of Jews from the German economic life of November 12, 1938 and the first implementing ordinance of November 23, 1938, Jewish owners of handicraft businesses are to be deleted from the handicraft register as of December 31, 1938. The craftsman's card is to be confiscated. Since, according to our findings, you are Jewish within the meaning of § 5 of the First Ordinance to the Reich Citizenship Act, you must close your business on December 31, 1938 and return your craft card by this date at the latest. You are also requested to inform the Chamber of your nationality."

On November 12, 1937, they were able to celebrate the wedding of their daughter Olga to Donat Wolf as far as possible. However, the persecution soon became more threatening and Fanny's sons Ernst and Herbert were arrested on the day of the November pogrom and were imprisoned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp until December 22, 1938. They were only released on condition that they undertook to leave Germany shortly afterwards. Herbert Berlin left Hamburg in March 1939 and escaped to England.

The month before, daughter Olga had given birth to her little son Dan in Ohlsdorf on February 22, 1939. She lived with her husband Donat Wolf in the family home. On July 26, 1939, Ernst Berlin escaped persecution together with his brother-in-law Donat Wolf and his brother James via Bangkok to Shanghai. It was one of the last exile opportunities for Jews at that time, where they could flee without a visa or proof of assets. On July 26, 1939, they boarded the MS Selandia, knowing that they would soon be able to catch up with their family.

They reached the safe haven of Shanghai on 20 September 1939, when the Berlin stonemasonry business was "aryanized". Fanny Berlin moved into an apartment at Eppendorfer Baum 10 with her daughter Olga and baby Dan. The little grandson with his natural cheerfulness gave Fanny Berlin distraction and moments of joy during this difficult time of persecution in Ohlsdorf. Fanny Berlin tried to get an emigration opportunity for herself, her daughter and her grandson; she had received a waiting number for herself to the USA and for Olga and Dan to Shanghai. But they were no longer able to escape. Fanny was deported to Riga with her daughter and grandson on December 6, 1941 and murdered. Fanny was 63 years old, Olga 33 and little Dan 2 years and 9 months.

The family's subsequent fate
The property at Fuhlsbüttler Straße 666/672 had become the property of Kallmes & Levy. In 1941, K. Dannemann's gravestone business and the master stonemason Alb. Schwarz were active there.

In exile, Ernst Berlin tried to make ends meet with his craftsmanship. He sold gravestones to other emigrants on a commission basis. Newspaper advertisements in the Shanghai newspapers, the "Yellow Post" and the "Shanghai Chronicle", bear witness to this period of emigration in 1942. The customers, even needy emigrants, could hardly pay anything and were supported by the American Joint Distribution Committee. Ernst Berlin painstakingly made cement boxes by hand from old bricks and rubble from the buildings destroyed in the bombing raids on Shanghai, which were used to insert coffins. The situation of the people crowded together in the ghetto was desperate and the financial burden on the American Joint Distribution Committee was so great, that a special law was created to make it easier for Jewish refugees to immigrate to the USA after the end of the war. On October 5, 1948, Ernst Berlin was able to immigrate to the USA, to San Francisco. He initially tried to gain a foothold in Portland/Oregon, but was unsuccessful. He met an agent for quarries by chance, who advised him to return to San Francisco. He managed to get a job at the E. A. Weisenburger gravestone business. There, Ernst was able to practice the stonemasonry trade he had learned in Germany, and his employer also allowed him to sell gravestones on his own account. This enabled him to set up his own stonemasonry business in Colma, California. Ernst Berlin lived there with his wife and two stepsons. He died shortly before his 81st birthday on May 26, 1987 in Santa Clara, San Francisco. His gravestone can be found on the family grave at the Ilandkoppel Jewish Cemetery in Ohlsdorf. The names of Fanny Berlin, her daughter Olga and grandson Dan were engraved on Eduard Berlin's gravestone with the words: "LOVE AND FIDELITY WILL NOT LEAVE YOU", grave location ZW, No. 12-15.

Herbert Berlin married Margarete Grill (born January 10, 1915 in Augsburg) in Warwickshire, England, in 1942. He emigrated from England to New York, USA, on February 21, 1951, together with his wife and their six-year-old daughter Susan, who was born there, and founded a company for natural stone masonry in San Rafael, California. Herbert died at the age of 81 in San Rafael on December 27, 1999. The company "Berlin Masonry" continues to exist to the present generation in Santa Rosa, California. Rosa, California, run by his son Steve Berlin.

The architecturally successful buildings of the Berlin family, built by the brothers Hans and Oskar Gerson, at Fuhlsbütteler Straße 671/675 were completely destroyed by bombs in 1943. Photos of the Dransfeld brothers, which are in the Hamburg Architecture Archive, are the last testimony to the heyday of the once well-established Jewish stonemasonry business Eduard Berlin in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf.

Stand: July 2024
© Margot Löhr

Quellen: 1; 2; 4; 5; 6; 8; StaH, 213-13 Landgericht Hamburg, Rückerstattung, 2238 Donat Wolf, 5666 Richard Meyer, 5668 Ernst Ivan Berlin, 6900 Flora Meyer, 17296 Fanny Meyer Erben, 25197 Donat Wolf, 30517 Donat Wolf; StaH, 231-3 Handelsregister, A 6 Bd. 25 Nr. F 8696/1866 Elias Berlin; StaH, 314-15 Oberfinanzpräsident, F 675b Bd. 1 Gerson, Oscar, F 675 Bd. 2 Gerson, Ernst, F 2418 Donat Wolf, FVg 5110 Ernst Ivan Berlin, R 1938/3186 Richard Meyer, R 1939/0154 Fanny Berlin, R 1940/0707a Fanny Berlin; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Geburtsregister, 1920 u. 2017/1978 Fanny Meyer, 1958 u. 4209/1879 Eduard Berlin, 2013 u. 217/1882 Richard Meyer, 14674 u. 337/1906 Ernst Ivan Berlin; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Heiratsregister, 6443 u. 374/1905 Eduard Meyer u. Fanny Meyer, 14829 u. 205/1937 Dan Wolf u. Olga Berlin; StaH, 332-5 Standesämter, Sterberegister, 8061 u. 370/1920 Siegfried Berlin, 9867 u. 15/1935 Eduard Berlin, 8174 u. 189/1941 Richard Meyer; StaH, 332-7 Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht, AIf Bd. 164 Nr. 13023 Jacob Meyer, AIf Bd. 237 Nr. 477/1909 Eduard Berlin; StaH, 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung, 26668 Donat Wolf, 31590 Erwin Isaak Berlin, 35999 Olga Wolf, 47028 Fanny Berlin, 55861 Donat Wolf; StaH, 352-5 Gesundheitsbehörde, Todesbescheinigungen, 1920 Sta 20 Nr. 370 Siegfried Berlin, 1935 Sta 19 Nr. 15 Eduard Berlin, 1941 Sta 2a Nr. 189 8174 u. 189/1941 Richard Meyer; StaH, 376-2 Gewerbepolizei, Spz VIII C 57/1899 Eduard Berlin; StaH, 622-1/173 Familienarchive, B11/4 Ralph Plaut, D 35 Nachlassangelegenheiten Elias Berlin; StaH, 741-4 Fotoarchiv, K 6604; Hamburger Adressbücher 1910–1943; Hamburgisches Architekturarchiv, Recherche und Auskunft Karl Heinz Hoffmann, Bestand Gerson F 15/01-08; Maria Koser/Sabine Brunotte: Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Eppendorf und Hamburg-Hoheluft-Ost. Biographische Spurensuche, 2 Bde., Hamburg 2011, Bd. 1, S. 87 (Fanny Berlin); Ina Lorenz: Gerson, Hans und Oskar, in: Das jüdische Hamburg. Ein historisches Nachschlagewerk, hrsg. vom Institut für die Geschichte der Deutschen Juden, Red.: Kirsten Heinsohn, Göttingen 2006, S. 88 f.; Jürgen Sielemann: Das Porträt: Isaac Joseph Jaffe, Gründer des Paulinenstifts, in: Maajan (2013), Nr. 109, S. 4363–4376; Ingrid Claudia Turtenwald: Fritz Höger (1877–1949). Architekt zwischen Stein und Stahl, Glas und Beton, Westfälische Wilhelm-Universität zu Münster, Diss., Münster 2003; http://www.blankgenealogy.com/histories/Biographies/Jaffe/Jaffe%20Family%20Tree%201933-3.pdf, eingesehen am: 8.4.2022. Gespräche mit Dr. Karl Heinrich ("Heinz") Biehl (geb. 1935, verst. am 12.11.2010), im Jahr 2005; E-Mail-Wechsel mit Steve Berlin, USA, im Jahr 2010.
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