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Selma Hauptmann (née Baumgarten) * 1868

Woldsenweg 6 (Hamburg-Nord, Eppendorf)

1942 Theresienstadt
1942 Treblinka ermordet

further stumbling stones in Woldsenweg 6:
Arthur Hauptmann

Arthur Hauptmann, born on 28 Apr. 1869 in Kreuzburg/Upper Silesia, deported on 15 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, deported further on 21 Sept. 1942 to the Treblinka extermination camp
Selma Hauptmann, née Baumgarten, born on 27 Oct. 1868 in Berlin, deported on 15 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, deported further on 21 Sept. 1942 to the Treblinka extermination camp

Woldsenweg 6

Arthur and Selma Hauptmann had been living in Hamburg since 1900. Their sons, Walter Moritz Hauptmann (born on 6 Apr. 1905) and Gerhard Hauptmann (born on 23 Feb. 1913) were born there. The family lived for the longest time (including from 1913 until 1933) at Woldsenweg 6 in the Eppendorf district of Hamburg. Arthur Hauptmann had himself registered as a member of the Hamburg German-Israelitic Community in Mar. 1906. After reaching the age of religious majority and economic independence, the sons too had a Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) file card of their own filled out. In 1909, Arthur Hauptmann obtained civic rights of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg. The Hamburg directory listed Arthur Hauptmann for the first time in 1900 as the editor of the Neue Hamburger Zeitung, a left-liberal paper of Girardet Publishers for middle-class readers founded in 1896. Justus Hendel, the son-in-law of Wilhelm Girardet (Essen), managed the paper, and since 1902, Curt Platen (since 1910, a member of the German Democratic Part [DDP] in the Hamburg City Parliament) was editor-in-chief; the paper employed between 12 to 15 editors and about 200 to 250 staff members. When Arthur Hauptmann obtained civic rights of the Hanseatic City in 1909, he was listed there as a business editor. The Neue Hamburger Zeitung, which had a sophisticated cultural section but no mass readership, was financed with the profits generated by the apolitical General-Anzeiger für Hamburg-Altona, an advertising journal within the publishing house. Both publications had their seat at Gänsemarkt 21/22, in the "Girardet-Haus” owned by the publishing group and built of light sandstone in 1896; bordering on this building to the rear (at Poststrasse 20) was the printing shop, a red clinker-brick structure built in 1913/1914. In Aug. 1922, the two papers merged to become the Hamburger Anzeiger. The new publication successfully combined positions of the educated middle-classes and the German Democratic Party (Deutsche Demokratische Partei – DDP), belonging to the Weimar government coalition, with an extensive ad section. From the mid-1920s onward, it had the highest circulation of all Hamburg papers. In the 1928 directory, Arthur Hauptmann was listed as editor was well. During the world economic crisis, the daily circulation of the Hamburger Anzeiger rose from 135,000 copies (in 1927) to 139,000 (in 1928), and 148,000 (in 1929), all the way to 159,000 copies (in 1930). The new editor-in-chief, Alois Winbauer, wrote most of the commentaries, taking an extremely critical stance toward Hitler and the Nazi party. On 27 Feb. 1933 and on 5 Mar. 1933, SA men stormed the editorial offices on Gänsemarkt to intimidate staff and editors. In 1933, the NSDAP brought the entire press under its control by means of new legislation and purges among media personnel. This affected the Hamburger Anzeiger as well. The paper was banned effective 29 Mar. 1933 and the editor-in-chief at the time, Alois Winbauer, was dismissed. On 20 Apr. 1933, the paper reappeared under the old name but in terms of content, it no longer had anything in common with its predecessor. From then on, the editor-in-chief was Hans Jacobi, the main editor of the Hamburger Tageblatt, an NSDAP organ. The editor and co-owner Julius Hendel was unable to oppose these developments. Based on the "Editors’ Law” (Schriftleitergesetz) dated 4 Oct. 1933, journalists had to submit an application to practice their profession, something that required "Aryan descent” and a positive attitude toward Nazism. This did not affect Arthur Hauptmann anymore. He had already lost his job with the Hamburger Anzeiger in the course of the world economic crisis in 1929, afterward working as a bank employee, by then aged 64. Nevertheless, as late as 1932 and 1933, his name was still listed in the Hamburg directory at Woldsenweg 6 with the occupational designation of "editor” ("Schriftführer”). In Nov. 1930, the older son, Walter Hauptmann (see corresponding biography), started a business of his own in the mineral oil trade. He worked out of his parents’ residential address at Woldsenweg 6. Since the mid-1930s, Walter Hauptmann was married to Gertrud, née Winckler, married name prior to divorce Klöhn (born on 1 Oct. 1908 in Hamburg). Probably in 1936, after getting married, he moved out of his parents’ apartment to Rehagen 13 on the third floor, but the marriage failed. After the separation, from June 1937 onward, he returned to his parents, who were living one floor higher in the same house since Apr. 1937. Vis-à-vis the authorities, Walter Hauptmann passed himself off as a Protestant and an "Aryan,” something that remained without objection until 1937. He attempted to conceal his critical financial situation and his company’s lull in orders by small tricks. He was right in regarding the criminal proceedings resulting from this trickery and his sentencing in July to two weeks in prison as the prelude to further measures of discrimination and persecution. As early as July 1937, Walter Hauptmann’s business was struck from the company register. He fled, probably after serving his sentence, to France in early Sept. 1937. It is unclear whether the couple was divorced or whether they emigrated together, separately, or whether the wife did not emigrate at all. At any rate, the Reichsanzeiger dated 16 June 1939 indicates the expatriation of Walter Hauptmann and his wife Gertrud Hauptmann, née Winckler. Walter’s brother, Gerhard Hauptmann, departed for the USA in Dec. 1937. Arthur and Selma Hauptmann, entered with a residential address at Woldsenweg 6 in Eppendorf in the Hamburg directory until 1933, probably resided as subtenants from 1934 until 1937. In 1936, Arthur Hauptmann notified the Jewish Community that he was unemployed. Only after his older son’s flight abroad, did Arthur Hauptmann re-appear in the 1938 directory with the entry of "Hauptmann, Arth., Rehhagen 13, Tel. 52 58 52.” Previously, the son had been listed as the main tenant for this address in Hamburg-Hummelsbüttel, with the occupational designation of "commercial agent” (in 1935) and "mineral oil agent” (in 1937), respectively. Two years later, the Jewish Community noted on the Jewish religious tax file card for the 68 and 69 year-old Hauptmann spouses "no income and no assets.” Emigration would have been possible only with massive financial support by the extended family. By the end of Nov. 1940, the destitute couple was dependent on the "Winter Relief Program” of the Jewish Community. On 2 July 1941, the housing department committed them to a small apartment at Bundesstrasse 43 (Rotherbaum); the 56 apartments located there of the John R. Warburg Stiftung, a charitable foundation built in 1890/91, served as a "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) toward preparing the deportations. On 15 July 1942, Arthur and Selma Hauptmann were deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto and 21 Sept. 1942 further from there to the Treblinka extermination camp, where they were probably murdered soon after their arrival. Their exact dates of death are not known. In Feb. 2008, Stolpersteine were laid in front of their former residential building at Woldsenweg 6 (Eppendorf). Walter Hauptmann was deported from the Drancy camp to the Kaunas Ghetto (Russian: Kovno, German: Kauen) in occupied Lithuania on 15 May 1944. No details are available about his date and place of death. A Stolperstein was laid for him at Brahmsallee 18.


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

Stand: April 2018
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: StaH 213-11 (Staatsanwaltschaft Landgericht – Strafsachen), 05142/38 (Walter Hauptmann); StaH 332-7 (Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht), A I e 40 Bd. 16 (Bürger-Register 1906–1910, Buchstabe A-H), Arthur Hauptmann; StaH 332-7 (Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht), B III 101 829 (Akte zu Arthur Hauptmann, 1909); StaH 522-1 (Jüdische Gemeinden), 992b (Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburg), Arthur Hauptmann, Gerhard Hauptmann, Walter Hauptmann; StaH 731-1 (Handschriftensammlung), 1313 (Uwe Teuchert, Die Gleichschaltung der Hamburger Tageszeitungen 1933, Diplomarbeit an der Universität Hamburg, Hamburg 1984, S. 43–45 u. 79–82 Hamburger Anzeiger); StaH 731-8 (Zeitungsausschnittsammlung), A 773 (Winbauer, Alois); Handelskammer Hamburg, Firmenarchiv (Walter Hauptmann, HR-Nr. A 36752); Die Ausbürgerung deutscher Staatsangehöriger 1933–45 nach den im Reichsanzeiger veröffentlichten Listen, München 1985, Band 1, S. 176 (Walter Hauptmann, Reichsanzeiger Nr. 136); Bundesarchiv Koblenz, Gedenkbuch, Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden unter der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland 1933–1945, Internet; Staatsarchiv Hamburg, Gedenkbuch. Hamburger jüdische Opfer des Nationalsozialismus, Hamburg 1995, Seite 150 (Arthur Hauptmann, Selma Hauptmann, Walter Hauptmann); Memorial de la Shoah (Frankreich), Internet (Deportationsliste mit dem Namen von Walter Hauptmann); Hermann Hipp, DuMont Kunst-Reiseführer Hamburg, 1990, S. 188, 191 (Girardet-Haus); Werner Skrentny (Hrsg.), Hamburg zu Fuß, Hamburg 1987, S. 32 (Hamburger Anzeiger); Hamburger Adressbuch 1900, 1904–1910, 1913, 1921, 1928, 1932–1935, 1937–1939; Hamburger Adressbuch (Straßenverzeichnis, Brahmsallee 18), 1938; Hamburger Fernsprechbuch 1931; Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1935, S. 345 (Walter Hauptmann); wikipedia, Hamburger Anzeiger (eingesehen am 6.5.2014); www.ancestry.de (eingesehen am 7.10.2014, Aberkennung der Staatsbürgerschaft bei Gertrud Hauptmann geb. Winckler).