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Siegfried Mayer auf der MS Bremen
© Privatbesitz Ken Mayer

Siegfried Meyer * 1881

Maria-Louisen-Straße 90 (Hamburg-Nord, Winterhude)

HIER WOHNTE
SIEGFRIED MEYER
JG. 1881
GEDEMÜTIGT / ENTRECHTET
FLUCHT IN DEN TOD
6.3.1943

Siegfried Mayer (Meyer), born on 5 June 1881, humiliated/deprived of his rights, flight to death on 6 Mar. 1943

Maria-Louisen-Strasse 90, Winterhude

Siegfried Mayer (as is his civil registration entry) changed the spelling of his name from time to time for reasons not clear to us. Thus, we find him in the records also as Siegfried Meyer, as his name is spelled on his Stolperstein.

Siegfried Mayer was born on 5 June 1881 as the last of six children in Nieder Flörsheim/Worms. His parents were the Jewish merchant Hermann Mayer and his wife Adelheid Mayer, née Meyer. We cannot report anything about Siegfried Mayer’s childhood.

On 21 Oct. 1905, at the age of 24, he rented an apartment in Bremerhaven at Kaiserstrasse 33. On his residents’ registration form, he stated that he was a Prussian citizen and of the Catholic faith.

Siegfried Mayer worked as a second steward on the mail steamer "Bülow.” The mail steamers of the Norddeutscher Lloyd shipping line were also used as passenger ships, offering mainly trips to East Asian destinations.

When he married non-Jewish Lucie Charlotte Schau, called Lulu, on 10 Mar. 1912, in Southampton, England, he stated that he was a Christian.

Lulu Schau had been born in Bremerhaven on 9 Oct 1887, the only child of the non-Jewish customs official Ernst August Schau and Lucie Auguste Sophie Schau, née Seidler. Since mother and daughter had the same first names, the daughter was just called Lulu.

Lulu had spent her childhood with her parents in Stuttgart and Paris and had attended elementary school (Volksschule) and then business school in Bremerhaven. Subsequently, she had trained as an office clerk.

In 1915, the Mayer couple moved from Kaiserstrasse 33 to Hafenstrasse 174 (today no. 57) in Bremerhaven. Their mother-in-law Lucie Schau lived with them.

Siegfried Mayer was employed by Norddeutscher Lloyd aboard the "Steuben” and with his courteous manner, he rose to a very good position. His friend Heinz Gerbracht later reported that the "Marine SA” had taken Siegfried Mayer off the "Steuben” in 1933 in order to humiliate him. However, Siegfried Mayer was not intimidated by such attacks. Professionally, he rose through his competent work and then worked as a head steward on the "Bremen.” There he earned 900 RM (reichsmark) per month – often adding 1000 to 1500 RM in tips per season.

In the course of 1933, the Mayer couple moved with the widowed Lucie Schau into a villa at Parkstrasse 24 in Wesermünde-Lehe, about 6 kilometers (just under 4 miles) from the previous home. (Siegfried Mayer’s name was printed in bold in the directory, an indication that he owned the house.)

However, in 1934 the shipping company dismissed Siegfried Mayer because of his Jewish descent. From then on, it paid him a pension of 140 RM.

Henceforth, the couple continued to live on their savings and with the support by their mother-in-law Lucie Schau in their house in Wesermünde-Lehe. Since the hostilities against the Jews were becoming increasingly stronger though, Lulu and Siegfried Mayer decided to move to the big city of Hamburg. On 4 Sept. 1937, they deregistered in Wesermünde-Lehe.

Lucie Schau’s mother-in-law bought an expensive ground-floor apartment at Maria-Louisen-Strasse 90 in Hamburg-Winterhude, and on 29 Sept. 1937, Lulu Mayer and Siegfried Mayer registered with the authorities as residing there.

Lucie Schau herself remained in Wesermünde-Lehe for some time, following her children to Hamburg a year later, on 29 Aug. 1938. The couple was not spared harassment in Hamburg either. Lulu Mayer explained the frequent visits of the Gestapo by the fact that their marriage – in Nazi terminology, a "non-privileged mixed marriage” ("nichtprivilegierte Mischehe”) – had remained childless (with Christian-raised children, the marriage would have been "privileged” and not subject to some restrictions). To evade Gestapo checks, Siegfried Mayer withdrew more and more. He also left Hamburg temporarily and visited his relatives and friends in Nieder Flörsheim, Stuttgart, and Mannheim.

Being a Jew who had been forced to disclose any assets in excess of 5,000 RM, Siegfried Mayer was called upon to pay the "levy on Jewish assets” ("Judenvermögensabgabe”), which all well-to-do Jews had to pay after the November Pogrom. He paid 5,250 RM overall, beginning on 16 Dec. 1938, in five installments to the foreign currency office in Hamburg.

The Mayer couple maintained a friendly and close relationship with the Rayner family, who lived in the immediate neighborhood. Dr. Rayner, as a director of justice, was well versed in German law and often assisted the couple in an advisory capacity. He also tried to ease the Mayer family’s difficult lot by distancing himself from their tormentors and persecutors.

After the war, he stated in the compensation proceedings, "Mr. Mayer was a very pleasing and friendly gentleman who lived quietly in retirement and had no one as an enemy.”

Like all spouses in "mixed marriages,” the Mayers were repeatedly pressured by the Secret State Police to divorce. Thus, the situation became increasingly difficult for Siegfried and Lulu Mayer.

Neighbor Rayner later reported that they had jointly considered initiating divorce proceedings when a foreseeable end to Nazism was expected, while at the same time always delaying it. Rayner consulted a good acquaintance, the lawyer Stumme, when the Mayer couple agreed to divorce proceedings.

However, the hope of gaining more security behind the cover of pending divorce proceedings was quickly dashed: In Dec. 1942, Siegfried Mayer had to move into the "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) at Beneckestrasse 2. Moreover, the Nazis accelerated the proceedings. An "atonement date” was already scheduled for the couple’s wedding anniversary, which would have been 10 March. Meanwhile, the humiliations and restrictions had caused Siegfried Mayer to become depressed. When the divorce date was moved forward once again, this time to 6 Mar. 1943, this measure further intensified his depression.

On 5 Mar. 1943, he sought out his still-wife Lulu Mayer in their formerly shared apartment and spent the night there. At 5:00 a.m. on 6 Mar. 1943, he got up, took a glass of water from the kitchen, and dissolved two tubes of Barbital (Veronal) tablets in it. When he had finished drinking, he went back to sleep.

When his wife awoke at 7:00 a.m., she found that her husband had taken sleeping pills. She notified a doctor, who arranged for Siegfried Mayer to be transferred to the Jewish nursing home at Schäferkampsallee 29. There, only his death could be ascertained.

Siegfried Mayer was buried a few days later in the Ilandkoppel Jewish Cemetery.

Some time after her husband’s death, the Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo, the Secret State Police) called on Lulu Mayer in her apartment: When her husband’s body had been transferred, she had stated to the Schutzpolizei [Uniformed Police] that the Gestapo had driven Siegfried Mayer to his death. Now she was to recant this statement. This incident was later recorded by neighbor Rayner in the compensation proceedings, without mentioning whether Lulu Mayer yielded to this pressure.

Details regarding the fate of Siegfried Mayer’s siblings:
We know nothing about his brother Ferdinand Mayer.

Julius Mayer (born on 18 Aug. 1861), married since 9 June 1887 to Johanna Katzenstein (born on 18 Apr. 1866), died on 6 Apr. 1934 in Mannheim.

Leo Mayer (born on 23 July 1863), married since 25 Dec. 1892 to Jeanette Schwarzenberger, widowed on 22 Sept. 1905, passed away on 1 Sept. 1930 in Stuttgart.

Max Moses Mayer (born on 12 June 1866), married since 27 Apr. 1892 to Frida Fanny Adler, fled with her to Palestine. Frida Fanny Mayer passed away on 9 June 1943 and Max Moses Mayer on 10 June 1943. Frida Fanny Mayer died of natural causes. Whether Max Moses committed suicide for this reason, we do not know.

Whether Luise Mayer (born on 23 May 1879) was murdered in the Majdanek death camp in 1943, as a Geni.com entry states, we do not know.

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

Stand: May 2021
© Bärbel Klein

Quellen: StaH, 1; 2; 4; 5; 9; 332-5_139; 351-11_9586; 351-11_9589; Stadtarchiv Bremerhaven, Geburtsurkunde Lucie Schau Nr. 327; Heirat von Siegfried Mayer und Lucie Schau in Southampton; Geschichten aus Lehe – Spiegel einer Stadt - Historische Geschichten von Menschen aus der Hafenstraße und Umgebung, (Hg.), Burkhard Hergesell, Geschichtswerkstatt Bremerhaven, Band 3, S. 130-134. Zwei Schiffsstewards der General von Steuben von Sabine Beister, 2012; www.geni.com; www.ancestry.de; www.wikipedea.de (Einsicht am 9.10.2020).
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