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Dr. H. Richard Mindus * 1882

Oderfelder Straße 42 (Eimsbüttel, Harvestehude)

HIER WOHNTE
DR. H. RICHARD
MINDUS
JG. 1882
GEDEMÜTIGT / ENTRECHTET
FLUCHT IN DEN TOD
30.3.1942

further stumbling stones in Oderfelder Straße 42:
Leopold Falk, Frieda Falk, Denny Falk, Sarah Frank, Elise Katz

Dr. Richard Hermann Mindus, born on 28 July 1892, humiliated/deprived of his rights, flight to death on 30 Mar. 1942

Oderfelder Strasse 42 (Harvestehude)

Richard Hermann Mindus was born as the first of three children of the Jewish merchant Wolff Ruben Mindus and his wife Hermine, née Sohr, also Jewish, on 28 July 1892 in Oskarström/ Malmo.

Four years later, he resided with his parents, the siblings Margrit (born on 27 July 1893) and Felix (born on 10 Nov. 1895) at Grindelallee 17/ Eimsbüttel on the ground floor, the family being subtenants with Brede.

His father Wolff Ruben Mindus was a merchant in the export business. He practiced this occupation in Sweden as well as in Hamburg. Therefore, the Mindus family kept a residence in Sweden in addition to their domicile in Hamburg.

Richard Mindus grew up in Hamburg. When the parents were in Sweden on business, they left the children in the care of a nanny. The family also employed a maid.

Richard Mindus attended the Wilhelm Gymnasium at Klosterstieg 17 in Harvestehude and graduated from that high school. He completed his law studies in Leipzig, Halle, Berlin, and Rostock. At the latter university, he passed the first State Law Examination on 14 Apr. 1914 and de-registered on 10 May 1914.

Approximately one year later, he received his doctorate from the University of Rostock on 25 June 1914. His doctoral thesis on Das Vorflutrecht, published in 1915 by the Hamburg-based Berngruber & Hennig publishing house, is still available in many German libraries. In the book, he deals with the legal aspects of water inflows and outflows of neighboring properties. On 22 June 1914, he began his legal traineeship, which he apparently abandoned due to the war. In addition, he failed the Second State Law Examination on 6 Oct. 1924, as he did on 4 Apr. 1927. Apparently, he attempted a third attempt to complete his legal education in 1933. However, this anticipates subsequent developments.

Until 1916, Richard Mindus was registered at the address of his parents, who by then resided at Parkallee 5/ Harvestehude. When they moved to Höltystrasse 6/ Uhlenhorst in 1917, he continued to live with them in their ground-floor apartment, into which his brother Felix Mindus also moved later (1922).

Following his studies, Richard Mindus volunteered for military service. Serving with the sappers in 1916, he was assigned to a field company as a telephone operator. In Sept. 1917, he was buried alive in Pirmasens. After this presumably traumatic experience, he was then a Hoboist starting in 1917 (A "Hoboist” worked as a porter for the medical service in World War I.)

We do not know whether the war injury was associated with a physical impairment in addition to the psychological consequences. He received a monthly military pension of an amount unknown to us, which was reserved for war invalids. Later, thanks to an exemption for front-line combatants, he was able to complete his legal traineeship with the State Administration of Justice.

Initially, doctors diagnosed the consequences of his burial as a "nervous condition.” On 23 Dec. 1917, Richard Mindus was admitted to Eppendorf Hospital and two weeks later transferred to the Friedrichsberg State Hospital (Staatskrankenanstalt Friedrichsberg). The latter also discharged him on 15 May 1919, with the diagnosis of "nervous disorder.” The files show that Richard Mindus received financial support from his parents during this time, and especially emotional support from his mother when he suffered "emotional lows.”

Richard Mindus’ brother Felix had founded an export company as a general partnership on 4 Jan. 1918, and business went well. His partner was the non-Jewish merchant Eduard Friedrich Charles Otersen. The company traded in jute, dry goods, stoneware, porcelain, glass, and household items. The articles were exported to Argentina, Chile, Finland, and Scandinavia. In this company, Richard Mindus worked as a legal consultant from 1923 to 1932. The company was located at Hohe Bleichen 9/ Hamburg-Neustadt from 1923 to 1934.

In 1933 Richard Mindus, his brother Felix, and their parents moved to the second floor of Höltystrasse 4.

On 13 July 1932, the legal form of the general partnership was dissolved and Felix Mindus was registered as the sole owner. Obviously, at this time, Richard Mindus intended to continue his traineeship. However, in the meantime his condition had deteriorated. On 16 May 1933, he was again admitted to the Friedrichsberg State Hospital and discharged on 12 Aug. 1933. At this time, the "nervous condition” was diagnosed as "schizophrenia” by the doctors there and those at Eppendorf University Hospital.

By then, both the illness and the Nazi assumption of power, which was accompanied by the dismissal of (partly) Jewish lawyers, as well as Richard Mindus’ exam anxiety, which had already become apparent at the University of Rostock when he failed the First State Examination, obstructed a further professional career as a lawyer.

On 12 Sept. 1933, he asked the State Justice Administration to leave him in the civil service as a legal trainee. However, the State Justice Administration objected to the fact that he had not made up for the major state examination (second state examination) pursuant to Section 61 of the Implementing Ordinance to the Judicial Training Regulations, for which he had received a second permit, by 1 Dec. 1934. It dismissed him as of 1 Dec. 1935.

With the "Law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary Diseases” ("Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses”), which came into force on 1 Jan. 1934, the Nazis had enacted the legal basis for the compulsory "sterilization” of alleged "patients suffering from hereditary diseases” and "alcoholics.” This law also affected Richard Mindus: Since 30 Sept. 1935, he had been staying at the Israelite Sanatorium and Nursing Home for Patients with Nervous Diseases and Emotional Disorders (Israelitische Heil- und Pflegeanstalt für Nerven- und Gemütskranke), the Jacoby’sche Anstalt in Bendorf-Sayn near Koblenz.

Upon admission there, the responsible "Hereditary Health Court” (Erbgesundheitsgericht) in Koblenz decreed that Richard Mindus had to be sterilized. It relied on the diagnosis of "schizophrenia” as the cause of his nervous condition and saw the reason in a suspected genetic predisposition. However, it was stated in the files that familial dispositions were not known.

On 30 Oct. 1935, Richard Mindus filed a complaint with the Hereditary Health Court, but it was dismissed as belated and therefore inadmissible. On 8 Jan. 1936, a District Court judge (Amtsgerichtsrat) by the name of Mutz filed an application for suspension of the sterilization. This was granted by the Hereditary Health Court on 20 Jan. 1936, effective for as long as Richard Mindus was in the Jacoby’sche Anstalt or a similar institution. The reasons why the Hereditary Health Court granted the application are not recorded.

In 1937, the Mindus family liquidated their shared apartment on Höltystrasse. Felix Mindus fled to Sweden on 28 Feb. 1937. His export business was transferred in absentia to the non-Jewish merchant Eduard Friedrich Charles Otersen as sole owner on 30 June 1939. The Mindus parents remained in Hamburg, moving to Grindelallee 126.

On 30 Nov. 1937, Richard Mindus was sterilized after all, probably in a hospital in Koblenz. On 8 Dec. 1937, he was discharged as cured after the sterilization.

Richard Mindus returned to Hamburg, moving to Oderfelderstrasse 42/ Harvestehude as a subtenant. He paid 165 RM in rent to live with Gertrud "Gertie” Meier-Ahrens. (Gertrud Meier, née Ahrens, born on 4 Aug. 1894, was deported to Theresienstadt on 19 July 1942, where she was murdered; see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de).

In the "Ordinance on the Use of Jewish Assets” ("Verordnung zum Einsatz jüdischen Vermögens”) dated 3 Dec. 1938, and another ordinance based on it dated 1 Jan. 1939, compulsory securities accounts were introduced. Their owners had to transfer shares and fixed-interest securities to a foreign currency bank within one week and could then no longer freely dispose of this securities account. This restriction had a lasting impact on the life of Richard Mindus, especially since he had to pay a "levy on Jewish assets” ("Judenvermögensabgabe”) in five installments amounting 2,250 RM each, starting on 13 Dec. 1938. In addition, in the spring of 1939, his military pension was cancelled without substitution, with no reasons given.

On 17 Nov. 1939, the tax office issued a "security order” ("Sicherungsanordnung”) for Richard Mindus and his mother Hermine. With this, they could no longer dispose freely of their accounts and had to obtain permission to cover their living expenses.

At this time, in Apr. 1939, Richard Mindus was placed in "protective custody” ("Schutzhaft”) at the Fuhlsbüttel police prison, without any reasons provided for his arrest.

In addition, Richard Mindus was forced to exchange his I.G. Farbenindustrie shares amounting to 5,000 RM. These shares had previously earned him a good return. At this time, he had to offer them for sale within two weeks in exchange for Reich Treasury Bills (Reichschatzanweisungen) providing a much lower interest rate. (The German Reich used the fixed-interest Reich Treasury Bills to finance its war expenditures). He had to bear the costs of the transaction for the sale of his shares on 26 Sept. 1941 himself.

In the meantime, his father Wolff Ruben Mindus had died of embolism in the Grindelallee 126 apartment on 19 July 1940 (He was buried in the Ilandkoppel Jewish Cemetery). Hermine Mindus died of heart failure in Hamburg on 14 Jan. 1942 (She, too, was buried in the Ilandkoppel Jewish Cemetery).

On 27 Mar. 1942, the Chief Finance Administration (Oberfinanzdirektion) informed Richard Mindus that he was entitled to only 250 RM per month to live on from his assets, which had been blocked by the "security order.” He objected, saying that he was suffering severely from war injuries and needed a lot of medication. However, these arguments did not count with the Chief Finance Administration.

On 30 Mar. 1942, Richard Mindus and his landlady Gertie Meier-Ahrens received an order to move to the "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) at Grindelhof 101, a former retirement home, by mid-April 1942. The rent there for the six square meters (just under 65 sq. ft) of living space was 180 RM. Just for gas, water and heating, he already paid 95 RM. There was no money left for food.

The 49-year-old Richard Mindus lost his courage to face life.

Thus, on a Monday morning, at about 11:20 on 30 Mar. 1942, he tried to commit suicide. He planned to throw himself down the light well of the apartment building. It was a four-story building with an elevator. Located behind the elevator and the banisters was the light well. Several times, Richard Mindus ran up and down the stairs before he found the courage to drop over the banister into the light well.
He did not die immediately, however, but sustained a basal skull fracture with an open wound to the back of his head. Unconscious, he was transported to the Jewish Hospital on Johnsallee and passed away there the same day.

His burial took place a few days later at the Ilandkoppel Jewish Cemetery.

Details regarding the fate of Richard Mindus’ siblings:
Margrit Mindus (born on 27 July 1893) married Simon, called Sidney, Lipert (born on 5 May 1890). The couple divorced after a short time. She fled to Britain in 1939 and married John Ambrose (born on 27 May 1887) there. Margrit Ambrose died in Halland/Sweden in 1976.

Felix Hermann Mindus (born on 10 Nov. 1895), who had fled to Sweden, passed away in Stockholm on 24 Aug. 1955.

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

Stand: August 2021
© Bärbel Klein

Quellen: StaH, 1; 2 ;4; 5; 8; 9; 213-13_1476; 213-13_4076; 213-13_11367; 213-13_16843; 213-13_17113; 213-13_17114; 213-13_25565; 213-13_27493; 213-13_29055; 241-2_A 1016; 342-1 II_Q 1 Kriegshilfe; 351-11_1569; 351-11_14753; 331-5_3 Akte 533/1942; 352-11_2890; 522-1_390; 332-5_230/1890; 332-5_386/1940; 332-5_20/1942; 332-5_164/1942; Richard Mindus, Das Vorflutrecht, Hamburg 1915; Geburtseintrag Göteborg Felix Hermann Mindus; www.wikipedea.de; www.ancestry.de (Einsicht 20.9.2020).
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