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Minna Gottschalk (née Behr) * 1885

Grindelallee 6 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

1941 Riga

further stumbling stones in Grindelallee 6:
Maximilian Gumpel, Edith Horwitz, Albert Josephi, Dr. Leonhard Lazarus, Hedwig Lazarus, Laura Mosbach, Johanna Rosenberg

Minna Gottschalk, née Behr, born on 11 Dec. 1885 in Lüneburg, deported on 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga

When she was deported, Minna Gottschalk bore the last name of her last deceased husband. She had already been married twice before. Her first marriage was with Hermann Arndt (born on 14 May 1882). The couple had a son, Heinz Arndt, who was born on 26 Feb. 1912. The family lived at Isestrasse 65. Husband Hermann Arndt worked at the H. Ernst Plümer shoe store at Bahrenfelderstrasse 75 in Altona, which he probably also owned. Later, Minna is entered in the directories as the owner of the property; she inherited it from her husband when he passed away at the end of 1921.

Soon afterward, Minna got married to Louis (called Ludwig) Levy (born on 18 Oct. 1882), who moved in with her and her son into the apartment on Isestrasse, also working at the Plümer shoe store. Minna’s second marriage did not last very long, however; Ludwig Levy died as early as 1924.

In 1927, Minna was married a third and last time, to the sales representative Adolf/Adolph Gottschalk (born on 28 Sept. 1878). He and Minna left Hamburg in 1935/1936 and moved to Stuttgart.

On 26 Apr. 1938, the "Decree concerning the Reporting of Jewish Assets” (Verordnung über die Anmeldung des Vermögens von Juden) came into effect. It aimed at recording Jewish real estate in its entirety, and it applied to Minna’s property on Bahrenfelder Strasse as well. The property was administrated by a house and mortgage broker acting as a trustee. In Feb. 1939, he complained to the foreign currency office with the Chief Finance Administrator (Oberfinanzpräsident) that the property was heavily encumbered and that it had not been generating any revenues for years.

For reasons unknown, Minna and Adolf Gottschalk returned to Hamburg in 1939 or 1940, now living at Brahmsallee 6 with Hoffmann. Adolf passed away on 23 Mar. 1940 and was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Ohlsdorf.

In June 1940, Minna Gottschalk filed an application that her property be encumbered with 3,000 RM (reichsmark); why she needed this amount of money is unknown. Perhaps she hoped to be able to emigrate yet. As a widow, Minna Gottschalk relocated two more times, moving to Grindelberg 1 and eventually to Grindelallee 6, living there as a subtenant with Horwitz. From there, she was deported to Riga on 6 Dec. 1941. After her deportation, she has been considered missing.

Her property on Bahrenfelderstrasse was confiscated that same month to the benefit of the Reich because according to the 11th Ordinance to the Reich Citizenship Law dated 25 Nov. 1941, all Jews relocating their residence abroad or being deported abroad, respectively, lost their citizenship. The assets of those people losing their citizenship due to this ordinance fell to the German Reich.

Her son Heinz, working as a footwear dealer like his father, left Hamburg in 1935/36. He lived in Czechoslovakia for some time. An entry in his Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) file card indicates that he was "traveling.” In 1936, his wife Esther (née Katz) passed away. He remarried and managed to emigrate to Uruguay on 10 Dec. 1938, i.e., one month after the Pogrom of November 1938.


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

Stand: November 2019
© Marie Rümelin/Änderung Christina Igla

Quellen: StaH, 522-1, Jüdische Gemeinden, 992b, Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburgs; 522-1, Jüdische Gemeinden, 992e 1 Bd. 4, Deportationsliste Oberfinanzpräsident, 314-15 R 1939/719; 522-1, Jüdische Gemeinden, 992b, Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburgs; Frank Bajohr: "Arisierung" in Hamburg. Die Verdrängung der jüdischen Unternehmer 1933–1945, Hamburg 1997, S. 288; Frank Bajohr: Dienstbeflissene Bürokraten? Devisenstelle, Zollfahndung und die forcierte "Arisierung" jüdischer Unternehmen in Hamburg im "Dritten Reich", in: Verfolgung und Verwaltung. Beiträge zur Hamburger Finanzverwaltung 1933–1945, Hamburg 2003, S. 9–28, hier S. 13; Armin Wirtz: Die Vermögensverwertungsstelle beim Oberfinanzpräsidenten in Hamburg, in: ebd., S. 30f.; Gedenkbuch. Opfer der Verfolgung der Juden unter der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland 1933-1945, hg. v. Bundesarchiv Koblenz, Koblenz 2006; Geburts-, Heirats- und Sterbeurkunde aus dem System ancestry, (Zugriff 20.11.2019).