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Marianne Hirsch * 1887

Moltkestraße 50b (Eimsbüttel, Hoheluft-West)

HIER WOHNTE
MARIANNE HIRSCH
JG. 1887
EINGEWIESEN 1939
HEILANSTALT LANGENHORN
"VERLEGT" 23.9.1940
LANDES-PFLEGEANSTALT
BRANDENBURG
ERMORDET 23.9.1940
AKTION T4

Marianne Hirsch, born on 22 June 1887 in Prague, murdered on 23 Sept. 1940 in the Brandenburg/Havel euthanasia killing center

Stolperstein in Hoheluft-West, at Moltkestrasse 50b

Marianne Hirsch was born as the daughter of Hermione and Maximilian Hirsch in Prague, at that time part of the imperial and royal Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.

Her mother Hermine, née Reich, born on 10 Oct. 1861 in Buchlau/Koritschau in Moravia (today Buchlov/Korycany), was the daughter of the glass manufacturer Samuel Reich and his wife Charlotte, née Landesmann. After the death of the father in 1878, Hermine’s older brother Julius Reich continued to run the glass plant. Marianne’s mother and her brother Emil Reich lived in Vienna.

Marianne’s father Maximilian Hirsch, born on 3 June 1856 in Prague (son of Veith Hirsch and Maria, born in Vienna), had trained at the commercial academy (Handelsakademie) in Prague and worked in his father’s grocery store. After a one-year stay as a trainee in Hamburg in 1877, which he spent there with his four-year older brother Siegfried Salomon Hirsch, he had returned to Prague to the company of his father, while his brother stayed in Hamburg, established a grocery ("Colonialwaren”) business and in 1882 married the Protestant Caroline Friederike Elisabetha Schulz, born 1851 in Neustadt/Aisch in Bavaria.

Marianne’s parents had married on 5 Sept. 1886 in Vienna according in a civil ceremony and in accordance with Jewish rites at the Leopoldstadt Community Temple. They lived in Prague, where Marianne was born one year later, and Beatrice on 22 Dec. 1888.

At about this time, Marianne’s grandfather Veith Hirsch passed away, which resulted in her father continuing the "Veith Ph. Hirsch & Söhne” company together with his oldest brother Willibald in Prague.

In Nov. 1890, Marianne’s father moved to Hamburg – initially without his family – and established himself as an independent merchant. On 26 Jan. 1891, together with his brother Willibald, who remained in Prague and left the company three years later, he founded the independent coffee commission business "Veith Ph. Hirsch & Söhne,” based at Sandthorquai 6.

In 1891, Marianne’s father got the family to join him Hamburg, where they moved into the newly acquired urban villa at Moltkestrasse 50 b in Hoheluft-West.

There were already six cousins in Hamburg, the children of her uncle Siegfried: Sieglinde Marie, Gottfried Wilhelm, the twins Walther and Willi, Wolfram, and Brünnhilde. When their mother died, in 1893 Siegfried married in his second union Betty Walter, born in 1867 in Munich. Five more children were born: Edgar in 1894, the twins Ilse Henriette (she died at the age of one) and Olga in 1896, Lis Susanne in 1898, and Kurt in 1901. The large family lived in their apartment building at Schlüterstrasse 64, not far from Marianne’s home in the Rotherbaum quarter. Marianne and her sister Beatrice attended schools in Hamburg. Marianne’s subsequent education is not known. Beatrice Hirsch attended the Uhlenhorst Realgymnasium [a high school focused on science, math, and modern languages] and passed her school-leaving exam (Reifeprüfung) at the Johanneum Realgymnasium at Easter 1908. At that time, in Hamburg this examination could be taken by girls at this boys’ high school only as an "external’s examination.” One year later, she passed additional examinations in Greek and Latin at the Wilhelm-Gymnasium [a high school specializing in the classics].

On 21 Jan. 1909, Marianne’s father and his family members were admitted to the Hamburg Federation (Hamburgischer Staatsverband). The Hamburg Chamber of Commerce confirmed Maximilian Hirsch’s good reputation: "The Veith Ph. Hirsch & Söhne Company has existed since 1891 and its sole owner is Maximilian Hirsch. The very same runs a coffee business in an extensive and energetic but extremely cautious and solid manner and is considered personally a respectable, ambitious, and capable man. In industry circles, the company enjoys universal trust and its assets are estimated at nearly one million marks. According to this, it appears to the Chamber of Commerce that there are no reservations against the granting of Hirsch’s naturalization application.”

Beatrice left Hamburg in 1909 and studied history, German, and philosophy in Göttingen and Berlin, as well as economics and art history as minors in Heidelberg and Vienna. In June 1915, Beatrice received her doctorate at the University of Vienna, majoring in Medieval and Modern History with minor subjects in Art History and Philosophy. In the following period, she published essays and reviews. Back in Hamburg, she gave courses at the Rothenburgsort Volksheim, a cultural association, and in youth federations (Jugendbünde). After the First World War, she taught young unemployed people life skills and German literature. She held lectures on the Treaty of Versailles and gave courses on women’s political education on behalf of the General Women’s Association (Allgemeiner Frauenverein). In the Free Student Body (Freie Studentenschaft) of the University of Hamburg and in a Harvestehude private circle, she organized study evenings.

Meanwhile Marianne Hirsch went into business for herself on 23 June 1922 with a trade license as the owner of an arts and crafts workshop located in her parents’ house. On the same day, Beatrice, too, registered a trade there. As a private humanities teacher, she taught courses at her parents’ home, at the adult education center (Volkshochschule), and at the Jewish Henry-Jones Lodge. How long Marianne Hirsch ran her arts and crafts business is not documented.

In Mar. 1924, Marianne Hirsch and her father had a passport issued. In the passport protocol, she is described as medium sized, with brown eyes and dark brown hair; her father was already graying.

In 1926, at the age of 38, Marianne Hirsch and 21-year-old Eva Borchardt (see corresponding) were taken to the "sanatorium” of the doctor Friedrich Kunz in Allendorf/Lumda in Hessen. The symptoms and medical diagnosis of Marianne Hirsch are not known. Her attending physician Friedrich Kunz held the honorary office of "health administrator.” He ran a medical practice in Allendorf with an affiliated sanatorium, which was operated by his second wife and two daughters. The house with the practice had been extended in 1924. Marianne Hirsch moved into one of the three furnished attic rooms featuring a dormer. It is not known on which recommendation she came, like Eva Borchardt, to this private care center. A photo of a convivial celebration with accordion music of the Kunz family together with their sanatorium guests, taken in front of the veranda of the house at the beginning of the 1930s, suggests that patients and staff got along well.

Marianne had already lived in the "sanatorium” in Hessen for three years when her mother Hermine Hirsch died in Hamburg on 10 Feb. 1929 at the age of 67.

In the same year, Marianne’s 40-year-old sister Beatrice was adopted by her uncle Emil Reich, her mother’s younger brother, and henceforth had the hyphenated name of Hirsch-Reich. Emil Reich, Professor of Aesthetics at the University of Vienna, was childless and probably he had significantly promoted Beatrice in her professional career.

With the beginning of the persecutions of the Jews by the Nazi rulers, the material situation for Marianne’s family deteriorated. Marianne’s father also died on 29 Jan. 1935, at the age of 78. He found his last resting place in the Jewish Cemetery on Ilandkoppel in Ohlsdorf, next to his wife.

Her sister Beatrice moved to her adoptive father in Vienna. When Germany annexed Austria, Beatrice emigrated to London, where relatives lived. She had previously had to sell her parents’ house in Hamburg. A guardian, the Jewish lawyer Morris Samson, was appointed for Marianne.

In Allendorf, too, a lot had changed in the meantime. In the spring of 1936, Marianne Hirsch’s physician Friedrich Kunz, who had joined the Nazi party (NSDAP) in Nov. 1933, had died and Wilhelm Fresenius had taken over the medical practice. The widow Anna Kunz and her two daughters, members of the NSDAP since 1932, continued the "sanatorium” and cared for Marianne Hirsch and Eva Borchardt, although they had been asked several times by the local party leadership to part with their Jewish lodgers.

In her testimony in the denazification proceedings of 1946, Anna Kunz described the situation at the time: "The threats became increasingly fierce and I drove to Hamburg to place the two Jewish women, who were orphans, with Jewish families. However, I did not succeed, and I had to hand them her over to the sanatorium and nursing home with a heavy heart. I promised the two girls that I would keep taking care of them...”

Marianne Hirsch and Eva Borchardt had to move to the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” (Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Langenhorn) on 26 Jan. 1939 after more than 12 years at the [Kunz] "sanatorium.”

Only a section of the file cover of her admission file has survived with the incomplete notes indicating "Sanatorium Dr. Fresenius Allendorf” and "Schwacl.” The files neither on Marianne’s illness nor on her guardianship have been preserved.

Anna Kunz, at least according to herself, kept in touch with the two patients from Allendorf: "I wrote to them all the time and also sent parcels containing food to them. A parcel fell under control and the enclosed letter was published in the Stürmerkasten [a public stand featuring the Nazi Stürmer magazine]. I was expelled from the party in 1940.”

Marianne Hirsch spent a year and eight months in the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home.” When the Jewish patients from Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, and Mecklenburg were to be concentrated in the Hamburg-Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt” Hamburg-Langenhorn) by18 Sept. 1940 in order to be murdered in connection with "euthanasia,” she and Eva Borchardt were among them. On 23 Sept. 1940, they were transported to the so-called "Brandenburg State Asylum” ("Landespflegeanstalt Brandenburg”) on the Havel River, where they were killed with carbon monoxide on the same day.

The "euthanasia” headquarters in Berlin concealed the murder of the Jewish patients. According to an officially forged death certificate, Marianne was taken to the "lunatic asylum” ("Irrenanstalt”) in "Chelm” east of Lublin in Poland and allegedly, she died there of "coronary arteriosclerosis” on 30 Jan. 1941

On 13 Dec. 1940, Marianne’s uncle Emil Reich died in Vienna – marginalized and lonely. His grave of honor is located in the Jewish part of the Central Cemetery in Vienna. Moreover, a residential complex, the "Emil-Reich-Hof,” is named after him. A commemorative plaque at Döblinger Hauptstrasse 93 in Vienna commemorates him: "University professor Dr. Emil Reich 1864-1940/teacher/scholar/friend of the people/of academics and art/the Volkshochschule [adult education center] Vienna Volksheim owes its origins and development to him.”

The art and literature foundations for the promotion of young artists and writers of Uncle Julius Reich, who died in the spring of 1922, disappeared during the period of persecution of the Jews; even after the war they were not restituted.

Marianne’s cousin Edgar Hirsch was deported to Minsk on 8 Nov. 1941 and murdered. A Stolperstein commemorates him at Brombeerweg 47 in Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel.

Marianne’s sister Beatrice lived in Oxford, Britain. It was not until Apr. 1941, via the Red Cross and her cousin Walther Hirsch, that she learned that Marianne had been "transported to Poland” and had "died” there. Sometime after receiving the news of her death, she fell seriously ill and became unable to work. She died in Oxford on 17 Jan. 1967 at the age of 78.

Anna Kunz, the former caretaker of Marianne Hirsch, had to undergo denazification proceedings after the war. In July 1946, the Spruchkammer [a German civilian court handling denazification] of the Giessen administrative district classified her as one among the "group of exonerated persons” based on the following reasoning: "Exclusion from the party in 1940. Resistance to party regulations through verifiable dealings with Jews until 1940. The person concerned was publicly shamed in the Stürmerkasten.”

Willi Hirsch along with his twin brother Walther had financially secured his cousin Marianne Hirsch with a registered mortgage valued at 12,500 gold marks. Willi was killed just before the end of the war. Walther Hirsch survived and resided in his parents’ home at Schlüterstrasse 64 again after the war. He died on 23 Oct. 1959. His wife and sole heiress Paula Hirsch founded the "Walther Hirsch Estate Foundation” after his death. With this, the Hamburg Jewish Community was to support those in need, primarily members of the Jewish Community – something that is still happening to this day.

Marianne Hirsch is commemorated by a Stolperstein at Moltkestrasse 50b in Hamburg-Hoheluft-West.

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

© Margot Löhr

Quellen: 1; 2; 4; 5; 8; AB; StaH 133-1 III Staatsarchiv III, 3171-2/4 U.A. 4, Liste psychisch kranker jüdischer Patientinnen und Patienten der psychiatrischen Anstalt Langenhorn, die aufgrund nationalsozialistischer "Euthanasie"-Maßnahmen ermordet wurden, zusammengestellt von Peter von Rönn, Hamburg (Projektgruppe zur Erforschung des Schicksals psychisch Kranker in Langenhorn); 131-1 II Senatskanzlei – Gesamtregistratur 10455 Nachlass Walther Hirsch Nachlaß Stiftung; 231-3 Handelsregister, A 1 Bd 45 Nr. 11010 Veith Ph. Hirsch & Söhne, A 12 Bd 4 Nr. 16636 Siegfried Hirsch, A 13 Bd 13 Nr. 27838 Veith Ph. Hirsch & Söhne, A 12 Bd 31 Nr. 31406 Veith Ph. Hirsch & Söhne; 231-7 Amtsgericht Hamburg - Handels- und Genossenschaftsregister, A 1 Bd 45 Nr. 11010 Veith Ph. Hirsch & Söhne; 232-5 Amtsgericht Vormundschaftswesen, 94 Eva Borchardt; 232-5 Amtsgericht Vormundschaftswesen 775 Willi Hirsch; 332-5 Standesämter 2148 Geburtsregister Nr. 104/1887 Wolfram Hirsch, 2177 Geburtsregister Nr. 2515/1888 Brünnhilde Hirsch, 2636 Heiratsregister Nr. 915/1882 Siegfried Hirsch/Caroline Schulz, 7799 Sterberegister Nr. 3047/1884 Gottfried Hirsch, 8085 Sterberegister Nr. 156/1926 Sieglinde Hirsch, 8101 Sterberegister Nr. 77/1929 Hermine Hirsch, 8102 Sterberegister Nr. 54/1930 Siegfried Hirsch, 8136 Sterberegister Nr. 15/1935 Maximilian Hirsch, 8168 Sterberegister Nr. 82/1940 Wolfram Hirsch, 8243 Sterberegister Nr. 1018/1959 Walther Hirsch, 8806 Heiratsregister Nr. 190/1926 Bruno Weichmann/Olga Hirsch, 8973 Geburtsregister Nr. 84/1883 Sieglinde Hirsch, 8986 Geburtsregister Nr. 1765/1884 Gottfried Hirsch, 9002 Geburtsregister Nr. 4246/1885 Walther Hirsch, Nr. 4247/1885 Willi Hirsch, 9098 Geburtsregister Nr. 1203/1894 Edgar Hirsch, 9121 Geburtsregister Nr. 1081/1896 Ilse Hirsch, Nr. 1082/1896 Olga Hirsch, 9144 Geburtsregister Nr. 1365/1898 Susanna Hirsch; 332-7 Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht B III 2294 Siegfried Hirsch, B III 95654 Maximilian Hirsch; 332-8 Reisepassprotokolle A 24 Bd 122 Nr. 3693 Maximilian Hirsch, A 24 Bd 309 Nr. 7691 Marianne Hirsch, A 24 Bd 337 Nr. 9563 Maximilian Hirsch, A 24 Bd 365 Nr. 14960 Beatrice Hirsch; 351-11, Amt für Wiedergutmachung 8148 Walther Hirsch, 10861 Dr. Beatrice Reich-Hirsch, 16438 Brünhilde Mielziner, 16439 Wyman Olga (fr. Weichmann), 16440 Susanne Lis, 16441 Ruth Hilton (fr. Hirsch), 28078 Paula Hirsch, geb. Förster, 30074 Eva Leonore Borchardt; 352-5 Zivilstandsregister-Todesbescheinigung 1926 Sta 3 Nr. 156 Sieglinde Hirsch, 1929 Sta 20a Nr. 77 Hermine Hirsch, geb. Reich, 1930 Sta 3 Nr. 54 Siegfried Hirsch, 1935 Sta 20b Nr. 15 Maximilian Hirsch, 1940 Sta 2a Nr. 82 Wolfram Hirsch; 352-8/7, Abl. 1999/01 (Kartei); 376-2 Gewerbepolizei Spz VII, C 14 Nr. 3209 Siegfried Hirsch; 741-4 Fotoarchiv K 3845 Zentralgewerbekartei Marianne Hirsch, Beatrice Hirsch, Edgar Hirsch; 741-4 Fotoarchiv Meldekartei K 6261 Olga Hirsch; Datenbankprojekt des Eduard-Duckesz-Fellow und der Hamburger Gesellschaft für jüdische Genealogie, Ohlsdorf 1896-1901 Ilse Hirsch ZZ 12-2a, Ohlsdorf 1922-1930 Sieglinde Hirsch A 9-272, Siegfried Salomon Hirsch N 2-32, Hermine Hirsch, geb. Reich S 4-127, Ohlsdorf 1931-1939 Maximilian Hirsch S 4-127; Staatsarchiv Wien Beatrice Hirsch Inskriptionsblätter, PH RH 4117 Rigorosenakt, PH 59.24, Nr. 4117 Rigorosenprotokoll, M 34.4, Nr. 286 Promotionsprotokoll; BA (ehem. BDC) NSDAP-Gaukartei; HHStA WI Abt. 520/Gi Nr. GI 238, Entnazifizierung, Abt. 520 Gi/Nr. 238; HStAD Bestand N 1 in Nr. 3036; Arbeitsgemeinschaft Heimatgeschichte Allendorf/Lumda (Auskünfte Werner Heibertshausen), Informationen, Zeitzeugenaussagen und Fotos; Bibliotheca Johannei, Realgymnasium des Johanneums zu Hamburg (Auskünfte Ines Domeyer). Bericht über das 74. Schuljahr 1907-1908 von Direktor Prof. Dr. F. Tendering, Hamburg 1908, S. 8. In conformity with the ITS Archives, Copy of 2.2.2.1/72595274/ 72595275/ 72595276, Bad Arolsen, 16. 10. 2014, Archivnummer 2247; England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007 FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org: accessed 2012; http://www.wienerwohnen.at/hof/25/Emil-Reich-Hof.html%7C, https://www.wien.gv.at/wiki/index.php?title=Emil-Reich-Hof, https://www.wien.gv.at/wiki/index.php/Emil_Reich (Zugriff 17. 7. 2014); Löhr, Margot, Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel, Biographie Edgar Hirsch, voraussichtlich 2018.
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