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Salomon Meier, Arthur Meiers Vater
© Privat

Arthur Meier * 1905

Bieberstraße 9 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

HIER WOHNTE
ARTHUR MEIER
JG. 1905
"EINGEWIESEN" 1934
ALSTERDORFER ANSTALTEN
"VERLEGT" 23.9.1940
LANDES-PFLEGEANSTALT
BRANDENBURG
ERMORDET 23.9.1940
AKTION T4

further stumbling stones in Bieberstraße 9:
Gertrud Götz, Hermann Götz, Otto Götz

Arthur Samuel Meier, born on 14 Dec. 1905 in Hamburg, murdered on 23 Sept. 1940 in the Brandenburg/Havel euthanasia killing center

Stolperstein in Hamburg-Rotherbaum, at Bieberstrasse 9

Arthur Samuel Meier (first name Arthur) was born in Hamburg as the son of Emilie, née Lewie, and Salomon Meyer/later Meier. Both belonged to the Jewish Community. Following tradition, he got his middle name after his paternal grandfather.

This grandfather, born on 4 Dec. 1833 in Segeberg, had died on 22 Feb. 1905, nine months before Arthur’s birth, in Harburg at Lüneburgerstrasse 25, and he was buried in the Jewish Cemetery there next to his wife Henriette, née Heilbronn. She came from Segeberg, where Arthur’s father Salomon Meyer had been born on 18 Sept. 1864, as had his brothers: Joseph on 1 Nov. 1861 and Gumpel, called Gustav, in 1866.

Arthur’s grandfather had established himself in 1886 in Harburg with a "warehouse of finished men’s and boys’ apparel, women’s ready-to-wear clothing and footwear” at 1st Wilstorferstrasse 81. Two years later, the expansion with a cloth production followed.

Arthur Meier’s parents had married in Altona on 22 Oct. 1889. His mother Emilie, née Lewie, born on 28 Aug. 1870, came from there. She was the daughter of Kitty, née Isaacs, and Hermann Lewie.

At that time, Arthur’s father Salomon Meyer, called Sally, ran his own business in Harburg under the name of "S. Meier, Herren- und Damenkonfektionshaus, Lager v. Schuhen und Stiefeln,” a ready-to-wear men’s and women’s clothing store as well as shoe and boot warehouse at 1st Wilstorferstrasse 2. His brothers Joseph and Gumpel Meier were also successful in the clothing industry in Harburg.

Arthur Meier’s older siblings Hermann, born on 10 Sept. 1890; Käthe, born on 21 Sept. 1891; Leon, called Hans, born on 29 Sept. 1892; and Max, born on 1 Oct. 1893, were natives of Harburg. Three years later followed Clara, called Cläre, born on 13 Sept. 1896 in Hammerbrook at Münzplatz 11. On 2 Nov. 1902, the youngest daughter Alice was born.

Salomon Meyer moved with his family to Hamburg and on 2 Mar. 1898 was entered in the Hamburg Company Register as the owner of a ready-to-wear clothing store.

Starting on 26 Mar. 1904, Salomon Meyer was officially allowed to use the name of Meier instead of Meyer, and on 29 Aug. 1904 he and thus his family were granted Hamburg citizenship. Arthur Samuel Meier was born as a Hamburg citizen in 1905. His youngest sister Martha was born on 20 May 1909. Arthur grew up with his seven siblings in Hamburg. When he was five years old, the family moved to Rothenbaumchaussee no. 7 in Hamburg-Rotherbaum, two years later to house no. 30 for a few years.

In the following years, his sister Käthe married, his brother Max started after the so-called Einjähriges (Mittlere Reife, an intermediate school-leaving certificate qualifying for one-year military service) a commercial apprenticeship and fought as a frontline soldier in artillery from 1914 to 1918. Brother Hermann returned as a war-damaged veteran (60 percent). He renounced his pension in favor of persons blinded in the war.

In 1919, his sister Clara married and moved with her husband to Berlin, where the two sons Gerhard and Heinz were born. Half a year later, brother Max married Alice Porges, born on 17 Jan. 1896.

One month later, during a stay on Timmendorf beach, the 56-year-old father Salomon Meier died suddenly and unexpectedly on 2 Aug. 1920, during a bathing accident in the Baltic Sea. He was buried in the Ohlsdorf Jewish Cemetery on Ilandkoppel in Hamburg. After the death of his father, Arthur’s older brothers Hermann and Leon Meier jointly continued the "S. Meier, men’s clothing” family business in the Levantehaus at Mönkebergstrasse 7.

Meanwhile Arthur lived with his mother and the unmarried siblings at Bieberstrasse 99 on the third floor. He attended school up to second last grade and then began a bank apprenticeship. In the following years, his older siblings Hermann and Leon also started their own families. They took up residence in Hamburg-Eppendorf.

After nine years in the apartment on Bieberstrasse, in Mar. 1925 Arthur Meier moved with his mother and his sisters Alice and Martha to Nissenstrasse 11 on the third floor in Hamburg-Eppendorf, near his older siblings Hermann, Käthe, Leon, and Max.

On 30 Sept. 1925, his sister Alice married and moved to Schrammsweg 1, where her husband Erich Baender had set himself up as a general practitioner.

After completing his banking apprenticeship, Arthur Meier traveled abroad as a businessman, including as a "traveling representative” to the Netherlands. On 30 Dec. 1927, he had a passport issued for this purpose. The passport protocol indicates that he was of medium height, had dark blond hair and blue eyes.

During this time of travel, Arthur Meier and Martha König, born on 10 July 1910 at Schanzstrasse 14 in Sonneberg (Thuringia), must have met. Together with her, he had his illegitimate son Wolfgang Günter König, born on 29 Aug. 1929 in Sonneberg. This led to conflicts with his family.

Arthur’s mother died on 20 Feb. 1930 at the age of 59. She found her last resting place next to her husband in the Ohlsdorf Jewish Cemetery on Ilandkoppel.

In 1932, Arthur’s brother Max Meier, a banker and partner in the Lewandowski banking business as well as a member of the "Association of Members of the Stock Exchange” ("Verein der Mitglieder der Wertpapierbörse”) since 1918, moved to Amsterdam to escape criminal proceedings under foreign currency law. Later, these accusations proved to be unfounded and he was rehabilitated. After the Nazis assumed power in early 1933, however, he did not return to Hamburg and his membership in the "Association of Members of the Stock Exchange” was cancelled.

At this time, Arthur Meier is said to have returned from a trip from the Netherlands disturbed. He suffered from hallucinations for the first time and was admitted to the "Friedrichsberg State Hospital” ("Staatskrankenanstalt Friedrichsberg”). No information can be provided about his stay and treatment there. On 4 July 1935, Arthur Meier, at the age of 30, was admitted to the Alsterdorf Asylum (Alsterdorfer Anstalten). The admitting doctors diagnosed him with schizophrenia. On the "hereditary health card” ("Erbgesundheitskarte”), which was created for him there, few minutes give an insight into his everyday life in the institution: For instance, "he was occupied with labor in the work gang, which he sometimes carried out satisfactorily and on occasion reluctantly. Later on, domestic chores: Expressed delusional ideas: ‘The people who belong here are seldom seen, they are cellulose cats.’ He behaved indifferent toward his environment. Cleanliness satisfactory.”

His grandniece related the following: "He was always balanced and calm when my grandfather visited him and he proudly showed him the gardening he had done...”

We do not know to what extent the threat and persecution at this time are related to Arthur Meier’s illness, making him vulnerable as a young person and depriving him of his inner stability.

In the course of the Nazi persecution of the Jews, with the boycotts against Jewish businesses on 1 Apr. 1933, the "S. Meier, men’s clothing” family business ran into economic difficulties. Arthur’s brother-in-law had also had his license to practice medicine withdrawn.

It is not known whether Arthur Meier knew about the great upheavals and fateful changes that took place in his family during the following years.

The first of his siblings to emigrate was his sister Alice, married name Baender, who went to New York with her husband in 1936. Sister Martha, unmarried and a stenographer by profession, initially stayed by herself in Alice’s apartment at Schrammsweg 1 in Hamburg and followed her from Rotterdam to the USA at the end of Dec. 1937.

Hermann and Leon Meier had to give up the "S. Meier, men’s clothing” family business at Mönckebergstrasse 7; it was "Aryanized” by a man named Hermann Thoms on 28 Aug. 1938. Hermann Meier also had to sell his house on Erikastrasse far below value; his son and daughter were expelled from school. Hermann Meier and his family were able to save themselves on 24 Nov. 1938 to Montevideo/Uruguay.

Leon Meier, a textile merchant and broker, was deprived of his livelihood and his children also had to give up their schooling and education.

Meanwhile Arthur Meier spent four years in what was then the Alsterdorf Asylum. On 16 Jan. 1939, he was discharged to live with his brother Leon, who was the only one still residing in Hamburg, at Isestrasse 55. However, he could only stay there for a short time, because Leon Meier also made preparations for himself and his family toward emigration, which was unthinkable for persons with mental illness like Arthur Meier. He would not have received an immigration permit from any country. When Leon Meier and his family emigrated to San Francisco in Mar. 1939, Arthur Meier was sent to the Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” ("Heil- und Pflegeanstalt” Langenhorn).

When the "euthanasia” headquarters in Berlin ordered all Jews in public and private sanatoriums and nursing homes in Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg to be concentrated in the Hamburg-Langenhorn "sanatorium and nursing home” by 18 Sept. 1940, Arthur Meier’s name was also on the list for the transport, which on 23 Sept. 1940 led to the so-called Brandenburg State Asylum” ("Landespflegeanstalt Brandenburg”) in Brandenburg/Havel. There, the people were poisoned with carbon monoxide on the same day.

Officially forged death notices stated that the victims had died in an institution in "Chelm” (Polish) or "Cholm” (German) east of Lublin.
Arthur Samuel Meier is commemorated by a Stolperstein in Hamburg-Rotherbaum at Bieberstrasse 9.

The fate of family members:
Käthe Nathan, née Meier, and her husband, the merchant Benny Nathan, were deported to Riga on 6 Dec. 1941 and murdered. They are commemorated by Stolpersteine at Haynstrasse 15. Their children Hertha, born in Hamburg, later married name Max, and Hans Arno Nathan had escaped to New Zealand.

Clara Eisenstädt, née Meier, lived with her family in Berlin. On 26 Oct. 1942, she and her husband Siegfried were deported to Riga and murdered on 29 Oct. 1942. Their sons Gerhard and Heinz survived in the USA.

Max Meier had arduously built up a new life in Amsterdam as the owner of the "Commercial Trust en Handelskontoor” company at Kaisergracht 445, but he lost his livelihood as a result of the occupation of the Netherlands by the German Wehrmacht. On 10 May 1940, he fled to Britain with his wife Alice and their sons Wolfgang and Frank, leaving all their belongings behind. There the family was separated. The wife Alice was arrested together with the younger son Frank as "enemy aliens,” interned in the Hollow Prison and taken to the Isle of Man. Max Meier and his son Wolfgang were sent to an internment camp in Canada for two years. Only in 1945 were Alice and Frank Meier able follow and join them in Canada.

Arthur Meier’s illegitimate son Wolfgang Günter König died at the age of 18 on 24 May 1948 in Mürschnitz/Sonneberg in Thuringia. His mother had married in Sonneberg in Jan. 1940. She died there at the age of 66 on 6 Jan. 1977.

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

© Margot Löhr

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 8; 9; 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); 231-3 Handelsregister A 12 Bd. 37 Nr. F 33797 Salomon Meier; 231-7 Amtsgericht Hamburg Handels- und Genossenschaftsregister A 1 Bd. 42 Nr. A 10334 Salomon Meier; 332-3 Zivilstandsaufsicht A 95 Heiratsregistereintrag Nr. 5285 Hermann Lewie/Kitty Isaacs; 332-5 Standesämter, 2392 Geburtsregistereintrag Nr. 203/1896 Alice Porges, 5910 Heiratsregistereintrag Nr. 961/1889 Salomon Meier/Emilie Lewie, 8675 Heiratsregistereintrag Nr. 78/1911 Benny Nathan/Käthe Meier, 8730 Heiratsregistereintrag Nr. 735/1919 Siegfried Eisenstaedt/Clara Meier, 8741 Heiratsregistereintrag Nr. 443/1920 Max Meier/Alice Porges, 9605 Heiratsregistereintrag Nr. 660/1925 Erich Baender/Alice Meier, 9846 Sterberegistereintrag Nr. 390/1930 AliceMeier, geb. Lewie; 11730 Sterberegistereintrag Nr. 704/1897 Gumpel Meier, 11736 Sterberegistereintrag Nr. 940/1900 Henriette Meier, 11745 Sterberegistereintrag Nr. 169/1905 Samuel Meier, 11811 Sterberegistereintrag Nr. 133/1928 Joseph Meier, 12887 Geburtsregistereintrag Nr. 989/1890 Hermann Meier, 12890 Geburtsregistereintrag Nr. 1148/1891 Käthe Meier, 12894 Geburtsregistereintrag Nr. 1189/1892 Leon Meier, 12897 Geburtsregistereintrag Nr. 12893/1893 Max Meier, 12906 Geburtsregistereintrag Nr. 1334/1896 Clara Meier, 332-7 Staatsbürgerschaft, B III 77689 Salomon Meier; 13818 Geburtsregistereintrag Nr. 2231/1902 Alice Meier, 332-8 Reisepassprotokolle A 24 Bd 336 Nr. 8590 Leon Meier, Bd 347 Nr. 636 Max Meier, Bd 357 Nr. 20668 Arthur Meier; 351-11 Amt für Wiedergutmachung 1207 Johanna Meier, 12381 Hermann Meier, 12382 Alice Lewy verw. Meier, 12383 Claus-Günther Meier, 12384 Annelore Fabian, 14392 Leon Meier, 18710 Alice Meier geb. Porges, 19350 Meier, Richard, 46154 Frederick Richard Maitland (fr. Wolfgang Meier), 46368 Inge Baracker, 47020 Benny Nathan, 47102 Käthe Nathan; 352-5 Todesbescheinigung 1930 Sta 3a Nr. 390 Alice Meier geb. Lewie; 741-4 Fotoarchiv Meldekartei K 6580 Alice Meier; Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Wiesbaden, HHStA WI Abt. 631a Nr. 210; Taschenkalender Irmfried Eberl; Evangelische Stiftung Alsterdorf, Archiv; Standesamt Sonneberg, Auskünfte. Diercks, Herbert, "Euthanasie", Die Morde an Menschen mit Behinderungen und psychischen Erkrankungen in Hamburg im Nationalsozialismus, Hamburg 2014. Koser/Brunotte, Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Eppendorf und Hoheluft-Ost, Hamburg 2011, Bd. 2, S. 322f. Ley, Astrid/Hinz-Wessels, Annette (Hrsg.), Die Euthanasie-Anstalt Brandenburg an der Havel. Morde an Kranken und Behinderten im Nationalsozialismus, Berlin 2012. Günter, Barbara/Markert, Margret/Meyer, Hans-Joachim/Möller, Klaus, Stolpersteine in Hamburg-Harburg und Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg, Hamburg 2012, S. 196–200. Böhme, Klaus/Lohalm, Uwe (Hrsg.), Wege in den Tod. Hamburgs Anstalt Langenhorn und die Euthanasie in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus, Hamburg 1993, S. 14, 44ff. Vielliez von, Anna, Mit aller Kraft verdrängt. Entrechtung und Verfolgung "nicht arischer" Ärzte in Hamburg 1933 bis 1945, Hamburg 2009. Wunder, Michael, Judenverfolgung in Alsterdorf, Rede zum 9. November 2013. Wunder, Michael, Euthanasie in den letzten Kriegsjahren. Die Jahre 1944 und 1945 in der Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Hamburg-Langenhorn, Husum 1992. Wunder, Michael/Genkel, Ingrid/Jenner, Harald, Auf dieser schiefen Ebene gibt es kein Halten mehr. Die Alsterdorfer Anstalten im Nationalsozialismus, Hamburg 1987. http://jüdischer-friedhof-altona.de/datenbank.html, Ohlsdorf 1915–1921 Salomon Meier B 9-273, Ohlsdorf 1922–1930 Emilie Meier, geb. Lewie, B 9-274.
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