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Hermann Semler * 1873

Wandsbeker Zollstraße 115 (Wandsbek, Wandsbek)

1942 Theresienstadt
ermordet 04.08.1942

• Familie Schwarzschild (PDF, 3 Seiten, 406 KB)

Hermann Semler, born on 1 Apr. 1873, deported on 15 July 1942 to Theresienstadt, died there on 4 Aug. 1942

Wandsbeker Zollstrasse 115 (Zollstrasse 24)

The owner of a ready-to-wear clothing store, Hermann Semler ranked among those Wandsbek textile merchants that had immigrated to the city at the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century, residing in Wandsbek continuously since then. Semler’s parents had left the Austrian crown land of Galicia, where the Jewish population spoke Yiddish and lived in the "shtetl.”

Hermann Semler was born as Hersch Semler in the city of Rzeszow. In 1878, his parents, Leib Semler and Freide, née Berkowitz, had moved to Hamburg, where they dropped their Jewish first names. Henceforth, the parents went by the name of Leon and Frieda, naming their son Hermann.

On 13 Nov. 1900, Hermann Semler got married to Minna, née Frank (born in 1873). The union produced two children: Bella (born in 1902) and Ludwig (born in 1903). At first, the family lived on Lübeckerstrasse. Hermann Semler built up a business specializing in women and men’s ready-to-wear clothing, which he operated, after relocating once, at Zollstrasse 111. He belonged to the Wandsbek Jewish Community, serving as treasurer of the Wander-Unterstützungsverein, a support association for craftsmen in their journeyman years, in 1910 and as a Community representative in the 1930s. During the First World War, Minna Semler, his wife, was active in the business. She passed away in Wandsbek in 1931.

In 1920, Hermann Semler had assumed German citizenship. In the directory of that year, he was entered under the designation of "agent,” residing at Zollstrasse 111.

His children received an excellent school education: Daughter Bella attended the "Schneider’sche höhere Töchterschule,” a girls’ secondary school, and later the Wandsbek Lyzeum, a girls’ high school; son Ludwig studied law at the universities of Cologne and Heidelberg, finishing his studies with a doctorate.

The business was initially a store on an upper floor but – according to information from a contemporary witness – over the years, store windows turned out to be necessary as well. The Semlers moved to the other side of Zollstrasse and opened a medium-sized store at no. 24 featuring a large window in a modern shopping arcade. The rooms on the second floor were also used toward sales and storage. The company prospered.

Located above the store was the apartment, appointed in solid middle-class style, with half-leather volumes of the classics and a modern record player. Nevertheless, the household was also religious. The lifestyle corresponded to that of the "upper middle class.” This also included annual health resort stays of the wife and the daughter, who preferred the low mountain ranges, while Hermann Semler was drawn to the Island of Heligoland. The daughter temporarily worked in the business as well, which usually had a staff of two to three employees. Whereas previously Semler had apparently run his business as a trade operation, in 1929, he had it entered as a commercial enterprise in the company register, listed as "Bekleidungshaus [clothing store] Hermann Semler, Sitz [headquarters in] Wandsbek.”

Prior to getting married in 1932, Bella Semler had still lived in her father’s apartment. She married the merchant Friedrich Leyser from Altona at the Wandsbek registry office. That same year, her husband took over "Firma J. Semler, Herren- und Damengarderoben,” the men’s and women’s clothing store located within the Hamburg city limits at Wandsbeker Chaussee 211–213. The previous owner, Joel Semler, having also resided in Altona and Hamburg, respectively, since 1878, was probably a brother of Hermann Semler.

The Nazis’ assumption of power led to a drop in sales for Semler’s business as well, although he did have many good regular customers, "for old Mr. Semler was very well respected because of his humane and humorous personality.” From Semler, customers could also buy in installments, which meant that many workers were among his clientele. However, the old bonds eroded due to the anti-Jewish policies: Semler’s store, too, was listed in an inflammatory Nazi flyer. As early as 1933, he had to pay his taxes to the Jewish Community in installments since his revenues had declined owing to the boycott of Jewish businesses. His annual income of about 10,000 RM (reichsmark) had decreased by 50 percent. However, for the time being the predominantly poor customers stayed loyal to him. Only at the height of "Aryanization,” starting in Hamburg at the end of 1938, was Semler forced to sell his company. It went to Karl Ebenau, Hammerbrookstrasse 24, for 14,000 RM. The bill of sale dated 3 Dec. 1938 was approved, subject to conditions, by the Administration Office for Commerce, Shipping, and Industry (Verwaltung für Handel, Schiffahrt und Gewerbe).

According to these terms, the purchaser only had to take over the furniture and fixtures as well as the inventory and pay the trade debts. Semler’s connections and contacts to manufacturers, suppliers, and customers, collectively called goodwill, were not taken into consideration, as was the case in all instances of "Aryanization.” According to the final balance submitted, he was paid out just 6,210 RM, from which were to be deducted his own previous obligations to suppliers and others. Eventually, a sum of barely 1,000 RM was left over for him from the business sale. Thus, the company founder was so badly off in terms of finances that even the foreign currency office saw no reason anymore to impose a "security order” (Sicherungsanordnung). At this point, Semler’s assets consisted merely of a few receivables that were yet to be collected. After his company had been sold, Hermann Semler moved to Abendrothsweg 19, where his daughter also lived with him for some time. A passage from an account by a girlfriend of hers read, "I visited the father and daughter and granddaughter once more, after they had already lost everything, in Eppendorf, on Abendrothsweg, where all of them eked out a miserable existence in a single room. From there, Bella went abroad with her daughter. From my mother I heard that Mr. Semler later did attempt to collect outstanding amounts and that he was treated very harshly in the process.”

In order to recover accounts receivable, Semler rode on his bike to Wandsbek. As long as customers had benefitted from his business conditions, they would come back, but when had to pay their debts at that point, the situation looked rather different. "Some of them flatly refused to give him the money because he was a Jew, but he also had many customers who totally stood by his side.” Semler needed the money not just for himself but also because he had to pay the "levy on Jewish assets” ("Judenvermögensabgabe) amounting to 4,000 RM, which he paid in installments of 1,000 RM each. This was barely possible from his own funds, for in 1939 he no longer had a taxable income. Moreover, he still supported his daughter and son-in-law whose company had also gone out of business at the end of 1938. Since they had no assets anymore, they then resided with him.

Whether Semler managed to collect his receivables is doubtful. That was also the view held by the lawyer representing Semler’s children in the 1960s, arguing "… that it was almost impossible in those days for a non-Aryan to get his debtors to make payments, since most debtors believed there was no need to pay one’s debts to a Jew. It was also not advisable to bring legal action, because objective administration of justice was no longer forthcoming, (it was imperative) … to attract as little attention as possible from the authorities.”

What might have gone through Semler’s mind when he passed his former business in Wandsbek? Reportedly, it was mismanaged rather quickly, as a result of which the heirs were not even able to file any restitution claims. As early as 3 Nov. 1939, the company had ceased to exist.

In 1940, his daughter Bella Leyser emigrated with her three-year-old child to the USA, where her husband already resided. At this point, Hermann Semler was left to his own devices since his son Ludwig, too, had departed Germany by then. Semler was ordered to put up the Wandsbek resident Albert Herzberg, with whom had to share his room from then on.

In early 1942, Semler moved to the house at Kielortallee 24 on the orders of the Gestapo, a so-called "Jews’ house” ("Judenhaus”) and prepared for his "outmigration” ("Abwanderung”). He signed a so-called "home purchase contract” ("Heimeinkaufsvertrag"), through which he signed over all of his remaining property in return for accommodation in Theresienstadt. Three days before the deportation, he transferred the amount due, 1,137 RM, to the Jewish Religious Organization (Jüdischer Religionsverband), which had to collect the money. On 15 July 1942, Hermann Semler boarded the train to Theresienstadt, where he was registered on 16 July. He died there only a few weeks later, on 4 Aug. 1942, at the age of 69. The Wandsbek traces of the Semler family were obliterated – except for the memorial slab set for Minna Semler in the 1960s in place of the original gravestone that still existed in 1942.

Epilogue: The Verband des Norddeutschen Textileinzelhandels e.V. (Association of North German Textile Retail Trade reg. soc.) informed the Restitution Office (Amt für Wiedergutmachung) on 13 Sept. 1961 that the Semler Company had been a small operation. Comparably disparaging assessments were frequently pronounced by trade associations at the height of the restitution proceedings in order to avoid getting "Aryan” successors into too many difficulties (in terms of paying retrospective claims).


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

Stand: January 2019
© Astrid Louven

Quellen: 1; 2 R 1939/646; AfW 010473, 080803, 020102; 3 Nr. 636611; 7; AB 1920 VI, 1936 VI; StaHH 332-8 Meldekartei, Auskunft von Jürgen Sielemann, E-Mail vom 25.8.2003; Jahrbuch jüdischen Gemeinden Schleswig-Holsteins und der Hansestädte 1931/32 S. 75f, 1932/33 S. 75, 1933/34 S. 47f, 1934/35 S. 67f; Landesbetrieb Geoinformation und Vermessung, Auskunft Frau Wolckenhauer vom 18.3.2007; Frank Bajohr, "Arisierung", S. 151, 184; Astrid Louven, Juden, S. 34, 36, 58, 200, 201, 206, 219, 220, 230, 237; Bertha Pappenheim, Sara Rabinowitsch, Lage, S. 9–17.
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