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Max Löwe * 1889

Zimmerstraße 29-33 (Hamburg-Nord, Uhlenhorst)

HIER WOHNTE
MAX LÖWE
JG. 1889
DEPORTIERT 1944
AUSCHWITZ
ERMORDET 24.11.1944
STUTTHOF

further stumbling stones in Zimmerstraße 29-33:
Amanda Ada Löwe

Max Löwe, born 30.5.1889 in Hamburg, imprisoned several times from 1943 in Fuhlsbüttel and Neuengamme concentration camps, transferred to Auschwitz concentration camp on 7.8.1944, murdered in Stutthof concentration camp on 24.11.1944

Amanda (Ada) Henny Struss, née Löwe, widowed Hampel, divorced Kristeller, born 5.7.1921 in Hamburg, imprisoned in Fuhlsbüttel police prison (known as Kola-Fu) in 1943, transferred to Ravensbrück concentration camp on 25.9.1943, liberated on the death march in 1945

Zimmerstraße 29-33 (Uhlenhorst)

This biography summarises the life stories of two Jewish people who were involved in a larger group against the Nazi regime: Max Löwe and his daughter Amanda.

Max Löwe was born on 30 May 1889 in the then 2 Marienstraße in Hamburg-Neustadt. He was the eldest of the three children of the mechanical engineer Amandus Löwe and his wife Jette, née Posner. Both parents professed the Jewish faith.

His sister Fanny was born on 18 January 1892 and fourteen months later, on 27 March 1893, his brother Eduard Löwe was the youngest child.
Little is known about the childhood and youth of Max Löwe and his siblings. Eduard Löwe trained as a structural engineer. Fanny worked as an office clerk. She survived National Socialism.

Max's father Amandus died on 11 August 1910 at the age of 59, his mother Jette on 26 March 1918 at the age of 65. She had to experience the death of her son Eduard, who had volunteered for military service as a ‘one-year’ (Einjähriger) at the beginning of the First World War and lost his life as a non-commissioned officer on 17 September 1914 at the age of 21 near Chevillecourt, north-east of Paris, when he was shot in the head.

Max Löwe married the Protestant Auguste Marie Orth, born on 22 May 1890 in Altona (now part of Hamburg), on 15 April 1922. Their daughter Amanda Henny, who was always called Ada, was born on 5 July 1921. The family lived permanently at Zimmerstraße 29-33 in Hamburg-Uhlenhorst.
Max Löwe was professionally successful. He made it to the position of authorised signatory at an import and export company.

On 1 July 1933, Max Löwe was forcibly incorporated into the arch-conservative Deutscher Handlungsgehilfen-Verband and at the same time dismissed from it again because the association - as it informed Max Löwe - did not list Jews as members according to its statutes. Max Löwe found a job as an accountant at Strauss-Werke Papierverarbeitung in Bahrenfeld, but lost it at the end of 1938 after the company was transferred to non-Jewish ownership. From February 1939, he was forced to work for various companies, including a wool combing factory, road construction, levelling work and finally, until July 1943, at the Steen & Co. rope factory in Lokstedt.

Max Löwe and his daughter Amanda Henny (Ada), who worked as a photo assistant, were part of the resistance against the National Socialist tyranny in Hamburg. Both belonged to a resistance group known today as the ‘Etter-Rose-Hampel Group’. It was formed after the beginning of the Second World War from earlier circles of friends. The painter Ernst Karl Richard Hampel, born on 16 June 1919 in Hamburg, and Max Karl Kristeller, born on 25 June 1906 in Hamburg, also belonged to this resistance group. Both were to play a major role in Amanda Löwe's life. Max Karl Kristeller became the leader of the resistance group.

Amanda Löwe and Ernst Hampel had met in the 1930s at a folk dance course at the adult education centre. They got engaged in September 1939, but the couple were not granted a marriage licence due to Amanda's Jewish background. As Amanda explained after the war, they lived in a ‘free marital union’, from which their daughter Karin was born on 12 April 1943.

At the beginning of 1943, the resistance group was exposed due to the betrayal of Herbert Lübbers, who belonged to it.
Over the next few months, several members of the resistance group were arrested, including Max Karl Kristeller on 5 May 1943 and Ernst Hampel on 2 June 1943.

The Löwe family, who had been evacuated to Gößweinstein in Upper Franconia, were arrested on 25 August 1943. On this day, Max Löwe and his daughter Amanda (Ada) were arrested ‘for communist activities’. They had been betrayed by the Gestapo informer Alfons Pannek and were initially imprisoned in the Fuhlsbüttel police prison (known as Kola-Fu).

Max Löwe was transferred from Fuhlsbüttel to Neuengamme concentration camp on 31 May 1944 and back to Fuhlsbüttel police prison in July together with other Jewish prisoners. From there, he was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp on a special transport on 7 August 1944. Max Kristeller was also deported to Auschwitz on this transport.

From Auschwitz, Max Löwe was taken to the Stutthof concentration camp east of Gdansk, where he allegedly died on 24 November 1944. The Gestapo informed Amanda Löwe of this. We do not know the exact circumstances. There are no references to Max Löwe at the memorial site of the former Stutthof concentration camp.

On 25 September 1943, Amanda Löwe was probably sent from Fuhlsbüttel to the Ravensbrück concentration camp together with Clara Clasen and her daughter Barbara Dollwetzel, both comrades from the resistance group. Amanda Löwe was given the prisoner number 41029, Clara Clasen the prisoner number 37300 and her daughter Barbara Dollwetzel the prisoner number 37301. We do not know how the three women fared there in detail.

Parallel to the retreat of the German Wehrmacht in the east, the concentration camps were also evacuated, including Ravensbrück from April 1945. At the last census in the main camp on 26 April 1945, 30,994 female prisoners were still registered. After male prisoners had been herded to the Malchow subcamp and towards Ludwiglust on 24 and 26 April, SS-Sturmbannführer and camp commander Fritz Suhren had the women remaining in the camp rounded up and divided into columns. There was no specific destination for the columns; they wandered unorganised in the Wesenberg area or towards Neustrelitz and Mirow, and some of them reached the Schwerin area. The last of them left the camp on 28 April 1945. In his biography of Wilhelm Clasen (www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de), Peter Offenborn reports that Clara Clasen and Barbara Dollwetzel were liberated by Allied forces on 28 April. No details are available about Amanda Löwe's fate after the dissolution of Ravensbrück concentration camp, except that she is also said to have been liberated by Allied forces.

Ernst Hampel was indicted on 4 and 5 January 1945 before the People's Court (Volksgerichtshof) in Berlin for preparation of high treason, favouring the enemy and defence force decomposition. The indictment stated, among other things: ‘He discussed the political and war situation in a defeatist and communist sense in Hamburg after the beginning of the war, especially in 1942 at meetings with the half-Jew Max Kristeller, among others, wished for the defeat of Germany and called on people to stick together in view of the expected communist overthrow.’ On 5 January 1945, the court imposed the death penalty on Ernst Hampel, which was carried out on 20 April 1945 in Brandenburg an der Havel prison. (for more details on Ernst Hampel, see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de)

Max Kristeller survived by a stroke of luck. On his arrival in Auschwitz, he is said to have stumbled during the selection on the death ramp. When he got up again, he was able to take the side of the labour column.

After the war, Amanda Löwe fought for her relationship with Ernst Hampel to be recognised as a marriage. After initial rejection by the authorities, she finally prevailed. The marriage was subsequently legitimised on 7 March 1946 and Amanda Löwe was officially a widow. She now bore the surname Hampel, and their daughter was given the surname of her biological father.

Amanda Hampel and Max Kristeller, Amanda's comrade from the resistance period, resumed their former acquaintance after his liberation. They later married.

Max Löwe and his daughter Amanda are commemorated by stumbling stones at Zimmerstraße 29-33 in Hamburg-Uhlenhorst.

In addition to Max Löwe and Ernst Hampel, other members of the Etter-Rose-Hampel group had to pay for their convictions with their lives:

Wilhelm Clasen, born on 30 January 1883, died on 3 May 1945 when the ‘Cap Arcona’ sank (see also Wilhelm Georg Clasen, www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de). Erika Ilse Etter, born on 22 September 1922, murdered with twelve other women in Neuengamme concentration camp on the night of 21 to 22 April 1945 (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de). Werner Etter, born on 1 November 1913, executed on 10 February 1945 in Brandenburg Prison (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de). Hugo Hecht, born on 21 January 1905, was transferred from Auschwitz concentration camp to Buchenwald concentration camp on January 26, 1945, and murdered on 6 February 1945. Wilhelmine Hundert, born on 4 July 1897, was transferred from the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp to Oranienburg in April 1945 at the instigation of the Hamburg Gestapo and killed there. Elisabeth Rose, born on 8 November 1910, was sentenced to death on 5 January 1945 for ‘defence force decomposition, favouring the enemy and preparation for high treason’ and executed in Plötzensee on 2 February 1945. Richard Schönfeld, born on 4 November 1885, lost his life on 18 January 1945 as a ‘police prisoner’ in Neuengamme concentration camp. Adolf Schulz, born on 2 September 1886, died on 14 March 1945 after his repatriation from Neuengamme concentration camp in Hamburg remand prison as a result of the camp conditions. Erich Schulz, born on 5 August 1920, released from the Wehrmacht prison in Altona on 12 April 1945 after one year in prison and assigned to the ‘Weichsel’ probation company. The last message from there was dated 15 April 1945. Friedrich Stoltenberg, born on 14 January 1895, was transferred from Neuengamme concentration camp to the Hamburg remand prison as a ‘police prisoner’ in March 1945. He died as a result of the camp conditions on 6 April 1945 (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de).

Stand: May 2025
© Ingo Wille

Quellen: Adressbuch Hamburg 1922, 1932 (Max Löwe), 1933 (Strauss-Werke), 1938 (Tauwerkfabrik Steen); StaH 332-4 Aufsicht über die Standesämter 547 (Ernst Karl Richard Hampel/ Amanda Henny Hampel geb. Löwe verehel. Kristeller), 332-5 Standesämter 1315 Geburtsregister Nr. 1315/1906 (Max Kristeller), 6596 Heiratsregister Nr. 251/1922 (Max Löwe/Auguste Orth); 351-11 Wiedergutmachung 3620 (Ernst Hampel), 12669 (Auguste Marie Löwe), 31272 (Max Kristeller), 31273 (Max Kristeller), 38140 (Richard Struss), 44397 (Amanda Struss-Fehrlein); 522-01 Jüdische Gemeinden 0992 Kultussteuerkartei Max Löwe; Hans -Schwarz Nachlass zu Max Löwe: "1943.09 verhaftet 1944.05.31 KL Neuengamme 1944.07 zurücküberstellt Pol. Gef., dann ü/Altona nach Auschwitz": Quelle dieser Informationen ist Max Kristeller (10.10.1964). Mitteilung der Gedenkstätte Stutthof vom 4.9.2023. Arolsen Archives, diverse Dokumente zu Amanda Löwe, Barbara Dollwetzel und Clara Clasen im KZ Ravensbrück; Totenliste Hamburger Widerstandskämpfer und Verfolgter 1933 – 1945, Hamburg 1968, S. 54; Ursel Hochmuth/Gertrud Meyer, Streiflichter aus dem Hamburger Widerstand 1933-1945, Frankfurt/M 1980, S. 233, 422-440, 439; Simone Erpel, Zwischen Vernichtung und Befreiung – Das Frauen-Konzentrationslager Ravensbrück in der letzten Kriegsphase, Berlin 2005, S. 155 ff.