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Jenny Landjung * 1875

Rothenbaumchaussee 31 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

Freitod 2.12.1941 Hamburg

further stumbling stones in Rothenbaumchaussee 31:
Edgar Horschitz, Erwin Horschitz, Helene Lurie, Hertha Wohl, Erich Wohl

Jenny Landjung, born on 1 Oct. 1875 in Hamburg, suicide on 2 Dec. 1941 in Hamburg

Rothenbaumchaussee 31

Jenny Landjung was born on 1 Oct. 1875 in Hamburg as the daughter of the coal merchant Markus Landjung (1844–1903, son of Hirsch and Sara Landjung) and Rosalie Landjung, née Breslauer from Sandersleben (1845–1891). Her father came from Warsaw, which was annexed by Prussia in 1795 after the third "partition” of Poland and occupied by Russia starting in 1815. The parents had married in Magdeburg in June 1873, the father had moved to Hamburg two months earlier.

One year after the wedding, their daughter Regine (on 25 June 1874) was born in Hamburg. At the home births, a doctor by the name of Levy was present, for which he was paid privately. However, he could not prevent that in 1879, a sister of Jenny Landjung was born dead.
In the same year, grandfather Hirsch Landjung, who was a native of Grzeszow (Galicia), died in Hamburg at the age of 76.

The professional activities of Markus Landjung can be traced by means of his directory entries: the hard coal commission business (purchase and sale of coal on behalf of the client) became the house and coal brokerage (mediation of contracts for changing customers) (1886–1889), then the house and insurance brokerage (1890–1891), and finally the house brokerage (1892–1903). The fact that this professional development was accompanied by a rising income is documented by the information pertaining to Hamburg civic rights acquired in 1888 by Markus Landjung (born on 9 Dec. 1844 in Warsaw): Already 30 years before him, the cigar manufacturer and later auctioneer Leon Landjunk (born on 26 Jan. 1833 in Warsaw, son of Herschkowicz Landjunk, died on 20 Apr. 1909 in Hamburg), who spelled his family name with a "k,” had acquired the citizenship of the Hanseatic city. In 1897, "Arthur Landjunk Auctionator u. Taxator” was founded in Hamburg by his adopted son Arthur J. Landjunk, formerly Bormann (1867–1920). Although the spelling of the surnames differs, they probably were relatives (Markus Landjung was also written with a "k” in the directories of 1877–1878 and 1883–1885).

The first home of Markus Landjung’s family was at Wexstrasse 36 (1874–1877) in Hamburg-Neustadt. After three to four years, the family moved to the Karolinenviertel neighborhood of the adjacent St. Pauli quarter. There they found a small house at Glashüttenstrasse 28 (1878–1892), which they occupied as the only tenants. The directory listed Landjung as the sole main tenant. The house was probably a building left from the time when this area used to be outside the city and the city gates were closed in the evening. Gradually, from about 1900 onward, taller apartment houses were built in the Karolinenviertel instead of the detached houses with gardens. The result was a significant increase in population, which was also evident from the rising number of school buildings in the Karolinenviertel. It is not known whether Jenny Landjung attended a public school or the Israelite Girls’ School at nearby Karolinenstrasse 35 (from 1882).

In Mar. 1891, Jenny’s mother died of pulmonary, intestinal, and peritoneal tuberculosis in the private clinic of the gynecologist and obstetrician L. Prochownick (An der Alster 60). About a year later, the Landjungs moved into a home at Glashüttenstrasse 6 (1892–1903) on the second floor of a newly constructed apartment building between Mathildenstrasse and Marktstrasse. The basement and ground floors of this house accommodated craftsmen’s workshops. The five-story building with its narrow and steep staircase still exists today.
The surroundings of Karolinenviertel changed a lot during the 25 years the Landjungs lived there: To the west and south of the residential area, the central slaughter livestock market for cattle and sheep on Heiligengeistfeld (built 1886–1889) and the central slaughterhouse for pigs, oxen, and small livestock (built 1889–1892) provided mass barn space and slaughtering facilities for thousands of animals. To the north, a large combined heat and power plant was built at the corner of Karolinenstrasse 36/Kampstrasse in 1894/1895.

In the generation of Jenny Landjung, it was not common for women to receive vocational training. After the death of her mother in 1891, the 16-year-old daughters Jenny and Selma Landjung as well as 17-year-old Regine Landjung probably managed the household at least partially. Conceivably, they also helped in their father’s company or even continuously took over tasks there, which would explain Jenny Landjung’s later occupational data. Since the end of Sept. 1903, the father had been undergoing treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) with the general practitioner Hugo Fischer (Marktstrasse 142); two months later, according to the death certificate, he died in his apartment from hemoptysis (coughing up blood). If there was any money left after the father’s death and the liquidation of the company, it was probably wiped out by the inflation of 1923.

Jenny’s sister Regine Landjung (born on 25 June 1874 in Hamburg) married the traveling salesman Leon Fränkel (born on 26 July 1862 in Leipzig) in Nov. 1902 in Hamburg and moved to join him in Leipzig, where she died on 9 Oct. 1916. She was buried at the Old Jewish Cemetery in Leipzig (Berliner Strasse). (Leon Fränkel was deported on 20 Sept. 1942 from Leipzig (Auenstrasse 14) to the Theresienstadt Ghetto, where he died of old age on 14 Nov. 1942, according to the death notice).

After the death of her widowed father in 1903, Jenny Landjung and her likewise unmarried twin sister Selma Landjung were left alone in what was by then too large and too expensive an apartment. In the following 25 years (1905–1929), they lived together at Wrangelstrasse 20 (Hoheluft-Ost).

On the death certificate of her father, who was buried next to his wife in the Jewish Cemetery in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf, Jenny Landjung is listed as an accountant and she was referred to as a commercial clerk only in the Hamburg directory of 1931. She was listed as a retiree in the Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) card file of the Hamburg German-Israelitic Community, of which she had been a member since 1924. On the death certificate of her 54-year-old sister Selma, she was listed as a housekeeper.

Jenny Landjung’s residential addresses as main tenant in Hamburg were Wrangelstrasse 20 (1905–1931) and Krochmannstrasse 54 (1932–1938). The small attic apartment at Rothenbaumchaussee 31 on the third floor (homeowner was the gynecologist Adolf Calmann, born on 15 Feb. 1871 in Hamburg, emigrated in Nov. 1940), which she moved into in 1938, constituted no longer a freely chosen place of residence but came about due to massive anti-Semitic pressure and the increasing segregation of Jews.

Jewish businesses had first been economically damaged and then sold or closed under economic and physical pressure. Employers dismissed Jewish workers, and pension payments to Jews were cut. After the November Pogrom of 1938, the coercive measures were further intensified or new ones were created with ever more rapid succession of regulations. Based on the "Reich Law on Tenancies with Jews” ("Reichsgesetz über die Mietverhältnisse mit Juden”) dated 30 Apr. 1939, the protection of tenants was withdrawn and the possibility of forced assignment of housing was enshrined in law. Beginning in Sept. 1939, a night curfew also applied to Jenny Landjung, and by decree dated 1 Sept. 1941, she was required to wear the yellow "Jews’ star” ("Judenstern”) on her clothing.

Jenny Landjung was served the "evacuation order” in writing, announcing her deportation for 3 Dec. 1941 (which was then postponed until 6 Dec. 1941). She decided, however, not to comply with this last order. Jenny Landjung placed the "evacuation order,” her Dresdner Bank savings book, food ration cards, and a letter concerning her estate on a table in a clearly visible position. Then she went into the attic next to her apartment and hanged herself there on 2 Dec. 1941, where her neighbor Elli Horschitz, née Reimann (born on 21 Dec. 1885 in Berlin) found her.
The summoned police confiscated the documents found and arranged for the body to be transferred to the Harbor Hospital. The funeral was conducted by the Jewish Community, which commissioned Mendel Josias (Grindelallee 23), the leading official of the orthodox fraternal burial society (Beerdigungs-Brüderschaft) of the Community, Chevrah Kadisha. A witness had told the police regarding the family, "The direct relatives of the Landjungs live abroad,” but without mentioning names or countries of emigration.
The Hamburg District Court (Amtsgericht) appointed Carl Albrecht (1871–1942), residing at St. Benedictstrasse 29 on the third floor with Frank, as the executor of the estate. He had worked as a lawyer until he was banned from practicing law on 30 Nov. 1938 (He died of a heart attack in Hamburg on 14 Apr. 1942).

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

Stand: December 2020
© Björn Eggert

Quellen: Staatsarchiv Hamburg (StaH) 332-3 (Zivilstandsaufsicht 1866–1875), A Nr. 180 (Geburtsregister 1874, Nr. 4568 Regine Landjung); StaH 332-3 (Zivilstandsaufsicht 1866–1875), A Nr. 212 (Geburtsregister 1875, Nr. 7429 Jenny Landjung, Nr. 7430 Selma Landjung); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 1953 u. 1804/1879 (Geburtsregister, Totgeburt Mädchen, Eheleute Landjung); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 69 u. 1547/1879 (Sterberegister 1879, Hirsch Landjung); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 288 u. 604/1891 (Sterberegister 1891, Rosalie Landjung geb. Breslauer); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8622 u. 781/1902 (Heiratsregister 1902, Leon Fränkel u. Regine Landjung); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 7971 u. 1064/1903 (Sterberegister 1903, Markus Landjung); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 9843 u. 2053/1929 (Sterberegister 1929, Selma Landjung); StaH 332-5 (Standesämter), 8179 u. 190/1942 (Sterberegister 1942, Dr. jur. Carl Albrecht); StaH 332-7 (Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht), A I e 40 Band 7 (Bürgerregister 1845–1875, Buchstaben L-R), Leon Landjunk (geb. 9.4.1833 in Warschau, Cigarrenfabrikant, 18.3.1859 Hamburger Bürgerrecht Nr. 349); StaH 332-7 (Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht), A I e 40 Band 10 (Bürgerregister 1876–1896, Buchstaben L-Z), Markus Landjung (geb. 9.12.1844 in Warschau, Kaufmann, 29.6.1888 Hamburger Bürgerrecht Nr. 14779); StaH 332-7 (Staatsangehörigkeitsaufsicht), A I f 166 (Nr. 14779, Markus Landjung); StaH 332-8 (Melderegister), Alte Einwohnermeldekartei (1892–1925), K 6479 (Markus Landjung, Leon Landjunk), 6701 (Johann Palme), 7219 (Christian Zethner); StaH 352-5 (Gesundheitsbehörde – Todesbescheinigungen), 1891, Sta. 1, Nr. 604 (Rosalie Landjung); StaH 352-5 (Gesundheitsbehörde – Todesbescheinigungen), 1903, Standesamt 20, Nr. 1064 (Markus Landjung); StaH 352-5 (Gesundheitsbehörde – Todesbescheinigungen), 1929, Sta. 3a, Nr. 2053 (Selma Landjung); StaH 522-1 (Jüdische Gemeinden), 992b (Kultussteuerkartei der Deutsch-Israelitischen Gemeinde Hamburg), Jenny Landjung; Jüdischer Friedhof Hamburg-Ohlsdorf, Gräberverzeichnis (Max Landjung A11-33, Rosalie Landjung geb. Breslauer A11-34); Israelitischen Religionsgemeinde zu Leipzig (Regina Fränkel Grablage Abt: IV Nr. 3); Nationalarchiv Prag, Getto Terezin (Todesfallanzeige Leon Wilhelm Fränkel); Hamburger Börsenfirmen, Hamburg 1910, S. 378 (Arthur Landjunk, gegr. als Firma Arthur Bormann); Adressbuch Hamburg (Landjung) 1877–1878, 1883–1887, 1889–1893, 1896, 1900, 1905, 1910, 1914, 1918, 1921, 1925, 1927, 1928, 1930–1932, 1935, 1937–1939; Adressbuch Hamburg (Adolf Calmann) 1934; Adressbuch Hamburg (Dr. Hugo Fischer) 1903; Wilhelm Melhop, Historische Topographie der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg von 1880 bis 1895, Hamburg 1895, S. 233, 256/257, 259, 260 (St. Pauli, Karolinenviertel); Heiko Morisse, Jüdische Rechtsanwälte in Hamburg, Ausgrenzung und Verfolgung im NS-Staat, Hamburg 2003, S. 114 (Dr. Carl Martin Gustav Albrecht); Anna von Villiez, Mit aller Kraft verdrängt. Entrechtung und Verfolgung "nicht arischer" Ärzte in Hamburg 1933 bis 1945, Hamburg/ München 2009, S. 239/240 (Adolph Calmann); www.tracingthepast.org (Volkszählung Mai 1939) Adolph Calmann, Leon Fränkel, Elli Horschitz; http://www.steg-hamburg.de/architektur-stadtplanung/Marktstrasse_24.html (denkmalgerechte Sanierung 2015/2016, eingesehen 25.1.2018).