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Max Renner * 1876

Grindelhof 64 (Eimsbüttel, Rotherbaum)

1941 Minsk
ermordet

further stumbling stones in Grindelhof 64:
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Max Renner, born on 10 Mar. 1876 in Altona, deported to Minsk on 8 Nov. 1941, murdered

Grindelhof 64

Max Renner was the son of Eduard and Rosalie Renner, née von Halle. He had lived in Hamburg since 14 Dec. 1918 and had been a paying member of the Jewish Community since 28 Feb. 1938. He had two sisters: Frieda, born on 20 May 1878, and Erna, born on 9 Nov. 1881. During the First World War, he was deployed from 1915 to 1918 first as a musketeer (the lowest rank of infantry), later behind the front line in a reinforcement unit (thus not actively taking part in combat operations) and was awarded the Honor Cross.

In 1897, he had taken over his father’s business as a legal adviser, but in the course of the Great Depression of 1929, he no longer earned any taxable income. Legal advisers were legal laypersons who mostly gave legal advice to poorer clients without being able to represent them in court. Max Renner remained single and had no children. On 6 July 1931, the 56-year-old man, by this time destitute, applied to the welfare authorities for admission. One year later, he was sentenced to 100 RM (reichsmark) on probation for misappropriation of funds in coincidence with breach of trust, even though the criminal investigation department had difficulty proving that he had committed fraud.

He frequently moved: from Grossneumarkt 56 to Blücherstrasse 15; from there to Bundesstrasse 35a; then to Grindelhof 89; and finally to Grindelhof 64. He always resided as a subtenant in a furnished room. The Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) card file also mentions the addresses of Vereinsstrasse 7 and Hirtenstrasse 53.

In 1936, when the National Socialists had already been in power for three years, Max Renner tried to obtain an exception permit "for the commercial handling of legal matters in accordance with Sec. 1 Par. 1 of the Law for the Prevention of Abuses in the Field of Legal Advice dated 13 Dec. 1935” and pointed out that his application was not for the establishment of a new business, but for the approval of the "continuation of a business that had been in existence for 58 years, namely an old collection practice.” However, he was only granted a deadline of 30 Sept. 1936 to complete current orders. Since he apparently worked as a legal adviser nonetheless, he was sentenced to 20 RM in 1936 for dispensing "unlawful legal assistance.”

His mother Rosalie died on 23 Oct. 1937, at the age of 84. His welfare file with the welfare authority was handed over to "Sonderdienststelle B” ("Special Section B”) on 6 Sept. 1939. Thus, Max Renner was placed under special observation as a Jew and welfare recipient in the two years leading up to his deportation, separated from non-Jewish welfare recipients, and possibly forced to perform compulsory labor.

On 8 Nov. 1941, he was deported to Minsk and murdered.

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

© Dieter Wolf

Quellen: 1; 5; StaH 351-14 Arbeits- und Sozialfürsorge – Sonderakten 1726; StaH 213–11 Staatsanwaltschaft – Landgericht A15467/30 u. 4656/37; Sta HH 213–1 Hanseatisches Oberlandesgericht 1303; Lohalm: Völkische Wohlfahrtsdiktatur, S. 403–409.
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