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Gertrud Ruppin (née Windmüller) * 1885

Hegestraße 39 (Hamburg-Nord, Eppendorf)

1941 Riga

further stumbling stones in Hegestraße 39:
Ernst Goldschmidt, Henriette Meidner, Julia Alice (Egele) Windmüller, Franz Wolff, Luise Wolff

Gertrud Adele Ruppin, née Windmüller, born on 27 Feb. 1885 in Hamburg, deported on 6 Dec. 1941 to Riga

Hegestrasse 39

Gertrud Ruppin grew up with her older sister Julia Windmüller (see corresponding entry) in very good financial circumstances. Their father, Salomon Siegmund, called Siegmund Philipp Windmüller, was a merchant in Hamburg. The daughters were raised in the Protestant faith, even though the mother, Helene Windmüller, née Elias, was from a Jewish family as well. The parents were exceptionally fond of art and music, maintaining friendly contacts with many actors, musicians, and composers.

In 1910, Gertrud married the well-to-do merchant Carl Moritz Ruppin, born on 25 June 1875 in Leipzig. Initially, he worked as an authorized signatory and since 1912 as a general partner in the company owned by his brother-in-law, Moritz Simonis. The Herm. Simonis general partnership, located at Neuer Wall 10, ranked among the most respected firms in the animal feeding stuff industry in all of Germany. For many years, Carl Ruppin was a member of the executive committee of the Association of Grain and Animal Feeding Stuff Merchants (Verein der Getreide- und Futtermittelhändler) in Hamburg, working as a chairman and arbitrator in the association’s arbitration tribunals. Moreover, he was also employed as an honorary commercial judge.

In Jan. 1912, the couple had their first daughter, Helene Marie, followed in 1913 by a son, Hans Karl, and in Oct. 1918 by another daughter, Charlotte Gertrud. The family lived on Werderstrasse in Hamburg-Harvestehude. From there, the daughters attended the renowned private Firgau Girls’ High School (Firgau-Liceum) at Sierichstrasse 53 and then, after six years, changed to the Realgymnasium für Mädchen [a girls’ high school focused on science, math, and modern languages] on Curschmannstrasse.

In 1929, Carl Ruppin’s professional success resulted in the relocation from Werderstrasse to an elegant ten-room apartment featuring generous salons at Haynstrasse 1. A schoolmate of daughter Helene Marie later reported, "The caliber of the household emerges from the fact that the family employed a cook, a chamber maid, and a cleaning lady … Mr. Ruppin owned a library containing about 1,500 books.”

When the beautiful upper-middle-class house at Haynstrasse 1 had to be vacated due to far-reaching renovations, the Ruppins changed to the neighboring house at Hegestrasse 39, owned by the same proprietor and featuring very nice, spacious apartments as well.

Even though the financial circumstances noticeably worsened after 1933 due to the displacement of Jewish companies from trade as well as state-related harassment and denial of import permits, in 1935 Gertrud and Carl Ruppin celebrated their silver anniversary in grand style, with friends and family attending. "The large dining table was covered in the most beautiful gifts of all sorts,” related the friend of Helene Marie mentioned earlier.

Nearly one year later, Carl Ruppin had to stop operating the Herm. Simonis Company for lack of sales, a firm he had managed as the sole owner since the co-owner, F.H. Friedländer, had left. At this point, the family’s situation became dramatic.

Carl Ruppin died of the effects of a heart condition on 12 Aug. 1939. His business was deleted from the company register by the authorities in Dec. 1939.

In Dec. 1937, the younger daughter, Charlotte Gertrud, had succeeded in emigrating to London. Being Jewish, she had been expelled from high school, and thus her planned studies of medicine became impossible. Moreover, no other opportunities for training presented themselves in Germany either. Fortunately, a Committee member had sponsored her admission to the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, thus obtaining an entry permit to Britain for her. In Feb. 1939, Helene Marie managed to escape to Scotland. Son Hans Karl, too, who had completed a commercial apprenticeship in Hamburg and was designated to take over his father’s company one day, succeeded in leaving Germany just in time and obtain British citizenship.

The family members remaining behind were Gertrud and her unmarried sister Julia, who had moved in with her sister and brother-in-law at Hegestrasse 39 in 1937, after she, as a Jewish woman, had been denied any means of gainful employment both as a piano teacher and as a provider of typing services. There were no longer any possibilities of publishing her literary works either.

After Julia Windmüller had received a deportation order to Lodz on 22 Oct. 1941, Gertrud Ruppin found her sister in bed unconscious on the morning of 24 October. She died the following day in the Israelite Hospital at Johnsallee 68.

Only six weeks later, on 6 Dec. 1941, Gertrud Ruppin was deported to Riga. A girlfriend, who had been with her on the day before the deportation, reported that the entire apartment was already emptied on the following day. On 10 Feb. 1942, 3,955.50 RM (reichsmark), probably proceeds from the sale of the valuables found in the apartment, were credited to the name of Gertrud Ruppin at the treasurer’s office with the Hamburg Chief Finance Administrator (Oberfinanzkasse) and confiscated immediately.


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

Stand: October 2018
© Lore Wieprecht

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; 8; AfW 030111 Swingler, Helene; AfW 071018 Ruppin, Charlotte; StaH 522-1 Jüd. Gemeinden, 992e2 Band 3.
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