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Minna Armherr (née Jacobsohn) * 1884

Fuhlentwiete 3 (Hamburg-Mitte, Neustadt)

HIER WOHNTE
MINNA ARMHERR
GEB. JACOBSOHN
JG. 1884
DEPORTIERT 1941
RIGA
ERMORDET

Minna Armherr, née Jacobsohn, b. 4.20.1884 in Inowroclaw (Hohensalza), deported to Riga-Jungfernhof on 12.6.1941

Fuhlentwiete 3 (Fuhlentwiete 39)

Minna Armherr came to Hamburg in 1924. She gave up her apartment in Berlin-Schöneberg at Heilbronnerstrasse 30 and moved in with her sister Dorothea Mietlicki, née Jacobsohn (b. 4.10.1879), at Rothenbaumchaussee 27. In Berlin, on 10 December 1918, the then shopkeeper had married the businessman Johann Josef Armherr (b. 7.29.1889 in Aachen). Josef Armherr was a Catholic and was living then at Uhlandstrasse 73 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf. He worked as an art dealer and frequently traveled abroad for professional purposes. Thus, the childless couple lived apart except for occasional visits. Possible contributing factors in her decision to move to Hamburg may have been that her brothers, Leo Lesser Jacobsohn (b. 6.24.1881) and Friedrich Jacobsohn (b. 8.29.1889) also lived there. They, too, were married to non-Jewish spouses and worked in the catering business.

Minna Armherr’s parents, the master glazier Georg Jacobsohn and Helene, née Marcus (b. 4.10.1863), both came from Inowroclaw. Their children were also born in the Prussian Province of Posen. In 1904, the city received the German place name of Hohensalza. Following the First World War, it then belonged to Poland and was again named Inowroclaw. Annexed by the Germans in 1939, it reverted to Hohensalza, and is today yet again Inowroclaw, Poland. Georg Jacobsohn died in his home city; Helene later followed her children to Hamburg, where she died on 4 March 1939.

Minna Armherr, who had gone through commercial training, registered in Hamburg on 25 October 1924 as a barkeeper at Grossen Theaterstrasse 37. Her brother Leo ran a beer bar, "At the Owl,” at Kleinen Theaterstrasse 8, and later the "Rohus Cellar” at Grossen Theaterstrasse 41. Her younger brother Friedrich, married since 1920 to Gertrud Zierau (b. 2.11.1893), was an innkeeper at Eifferstrasse 17 in Hamburg Borgfelde-Hamm. Her brother-in-law Miczislaus Mietlicki (b. 10.18.1879 in Miloslaw) was also a restauranteur; he had married Dorothea, the oldest of Minna’s siblings, in 1916.

As a result of the world economic crisis, Minna Armherr’s bar fell into economic difficulties at the end of 1928; the inventory was impounded and the business closed. In that same year, with the help of her brother-in-law Miczislaus Mietlicki, who was then running a bar at Colonnaden 37, Minna took over the pub "Glocke” at Fuhlentwiete 39. In the following year, she moved into an apartment there on the fifth floor. The approximately 650 square foot pub furnished in the old German style employed two waiters, a buffet attendant, dishwasher boys, a cook, and two assistant cooks, as well as several other kitchen helpers. The business was open from 10 in the morning until late at night. It offered warm and cold dishes; early morning chicken broths were the house specialty. In 1933, Minna moved down to the second floor. Concerning what she experienced during the first five years of the Nazi takeover, whether she was immediately hit by discrimination and boycott measures, we have no evidence.

In October 1938, Minna Armherr was compelled to give up the pub that she had operated for ten years. However, because a successor did not fulfill the sale contract, the business was not sold and therefore not "Aryanized.” In the Hamburg directories of the following years there was no longer a public house listed for Fuhlentwiete 39; during the war, the building was bombed out. After giving up the business, Minna moved in with her brothers at Schlüterstrasse 22. She tried to get permission to open a restaurant with a bar serving non-alcoholic drinks at Grindelallee 188, at the corner of Hallerstrasse. However, the premises allegedly did not conform to police regulations; her application to open a "cafeteria for Jews” was refused on 17 November 1939. Perhaps, she now lived on her financial reserves, because her brother Leo’s business had been closed, a restaurant at Fröbelstrasse 12 in the Rotherbaum quarter. On 7 November 1938, Leo Lesser Jacobsohn’s wife Minna Louise, née Bramstedt (b. 9.18.1886) died of leukemia. They had married in 1927 in Hamburg. With her death, he lost his status of being in a "mixed marriage,” which would later have protected him from deportation to the East. For his sister Minna, too, the situation turned extremely unfavorable. Her husband Josef Armherr had given up his German residence and was living in London since 1935. Whether Minna Armherr attempted at any point to leave Germany is not known. Her brother Leo was deported to the Minsk ghetto on 8 November 1941. A commemorative stone has been placed at Schlüterstrasse 22 (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de). Minna Armherr then lived with her sister Dorothea Mietlicki, who was widowed in 1934. On 6 December 1941, Minna Armherr was deported to Riga-Jungfernhof.

Her brother Friedrich Jacobsohn was initially protected against deportation by his non-Jewish wife. He was liable for a "work assignment” as an air raid warden in the firm Kleemann & Co. in Billstedt. In April 1942, the couple had to give up their apartment on Schlüterstrasse. Only a few months after their forced move to Hansastrasse 64, Friedrich Jacobsohn died of tuberculosis on 21 August 1942. Dorothea Mietlicki also had to give up her apartment on Rothenbaumchaussee. According to an entry in the death register, she died on 17 March 1943 in Hamburg in her own apartment at Schäferkampsallee 25-27, which was in fact the address of the Israelite Hospital. Friedrich Jacobsohn and Dorothea Mietlicki found their final resting places in the Ilandkoppel Jewish Cemetery in Ohlsdorf.

Josef Armherr married a second time in London in 1948. He died on 17 May 1951 in Bedford County, USA

Translator: Richard Levy
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: April 2020
© Susanne Rosendahl

Quellen: 1; 4; 6; 9; StaH 351-11 AfW 14736 (Armherr, Zosia); StaH 351-11 AfW 7345 (Armherr, Minna); StaH 351-11 AfW 11922 (Armherr, Josef); StaH 351-11 AfW 15205 (Jacobsohn, Gertrud); StaH 332-5 Standesämter 3284 u 396/1916; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 3368 u 445/1920; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 3548 u 43/1927; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 8125 u 520/1934; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 8153 u 527/1938; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 8164 u 102/1939; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 8180 u 396/1942; StaH 332-5 Standesämter 8185 u 160/1943; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde Nr. 992 e 2 Band 2; StaH 522-1 Jüdische Gemeinde Nr. 992 e 2 Band 3; Meyer: Verfolgung, S. 79–87, S. 202; https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inowrocław (Zugriff 16.4.2016).
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