Agnes Wolffson

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Selly Agnes Wolffson (born November 30, 1849 in Hamburg ; † March 18, 1936 there ) was a German donor .

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Ans Wolffson was a daughter of the lawyer Isaac Wolffson . Her mother worked as a volunteer inspector in Charlotte Paulsen's custody facility and taught her daughter that there was an obligation to help and that raising children was particularly important. Agnes Wolffson therefore taught German essays and history at Paulsen's school from the age of 17 without pay.

Wolffson had two sisters who, like her mother, were cared for by her and died early. Occasionally she looked after the four children of her brother Albert Wolffson and traveled with her father to Berlin , where he worked out the Reich Justice Laws and the Civil Code . After the death of her father on October 12, 1895, Wolffson devoted himself to charity thanks to the inheritance. From the interest on the large fortune she left behind, she founded three household schools. These were open to elementary school students in the final year of school who were to be prepared for a later married life. Wolffson bore all of the expenses and personally took care of all the details. In 1907, household lessons were made compulsory for girls in all elementary schools. Wolffson saw their goal as fulfilled and donated their three facilities to the city of Hamburg free of charge.

In addition to her commitment to schools, Wolffson campaigned for the home economics education of “ higher daughters ”. She worked with the association for holiday welfare efforts and had a home built for women workers in Hammerbrook . The state gave her land for this; Wolffson took over the construction costs and the interior decoration himself. The Martha-Helene-Heim bore the names of her two deceased sisters and included 60 single rooms and several common rooms. Two days after the outbreak of World War I , Wolffson set up the first of more than 100 war kitchens here, which she managed herself until 1920. These institutions provided food for poor people with little or no payment.

Due to German inflation, Agnes Wolffson became impoverished. She had to sell her house on Baderstrasse. The Martha-Helene-Heim , which only continued to exist with her donations, became state property in accordance with the contract in 1923 as it was on state soil. Agnes Wolffson did not demand payment for this either.

Pillow stone Agnes Wolffson, family grave cemetery Ohlsdorf

To prevent her from becoming completely impoverished, the state paid her an annual pension of 5,000 Reichsmarks from 1925 onwards. Mayor Carl Wilhelm Petersen informed her in a letter that the Hamburg Senate understood this as a sign of recognition and thanks for her services, although her work would never be adequately rewarded. On her 80th birthday, she received a bouquet of flowers from Petersen and Alexander Zinn and a visit from those involved in all the associations in which she had worked. A housekeeping school in Hamburg's Humboldtstrasse was renamed the Agnes Wolffson School in her honor .

After the seizure of power by the National Socialists Wolffson was affected as a Jew by the racist discrimination. She died in March 1936 and was buried in the area of ​​the Wolffson family grave on the Ohlsdorf cemetery in Hamburg, grid square S 11 (near chapel 1).
Only after her family had campaigned for her memory for two years did the Hamburg high school authorities have a plaque made for the school kitchen in Eschenweg with the title “Agnes-Wolffson-Kitchen”. Agnes-Wolffson-Strasse in Hamburg-Neuallermöhe has been commemorating the benefactor since 1985 .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Celebrity Graves
personal data
SURNAME Wolffson, Agnes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wolffson, Selly Agnes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German donor
DATE OF BIRTH November 30, 1849
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH March 18, 1936
Place of death Hamburg