Ebba Simon

Ebba Agnes Simon , b. Westberg (born June 24, 1906 in Hamburg ; † 1999 ibid), was a German donor who, after her death, used a large part of her fortune to promote the educational and professional paths of schoolchildren, students and young scientists. As the great-niece of Oscar Troplowitz, she was one of the heiresses of the Beiersdorf fortune and the cousin of Georg W. Claussen , the founder of the Claussen Foundation.

Life

childhood and education

Ebba Simon was the third of six children of the Hamburg lawyer Gustav Westberg and his wife Gertrud, née Pulvermacher. This was a niece of Oscar Troplowitz, the owner of Beiersdorf AG in Hamburg. Ebba Simon grew up in the Hamburg district of Harvestehude . The patron Dagmar Westberg was her sister.

The parents attached great importance to a good education for the six children. Ebba Simon attended the private high school for girls (Lyceum) of Mary B. Henckel and Elsa Berblinger, also called "Henckelsche Töchterschule", from Easter 1913. At Easter 1924 she graduated from school with the so-called Lyceumsreife. After finishing school, Ebba Simon completed an apprenticeship as a “certified house clerk”, which she was able to complete in March 1926 at the “State School for Women's Professions in Hamburg”. There she had also received lessons in health, nursing and education. From 1926 to 1929 she worked as a house clerk for a Soest family. On October 1, 1928, she began her professional training as a gymnastics teacher at the Hamburg School for "Pure Mensendieck Gymnastics". At Bess Mensendieck , a Dutch-American doctor, Ebba Simon also completed an advanced training course in 1930, which entitled her to work as a “certified teacher of pure Mensendieck gymnastics”. After completing his training as a gymnastics teacher, Ebba Simon took a "Samaritan course" at the Eppendorf General Hospital from the end of November 1930 to the end of January 1931 , passed a medical examination and thus became a "Samaritan Association" of the Patriotic Women's Association of the Red Cross in Hamburg. In addition, in 1931 she took a massage course with Ferdinand Plate, who was then senior physician at the Bethanien Hospital in Hamburg. In the years 1932 and 1933 there were also stays abroad, including in Las Palmas, "for the purpose of practicing the languages ​​in domestic work and nursing gymnastics lessons mainly with children".

Exclusion under National Socialism

When the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Ebba Simon was considered a so-called “ half-Jew ” because her mother came from a Jewish family. In the years that followed, the family had to struggle with numerous reprisals from the National Socialist rulers, despite Gustav Westberg's interventions. In 1934 the family moved into a house in the Hamburg district of Blankenese . In 1939 Ebba Simon was injured on a sports course and had to spend several months lying in the hospital.

A planned marriage to a doctor did not materialize due to the Nuremberg race laws . In 1942, on the basis of these laws, she was also banned from working as a gymnast. From 1943 until the end of the war, Ebba Simon was drafted into what is known as the war effort and worked as a domestic help for Hamburg families.

Her mother Gertrud Westberg geb. Pulvermacher (1881–1971) was to be deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in February 1945 on the last transport ; however, a doctor confirmed that she was unable to travel, so she survived.

Marriage and later years

In 1949, Ebba married Alfred Simon (1890–1978), who had been in charge of all technical operations at Beiersdorf AG since 1930. The chemist had previously worked for several years at the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in Berlin, which became the Max Planck Society after the Second World War . The Simon couple lived in Blankenese and remained childless. Ebba Simon took an active part in her husband's professional life, who was meanwhile responsible for research and development on the Executive Board of Beiersdorf AG. In 1958 Alfred Simon retired, and in the years that followed, the couple made numerous trips, primarily to Switzerland, France and Italy. Alfred Simon died in 1978.

Acting as a founder

Alfred Simon had already shown himself to be a sponsor of science during his lifetime and generously supported the Max Planck Society financially. Ebba Simon also wished to dedicate her fortune to a scientific purpose and made a will in her will that a large part of it should be used for the promotion of science and education after her death. The donation was made in 1999 to the Claussen Foundation of her cousin Georg W. Claussen. Since then, the foundation has been called the Claussen Simon Foundation . This endowment gave the Claussen Simon Foundation the opportunity to develop new funding programs.

Honors

In October 2016, the “Ebba Simon Haus” was opened in Hamburg-Borgfelde , a student residence that was financed by the Claussen Simon Foundation and the Klaus Rating Foundation. The Ebba Simon Haus offers affordable one-room apartments with their own kitchen and bathroom and enables residents to live together in close proximity to downtown Hamburg.

literature

• Martina Bick : Ebba Agnes Simon and her family. “Do good and don't talk about it”. (= Jewish miniatures , volume 195.) Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-95565-183-1 .

Web links

• Claussen Simon Foundation website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Four times life - Jewish fate in Blankenese
2. ↑ 'Finally my own home - gigantic moving day in Borgfelde: after a long search, 200 students moved into a new dormitory - at the same time!' In: www.claussen-simon-stiftung.de. Retrieved January 24, 2017 .