Else Liefmann

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Else Liefmann (born May 27, 1881 in Hamburg ; † May 24, 1970 in Zurich , Switzerland) was a doctor and social worker in Freiburg . She worked in the field of women's education and co-founded the German Association of Women Doctors and the Freiburg branch of the German Association of Women Academics .

Life

Else Liefmann was born in Hamburg as the daughter of the businessman Semmy Liefmann . Here she also spent the first years of her life with her family. Like her siblings, Else was baptized Protestant after her parents had converted to the Protestant faith. After the death of the father, the mother moved with the children to Freiburg. In 1894 she bought a villa in the middle-class district of Wiehre . Else's eldest brother Robert became a professor of economics at the University of Freiburg , while the youngest sister Martha studied art history.

Else Liefmann first worked as a primary school teacher and then studied medicine. In 1915 she opened a practice for infant and childhood diseases as well as for "medical educational advice". In the following years she got involved in a variety of ways. She worked with the university children's clinic, worked as a city councilor for the liberal German Democratic Party , worked with mothers' counseling, with day care centers and was active in the field of women's education. She was a co-founder of the "German Association of Women Doctors" in Berlin and founder of the Freiburg branch of the "German Association of Women Academics".

The year 1933 marked a sharp turning point in Else Liefmann's life. Due to the Nuremberg Race Laws , Else Liefmann's license was withdrawn and she had to give up her practice. As a result of the National Socialist laws to restore the civil service , brother Robert lost his chair at the university in 1933. On October 22, 1940, the Gestapo deported the siblings Else, Robert and Martha to the Gurs camp in southern France . The family was expropriated and the house “Aryanized” . The Gestapo used the house on Goethestrasse. Robert died as a result of the terrible conditions in the concentration camp . Martha managed to leave, Else managed to escape to Switzerland. They spent the last years of their lives in Zurich. Martha died in 1952, Else in 1970.

Stumbling blocks for Else Liefmann and her siblings Robert and Martha in front of the house where they lived until they were deported (Goethestrasse 33, Freiburg)

After the end of the war, the house was confiscated by the French occupying forces and served as a base for the military police. Later it went to the state of Baden-Württemberg, which set up a police station there from 1949 to 2000. In the course of restitution proceedings, Else Liefmann managed to get back the stolen house in Goethestrasse. However, she no longer wanted to live in Germany. In 1954 she returned to Freiburg for a visit. She suggested that a memorial plaque should be erected on the site of the former synagogue in 1962.

Today the Liefmann House is used as a guest house by the University of Freiburg. In front of the house, the stumbling blocks by the artist Günter Demnig, which were set there on the initiative of Marlies Meckel, remind of the fate of the Liefmann siblings.

Else-Liefmann-Platz was inaugurated in the Freiburg district of Weingarten in 2000.

Publications (selection)

  • with Theodor Bonte, Fritz Roessler: Studies on the eidetic predisposition of children and adolescents. JA Barth, Leipzig 1928.
  • Our child in the first year of life. Sunlicht Ges., Mannheim 1931.
  • Care and education of the toddler. Sunlicht Ges., Mannheim 1931.
  • Elementary school students: their mental and physical achievements and the relationship to the constitution. JA Barth, Leipzig 1932.

literature

  • Martha Liefmann, Else Liefmann, Erhard Roy Wiehn (eds.): Bright lights on a dark background: the "deportation" from Freiburg to Gurs 1940-1942 with memories of Professor Dr. Robert Liefmann. 2., ext. Ed., Hartung-Gorre, Konstanz 1995, ISBN 3-89191-815-1 .
  • Dorothee Freudenberg-Hübner, Erhard Roy Wiehn (ed.): Deported: Jewish fates from Freiburg 1940-1942; Letters from the Liefmann siblings in Gurs and Morlaas to Adolf Freudenberg in Geneva. Hartung-Gorre, Konstanz 1993, ISBN 3-89191-665-5 .
  • Ingrid Kühbacher: You lived in Freiburg. Memories while walking through the old cemetery. Schillinger, Freiburg 2006, ISBN 3-89155-057-X .

Movie

A house tells story (s): behind the facade. The Liefmann House in Freiburg. A film by Sigrid Faltin. SWR 2007.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Liefmann, Else In: Renate Heuer (Ed.): Bibliographia Judaica. Volume 2, Campus Verlag, Frankfurt 1984. Retrieved from the Jewish Biographical Archive, p. 311.
  2. ↑ http://www.schule-bw.de/unterricht/faecheruebergreifende_themen/landeskunde/modelle/epochen/zeitgeschichte/ns/freiburg/d7.pdf
  3. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.io.uni-freiburg.de
personal data
SURNAME Liefmann, Else
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Doctor and social worker
DATE OF BIRTH May 27, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH May 24, 1970
Place of death Zurich