Erich Aschenheim

Erich Aschenheim (born February 4, 1882 in Berlin ; † May 3, 1941 in Krailling ) was a German medical advisor, university professor and victim of National Socialism .

Life

Erich Aschenheim was born in Berlin. His father Leopold was director of the Berlin Electricity Works from 1892 to 1906 . He himself studied medicine. The first seven semesters at the University of Munich , then two at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin and two more in Munich. He received his license to practice medicine on February 8, 1907. A month later , he received his doctorate with the dissertation A case of multiple aortic aneurysm based on Lui and atheromatous disease . He began his training as a pediatrician at the Dr. von Haunersche Children's Hospital , where after a year he became department assistant for the toddler halls. During his time in the hospital, he published four scientific papers, one of them together with Erich Benjamin , on the subject of hematology . In October 1909 he moved to the Heidelberg University Hospital, where he worked for three years as an assistant at the polyclinic and head doctor of the infant department. For some time he was then deputy director at the municipal nursing home in Dresden. Shortly before the First World War, he switched to the children's clinic at the University Clinic in Düsseldorf under the direction of Arthur Schloßmann , where he stayed until 1921.

During the First World War he was drafted into a Bavarian medical company as a military doctor. 1919 halbilitierte it with the habilitation hyperexcitability in children with special consideration of the child's tetany (pathological Spasmophilia) and then held to support Schloßmann lectures on skin diseases and mental and nervous disorders in infants. On October 1, 1921, he became the City Medical Councilor of Remscheid . Together with the Jewish school dentist Minna Cohn, who was his deputy, he was responsible for all health care. Due to his education, he took particular care of the children's health and initiated the establishment of an infant clinic, a home for young children and a home for rickets . In addition, he was a lecturer at the West German Social Hygiene Academy as a specialist in paediatrics and the organization of welfare services.

Aschenheim was of Jewish descent. As such, he was immediately subjected to reprisals after the " seizure of power " by the NSDAP . As early as March 1933, before the law to restore the civil service , due to which Jewish civil servants were removed from the service, came into force in April 1933, he was "on leave until further notice" by the National Socialist city administration. Although the law provided for exemptions such as the frontline fighter privilege for active World War I participants like him, his efforts to return to his post were unsuccessful. After he was finally released on May 23, 1934, he moved to Krailling and opened a pediatrician practice there. After his license to practice medicine was withdrawn on September 30, 1938 , the practice was continued by an "Aryan" doctor. After that, he was only allowed to treat Jewish patients as a “medical practitioner”.

In November 1938 , Aschenheim was arrested by the Gestapo in Düsseldorf and imprisoned in the police prison. At the instigation of his father-in-law, he was released that same month and returned to Krailling. There he was under police supervision. From January 1939 , the Protestant pastor Karl Helmes, who was responsible there, tried Johannes Zwanzger , the Munich shop steward of the Grüber office, to find an opportunity for Aschenheim to leave the country. However, due to his age and because of the many seekers in only a few countries that were ready to receive him, there was no way to leave the country, either in England, Central America or Chile, or as a missionary doctor.

On May 3, 1941, he committed suicide with potassium cyanide , presumably to avoid the atrocities of anti-Semitic marginalization and persecution .

family

Erich Aschenheim married Berlin-born Charlotte Ehrmann in 1906, with whom he had three daughters. In 1919 he married Annemarie Appelius, who was born in Düsseldorf in 1899 and with whom he had a daughter. From 1938 at the latest, he himself was Protestant like the entire family . The entire family was well integrated into the parish and had a “very ecclesiastical position”. His second wife volunteered with the church magazine and with the community youth.

memory

• A stumbling block was set in front of the house at Hindenburgstrasse 49 in Remscheid on April 3, 2009.

Fonts

• A case of multiple aortic aneurysm on a Luian and atheromatous basis , 1907. (Dissertation)

literature

• Lorenz Peter Johannsen: Erich Aschenheim, Albert Eckstein, Julius Weyl: Jewish pediatricians on the board of the Association of Rhenish-Westphalian Pediatricians , Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-942271-05-9

Web links

• Literature by and about Erich Aschenheim in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry in the central database of Yad Vashem

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Andrea Autenrieth: Doctors at the Dr. von Haunersche Children's Hospital, who fell victim to Nazi persecution , dissertation, 2012, p. 71 online as a pdf
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Andrea Autenrieth, p. 73
3. ↑ Documentation of the stumbling blocks in Remscheid
4. ↑ Andrea Autenrieth, p. 72
5. ↑ Note: When he converted to the Protestant religion (or perhaps his parents) cannot be deduced from the sources. Autenrieth writes that in 1933 he still belonged to the Jewish religion. In her dissertation, however, she did not mention that he was Protestant by 1938 at the latest, which is well documented by Fix.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Johann Max Franzen: Im Stolpergang durch Remscheid - A photo documentation about the laying of "stumbling blocks" in the area of ​​the city of Remscheid online as pdf ( Memento of the original from December 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ^ Fix: Faithful Comrades in Need , Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2011, pp. 202–207
8. ↑ Andrea Autenrieth, p. 74
9. ↑ Andrea Autenrieth, p. 72 (There is only written about a daughter from his first marriage, whereby the family is dealt with in little detail.)
10. ↑ Karl-Heinz Fix, p. 202 f.