Franz Rappolt

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Franz Max Rappolt (born July 3, 1870 in Hamburg , † November 25, 1943 in Theresienstadt ) was a German entrepreneur and victim of the Holocaust.

Live and act

A stumbling block in front of the former house

Franz Rappolt was the son of the entrepreneur Joseph Rappolt. He attended high school and then completed a commercial apprenticeship. He then joined the company Oppenheim & Rappolt , which his father co-founded in 1862 and offered upscale men's fashion. His brothers Arthur (1864-1918) and Paul (1863-1940) worked there as authorized signatories. From 1899 to 1903 Franz Rappolt headed a branch of the company in Berlin , which had operated as Rappolt & Sons since January 1897 . From 1912 at the latest, he held shares in the company, which was one of the largest in the industry in Germany.

Rappolt, who was responsible for finances in the company, had good relationships with personalities in the Hamburg banking industry such as Bankhaus Warburg , Simon Hirschland Bank and Paul Salomon, who ran Dresdner Bank . Since he had successfully led the company through the First World War and the Great Inflation , he was appointed to the plenary session of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce in 1926 .

After the National Socialists came to power , the NSDAP declared the goal of driving Jews out of the economy. Rappolt & Söhne was exposed to steadily increasing political pressure and was gradually disempowered from an administrative perspective. In 1938, “Aryan” entrepreneurs took over the department store, which the Rappolt family had to give up. Franz Rappolt, who had never joined a political organization, considered emigrating from the German Reich , but did not succeed. One of the reasons for this was that the National Socialists systematically confiscated his private assets.

After deportation to the Theresienstadt concentration camp , together with his sister-in-law Johanna Rappolt, née Oppenheim, on July 15, 1942, he died there in November 1943.

The Rappoltweg in Hamburg-Lohbrügge has been a reminder of the former entrepreneur since 1965 . The name "Rappolt-Haus" can be found at the former headquarters of the company at Mönckebergstrasse 11 since the 1980s. There has been a stumbling block in front of the former house at Leinpfad 11 since 2001 , and another in front of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce since 2018.

family

Franz Rappolt was married to Charlotte Rappolt, née Ehrlich, who killed herself on March 6, 1941. The couple had a son named Fritz Rappolt, born in 1900. He was transported to the Minsk ghetto on November 8, 1941 , where he was shot on April 13, 1942. Another son, Ernst Max, was born in 1905 and emigrated to the USA with his wife and young families in May 1938. His brother Otto Rappolt committed suicide on October 25, 1941. The brother and doctor Ernst Rappolt died of suicide on April 9, 1942.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stumbling blocks in Hamburg | Find names, places and biographies. Retrieved April 14, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Rappolt, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rappolt, Franz Max (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur and victim of the Holocaust
DATE OF BIRTH July 3, 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH November 25, 1943
Place of death Theresienstadt