Hermann Wolf (Lawyer)

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Hermann Wolf (born April 28, 1880 in Alzey , † July 27, 1951 in New York ) was a German-American lawyer. As a Jew, he was banned from practicing his profession in 1938 and emigrated to the USA. Wolf worked in a law firm in Darmstadt with Friedrich Moritz Mainzer and Ebo Rothschild . His cousin was Johanna Geissmar, who was murdered in Auschwitz .

Origin and professional career

Parents and siblings

Hermann David Wolf was born on April 28, 1880 in Alzey, then part of the Grand Duchy of Hesse and in Rheinhessen . He was the son of the leather manufacturer and leather dealer Theodor Wolf (1843-1917) and his wife Cäcilie (1855-1936), née Levintas. Theodor Wolf was a well-known personality in Alzey. He was deputy mayor (first alderman) there for twelve years and a long-standing member of the Chamber of Commerce and the district council of Alzey-Bingen. Theodor Wolf was also a member of the leadership of the Jewish community for many years and was involved in Jewish welfare institutions.

Theodor and Cäcilie Wolf had a total of five children, some of whom, however, died early:

  • Eduard Wolf (1876–1879)
  • Paul Jacob Wolf (1879-1922)
  • Hermann David Wolf (1880–1951)
  • Ella Wolf (1883–1941)
  • Karl Wolf (1886–1886)

Paul Jacob, who like his brother Hermann studied law and became a lawyer, died of leukemia in Darmstadt in April 1922.

The fate of the doctor Ella Wolf

A certificate issued by the Mayor of Alzey at the time on December 31, 1914, says about Ella Wolf: “Miss. Dr. med. Ella Wolf has passed all medical exams summa cum laude and is highly regarded in her Heidelberg specialist circles. ”This is extremely remarkable in view of her childhood. Referring to the, in their words, excellent talent of the brothers Paul and Hermann Wolf, Plotnik writes: “And that became important. Her sister Ella fell ill with tuberculosis and was bedridden from the age of four to the age of 18. Ella was tutored by her brothers and the only professional help she took was a professor from Mainz who came to teach her advanced math and chemistry. "

Like most of her siblings, Ella Wolf was not spared a difficult fate. On the website Doctors in the Empire you can read: "In 1921 she fell ill with polio, most recently she lived in the Hessian state sanatorium and nursing home in Heppenheim / Bergstrasse." In connection with his expenses for his sister, Hermann also came in his compensation application of January 19, 1950 Wolf to speak of his sister's illness: “She had chosen to be a specialist in ear medicine because of the shortage of doctors in the First World War, the city. Hospital in Szczecin and suffered blood poisoning there as a result of a corpse infection in a section, which made her permanently unable to work. "

As Ella Wolf's place of death, " Hadamar , Heppenheim / Bergstraße " is named on the website for women doctors in the Empire , which suggests that Ella Wolf was transferred from the former Heppenheim insane asylum to the Hadamar killing center and was murdered there on February 4, 1941. This also coincides with the entry in the memorial book Victims of the Persecution of Jews under the National Socialist Tyranny in Germany 1933–1945 , where she is listed as a victim of euthanasia . It is presented in more detail in a written information from the Hadamar Memorial on December 21, 2018: “Ms. Ella Wolf, b. on January 17, 1883 in Alzey, was admitted to the Heppenheim institution on August 3, 1930. In 1941, Heppenheim acted as a so-called intermediate facility for the Hadamar killing center. That is, patients of the Jewish faith from other institutions were collected here and soon afterwards transferred to Hadamar. But patients from Heppenheim were also selected. On February 4, 1941, Mrs. Wolf was brought from Heppenheim to Hadamar in a transport with 66 other Jewish patients. The patients on such a transport were sent to the gas chamber in the basement of the institution and murdered on the day of their arrival. February 4, 1941 is therefore to be regarded as the anniversary of Mrs. Wolf's death. ”The contradiction to the inheritance certificate filed in Hermann Wolf's reparation files, in which it is claimed that Ella Wolf died on March 29, 1941 in Chelm , is also raised by the Information from the memorial dissolved: “In the case of the Jewish victims of Nazi 'euthanasia' from this period, not only the official date of death and the cause of death were incorrectly given, but also the place of death. It was alleged that the patients had been transferred to the Polish town of Chelm (or Cholm) and died there: In this case, the relatives were informed that Ella Wolf had died on '03/29/1941' in 'Chelm' and was buried there. At that time, however, there was no longer any institution in Chelm. The Jewish hospital patients died in the killing centers in Germany, ie in Brandenburg ad Havel and in Hadamar. "

On January 12, 1939, Hermann Wolf referred in a letter to the Deutsche Bank in Darmstadt to a “Dr. Ella Sara Wolf at the time of Heppenheim adB “and asked to sell bonds worth RM 1,000 in order to pay the 2nd installment of the Jewish property tax for Ella Wolf. On the same date he wrote to the foreign exchange office at the regional finance president of Hesse that he intended, before emigrating, “to take care of my mentally ill sister who had been mentally ill since 1921. Ella Sara Wolf to some extent to ensure that an amount in securities with a nominal value of RM 6,500.00 is left to her for maintenance purposes ”. He asks that Deutsche Bank be authorized to transfer the relevant posting from his account to Ella Wolf's account. Hermann Wolf informed the same addressee on January 17, 1939 - one month before his emigration - that he would leave a mentally ill sister behind on his departure. That's why “I have Mrs. D. Marie Reinhardt in Darmstadt, Sudetengaustrasse 34 / I, asked to take care of this sister as far as she can ”. For Ms. Reinhardt's expenses in the next five years he estimated RM 1,200, - which he asked to release from his account and to transfer the amount to Marie Reinhardt's account.

The documents do not reveal whether these transfers requested by Hermann Wolf took place; Marie Reinhardt (born July 22, 1885 in Mainz, † July 11, 1944 in Darmstadt) died in an air raid on Darmstadt. A stumbling block in Alzey reminds of Ella Wolf .

School and study

Hermann Wolf received his school education at the Realschule in Alzey and, after graduating there, at the Grand Ducal Gymnasium in Mainz, where he passed the matriculation examination. He studied law at the Universities of Gießen, Heidelberg (where he received his doctorate in law from Heinrich Buhl on August 7, 1902 ) and requested on March 30, 1908, with reference to the exams he had passed and those that had been passed since 1906 with a Mainz notary The Grand Ducal Ministry of Justice in Darmstadt for admission as a lawyer. But there are also indications that he also studied in Berlin and was involuntarily involved in a rental property there himself.

The Darmstadt years

Hermann Wolf initially seems to have settled in Darmstadt as an individual lawyer. Initial contacts with Friedrich Moritz Mainzer, with whom he later worked in a law firm, are documented in the records of the State Archives, since Mainzer was repeatedly nominated as Wolf's representative from 1910 at the latest. In addition, after his return from the First World War, Hermann's brother Paul worked in Mainzer's office until his death in 1922.

On October 1, 1902, Hermann Wolf was a one-year volunteer for the “1. Nassau Field Artillery Regiment No. 27 Orange ”was drafted. On September 30, 1903, he was released as a non-commissioned officer in the reserve. He took part regularly in reserve exercises and took part in the First World War from October 9, 1914 as a deputy officer . In the spring of 1917 he was in the trench warfare at Focşani and was then on December 17, 1917 as a member of the Landsturm-Inf.-Ers.-Battalion Frankfurt a. M. demobilized. He was certified as being 20 percent incapable of work due to war damage and was granted a corresponding pension. This participation in the war saved him in 1933 from losing his license after the law on admission to the bar passed on April 7, 1933, which revoked the admission of Jewish lawyers. He could claim the so-called front fighter privilege for himself, which granted him a respite until autumn 1938. With the “Fifth Ordinance to the Reich Citizenship Law ” of September 27, 1938, the front-line combatant privilege was also suspended.

On March 9, 1920, Hermann Wolf and Irene, née Oppenheimer (born November 23, 1896 in Berlin, † June 13, 1972 in New York), married in Berlin. Irene was the daughter of Minna Adler and Max Oppenheimer, the deputy board member of Adler & Oppenheimer and head of their Berlin branch. The couple moved to Darmstadt, where Hermann Wolf soon ran a law practice together with Friedrich Moritz Mainzer and his brother Paul. Irene Wolf had enjoyed the usual education of a “senior daughter”, including a stay abroad, and in 1939/1940, after emigrating to the USA, she was able to help her youngest daughter with homework for the compulsory home economics class. “Little did she know that I was really proud that my mother didn't know how to sew or apply starch. Almost anyone could do that. But not many mothers spoke French well, played the piano well, and knew more about oratorios than most people. That may have been false snobbery, but I still believe it. ”And when the family moved into their first apartment in New York in 1939, Herman Wolf took his three children aside and reminded them that their mother had never learned to cook : “You will eat whatever she has prepared for us. And you will like it, no matter how. "

The couple moved into a rented apartment at Darmstädter Wilhelmstrasse 4 (today's Goethestrasse), in the same house in which Hermann's brother Paul lived, and stayed there until they emigrated. Three children were born here: Paul Theodor Wolf (born May 17, 1922, † January 27, 1992 in New York), named after his uncle Paul Wolf, who had recently died; Ellen (Elfriede) Mathilde Wolf (born April 23, 1924, † March 17, 1998 in Scarsdale ), married Wolfson; and Marlies (Marie-Luise) Johanna Wolf (born September 18, 1927), married Plotnik. Marlies Plotnik became the family chronicler who also handed over the family documents to the Leo Baeck Institute .

In her memoirs, Marlies Plotnik describes how she grew up in a well-to-do middle-class household. “The middle class lived well. My parents always chose to avoid pomp. But two servants living in the house were allowed; a woman who came to do the laundry; five to six week holidays that were very often spent in other European countries; good subscriptions for the theater and for Darmstadt's very active opera season; numerous music performances in-house; frequent five o'clock teas - actually coffees - with wonderful pastries and participation in [..] "Fasching" balls (carnival). In other words, they enjoyed a pretty good life after the terrible inflation was over. ”The Wolf family was held in high regard in Darmstadt, and Hermann Wolf often worked free of charge for clients in need and provided financial support to those in need. There were often disagreements between him and Mainzer about the amount of the fees to be charged. “Father could give gifts without the recipient finding out the source of the generosity. I still remember well that I accompanied him to a fancy shop in Darmstadt in the early 1930s that made gift baskets for ocean liners. It was just before Christmas and Father gave the owner a list of people and addresses. Contents for complete meals were discussed: a goose with all the ingredients for eight people etc. 'And of course without your name being mentioned, as usual,' said the man. 'Of course,' said father. "

One of the servants living with the Wolfs was the cook, the other the nanny Lisbeth Hake. She was the daughter of Hermann Wolf's boyfriends in World War I; she stayed with the family for sixteen years, until 1937, when the National Socialist laws made it impossible for her as an “Aryan” to stay in the household. “She traveled to Berlin and surprised everyone by forcing her way to the notorious Heinrich Himmler. She reported that he caressed her knee benevolently, but said that he couldn't make any exceptions, not even for a pretty blonde. "

The years 1933 until emigration

In 1933 three lawyers worked in the law firm at Bismarckstraße 48 in Darmstadt: Friedrich Moritz Mainzer, Ebo Rothschild and Hermann Wolf. Rothschild was banned from working in April 1933 and emigrated. Wolf, protected by his front fighter privilege , and Mainz were allowed to continue working. However, the effects of the political changes on professional and everyday life were inevitable. Until 1936/37 the family was still able to take part in cultural life and could not be denied that. Wolf also had some clients who were farmers and were loyal to him. This ensured the family's food supply for a long time.

It was difficult for the children Paul and Ellen. Paul, who attended a humanistic grammar school in Darmstadt, found himself exposed to harassment from his classmates, which is why his parents took him from school and in October 1936 sent him to Italy to attend a school on the Mediterranean . In November 1937 he left Italy to attend college in Brighton, where he stayed until he emigrated to the USA in February 1939. His sister Ellen attended the Viktoriaschule in Darmstadt. In 1938 she had to leave school because she was not wanted as a Jew. This was formally justified by the fact that compulsory schooling was fulfilled by reaching the age of 14. Ellen then moved to live with her grandparents in Berlin and attended a Jewish high school there.

When Ellen had to leave Victoria School, her younger sister, Marlies, was just about the age to start school. Hermann Wolf took this as an opportunity to secure a place for her in a normal state school, at least until she reached compulsory schooling, as he hoped. He insisted on his status as a World War II officer and front-line combatant to the authorities and prevailed. It was an act of self-assertion, because he did not want to expose his youngest daughter to the school humiliations from which the other two siblings had already suffered. After receiving permission to enter a state school, he sent Marlies to a Jewish school that was located on the premises of the Orthodox synagogue.

At Christmas 1936, Hermann Wolf traveled to the USA with his wife. They visited relatives there and prepared to immigrate to the United States. Then the waiting time for the required papers began. The American consulate in Stuttgart was responsible, and according to the waiting list there, there was little hope that the Wolfs would receive entry papers before January 1939.

As this trip to the USA shows, it was still possible for the Wolf family to lead a reasonably normal, if not a privileged, life. So in 1937 the family started a long vacation trip, which took them first to Recco (Liguria) , where their son Paul attended school, and then to Bled in what was then Yugoslavia. There they met Irene Wolf's sister and her husband, Helmut Menke, who had come from Palestine, where they now lived.

Since emigration was not yet possible, the Wolf family also witnessed the November pogrom in 1938 . Hermann Wolf was arrested on November 10th while entering the office, although he did not notice that it had subsequently been devastated. He was taken to a police station, where tremendous luck befell him. An officer who received him there, whose identity was never revealed to the family, released him after a short waiting period and merely ordered him not to leave the city. The partner Friedrich Moritz Mainzer was less lucky: he was also arrested and then deported to Buchenwald concentration camp for four weeks .

Hermann Wolf was one of the last Jewish lawyers in Darmstadt after November 10, 1938. The revocation of his approval that had already been sent to him originated on October 17th, but was not to come into force until November 30th. In addition, only the lawyers Benno Joseph (born November 3, 1885 in Darmstadt, † January 15, 1944 in Ghetto Theresienstadt ), Heinrich Winter from Mainz and Georg Nathan from Worms were authorized to represent Jewish citizens in the Darmstadt district court as consultants .

Wolf's apartment was visited by many Jewish women in the days after the pogrom, who hoped he could do something for their arrested husbands. But he was doomed to inactivity: “It was very painful to see my wise, learned, and previously powerful father being brought into a position of swoon. How must he have felt? Even the law, which he and his brother Paul had served with so much respect, failed him. "

The impotence of being able to help others in this hopeless situation did not prevent Hermann Wolf from dealing very professionally with his own financial matters in preparation for emigration. The correspondence rescued into emigration impressively shows what demands he was exposed to on the part of the authorities (Jewish tax, Reich flight tax, etc.) and what harassing way he had to fight to get amounts from his remaining assets free for current expenses (travel expenses for a farewell visit , Tips for the movers, ensuring the maintenance of the sister housed in the home, etc.). On February 9, 1939, the Darmstadt-Stadt tax office announced that “the entire tax account of the person liable has been finally cleared and nothing stands in the way of emigration for tax purposes”. Nevertheless, he insisted on applying to the authorities for the approval of monthly payments to people in need. There are also several documents about this in the archive documents mentioned above.

According to a police de-registration certificate dated February 6, 1939, the Wolf family's departure was scheduled for February 14, 1939. The four of them left Darmstadt (their son Paul only joined them in London) and traveled via Holland to England, where they spent a few more teage in London. On February 18, the RMS Queen Mary crossed the Atlantic from Southampton . They arrived in New York on February 23, 1939 and enjoyed special privileges as soon as they arrived, which were granted to them as travelers on a luxury liner: “We didn't have to go to Ellis Island to clear our immigration formalities! The luxury liners somehow had privileges that other ships didn't have. I know from my friends who came with smaller ships that they spent long hours in Ellis Island [..] The passengers on the luxury liners stood in line to have their papers checked directly on their ships. ”Marlies Wolf Plotnik: We came to America. P. 46. “We did not have to go to Ellis Island to be cleared! The luxury liners somehow had privileges other ships did not have. I know my friends who came on lesser ships spent long hours in Ellis Island [..] Passengers on the luxury liners lined up to have their papers cleared directly on their ships. ”This is probably the reason why the Wolf family chose them Trip is not in the Ellis Island database. You can only find them there for a trip with Samaria and arrival on February 18, 1939. On the passenger list, however, the five names are crossed out and the list below states: "did not embark."

Living in the USA

Of course, the Wolf family was also forced to pay all the property taxes that the Nazis imposed on people wishing to leave the country. Nevertheless, the Wolf family, who had previously shipped part of their household to the USA, did not start their trip to New York penniless. In Darmstadt, Hermann Wolf had already understood how to dispose of funds that had remained hidden from the authorities, and he revealed his foresight to his family during the crossing: “Only after we had crossed the middle of the Atlantic did father explain that we weren't too close would have to worry a lot about our livelihoods in the USA. Uncle Milton had looked after the investment of his father's fortune for many years, while Father had looked after Uncle Milton's portfolio in Germany. Investments had been negatively affected by 1929, of course, but Uncle Milton was a shrewd investor and while we were far from wealthy there was nothing to worry about directly. ”Some of the family jewels had also been brought to safety in time. They were kept by Max Weil, who ran the Dutch branch of Adler & Oppenheimer and was later able to take them with him to the USA. Max Weil lived in Tilburg in a villa built by the architect Ad Grimmon , which is also called “t Witte Huis” and is considered “the purest example of new objectivity ” in the city. The villa has been a national monument since 2002. Max Weil and his wife fled to the USA in 1941, where they were able to save a large part of their fortune.

The Wolf family, which initially lived in hotels, was able to rely on the support of numerous relatives right from the start, especially the von Milton (1866–1944) and Harriet Opton (1872–1964) families. Opton was the anglicised name for Oppenheimer, and Milton Oppenheimer, who, as mentioned earlier, had organized Hermann Wolf's wealth management in the United States, was his cousin.

Herman Wolf's daughters, Ellen and Marlies, were able to attend schools again just a few days after arriving in New York. The relatives introduced the family to the "American way of life" - at an upper-class level. The Optons apartment alone had four service loft rooms, meals were served by uniformed diners, and sightseeing took place in a chauffeur-driven Lincoln . But there were also limits to generosity: Aunt Harriet was afraid that Father would convince Uncle Milton to help more and more refugees. You really couldn't blame her. Uncle Milton was the sponsor of 13 people - eight besides us. Sponsorship meant that he had made a commitment to the government to support these people if it became necessary. Fortunately, we never needed the Optons' financial help, but it must have felt like a tremendous responsibility. In addition, Uncle Milton and Father sent money to distant relatives who were stuck in Germany.

What role it played in Hermann Wolf's life that he was Jewish cannot be deciphered from all the many documents. Presumably he already belonged in Darmstadt, like his partner and colleague Mainzer, to the assimilated Jews such as were organized in the Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith . Nothing is known about his own membership in Jewish organizations, and his children only attended Jewish schools when the Nazis gave them no other option. In New York, however, the two girls again sought proximity to Jewish institutions and were members of The Hebrew Tabernacle . It was a Jewish reform community founded in 1906, in which, after the Holocaust, mainly German Jews found a new home. Ellen Wolf met her future husband here.

After living in a hotel, the Wolf family moved into a seven-room apartment in Manhattan, in the Washington Heights district of New York City , before the outbreak of World War II . Son Paul was drafted at the beginning of the war and later took part in the Normandy landings . After the war he returned to the USA. In 1941 Irene Wolf's mother was able to travel to the USA and moved in with her daughter and son-in-law.

After the end of the war, Hermann Wolf successfully speculated in stocks and became involved in the jewelery business. He provided the finances to a former schoolmate from Alzey, who immigrated to the USA after the end of the war, so that he could trade in diamonds. Except for one serious conflict, business went well: “A customer had not redeemed extensive promissory notes he had signed, promissory notes for which father had provided the money. The loan was for the purchase of an expensive diamond necklace. The case - a trauma to our entire family - eventually ended in court; it was only decided in 1951 after father's death. "

Hermann Wolf's financial situation was nevertheless good. He was able to finance various training attempts of his older daughter Ellen, as well as the study of daughter Marlies at the private Barnard College and their wedding. According to the death certificate, he died on July 27, 1951 at 8:15 p.m. The profession was noted as “dealer in jewels”. His body was cremated in accordance with his testamentary wish.

Reparation

Hermann Wolf had already submitted applications for reimbursement at the end of the 1940s. They related to real estate in Alzey and Darmstadt, to securities and bank accounts as well as to the withdrawal of the license to practice law, compulsory levies, emigration costs, jewelry and other losses. These reimbursement requests were then part of the decision-making process as part of the actual compensation process. Hermann Wolf had applied for this on January 19, 1950 on the basis of the “Law for the Reparation of National Socialist Injustices” (Compensation Act), in which he described himself as an “occasional diamond dealer”. In order to make amends, he reported:

  • Damage to property and assets RM 106,586.70 plus securities not yet numbered;
  • Damage to economic advancement in the amount of RM 201,315, - plus "Pension payment in the amount of the pension of the civil servant class corresponding to the previous income, starting on July 1, 1948";
  • Damage to insurance and pension institutions in the estimated amount of RM 8-10,000.

As the documents in the archive of the Leo Baeck Institute suggest, Hermann Wolf was able to document his losses in great detail - including the additional expenses for his children's school attendance. Nonetheless, it took a long time for the Darmstadt Regional Council to process his application, and it was only after two years, on April 18, 1952, that Hermann Wolf received compensation in the amount of "RM 113.200, - = ( converted 10: 2) DM 22,640.– “granted. All further claims were rejected. On May 12, 1953, a year later, the regional council granted an advance payment of DM 5,000, - which was not yet paid out.

Hermann Wolf had long since died by this time, and when Willy Behrend, a government director who acted as his authorized representative, informed the regional council a little late on August 3, 1953 and at the same time referred to Irene Wolf as the sole heir, the regional council took this as an opportunity , to record in a file note dated September 4, 1953: “The partial payment of DM 5000.– of the established capital compensation of DM 22.640.– approved by the decree of April 29, 1953, cannot be made because the sole heir, the widow of the deceased, was 65 . Has not yet reached the age of six. ”Irene Wolf then had to produce a“ means certificate ”, confirmed by the German consulate in New York. At the same time, however, the regional council states that Hermann Wolf died before the decision was issued. As a result, the widow would only be entitled to 60% of the lump-sum compensation, i.e. DM 13,584.00. DM 3,000.00 was set as a deduction, a corresponding notification was issued on April 6, 1954 and the payment was made in August 1954.

On May 12, 1955, Behrend called for further claims to be settled, including the transport and passage costs in the course of emigration. On June 23, 1955, there was a further decision from the regional council, but this did not deal with the outstanding claims and instead ordered a further reduction in the compensation that had already been promised. In the meantime, the regional council had come to the conclusion that Hermann Wolf's damage to economic advancement did not amount to DM 22,640, as originally decided, but only to DM 10,000. Further claims were again rejected and should be based on the newly determined amount the 3,000 DM already paid out are taken into account, so that Irene Wolf would still be entitled to 7,000 DM.

On December 10, 1955, Willy Behrend, acting as agent for Irene Wolf, filed a lawsuit with the Compensation Chamber at the Darmstadt Regional Court. On January 19, 1956, the regional council informed Behrend that it was ready to revise its decision. On February 7, 1956, Behrend agreed to a suspension of the action. Independently of this, a total of 10,645.29 DM was paid out in the course of 1956 as a reimbursement for the Reich flight tax, emigration costs, special taxes and other damages.

On November 2, 1956, due to a change in the Federal Compensation Act, the regional council offered an additional lump sum of DM 30,000 if Wolf / Behrend were to withdraw their lawsuit at the same time. On December 3, 1956, Behrend promised to withdraw the action in the event that the redefinition of the compensation would not be settled in the form of a settlement, but by a new decision (which, in contrast to the settlement, could have been challenged again). The regional council responds to this and issues a new decision on January 17, 1957. Behrend had previously withdrawn the lawsuit, but on February 6, 1958, he pointed out to the regional council that there were still further claims of around 20,000 DM open.

On March 7, 1958, a further notification was issued for DM 2,862.01 as compensation for a previous life insurance policy. Another payment was made by decision of December 29, 1958 at DM 3,672.10.

On March 25, 1958, Behrend then asserted the lost goodwill from the law firm that was operated jointly with Mainzer from the regional council. On March 2, 1959, Wolf / Behrend filed a lawsuit against the rejection of this claim on September 26, 1958 at the Darmstadt Regional Court.

By means of a court settlement proposal of August 26, 1960, which was accepted by all parties involved, the Rothschild and Wolf parties were awarded a portion of compensation of DM 15,720, the payment of which was made in full to Irene Wolf. 30,000 DM went to the Mainz party.

In a provisional decision of the Oberfinanzdirektion Frankfurt dated October 2, 1959, Irene Wolf's compensation (excluding goodwill) had previously been set at DM 36,899.28. It was increased by a further decision of August 11, 1960 by 1,399.22 DM to 38,298.50 DM.

On June 9, 1961, Willy Behrend submitted to the regional council that further compensation was still pending in the Wolf affair. In a letter dated April 2, 1962, he withdrew some of these demands. Two years later, on December 16, 1964, he again referred to the "very difficult economic situation" and at the same time asked for the capital compensation to be converted into a pension.

On April 26, 1966, the regional council granted Irene Wolf in a new decision retrospectively from May 1, 1966, a pension of DM 450, which increased to DM 494 from November 1, 1969 and from December 1, 1969 to 600 DM. This pension is adjusted again and again in the following years and amounted to 714 DM from September 1, 1970.

swell

  • Leo Baeck Institute : Guide to the Papers of the Wolf-Oppenheimer Family 1843–2015 . The digitized inventory allows an almost complete reconstruction of Hermann Wolf's life and family history. It is divided as follows:
    • Series I: Hermann Wolf and Family, 1886–2014
    • Series II: Marlies (née Wolf) and Eugene ("Gene") Plotnik, 1927-2010
    • Series III: Extended Family, 1843-2015
      • Subseries 1: Wolf and Related Families, 1843-1966, 2000-2015
      • Subseries 2: Oppenheimer and Related Families, 1894-1953
    • Series IV: Family History, Genealogy, and Family Graves, 1843-2014
    • Series V: Family Photographs, 1914-1980s
  • Marlies Wolf Plotnik: We came to America. Memoirs of a refugee child , Hartsdale, NY, 2005. (Available online in the LBI Memoir Collection, ME 1513.)
    Marlies Plotnik's memoirs tell the story of the Wolf family from Alzey and describe the everyday life of a middle class family living in Darmstadt in the 1920s , the cultural events of the time, the theater, the ball season. It follows the year 1933 and the beginning of the Nazi era. Marlies Plotnik reports on her two older siblings who were exposed to anti-Semitic hostility in their Darmstadt schools, she reports on the destruction of the two Darmstadt synagogues and then on the family's flight to the USA and the establishment there.
  • USHMM : Oral history interview with Marlies Plotnik . Detailed interview with Hermann Wolf's daughter.
  • Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt (HStAD): Documents on Hermann Wolf's career up to the professional ban. Signature G 21 B No. 4098 / 1-2 (319 digital copies).
  • Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Wiesbaden (HHStAW): reparation proceedings Hermann Wolf
    • Compensation procedure, signature: Dept. 518 No. 30032
    • Refund procedure according to Military Government Act No. 59 , signature: Dept. 519 / A No. Da 248 (= Dept. 460 No. WIK D 202)
    • Refund procedure according to the Federal Restitution Act (BRüG), signature: Dept. 519 / N No. 13175
      The two reimbursement procedures were dealt with as part of the compensation procedure.
  • Written communication from Claudia Stul, educational assistant at the Hadamar Memorial, dated December 21, 2018

literature

  • Federal Bar Association (Hrsg.): Lawyer without law. Fate of Jewish lawyers in Germany after 1933 , be.bra verlag, Berlin-Brandenburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-89809-074-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marlies Wolf Plotnik: We came to America. P. 21.
  2. ↑ Unless other sources are given, the presentation of Hermann Wolf's career follows the Guide to the Papers of the Wolf-Oppenheimer Family 1843–2015 (see sources ).
  3. ↑ His dissertation from 1902 with the title “On simple furniture property under the rights of the Civil Code for the German Reich” and several legal articles written by him are in the inventory of the library of the Leo Baeck Institute .
  4. ↑ Printed by Marlies Wolf Plotnik: We came to America. Part 2, no pages.
  5. ↑ Marlies Wolf Plotnik: We came to America. P. 27. “And that became important. Their sister Ella, contracted tuberculosis and was bedridden from the age of four until the age of 18. Ella was tutored by her brothers and the only professional help called in was a professor from Mainz who came to teach her advanced math and chemistry. "
  6. ↑ a b Doctors in the Empire: Ella Wolf
  7. ↑ a b c d e f g HHStAW: Compensation proceedings Hermann Wolf, signature: Dept. 518 No. 30032
  8. ↑ Memorial book entry for Ella Wolf . The entry in Yad Vashem's database refers to the memorial book , but its statement remains vague: “Ella Wolf was born in 1883 in Alzey, German Empire. Before the Second World War she lived in Heppenheim, German Empire. During the war she was in Hadamar, German Empire. Ella was murdered in the Shoah. "( Ella Wolf in the Central Database of the Names of Holocaust Victims by Yad Vashem )
  9. ↑ Marlies Plotnik's claim that Ella Wolf perished in Treblinka in 1941 remains unclear. (Marlies Wolf Plotnik: We came to America. P. 26)
  10. ^ Leo Baeck Institute: Guide to the Papers of the Wolf-Oppenheimer Family 1843-2015; Series I: Hermann Wolf and Family, 1886–2014; Box 1, Folder 10: Financial Matters and Emigration
  11. ^ Student Councilor Marie REINHARDT, Darmstadt
  12. ↑ A detailed discussion of the cousins ​​Ella Wolf and Marie Kaufmann-Wolf comes from Renate Rosenau, who describes the arduous career of these early doctors: Renate Rosenau: The cousins ​​Marie Kaufmann-Wolf and Ella Wolf: Two Alzeyer girls on the long way to college and medical profession. In: Alzeyer history sheets. Issue 41, 2015, p. 128 ff. The article is available online: Leo Baeck Institute: Guide to the Papers of the Wolf-Oppenheimer Family 1843–2015, Subseries 1: Wolf and Related Families, Box 1, Folder 36.
  13. ^ History of today's Rabanus-Maurus-Gymnasium Mainz
  14. ↑ Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt: Documents on Hermann Wolf's career up to the professional ban, digitized 266–267
  15. ↑ This is alluded to in the petty song “Hermann's first trial”, which was performed at his wedding party. (Leo Baeck Institute: Guide to the Papers of the Wolf-Oppenheimer Family 1843–2015, Series 1, Box 1, Folder 20: Various Family Papers - Official Documents, Correspondence and Family Trees)
  16. ↑ Marlies Wolf Plotnik: We came to America. P. 32.
  17. ^ Leo Baeck Institute: Guide to the Papers of the Wolf-Oppenheimer Family 1843-2015, Series I: Hermann Wolf and Family, Box 1, Folder 20: Military Pass
  18. ↑ On a letterhead from April 1921, the three names form the letterhead side by side. (Leo Baeck Institute: Guide to the Papers of the Wolf-Oppenheimer Family 1843–2015, Series I: Hermann Wolf and Family, Box 1, Folder 4: Family Papers)
  19. ↑ a b Marlies Wolf Plotnik: We came to America. Pp. 57-58. "Little did she know that I was really very proud that ma mother did not know how to sew or apply starch. Most anyone could do that. But not many mothers spoke good French, played the piano well and knew more about oratorios than most people. This may have been misplaced snobbism, but I still believe in it. "
  20. ↑ Address book of the capital and residence city Darmstadt , 1921, p. 302 & 1935, p. 200.
  21. ↑ Marlies Wolf Plotnik: We came to America. P. 34. “The middle class lived well. My parents always chose to avoid ostentation. But that permitted two sleep-in servants; a woman to come in to do the laundry; five- to six-week vacations that were most often spent in other countries on the Continent; good subscriptions to the theater and Darmstadt's very active opera season; numerous musicales in their own home; frequent Five-O'clock Teas - really coffees - with marvelous pastries, and attendance at the aforementioned “Fasching” (Carnival) balls. In other words, they enjoyed pretty good living after the horrible inflation was over. "
  22. ↑ Marlies Wolf Plotnik: We came to America. P. 18.
  23. ↑ Marlies Wolf Plotnik: We came to America. P. 63. "Father had a history of gifting without the recipients' finding out the source of the largesse. I remember most vividly accompanying him in the early 1930s, in Darmstadt, to a fancy store that created gift baskets for ocean liners. lt was just before Christmas and father handed the proprietor a list of people and addresses. Contents for complete meals were discussed: a goose with all the trimmings for eight etc. 'And of course without your name to be mentioned, as usual', said the man. 'Of course', said father. "
  24. ↑ Marlies Wolf Plotnik: We came to America. P. 4. “She traveled to Berlin and surprised everyone by forcing her way in to see the infamous Heinrich Himmler. She reported that he patted her knee in a knowing way but said he could not make any exceptions, even for a pretty blonde. "
  25. ↑ Marlies Wolf Plotnik: We came to America. P. 36.
  26. ↑ Marlies Wolf Plotnik: We came to America. Pp. 7-8.
  27. ↑ Marlies Wolf Plotnik: We came to America. P. 8, p. 14.
  28. ↑ Marlies Wolf Plotnik: We came to America. P. 8, p. 6.
  29. ^ Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt: Documents on Hermann Wolf's career up to the professional ban. Signature G 21 B No. 4098 / 1-2, Document 3
  30. ^ Federal Bar Association (Ed.): Lawyer without law. P. 72.
  31. ↑ Heinrich Winter, who lived in a so-called “privileged mixed marriage” and was allowed to remain active as a consultant, survived the Nazi era. ( Hedwig Brüchert: National Socialist Rassenwahn. Disenfranchisement, kidnapping and murder of Mainz Jews, Sinti and mentally handicapped people , p. 4, and Mainz wheel and cogs are in motion. Rotary new beginning in the Mainz district 70 years ago , anniversary lecture by Frd. Litzenburger on January 25, 2016)
  32. ^ Biographies of Worms Jews: Georg and Anna Nathan . According to the Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt (HStAD), he enjoyed the frontline fighter privilege until 1938 . ( HStAD: Georg Nathan: Digital copies of holdings G 21 B No. 4507 )
  33. ^ Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt : Benno Joseph, HStAD files G 21 B No. 3404 / 1-2 , digitized inventory, document 57.
  34. ↑ Marlies Wolf Plotnik: We came to America. S. 19. "It was very painful to see my wise, learned, and, before this, powerful father, put into a position of powerlessness. How must himself have felt? Even the law, wich he and his brother Paul had served with such respect, was letting him down. "
  35. ^ The very extensive documents on this can be viewed: Leo Baeck Institute: Guide to the Papers of the Wolf-Oppenheimer Family 1843–2015; Series I: Hermann Wolf and Family, 1886–2014; Box 1, Folder 9 and 10: Financial Matters and Emigration
  36. ↑ Marlies Wolf Plotnik: We came to America. S. 5. “It was only after we passed the midpoint of the Atlantic that father explained that we would not have to worry too much about our subsistence in the US Uncle Milton had supervised the investing of father's holdings for many years while father had taken care of Uncle Milton's portofolio in Germany. The investments had, of course, been hit by 1929, but Uncle Milton was a shrewed investor and although we were far from wealthy, there was no need for immediate worry. "
  37. ↑ Marlies Wolf Plotnik: We came to America. P. 43.
  38. ^ The Villa Weil in Tilburg
  39. ↑ Edward OPPENHEIMER and Gudel (Julia) DINKELSPIEL Family Tree
  40. ↑ Marlies Wolf Plotnik: We came to America. Pp. 52-53.
  41. ↑ Marlies Wolf Plotnik: We came to America. S. 53. “Aunt Harriet was afraid that father was convincing Uncle Milton to help more and more refugees. One really could not blame her. Uncle Milton was the sponsor for 13 people - eight besides us. Sponsoring meant that he had vouched to the government that he would support those people if it became necessary. [..] Luckily we never needed the Opton's help financially, but it must have felt like a tremendous responsibility. On top of that, Uncle Milton and father were sending money to distant relative stuck in Germany. "
  42. ↑ Marlies Wolf Plotnik: We came to America. P. 55.
  43. ^ Hebrew Tabernacle Congregation
  44. ↑ Marlies Wolf Plotnik: We came to America. S. 69. "A customer reneged on substantial notes he had signed, notes for which father had supplied the cash. The credit had been extended for the purchase of an expensive diamond necklace. The case - a trauma for our whole family - ultimately ended in court; it was not settled until after father's death in l951. "
  45. ↑ This claim was more likely to be due to efforts to speed up the proceedings than to reality, because the documents in the Leo Baeck Institute and Marlies Plotnik's memories do not provide any indications of Irene Wolf's precarious situation.
  46. ↑ Federal law regulating the monetary liabilities of the German Reich and equivalent legal entities (Federal Restitution Act - BRüG)
personal data
SURNAME Wolf, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH April 28, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Alzey
DATE OF DEATH July 27, 1951
Place of death New York City