Johanna Leuwer

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Johanna Rosa "Anni" Leuwer , (born Neumark ; * December 24, 1871 in Bremen ; † February 8, 1943 in Theresienstadt ) was a German dentist , bookseller and entrepreneur who, as a Jew, fell victim to the National Socialists . For many years she was co-owner and later main owner of the book and art shop Franz Leuwer in Bremen.

biography

family

Leuwer was the daughter of the Jewish painter Joseph Neumark (1838–1905) and Rosali Neumark, b. Ballin (1849-1923). The family was liberal and also belonged to a Protestant denomination. Her brother Friedrich Neumark (née Fritz, 1876–1957) was a well-known Bremen architect and her brother Adolph (1870–1945) was a doctor.

In 1893 she married the businessman Hermann Mengers; both lived in Berlin. In 1896 they got divorced. Her daughter Ilse (* 1894) was married to the writer and lawyer Josef Kastein from 1918 to 1926, and both had two sons. She emigrated to Palestine in 1933 .

In 1910 she married the Bremen book and art dealer Franz Henrik Hubert Leuwer (1876–1916). Both lived in Bremen, Bismarckstrasse  51, and had children Elisabeth Wilhelmine and Franz Josef. Elisabeth (Lisa) had emigrated to London in 1935 and her son Franz Leuwer , who later called himself Frank Lynder, also emigrated to London in 1938.
Her brother Fritz fled to England in 1939. Her brother Adolph had to go into hiding in Bremen in the 1940s.

education and profession

Leuwer received training as a dentist . After her divorce, she moved back to Bremen in 1896 and opened a dental practice in Im Schüsselkorb in downtown Bremen .

In 1903 her second husband founded the book and art shop Franz Leuwer at Obernstraße 14 with branches on Wangerooge , Borkum and Spiekeroog as well as numerous log book shops on passenger ships of the North German Lloyd . In 1916, after the death of her husband, she inherited the company. The management passed her on to the authorized signatory Carl Emil Spiegel, who also acquired shares in the business.

Shortly after the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Norddeutsche Lloyd urged the company to be “ Aryanized ”, “because it saw the Jewish owner of the log bookstores as a threat to the shipping company's reputation”. The company was transferred to Spiegel in 1933, and she remained a silent partner.

Leuwer could not bring himself to emigrate . Her son, who survived the Holocaust , later recalled her attitude: “No matter what happens, you won't do anything to an old lady, a woman like me. Anything that could harm me has already been done. ”In 1939 she had to leave her house in Bismarckstrasse, which, like her office building with the book and art shop in Obernstrasse, was“ aryanized ”. For a short time she lived with her brother Fritz at Kurfürstenallee  9. When she finally applied to leave the country, she was initially unable to travel because of an illness, and from September 1939 the Second World War prevented emigration. In March 1942 she was forced to live in the Bremen “ Judenhaus ” at Franz-Liszt-Straße 11a , which was created by the National Socialists . In the summer of 1942 she also had to give up the remaining assets. Immediately afterwards, she was in the end of July 1942 Theresienstadt deported . Leuwer had to live there under inhumane conditions and died of malnutrition a few months after her deportation.

Commemoration

  • In 2003 the city of Bremen honored the 200th anniversary of the Jewish community under the motto “Chai! - Lebe! “With a series of events and an exhibition of the same name in the lower town hall ; the fate of Anni Leuwer and her family were also presented.
  • In 2003, students from the Rübekamp school center in Bremen took part in the ProjektWerkstatt 2003 student competition organized by the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) and dealt with the subject of "Traces of National Socialism in Bremen ". The focus of her investigation, which was honored with a prize from the bpb, was the Aryanization of the Leuwer bookshop in 1933 and the fate of Anni Leuwer.
  • A stumbling block was laid in front of Kurfürstenallee No. 9 in Bremen - Schwachhausen in 2005 as a memorial . On the occasion of the setting of the “stumbling block”, a public commemorative matinée for Rose Leuwer took place in the book and art shop Leuwer in 2005 .
  • In 2006, on the initiative of the Bremen association “Remembering for the Future” , a memorial plaque donated by the citizens of Bremen was installed in the Theresienstadt memorial in Terezín in the Czech Republic , commemorating the Jewish men and women deported from Bremen to Theresienstadt during the Nazi era to Johanna Rose Leuwer.

literature

  • Edith Laudowicz : Leuwer, Johanna Rose, called Anni, geb. Neumark. In: Bremer Frauenmuseum e. V. (Ed.): Women story (s). Biographies and women's places from Bremen and Bremerhaven. Edition Falkenberg, Rotenburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-95494-095-0 .
  • Günther Rohdenburg, Karl-Ludwig Sommer: Memory book for the residents of Bremen persecuted as Jews who were persecuted as Jews during the National Socialist tyranny because of their membership of the Jewish religious community or according to criteria of the National Socialist racial legislation (=  small writings of the Bremen State Archives , Volume 37). Published by the Bremen State Archives . Bremen State Archive, Bremen 2006, ISBN 3-925729-49-6 .
  • Klaus Behrens-Talla (Red.): Life stories. Fates of Christians of Jewish descent from Bremen after 1933 (=  Hospitium ecclesiae , Volume 23). Published by a working group. Hauschild Verlag, Bremen 2006, ISBN 3-89757-335-0 , pp. 127-134: Anni Leuwer and her children .
  • Nils Aschenbeck : Hundred years of book and art dealer Franz Leuwer. Donat Verlag, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-934836-62-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ source according to Bremen historian Herbert Schwarzwälder in Das Große Bremen-Lexikon and gravestone in the Riensberger Friedhof and references in the passport register of Die Maus ; the merchant Abraham Neumark (* 1822) was not mentioned.
  2. ↑ Bremen address book from 1906, entry Mengers, H, wife, house number Schüsselkorb 9/10.
  3. ↑ https://brema.suub.uni-bremen.de/periodical/pageview/701150
  4. ↑ Kristine Grzemba, Peter Christoffersen: Stolpersteine ​​Bremen: Johanna Rose Leuwer, geb. Neumark, * 1871. In: stolpersteine-bremen.de. 2011, accessed July 29, 2016 .
  5. ^ Nils Aschenbeck : Hundred years of book and art dealer Franz Leuwer. Donat Verlag, Bremen 2003, p. 28.
  6. ↑ Kristine Grzemba, Peter Christoffersen: Johanna Rosa Leuwer, born Neumark, * 1871 . In: Online portal Stolpersteine ​​Bremen , www.stolpersteine-bremen.de. Retrieved July 27, 2016.
  7. ↑ See announcement and program for the series of events and the exhibition: Chai! - Live! 200 years of the Bremen Jewish Community . Published by the Senate Press Office of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen , Bremen 2003 (PDF, 118 kB; accessed on August 1, 2016).
  8. ^ SZ Rübekamp: A history of suffering from Bremen. Political course wins book prize in bpb's student competition . In: Schulzentrum am Rübekamp (Ed.): Yearbook No. 2 (school years 2002/03 & 2003/04) . Bremen, S. 38 ( online [PDF; 255 kB ; accessed on August 1, 2016]).
  9. ↑ a b Senate press office of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen : Commemorative matinée to Rose Leuwer. In: senatspressestelle.bremen.de. December 9, 2005, accessed July 29, 2016 (press release).
personal data
SURNAME Leuwer, Johanna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Leuwer, Johanna Rosa (full name); Leuwer, Anni
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German bookseller
DATE OF BIRTH December 24, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremen
DATE OF DEATH February 8, 1943
Place of death Theresienstadt