Josef Frankel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Josef Fränkel (born on May 26, 1920 in Alwernia in Poland ; died on January 31, 1994 in Darmstadt ) was an engineer and chairman of the Jewish community in Darmstadt, which was re-established after the Second World War .

Life

Josef Fränkel grew up in Alwernia near Kraków . After graduating from high school and being abducted, he survived various forced and concentration camps . He met his wife Johanna (born Johanna Hornung on December 13, 1925 in Beuthen, OS ) in the Groß-Rosen concentration camp . After the liberation in 1945, Frankel and his wife, who had a serious lung condition, were denied entry to the USA. He studied mechanical engineering at the TH Darmstadt from 1946 to 1950 and graduated as a graduate engineer . From 1949 he was a member of the Jewish Student Union in Darmstadt .

He worked as a mechanical engineer at the Pittler machine factory in Langen until 1976 and developed a number of patents for the company.

From the early 1950s until his death he was chairman of the Darmstadt Jewish community . Alongside the then Lord Mayor of Darmstadt Ludwig Engel, he was a co-signer of the founding document of the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation in Darmstadt on November 10, 1954. He saw his special task initially in looking after the so-called displaced persons who had ended up in Darmstadt and to make Jewish life in the city possible again. Since the Jewish community was only housed in a makeshift facility in Darmstadt's Osannstrasse for a long time , he got involved in building a new synagogue in the city. This was inaugurated on November 9, 1988. Josef Fränkel was one of the key speakers. With Josef Fränkel as chairman, Jewish life in Darmstadt experienced a new boost. The establishment of a museum on Jewish history in the city in 1991 is thanks to his work .

In the Jewish community he was honored in the obituary alongside Max Willner from Offenbach and Rafael Scharf-Katz from Erfurt as a prominent founding personality of the Jewish communities in Germany after the Second World War .

Josef and Johanna Fränkel had a son (born 1955) and a daughter, the artist Ritula Fränkel (1952–2015). His grave is in the Jewish cemetery in Darmstadt-Bessungen .

Appreciation

From October 20 to December 28, 1998 an exhibition of the Hessian State Archives Darmstadt took place in the House of History on Karolinenplatz on the subject of "... living on the cursed German earth" - Jewish life in southern Hesse after 1945 , which deals with the DP - Camps in Lampertheim , Lindenfels , Bensheim , Dieburg and Babenhausen after 1945 and the beginnings of the Darmstadt Jewish community. It is available online as a digital archive. The person Josef Fränkel and his work occupy an important place in it.

Thomas Lange , editor of Judaism and Jewish History in School Lessons after 1945 , explicitly dedicated the first contribution to the collection to the memory of Josef Fränkel.

Publications

  • (Ed.) Eva Reinhold-Postina, Moritz Neumann: The Darmstadt synagogue book. Documentation for the inauguration of the synagogue on November 9, 1988. On behalf of the Darmstadt City Administration and the Darmstadt Jewish Community, Roether Verlag, Darmstadt 1988, ISBN 978-3-792-90165-6 . In this:
  • With Moritz Neumann : New Jewish life after the catastrophe. Pp. 24-35
  • The Darmstadt synagogue is more than a mere construction project. Pp. 73-81
  • Josef Fränkel: Address for the inauguration of the synagogue , In: Press and Information Office Darmstadt: The citizenship gives a synagogue back to the Jewish community: Inauguration of the synagogue in Darmstadt - November 9, 1989 , DNB 891078134 , Darmstadt 1989, pp. 8-12

literature

  • Martin Frenzel: "An ornament of our city": History, present and future of the Liberal Synagogue Darmstadt , Ed .: Magistrat der Stadt Darmstadt, Justus von Liebig Verlag, Darmstadt 2008, ISBN 978-3-873-90259-6 . P. 112 f., P. 214 f.
  • Eckhart G. Franz : Jews as Darmstadt citizens. Eduard Roether Verlag, Darmstadt 1984, ISBN 978-3-792-90139-7 , pp. 191-195, p. 299, p. 302.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See the permit for Johanna Fränkel to study in Darmstadt on She'erit Haplejta , Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt
  2. ↑ a b Frankel, Josef. Hessian biography (as of January 29, 2017). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on January 30, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Marc Mandel: A suitcase full of stories , Jüdische Allgemeine , February 7, 2013
  4. ↑ Astrid Ludwig: Jewish Community: From Life in the Second Home , Frankfurter Rundschau , June 19, 2009
  5. ↑ a b Gabriella Deppert: Frankel, Josef , in: Stadtlexikon Darmstadt
  6. ↑ ... live on the cursed German earth. Jewish life in southern Hesse after 1945 , She'erit Haplejta: List of the Association of Jewish Students at TH Darmstadt , accessed on January 30, 2017
  7. ^ Paul Arnsberg : The Jewish communities in Hesse: beginning, downfall, new beginning. , Volume 1, Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1971, ISBN 978-3-797-30213-7 . P. 130
  8. ↑ Patent numbers DE000002233163C3, DE000002233163B2, DE000002233163A, DE000002232715C3, DE000002232715B2, DE000002232715A, DE000002232715A
  9. ^ Franz: Jews as Darmstadt Citizens , p. 302
  10. ↑ David Gower, Udo Steinbeck: Jewish Traces in Darmstadt , Volume 2, p. 4
  11. ^ Opening of the new synagogue in Darmstadt, November 9, 1988. Contemporary history in Hesse (as of November 9, 2016). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS). Hessian State Office for Historical Cultural Studies (HLGL), accessed on January 30, 2017 .
  12. ^ David Singer, Ruth R, Seldin: Jewish Year Book 1996 , therein: Deidre Berger: Federal Republic of Germany , Volume 96, New York 1996, ISBN 0-87495-110-0 , p. 299
  13. ^ Jewish community , Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt
  14. ↑ On the death of Ritula Fränkel , City of Darmstadt, accessed on January 28, 2017
  15. ↑ Dietrich Kohlmannslehner: "... live on the cursed German earth". Jewish life in South Hesse after 1945. Exhibition in the House of History, Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt 1998
  16. ↑ Thomas Lange (Ed.): Judaism and Jewish history in school lessons after 1945 , Böhlau Verlag, Vienna-Cologne-Weimar 1994, ISBN 3-205-98245-2 . P. 34
personal data
SURNAME Frankel, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German engineer and chairman of the Darmstadt Jewish Community
DATE OF BIRTH May 26, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Alwernia , Poland
DATE OF DEATH January 31, 1994
Place of death Darmstadt