Martha Maas

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Martha Maas , b. Rosenfeld (born June 28, 1893 in Aachen , † January 28, 1970 in Gurtberg in the Swiss canton of St. Gallen ) was a German portrait photographer.

life and work

Martha Rosenfeld was born on June 28, 1893 as the daughter of the Jewish businessman Salomon Rosenfeld and Luise Rosenfeld, née Hirsch born in Aachen. After attending the Viktoriaschule Aachen , Martha Rosenfeld attended a girls boarding school in Bonn for a year . After her father's death on January 25, 1911, she returned to Aachen. During the First World War she worked as a volunteer for the Red Cross .

In 1916 she began an apprenticeship as a photographer in Suse Byk's photo studio on Kurfürstendamm 230 in Berlin. After passing the journeyman's examination on February 1, 1920 at the Lette-Verein in Berlin, she returned to Aachen and, together with the photographer Richter, opened the “Photographische Werkstätte Richter-Rosenfeld” in Hindenburgstrasse 3. Here she devoted herself to artistic portraits and architectural photography of Aachen . The studio later moved to Theaterplatz 1. The two photographers attracted attention in particular with series of portraits and with two exhibitions in the Suermondt Museum in 1924 and 1927.

In 1927 60 portraits of mainly well-known Aachen personalities were shown, among others by Joseph Buchkremer (cathedral builder) , Felix Kuetgens (museum director), Peter Raabe (general music director), Theodor Veil (architect), Hans Hausmann (professor of architecture at RWTH Aachen University ) and the Doctors Ludwig Beltz and Erich Zurhelle . Four photos from the studio of sights in Aachen were used to illustrate the 3rd edition of Germany's Urban Development : Aachen . Martha Maas also published her own articles on theoretical aspects of modern photography . In 1928 she received a diploma from the international press exhibition signed by the then mayor of Cologne, Konrad Adenauer , for outstanding photographic achievements .

On June 26, 1929, the photographer acquired her master craftsman's certificate from the Aachen Chamber of Crafts . In the same year in Berlin-Schöneberg she married Dr. Walter Maas and moved with him to Berlin, where in 1933 she opened a studio for portrait photography in her husband's name in her apartment at Lietzenburger Straße 37. At the time, Martha Maas mainly made portraits of actors, including Grethe Weiser . A letter to the compensation office from 1955 shows that she also worked with the sculptor Hans Bloch during this time.

When her non-Jewish husband was no longer employed as an economist from 1933 due to his mixed marriage , he worked in her studio. From 1935 the couple continued to run the photo studio at Pariser Strasse 37. But soon more and more customers were avoiding the Jewish photographer. Martha Maas decided to take purely private portraits - including of pets, especially dogs and cats. Despite the increasingly unfavorable working environment, the studio was able to post sales of 5313.29 Reichsmarks in 1938 .

Walter Maas was drafted into the Wehrmacht in February 1940 and shortly afterwards he was dismissed because he was “unworthy of military service because of Aryan infiltration”. On 23 December 1939 Martha Maas was a result of the regulation on the elimination of Jews from German economic life with disbarment occupied and deleted from the Handicrafts. In March 1942 she was obliged to do forced labor in the clothing factory for Wehrmacht uniforms in Jakubaschk, Simeonstrasse 11. In February 1943 she was arrested by the SS as part of the so-called fabrication and imprisoned for eight days in the Rosenstrasse assembly camp . Presumably she only survived because the work in the Wehrmacht uniforms factory was classified as essential to the war effort.

The mother Luise Rosenfeld was deported from the Israelite old people's home Kalverbenden 87 in Aachen on July 25, 1942 with Transport VII / 2 (No. 135) to the Theresienstadt concentration camp , where she died on April 26, 1944.

After the war Martha Maas withdrew from public life and no longer practiced her profession as a photographer. In the post-war period I only took private photos of trips through Europe and her family, etc. a. from her cousin Ada Hirsch, a well-known psychiatrist living in New York City . In 1961 Walter and Martha Maas moved to Switzerland. In the last years of her life she lived withdrawn and occasionally wrote aphorisms and turned increasingly to Jewish Christianity . Martha Maas died in January 1970. Some of her works are now in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC and in the Archives of the Academy of Arts .

Exhibitions

  • March 1924: Suermondt Museum, Aachen: portrait photographs
  • May 1927: Suermondt Museum, Aachen: portrait photographs of 60 Aachen personalities

List of works

Published photographs

literature

  • Stefan Maria Rother: Martha Maas, b. Rose field. A Jewish photographer in Germany 1893–1970. edition rotor, Berlin 2009.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stefan Maria Rother: Martha Maas, b. Rosenfeld - A Jewish Photographer in Germany 1893–1970 . edition rotor, Berlin 2009.
  2. ^ Ludwina Forst, Béatrice Oesterreich, Dieter Detiège: Business times: Shopping in Aachen and Burtscheid 1900–1939 . Thouet, Aachen 2011, ISBN 978-3-930594-37-5 , p. 75 .
  3. ↑ Politisches Tageblatt, Aachen, March 8, 1924.
  4. ^ Aachener Allgemeine Zeitung, May 7, 1927.
  5. ^ Aachener Anzeiger, May 7, 1927.
  6. ^ Albert Huyskens: Germany's urban development: Aachen . 3. Edition. German Architecture and Industry Publishing House (DARI), Berlin – Halensee 1928.
  7. ^ Address book of the city of Berlin, 1934, p. 1608.
  8. ^ Stefan Maria Rother: Martha Maas, b. Rosenfeld - A Jewish Photographer in Germany 1893–1970 . edition rotor, Berlin 2009, p. 88 .
  9. ^ Stefan Maria Rother: Martha Maas, b. Rosenfeld - A Jewish Photographer in Germany 1893–1970 . edition rotor, Berlin 2009, p. 81 .
  10. ↑ Deportation list Aachen - Ghetto Theresienstadt from July 25, 1942, page 7
  11. ↑ Allied Commission for Germany - International Tracing Service, Ref. T / D 290 673: Access list from the Düsseldorf Gestapo area of ​​the Theresienstadt camp
  12. ↑ holocaust.cz: Memorial sheet for Luise Rosenfeld in Ghetto Theresienstadt ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www2.holocaust.cz
  13. ^ Federal Archives: Memorial sheet for Luise Louise Rosenfeld in the memorial book. Retrieved February 13, 2018 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Maas, Martha
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rosenfeld, Martha (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German photographer
DATE OF BIRTH June 28, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Aachen
DATE OF DEATH January 28, 1970
Place of death Gurtberg , Canton of St. Gallen