Pali Meller

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Pál Meller , called Pali Meller , (born June 18, 1902 in Sopron / Ödenburg , † March 31, 1943 in the Brandenburg-Görden prison ) was a Hungarian architect . He came from a wealthy Jewish family in Burgenland in western Hungary .

Pali Meller's father, Bélá Meller, a dentist from Hegykő (Heiligenstein) south of Lake Neusiedl in Ödenburg County , owned a dental practice in a 12-room house with staff in Ödenburg. Bélá Meller was married to Adél Markovits, who was 13 years his junior and who also came from a wealthy background. Pali had a sister named Edith one year older. Both grew up bilingual, the school taught in German, and at home they spoke Hungarian.

After graduation Pali Meller studied in Vienna , Stuttgart , Rome and Karlsruhe architecture and acquired the engineering degree. At first he worked in the City Planning Department of Rotterdam as an assistant to JJP Oud , a representative of the International Style . After marrying the Dutch dancer Petronella Colpa in 1929, they both moved to Berlin in 1930 , where Pali Meller got a job in the architecture office of the architect and church builder Otto Bartning . Here he was involved in the planning of the Gustav Adolf Church in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg , where, among other things, he was responsible for the color scheme of the windows.

Pali Meller's wife Petronella died in a car accident in 1935. The marriage resulted in two children, Paul and Barbara, four years younger than him. In 1937, Pali Meller became self-employed, which was accompanied by an obligation to become a member of the Reich Chamber of Culture . For this he needed an Aryan certificate , which his sister Edith got for him in Hungary. For the proceeds of the sale of a summer house, she organized papers listing Christian grandparents.

Stumbling block for Pali Meller

Pali Meller was arrested on February 23, 1942 in Berlin because of his Jewish origins and taken to the Berlin-Plötzensee prison. On August 3, 1942, he was sentenced to six years in prison for forgery of documents , forgery of his Aryan certificate, and racial disgrace . After almost eight months in prison Pali Meller died on 31 March 1943 at the Brandenburg prison-Gorden to tuberculosis . The 24 letters and 2 postcards that he wrote to his two children Barbara and Paul from prison were published in 2012 under the title Paper Kisses .

Since 1984, a bronze plaque at the entrance to the Gustav Adolf Church in Berlin has been commemorating Otto Bartnings' colleague during the construction of the church. A memorial stone was placed in front of the house in Berlin-Westend , Knobelsdorffstrasse 110, where Pali Meller lived .

literature

  • Pali Meller: paper kisses . Letters from a Jewish father from prison in 1942/43. Ed .: Dorothea Zwirner. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-608-94699-4 ( excerpt online [accessed on May 7, 2013]).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pali Meller. Klett-Cotta (www.klett-cotta.de), accessed on May 7, 2013 .
  2. ^ Pali Meller: Paper kisses . Letters from a Jewish father from prison in 1942/43. Ed .: Dorothea Zwirner. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-608-94699-4 .
  3. ↑ a b Helmut Lölhöffel: Stolperstein Knobelsdorffstr. 110. Lexicon: Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf from A to Z. District Office Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf (www.berlin.de), accessed on May 7, 2013 .
  4. ↑ Paper kisses. Jewish Community of Berlin (www.jg-berlin.org), 2012, accessed on May 7, 2013 .
  5. ^ Andreas Platthaus: Protection in the dream house. Pali Meller: "Paper kisses". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (www.faz.net), May 4, 2012, accessed on May 7, 2013 .
  6. ^ Pali Meller: Paper kisses. (No longer available online.) Juedischelebenswelten.wordpress.com, November 4, 2012, archived from the original on June 22, 2013 ; Retrieved May 7, 2013 . 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 / juedischelebenswelten.wordpress.com
  7. ↑ Memorial plaque for Pali (Paul) Meller. District Office Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf of Berlin (www.berlin.de), March 5, 2013, accessed on May 7, 2013 .
  8. ^ Paul (Pali) Meller. www.gedenkenafeln-in-berlin.de, accessed on May 7, 2013 .
  9. ↑ Pali Meller. Stolpersteine ​​in Berlin (www.stolpersteine-berlin.de), accessed on May 7, 2013 .

Web links

Commons : Pali Meller  - collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Paper kisses. Voices on the book. Klett-Cotta (www.klett-cotta.de), accessed on May 7, 2013 .
personal data
SURNAME Meller, Pali
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meller, Pál (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian architect
DATE OF BIRTH June 18, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Sopron / Ödenburg
DATE OF DEATH March 31, 1943
Place of death Prison Brandenburg ad Havel