Rudolf Kuppenheim

Rudolf Kuppenheim (born November 7, 1865 in Pforzheim ; † October 23, 1940 in Pforzheim) and his wife Lily Kuppenheim were victims of the anti-Semitism of the National Socialist dictatorship in Pforzheim.

Life

Kuppenheim, who grew up with eight siblings, attended the Grand Ducal Pedagogy and Realgymnasium in Pforzheim from 1875, studied medicine in Heidelberg and in 1893 became chief physician of the gynecological department of the Protestant deaconess hospital Siloah. He lived with his wife Lily Ehmann at Marktplatz 1, where he also had his practice as the first gynecologist based in Pforzheim . In the mid-1920s, the practice and apartment were relocated to Luisenstrasse.

From 1914 he served as senior staff doctor and chief physician of large epidemic hospitals on the Eastern Front , and in 1917 the Grand Duke Friedrich II of Baden awarded him the title of Medical Councilor . His son Hans, born in 1892, was a lieutenant, spent four years in the war and received the Iron Cross II. And I. Class as well as the Knight's Cross II. Class of the Order of the Zähringer Lions with Swords, the younger son Felix volunteered and became a volunteer Awarded the Iron Cross II. Class and the Knight's Cross II. Class of the Order of the Zähringer Lion with Swords. The cousins ​​Albert, born in 1863, and Hugo, born in 1872, also volunteered and were awarded the Iron Cross, the Knight's Cross, the Princely Lippe-Detmold Cross of Honor for heroic deeds and the Baden Medal of Merit.

Community engagement

Before the First World War Rudolf Kuppenheim was a city councilor for the German National People's Party and after his conversion of the Jewish religious community of Protestant denomination as a church council involved. During the Weimar Republic , his cousin Albert was a city councilor for the community, was a member of the Chamber of Commerce, chief rifleman and chairman of the Sparkasse's administrative board .

Prohibition to work and threatened deportation

On March 30, 1933, the Pforzheimer Morgenblatt reported : "Jewish doctors and dentists are exempt from the medical practice". Besides Kuppenheim, the doctors Kurt Ehrenberg, Bernhard Kern, Abraham Kronstein, Hermann Netter, Nathan Roos, Wilhelm Rosenberg and Friedrich Schnurmann in Pforzheim were also affected by this professional ban.

On April 1, 1933, Kuppenheim was forced to resign and had to retire from the service of the Siloah Hospital after 40 years of work as a gynecologist. According to the memories of his son Felix, he helped around 19,000 children in Pforzheim with childbirth. He was allowed to continue his private practice.

With the “Law on the Change of Family Names and First Names” of January 5, 1938 (see Name Change Ordinance ), the National Socialists forced Jews or those who wanted to brand them as Jews to adopt a second “Jewish” first name, for men “Israel ", For women" Sara ". The evangelical Lily Kuppenheim, according to the criteria of the so-called Nuremberg Laws of 1935, became an Aryan, a discriminated person, while Rudolf Kuppenheim, who had converted to the evangelical denomination, became a “ Jew of validity ” based on the origin of his ancestors. This measure, which was illegal even under the laws of the Nazi dictatorship, meant that the marriage of the Kuppenheims was no longer considered a " mixed marriage " and the relative protection against deportation was no longer available until the beginning of February 1945.

On October 1, 1938, Kuppenheim's license to practice as a doctor was withdrawn. On August 13, 1938, cousin Hugo Kuppenheim killed himself. The son Hans had meanwhile been able to save himself to the USA, the son Felix had just received the entry papers for South America, but the spouses Lily and Rudolf Kuppenheim stayed in their hometown, although the anti-Semitic measures became more and more oppressive in November and December 1938: the visit Theaters, cinemas and concerts were banned for Jews. Das Schwarze Korps , the newspaper of the SS , wrote on November 24, 1938 on the “total solution of the Jewish question ”: “The program is clear. It reads: complete elimination, complete separation! ”For the future, the SS described the“ need to exterminate the Jewish underworld just as we do in our state of order to exterminate criminals: with fire and sword ”.

suicide

On October 21, 1940, the couple celebrated the day they met 50 years ago in Heidelberg. On the morning of the following day, SA men rang the doorbell and asked Lily and Rudolf Kuppenheim to be ready to march in an hour with 50 kilograms of luggage, a blanket, food, eating and drinking utensils and a maximum of 100 Reichsmarks per person. Something similar happened on over 100 apartment doors in Pforzheim. Instead of packing, the couple took the poison that was still present in the doctor's office, which had been closed for two years. The returning SA men found Rudolf Kuppenheim's awards from the world war on a velvet cushion next to the two who were still alive.

Lily and Rudolf Kuppenheim died on October 23, 1940 in the municipal hospital. The funeral service took place on October 25, 1940 in the castle church.

The son Felix Kuppenheim, who was about to emigrate and who came to Pforzheim on the news, reported: “On the street, many people, some of whom I did not know, condoled me, and this was observed, which is why a well-meaning city official warned me and advised me to leave immediately ”.

According to the “Leaflet for Deported Officials”, the Kuppenheim couple should not have been on the deportation list, because they were expressly excluded from the planned deportation of Jews from Baden, the Palatinate and Saarland, which was planned for October 20, 1940 and whose destination was the Gurs internment camp in Southern France on the northern edge of the Pyrenees were "members of mixed marriages".

Commemoration

• In 1970 the local council decided to name a street on Wallberg opposite the Siloah hospital “Kuppenheimstraße”.
• In 1981, in the presence of Louis Kuppenheim, a nephew of Lily and Rudolf Kuppenheim, a memorial stone was inaugurated on the corner of Kurz Steige and Kuppenheimstrasse.
• In 2005 the memorial stone was erected on the initiative of Pastor i. R. Heinemann-Grüder in the entrance area of ​​the Siloah hospital.

literature

• Gerhard Brändle: The Jewish fellow citizens of the city of Pforzheim. Pforzheim 1985.
• Hans Georg Zier: History of the city of Pforzheim. Stuttgart 1982.

Individual evidence

1. ^ PZ October 22, 1965.