Siegmund Ruschkewitz

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Siegmund Ruschkewitz (born February 6, 1871 in Danzig ; † October 17, 1940 in the Mediterranean Sea near Heraklion ) was a German merchant and owner of the department store of the same name on Würzburg Schönbornstrasse.

Until it was sold to Josef Neckermann in the course of the Aryanization of Jewish companies in 1935, this department store was the largest and most profitable trading company in Würzburg.

Life

Siegmund Ruschkewitz came from the Moritz and Nathalie Ruschkewitz merchant family in the then West Prussian city of Danzig . Seven years after him, his sister was born. In 1898, Siegmund Ruschkewitz, who took up his father's commercial profession, married Johanna Lindemann, who was of the same age in Rastatt and who came from an East Prussian merchant family. In the same year, the couple settled in Würzburg and Siegmund Ruschkewitz quickly founded the Ruschkewitz department store after their move, which was initially housed in the old station on Ludwigstrasse. He soon opened his business premises on Dominikanerplatz in a new business center before acquiring the neo-renaissance building at Schönbornstrasse 3. He and Johanna had three sons (Max in 1899, Fritz in 1901 and Ernst in 1903), but his wife died after the birth of their third child. The ten years younger Mina Metzger from Mainz, with whom Siegmund Ruschkewitz entered his second marriage in 1905, had their fourth son, Hans, in 1907. His department store soon developed into one of the most successful stores in its branch in Lower Franconia . He also appeared in Würzburg as a patron and donor. When the people of Würzburg celebrated 100 years of belonging to Bavaria with a garden show in 1914, Ruschkewitz took a liking to Arthur Schleglmünig's neo-baroque fountain, which he finally bought and gave to the city of Würzburg. The Ruschkewitzbrunnen is still in the Ringpark today and is located east of Münzstraße near the student house. In the same year he acquired civil and homeland rights. The family belonged to the Jewish upper class, who paid 500 marks per year to the community in the highest income bracket. This shift comprised 4 percent of the parishioners in 1920. The department store was expanded, modernized and the range expanded several times - especially at the end of the 1920s. Originally the range was limited to textile and household goods, but later also included groceries, toys and records. In 1930 his son Max died of the long-term effects of a shot in the stomach he received during World War I and was buried with great general sympathy. In 1931, Ruschkewitz opened the “Merkur retail price store”, which is associated with the Wohlwert Group, at Eichhornstrasse 5 in order to fend off competition from this new type of low-price market. From then on, the family was exposed to anti-Semitic propaganda precisely because of their department store. Heated disputes had sparked in the city council on the occasion of the establishment of the new uniform price business as to whether a department store or a low-price business were not harmful or perishable for the population and retailers. The small faction of the NSDAP tried to score points with anti-Semitic agitation against Jewish department stores as anti-grassroots economic institutions, ultimately without any noticeable consequences for the turnover and the customers of the Ruschkewitz house. The managing director of the new branch was the son Ernst. There were 60 employees in 15 departments. The main business in 1933 had around 130 employees. The family lived in the then elegant Ludwigstrasse, but they also owned a summer house in the Steinbachtal . For this he had a drinking room carved by Heinz Schiestl , which has been in the Volkach baroque barn since 2011 . He was also a member of the Franconian Lodge and later, together with his wife, belonged to the Jewish Cultural Association of Würzburg.

Persecution of the Jews

Today's location of the former Ruschkewitz department store

After the Nazi seizure of power , the company was exposed to massive economic reprisals - initially through harassment and threats to customers. After a recovery phase in 1933 and 1934, the National Socialist Trade, Crafts and Trades Organization (NS-Hago) intervened again in the spring of 1935. These included, among other things, arbitrary sales bans for various categories of goods and shopping bans for civil servants, party members and members of the armed forces. In the summer, by order of the party, the bank loans of Dresdner Bank , which are customary for the Christmas business, were reduced and recalled . In addition, under pressure from the National Socialist German Workers' Party , this completely surprisingly demanded another loan. Siegmund Ruschkewitz finally resigned himself after threatened imprisonment in the Dachau concentration camp and decided to sell his company quickly in November 1935. The buyer Joseph Neckermann gradually negotiated the price from 150,000 RM for the two shops to 45,000 RM. Ruschkewitz, under pressure, agreed to sell it at a significantly reduced price. Together with his wife and son Hans, Siegmund Ruschkewitz moved to Berlin in February 1936 , where they stayed in a pension. Since the English authorities hardly let any German refugees to Palestine at that time , illegal transports had been organized with the approval of the Gestapo since the beginning of the year . About 500 German Jews, including Ruschkewitz and his wife, were allowed to travel to the former Czechoslovakia , where they boarded a small Danube excursion steamer in Pressburg on September 3, 1940, together with refugees from other countries . Both died of typhus in October and November 1940, respectively, on the illegal refugee ship that was refused to land in Palestine . They were buried in Heraklion (Crete).

Stumbling stone in front of the former Ruschkewitz department store in Würzburg Schönbornstrasse

In memory of Siegmund Ruschkewitz, a stumbling block by the artist Gunter Demnig was laid in front of his former department store at Schönbornstrasse 3 .

literature

  • Roland Flade. With a contribution by Ursula Gehring-Münzel: The Würzburg Jews - Their History from the Middle Ages to the Present. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1996, ISBN 3-8260-1257-7 .
  • Hans Steidle: Neckermann & C0. - The plundering of the Würzburg Jews in the Third Reich. echter, Würzburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-429-03707-9 .

Web links

  • Short film about the Ruschkewitz family from Würzburg on Youtube [1]

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans Steidle: Neckermann & Co. - The plundering of the Würzburg Jews in the Third Reich . echter, Würzburg, S. 13 .
  2. ^ Hans Steidle: Neckermann & Co. - The plundering of the Würzburg Jews in the Third Reich . echter, Würzburg, S. 13-14 .
  3. ↑ a b c Stolpersteine ​​Würzburg. Retrieved February 27, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Biographical data. Retrieved February 27, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Bayerischer Rundfunk: Beginnings in the Nazi era: beneficiaries of Aryanization . June 4, 2012 ( br.de [accessed on February 28, 2020]).
  6. ↑ Fritz Ruschkewitz: The cheerfulness at the abyss. September 13, 2012, accessed February 28, 2020 .
  7. ↑ a b Death on the emigrant ship. November 5, 2004, accessed February 28, 2020 .
  8. ^ Hans Steidle: Neckermann & Co. - The plundering of the Würzburg Jews in the Third Reich . echter, Würzburg, S. 23 .
  9. ^ Hans Steidle: Neckermann & Co. - The plundering of the Würzburg Jews in the Third Reich . echter, Würzburg, S. 59 .
  10. ^ City of Wuerzburg: Topics | Environment and climate | Urban nature and biodiversity | Parks, gardens and green spaces | Landscape parks and park forests - Ringpark. Retrieved February 28, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Britta Bode: A gentleman rider does not doubt . In: THE WORLD . September 10, 2005 ( welt.de [accessed February 28, 2020]).
personal data
SURNAME Ruschkewitz, Siegmund
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German businessman
DATE OF BIRTH February 6, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Danzig
DATE OF DEATH October 17, 1940
Place of death Mediterranean in front of Heraklion