Hugo Heymann

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Stumbling block at the house at Berkaer Strasse 31 in Berlin-Schmargendorf

Hugo Heymann (born December 31, 1881 in Mannheim ; died June 5, 1938 in Berlin ) was a German lawyer , entrepreneur and victim of the Nazi regime. He was one of the owners of the Villa Pücklerstrasse 14 in Berlin, which is now the office of the Federal President . Heymann died before he could leave Germany as a result of Gestapo interrogations after he had been hospitalized for uremia .

Life

Hugo Heymann married Maria, called Wera. He made a considerable fortune through the manufacture and sale of artificial pearls, bought the Berlin villa and owned other properties in Cologne and Mannheim. In 1933 he sold the villa and moved into an apartment with ten rooms on Berkaer Strasse in Berlin-Schmargendorf .

The pearl factory located on the Ritterstrasse 69 (SW 68) property , which he sold to Karl-Ernst Nadolny († 1941) in February 1938 for 50,000 Reichsmarks , was destroyed by fire bombs in January 1944.

The couple last lived at the Savoy Hotel . According to his widow, they intended to emigrate to Norway, but the Gestapo picked him up, interrogated and tortured him several times. According to historian Julien Reitzenstein , the proceeds of the sale were confiscated by the Gestapo directly from the hotel safe. No files can be found for the fact that his properties in Cologne and Mannheim were " Aryanized ". Reitzenstein writes that Hugo Heymann “died of his injuries sustained as a result of the Gestapo's mistreatment”. His wife survived the Nazi regime.

Villa Wurmbach

Villa Wurmbach in Berlin

The villa was built in 1912. The client, the entrepreneur Julius Wurmbach , committed suicide in 1926. Heymann acquired the building with 400 m² of living space plus roof and basement from his estate for the purchase price of 150,000 Reichsmarks . He invested a further 20,000 Reichsmarks in renovations and extensions. Shortly after Hitler came to power on February 8, 1933, he sold the villa “for a remarkably low price” to the publisher Waldemar Gerber (* 1888) from Potsdam, the editor of the Potsdam daily newspaper , after he had been told by the former Reich Interior Minister Friedrich through his wife Wilhelm Sollmann (SPD) had made it clear that “terrible times” would be imminent. The purchase contract was drawn up in front of the notary Georg Lehmann , the purchase price is said to have been 30 percent below the price that Heymann had paid himself.

Heymann's widow Maria sued for restitution of the villa in 1951 . The Berlin district court rejected the lawsuit, although their housekeeper and Sollmann confirmed their statements. The notary, who emigrated to Argentina in 1940 and returned to Germany after the fall of the Nazi regime, testified that the sale had taken place properly.

In 1962 the Federal Republic of Germany bought Villa Wurmbach as a guest house. Before the completion of the Federal Chancellery , the villa was occupied by Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder ; since 2004 it has been the residence of Federal Presidents Horst Köhler , Christian Wulff , Joachim Gauck and Frank-Walter Steinmeier .

Commemoration

In 2014, the historian Julien Reitzenstein uncovered the ownership and sale of the villa as part of his research for the book Himmler's Researchers . He called the judgment “cynical” and stated: “Regardless of the legal component, there is the moral component. For me, the head of state is a moral authority. ”As a result, Reitzenstein donated two stumbling blocks , but their relocation was canceled at short notice.

The President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany , Josef Schuster , issued the following statement:

“But I don't see any reason to hide the history of the house. The persecution of the Jews by the National Socialists began with systematically depriving Jews of their livelihood. That shouldn't be forgotten. "

In a publicly criticized report for the Federal President's Office, the historian Michael Wildt confirmed the view of the regional court and initially stated that a stumbling block in front of the villa could only be laid for "educational" reasons. After the President's Office had published the report under pressure from the media, large gaps in the report became known, whereupon Wildt was asked to improve it.

On the basis of the first report, two stumbling blocks were laid in front of Heymann's former residence at Berkaer Straße 31 on December 4, 2017.

On the basis of the revised second report, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier unveiled a memorial plaque in front of his service villa on Pücklerstrasse on June 4, 2018. Michael Wildt had also previously spoken out in favor of a classifying stele.

literature

  • Claudia Kramatschek: The villa on Pücklerstrasse. Hugo Heymann and the destruction of the economic existence of Jews under National Socialism. Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn 2019, ISBN 978-3-7425-0397-8 .

Web links

Commons : Hugo Heymann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Julien Reitzenstein: Himmler's researcher. Defense science and medical crimes in the "Ahnenerbe" of the SS . Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 2014, ISBN 978-3-506-76657-1 , p. 279 .
  2. ↑ a b Elmar Schütze: S treit about Steinmeier's office - historian calls for stumbling block for presidential villa . In: Berliner Zeitung , August 14, 2017
  3. ↑ Michael Wildt: Report on the follow-up research on the Heymann case (PDF) April 9, 2018; accessed on July 29, 2019.
  4. ↑ Sven Felix Kellerhoff : The dark legacy of the presidential villa. In: Die Welt (Berlin). August 12, 2017. Retrieved June 3, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Til Biermann: Why does the Federal President's villa not remember its Nazi era? In: BZ (Berlin). August 12, 2017. Retrieved June 3, 2018 .
  6. ^ Til Biermann: Unworthy argument. No stumbling block in front of the Federal President's villa. In: Bild (Berlin). August 12, 2017, accessed on June 3, 2018 (with a facsimile of Friedrich Wilhelm Sollmann's statement).
  7. ↑ Service villa of the Federal President in Berlin-Dahlem. bundespraesident.de; accessed on July 29, 2019.
  8. ↑ Unworthy quarrel. No stumbling block in front of the Federal President's villa . In: bild.de . ( bild.de [accessed on November 7, 2018]).
  9. ↑ Sven Felix Kellerhoff: The dark legacy of the presidential villa . In: THE WORLD . August 12, 2017 ( welt.de [accessed November 7, 2018]).
  10. ^ Central Council of Jews in Germany Kdö.R .: Schmargendorf: Haus des Stolperns | Jewish general. Retrieved November 7, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Compromise after a dispute. Stumbling blocks for ex-owners of the presidential villa . In: bild.de . ( bild.de [accessed on November 7, 2018]).
  12. ↑ Service villa. Steinmeier reminds of previous Jewish owners. In: Welt Online . June 4, 2018. Retrieved June 19, 2018 .
  13. ^ Hugo Heymann and the Federal President's service villa . In: Michael Wildt . August 27, 2017 ( michael-wildt.de [accessed November 7, 2018]).
personal data
SURNAME Heymann, Hugo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer, entrepreneur and alleged Nazi victim
DATE OF BIRTH December 31, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Mannheim
DATE OF DEATH June 5, 1938
Place of death Berlin