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Hermann Steindler * 1890

Barcastraße 8 (Hamburg-Nord, Hohenfelde)

HIER WOHNTE
HERMANN STEINDLER
JG. 1890
FLUCHT 1933
TSCHECHOSLOWAKEI
SOWJETUNION
SCHICKSAL UNBEKANNT

Hermann Steindler, born 21.11.1890 in Hamburg, 1940 Lemberg/Lwiw/Lwow, then Ukrainian Soviet Republic, fate unknown

Barcastraße 8

On December 8, 1939, Hermann Steindler wrote from Lwów (Lemberg), where he lived at Grodecka 33 with Zwillinger, to his uncle Jakob Steindler in London, where the card had to pass through the censors:

"My dears!
I would like to inform you that I am here and in good health. Hope you are all well. Please let Adi [son Adolf] know. Write to me possibly via Herbert [not identified, H. Thevs].
Warmest regards to you all,
Yours, Hermann"

Hermann Steindler came from a Jewish merchant family with roots in Bohemia when it was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy. His father, Julius Steindler, had been born on Jan. 6, 1862 in Münchengrätz, today's Mnichovo Hradiště in the Czech Republic, a small town in Bohemia, famous as a seat of Duke Albrecht von Wallenstein. Julius Steindler became a merchant and moved to Hamburg around 1885, while his parents, Maximilian and Henriette Steindler, his sister Jenny and his younger brother Jakob, born Sept. 11, 1874 in Komotau, an upwards striving town in western Bohemia, stayed behind at the time. Their nationality was Austrian.

Julius Steindler was a business traveller at the time and lived at what is now Marktstraße 16 in St. Pauli as a subtenant. There he met his wife Rosa, née Horwitz, born June 21, 1865 in Hamburg. She lived until their marriage in 1887 with her parents, the lottery collector Wulff Horwitz and his wife Bertha.

After their marriage, the couple moved to Peterstraße 64 in the New Town of Hamburg, where Rosa Steindler gave birth to her first son on Aug. 8, 1888, who was named Maximilian after his grandfather. One year later, on Aug.3, 1889, Siegmund was born and the following year, on Nov. 21, 1890, after a move to Fruchtallee 23 in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel, the third son, Hermann, was born.

Julius Steindler founded Steindler & Co. in 1888 at Holstentwiete 90/92 in Ottensen, then in Prussia, a company for roofing felt and chemical-technical products. He stayed in Hamburg and moved to Dillstraße 2 in the newly developed Grindelviertel. (In 1889 Ottensen was incorporated into Altona.)

Julius Steindler was so successful in business that he was able to apply for Hamburg citizenship. On May 1, 1891 he and his family were naturalised. The two younger children were already born Hamburgers, Susanna, the only daughter, on December 31, 1891, and the fourth son Adolf Eduard on June 1, 1893.

Jakob Steindler followed his brother Julius to Hamburg and became co-owner of the firm Steindler & Co. In addition, he founded his own company, A. Jontof-Hutter & Co. with his sister Auguste Jontof-Hutter, who lived in Alsace, a tar products trading company that essentially served to distribute Steindler & Co. products. Economically established, he married Bettina Westheimer in 1902, born July 5, 1876 in Hamburg, a stenotypist by profession. In the same year, his father Maximilian Steindler died in Karlsbad in Bohemia, his mother Henriette continued to live in Leitmeritz.

Bettina Steindler gave birth to a daughter, Anni, in 1903, and to a son, Ferdinand, in 1906. In 1906 Jakob Steindler and his family were naturalised after some reservations because of his Jewish origin. He had to hand in his Austrian passport.

Julius and Rosa Steindler's sons became merchants. The two older ones, Maximilian and Siegmund, joined their father's business with the main office in Altona-Ottensen. Julius Steindler also acquired a small adjacent plot of land. He opened a second office in the prestigious Hansaburg in Hamburg's old town, in the richly decorated Kontorhaus Bei den Mühren 91 on the corner of Steckelhörn, southwest of St. Catherine's Church. The Steindler family moved from the confines of the Grindelviertel to Hohenfelde on the eastern bank of the Alster at Barcastraße 8, making it the family's ancestral home. Julius Steindler remained a member of the German-Israelite community.

Hermann Steindler's tax card from the Jewish Community shows that he moved to Barcelona in 1911 or 1912, so he was not present when his grandparents Wulff and Bertha Horwitz died within a year of each other, on March 14, 1912 and February 17, 1913, nor when his sister Susanna married. Her husband, Erich Keibel, was a dentist with a doctorate in Harburg, which was still Prussian at the time. Their first child, Gertrud, was born on April 4, 1914. After the family moved to Hamburg, their son Max was born there on November 9, 1915.

The Steindler brothers, Maximilian, Siegmund and Adolf Eduard, took part in the First World War as front-line fighters and returned to Hamburg. Adolf Eduard, however, died of the Spanish flu in October 1918. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery on the Ihlandoppel in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf like his grandparents Wulff and Bertha Horwitz before him.

During the war, Julius and Jakob Steindler successfully continued their business. After the end of the war, the eldest son, Maximilian, married in 1919. His wife, Käthe Laski, born June 20, 1893 in Hamburg, belonged to an old-established family. They remained childless.

Hermann Steindler also returned to Hamburg, moved in with his parents at Barcastraße 8 and re-registered with the German-Israelite community. He founded his own import and export company based in the Hansaburg and also remained closely connected to his father through his banking business. For the year 1920 he had a passport valid for Czechoslovakia, Austria and Spain. This shows that he was of medium build, had brown eyes, black hair and an elongated face. The economic success of his company was low, as can be seen from the amount of taxes for the Jewish community of a one-off RM 30 in 1921. After that he went travelling.

After his return, he moved back in with his parents and worked as a clerk in the family business in Altona. All family members working in Steindler & Co. had the same taxable income in 1924, on the basis of which the cult tax contribution to the Jewish community of RM 76.09 for 1925 was calculated, which everyone also paid.

Siegmund Steindler married Maria Komorowski, born April 20,1896 in Bogatzkowolla near Lötzen/Eastern Prussia (today Bogacko near Giżycko, Warmia-Masuria Voivodeship) on October 10, 1926. She converted to Judaism when she married and never gave it up. Their marriage also remained childless.

Why Hermann Steindler did not have to pay a cult tax to the Jewish community for the year 1926 is not clear from the available documents. In 1927 he paid his contribution again, now 24.05 RM, after which there is a gap until 1931/32 for the time of his marriage and his stay in Morocco.

His wife Agnes, née Broll, was Catholic and came from Katowice in Upper Silesia. When and where they married could not be determined. Their son Hans Adolf, called Adi, was born in Ceuta/Morocco on October 29, 1927. However, neither the wife nor the son are noted on Hermann Steindler's cultural tax card.

After returning to Hamburg, Hermann Steindler and his family moved in with his parents at Grindelallee 136. He still had a taxable income in a similar amount as before.

As can be seen from the tax records of the Jewish Community, all the relatives of the company Julius Steindler & Co. had a good income. Despite the world economic crisis, they had made profits, but went bankrupt around 1932. To avert it, they took out a loan of 30000 RM from the "Commerz- und Privatbank". However, after the transfer of power to Hitler in 1933, this loan was cancelled for them as Jews.

Faced with the loss of their livelihood, the family association dissolved. Julius Steindler was the most directly affected. He suffered a fatal heart attack the day before the boycott of Jewish shops on April 1, 1933. Now Jakob was the head of the family. Julius Steindler was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Ohlsdorf, where his wife Rosa also found her final resting place four years later.

The first of the family to leave Germany after the National Socialists’ takeover was Jakob Steindler's son Ferdinand, a doctor of law in the civil service. As a Jew, he was dismissed from his position as a court assessor due to the "Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service" of April 7, 1933 and emigrated to England on August 5, 1933, where he made a living as an interpreter, teacher and merchant.

In 1933 Hermann Steindler left the Hamburg Jewish community and registered at Von Elmstraße 170 in Altona. It is not known whether he joined the Jewish community there. In November 1933, he moved with his family to Aussig in what was then Czechoslovakia, in order to establish a new existence there with the production of insulating material.

In 1934, "Steindler & Co.” was sold by compulsory auction, except for Julius Steindler's small plot of land. Maximilian Steindler left the management of the company to his brother Siegmund and emigrated to Sweden. He died there on October 18, 1937. Nothing is known about the fate of his wife Käthe, from whom he lived separately.

Siegmund and Maria Steindler followed Hermann and Agnes Steindler to Aussig, but received neither residence nor work permits there and continued to flee. Eventually they were interned separately in France. Siegmund Steindler was finally murdered in the Majdanek concentration camp, Maria survived and returned to Hamburg. (see www.stolpersteine-hamburg.de)

After the death of his sister-in-law Rosa Steindler on April 5, 1937, Jakob Steindler also prepared his emigration with his wife Bettina to England, where they arrived in April 1938.
Their daughter Anni had already left for London in November 1937. Susanna Keibel and her family also emigrated after them. They found refuge in Costa Rica.

Since the former owners of Steindler & Co. could not be found, a house and land broker was appointed as the custodian to handle the sale of the last small parcel of land that had been overlooked in the forced auction of the company's premises and still belonged to Steindler & Co. With official permission, it was sold on September 12, 1939. Thus the company ceased to exist after 50 years of existence.

Even before the occupation of the Sudetenland by the German Reich in 1938, Hermann and Agnes Steindler no longer felt safe and pursued their emigration to Great Britain. They first moved to Prague and from there to Beraun. A Jewish aid organisation provided Hermann a visa for England. But when the Germans occupied Prague in March 1939, the Gestapo also searched the rooms of this organisation and confiscated the visa. Presumably his uncle Jakob had procured the visa for him. Jakob's sister Jenny, who lived in Prague, took her own life together with her husband.

After his emigration efforts had failed, Hermann Steindler fled to Poland. He continued his efforts to obtain a visa for Great Britain from Krakow. After the German occupation of Poland, he fled to Lwów/Lemberg, which was then Polish, in order to continue his emigration from there. Agnes Steindler moved to Prague with her son. With the help of Jakob Steindler in London, "Uncle Kobi" of the postcard quoted at the beginning, who worked for a Jewish refugee aid organisation, Hans Adolf reached London in 1939 with a "Kindertransport”.

Agnes Steindler stayed behind in Prague and was still able to keep in touch with her husband until December 1940. She moved to London after the end of the war and from there, with the help of her sister-in-law Maria Steindler, Siegmund Steindler's widow, pursued the declaration of her husband's death. This is clear from a letter she wrote to her sister-in-law Maria in Hamburg:

"At the outbreak of the German-Polish War, he [Hermann] fled to Lwów. My postcard from this place is in your hands [see Hermann Steindler's postcard to his uncle Jakob in London quoted at the beginning]. Lwów was occupied by the Russians and Hermann wrote to me regularly from there until December 1940. At the beginning of December I received a postcard from one of his friends saying that Hermann had suddenly had to 'go away' and that he hoped to be able to write to me personally soon. I turned to his landlords for information about what the sudden departure meant, but despite repeated requests I received no reply. The German-Russian war that broke out in summer 41 made further research difficult. ... I would also like to mention that the news of my husband's 'sudden departure' from Lodz came to me from a friend of my husband's who was unknown to me." Agnes Steindler

All efforts by the wife to find out the date, destination and fate of her husband Hermann Steindler were fruitless. He was declared dead by the Hamburg District Court in 1951.

Agnes Steindler's reference to the "sudden departure" refers to early December 1940, when Hermann Steindler was still living in Lwów. His landlords with a German name did not answer her. As a result of the Hitler-Stalin Pact, Lember/Lviv/Lwów/ had become Ukrainian and German Jews were persecuted either as Germans or as Jews. Hermann Steindler and his landlords were presumably victims of this persecution.
In 2021, the search for traces led to the ghetto of Litzmannstadt/Lodz, again without success. To this day, it has not been possible to clarify Hermann Steindler's whereabouts.

Jakob Steindler died in London on January 21, 1947, and his son Hans Adolf, whose English name was Eduard Stanton, died there in 2020 at the age of almost 93.

Stand: March 2022
© Hildegard Thevs

Quellen: 1, 2 R 1939/2982, 4, 5; Staatsarchiv Hamburg (StaH) 213-13, 5962, 5963, 23626; 314-15_FVg 4667, R 1939/2982; Bürgerregister 1876-1896, A l e 40, Band 10, 18112; 332-7, B III 84857; 332-8, Passpolizei; 351-11, 2352, 10217, 13794, 39458; 424-111, 6010, 7160; 522-1, 391; JFHH; Mitteilungen von Angehörigen Nov. 2021; https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Mnichovo_Hradi%C5%A1t%C4%9B; https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburg-Ottensen; https://ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/orte/lemberg-lviv, Abrufe Dez. 2021.
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