Search for Names, Places and Biographies

Ernst Werner * 1875

Trostbrücke 2–6 (Hamburg-Mitte, Hamburg-Altstadt)

ERNST WERNER
JG. 1875
DEPORTIERT 1941
RIGA
ERMORDET

further stumbling stones in Trostbrücke 2–6:
Richard Abraham, Julius Adam, Julius Asch, Georg Blankenstein, Gustav Falkenstein, Ivan Fontheim, Henry Friedenheim, Albert Holländer, Max Israel, Gustav Heinrich Leo, Heinrich Mayer, Moritz Nordheim, Kurt Perels, Ernst Moritz Rappolt, Ferdinand Rosenstern, Walter Ludwig Samuel, Salomon Siegmund Schlomer, Heinrich Wohlwill, Alfred Wolff

Ernst Franz Werner, b. 12.6.1875 in Zörbig, deported to Riga on 12.6.1941
Gertrud Elisabeth Werner, née Löwenberg, b. 6.14.1885 in Neidenburg, deported to Riga on 12.6.1941

Isestraße 28

Ernst Werner was, like his parents, of Jewish descent, but baptized as a Protestant. He was a civil engineer, however, was not employed by the state but worked instead in the private sector. Together with his wife, Gertrud Werner, he had a daughter. Edith Martha was born on 26 June 1912; her parents had her baptized as a Protestant. Ernst Werner was a member of the Patriotic Society in Hamburg. The Patriotic Society was founded by wealthy Hamburg citizens for purposes serving the general welfare; in 1877 it founded the Museum of Arts and Crafts, and in 1889, the Hamburg Public Library [Bücherhallen]. In 1935, a majority of the members decided to introduce the "Aryan Paragraph.” As a rationale, the Board of Directors stated in its protocol, that otherwise it would be impossible to work together with official state and Party cultural offices. The Jewish members departed between 1933 and 1937.

Ernst Werner, who according to Nazi categories was a Jew, was among them. On his communal religion tax record it was noted that he drew a small pension. It is not certain whether he retired early or not. In 1935, he and his wife Gertrud were still living at Hammerberg 44; in 1937, they moved to Horner Weg 80. Thereafter, they lived as sub-lessees with Pein at Isestrasse 28. In the meantime their daughter Edith Werner had emigrated to Denver in the USA. Inge Hutton, née Pein, who lived with her mother at Isestrasse 28 on the ground floor, recalled the Werner couple: "… they rented the front room from us and their daughter was already in America.”

Inge Hutton also remembered an incident during an air raid: all the inhabitants of the house were supposed to gather in the makeshift air raid shelter. The block warden ordered the Werners into another room because, she said, they were not "Aryans.” "My sister and I responded: ‘Then we are not coming either.‘ We did that, but it was dangerous. The Werners also always hoped that they could arrange to emigrate, but they were no longer able to. The two of them were so modest and dear. We knew when they received the deportation notice but we could not help them."

On 6 December 1941, Ernst and Gertrud Werner boarded the deportation train for Riga. It was Ernst’s sixty-sixth birthday.

On 21 January 1942, a mover from the Pommerenke Moving Company of Hohen Weide cleaned out all the everyday things and the furniture left behind in the room by the Werners. On 21 March, everything was publicly auctioned off. The proceeds went into the treasury of the Hamburg Upper Finance Office.


Translator: Richard Levy
Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: May 2019
© Maike Grünwaldt

Quellen: 1; 4; 8; StaH 214-1 Gerichtsvollzieherwesen, 704; Inge Hutton, geb. Pein, Interview am 5.6.2007, Marlis Roß, Der Ausschluss der jüdischen Mitglieder, Die Patriotische Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus, Hamburg 2007, S. 51f., S. 84.
Zur Nummerierung häufig genutzter Quellen siehe Link "Recherche und Quellen".