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Gustav Mehrgut * 1889

Kippingstraße 2 (Eimsbüttel, Eimsbüttel)

HIER WOHNTE
GUSTAV MEHRGUT
JG. 1889
VERHAFTET 1941
ZUCHTHAUS BÜTZOW
DEPORTIERT
AUSCHWITZ
ERMORDET 3.2.1943

Gustav Mehrgut, born on 10 Oct. 1889 in Gelnhausen, arrested in 1941, Bremen-Oslebshausen penitentiary, Bützow penitentiary, deported to Auschwitz on 7 Jan. 1943, murdered there on 3 Feb. 1943

Kippingstrasse 2

Gustav Mehrgut (in the files, one also finds his name spelled as Mehrguth) was probably the "black sheep” of his family. In 1921, he became known to police for the first time. On 17 Mar. 1941, the Hanseatic special court (Hanseatisches Sondergericht) in Hamburg sentenced him as a "parasite to the people” ("Volksschädling”) to eight years in prison. As a Jewish man living in a "privileged mixed marriage” ("privilegierte Mischehe”), Gustav Mehrgut perhaps could have had a chance to evade being murdered for "racial” reasons; as a convicted "parasite of the people” that was very unlikely, however. In Oct. 1940, the Gestapo ordered in writing that the "protective custody” ("Schutzhaft”) be continued even after he had served the sentence. In 1942, a decree issued by Heinrich Himmler ordered the "transfer” of all Jewish prisoners from prisons and penitentiaries to Auschwitz, a measure that affected Gustav Mehrgut as well. In Jan. 1943, he died there, officially of "myocardial degeneration.”

Gustav Mehrgut was a native of Gelnhausen in Hessen, but he grew up in Hamburg. His parents were the wine merchant Meyer Mehrgut (born in 1855) and Rosa Mehrgut, née Aronstein. In 1885, Gelnhausen had a population of 225 Jews, i.e., 6.1 percent of 3,694 inhabitants overall. From 1821 until 1974, Gelnhausen was the administrative capital of the rural district by the same name. Since 2006, the town is the administrative capital of the Main-Kinzig District and thus the chief town of a district once more.

Gustav Mehrgut’s parents had moved to Hamburg in 1890. In July 1887, M. Mehrgut & Co. was founded, with Markus Mehrgut and Meyer Mehrgut from Gelnhausen as partners. The M. Mehrguth & Co wine store had its business premises at Pferdemarkt 14 – today Gerhard-Hauptmann-Platz; the residential quarters were located at Paulstrasse 14 in the early 1890s, later at Rappstrasse 12 in the Grindel quarter, and from about 1910 onward at Werderstrasse 4. The father died in Hamburg in Dec. 1925, the mother probably in 1930. Meyer Mehrgut was buried in the Jewish Cemetery on Ilandkoppel. In the Jewish Cemetery in Bremen-Hastedt, there is a gravestone for Rosa Mehrguth, born in 1855, deceased in 1930, probably Gustav’s mother.

In Hamburg, Gustav Mehrgut first attended the pre-school classes of the Realschule [a practice-oriented secondary school up to grade 10] on Weidenstieg, and then he was sent to a boarding school in Seesen (in the Harz Mountains) for two and a half years. Probably, the school was the "Religious and Industry School” ("Religions- und Industrieschule”) established by Israel Jacobson in 1801, whose roots were founded in the enlightened Judaism. Starting in 1805, it also admitted Christian students. In about 1900, the school had about 300 students, half of whom resided in the boarding school. Subsequently, from 1901 until 1904, Gustav Mehrgut attended the Wahnschaff School in Hamburg-Rotherbaum, which he left after grade 10. Then, from 1905 until 1908, he completed a commercial apprenticeship at a knitwear and hosiery wholesale business. Following this, he was employed as an intern for Gebr. Alsberg (Alsberg Bros.), a department store on Grosser Burstah. Between 1910 and 1925, he worked intermittently in his family’s wine store. In 1924, the father left the company, which was then taken over by an uncle, Isaak Oppenheim, and liquidated in 1928. Gustav Mehrgut did not participate in the First World War, possibly because of medical problems with his feet.

Probably in the early 1920s, Gustav Mehrgut married Franziska Willms (born on 25 May 1892 in Füssen), a non-Jewish Catholic woman, with whom he had daughter Rose Marie, born in 1923. The marriage ended in divorce because Gustav Mehrgut had become violent toward his wife. After the divorce, he continued to live in his wife’s apartment at Schäferstrasse 14 for the time being, until she obtained an eviction order. In 1927, an engagement fell through because he had cheated on his girlfriend. In 1931, he eventually re-married. His second wife was Anna Hedwig, née Krause (born in Zoppot [today Sopot in Poland] in 1902), and she too was non-Jewish and Catholic. The couple had two children: Werner (born in 1931) and Ruth Uta (born in 1938). Because of their [deformed] feet, both children were placed under the supervision of the public "cripples care” ("Krüppelfürsorge”). Like their father, the children were baptized as Protestants. In fact, Gustav Mehrgut had himself baptized at Jerusalemkirche (Jerusalem Church) in June 1938 and he had become its parishioner. He lived in a "privileged mixed marriage” ("privilegierte Mischehe"). A later entry on the Jewish religious tax (Kultussteuer) file card of the Jewish community, kept since 1931, indicated "voluntary member of the Reich Association [of Jews in Germany],” i.e., due to his "privileged mixed marriage” he was not compelled to membership in the Reich Association.

Probably the family lived only for a short time at the intersection of Kippingstrasse and Kielortallee, subsequently moving to Weidestrasse 111, to Luruper Weg 21, and finally to Pinnasweg 5 in Altona, the address where Gustav Mehrgut was arrested.

Since the mid-1920s, Gustav Mehrgut repeatedly received welfare assistance. His father refused to support him anymore, and his family even reported him to police because of attempted extortion. Time and again, he invested a lot of effort in making demands for financial support. He also threatened to commit suicide and publications in newspapers if he did not receive any help. In Apr. 1928, he did indeed make a suicide attempt with Barbital (Veronal), and in May, the Hamburger Volkszeitung published an article on his case entitled "Tragedy of a Middle-Class Person” ("Tragödie eines Mittelständlers”). Several times, the welfare authority tried to accommodate him in the Farmsen care home (Versorgungsheim Farmsen), which he refused and knew how to prevent. Apparently, time and again he always managed to get some benefits.

Also starting in the mid-1920s, he dealt with occultism and the associated medical treatment methods, such as mesmerism, eye diagnosis, and chiromancy. Perhaps he viewed this as a source of income for himself. He probably acquired knowledge by studying on his own; at least he bought corresponding books. In 1927, he obtained permission from the public health department to work as a practitioner, receiving a trade license, and operating for some time a "practice” at Weidestrasse 111, later at Beim Spritzenhause 2 in St. Pauli, and in the end on Pinnasweg. In addition, he looked into horoscopes and pendulum dowsing. At the end of the 1930s, one of his "business ideas” was drawing up "safe conducts” ("Schutzbriefe”); these were amulets meant to protect persons or their relatives. After the outbreak of World War II, he managed to talk particularly soldiers’ wives into buying them. The fact that his business dealings as a non-medical practitioner are documented so well is due to a trial for surreptitiously obtaining welfare benefits and unemployment assistance. He had always concealed his revenues as a non-medical practitioner. The court made allowances for him due to his patients’ gullibility. In Mar. 1941, the Senior Public Prosecutor (Oberstaatsanwalt) Marwege wrote to the Chief Public Prosecutor (Generalstaatsanwalt) responsible at the special court (Sondergericht) that he intended to request a prison term of five to eight years. Arguing that the victims had followed their superstitions willingly, he refused to pass a higher sentence, which would have been possible because of Gustav Mehrgut’s past life.

Gustav Mehrgut’s previous convictions dated back to the years 1921, 1925, 1928, and 1932, particularly on counts of embezzlement. As a Jew, he faced the imposition of an occupational ban in 1938, which he ignored. Moreover, on business cards, which he used to promote himself, he had not indicated his compulsory added first name of Israel. On 19 Sept. 1940, he was placed in "protective custody” ("Schutzhaft”). At the time, he worked as an excavator with the Blöcker Company at Holstenplatz 14, as he had done for other companies before. In an interrogation in Sept. 1940, he stated that he intended to emigrate with his wife and children to the USA, where siblings of his wife already lived. On 17 Mar. 1941, Gustav Mehrgut was sentenced by the special court, taken to the Hütten prison on 29 March, and transported from there to the Bremen-Oslebshausen penitentiary. On 7 Jan. 1943, he was handed over from the Bützow Dreibergen penal institution to the Gestapo in Schwerin, which had him deported to Auschwitz.

We have no information about the fate of his wife and his three children.


Translator: Erwin Fink

Kindly supported by the Hermann Reemtsma Stiftung, Hamburg.

Stand: October 2017
© Susanne Lohmeyer

Quellen: 1; 4; 5; StaH 213-11, 4062/41; StaH 231-3 A 13 Bd 10 lfd Nr. 24790; Stah 231-7 A 2 Bd 21 lfd Nr. 5525; StaH 242-1II Gefängnisverwaltung II Ablieferung 16 Untersuchungshaftkartei Männer; StaH 332-5 Standesämter, 8082 + 601/1925; StaH 332-5, 13294 + 448/1930; HAB II 1892, 1900; 1910; 1926; 1937; Harald Jenner, 150 Jahre; Daniel Hanke, Die Geschichte der Juden in Gelnhausen; Ingo Wille, Das Versorgungsheim Farmsen. http://www.hfjs.eu/imperia/md/content/vorlesungsverzeichnissehfjs/sonstige/ seesenbestand.pdf.
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