55 LAMMFROMM Clara

Clara Heumann, married Lammfromm, was born on February 4, 1862 in Laupheim. She had a twin sister named Friederike. The two girls were the youngest of the five daughters of Jakob Heumann (1821–1909) and his wife Babette, née Eppstein (1825–1899). But only Clara and her oldest sister Flora Neuhaus, née Heumann, lived to adulthood. Two of the sisters, Rosalie (1859–1860) and Fanny (1860–1863), died as young children. Claras twin sister Friederike died 12 days after birth.1) Like her sister Flora, Clara grew up in Laupheim and most likely attended the Israelite elementary school.

On May 21, 1888 the 26-year-old Clara Heumann married Jacob Lammfromm in Laupheim. Her husband was from Buttenwiesen, a Jewish community of the Markgrafschaft Burgau, where there had been a sizable Jewish community since the 16th century up until 1942. Jacob Lammfromm was a son of the spice trader and iron monger Joseph Lammfromm (1804–1872) and his second wife Peppi, nee Sänger (1836–1904).2) „The Lammfromm family enjoyed a very good reputation in Buttenwiesen and was one of the wealthy Jewish families. Their house was near the „Judenhof“ (Jewish court) – today the market square – in an exposed location near the synagogue.“3) The grandfather of Jacob Lammfromm, Jakob Mosche Lammfromm (1761–1822), was active as a rabbi at the synagogue from 1789 until his death in 1822. In addition, he had made his living as a grocer, „Melber“ (Bavarian for „Mehlhändler“ (flour merchant)) and vintner. An uncle of Jacob Lammfromm, the merchant Israel Lammfromm (1863–1930), wrote and published the „History of the market town of Buttenwiesen“ in 1911.

Since the Jewish elementary school in Buttenwiesen had existed since 1846, it can be assumed that Jacob Lammfromm attended it. His mother Peppi, née Sänger, also came from a family of rabbis and was a niece of Abraham Sänger (1789–1856) who worked as a teacher at the Israelitic elementary school in Laupheim for 31 years.4) Jacob Lammfromm and Clara Heumann most likely had met through the Sänger family in Laupheim . This is indicated by the fact that in addition to Clara‘s uncle Emanuel Heumann (1818–1896) Salomon Sänger (1833–1894), the youngest son of Abraham Sänger, were witnesses in front of the registrar at the wedding in Laupheim.

At the time of their marriage, the merchant Jacob Lammfromm was living in Darmstadt. It is not known when the couple took up residence in Laupheim. But eventually the two lived, according to the Adressbook of Laupheim from 1925 in the Kapellenstraße 13, the house of Clara’s parents.5)

Jacob Lammfromm worked as a bookkeeper in the hair factory Bergmann in Laupheim. He was also head of the library of the Israelitic community. John Bergmann remembered the impressive voice of the lay reader Jacob Lammfromm in the synagogue of Laupheim, where he performed his duty during holidays. The marriage of Clara and Jacob Lammfromm did not produce any children.6)

One year later, on November 11, 1929, Jacob Lammfromm died, a few days short of his71th birthday. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Laupheim, monument N 27/6. His epitaph is praising him as follows:

„Here is laid to rest a humble, just and honest man, Jaakow Mosche, son of the tora scholar Awraham Josef.“8)

In the following years, his wife Clara Lammfromm continued to live upstairs in her parents’ house, her sister Flora Neuhaus lived downstairs, until June 1936 when Flora was taken by her son, Dr. Hugo Neuhaus to the Jewish hospital in Gailingen/Baden. Clara remained in Laupheim. At the age of 74 years, she probably was not able to take care of her sick and frail sister Flora. In those times both maintained close contact in writing. In one of the last letters of Flora Neuhaus November 24, 1936 from the Jewish hospital in Gailingen to the family of her son in the USA she mentioned that she was sending the letters from America to her sister Clara in Laupheim.9)

The house of the sisters in Kapellenstrasse 13 (today Nr. 14), where both sisters had lived, originally belonged to their father Jakob Heumann. After his death in 1909 the oldest daughter Flora Neuhaus, née Heumann, was entered as the owner in the land register. Shortly before his escape to American exile, her son Dr. Hugo Neuhaus appeared as the seller of the house. At the same time the neighboring house of the Höchstetter family was also up for sale. The merchant Wagemann appeared as a would-be buyer. Since he could not afford the price for both houses, he persuaded the barber Andreas Böhler and his wife Martha, née Ott, to appear as an additional buyer. The Böhlers purchased the house on Kapellenstrasse 13 for 10,000 reichsmarks and set up a barber shop that is still in existence. According to estimates made in 1946 by Josef Benzinger, a respected realtor, the house was sold at a market-based price, so that the Böhler family did not need to make any further payments after 1945. It is still in the possession of the Böhler family. During a renovation in the cellar in the 1970s, a Jewish wedding stone was found, on which in addition to a partially preserved star of David the Hebrew letters “Mem“ and “Tet“ as abbreviations for “Masel tov“ were found, which means “good luck”, as well as the names Hirsch and Heumann together with the number 1822. Most likely Hirsch Heumann and Lotte Nathan were the last couple that was married at this wedding stone. They rescued it during the demolition of the Synagogue 1822 and built it into their house. They were the grandparents of Flora Heumann and Clara Lammfromm, née Heumann. The “wedding stone“ is now in the Museum of the History of Christians and Jews in Grosslaupheim castle.10)

Gottfried Neuhaus, the grandson of her sister Flora Neuhaus, née Heumann, remembers Clara Lammfromm:

„She was a cheerful person, in contrast to her sister Flora Neuhaus, who took things more seriously and pessimistically and who had had to endure serious losses in her youth. Clara never had children, but was very well liked as a gay soul by the neighborhood children in Laupheim. [. . .] When I first met her, she was already living with her husband Jacob on the upstairs of Flora’s house on the corner of Judenberg and Kapellenstraße.“ 11)

Clara Lammfromm, née Heumann.

It is not clear where Clara Lammfromm lived in Laupheim after the sale of her parents‘ house in 1936. She died on November 24, 1939 at the age of 77 in Laupheim and was buried, like her husband and her sister before her, in the Jewish cemetery in Laupheim, monument S 28/14.

2) Ebenda und Hauptstaatsarchiv München: Jüdisches Standesregister von Buttenwiesen Nr. 024.

5) Registar’s office Laupheim. Heiratshauptregister 1888, Nr. 12; Adreß- und Geschäfts-Handbuch für die Oberamtsstadt und die Bezirksgemeinden Laupheim. München 1925. S. 9.

6) John Bergmann: The Bergmans from Laupheim. A family chronicle. Scarsdale 1983. S. 68–69; Auskunft von Ernst Schäll vom Februar 2003.

7) Gemeindezeitung für die israelitischen Gemeinden Württembergs, Stuttgart 17/1928, S. 219.

8 Hüttenmeister, Nathanja: The Jewish Cemetery in Laupheim. Laupheim 1998, S. 503.

10) Conversation with Mr. Hubert Böhler, son of Andreas and Martha Böhler, on 13. 9.2004; Grundbuchamt Laupheim; Museum zur Geschichte von Christen und Juden, Schloss Großlaupheim.