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The Jewish Community of Laupheim and its Annihilation

 Book Pages 447 - 451

RIESER, Jette, Marie, Lina and Adolf,

 

22 Kapellenstrasse

 

 

 

Translated by: Peter Ritz

DR . ANTJE KÖHLERSCHMIDT

[Leopold Rieser, born July 1, 1827 in Laupheim, died February 2, 1900 in Laupheim, married to Fanny, neé Löwenthal, born February 8, 1844 in Laupheim, died October 14, 1927 in Laupheim.]

Jette Rieser, married Gottschalk-Sternberg, born February 5, 1861 in Laupheim. [Emil-Emanuel Rieser, born November 15, 1862 in Laupheim, died July 9, 1907 in Godesberg]

Marie Rieser, born March 24, 1862 in Laupheim, died October 7, 1934 in Laupheim.

Lina Rieser, married Kaufmann, born October 3, 1870 in Laupheim. Emigrated February 23, 1940 to the USA, died March 3, 1955 in New York [Isaak Kaufmann, Frankfurt]

[Fritz Kaufammn, born May 19, 1896 in Laupheim, died in action July 3, 1915 in Galizien]

Adolf Rieser, born January 20, 1873 in Laupheim, died November 16, 1934 in Laupheim.

 

[Anna Rieser, married Schöpflich, born March 15, 1880 in Laupheim, died 1950 in Philadelphia, USA, Eduard Schöpflich, born July 8, 1873 in Munich, died August 14, 1933 in Munich]

 

The advertisement in the “Laupheimer Verkündiger” in 1886 is the oldest evidence for this branch of the family tree and states (from our present day view rather humorously) the establishment of a trading house with “genuine medical natural wines for sick people, people suffering from stomach diseases and convalescents in the form of French red wines...”. Whether the setting up of a trading house was a success could never be traced like many other aspects. The sources are scarce and show only in fragments the lives of the individual family members.

 

The couple Leopold and Fanny Rieser, born Löwenthal, had eleven children altogether, four of which lived permanently or tempoarily in Laupheim after 1933. Adolf Rieser and his widowed sister Lina Kaufmann were residents in the parental home in Kapellenstraße 22 according to the “Adreß- and Geschäfts-Handbuch für die Oberamtsstadt und die Bezirksgemeinde Laupheim” published in 1925. It has to be assumed that their sister Marie Rieser living as a single was also a resident there. Nothing could be found out about her.

 

Jette Gottschalk-Sternberg

The oldest sister Jette had moved from Wuppertal-Barmen to Laupheim on April 25, 1885, however possibly not for good. She had married the tradesman Gottschalk-Sternberg in Laupheim and left her home town with him. The removal stated by the National Socialists may only have been a long-stay visit to her brothers and sisters as her traces could not he followed. The “Gedenkbuch jüdischer Opfer der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft in Deutschland (The Memorial Book of the Jewish Victims of Nazi Despotism in Germany)“ hints at her death in KZ Theresienstadt. She does not belong to the group of Jews deported from Laupheim.

 

 

Lina Kaufmann

Lina, born Reiser, had married Isaak Kaufmann of Frankfurt on August 19, in 1895 in Laupheim. After the death of ther husband she returned to her parental home in Laupheim. Her son Fritz can be seen on the photo of her schoolmate Julie Steiner, later married Bergmann, on the first day in school in 1903. Because of his age he also might have been enrolled at primary school. Like all the other children he has a brezel in his hand and is dressed in a festive looking sailors suit that stood for the enthusiasm of the Germans for the naval plans of the German Kaiser Wilhelm II. which was very popular then. The European arms race that followed finally ended in the  First World War. Fritz at the age of 18 volunteered as a soldier on August 10, 1914 and died in action in the first year of the war on July 3, 1915 in Galizien.

 

His mother Lina Kaufmann was active as secretary for years and later as chairwoman in the “Israelitischen Frauenverein Laupheim (Jewish Women’s Club)” which is documented in numerous newspaper articles of the “Laupheimer Verkündiger” (the local newspaper). This Jewish Women’s Club had 98 members in 1933 and was engaged in the interconfessional welfare activies, supplied scholarships for professional training from the Fanny Steiner Fund, ran sewing rooms and organised lectures as for example in 1928 by Mrs Dr. Rosengart on the “German Women’s Movement”, Mrs Dr. Weil on “Dostojewski” and the “Cultural Work in Palestine”. Mrs Blumenthal on “We Women and Alcohol”. Besides the fostering of Jewish festivals that should be passed on to the youth was also an interest of the Jewish Women’s Club. In 1931 they had a Seder evening, a Chanukka celebration, a Sukkoh was erected and so on. Lina Kaufmann continued her activities for the Jewish community in the time of the Nazi rule and she took over the management of the Jewish Old Peoples Home at Judenberg 2. She managed to emigrate to New York USA on February 23, 1940 possibly with the help of her husband’s relatives. In an advertisement in the “Aufbau”, the newspaper of the Jewish emigrants in New York of August 6, 1948 that advertises the death of Rosa Kaufmann, signed by her sister Else Zivy, born Kaufmann and her husband Eugen as well as their sister-in-law Lina Kaufmann. Until her death on March 3, 1955 Lina Kaufmann lived in New York City.

 

 

 

 

 

Adolf Rieser

18 women, 8 men and 6 boys are shown in the photograph of a skating group on the icy surface of the castle pond in Laupheim in the year 1895. The names of only two of them are known: the former teacher at the Jewish elementary school, Adolf Gideon (1869 to 1909, the second adult to the right) and Adolf Rieser with a walking stick in the centre. Compared to the other women and men it is clear that the latter was a relatively small and fragile gentleman. There is not much known about him either. As a bachelor he remained without an offspring and in the “Adreß- and Geschäfts-Handbuch für die Oberamtsstadt und die Bezirksgemeinde Laupheim” of the year 1925 his profession was stated as „tradesman“. Adolf Rieser was a sociable man as he was a member of the „Schützengemeinschaft (rifle club)“ of 1907 and documented on the wellknown photo. Besides he was befriended with numerous Jewish men as the photo on the following page is proof of.

 

 

 

Adolf Rieser, Schützenfoto of 1907 (marksman photo)

<Alt-Laupheimer Bilderbogen, page 30 1986>

 

Photo top right: Skating group on the castle pool, 1895

Adolf Reiser in the foreground, third from the left with walking stick

<Alt-Laupheimer Bilderbogen, page 272, 1988>

 

  

Sitted from the left: Jonas Weil,Adolf Rieser and Theodor Bergmann

Standing: left person unknown, Ludwig Stern


Anna and Eduard Schöpflich

Their youngest sister Anna Schöpflich born Rieser is worth mentioning in the context of the Rieser family that lived in Laupheim. Anna had married one of the most renowned goldsmiths of the Bavarian capital and royal seat. She had three children with him. Eduard Schöpflich ran a crafts workshop for contemporary jewellery at Maximilianplatz 1, later at Perusastraße 2. In 1918 the couple bought a house in Grünwald, as a summer residence until 1920 and later after relinquishing the town house became their main home. In 1929 Eduard Schöpflich gave up his business as a jeweller and goldsmith for health reasons. In the summer of 1933 he fell seriously ill and died in August of the same year. His widow Anna Schöpflich emigrated with her daughter Cäcilia to the USA in November 1939. She spent the last decade of her life in Philadelphia where her oldest daughter Lina Gabriele lived with her husband, the Professor of Linguistics Henry M. Hoenigswald who also originated from Munich. She died there in 1950-

Restitution

The building in Kapellenstraße 22 (according to the land register of the year 1906 belonging to Fanny Rieser, born Löwenthal or her heirs) was subject-matter of the restitution. The restitution was carried out basically and systematically for all Jewish sales between 1933 and 1945 in the French occupated zone. It also pertained to cases in which the Jewish property had fallen to the Deutsche Reich as was the case for the house of the heirs of the Riesers in Kapellenstraße 22.The “Branche Francaise de la Jewish Trust corporation for Germany (the successor organisation for the restitution of abandoned Jewish property recognised by the High Commissioner of the French Republic)”claimed the right to the house in Kapellenstraße 22 in 1953/54. The house was administered by Paula Laupheimer instructed by Konsulent Dr. Moos Ulm as representative of the heiress and rightful owner Lina Kaufmann. There are two apartments in the house which were rented out. The final outcome of the restitution has not been documented.

 

 

 

Quellen:

Archiv John Bergmann. Archiv Ernst Schäll.

Biografisches Gedenkbuch der Münchner Juden. Band 2. Hrsg. v. Stadtarchiv München. München 2007. Braun, Josef: Altlaupheimer Bilderbogen. Band 1 u. 2, Laupheim 1986 und 1988.

Laupheimer Verkündiger 1928 bis 1933. Staatsarchiv Sigmaringen 126/2 FA BC 35.

Weil, Jonas: Verzeichnis von Kriegsteilnehmern der israelitischen Gemeinde Laupheim. Laupheim 1919.

 

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