The Jewish
Community
of
La
Book Pages 552 - 554
Music teacher, 2 Ulmer Strasse
Translated by: Heinrich Steiner, Re´ut Israel
KARL NEIDLINGER
Rosa Wallersteiner, born March 11, 1873 in Ravensburg, unmarried, since 1925 in Laupheim, 1938/39 emigration to the USA.
"The
enjoyment finally reached its climax with the Fantasia in c-minor. The piano
playing of Miss R. Wallerstein rippled with delicacy”.
That was the description of the climax of the Concordia choir’s Beethoven
celebration in the “Rabensaal” ballroom, which appeared in the local paper
“Laupheimer Verkündiger” on November 11, 1927. The paper went on to praise
this celebration of the 100th anniversary of the composer’s death
as “a first-rate performance in Laupheim”, with more than 150 participants:
a men’s choir and a women’s choir, the amateurs’ orchestra, and the above-
mentioned Miss Wallersteiner. This musical occasion was also the first event
in the newly-enlarged ballroom of the hotel “Raben” which – in the opinion
of the paper – “will now be worthy of hosting
any celebration”.
Rosa
Wallersteiner
in about
1925.
(Photo:
StA
Sigmaringen,
Wü 65/18,
T5)
Rosa Wallersteiner arrived in Laupheim in November 1925 and lived there
until 1930, and then again from 1933. She seems to have moved around
considerably: in August 1930 she moved to Switzerland, and in September 1931
she sent her old passport (from which this photo was taken) from Vienna back
to Laupheim as she needed a new one. Probably her high mobility was due to
her profession: she earned her income with music, as a teacher and as a
pianist. Her address “Ulmer
Str.2” proves that in Laupheim she did not dispose of a flat of her own but
lived at the hotel “Post”, at least at the beginning.
The “non-professional” orchestra, which at the Beethoven celebration had
played his Symphony No.1, became shortly afterwards a registered society and
called itself the “Orchestral Society”. The driving force behind this
association was the entrepreneur Marco Bergmann, who served from its
foundation on Jan. 30, 1928, as vice chairman and treasurer. The chairman
was the Stadtschultheiss (mayor) Franz Konrad, and, as one of four active
members, Rosa Wallersteiner was elected onto the board. The enthusiastic
amateur musicians decided, for the future, to give three to four concerts
per year, under the direction of Otto Lex from Ulm. They met weekly on
Thursday evenings for rehearsals.
Wedding of Leopold Wallersteiner and Elsa Bergmann on Nov.19, 1905, at the Hotel “Zum Kronprinz” .
First row, from the left: Dr.Eugenie Wallersteiner (Ravensburg), Dr.Gustav Oppenheim (Frankfurt/M.), the bridal couple Elsa and Leopold Wallersteiner, ?? , Henny Stern, Max Bergmann. Behind Eugenie, at the extreme left, stands Dr. Hugo Wallersteiner. The names of the other persons are unknown. Rosa Wallersteiner might be the lady at the left doorpost.
The cultural heyday of the “golden twenties” in the Weimar Republic could now been seen in Laupheim on a smaller scale: an amateur orchestra with challenging aims – a courageous step for a small town of this size. Not much is known about the development of the association, but this tender plant certainly did not survive the year 1933, the beginning of the barbarous era in Germany. As mentioned, Rosa Wallersteiner lived a few years abroad and returned on March 30, 1933 again to Laupheim. Three days later, on April 2, she was arrested, without any known details about the reasons or the period of the arrest. And on account of the lack of information about Jews in the papers – at least nothing positive - there is no more news about her. In 1938/39 she succeeded in emigrating to the USA.
The founder of the orchestra, Marco Bergmann, and the pianist Rosa
Wallersteiner must already have known each other earlier, at the latest,
since 1905: in that year the merchant Leopold Wallersteiner from Biberach
married Marco’s cousin Elsa Bergmann from Laupheim. Later on, the family had
a clothing shop in Ulm. Rosa was probably not a sister but a cousin of the
bridegroom’s. At the wedding party, which took place at the Hotel
“Kronprinz”, she is very likely to have participated as a guest: in the
group picture the lady standing at the left doorpost of the “Kronprinz”
might be Rosa. Her sister Dr. Eugenie Wallersteiner, on the extreme left of
the front row, served as a wedding witness. So it can be presumed that from
the time of this wedding she was renowned as a perfect pianist, and that the
family connection to the Bergmann family caused
Rosa Wallersteiner later to come to Laupheim.
Sources:
1.
Staatsarchiv Sigmaringen,
Wü 65/18,
T5.
2.
Stadtarchiv
Laupheim
F 9811 - Ia: Verzeichnis
über
Bevölkerungsbewegung in der
jüdischen
Gemeinde Laupheim
ab 16.
6. 1933.
3.
Laupheimer
Verkündiger.