Schooldays

Fritz Hirschfeld grew up in Berlin and attended the Königliches Wilhelms-Gymnasium, which he graduated from in 1905.

Studies

He then studied law in Heidelberg, Marburg and Berlin, where he received his doctorate in law. He then became a court assessor at the Prussian Ministry of Justice.

Max Marcus Sabersky (28.07.1840-20.12.1887) was born in Grünberg (Silesia). He founded a grain trading business, which he later expanded into a commission business. From 1872, his brother Gustav Sabersky became an equal partner in the company. The brothers bought the Seehof estate in Teltow in 1872 and developed it into a villa colony (including the Seehof manor house). Max Sabersky married his wife Margarethe Sabersky (née Landsberger) (10.01.1854-01.01.1929) in 1873, with whom he had four children; Elsa Sabersky, Gertrud Sabersky, Ernst Sabersky and Fritz Sabersky.

The address book of the city of Munich from 1901 contains the following entry: Degginger & Heß, Holzhandlung, ( owner Benjamin Degginger and Emil Heß ) Comptoir Landsbergerstraße 61, Detail-Lager Landsbergerstraße 82, Engros-Lager Westendstraße 167. - Degginger Benjamin (Degginger & Heß) Merchant, Göthestr.

The Jacob family had lived in Werder since 1909/10. The two sons Hans (born 10.10.1910) and Kurt (born 15.01.1912) were born here. Their older sister Käte (born 05.05.1909) was born in Jüterborg - the previous place of residence.
Paula Jacob died on 30.12.1912 in Werder.
On 25.05.1915 Max Jacob married Else Jacob, with whom he also raised his three children. There were no children from this second marriage.

Johanna Margarethe Stern, née Lippmann, was born in Berlin on January 6, 1874, the daughter of Theodor Lippmann and Caecilie Gerschel.

Later in her life, she married Samuel Siegbert Stern, who like her was of the Jewish faith, and had four children with him: Hilde Sophie, Hans Martin, Louise Henriette and Annie Regina.

Siegbert Stern was a co-founder of the ladies' coat factory „Graumann & Stern“, which had been in existence since 1888. The success of this company enabled the couple to buy the Stern villa in Neubabelsberg in Potsdam in 1918.

Born on November 11, 1906 in Görlitz, she grew up as the daughter of factory owner Ernst Hamburger and his wife Clara Zipora. Ruth had two brothers, Fritz and Rudolph. Her father died early and her older brother Fritz fell in the First World War in 1914. From then on, Ruth lived with her niece Eva, Fritz's daughter, whose mother was not a teenager. In 1930, the family moved to Fürstenberg/Havel, where Ruth's mother bought a villa and converted it into a guesthouse. Ruth and her niece Eva lived there and most of the guests were young.

Wilhelm Kann was born into a well-known Jewish banking family in 1880 and exerted a considerable influence on Jewish life in Potsdam during his varied life.

His grandfather of the same name opened the W. Kann banking house at Nauener Strasse 32 (now Friedrich-Ebert-Strasse 113) in 1842, after moving to Potsdam from Eberswalde with his family, wife and three children in 1840. The shop was located opposite the old synagogue and the Jewish community center.

The German-Israelitic Community Association (DIGB) in Steglitzer Strasse in Berlin founded a home for feeble-minded but educated children in 1907 to mark the silver wedding anniversary of the imperial couple. A new foundation was established for this purpose, the Wilhelm-Auguste-Victoria Foundation. The special thing about this home was that it was the only school that took in physically disabled Jewish children. Sally (Samuel) Bein was appointed head of the school. The Potsdam Department for Church and Education approved the home and school for 20 children on September 5, 1908.

On July 30, 1873, Alfred Guttmann was born in Posen (now Poznań, PL). His parents were the merchant Albrecht Guttmann (1845–1919) and Ernestine Guttmann, née Haenisch. After leaving school, he studied medicine and singing from 1894–1898 and received his doctorate from Berlin University in 1898. Alfred Guttmann also studied psychology and musicology in Berlin from 1901. After volunteering for the First World War, he worked as a front-line doctor for three and a half years. He not only practiced medicine, but also appeared as a concert performer from 1894.