Paul Celan
"I have never poetized a line that would have had nothing to do with my existence."
From this quote by the writer and poet Paul Celan, it is clear how closely his work was interwoven with his biography. As a Jewish, German-speaking poet of Romanian origin, he processed the horror of the Shoah in his texts. His best-known poem Todesfuge has been printed and adapted many times.
Furniture department store Feder - Head office
The first branch of the department store Feder was founded in 1900. In addition to the headquarters at Brunnenstraße 1, the department store chain had four other branches in Berlin in 1929: a ready-to-wear department store at Brunnenstraße 197/198, a department store for textiles, lingerie and furniture at Frankfurter Allee 350, one at Kottbusser Damm 103 and one at Wilmersdorfer Straße 165.
The store at Brunnenstraße 1 had already been sold by Berthold Feder to the Jewish businessman Alfred Altmann before the pogroms in November 1938.
Department store Merkur
After Albert Loose gave up his 1905 founded " company and textile store Merkur " already in 1906 and the family left for Königsberg in September 1906, Alfred and Berta Bernheim continued the business. In December 1910, the Bernheims acquired the Merkur department store in Ludwigstraße. Around 1912, Alfred Bernheim bought the adjoining corner house at Theresienstrasse 2. In addition to the house at Ludwigstrasse 7 (four rental lots), which he owned in 1914/15, Alfred Bernheim also purchased the house at Ludwigstrasse 15 in 1916, in which the Bernheims also had a store.
Café Nagler at Moritzplatz
The cafétier Ignatz Nagler, who was born in Bukovina in 1870 and had lived in Berlin since 1896, opened his own café on Moritzplatz in 1908. The "Café Nagler am Moritzplatz" covered two floors, the first floor and the 1st floor. In the invitation card for the opening, it was touted as a "first-class café." Ignatz Nagler ran it together with his wife Rosa, who had been born in West Prussia in 1876. The couple had three children, all of whom were Zionist and gradually emigrated to British Mandate Palestine during the 1920s.
Marcus family residence
Ludwig Salinger Law Office
Ludwig Salinger, a lawyer and notary public, was born in Berlin on July 29, 1854. He was the son of the wealthy father Gottfried Salinger and mother Sophie Salinger. In 1878 he finished his law studies. Just four years later he worked as an assessor at a court in Berlin to gain professional experience.
On April 30, 1883, he married his Jewish wife Clara Meyer, daughter of the university professor Prof. Dr. med. Joseph Meyer. In the course of their marriage, the Jewish couple had three children.
Residence of Frieda Behrend
Frieda Behrend was born on 16.7.1907 in West Prussia as Frieda Schleimer. She married her husband Wilhelm Behrend in 1935 and therefore moved to Jablonskistraße 20 in Berlin Prenzlauer Berg. At the end of 1938 she lost her job as a ladies' hat maker (Putzmacherin) and had to pay a fifth of all her assets to the state and was unemployed until 1941. From then on she worked in an electrical plant as a forced laborer. After the war, she searched for her six siblings through the newspaper "Der Weg". Due to the hard work in the electrical plant, she was never able to work full time again.
Frieda Plotke
Frieda Plotke was born on 15.8.1898 in Berlin. Her parents were Hermann Lowitz and Marie-Elisabeth Lowitz. She married the merchant Friedrich Plotke in Berlin at the age of 21 (1919). Four years later the marriage was divorced again, at which time she was unemployed. From 1941 she received a telephone ban and was no longer allowed to make phone calls (applied to all Jews). On 20.11.1941 her apartment was to be evacuated, already 5 days later she received the letter for "evacuation" from the Jewish Religious Association. On 25.11.1941 Frieda Plotke took her own life.
Apartment of Siegbert (1919-43) and Lotte Rotholz (1923-43?)
Born in 1919, Siegbert Rotholz received an exclusion certificate as early as 1938, which stated that he was no longer allowed, or rather required, to join the Wehrmacht. In 1942 he was obliged to work as a forced laborer in a bakery and in the same year he received a police permit to use public transport.
These measures against Jewish citizens resulted from the Nuremberg Laws, from 01.01.1936. These laws said, among other things, that Jewish citizens were no longer allowed to use public transportation and were no longer allowed to work.
Adolf Bandmann
Born on March 19, 1865, in Neustettin, German citizen Adolf Bandmann lived with his Christian wife Frieda Bandmann, née Richter, and daughter Grete Bandmann at 4a Theklastrasse. Conscripted between 1935-1938, he lived there until his admission to the hospital of the Jewish community in Wedding on April 28, 1940. He died four days later at 10:30 p.m. in the hospital of cardiomyopathy. Adolf held a doctorate and practiced medicine until his retirement. In 1939 he received a penalty order from the Gestapo in the amount of 20 RM (about 75 €) or a prison sentence of 4 days.