{"id":325,"date":"2021-06-09T11:47:55","date_gmt":"2021-06-09T09:47:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/?page_id=325"},"modified":"2021-11-10T12:55:53","modified_gmt":"2021-11-10T11:55:53","slug":"jewish-doctors","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/","title":{"rendered":"Jewish Doctors"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div id=\"maps-marker-pro-90cd2c05\" class=\"maps-marker-pro\" style=\"width: 100%;\">\r\n\t\t\t<div id=\"mmp-map-wrap-90cd2c05\" class=\"mmp-map-wrap\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div id=\"mmp-map-90cd2c05\" class=\"mmp-map\" style=\"height: 500px;\"><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><em>By Dr. Horst Sassin, translated from German by Miriam Braun, June 2021<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Stop 1: <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/#Marcus\">Dr. Walter and Dr. Ida Marcus<\/a><\/li><li>Stop 2: <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/2\/\">Prof. Dr. Eduard Schott<\/a><\/li><li>Stop 3: <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/3\/\">Dr. Emil Kronenberg<\/a><\/li><li>Stop 4: <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/4\/\">Sanatorium Bethesda<\/a><\/li><li>Stop 5: <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/5\/\">Dr. Paul Berkenau<\/a><\/li><li>Stop 6: <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/6\/\">Emil-Kronenberg-House<\/a><\/li><li>Stop 7: <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/7\/\">Dr. Erna R\u00fcppel<\/a><\/li><li>Stop 8: <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/8\/\">Municipal hospital<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"Marcus\">Stops 1\u20137 can be completed on foot. If you want to include stop 8, we recommend going either by bike or by bus (lines 692 or 693, from \u201cRathaus\u201d to \u201cKlinikum\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Stop 1: Dr. Walter and Dr. Ida Marcus<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/mmp\/fullscreen\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/S1Marcus-1.png\" alt=\"Kartenausschnitt Werwolf 20\" class=\"wp-image-114\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size\"><em>Werwolf 20 \u2013 <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/mmp\/fullscreen\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\">go to map<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paediatrician Dr. Walter Marcus, born in 1894 in Essen, and paediatrician Dr. Ida Marcus, n\u00e9e Winternitz, of the same age, moved from D\u00fcsseldorf to Solingen in 1923. Walter Marcus\u2019 older sisters Toni Michelson and Lina Westheimer already lived there. Ida Marcus had been born in Oxford and grew up in Prague. She joined the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/German_League_for_Human_Rights\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cLiga f\u00fcr Menschenrechte\u201d (\u201cGerman League for Human Rights\u201d)<\/a> of which Albert Einstein was also a member. When the physicist stayed in Prague in 1911\/12, Ida\u2019s father, indologist and Sanskrit scholar <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Moriz_Winternitz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Prof. Moriz Winternitz<\/a>, had made friends with him. The family was therefore frequently visited by Einstein on the weekends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From 1924 onwards, Mr. and Mrs. Marcus lived and practiced in their own home, located at Auf dem Kamp 53 (address today: Werwolf 20). Their two children Eva and Hans-Werner were born in Solingen in 1925 and 1929, respectively. The fact that even parents from the district of Solingen-Gr\u00e4frath brought their children to Walter Marcus\u2019 office, despite it being boycotted by the Nazis after 1933, indicates just how popular he was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a telling example of this. In February 1936, the antisemitic tabloid \u201cDer St\u00fcrmer\u201d published a primitive denunciation of the pastor in the Protestant parish of Gr\u00e4frath. Julius Roe\u00dfle was not explicitly named, but he could be clearly identified nonetheless. The text read [in translation]:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201eA clerical whiner in Solingen. The Protestant pastor Lic[entiate] R. (of the Confessing Church) lives in Solingen-Gr\u00e4frath. This Mr. Pastor is a member of the NSDAP but does not really care about National Socialism since he is constantly whining. This Mr. Pastor has his children being treated by a Jewish doctor (Marcus). If this Mr. Pastor wants to be a proper National Socialist, it is about time he studies the Jewish Question and stops his whining.\u201c<\/p><cite>Excerpt from \u201cDer St\u00fcrmer\u201c, February 1936 (translation: M.B., 2021)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/MarcusWalterIda-235x300.jpg\" alt=\"Ida and Walter Marcus. Source: Karen I. Marcus\" class=\"wp-image-4829\"\/><figcaption><br>Ida and Walter Marcus. Source: Karen I. Marcus<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Roe\u00dfle was indeed a member of the NSDAP and of the closely linked organisation <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/German_Christians_(movement)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cDeutsche Christen\u201d (\u201cGerman Christians\u201d)<\/a>. As such, he was elected as pastor in 1933. However, he distanced himself theologically from the National Socialists and personally appreciated also the Jewish among his fellow citizens. Friedel, son of architect <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hermann_Friedrich_Graebe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hermann Fritz Gr\u00e4be<\/a> from Gr\u00e4frath who saved Jews in Ukraine during World War II, was a patient of Dr. Walter Marcus, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the census of June 1933, there were 5,557 Jewish doctors in Germany, not including those who had left the Jewish community or who had converted to Christianity. They accounted for 11 % of all German doctors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"Schott\">In 1936, Dr. Walter Marcus\u2019 permission to treat state-insured patients was withdrawn. Although he was allowed to attend the International Medical Week in Interlaken in 1937, he eventually lost his approbation in 1938. By this time, he and his wife had already taken precautions for their emigration. Their house was spared during the &#8222;Kristallnacht&#8220; of 1938 as they had already found an \u201cAryan\u201d buyer who protected his future property. Nevertheless, the paediatrician was arrested in the aftermath of the pogrom and was deported to Dachau. In mid-December 1938, he was released under the condition that he left Germany within 14 days. Since they could not obtain an entry visa within the short time available, he and his wife Ida \u2013 who, since she had been born in Oxford, also held the British citizenship \u2013 applied for a visitor visa to British Palestine. From there, they travelled via England to the USA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"Schott\">Until he had completed an additional exam in 1943, Walter Marcus was not able to pursue any professional career in the USA. During this time, he mostly depended on the income of his wife who at first had found some underqualified work as a laboratory assistant. In the mid-1940s, both were offered the chance to work at Thorek Hospital in Chicago and went on to later found their own laboratory, while Walter Marcus also opened his own medical practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ida Marcus died on <a href=\"https:\/\/de.findagrave.com\/memorial\/179577917\/ida-irma-marcus\">2 December 1958<\/a> in Chicago from pneumonia, presumably as a result of brain inflammation that she had caught while working at the laboratory. Her burial was met with great sympathy. The mayor of Chicago, Richard J. Daley, was among those who signed the book of condolence. After her death, Ida\u2019s husband Walter married again and died on <a href=\"https:\/\/de.findagrave.com\/memorial\/184058858\/walter-marcus\">28 July 1973<\/a>, also in Chicago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/MarcusIda_Ausweis-773x1024.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/MarcusIda_Ausweis-773x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"4831\" data-link=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/stadtrundfahrt-juedische-aerztinnen-in-solingen\/marcusida_ausweis\/\" class=\"wp-image-4831\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/MarcusIda_laboratory41.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/MarcusIda_laboratory41.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"4832\" data-link=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/stadtrundfahrt-juedische-aerztinnen-in-solingen\/marcusida_laboratory41\/\" class=\"wp-image-4832\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/MarcusIda_ObitTribune-2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/MarcusIda_ObitTribune-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"4836\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/MarcusIda_ObitTribune-2.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/stadtrundfahrt-juedische-aerztinnen-in-solingen\/marcusida_obittribune-2\/\" class=\"wp-image-4836\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-caption\">Left: Ida Marcus\u2019 identity card as of 1937, Middle: Ida Marcus (on the right) at the laboratory in 1941, Right: Obituary for Dr. Ida Marcus. Source: Karen I. Marcus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When their daughter Eva was contacted in 1968 by Herbert Weber of Solingen, who was working on documenting what happened in the city during the \u201eKristallnacht\u201c, she replied that she preferred not to remember those unhappy times which she had successfully repressed. She wrote [in translation]:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201eIt is horrendous when people that you knew and trusted turn into a wild, unrestrained, lunatic mob to which you can no longer say anything and which furiously destroys and burns everything. There are many other people who have experienced themselves the agitation and despair of having a father or husband in one of the concentration camps. But how to explain such facts and feelings to the free youth of today? It\u2019s nothing more than old history now. I am deeply sorry that I cannot be of any more help to you, but what I experienced best remains forgotten.\u201c<\/p><cite>Eva Cohn, n\u00e9e Marcus, in September 1968 (translation: M.B., 2021)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<!--nextpage-->\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Stop 2: Prof. Dr. Eduard Schott<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/mmp\/fullscreen\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/S2Schott-1.png\" alt=\"Kartenausschnitt Birkenweiher 43\" class=\"wp-image-116\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Birkenweiher 43 \u2013 <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/mmp\/fullscreen\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/mmp\/fullscreen\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\">go to map<\/a><\/em><\/em> \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/\">go to starting point<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/stolpersteine-solingen.de\/stolperstein-am-birkenweiher-erinnert-an-mediziner-eduard-schott\/787\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Eduard Schott<\/a> was born in 1886 and grew up in Worms. While studying medicine, he was deeply impressed by a well-known fellow student: Albert Schweitzer. It was under this influence that he converted from the Jewish community to the Protestant Church. In 1911, Eduard Schott received his approbation. He worked as chief physician in the field hospitals at the Western as well as the Eastern front from 1914 until 1918; in his CV, he commented briefly on this: \u201cexperience with war epidemics, periodic surgical tasks\u201d [translation M.B., 2021]. In 1917, he married Ilse Gumprecht, a non-Jewish nurse from the Johanniter order, who also worked at the field hospitals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before World War I, he had taught at the Academy for Practical Medicine in Cologne. In 1919 he joined the newly founded University of Cologne as a lecturer and in 1921 became an associate professor. On 1 October 1927, he started working in Solingen: he became chief physician in the department of internal medicine and medical director at the <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/8\/\">municipal hospital<\/a>. You will find more information about the years that followed at stop 8 of this tour. Here, at Birkenweiher 43, we will only go into how the developments hit bottom in 1938.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/PK-1175-1024x627.jpg\" alt=\"Historische Postkarte Birkenweiher, rechts Haus Nr. 43. Quelle: Stadtarchiv Solingen, PK 1175\" class=\"wp-image-4168\"\/><figcaption><em><br>Historical view of Birkenweiher, house nr. 43 is on the right. Source: City Archive of Solingen, PK 1175<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>After the 4<sup>th<\/sup> decree of the <em>Reich Citizenship Law<\/em> had annulled the licenses of Jewish doctors as of 30 September 1938, Dr. Schott lost his private medical practice. Also, his flat was destroyed during the \u201e<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/closedbutopen-novemberpogrom\/1076\/\" target=\"_blank\"><u>Kristallnacht\u201c of 1938<\/u><\/a> and he was temporarily put into &#8222;protective custody&#8220;. In 1988, his son Francis described how he experienced the night of the pogrom as a 12-year-old in an article for the New York Times:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><strong>\u201e<\/strong>A jarring sound jolts us awake in the middle of the night. Glass and wood of the apartment door shatter. My little sister and I sit up in our beds, uncomprehending. The noise gets louder yet, things are breaking and gruff male voices can be heard. My mother slips in from the adjacent bedroom and stations herself inside our closed door. Heavy steps rush from the living room at the front of the apartment to the dining room at its end. The sound of destruction heightens as china and crystal are thrown into the corridor.<br>Suddenly I know. The Nazis have come to get us. They are smashing our things. My mother is trying to protect us. Inexplicably, the cold fear that grips me is not for my own life but for my mother&#8217;s. The Nazis will kill her. I cower.<br>Then they are gone. [\u2026] My father&#8217;s Italian cello is nothing but splinters, the Bechstein piano smashed beyond repair. The Emil Nolde watercolors and Paul Klee drawings are on the floor, crushed. [\u2026]<br>Worse is to come, much worse. But on Kristallnacht, a 12-year-old has absorbed a lesson. The orderly world in which only the police can get you and won&#8217;t come unless you are a criminal &#8211; that world is gone.<strong>\u201c<\/strong><\/p><cite>Recollection by Francis Schott in the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1988\/11\/09\/opinion\/kristallnacht-in-solingen.html\" target=\"_blank\">New York Times, November 1988<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Professor Schott got incarcerated at the police prison of Potsdamer Stra\u00dfe, but was released shortly afterwards to prepare his emigration. He managed to emigrate to the USA as early as May 1939, while his wife, together with their four children, moved to Weimar where her parents lived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--nextpage-->\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Stop 3: Dr. Emil Kronenberg<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/mmp\/fullscreen\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/S3Kronenberg-1.png\" alt=\"Kartenausschnitt Katternberger Str. 24\" class=\"wp-image-118\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Katternberger Str. 24 <em>\u2013 <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/mmp\/fullscreen\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/mmp\/fullscreen\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\">go to map<\/a><\/em><\/em> \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/juedische-aerzte-und-aerztinnen\/\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/\">go to starting point<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/stolpersteine-solingen.de\/stolpersteine-erinnern-an-adele-und-emil-kronenberg\/932\" target=\"_blank\">Emil Kronenberg<\/a> was born in 1864 in Leichlingen. He was the son of a doctor and studied medicine at different universities between 1885 and 1890.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"bg-margin-for-link\"><input type='hidden' bg_collapse_expand='69d27f6f349f23065188572' value='69d27f6f349f23065188572'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-more-text-69d27f6f349f23065188572' value='Jewish medical students'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-less-text-69d27f6f349f23065188572' value='hide'><a id='bg-showmore-action-69d27f6f349f23065188572' class='bg-showmore-plg-link bg-arrow '  style=\" color:#dd6622;;\" href='#'>Jewish medical students<\/a><div id='bg-showmore-hidden-69d27f6f349f23065188572' ><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Medicine used to be the most popular subject of study among Jewish students at the time. In the winter semester of 1886\/87, there were 1,134 Jewish students enrolled at German universities, accounting for 9% of all German students. 57% of the Jewish students had opted for medicine, marking a peak in the subject\u2019s popularity among that group. Almost 20 years later, 25% of all Jewish students in Germany were still studying medicine, while 41% studied law. Their choice of faculties demonstrates how strongly young Jews of the time already anticipated the occupational restrictions they had to expect when working in public service jobs. As doctors or lawyers on the other hand, they were able to work in liberal professions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why did those young Jews \u2013 both males and, successively, females \u2013 turn to these subjects? In many cases, their fathers were merchants. In the German Empire (1871-1918), the social prestige of merchants was low: their interests were considered to be purely materialistic, and they had a reputation of being unproductive. Many sons now aspired to become part of the humanistic educated elite. In 1906\/07, 92% of all German children went to the \u201cVolksschule\u201d (primary school of the time, providing basic education for grades one to eight), while just 8% went to a secondary school (admission to which was only possible from grade five onwards and required an entrance examination). In comparison, 59% of Jewish pupils attended a secondary school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the winter semester of 1911\/12, the number of enrolled Jewish students rose to 1,356. However, they now made up only 5.6% of all German students \u2013 as compared to 9% 25 years earlier \u2013 since more and more Protestant and, with some delay, Catholic families were eager to participate in higher education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1891, Emil Kronenberg settled in Solingen-H\u00f6hscheid as general practitioner, but went to Berlin the year after to become trained as an ENT physician.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Na-25-21-frei.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Na-25-21-frei-198x300.jpg\" alt=\"Foto des Ehepaars Adele und Dr. Emil Kronenberg, Quelle: Stadtarchiv Solingen, Na 25-21\" class=\"wp-image-2716\"\/><\/a><figcaption>Adele and Dr. Emil Kronenberg. Source: City Archive of Solingen, Na 25-21<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Back in Solingen, he opened an ENT practice in 1894 and married Adele Becker in 1896. Adele was the daughter of a merchant and came from a Christian family. Emil, however, remained a member of the synagogue community. The marriage remained childless, but the couple repeatedly took in children of their relatives and had them stay at their house for several years. In this context, Emil Kronenberg\u2019s niece, future doctor Grete Blumenthal, is to be especially mentioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the decades that followed, Emil Kronenberg published numerous medical articles in specialist journals. In 1894, he joined the \u201c\u00c4rztlicher Verein Solingen\u201d (\u201cDoctor\u2019s Association Solingen\u201d) and was a member of its board for many years, until 1933. He was a founding member of the \u201cVerein westdeutscher Hals- und Ohren\u00e4rzte\u201d (\u201cAssociation of West German ear and throat physicians\u201d) in 1897 and became their chairman from 1912 to 1914. During World War I, he served as major (Medical Corps), working in a field hospital at the Western front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"Bethesda\">While his father had sympathised with the National Liberals, Emil Kronenberg thought of himself as left-liberal, following the ideas of Friedrich Naumann, founder of the \u201cNationalsoziale Verein\u201d (NSV, \u201cNational-Social Association\u201d). In 1906, Emil Kronenberg founded and chaired a local chapter of the NSV in Solingen as part of the \u201cFreisinnige Vereinigung\u201d (\u201cFree-minded Union\u201d). When Naumann managed to bring various left-liberal camps together in the newly founded \u201cFortschrittliche Volkspartei\u201d (\u201cProgressive People\u2019s Party\u201d) in 1910, Kronenberg became chairman of their local chapter in Solingen. Nine years later, in 1919, he became chairman of Solingen\u2019s branch of the \u201cDeutsche Demokratische Partei\u201d (\u201cGerman Democratic Party\u201d). He must have given up that office at some point between early 1926 and mid-1928; since then, his wife Adele was the association\u2019s clerk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Na-25-20-1024x771.jpg\" alt=\"Foto Dr. Emil Kronenberg (in der Bildmitte sitzend mit Rotkreuz-Binde) im Feldlazarett w\u00e4hrend des Ersten Weltkriegs, Quelle: Stadtarchiv Solingen, Na 25-20\" class=\"wp-image-2719\"\/><figcaption>Dr. Emil Kronenberg (centre of the image, seated, wearing armband of the Red Cross) at a field hospital during World War I. Source: City Archive of Solingen, Na 25-20<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2019, two <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stolpersteine.eu\/en\/home\/\">Stolpersteine<\/a> were laid at Katternberger Stra\u00dfe, remembering Adele and Emil Kronenberg, after the district association of the \u201cFreie Demokratische Partei\u201d (\u201cFree Democratic Party\u201d) in Solingen had initiated the procedure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-2 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/ek_5749-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"4855\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/ek_5749.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/stadtrundfahrt-juedische-aerztinnen-in-solingen\/ek_5749-2\/\" class=\"wp-image-4855\"\/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/ek_5721-765x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"4854\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/ek_5721.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/stadtrundfahrt-juedische-aerztinnen-in-solingen\/ek_5721-2\/\" class=\"wp-image-4854\"\/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-caption\">Stolperstein-laying ceremony for Adele and Dr. Emil Kronenberg. Photos: Daniela Tobias<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<!--nextpage-->\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Stop 4: Sanatorium Bethesda<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/mmp\/fullscreen\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/S4Bethesda-1.png\" alt=\"Kartenausschnitt Friedrichstr. \/ Ecke Kirschbaumer Hof\" class=\"wp-image-119\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Friedrichstra\u00dfe, <em>bordering on<\/em> Kirschbaumer Hof <em><em>\u2013 <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/mmp\/fullscreen\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/mmp\/fullscreen\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\">go to map<\/a><\/em><\/em> \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/juedische-aerzte-und-aerztinnen\/\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/\">go to starting point<\/a><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/3\/\">Dr. Emil Kronenberg<\/a> founded the Sanatorium Bethesda in 1899, together with three specialists in eye diseases, gynaecological conditions and childhood illnesses. It was a private clinic with just 25 beds to start with. The patient rooms had one to three beds each \u2013 an improvement, compared to the general hospitals of the time. Besides their job at Bethesda, the founding doctors kept working at their respective medical practices. After the \u201cDiakonissenverband Bethesda\u201d (\u201cDeaconess\u2019 Association Bethesda\u201d) had purchased the sanatorium in 1910, the specialists continued to work at the clinic. However, after the <em>Reich Citizenship Law<\/em> as of 15 September 1935 had stripped the so-called \u201cnon-Aryans\u201d of their <em>Reich citizenship<\/em>, Jewish doctors lost their employments at public as well as private hospitals. Having had to give up his job at Bethesda prompted Emil Kronenberg to also give up his own medical practice. He would have had to work at a loss, since he was only making a quarter of what he had earned before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/PK-6645-1024x644.jpg\" alt=\"Postkarte des Krankenhauses Bethesda. Quelle: Stadtarchiv Solingen, PK 6645\" class=\"wp-image-5024\"\/><figcaption>Postcard of the Sanatorium Bethesda. Source: City Archive of Solingen, PK 6645<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>He sold his house, which included his medical practice, to his brother-in-law and rented a flat in Solingen-H\u00f6hscheid, at Neuenkamper Stra\u00dfe 70. His monthly pension now amounted to a meagre 120 <em>Reichsmark<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Aforementioned niece <a href=\"http:\/\/aerzte.erez-israel.de\/weidenbaum\/\">Grete Blumenthal<\/a> moved back in with her uncle Dr. Emil Kronenberg in April 1935, after already having lived at his house from 1922 to 1924. Grete, born in 1906, studied medicine and went on to complete her elective (practical year) at the Israelite Hospital of Frankfurt am Main. In February 1935, she successfully completed her doctoral examination. However, she received neither her diploma nor her approbation due to her Jewish descent, even though she had converted to Protestant faith. In early 1936, she managed to emigrate to Belgium. After waiving the German approbation, she finally received her diploma at the end of 1937. When Belgium came under German occupation during World War II, she illegally lived in Antwerp, Marseille and Aix-en-Provence from December 1940 onwards. She then fled to Switzerland in September 1942, where she was retained in various detention camps. She returned to Belgium after the war had ended. Following a number of different stays abroad, she eventually emigrated to Israel at the end of 1950 and started working there as medical director of a clinical laboratory in 1951.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"Berkenau\">At the same time as Dr. Emil Kronenberg, internist <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/7\/\">Dr. Hans R\u00fcppel<\/a> lost his position as director of the department for internal medicine at Bethesda, even though he was neither of Jewish faith nor descent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--nextpage-->\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Stop 5: Dr. Paul Berkenau<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/mmp\/fullscreen\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/S5Berkenau-1.png\" alt=\"Kartenausschnitt S\u00fcdwall 36 (Dreieck)\" class=\"wp-image-120\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201e<em>Dreieck\u201c (S\u00fcdwall 36) <em><em>\u2013 <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/mmp\/fullscreen\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/mmp\/fullscreen\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\">go to map<\/a><\/em> \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/juedische-aerzte-und-aerztinnen\/\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/\">go to starting point<\/a><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Protestant neurologist Dr. Paul Berkenau came from the Jewish Benjamin family of Hannover. In 1911, aged 21, he assumed the surname Berkenau. When he came to Solingen at the end of 1927, he set up his first medical practice at Weststra\u00dfe (address today: Klemens-Horn-Stra\u00dfe 25). The Berkenau family made friends with their direct neighbours, married <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/7\/\">doctors Hans and Erna R\u00fcppel<\/a>. In 1929 already, Paul Berkenau moved to S\u00fcdwall 36 (location today: around the triangular junction called \u201cDreieck\u201d at Graf-Wilhelm-Platz), together with his family: his wife Erika, n\u00e9e Scharfenberg, who was 12 years younger than him, and their two children G\u00fcnther and Susanne who had been born in 1924 and 1927, respectively. Later on, G\u00fcnther actively participated in the YMCA. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/closedbutopen-aenne-wagner\/999\/\">\u00c4nne Wagner<\/a>, cultural critic <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/max-leven\/\">Max Leven<\/a>, who suffered from tabes dorsalis, and herself were patients of Dr. Berkenau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>G\u00fcnther was first in the Berkenau family to emigrate. As a consequence of personal harassment, Dr. Berkenau deregistered his son from the local grammar school as early as 1937 and enabled him to attend a boarding school in England where, at first, he encountered massive problems due to his lacking command of the English language. When Mr. and Mrs. Berkenau officially moved to Cologne on 29 September 1938, they temporarily left their 11-year-old daughter Susanne to stay with the R\u00fcppel family in Solingen. However, following the <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/closedbutopen-novemberpogrom\/1076\/\">\u201cKristallnacht\u201c<\/a> in the night of 9\u201310 November 1938, the house of Hans and Erna R\u00fcppel was under threat and Dr. Berkenau arranged for an \u201cAryan\u201d doctor to take his daughter in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/BerkenauRueppel1920.jpg\" alt=\"Foto des Ehepaars Dr. Hans (rechts) und Dr. Erna R\u00fcppel (2. v.l.) mit der Familie Berkenau (Mitte) und einer weiteren Freundin (links). Quelle: Stadtarchiv Solingen.\" class=\"wp-image-4627\"\/><figcaption>Dr. Hans (on the right) and Dr. Erna R\u00fcppel (2nd from left) with the Berkenau family (in the middle) and another friend (on the left). Source: City Archive of Solingen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Out of necessity, the popular philanthropic doctor had to emigrate to England in 1939. He had to resit the English doctoral examination before he was allowed to start working as a clinician in 1941.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After various changes of school, his son G\u00fcnther eventually attended a day school in Oxford to where his parents had fled, via Switzerland, in the meantime. After being employed as a forestry worker for some time, he signed up for the British army in 1942, aged 18, and was trained as a tank driver there. At that point, G\u00fcnther changed his family name to Berkeley. He was on duty when the Western Allies landed on the coast of Normandy in northern France on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) and thereby opened the Western front at which he fought until 8 May 1945. After the war had ended, he was soldier of the occupying army in northern Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"VHS\">His father Dr. Paul Berkenau obtained British citizenship as late as 1947. He retired in 1957 and died six years later, in 1963.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--nextpage-->\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Stop 6: Emil-Kronenberg-House<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/mmp\/fullscreen\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/S6Kronenberg-1.png\" alt=\"Kartenausschnitt Mummstr. 10\" class=\"wp-image-121\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Mummstra\u00dfe 10 <em><em>\u2013 <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/mmp\/fullscreen\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/mmp\/fullscreen\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\">go to map<\/a><\/em> \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/juedische-aerzte-und-aerztinnen\/\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/\">go to starting point<\/a><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As can be read on an information board, the building that houses Solingen\u2019s city library and \u201cVolkshochschule\u201d (an education centre, mostly for adults) was named after <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/3\/\">Dr. Emil Kronenberg<\/a> anno 2004 \u2013 far from being a coincidence. Mr. and Mrs. Kronenberg shared a broad interest in culture. Prior to 1914, Adele Kronenberg became actively involved in the \u201cVerein Jugendschutz\u201d (\u201cAssociation for Youth Protection\u201d). In the 1920s, she contributed to the Committee on Public Welfare in the city of Solingen and also became active for Solingen\u2019s emergency aid in 1929. Emil Kronenberg was part of the \u201cSolinger Lesegesellschaft\u201d (\u201cSolingen Reading Society\u201d) which had been founded in 1894 and which, in 1896, started hosting lectures from poets, researchers and scholars. He was a strong advocate of a \u201eVolkshochschule\u201c run by the city of Solingen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first local \u201cVolkshochschule\u201d, initiated by Emil Kronenberg and financially supported by an association for adult evening classes, successfully operated between 1912 and 1918. Afterwards, at the time of the Weimar Republic, Solingen\u2019s municipal \u201cVolkshochschule\u201d was founded in 1919. Dr. Emil Kronenberg was a member of the municipal Committee on Education and also contributed to the Committee on Health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Na-25-21-Nr.-019.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Na-25-21-Nr.-019-224x300.jpg\" alt=\"Nachkriegsfoto Dr. Emil Kronenberg, Quelle: Stadtarchiv Solingen, Na 25-21 Nr. 19\" class=\"wp-image-4570\"\/><\/a><figcaption>Dr. Emil Kronenberg. Source: City Archive of Solingen, Na 25-21 no. 19<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In the meantime, the \u201eSolinger Lesegesellschaft\u201c was continually amplifying its stock of books and journals. In early 1926, Solingen\u2019s city library was brought into being, once again initiated by Dr. Kronenberg, and could take on the Reading Society\u2019s stock of 3,000 books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After the National Socialists had seized power, Emil and Adele Kronenberg had to give up their entire volunteer work and all of their honorary offices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"R\u00fcppel\">Starting in late 1941, Emil Kronenberg worked as the last \u201cSachbearbeiter des B\u00fcros Solingen\u201d (\u201cClerk at the Solingen Office\u201d) of the \u201cReichsvereinigung der Juden\u201d (\u201cReich Association of Jews\u201d). On 1 February 1943, the confiscation of all of his assets \u201cfor the benefit of the German Reich\u201d was decreed but not performed. He was deported to Theresienstadt on 17 September 1944, together with the remaining Jews that also lived in so-called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/closedbutopen-nuernberger-rassegesetze\/1070\/\">miscegenation<\/a>\u201d. After the liberation, Emil Kronenberg returned to Solingen on 1 July 1945. He represented the newly founded \u201cFreie Demokratische Partei\u201d (\u201cFree Democratic Party\u201d) in the municipal Committee on Culture. He died in 1954, almost 90 years of age. His urn was laid to rest on the Protestant cemetery at Kasinostra\u00dfe, next to his wife who had died in 1943.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--nextpage-->\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Stop 7: Dr. Erna R\u00fcppel<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/mmp\/fullscreen\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/S7Rueppel-1.png\" alt=\"Kartenausschnitt Augustastr. 10\" class=\"wp-image-122\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Augustastra\u00dfe 10 <em><em>\u2013 <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/mmp\/fullscreen\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/mmp\/fullscreen\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\">go to map<\/a><\/em> \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/juedische-aerzte-und-aerztinnen\/\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/\">go to starting point<\/a><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paediatrician <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/closedbutopen-dr-erna-rueppel\/1084\/\">Dr. Erna R\u00fcppel<\/a> of Solingen came, on her mother\u2019s side, from the family of Joseph Feist who played a role in the steel ware industry as well as in the synagogue community. Erna Marcus, as was her maiden name, was born in 1895 in Wuppertal-Barmen. She spent her childhood and youth in Cologne where, in 1913, she successfully completed her \u201cAbitur\u201d (school-leaving qualification comparable to A levels), an absolute rarity at the time. She studied medicine afterwards, mostly at the University of Bonn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There were more than 4,000 female students at German universities in 1914, accounting for 6% of all students. 11.2% of these female students were Jewish. In the winter semester of 1911\/12, 28% of female Jewish students were studying medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was probably at the university hospital of Bonn that Erna Marcus met her future husband Dr. Hans R\u00fcppel, who had been born illegitimately in 1890 and went on to become an internist. They got married in December 1921. The marriage remained childless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Rueppel-Kinderstation-web-1024x783.jpg\" alt=\"Foto Dr. Erna R\u00fcppel am Kinderkrankenbett, wohl Anfang der 1920er Jahre, Quelle: Horst Sassin\" class=\"wp-image-1335\"\/><figcaption>Dr. Erna R\u00fcppel at the bedside of a sick child, probably in the early 1920s. Source: Horst Sassin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>After several years of gaining practical experience in Herrenalb, where Hans R\u00fcppel was director of the local \u201cKurhaus\u201d (the central building of a health resort), the couple moved to Solingen in 1927. They settled at Weststra\u00dfe (today: Klemens-Horn-Stra\u00dfe) 25a and, together with neurologist <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/5\/\">Dr. Paul Berkenau<\/a>, they set up a joint medical practice there. Once they had established themselves, they separated their medical practices and Drs. R\u00fcppel moved to Weststra\u00dfe 32 in 1929. Hans R\u00fcppel sold the \u201cKurhaus\u201d in 1932 so that he and his wife could finance the construction of their own house, which they started building at Augustastra\u00dfe 10. In December 1933, they moved into their new home that comprised two medical practices as well as two flats, one for Mr. and Mrs. R\u00fcppel and one for their aunt Hermine R\u00fcppel who ran the household.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The history and spiral of exclusion was the same as for all Jews \u2013 the only difference being that, according to racist criteria, Dr. Hans R\u00fcppel was actually \u201cAryan\u201d. But he was boycotted nonetheless and lost his permission to treat state-insured patients as well as his position as director of the department for internal medicine at the <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/4\/\">Sanatorium Bethesda<\/a>. One day after the <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/closedbutopen-novemberpogrom\/1076\/\">\u201cKristallnacht\u201d of 1938<\/a>, the couple\u2019s flat as well as Hans R\u00fcppel\u2019s medical practice were ransacked. Dentist Dr. Langenohl, a member of the Nazi party NSDAP and medical officer at its paramilitary wing \u201cSturmabteilung\u201d (SA), was involved in the ravage. The day after, two sons of pastor Johannes Lutze (from the Confessing Church) visited the <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/2\/\">Schott<\/a> and the R\u00fcppel families as a sign of solidarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Ehepaar-Rueppel-web.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Ehepaar-Rueppel-web-209x300.jpg\" alt=\"Foto des Ehepaars Erna und Hans R\u00fcppel in den 1920ern, Quelle: Horst Sassin\" class=\"wp-image-1339\"\/><\/a><figcaption>Drs. Erna and Hans R\u00fcppel in the 1920s. Source: Horst Sassin<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>As a result of these events, Mr. and Mrs. R\u00fcppel decided to get divorced in pretence. They were hoping that the internist would return to earning his regular wages this way and, consequently, would be in a position to financially support Erna\u2019s elder disabled sister Grete and her mother. Proceedings like that were extremely expedited at the time and the divorce decree was already issued at the end of December that year. A couple of days later, Erna R\u00fcppel moved out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The \u201cIsraelite Asylum for the Sick and Elderly\u201c in Cologne became her new worksite and residence. Since her approbation had been revoked, she started working there as a student nurse. Gradually, the National Socialists forcefully committed Jews to so-called \u201cJudenh\u00e4user\u201d (\u201cJew houses\u201d). When they started doing so in Cologne, Erna R\u00fcppel managed to secure a place for her mother and sister in the Israelite asylum\u2019s department for the elderly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Thousand-bomber raid on Cologne of 31 May 1942 changed everything. The Israelite Asylum had remained intact but was evacuated nonetheless to make room for \u201cAryan\u201d patients. The sick and elderly were taken to the M\u00fcngersdorf camp from where, starting in June, they were deported to Theresienstadt. Erna R\u00fcppel was assigned to one of these transports. With lots of luck, she managed to jump off the truck and was able to notify a contact address in Solingen. From then on, she lived in illegality, in Solingen at first and, later on, in D\u00fcsseldorf. With the help of Croatian friends, Hans R\u00fcppel managed to organise fake identity papers for Erna with which she could assume a false identity and live a life less threatened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Erna R\u00fcppel started working at the Red Cross Hospital in Munich in June 1943, going by the name of Anna Markus(ch). It took almost another two years until the city was liberated by the US army, a time that must have been extremely burdensome for her. She could never let her guard down, never let her true identity or her medical expertise show. During the last months of the war, she suffered from a painful sialadenitis caused by a salivary stone stuck in the gland. She did not have this surgically treated for she feared that she might accidentally mutter her real name when waking up half-consciously after the operation. The arrival of the Americans was a liberation to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shortly after returning to Solingen, she took a bus to the Czechoslovakian border, hoping to be able to pick up her mother and sister from the Theresienstadt concentration camp. But the Czech government had closed the borders and she went back to Solingen empty-handed. In 1952, she had her mother and sister be declared dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Back in Solingen, she started to re-assemble her old life: she re-opened her medical practice, applied for compensation, married her husband for a second time. Mr. and Mrs. R\u00fcppel witnessed the conviction of the SA troop that had ransacked their flat, including aforementioned dentist Dr. Langenohl. The couple was part of several committees that worked towards re-establishing democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"Klinikum\">In 1952, Hans R\u00fcppel moved in with another woman \u2013 he lived in D\u00fcsseldorf from then on, but maintained solidarity with Erna R\u00fcppel by not getting divorced from her and by transferring her the desired assets. Erna R\u00fcppel died in 1970. Her burial was attended by an overwhelming number of people as she was laid to rest on the Protestant cemetery at Kasinostra\u00dfe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the presence of relatives from the Feist family, a <a href=\"https:\/\/stolpersteine-solingen.de\/stolpersteinverlegung-fuer-dr-erna-rueppel\/707\">Stolperstein<\/a> was laid at Augustastra\u00dfe 10 in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-3 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/uprueppel17-1024x748.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"2421\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/uprueppel17-scaled.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/932-2\/uprueppel17-2\/\" class=\"wp-image-2421\"\/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/uprueppel13-1024x707.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"1358\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/uprueppel13-scaled.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/932-2\/uprueppel13\/\" class=\"wp-image-1358\"\/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-caption\">Stolperstein-laying ceremony for Dr. Erna R\u00fcppel. Photos: Uli Preuss<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<!--nextpage-->\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Stop 8: Municipal hospital<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/mmp\/fullscreen\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/S8Klinikum-1.png\" alt=\"Kartenausschnitt Gotenstr. 1\" class=\"wp-image-123\"\/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Gotenstra\u00dfe 1 <em><em>\u2013 <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/mmp\/fullscreen\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/mmp\/fullscreen\/1\/\" target=\"_blank\">go to map<\/a><\/em> \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/juedische-aerzte-und-aerztinnen\/\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/\">go to starting point<\/a><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here we are at the municipal hospital, the place where physician <a href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/2\/\">Dr. Eduard Schott<\/a> started working as director in 1927. However, in December 1933, the city of Solingen decided to remove him from office. At the end of 1935, he was forced into retirement. Even before that, he became the target of repressive measures: On 6 April 1935, a huge poster hung resplendent at the hospital\u2019s front, right next to the entrance, saying \u201cin great blood-red letters\u201d: \u201cOut with Jew Schott\u201d [in translation]. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The unknown perpetrators had also put that same remark onto the garden wall of Dr. Schott\u2019s official residence at Gotenstra\u00dfe 16. Indignantly, the hospital\u2019s administrative director Friedrich Bernhard Winterhof had the poster be removed. Winterhof reported the incident to the Mayor of Solingen afterwards \u2013 but not a single finger was lifted in favour of hospital clinician Schott across the entire city administration. One of the civil servants noted [in translation]: \u201cThere is nothing to instigate.\u201d Eduard Schott reacted with a mix of incomprehension, disbelief and outrage to being personally patronised like that and to being forced into retirement. In a petition to the city administration, dated 21 October 1935, he protested [in translation]: \u201cI have never felt anything but German and I will continue to do so until the end of my life. I have been a soldier for one and a half years.\u201d In a request directed at the \u201cF\u00fchrer and Reich Chancellor\u201d, he even attempted to obtain an exceptional permission so that he could continue working at the hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Krankenanstalten1935Picard-1024x690.jpg\" alt=\"Foto St\u00e4dtische Krankenanstalten, ca. 1935. Quelle: Stadtarchiv Solingen\" class=\"wp-image-1651\"\/><figcaption>Municipal hospital, ca. 1935. Source: City Archive of Solingen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Protest could be felt across the citizenry of Solingen as well. Friends and acquaintances of the family tried to mobilise Wilhelm Frick, Reich Minister of the Interior at the time. Entrepreneurs Otto Jagenberg, Wilhelm Sch\u00fcrhoff and Walter Osberghaus directed the following request [in translation] at Solingen\u2019s Mayor Dr. Otto, who was a physician himself: \u201cWe would like to inform you that a petition regarding Prof. Schott is being prepared by the citizenry. May we kindly ask you to let us know whether we should address the petition directly to the F\u00fchrer and Reich Chancellor so that it may reach you through the official channels or whether we may pass the petition to you personally so that you can forward it to Berlin?\u201d It carried an additional note: \u201ePersonal consultation desired\u201c. Deputy mayor Rudolf Br\u00fcckmann harshly rejected the request: [in translation] he expressed that he would \u201cneither support nor receive the advertised petition. I consider personal consultation in this matter redundant and ask you to refrain from requesting it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After emigrating to the USA, Professor Schott struggled with establishing himself vocationally. He had to resit his doctoral examination so that he could set up a medical practice in a small town near Boston. While the rest of the family had to stay in Weimar, his eldest daughter came to the USA in May 1940. Ilse Schott got divorced from her husband Eduard in 1942, presumably to alleviate the fate of those family members remaining in Germany. In 1943\/44, the couple\u2019s two sons and other daughter had to leave their respective schools and start working in the economy. Eduard Schott suffered a stroke in 1944, something that the part of the Schott family still living in Germany only learned after the downfall of the \u201eThird Reich\u201c.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The stroke accounts for why the doctor, 70 years of age and in frail health, turned down the offer to become the municipal hospital\u2019s director once again, as had been proposed by the city of Solingen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Eduard-Schott-1949-in-USA-RS-10124_BEA_R-1024x713.jpg\" alt=\"Foto Eduard Schott 1949 in USA. Quelle: Stadtarchiv Solingen, RS 10124\" class=\"wp-image-4155\"\/><figcaption>Eduard Schott in the USA, 1949. Source: City Archive of Solingen, RS 10124<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>For the purpose of family reunification, the majority of the Schott family could relocate to the USA in 1946\/47; the eldest son followed with his own family in 1951. Schott died on 6 July 1952 after suffering another stroke. In the presence of three of his grandchildren, a commemorative plaque was undraped on 10 November 2017 at the hospital of Solingen. On the initiative of Solingen\u2019s regional IPPNW group (\u201cInternational Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War\u201d), a <a href=\"https:\/\/stolpersteine-solingen.de\/stolperstein-am-birkenweiher-erinnert-an-mediziner-eduard-schott\/787\">Stolperstein<\/a> remembering Eduard Schott was laid at Birkenweiher 43 in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dr  Eduard Schott Ceremony Shortened\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0kBaAe9cp60?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption>Inauguration of the commemorative plaque at the hospital of Solingen. Source: Peter Schott<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Dr. Horst Sassin, translated from German by Miriam Braun, June 2021 Stop 1: Dr. Walter and Dr. Ida Marcus Stop 2: Prof. Dr. Eduard Schott Stop 3: Dr. Emil Kronenberg Stop 4: Sanatorium Bethesda Stop 5: Dr. Paul Berkenau Stop 6: Emil-Kronenberg-House Stop 7: Dr. Erna R\u00fcppel Stop 8: Municipal hospital Stops 1\u20137 can&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/en\/jewish-doctors\/\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Jewish Doctors<\/span> weiterlesen<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-325","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1250,"href":"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/325\/revisions\/1250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/max-leven-zentrum.de\/2021JLID\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}