Speakers:
Peter HESS
"Stolpersteine in Hamburg"
Ole von BEUST
First Mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg
Maria JEPSEN
Bishop of the Northe-Elbe Protestant Church
and
patron of the "Stolpersteine in Hamburg" project
Dieter LENZEN
President of the University of Hamburg
Séverin PABSCH
Chairperson of the General Student Council
Gunter DEMNIG
Artist and Initiator of the "Stolpersteine"
This ceremony is a joint project between "Stolpersteine in Hamburg" and the University. At the ceremony's conclusion, there will be a small reception in the foyer in front of the Agathe Lasch Lecture Hall (main building of the university, Edmund Siemers Alle 1, Lecture Hall B).
We would like to thank the members of our university whose donations contributed to the University's committment to lay 10 "Stolpersteine." We would like to invite the general public to attend the laying of the stones. We would also be delighted to see university employees and students help nurture the memory of former University members who fell victim to National Socialism. Your presence will serve as a warning in the present and an obligation to future generations.
Prof. Dr. Dieter Lenzen Prof. Dr. Gabriele Löschper
Prof. Dr. Holger Fischer Prof. Dr.-Ing. H. Siegfried Stiehl Dr. Katrin Vernau
– The Administration –
The "Stolpersteine" are dedicated to the following people:
Dr. Ernst DELBANCO
Born 21 Feb. 1869 in Hamburg, Honorary Professor for Skin and Sexually-Transmitted Diseases in the Faculty of Medicine since 1921. As a "non-Aryan," his teaching permit was revoked on 31 July 1933. Ernst Delbanco committed suicide on 31 March 1935.
Hedwig KLEIN
Born 19 February 1911 in Antwerp, passed her doctoral exams in Islamic Studies on 18 December 1937, but as a "non-Aryan" was not awarded a doctorate. While trying to flee, she was forced by the outbreak of WWII to return to Hamburg, from where she was deported to Auschwitz on 11 July 1942.
Prof. Dr. Agathe LASCH
Born 4 July 1879 in Berlin, Lasch worked in Hamburg in the German Seminar since 1917 and in 1923 became the first female full professor at the University, founded in 1919. Forced as a "non-Ayran" to relinquish her Chair for Lower German Philology on 30 June 1934, she moved to Berlin, from where she was deported on 12 August 1942 and sent to her death.
Expert for German literature, languages, first female University professor of the Hamburg University.
Prof. Dr. Gerhard LASSAR
Born 16 February 1888 in Berlin, named Associate Professor for Public Law at the University of Hamburg in 1925. Dismissed as a "non-Aryan" on 1 January 1934, he moved to Berlin, where he committed suicide on 6 January 1936.
Dr. Martha MUCHOW
Born 25 September 1892 in Hamburg, Muchow was a close colleague of William Sterns and since 1929 a councilor at the Psychological Institute. Following Stern's forced dismissal, she planned to return to teaching. On 29 September 1933, she died of injuries from a suicide attempt.
Prof. Dr. Kurt PERELS
Born 9 March 1878 in Berlin, appointed to the Chair for Public Law at the Hamburg Colonial Institute in 1909. As a "non-Aryan" confronted with the impending loss of both his bishopric and judgeship, he committed suicide on 10 September 1933.
Hans Konrad LEIPELT
Born 18 July 1921 in Vienna, released from military service in 1940 as a "half Jew," Leipelt was forced to leave his native Hamburg and to continue his studies in Chemistry in Munich in winter semester 1941/1942. There he raised money to support the widow of Professor Kurt Huber, who had been executed, and, with classmates, he distributed flyers critical of the National Socialist regime. He played a significant role in relaying information to his Hamburg friends about Munich's "White Rose" group. He was imprisoned in Munich on 8 October 1943, sentenced to death by the People's Tribunal on 13 October 1944 for "Undermining the Military and Supporting the Enemy" and killed in Stadelheim, Munich on 29 January 1945.
Reinhold MEYER
Born 18 July 1920 in Hamburg, Meyer was junior head of the "Bookstore of the Rauhen Haus Agency" in Hamburg, where he studied German Literature. Imprisoned on 19 December 1943 as a member of an oppositional circle, he was sent to a prison of the secret police in Fuhlsbüttel. Following several months of imprisonment in the Neuengamme concentration camp, he died under mysterious circumstances on 12 November 1944.
Margaretha ROTHE
Born 13 June 1919 in Hamburg, University of Hamburg medical student Rothe was jailed on 9 November 1943 for membership in an oppositional circle. After imprisonment in several German prisons, she died of TB in jail in Dösen, Leipzig on 15 April 1945.
Friedrich GEUSSENHAINER
Born 24 April 1912 in Neumünster, the scholar at the University hospital in Eppendorf was jailed in July 1943 for his opposition to the Nazi dictatorship. After he was transferred from Fuhlsbüttel to the Neuengamme concentration camp in May 1944, he was sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp on 7 October 1944, where he died at the end of April 1945.
