Stephani-Volksschule - Jüdisches Leben in Gunzenhausen

Compiled be Marina Brunner and Anja Kirchner
Free translation by Susanne Eisen

Builder:	Johann Mueller, cooper/barrelmaker
Year built:	1731
Changes of Ownership:	1. Sept.1781 Isaak Abraham of Wittleshofen bought the house for 350 florins.
	3. Jan. 1782 Johann Andreas Eckert, day laborer, bought it for 345 florins.
	29. Febr. 1860 his widow sold it to her son-in-law Paul Hohenstein and his wife Anna Margaretha born Eckert for 600 florins.
	10. Febr. 1809 Adam Schmausser, arrelmaker, and his wife Maria Catharina born Stallwitz bought the house at auction for 600 florins (bankruptcy).
	27.06.1853 kauft es Johann Michael Reinwald für 2.400 fl. 26. June.1853 Johann Michael Reinwald bought it for 2,400 florins.
	13. Aug. 1860 his widow Maria bought it for 6,000 florins.
	10. Dec.1871 her daughter Anna Maria Kilian, born Reinwald inherits the house.
	11. Aug. 1877 August Brandner, saddler, acquired it for 7,028 Marks. He was a lumber and furniture dealer.
	1896 new house construction
	7. Febr.1908 Salomon Guggenheimer bought it for 40,000 Marks.
	6. Jan. 1919 his widow Johanna inherits the property.
	3. Febr. 1925 their children Theodor, Guggenheimer, and Hedwig Buxheim born Guggenheimer opened yard good business.
	25. June 1931 Theodor Guggenheimer runs the store alone.
	16. Febr.1938 Ernst Seelenbinder bought it for 40,000 Marks.
	27. Sept.1951 Theodor Guggenheimer got the business back, after WWII.
	30. April 1952 Alice Guggenheimer his widow took it over.
	31. Jan. 1953 she sold it to Erich Huebner who opened a shoe store and ran it till 1978.
	1971 Karl-Heinz Friedmann took it over.
	1978 Wolfgang Koch installs a pizzeria.
	Now a Bisto and Turkish fast food business.

Leopold Guggenheimer was born 18. March,1842 in Dittenheim, the son of Salomom Guggenheimer and his wife Hanna born Schimmel. He married Hanna Ansbacher, born 12. August,1836 in Veitshoechheim.

The family moved to Gunzenhausen and bought in 1874 the upper half of the house Kirchenstrasse 14. Leopold was registered as a yard goods dealer.

Son Simon became a physician and on15. August,1899 he married Regina Sara Gutmann born 27. Febr, 1876 at Burgstallstrasse 5 Gunzenhausen. Regina was the cousin of Jakob Wassermann, who later became known as an author.

... In September 1939 the remaining 12 Jewish men in Bad Neustadt, (incuding the 67 year old physician Dr. Guggenheimer) were forced by the city government to clean up the Ingebrandsiedlung (a housing development) , which included sweeping the streets and emptying the cesspools. It was bitterly cold that January.

... Dr. Guggenheimer was the last Jew in 1941 who got away and arrived in the USA by way of Cuba. He had received many secret donations of goods and money. Christmas 1940 someone had sent the Jewish physician an anonymous package that contained a magnificent book of psalms in German translation, and a gift of money. The anonymous sender included a note:

'I wish to express my sincere thanks for all the good you, as the physician, have done for your patients, especially the Christians who came to you when they were ill. I hereby wish you holidays full of grace and a blessed new year?'

Mr. Shimon Ansbacher who has researched the family tree, has given us important information regarding the Guggenheimer family. He explains the name Regina as follows:

Regina (Ina) Gutmann, born 27.Febr, 1876 in Gunzenhausen. She may have had the Hebrew name “Malka”, because it was customary to give children a Jewish first name soon after birth. (Malka in Hebrew means Queen in German, so it is possible, Regina was chosen as the German version). She married Dr. Simon Guggenheimer on 15. August, 1899 in Gunzenhausen. She died 17. Febr. 1956 in New York.

Dr. Siegfried Guggenheimer and his sister Martha Rosenfelder born Guggeheimer, later moved to the Bronx, New York.

A Bertha Stargardter born ca 1911, who lived in Long Island N Y is also mentioned elsewhere. Regina’s father was Elias Gutmann of Gunzenhausen.

Salomon Guggenheimer, the older brother of Simon married Johanna Rindsberg born 21. June, 1876 in Neumarkt.

Hedwig	Hedwig, born 7. June, 1899 in Gunzenhausen. In 1923 she married the merchant Emil Buxbaum of Weilheim. The couple lived in Munich at Liebigstrasse 28 around 1939. From information in the u. a. chronicle we could assume that the couple was murdered in Kaunas/Lithuania in 1941.	Hedwig Buxbaum © Stadtarchiv München
Theodor	born 3. June, 1901 in Gunzenhausen.

The couple Salomon Guggenheimer and Johanna born Rindsberg bought the house Gerberstrasse 13 for 40,000 Marks an ran a textile business there.

In 1931 Theodor Guggenheimer married Alice Bernheimer born 1. Nov, 1906 in Lauchheim. The couple lived in Gunzenhausen but in the first year of Hitler’s reign Theodor was taken into „protective“ custody. That was probably the reason the family left the city so soon and moved to Teuerleinstrasse 5, Stuttgart, in 1935. From there they emigrated to the USA.

Apparently Josef continued to live in Gunzenhausen and experienced the “Reichskristallnacht”. So he registered his move to Berlin on 30. Nov, 1938. from there he was deported to Minsk and was declared as missing.

On very rare occasions a Jewish family has reclaimed their house after WWII. Theodor Guggenheimer who had moved to New York in the meantime took possession of the house in 1951.

But in 1952 he died in New York, and his widow Alice Guggenheimer inherited the house. She soon sold it, in 1953, to the merchant Erich Huebner. After that house had a varied history and now is owned by Wolfgang Koch.