II. Buildings Integral to the Former Life and/or Persecution of Jews in Hamburg - Eimsbüttel/Rotherbaum I. © Wilhelm Mosel, Deutsch-jüdische Gesellschaft Hamburg. 18. No. 40 Moorweidenstraße. Former Moorweidenweg. Former "Judenhaus" ("Jewish Building"). Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg Carl von Ossietzky (Old Building), "Stabi". Former Wilhelm Gymnasium. Later Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg. Former Wilhelm-Gymnasium, Moorweidenstraße 40, today the old section of the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek. The former Wilhelm-Gymnasium was built in 1883-1885 in Moorweidenweg, renamed Moorweidenstraße in 1892, on the corner with Grindelallee, by the architect Zimmermann. The school had 18 classrooms, a gymnasium, and assembly hall. The "Neue Gelehrtenschule" (classical grammar school), that was opened in 1881 in a building opposite Holstentor (Tor = gate), was named Wilhelm-Gymnasium in honour of Kaiser Wilhelm I, and modelled on the hitherto sole Gelehrtenschule, the Johanneum. Wilhelm-Gymnasium (with extension), Moorweidenstraße 40, section, original 1:1000, 1905. A survey of pupils according to religious affiliation gives the following picture: Between 1881 and 1885 of a total of 540 pupils 69 (12.87%) were mosaisch (Jewish). Between 1886 and 1890 of a total of 549 pupils 119 (21·68%) were mosaisch (Jewish). Between 1891 and 1985 of a total of 475 pupils 116 (24·42%) were mosaisch (Jewish). Between 1896 and 1900 the percentage of Jewish pupils fell to 23·82% and between 1901-1905 to 22·50%, whereas the number of Jewish pupils rose from 116 to 140. The head teacher Wegenhaupt referred to this fall in the percentage of Jewish pupils in the commemorative volume of 1906, demonstrating the erroneousness of what was being propagated regarding the number of Jewish pupils in Hamburg, which often prevented Christian parents from entering their sons at the Wilhelm-Gymnasium. Nevertheless these statistics gave rise to the following headline in the press: "Ist das Hamburger Wilhelm-Gymnasium eine Judenschule?" ("Is the Wilhelm-Gymnasium a Jewish school?") Wegenhaupt also considered it necessary to state the erroneousness of regarding the Jewish pupils as being especially gifted or intelligent. He did not comment on the statistics referring to religious affiliation for the years between 1882-1906. These statistics indicate a rise in the percentage of Jewish pupils from 8·99% (8 Jewish pupils from a total of 89 pupils) in 1882 to 29·80% (132 Jewish pupils from a total of 443 pupils) on 1st February 1901, and then a fall to 22·69% (125 Jewish pupils from a total of 551 pupils) on 1st February 1906. Up until this date more than a fifth of all pupils in the school were Jewish. Former Wilhelm-Gymnasium building, Moorweidenstraße 40, 1906. Between 1923 and 1925 7 Jewish pupils were admitted to the school. They left the school before 1931. Between 1926 and 1933 the religious affiliation of the pupils was generally not registered. It is possible to make a tentative comparison between the first decade of the school and the years between 1934 and 1939. The following statistics for "mosaisch" (Jewish) pupils are available for the beginning of the summer term: Year Number Percentage 1934 1 0·2% 1935 5 1·0% 1936 3 0·6% 1937 5 0·9% 1938 3 0·6% 1939 1 0·2% From 27.05.1939 no Jewish pupils attended the school. A more reliable picture is acquired when a comparison is made between the newly admitted Jewish pupils as a total of all newly admitted pupils: Year Number of Newly Enroled Percentage of Newly Enroled 1934 1 0·9% 1935 4 5·6% 1936 0 0·0% 1937 2 1·4% 1938 0 0·0% 1939 0 0·0% From 1938 onward there were no new Jewish pupils admitted to the school. Between 1934 and 1942 a total of 20 "mosaische" (Jewish), "nicht-arische" ("non-Aryan"), and/or "Mischlinge 1. Grades" or "Mischlinge 2. Grades" were registered at the school. Of these 20 the following are known: Name Date of Enrolment "Religion" Date of Departure Reason for Departure Claus-Friedrich B. Easter 1934 mosaisch (Jewish) 31.10.1935 School outside Hamburg Paul Heinrich U. 11.12.1934 Protestant/"non-Aryan" 9.09.1939 Leaving Certificate Rudolf H. Easter 1935 mosaisch (Jewish) 31.03.1938 Latin America Herbert S. Easter 1935 mosaisch (Jewish) 17.11.1938 "non-Aryan" Walter H. Easter 1935 mosaisch (Jewish) 27.05.1939 Abroad Gerd G. Easter 1936 Protestant Lutheran/"non-Aryan" 24.07.1936 Abroad Hans E. Easter 1937 Protestant Lutheran/"non-Aryan" 31.03.1942 Leaving Certificate Horst L. Easter 1937 mosaisch (Jewish) 31.03.1938 Talmud-Tora-Schule Herbert H. Easter 1937 Protestant 18.11.1938 "non-Aryan" Werner M. Easter 1937 "israelitisch" (Jewish) 18.11.1938 "non-Aryan" Hans S. 22.06.1937   18.11.1938 "non-Aryan" Gert W. 2.09.1942 Protestant departure again "Mischling 2. Grades" Alfonso de C. 2.09.1942 Protestant, "Mischling 1. Grades" not enroled   Nearly all were able to emigrate ot otherwise survive. Rudolf H. and Herbert S. having emigrated returned to Germany after the war. Rudolf had 2 times "very good" and 6 times "good" on his leaving report. Herbert had 1 "very good" and 8 times "good", as did Werner M.. Following the "(Reichs-)Erlaß des Reichsministers für Erziehung und Unterricht über den Schulbesuch jüdischer Kinder" ("Decree of the Reich Minister of Education concerning the school attendance of "Jewish" children") of 15.11.1938, in which "Jewish" children were excluded from attending German schools, 4 Jewish pupils were able to continue attending the school. These were Walter H., Jewish, and Paul Heinrich U. and Hans E., both "non-Aryan". Both Paul Heinrich and Hans metriculated. No record was made of the subjects they studied. Evidently this was a way in which the teachers attempted to protect these pupils. Those teachers who continued courageously to teach these 4 pupils, despite the official prohibition, deserve to be highly respected. This is especially the case with Hans E. who was able to remain in the school until 31.03.1942, almost 3½ years after the prohibition. It was during this time that the first four deportation transports from Hamburg took place from the neighbouring building of the Provinzial Lodge at No. 36 Moorweidenstraße, i.e. on 25.10.1941 to Lodz, on 8.11.1941 to Minsk, on 18.11.1941 to Minsk, and on 6.12.1941 to Riga. Hans planned to study Engineering. It is not known what became of him. Evidently, none of these pupils were deported or murdered. What follows are accounts of former pupils of the school: In 1981 a former Jewish pupil of the school wrote: In 1937 the Heinrich Hertz Gymnasium was dissolved. Two classes were transferred to the Wilhelm Gymnasium. There was a distinctly "different atmosphere" in this school. During the school break one day two Jewish pupils, from these transferred classes, were placed in two large dustbins for the general amusement of the other pupils. During the next Protestant morning prayers, held each Monday in the assembly hall, to which Catholics, Jews, and non-believers were excluded, the head teacher admonished those pupils involved in this incident with the Jewish pupils, and warned that anyone caught doing anything similar again would be severely disciplined. Notwithstanding, he would appear in the school in S.A. uniform on certain days. In the same year, i.e. 1937, this pupil's class had Dr. U. as temporary mathematics teacher. Dr. U. had unexpectedly summoned this pupil to his desk, an hour into the lesson, and questioned him regarding his family. It came to light that Dr. U. knew a relative of his, the teacher Dr. Ernst Löwenberg, and asked him to greet him on his behalf. He suddenly asked him if he had been the subject of antisemitism, which he denied. Finally, Dr. U. told him that if anything was to occur then he should refer to him; he knew how the school staff were disposed. In 1981, H. S., another former Jewish pupil of the school gave the following account: He had personally only twice been the subject of antisemitism. His sports teacher had given him a "4" in his leaving report in November 1938. He had been no worse than many of the other pupils. However, this teacher, who was a known Nazi, had probably been happy to prove that Jews were physically inferior. This experience had given him a lifelong aversion to sport. He became conscious of the second effect of antisemitism when he saw the class photograph from 1938. All the other pupils of the class, apart from him, have normal expressions on their faces. He alone is tight lipped. It occured to him that he had been particularly affected by the hateful antisemitic caricatures in the Nazi newspaper "Die Stürmer", that was displayed at tram stops on the way to school. Jews were always depicted as having uggly, thick lips. He had obviously tried to dispel this caricatured image. When the 1870/71 war was discussed as a topic in class he was the only pupil who was able to bring his great-grandfather's decorations to school. He had had the impression that this was appreciated by his class teacher, Dr. E.. Pupils with the teacher R. E., 1938; the pupil H. S., tight lipped, is in the front row fourth from the left. Finally, Herr S., a former non-Jewish pupil of the school gave the following account on 20.11.1983: By chance he had visited the Wilhelm-Gymnasium on 24.10.1941, and observed the operation of the first major deportation of Jews in Hamburg from the adjacent Freemasons' Lodge, at No. 36 Moorweidenstraße. He had been in the air force for six months and had begun his pilots training four weeks earlier. He had crashed during one of his first flights and, due to his injuries, had been given a weeks leave. This morning he had, as was usual, taken the S-Bahn (commuter train) to Dammtor station and walked along Edmund-Siemers-Allee to his former school. His Prima (8th or 9th class of the former Gymnasium = lower or upper sixth form of the grammar school) was situated on the top floor. In the corridor he had heard a row coming from the classroom. He had never before experienced such a din. He had cautiously put his head around the door and the row immediately stopped, and then resumed at the same pitch. After hectic greetings, he asked what was going on. There was a dead calm and then they had all started to shout again, until one of them had made himself heard by bringing his fist down upon the teacher's desk. He remarked that they were also human, whereupon a strange silence prevailed. On being asked who he was referring to, he answered, those outside, the Jews in the Freemasons' Lodge. He was a leader in the Hitler Youth and as such had reached the higest rank. He was also wearing his Hitler Youth uniform on this day. At this moment the class teacher, who had unusually arrived half a hour after the start of school, entered the classroom. Dr. S., known as "Stucco" due to his large nose, asked the Hitler Youth leader what was going on and received a short report. As a result of this "Stucco" and other Nazi Party members had stood up and acknowledged the correctness of what the Hitler Youth leader had said regarding the Jews. "Stucco" was otherwise proud of them all. He now knew that he could inform them of the following. Dr. S. had visited Gauleiter Kaufmann who had guaranteed that nothing would occur to the Jews. They were to be settled in their own residential areas in the East, all Hamburg Jews in Litzmannstadt (Lodz). Pupils of the Wilhelm-Gymnasium, 1941. Herr S. recounted that he had had five or six fellow Jewish pupils in his class. Over the years, around 12 boys had shared their journey to school. He was close friends with Klaus B., who was able to emigrate, with his parents, in 1936. Later, he had met another, Harro G. in Hamburg again. He had lost track of the others. The Wilhelm-Gymnasium building, that had acquired an additional floor in 1929, was badly damaged in an air-raid on 24th/25th July 1943. From 1945 the building could no longer be retained as a school. It had to make room for the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg, Carl von Ossietzky, Von-Melle-Park 3. Today it constitutes the old building of the larger library. Former Wilhelm-Gymnasium building, 1982, with the Provinzial Lodge building behind, from where the first four deportation transports started. The building in the foreground left is No. 6 Bundesstraße, also a "Judenhaus" (Jewish Building). After years of occupying the building of the Albrecht-Thaer-Schule in Holstenglacis, in the district of St. Pauli-Nord, the school moved into its current premises at No. 17 Klostersteig, in the district of Harvestehude in 1964. Today the building at No. 40 Moorweidenstraße houses: on the ground floor: The Ossietzky-Lesesaal and the Norddeutscher-Zentralkatalog on the first floor: the Ärztlichen Vereins and the Homöopathische Bibliothek Wolfgang Schweitzer on the second floor: the Linga-Bibliothek and Borchert-Archiv on the third floor: the Zentrum für Theaterforschung, the Hamburger Theatersammlung, and the Hamburger Arbeitsstelle für deutsche Exilliteratur. The Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg, old building. German text: Dipl.-Pol. Wilhelm Mosel, Deutsch-Jüdische Gesellschaft, Hamburg.