Evelyne and Arthur Schönberg were both born in Vienna, where they met, and married in 1900. In the same year, Arthur Schönberg began working in Oskar-von-Miller's engineering office. From 1903, he was Miller's first employee in the construction of the Deutsches Museum München, of which Athur Schönberg is regarded as a co-founder. The Schönbergs moved to Munich, where their two daughters were born. After Oskar von Miller's death in 1934, the new board of director's excluded Arthur Schönberg from the Deutsches Museum because of his Jewish origins, and in 1937 the family's German citizenship was revoked. In 1939, the Schönbergs were forced to move into a so-called ‘Jewish flat’ and from January 1942 they were interned in a camp in Berg am Laim and Arthur Schönberger was forced to perform forced labour. In June 1942, the Gestapo deported Eveleyne and Arthur Schönberg to the Theresienstadt ghetto, where they both died within a few months.
Their daughter Else emigrated to France in 1933. Their daughter Lotte worked in the arts and crafts and as a costume designer, and married the artist Rudolf Ernst in 1932. Their son was born in 1936 and the young family emigrated to Yugoslavia in 1938. The couple separated in Zagreb in 1940. After the fascist state of Croatia was proclaimed in 1941 and Rudolf Ernst was threatened with arrest, he committed suicide in August 1941. Lotte Ernst was arrested in September 1942 and probably murdered in the Jasenovac concentration camp. Their son Michael initially stayed with his father's relatives, but after the end of the war his aunt Else Schönberg adopted him and took him to live with her in France.
A commemorative event for Evelyne and Arthur Schönberg, and Lotte and Rudolf Ernst will take place on 5 March 2025 at 3:00 pm. Afterwards, the Memorial Signs will be placed at the family's former home at Hiltenspergerstraße 43.
