Memorial Signs for former tenants of GEWOFAG (now Münchner Wohnen) in Neuhausen,
Neuhausen

18.07.2023 02:00 p.m.

Veranstaltung

Commemorative event for tenants of GEWOFAG (now Münchner Wohnen)

Tenants of Münchner Wohnen (formerly GEWOFAG), Munich's largest housing association, were also victims of the Nazis. Together with the cultural department of the state capital, Münchner Wohnen set up Memorial Signs for its former tenants. Since 2023, trainees from Münchner Wohnen have been researching the biographies of these people in their second year of training under the expert guidance of Public History Munich.

On 18 July 2023, a commemorative event and the installation of the first Memorial Signs took place at Münchner Wohnen, at which Mayor Verena Dietl spoke. She made an urgent appeal: "Never again shall people in our city be disenfranchised and devicted because of racist attributions, their religious orientation or sexual identity. Furthermore, I view the fact that the trainees' research and the entire collaboration between Public History and Münchner Wohnen are continued every year as an important message in favour of the basic right to housing. As Mayor of the state capital and Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board of Münchner Wohnen, I hope that this cooperation between the Department of Culture and Munich's largest housing association will inspire many people to reflect, and to follow suit."

Dr Doris Zoller, Managing Director of Münchner Wohnen, agreed with her in her speech: "The Memorial Signs on the residential buildings of Münchner Wohnen are a commitment to our historical responsibility and to living together as equals in a spirit of solidarity. Dealing with the history of our company is important, which is why it will also be part of the training in our company in the coming years to learn about the fates of our former residents during the Nazi era."

Following the commemorative event, Memorial Signs were placed at four former residences in Neuhausen and the trainees read out the biographies of the former tenants they themselves had researched.

Tuesday, 18 July 2023

2.00 p.m.
Commemoration
Green area Nodungstraße, opposite street number 9

From approx. 3.00 p.m.
Placement of the Memorial Signs at the former places of residence:

Memorial Sign for Mary Frohmann
Wendl-Dietrich-Strasse 30
Sabrina Abdullah, trainee at GEWOFAG

Memorial Signs for Bella and Martin Stein
Wendl-Dietrich-Strasse 38
Falko Sellmair, trainee at GEWOFAG

Memorial Signs for Adolf Freitag and Rudolf Gottlieb
Wendl-Dietrich-Strasse 54
David Scheffel and Anton Hofer, trainees at GEWOFAG

Memorial Sign for Friedrich (Fritz) Johann Gemmel
Arnulf Street 194
Tina Ciric, trainee at GEWOFAG

Flyer (PDF)

Dr h.c. Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria with trainees of Münchner Wohnen

Mayor Verena Dietl

Dr. Doris Zoller, managing director of Münchner Wohnen

Dr. h.c. mult. Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria

Commemorative event for tenants of GEWOFAG (now Münchner Wohnen)

Dr. Sibylle von Tiedemann, historian

Sabine Nisko, district committee 09 – Neuhausen-Nymphenburg

Prof. Dr. Eberhard Standl, relative of Adolf Freitag, and his family

Biographies of the GEWOFAG tenants

Memorial Sign for Mary Frohmann

Wendl-Dietrich-Straße 30

Mary Frohmann, née Schatz, was born in Bochum in 1888. From 1931, she lived with her husband Leon Levi Frohmann in a GEWOFAG flat at the Neuhausen housing estate at Wendl-Dietrich-Straße 30. After she had placed the memorial sign together with Mayor Verena Dietl, Sabrina Abdullah, a trainee at Münchner Wohnen, read out the biography she had researched and written of Mary Frohmann, who was persecuted by the Nazis as a Jew and died in June 1938 at the age of just 50 from a "serious illness", according to her husband.

Sabrina Abdullah, trainee at Münchner Wohnen, and mayor Verena Dietl

Sabrina Abdullah, trainee at Münchner Wohnen with mayor Verena Dietl

Walking to Wendl-Dietrich-Straße 30

Sabrina Abdullah reading Mary Frohmann's biography

Commemorative event for Mary Frohmann

Head of training, Münchner Wohnen

Memorial Signs for Bella and Martin Stein

Wendl-Dietrich-Straße 38

Bella and Martin Stein lived with their daughter Bertha Stein from 1931 in a GEWOFAG flat (now Münchner Wohnen) at Wendl-Dietrich-Straße 38, where Martin Stein also ran a shop for household goods and leather goods for a time.
Apprentice Falko Sellmair read out the biographies of the Stein family in front of the door of their former home, in which he impressively described the lives of the family members. While their daughter Bertha was able to flee to the USA in 1940 and survived the Holocaust there, the Stein couple were deported to Kaunas in 1941 and shot by the SS.
Afterwards, Falko Sellmair, together with the Managing Director of Münchner Wohnen, Dr. Doris Zoller, placed the Memorial Signs for Bella and Martin Stein.

Trainee Falko Sellmair reading the biographies of Bella and Martin Stein

Commemorative event for Bella und Martin Stein

Falko Sellmair and Dr. Doris Zoller, managing director of Münchner Wohnen

The Memorial Signs for Bella and Martin Stein

Memorial Signs for Adolf Freitag und Rudolf Gottllieb

Wendl-Dietrich-Straße 54

Adolf Freitag had lived with his wife Helene and their daughter Halka in a GEWOFAG flat at Wendl-Dietrich-Straße 54 since 1935. In 1938, during the so-called „Kristallnacht“ he was arrested and brought to the Dachau concentration camp. Simultaneously GEWOFAG gave his non-Jewish wife notice that they had to immediately leave the flat. After his release from Dachau concentration camp, Adolf Freitag was never able to live with his wife again. He had to do forced labour in a coal depot of the German Luftwaffe before the Gestapo murdered him in Auschwitz concentration camp in October 1944.

Prof Dr Eberhard Standl, a relative of Adof Freitag, attended the memorial service with his family. He was very moved when apprentice David Scheffel read out Adolf Freitag's biography in front of his former home and then thanked him personally for his commitment.

Rudolf Gottlieb, a salesman for food and electrical goods, also lived with his non-Jewish wife, Barbara Breitschaft, and their son Reinhold in a GEWOFAG flat at Wendl-Dietrich-Straße 54 from 1931. In 1936, Rudolf Gottlieb moved to Graz without his wife and son - presumably to escape the persecution of Jews in Germany. Nonetheless, in October 1944, he was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where his trace is lost. Rudolf Gottlieb was declared dead after the end of the war.

Anton Hofer, a trainee at Münchner Wohnen, had written the biography of Rudolf Gottlieb and read it out in front of Anton Hofer's former home.

Anton Hofer, apprentice at Münchner Wohnen, reads the biography of Rudolf Gottlieb

Anton Hofer and Emily Richter, trainees at Münchner Wohnen

Anton Hofer, apprentice at Münchner Wohnen, reading out the biography

David Scheffel, trainee at Münchner Wohnen, reads out the biography for Adolf Freitag

David Scheffel, apprentice at Münchner Wohnen, and Prof Dr Eberhard Standl, relative of Adolf Freitag

By the Memorial Sign for Adolf Freitag and Rudolf Gottlieb

Counsillor Christian Smolka

Memorial Signs for Adolf Freitag and Rudolf Gottlieb

Memorial Sign for Friedrich (Fritz) Johann Gemmel

Arnulfstraße 194

In 1929 Friedrich (Fritz) Gemmel moved into a flat at Arnulfstraße 194 with his wife Klara. After the death of his wife in 1938, the former authorised signatory of the Spaten brewery continued to live in the GEWOFAG flat. In the stairwell of his apartment building, trainee Tina Chiric read out the biography she had written:

After Friedrich Gemmel had been hospitalised several times due to epileptic seizures, he was admitted to the Eglfing-Haar sanatorium and nursing home in 1943. He died there after just two days. It is highly likely that Friedrich Gemmel was murdered as part of the Nazi "euthanasia" programme.