Emanuel Gutmann

Emanuel Gutmann was born in Gemmingen near Heilbronn on December 29, 1873. He was the son of the merchant Adolf Ascher Morris Gutmann and his wife Babette, née Sontheimer. He moved to Munich as a young man. In 1901, he married the businesswoman Sophie Marx in Heilbronn. The following year, the couple had a child, who died shortly after birth. Emanuel Gutmann bought Lindwurmstraße 205 in 1910 and, together with his wife, opened the Lederwarenkaufhaus Gutmann, a leather goods store, in this imposing corner house. Another branch was subsequently opened at Feilitzschstraße 15 in Schwabing. From 1931 Emanuel and Sophie Gutmann lived on the second storey of Tengstraße 25. In 1936 they moved to Elisabethstraße 30, just a few metres away. The Nazi seizure of power brought radical change to the lives of Emanuel and Sophie Gutmann. In 1934, they gave up their leather goods store, probably because they were suffering under the actions being taken against Jewish business owners. On November 9, 1938, in the course of the “Kristallnacht” pogroms, the Gestapo (Secret Police) deported Emanuel Gutmann to Dachau concentration camp. He was forced to sign a declaration relinquishing ownership of the house at Lindwurmstraße 205 and the business. The property management firm Carl Sattler Hausbesitz-Verwertung-Verwaltung took over the property and resold it. Lindwurmstraße 205 was now occupied by the textiles company Textilwaren Albert Helfferich. Emanuel Gutmann, now seriously ill, returned from his imprisonment on December 1, 1938. In 1939, like all other Jews, he and his wife had to hand over their valuables of precious metals, gems and pearls to the Städtisches Leihamt (municipal loan office). They were also forced to donate “voluntarily” 500 Reichsmark for the “Judensiedlung“ (“Jewish Quarter“) Milbertshofen, a barrack camp located at Knorrstraße 148. On March 16, 1942 the Gestapo relocated them there. A few months later, on June 24, 1942, Emanuel and Sophie Gutmann were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto on Transport II/8. Emanuel Gutmann succumbed to the horrendous conditions there on October 24, 1943. His wife Sophie died on October 11, 1944.(text Elisabeth Rosa M. Noske, editor C. Fritsche, translation C. Hales)