Hugo Railing was born in 1886 to a Munich textile wholesaler. In 1913, he and his brother Siegfried, known as Fritz, took over Hahn & Bach, a specialty store for upholstery fabrics and carpets located at Kaufingerstraße 14. The following year, the brothers joined the Bayern soccer division in the Munich Sport Club (MSC), as FC Bayern was then officially known. Later, Hugo Railing was honored on several occasions for his many years of membership. As of the late 1920s, the Hahn & Bach company soccer team took part in so-called private match rounds of FC Bayern. In 1920 Hugo Railing married Hedwig Gumbel. Their daughter Margot was born in 1921; their son Heinz Fritz followed in 1923. That same year, the Railing family moved into their own villa in Möhlstraße 22. Hugo Railing’s professional life was also taking off: In the early 1920s he and Fritz Railing founded the textile printing company Münchner Textildruckerei GmbH. The brothers’ two businesses exported goods to Italy, Belgium, England and beyond. In 1934, one year after the Nazi seizure of power, the Railing family left their home in Möhlstraße 22 and moved into Montgelasstraße 2. In 1936 Hugo and Fritz Railing were forced to sell their textile printing company; two years later, their company Hahn & Bach was “aryanized”. Unlike their children, whose escape from Germany they enabled in 1937 and 1938, Hugo and Hedwig Railing stayed in Munich. Starting in the autumn of 1938, they had to move five times. In January 1941 the couple were transferred to the “Judensiedlung” (“Jewish Quarter”) Milbertshofen. Hugo Railing was made a camp leader and was forced to help prepare deportations. Survivors later reported that he tried hard to help his fellow prisoners. On April 4, 1942 Hugo Railing was taken to Piaski ghetto with his wife, Hedwig. Her exact fate is unknown. Hugo Railing arrived in Sobibor extermination camp in October 1942 and was murdered there. (text Andreas Wittner, FC Bayern München AG, editor C. Fritsche, translation T. Axelrod)
