I’m standing in front of the building at Tschaikowskistraße 92 now, reading the plaque. It says: “Jury and Sophie Fränkel. From 1930 to 1939, the merchant’s widow Sophie Fränkel, née Schiller, lived here – an aunt of Jury Fränkel, who visited her often. Jury (Albert) Fränkel, born in Moscow in 1899, lived in Leipzig, with interruptions, from 1917 to 1931. In 1917 he began his training in the fur trade. In 1921 he went to Stockholm as a representative of Julius Ariowitsch, returning to Leipzig in 1927. He later founded the Swedish Fur Fashion Group. He attended the international fur auctions, especially in Leningrad. In 1947 he married Helene Bernstein and moved with her to Paris, where he died in 1971. With Fränkels Rauchwaren-Handbuch (1960) he created an important reference work on fur-bearing animals and pelts. In his autobiography Einbahnstraße (‘One-Way Street’) he describes his active years in the international fur trade, which once had its centre on Leipzig’s Brühl.”
I have to confess – this is a coming-out that’s hard for me, but it has to be done: for several years I lived at Liviastraße 6 in the Waldstraßenviertel, just two minutes’ walk from Tschaikowskistraße. And the Waldstraßenviertel is very strongly shaped by Jewish culture and Jewish history – similar to the Musikviertel, but I think the Waldstraßenviertel even more so. And I have to admit that until now I haven’t engaged with this part of Leipzig’s history as intensively as I really should have. I hereby pour ashes on my hairless head and promise to do better – it’s never too late!
From now on I’m going to engage more intensively and systematically with the history of families like the Ariowitsch family – the Ariowitsch-Haus is right across the street here, there are so many Stolpersteine (“stumbling stones” commemorating victims of the Nazis) in the Waldstraßenviertel, and there’s the Bürgerverein Waldstraßenviertel, the local residents’ association, which organizes guided tours. Jewish history and the historical connections between Leipzig and, of course, Russia too – above all Moscow and Leningrad – all of this is very well documented, and there’s no excuse for me not to engage with this important part of Leipzig. That’s what I’m going to do now, systematically, also as part of “1000 Thoughts”, because there are so many points of connection here and because many of the answers lie here to the questions that move Leipzig – and of course Germany, Israel, Russia and Ukraine – today. That’s why this is only the beginning of a series of posts on Jewish life, above all in Leipzig’s Waldstraßenviertel.
What do you take away from this thought?
Thank you. Every answer fits – take it with you into your day. Would you like to share something yourself?
