Rudolf Schild
1873 - 1936

Rudolf Schild was born in November 1873 as the third child of the Jewish banker Louis Schild (1831-1902) and Ida Nordschild (1841-1915), also Jewish, who was born in Niederwerrn in Lower Franconia (Bavaria). The Nordschilds in Niederwerrn belonged to a large Jewish community at the time, which made up a significant proportion of the village population. In 1836, around 300 Jews lived in Niederwerrn alongside 475 Christians, meaning that around 40 percent of the villagers were Jewish!

In 1873, Rudolf's father and Isaac Nordschild (1847-1909, presumably a younger brother of Ida Schild) ran the bank and exchange business "J. Nordschild jun." at Neue Kräme 25 in Frankfurt on the Main. Rudolf Schild had four siblings: Eduard Emanuel (1861-1916), Karl Max (1864-1931), Anna (1875-1927) and Alfred (1876-1890). In 1873, the family lived at Trutz 21 (today: Im Trutz Frankfurt). In 1880, the father ran the banking business "Schild & Scheidt" together with Louis Scheidt at Große Eschersheimer street 5, but the father also left this banking business.

In 1893 we find Rudolf's parents at Oberlindau 81 in the Westend district of Frankfurt on the Main. His father now ran his own banking business at Rossmarkt 2/4 under the name "Louis Schild". Rudolf Schild's mother Ida Schild worked here as an authorized signatory. The banking business J. Nordschild jun. still existed, but at that time with the address Trutz 21. Louis Scheidt, on the other hand, was working together with Siegmund Weihermann as a bill broker at Gärtnerweg 9 at this time. Rudolf's older brother Eduard Schild is listed as a merchant in the Frankfurt on the Main address book of 1893 with the address Oberlindau 81, just like his parents.

In 1900, Louis Schild's banking business was still operating at Rossmarkt 2/4, although his brother Eduard Schild was also working there alongside their mother as an authorized signatory. A few years later, Eduard Schild, together with Ferdinand Blum, became the owner of the banking business "J. Nordschild jun." at Im Trutz 21. Rudolf Schild is listed in the 1900 Frankfurt address book as Dr. med., assistant doctor at the municipal hospital, with the residential address Gärtnerweg 229, while his brother "Carl Max Schild", who worked as a goods agent, lived at Rossmarkt 2. Before moving to Berlin in 1910, where his brother Karl Max Schild was already living with his family, Dr. Rudolf Schild lived at Wöhlerstraße 8, in Frankfurt's Westend district, not far from the Westend synagogue.

Rudolf Schild's parents and his eldest brother Eduard Emanuel Schild were buried in the Jewish cemetery in Rat-Beil-Straße in Frankfurt before or during the First World War. He himself became a Protestant. Rudolf Schild never married and had no children.

Rudolf Schild studied medicine at the University of Munich (Bavaria). He received his doctorate in medicine from the University of Munich in 1898 with a thesis entitled "Ueber Gastrostomie mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der neueren Methoden" (On Gastrostomy with Special Consideration of the Newer Methods). After gaining his license to practice medicine, Dr. Rudolf Schild first worked in Frankfurt on the Main at the municipal hospital in the internal medicine department and then in Berlin at the university hospital.

From April 1903, Dr. Rudolf Schild practised in Frankfurt on the Main again, together with Dr. Bernhard Bär (1874-1912), a brother-in-law of the physician Theodor Plaut. Both took over the "Institute for Dietetic and Physical Treatment" at Wöhlerstraße 8 from Georg Kratzenstein, who had given it up for health reasons. According to the Frankfurt directory of 1906, Schild and Bär ran a private clinic for internal diseases and already owned an X-ray laboratory. They were therefore among the doctors who worked with X-rays at an early stage. Accordingly, Rudolf Schild was a member of the German X-ray Society, which was founded in Berlin in 1905. He also demonstrated the results of his radiology work at the Frankfurt Medical Association.

In 1910, Rudolf Schild returned to Berlin. Here, he initially worked as an internist at Aschaffenburger street 23 (in Wilmersdorf). During the First World War, he served as a staff doctor in Spandau (Berlin). From 1917, he lived at Nachodstraße 11 and kept this address in Berlin-Wilmersdorf until the end of his life in 1936.

In addition to his medical work, he was also active in the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, a homosexual advocacy group that campaigned for the decriminalization of same-sex contact between men. In 1920, he was elected chairman of this association. He also appeared as a lecturer and spoke, for example, in Berlin in October 1921 on "Sind die Homosexuellen zur Ehe geeignet? oder Das Eheproblem der Homosexuellen" (Are Homosexuals Suitable for Marriage? or The Marriage Problem of Homosexuals).

Dr. Rudolf Schild joined the Frankfurt on the Main section of the German and Austrian Alpine Club in 1899. He is also listed in the Frankfurt membership directory of 1925 with the place of residence Berlin. Although Rudolf Schild moved to Berlin in 1910, he does not appear to have joined the Berlin section of the Alpine Club. He is missing from the 1911 list of members there as well as the lists from 1920 or 1929. Rudolf Schild was presumably honored for his 25 years of membership in 1924, as he was listed as a member of the Frankfurt section without interruption. According to the annual report of the Frankfurt on the Main Section, 75 members received this award that year, but unfortunately they are not listed by name.

At the annual general meeting of the Frankfurt on the Main section in February 1937, Rudolf Schild was named among the deceased Frankfurt members whom the section would "remember faithfully". This is astonishing because he came from a Jewish family and had been deported to the Berlin concentration camp "Columbia-Haus" in January 1936 because of his homosexuality, where he committed suicide with cyanide on January 25, 1936. This official commemoration by the Frankfurt on the Main section of the German and Austrian Alpine Club also proves that Rudolf Schild neither resigned from the section nor was actively excluded from it after 1933. This was only possible because he had become a member long before 1914 and therefore fell under the exemption rule of the so-called "Aryan paragraph" introduced by the section during the Nazi era.

Dr. Rudolf Schild was named as a male sexual partner in several police interrogations of so-called "hustlers" in Berlin in 1935. He was also investigated as part of an investigation into the homosexual Jewish lawyer Kurt Fontheim. Rudolf Schild was finally arrested on January 7, 1936 and deported to the "Columbia House" concentration camp. This procedure was based on intensified raids on homosexuals in the course of the tightening of penalties under section 175 of the German Criminal Code (StGB), which came into force in September 1935.

The Gestapo brought many of the arrested homosexuals to Columbia House. At times, they made up around half of all prisoners there. It is known that the prison conditions in this Berlin concentration camp were cruel and the hygienic conditions inhumane. Severe abuse of prisoners by the SS guards was the order of the day. Guards also deliberately killed homosexual prisoners. Against this backdrop, Dr. Rudolf Schild took his own life with cyanide in the Columbia House concentration camp on January 25, 1936.