Marie Liefmann
1886 - 1964

Marie Liefmann joined the Frankfurt on the Main section of the German and Austrian Alpine Club in 1921. Her husband, the physician Dr. Emil Liefmann, had been a member of the section since 1911. Due to a lack of sources, we are currently unable to say how Marie Liefmann participated in the life of the section. We do know, however, that the Liefmanns vacationed in Ticino (Switzerland) in the fall of 1932 and in Vermala near Crans-Montana (Valais, Switzerland) in the summer of 1934.

It is unclear whether Marie Liefmann left the Section in 1933 or was expelled from the Section because of her Jewish origins. However, her husband was not honored for 25 years of membership in the Alpine Club in 1936. He must therefore have resigned before then, because as a member before 1914 and a participant in the First World War, the so-called "Arierpatagraf" (Aryan paragraph) enshrined in the Frankfurt section statutes in 1934 did not apply to him. Marie Liefmann therefore presumably also left the Section after the start of the National Socialist dictatorship in 1933.

After the National Socialists revoked the licenses of all Jewish doctors on September 30, 1938, the Liefmanns tried to emigrate. The city of Frankfurt on the Main forced them to sell their house at Grüneburgweg 105 to the city for less than it was worth. In April 1939, Emil and Marie Liefmann were able to emigrate to New York City (USA) via Rotterdam.

As her husband was initially not allowed to work as a doctor, Marie Liefmann financed their life in the USA with piano lessons, which she initially gave as private lessons and later at a music school. Emil Liefmann was able to work as a doctor again from December 1940. In 1944, they both became American citizens. Also, they both converted to Christianity and became members of the Quakers.

In September 1948, they both traveled via London to Locarno (Switzerland), where Marie's sister Clara Dondorf had lived since 1938. In February 1949, Marie and Emil Liefmann traveled to Frankfurt on the Main. It was not until 1950 that they got their house back at Grüneburgweg 105. They became German citizens again in 1952. Emil Liefmann died in April 1955, Marie Liefmann in January 1964 in Frankfurt. Both were buried in the Dondorf family grave in Frankfurt's main cemetery, the Hauptfriedhof.