Ernst Meissinger
1910 - 1940

Ernst Meissinger was born in Strasbourg on March 5, 1910. His father Karl August Meissinger was a Protestant theologian, teacher, Luther expert and later writer, while his mother Rosa, née Oppenheimer, grew up in an orthodox Jewish family. Both parents came from the State of Hesse. Ernst had three other siblings (Lilli, Hans and Maria, also called Marlies) and was the oldest of them. All four children were baptized Protestant. The family returned to Frankfurt after the First World War and lived for a long time in Ginnheim at Fuchshohl 49. At the end of 1929, the father left the family, which plunged mother Rosa and the four children into ongoing financial problems.

After graduating from Kaiser-Friedrichs-Gymnasium (now Heinrich-von-Gagern-Gymnasium) in 1928, Ernst Meissinger began to study in Frankfurt: German studies, geography and history, he wanted to become a teacher. Due to the family's precarious financial situation, he repeatedly had to apply for fee reductions and grants. As early as 1930, he passed an exam as a gymnastics and sports teacher. In 1934, he completed his doctorate in geography. His dissertation was graded "magna cum laude". It dealt with the "Alpine geography of the Iller spring area" (Almgeographie des Iller-Quellgebietes). For his thesis, he conducted intensive field research in the Allgaeu Alps near Oberstdorf.

Meissinger's doctoral supervisor Prof. Walter Behrmann praised the dissertation in his review: "The present work is based on the most precise observation on site, on the study of economic history and archives, as well as statistics. [...] It requires physical endurance, like any high mountain work. It is carried out with great diligence, just as Mr. Meissinger courageously continues his scientific work despite the most difficult family circumstances." Meissinger was only able to finance the printing of the work in 1936 due to financial difficulties.

In 1930, Meissinger joined the Frankfurt section of the Alpine Club. He soon became the provisional chairman of the new students' association, which the club had founded at the suggestion of Meissinger's doctoral supervisor Prof. Behrmann. In the same year, section chairman Max Moritz Wirth wrote enthusiastically in the section's newsletter that Meissinger "immediately went into full action, so that this section already had 25 members". Up until 1933, Meissinger repeatedly organized tours, courses and trips and gave numerous lectures. He also wrote many reports for the newsletter (here is an example). The students' association continued to grow.

From 1934, the group was hardly mentioned in the section newsletter, as it had been disbanded by the new section leadership under Seng in early 1934 and affiliated to the mountaineering group, according to section's newsletter from April 1935. This probably happened in the course of the forced adaptation of club structures to the Nazi doctrine - the new section leadership wanted a tight hierarchy and less autonomy for individual groups.

Ernst Meissinger himself was even expelled from the section. Section leader Rudolf Seng had been told that Meissinger had a Jewish mother. However, the expulsion seems to have been a sensitive matter: Seng specifically called in the higher-level administrative committee of the German and Austrian Alpine Association (DuOeAV) and asked for "confidential notification to me personally as to whether Mr. Meissinger can remain a member of the section and the Alpine Association in accordance with the Aryan regulations". The answer from there: "If M. was not in the war or an AV member before 1914, he is considered a non-Aryan." Seng then asked Meissinger to leave the association. When he refused, he was expelled from the section at the end of June 1935.

The Frankfurt section leader took a much harsher approach than the Nazi regulations in force at the time would have required. This is documented by a confidential letter dated February 22, 1940, which the leader of the German Alpine Club, Arthur Seyß-Inquart (leading Nazi functionary, including temporary Reich Governor for Austria and Reich Commissioner for the Netherlands), addressed to all section leaders. In this letter, the new admission of so-called "mixed breeds/Mischlinge" to the Alpine Club was described as "unacceptable". At the same time, however, it literally states: "Mischlinge (mixed breeds) who are already members cannot be excluded on the grounds of their status as Mischlinge (mixed breeds) alone." This meant that Meissinger's exclusion was not permitted according to the regulations of the unified Alpine Club.

Not long after the Nazi regime came to power, the Meissingers' living situation deteriorated significantly. According to the so-called Frankfurt "household registers" kept by the police at the time, Rosa Meissinger and her four children moved from the rented terraced house at Ginnheimer Fuchshohl 49 to a rented apartment at Hadrianstraße 5 in September 1934. Both addresses were owned by the non-profit "Aktiengesellschaft für kleine Wohnungen" (predecessor of today's municipal housing holding ABG). With the move, the living space shrank considerably, as the house in Ginnheim, which was part of the Ernst May "Höhenblick" estate, was at least 100 square meters in size, with five rooms. The Ernst May apartments in Hadrianstrasse were smaller and had fewer rooms.

The exact reasons for the move are not yet known to us, and to our knowledge, the ABG has unfortunately not yet published anything about the practice of her predecessor AG Kleine Wohnungen during the Nazi era. In any case, it cannot be ruled out that the Meissingers' move was due to persecution. Several options are conceivable: It is possible that Karl August Meissinger continued to be officially considered a tenant of the house in Fuchshohl in 1933, despite his separation from his wife. At the time, he was a civil servant teacher at the Reformgymnasium Höchst (nowadays Leibnizschule), but was dismissed at the end of 1933 for political unreliability. According to the school chronicle, this was based on the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service. It literally states in §4: "Civil servants who, based on their previous political activities, do not offer the guarantee that they will always stand up for the national state without reservation can be dismissed from the service." This could have meant that Karl August Meissinger also lost his tenancy rights – and thus his wife and children had to move out.

It is also possible that Rosa Meissinger had to leave the house with her children due to her Jewish background, as the Höhenblick estate was a very popular residential address. In any case, "Iwanowski, E., Prokurist" is listed as a subsequent resident in the 1935 Frankfurt address book. Finally, the financial problems of Rosa Meissinger and her children may have forced them to move to a smaller apartment.

Ernst Meissinger worked as a teacher at Jewish schools from around 1934, initially at the Philanthropin in Frankfurt. There are indications that he was denied access to public schools as a so-called "Mischling 1. Grades" (First degree mixed breed) according to NS-ideology. He was trained at the Philanthropin's pedagogical seminar. Around 1937, he moved to Berlin to work at the private Jewish Leonore Goldschmidt School. From March 1938, his mother and siblings Maria/Marlies and Hans also moved there. Karl August Meissinger's divorce from Rosa Meissinger was also finalized in 1938. Marlies also became a student at the Leonore Goldschmidt School in Berlin, where she graduated from high school.

Before moving to Berlin, Hans had to do Reich labor service ("Reichsarbeitsdienst") in Siegen between March and October 1937. Ernst Meissinger's sister Lilli worked as a nanny from 1937, first in Frankfurt's Zeppelinallee, then in Höhn, Westerburg district in the Westerwald. This work may also have been part of the Reich Labor Service, because according to her descendants, she had to perform this service for six months. Lilli also went to Berlin around 1938/39.

Ernst Meissinger was extremely popular as a teacher, as can be seen from memories of pupils at the Goldschmidt School (attachment with statements following soon). In the second half of the 1930s, reprisals against Jews and so-called "mixed breeds (Mischlinge)" increased, as did the threat to the Goldschmidt School. Leonore Goldschmidt used her contacts and managed to establish a branch of her school in England in 1939. Some of the teachers and pupils also went to England.

Ernst Meissinger remained in Berlin with a few other teachers. But when England declared war at the beginning of September 1939, the borders were closed. This made it impossible for him and the other teachers to flee there. His sister Maria/Marlies was also unable to go to England due to the start of the war – although she had been admitted to university in the UK only a few days earlier after passing her English exam.

Later accounts by his brother Hans reveal that Ernst's mother Rosa and his siblings Lilli and Hans also tried to emigrate in 1938/39 - but in vain. They lacked the financial means and were even told at the US consulate that the risk of persecution was not great enough for them to be granted a visa. It is quite possible that Ernst also wanted to emigrate, as the family was very close-knit.

Ernst Meissinger was called up to the Wehrmacht in February 1940. His brother Hans, who had already been called up at the end of 1939, later reported that Ernst had seriously considered refusing to serve. Ultimately, however, his concern for his mother, who lived in Berlin, led him to become a soldier after all – and the hope that she then would be better protected from persecution by the National Socialists.

However, Ernst Meissinger did not survive his time as a soldier. He was killed after just a few months during the German offensive in France, on June 11, 1940 in Oinezy near Bouilly/Marne. Hans reports that his brother wrote to him the day before he died: "One more day like today and I won't make it."

Ernst Meissinger's grave can be found at the war cemetery in Noyers-Pont-Maugis. For the family, his death was a great loss and a severe shock – especially, according to Hans, "because he had to die for Hitler".

Hans Meissinger had also been drafted by the Wehrmacht and had to fight in France. He was discharged from the Wehrmacht shortly after Ernst's death and sent home, like other so-called "mixed breeds (Mischlinge)". However, when he applied for state support for his studies in Berlin shortly afterwards, the authorities refused on the grounds that he was "non-German". After Ernst's death, Hans Meissinger and his separated father Karl August also asked the Lord Mayor of Frankfurt for support for Hans and Lilli's studies, but in vain. Hans Meissinger was nevertheless able to complete his studies.

The war years in Berlin were extremely difficult for Rosa Meissinger and the siblings of Ernst Meissinger. Rosa was increasingly at risk of being arrested and deported to the extermination camps in the East. She had to hide repeatedly to avoid deportation, with the help of Hans, Lilli and Maria/Marlies. Towards the end of the war, the children were also in danger, and at least Marlies had to go into hiding.

Father Karl August Meissinger was so affected by the early death of his eldest son that he increasingly supported his former family in the years that followed. According to Hans Meissinger, he helped his former wife Rosa to find accommodation in Stuttgart and Munich in 1943/44 and thus avoid imminent deportation. Hans' sisters Marlies and Lilli also went to southern Germany.

Rosa Meissinger and her three adult children finally emigrated to the USA in 1947. According to descendants (see below), Rosa Meissinger lived for a while with her sister Lilli Oppenheimer Pick in Milwaukee (Wisconsin) before moving back to New York. Maria/Marlies went to Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) and later transferred to Fordham University in New York. After her marriage, she lived in New Jersey. Lilli lived in New York and moved to Blonay in Switzerland in 1962. Hans Meissinger also initially lived in New York and from 1954 with his wife Hannah Gerber in Los Angeles.

Joyce Arnon, daughter of Hans Meissinger and niece of Ernst Meissinger, has recorded the details of the massive persecution to which Rosa, Hans, Lilli, and Maria/Marlies were exposed, as well as their subsequent lives. Joyces texts can be found in the attached documents.

During our research into Ernst Meissinger, we were able to make contact with one of Meissinger's nieces in the USA: Joyce Arnon, who lives with her family in San Francisco. Joyce is the daughter of Ernst's brother Hans and has been researching her own family history for years. The former epidemiologist has visited Germany several times, is interested in German literature and speaks very good German. She and her cousins Ed and John Breitinger (sons of Ernst's sister Maria/ Marlies) helped us with lots of photos and information. In turn, we provided them with many documents, including those relating to Ernst Meissinger's time in the Alpine Club. They knew very little about this.

Joyce was, as she wrote to us, very touched when she heard about our work, because she experienced Ernst Meissinger's death as very formative for the family: "My father, his parents and his sisters never got over the fact that he had to die like that, and so early."

Joyce not only has a connection to the Rhine-Main region through her father and uncle. Her mother Hannah Gerber also came from Frankfurt. Hannah was the daughter of Erich Gerber, who was a Christian, and his Jewish wife Emma. Joyce's grandmother Emma narrowly escaped deportation at the beginning of 1945, thanks to her husband. Erich Gerber had refused to divorce his wife and was therefore interned in the Clausthal-Zellerfeld forced labor camp. He made sure that she was able to go into hiding in Frankfurt during this time. They both lived in Frankfurt until the 1970s. Hannah emigrated to the USA shortly after the war.

There is also a connection between Joyce Arnon and another former member of our section: Dr. Eugen Cahen-Brach, who was murdered by the National Socialists. His son Fritz, who emigrated to the USA in 1936 and took the name Fred Brock, was Joyce's godfather. She suspects that her mother Hannah knew the Cahen-Brach family and was supported by Fritz/Fred during her emigration.