Ludwig Schönthal
1899 - 1934

Ludwig Schönthal was born on June 5, 1899 in Frankfurt on the Main, the son of the merchant Simon Schönthal (1867-1951) and Jenny Schönthal, née Rothenberger (1876-1968). His Jewish parents had married in September 1898 in Giessen, the birthplace of Jenny Rothenberger. Ludwig had a brother named Max, who was two years younger and later emigrated to Great Britain. The Schönthal family lived at Große Seestraße 29 (Bockenheim) in 1901, later at Jordan street 74 and, according to the Frankfurt address books, at Adalbert street 26 (also in Bockenheim) from 1917 until the 1930s.

Ludwig Schönthal started school at the Philanthropin, Frankfurt's most important Jewish school, at Easter 1905. He later went to the Liebig-Oberrealschule and obtained his university entrance qualification there in February 1917.

After finishing school, Ludwig Schönthal began studying medicine at the University of Frankfurt on the Main in April 1917 at the age of just 17. However, on June 14, 1917, shortly after his 18th birthday, he was drafted into the 2nd Nassau Field Artillery Regiment 63. From this time onwards, he was considered to be on leave from the university. He wrote about his military service in his CV for his dissertation:

"Im März 1918 kam ich an die Front, zunächst nach Rußland, dann nach Frankreich, wo ich am 16.9.18 mit einer Gasvergiftung in französische Gefangenschaft geriet, aus der ich erst am 1. Februar 1920 zurückkehrte." (In March 1918, I went to the front, first to Russia, then to France, where I was taken prisoner on September 16, 1918, with gas poisoning, from which I did not return until February 1, 1920.)

He then went to the University of Freiburg im Breisgau, where he continued to study medicine and completed his Physicum in July 1920. In the winter semester of 1920/21, he studied again in Frankfurt on the Main, then in Munich (Bavaria) in the summer semester of 1921 and then again in his native city until his exams in April 1923. In Frankfurt on the Main, he lived with his parents at Adalbert street 26.

On April 14, 1923, Ludwig Schönthal passed his examination before the Frankfurt Medical Examination Board (medical state examination). The doctoral examination followed on May 15, 1923, which he passed with an overall grade of good. His examiners were Professors Julius Strasburger (1871-1934), Gustav Embden (1874-1933) and Bernhard Fischer (1877-1941). An excerpt of the inaugural dissertation entitled "Die Fettresorption im Darm" (Fat absorption in the intestine) appeared on page 47 in "Frankfurter medizinische Dissertationen in Auszügen", Volume 5 in 1924. In his report on the dissertation, Prof. Dr. Fischer wrote:

"Die Arbeit ist mit grossem Fleisse und gutem Verständnis angefertigt worden, auch die Literatur ist mit Fleiss und Kritik verwendet. Wenn das Ergebnis der Arbeit auch nicht soweit gediehen ist[,] als erhofft wurde, so sind die Resultate doch so wertvoll, dass auch in Anbetracht der grossen aufgewandten Mühe mir die Note g u t gerechtfertigt erscheint." (The work has been done with great diligence and good understanding, and the literature has also been used with diligence and criticism. Even if the result of the work has not progressed as far as was hoped for, the results are nevertheless so valuable that, in view of the great effort expended, the grade good seems justified to me.)

Following his doctorate, he completed a year of practical training, but we do not currently know where he did this. From 1928 to 1930, he is listed in the Frankfurt address book as a pediatrician at his parents' address (Adalbert street 26 in the Bockenheim district of Frankfurt). However, as he was listed in February 1930 in the Nachrichten-Blatt of the Frankfurt on the Main section of the German and Austrian Alpine Club with the address New York, he was probably no longer practising in Frankfurt in 1930, but presumably in New York City (USA). It is possible that Dr. Ludwig Schönthal had already been working in the USA before 1928. At least Alexis F. Hartmann thanked Dr. Ludwig Schönthal for his help in his article on "Chemical Changes Occurring in the Body as the Result of Certain Diseases" published in the American Journal of Diseases of Children, Volume 35 (April 1928), Number 4.

Like his brother Max Schönthal, Ludwig Schönthal joined the Frankfurt on the Main section of the German and Austrian Alpine Club in 1922. Like his brother Max, he donated 3 RM for the construction of the new Rauhekopfhütte, according to issue 2 of the February 1930 issue of the Frankfurt section's Nachrichten-Blatt. However, the news sheet notes that Ludwig was living in New York (USA) at the time. We currently have no information about further activities in the section.

We are currently unable to say whether Dr. Ludwig Schönthal, as a Jew, resigned from the Frankfurt section after the National Socialists came to power in January 1933 because we do not have the relevant sources. However, as a former "Frontkämpfer" (front-line fighter), he would not have been affected by the introduction of the so-called "Arierparagraf" (Aryan paragraph), so it is unlikely that he was expelled by the Frankfurt Section.

We currently do not know when Dr. Ludwig Schönthal emigrated permanently from the German Reich. He was at least in New York City in 1930. He died there in June 1934 at the age of just 35 from a prolonged illness, as the Jewish Daily Bulletin from New York reported on June 17, 1934. The cause could have been gas poisoning suffered during the First World War.

His brother Max Schönthal lived in London during and after the Second World War, where he died in 1987. His father Simon Schönthal also died there in April 1951. He had probably emigrated from Frankfurt at the beginning of the Nazi dictatorship. In November 1941, his uncle Louis Schönthal was deported from Frankfurt on the Main to Minsk and murdered there. In the same month, his aunt Frieda Appel, née Schönthal, was also deported from Frankfurt, but to Kaunas in German-occupied Lithuania. She was shot by the Germans shortly after arriving in Kaunas. His aunt Jenny Spanjer, née Schönthal, who had probably emigrated to the Netherlands in 1939, was deported from the Westerbork concentration camp to Auschwitz together with her husband Jacob Spanjer in February 1943 and murdered there. His cousin Albert (Peter) Spanjer went into hiding in the Netherlands in 1942, but was betrayed and arrested by the Germans in March 1945. He was deported to the Westerbork concentration camp and was liberated there in April 1945.