Siegfried Katzenstein
1877 - 1950

Siegfried Katzenstein was born on June 6, 1877 in Rotenburg/Fulda. His father was the merchant Herz Katzenstein (1831-1904) from Diemerode. His mother Lina Winterberg (1853-1934) came from Wolfhagen. His grandfather Josef Katzenstein was also a merchant from Diemerode. His brother Berthold Katzenstein (1879-1936) was also a merchant and, together with Leopold Werthan, ran a store for animal feed in Stift street in Frankfurt on the Main. Siegfried Katzenstein also had two half-siblings from his father's first marriage: the first-born Josef Naftali, also known as Julius, died in Rotenburg/Fulda in 1892 at the age of just 27. The second half-brother Meier, also known as Moritz, Katzenstein (1868-1961) was a doctor and also lived in Frankfurt. There he not only worked as a general practitioner, but also belonged to the group of doctors for the poor ("Armenarzt" in German). He managed to emigrate to the USA.

Siegfried Katzenstein first went to school in Rotenburg/Fulda, later attended the Friedrichs Gymnasium in Kassel, founded by Landgrave Friedrich II in 1779, and finally the Kaiser Friedrichs Gymnasium in Frankfurt on the Main. His father Herz Katzenstein appears for the first time in the Frankfurt address book of 1893 as a private resident at Obermain-Anlage 3, where he lived until his death. The family must therefore have moved to Frankfurt around 1892.

After studying law, Siegfried Katzenstein returned to Frankfurt on the Main and founded his own law firm in Schiller street. In March 1910, he married Marie Niedermayer, born in Frankfurt in 1879, daughter of the banker Salomon Niedermayer (1844-1915) and Josefine Bauer, known as Peppi, from Buttenwiesen (1853-?). Her grandfather was the banker Mayer Moses Niedermayer, born in 1811, who had come to Frankfurt from Thalmässing (Bavaria). Their daughter Lieselotte was born in September 1911.

Lieselotte Katzenstein began studying law after graduating from high school. She was active in the youth group of the Jewish Women's Association and made her parents' apartment available in November 1930 for Stephanie Forchheimer's lecture on "Die Stellung der Frau als Verbraucherin innerhalb der Volkswirtschaft" (The position of women as consumers within the national economy). Stephanie Forchheimer (1882-1954) was an important representative of Jewish women's work in Frankfurt on the Main and beyond. In 1925, she was one of the first women to be elected to the parliament of the Prussian State Association of Jewish Communities on the Liberal list - alongside Paula Ollendorff from Breslau and others. Forchheimer was already active as a journalist before the First World War. In 1913, for example, she published an article in the Jewish magazine "Ost und West" (East and West) on "Jüdisch-soziale Frauenarbeit in Frankfurt a. M." (Jewish social women's work in Frankfurt on the Main).

Siegfried Katzenstein graduated from the Kaiser Friedrichs Gymnasium in Frankfurt on the Main at Easter 1895. He studied law in Marburg, Munich, Berlin and Marburg again. Katzenstein passed his first state examination, the so-called Referendarsexamen, in May 1898 at the Higher Regional Court of Kassel. In the same year, he also obtained his doctorate in law at the University of Erlangen with the thesis: "Kauf bricht nicht Miethe". Ein Beitrag zur Lehre des Miethrechtes nach dem Bürgerl. Gesetzbuche für das Deutsche Reich ("Purchase does not break rent." A contribution to the doctrine of tenancy law according to the German Civil Code), published in 1899 by Becker's Universitäts-Buchdruckerei in Würzburg. The "major state examination" followed in Berlin in 1903. From December 1903 he worked as a court assessor and was admitted to the Frankfurt District Court as early as January 1904. His office was located on the first floor of Schiller street 10, while he lived at Obermain-Anlage 3. His parents had already lived here.

Siegfried Katzenstein did military service from November 1916 to November 1918, but not at the front. Instead, he worked for the deputy corps directorate in Frankfurt on the Main. He only had the low rank of "Landsturmmann". Katzenstein was appointed notary in August 1920. As a lawyer admitted to the bar before 1914, he was able to continue practicing law after the National Socialists came to power. However, he lost his notary's office in June 1933.

Dr. Katzenstein was firmly anchored in the Jewish community of his native town. Among other things, he was a member of the community council and one of three secretaries under Dr. Richard Merzbach. He was also active on the board of the Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens (Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith), in the Society for Jewish Popular Education and was temporarily president of the Frankfurt Lodge of the Independent Order of Bne Briss (also known as Bnai Brith). His wife was also active on behalf of the members of the community. For example, she published an article entitled "Fragen der jüdischen Berufsberatung" (Questions of Jewish career guidance) in issue no. 6 of February 1930 of the Frankfurt am Main Jewish community magazine.

Dr. Siegfried Katzenstein joined the Frankfurt on the Main section of the German and Austrian Alpine Club in 1913. He worked as a lawyer for the section. He and two other lawyers represented the Frankfurt section in a legal dispute with the City of Frankfurt over the amount of entertainment tax that the section should pay for the 1928 Winter Festival. Fritz Peters wrote about this in the section's Nachrichten-Blatt of December 1928:

"Die Bemühungen unseres Frankfurter Vertreters, Rechtsanwalt und Notar Dr. Siegfried Katzenstein (Sektionsmitglied), unseres Vertreters vor dem Bezirksausschuß in Wiesbaden, Rechtsanwalt [Berthold] Guthmann, Wiesbaden, und unseres Vertreters vor dem Oberverwaltungsgericht Berlin, Rechtsanwalt und Notar Dr. [Oskar] Fiebig, Ausschußmitglied der Sektion Hohenzollern, waren von Erfolg gekrönt. Allen drei Herren, besonders Dr. S. Katzenstein, dankt die Sektion und beglückwünscht sie zu diesem Erfolg, der bei der für uns unfaßbaren Einstellung der Gegenpartei kein einfacher war." (The efforts of our Frankfurt representative, lawyer and notary Dr. Siegfried Katzenstein (Section member), our representative before the District Committee in Wiesbaden, lawyer [Berthold] Guthmann, Wiesbaden, and our representative before the Higher Administrative Court in Berlin, lawyer and notary Dr. [Oskar] Fiebig, committee member of the Hohenzollern Section, were crowned with success. The Section thanks all three gentlemen, especially Dr. S. Katzenstein, and congratulates them on this success, which was not an easy one given the attitude of the opposing party, which was incomprehensible to us.)

In 1929, Siegfried Katzenstein donated 16 RM for the construction of the new Rauhekopfhütte. In addition, he was still campaigning for the expansion of the section at the beginning of 1933: In February, together with the Jewish ear, nose and throat doctor Dr. Arthur Marum, a member of the Frankfurt section since 1912, he recommended that the Frankfurt lawyer Werner Simon be admitted to the section. Simon was deported from Berlin to Theresienstadt together with his wife and child in June 1943 and deported from there to the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp in October 1944. He is presumed missing, but it must be assumed that he was murdered in 1944 or early 1945.

As a section member before 1914, Dr. Katzenstein was able to remain in the Frankfurt on the Main section even after the introduction of the so-called "Arierparagraf" (Aryan paragraph). Whether he resigned in 1933/34 or was later expelled cannot be determined with certainty at present due to a lack of sources. However, as he did not receive the "Silver Edelweiss" for 25 years of membership in 1938 according to the Frankfurt section's Nachrichten-Blatt, it can be assumed that he left the section before 1938 or was expelled.

In July 1939, Siegfried Katzenstein applied for an elevator to London (UK). The enclosed list of books that he wanted to take with him when he emigrated gives an idea of the importance of the mountains to him. Among the 110 titles are also mountain books, such as "Ratgeber f. Alpenwanderer [herausgegeben von] Deutschösterreichischer Alpenverein" (Guidebook for Alpine Hikers [published by] Deutschösterreichischer Alpenverein) (No. 16) and "Gebot der Berge" (No. 64), a mountaineering history by the British author Alfred E. W. Mason, probably first published in German in 1913--originally published in England under the title "Running Water" in 1907. In fact, all of Katzenstein's belongings were auctioned off in Hamburg in 1941, meaning that these books never reached him during his emigration.

Dr. Siegfried Katzenstein had been registered as a lawyer with the District Court of Frankfurt on the Main since 1904. He was therefore able to continue practicing law as an "Altanwalt" (old lawyer) even after January 1933. However, in June 1933, he was stripped of the notary's office he had held since 1920, meaning that he had to accept a significant loss of income. On December 1, 1938, he was disbarred--as were all Jewish lawyers. He was then only allowed to work as a "Konsulent" (consultant) for Jewish clients. He described his economic situation in an application for admission as a consultant from November 1938 as follows:

"Ich habe kein Vermögen. Ausser dem Berufseinkommen habe ich lediglich Einkommen aus Untervermietung von Zimmern. Nach der Steuerveranlagung für 1937 belief sich ersteres auf 1790 RM, letzteres auf 940 RM. Ich bin also für meinen Lebensunterhalt auf das Einkommen aus der Berufstätigkeit angewiesen." (I have no assets. Apart from my professional income, I only have income from subletting rooms. According to the tax assessment for 1937, the former amounted to RM 1,790 and the latter to RM 940. I am therefore dependent on the income from my job for my livelihood.)

He gave up this practice in August 1939 and emigrated with his wife Marie, née Niedermayer, and their daughter Lieselotte, first to Great Britain and then to the USA in 1945. There the family lived in Denver (Colorado), without Dr. Katzenstein ever practising law again. Siegfried Katzenstein died in Denver in May 1950. He was buried at Mount Nebo Memorial Park Cemetery in Aurora (Colorado). His widow Maria Katzenstein, born in 1879, died in Denver in September 1966. His daughter Lieselotte (named Lilian in the USA), married to Goldsmith, died at the age of 88 in Aurora in December 1999.