News
“Frankfurt liest ein Buch" (Frankfurt Reads a Book) presents section member Nini Hess, who was murdered by the Nazis
This time, the book "Zebras im Schnee" (Zebras in the Snow) by Florian Wacker is the focus of the two-week reading festival "Frankfurt liest ein Buch" (Frankfurt Reads a Book) from the end of April 2024. The novel, which is partly based on real events, is about Frankfurt on the Main in the 1920s. Among the numerous events at the festival, two, on May 1 and May 4, commemorate a former section member who was murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz: Nini Hess, a highly renowned photographer at the time but hardly known today.
Project “Denk Mal am Ort” (Think/Memorial on Site) on April 6 and 7, 2024, in the footsteps of the persecuted Bauer family--with grandson Jon Bauer
On Saturday and Sunday, April 6 and 7, 2024, the "Denk Mal Am Ort" (Think/Memorial on Site) initiative will commemorate people who were marginalized, persecuted and murdered during the Nazi era at historic Frankfurt on the Main locations. On Saturday, you have the chance to find out more about one of our persecuted former members: Hugo Bauer, who with his wife Martha Bauer was also a member of the Frankfurt section of the German and Austrian Alpine Club at the time, will be commemorated. Bauer conducted research as a chemist at the Georg-Speyer-Haus until he was dismissed in 1935 due to the Nazi racial laws. To commemorate him and other Jewish scientists, there will be a lecture and discussion at Georg-Speyer-Haus, Paul-Ehrlich street 42-44 in the Sachsenhausen district on April 6, 2024, from 1.30 pm. Jon Bauer, a grandson of Hugo and Martha Bauer, who has traveled from the USA, will be present. It is not necessary to register for this event.
Art and remembrance--20 years of Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) in Frankfurt on the Main and 23 years of the Library of Generations
November 11, 2023, marked the 20th anniversary of the first Stolperstein (stumbling stone) being laid in Frankfurt on the Main by the artist Gunter Demnig. Three years before this first Stolperstein was laid, the artist Sigrid Sigurdsson launched the "Library of Generations" remembrance project. Under the motto "Art and Remembrance--20 Years of Stumbling Stones in Frankfurt am Main and 23 Years of the Library of Generations", a public event will take place on November 30, 2023, at which members of the Frankfurt Stumbling Stone Initiative will look back on 20 years of work on their project. This will be followed by a panel discussion with Gunter Demnig (artist), DW Dreysse (co-initiator of the Stumbling Stone Initiative), Prof. Dr. Astrid Erll (Goethe University Frankfurt/Memory Studies), Dr. Jan Gerchow (Historical Museum Frankfurt), Dr. Martin Dill & Annika Wagner (Initiative Stolpersteine Frankfurt). The moderator will be Dr. Angela Jannelli (Historical Museum Frankfurt).
The event begins on Thursday, November 30, 2023, at 6:30 pm in the Leopold Sonnemann Hall in the Historical Museum Frankfurt.
Admission is free; registration is not required.
The First Traces or How the Research Begins
We began researching our former Jewish members and the history of our section during the Nazi era in our own archives. Unfortunately, not too many documents have survived, especially from the war years. Our search therefore quickly shifted to other sources. In the following, we would like to draw particular attention to the publicly accessible sources on the history of the Alpine Club.
(Not only) Women's Fates--New Cases Online
Thanks to our ongoing research, exciting new cases have recently come online. This time, we have tried to focus in particular on the fates of our female members, about whom we have often been able to find out very little. For example, about Flora Grünebaum, whose son Fritz Grunebaum became a famous rugby player in the USA, or about Katharine Elsbeth Salomon, the wife of Dr. Max Salomon, about whom we have put initial information online. We know more about Eva Sonntag (née Schönfließ), whose entire family suffered under the National Socialist regime. Dr. Otto Kahn-Freund, a doctor of law and social democrat, was also disenfranchised by the National Socialists and had to flee to Great Britain. It is worth reading these different biographies--so click through!