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It was a debut that none of us will ever forget. For the first time, our section donated "stumbling stones" (Stolpersteine) for a former member and his family who had suffered persecution by the Nazis. The five "Stolpersteine" for Ernst Meissinger, his mother, and his siblings were ceremoniously unveiled at the end of June, and it was a great pleasure for us that Ed and John Breitinger had come to Frankfurt from the US to join the event. The two, themselves passionate mountaineers, are descendants of the Meissingers and live in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Frank Schumann, board member of the Frankfurt Alpine Club section, and we as members of the section team "Spurensuche Nationalsozialismus" (Searching for Traces of National Socialism) were able to spend much time with them during their visit. From the very beginning, it was a warm and intense exchange about family histories, mountain experiences, and the political past and present. New connections have been established that will hopefully remain. John has found apt words for this: "It feels like reviving a long lost friendship."

The section was able to donate the five stumbling stones based on research by the "Spurensuche Nationalsozialismus" team. According to the findings, our former member Ernst Meissinger was expelled from the section in 1935 because his mother had Jewish parents. He himself and his siblings Lilli, Hans, and Maria (called Marlies, later married Breitinger) had been baptized as Protestants. Ernst's mother Rosa and his siblings also suffered severe persecution, but survived the Nazi era and emigrated to the USA in 1947.

The Stolpersteine are now located in front of the house at 5, Hadrianstraße (Hadrian street) in Frankfurt-Roemerstadt and commemorate the former residents. The ceremony, attended by about 40 interested participants, was organized by the "Stolpersteine Frankfurt" initiative led by its chairman Martin Dill. We would like to express our sincere thanks for them.

The Stolpersteine, as a lasting memorial, mean a great deal to the descendants. We were able to experience this at the ceremony in Hadrianstraße: At one point, Ed and John could no longer hold back their tears. They already knew a lot about the past from their mother's stories. "But now we are standing here, where they used to live," said Ed, "everything is suddenly very close, overwhelming."

The two visitors from Santa Fe had further moving encounters at the ceremony: They met Nikolaus and Stephanie Herrmann who had also come to the Roemerstadt district after reading about the event in the media. Emmi Dorn, aunt of the Herrmann siblings, was a close friend of Ed's and John's mother Marlies Meissinger-Breitinger; both girls attended the Elisabethenschule. Even after the war, the women's friendship continued and they often visited each other. Ed and John exchanged addresses with the Herrmanns, and old ties were renewed.

On behalf of the section, board member Frank Schumann paid tribute to the commitment of mountaineer Ernst Meissinger to the former association. Schumann described his expulsion and the section's collaboration with the Nazi regime: "They wanted to save the association. To do so, they sacrificed their loyalty towards the Jewish members." He underlined that today, the section is confronting its past, also by means of the "Spurensuche" . This should also be understood as a sign for the present, in which right-wing extremism, according to Schumann, "is considered the greatest threat to democracy." In this sense, the section shall continue its commitment and "hopefully we will be able to contribute many more stumbling stones".

It was wonderful that students from the Heinrich-von-Gagern-Gymnasium and their teacher also participated in the stumbling stone ceremony. Ernst Meissinger had graduated from the school with the former name "Kaiser-Friedrich-Gymnasium" in 1928. The students had searched the school archives and found what they were looking for. They handed over to Ed and John a certificate from their uncle and an early paper he had written on "Transport routes across the Alps." Ernst Meissinger always had top grades, the young people discovered.

During their visit to Frankfurt, the Breitinger brothers also visited the section's climbing center in Preungesheim, and they were really impressed. They share our club's love for climbing and outdoor sports: Santa Fe is surrounded by high peaks and is itself located at an altitude of 2,000 meters. Mountain climbing, hiking, mountain biking, and fishing have been part of Ed and John's lives for as long as they can remember: "Outdoor sports," says John, "were our uncle Ernst's legacy. And our mother passed them on to us."

Finally, we want to give great praise to the volunteer initiative "Stolpersteine Frankfurt": At the end of June, the team organized the laying and unveiling of a total of around 70 Stolpersteine for victims of the Nazis in Frankfurt, with around a hundred descendants from many countries around the world coming to the Main River for the celebrations. A mammoth undertaking for which the initiative deserves a lot of respect.

For detailed information on Ernst Meissinger and his family please visit here.

For information about the "Stolpersteine Frankfurt" initiative, please see here.