The Guggenheimer Family

Leopold Guggenheimer was born 18. March,1842 in Dittenheim, the son of Salomom Guggenheimer and his wife Hanna born Schimmel. He married Hanna Ansbacher, born 12. August,1836 in Veitshoechheim.
The couple had four children:

Salomon born 28. Feb, 1870 in Dittenheim
Simon Israel born 21. April, 1872 in Dittenheim
Josef born 30. September 1874 in Gunzenhausen
Amalie born 15. May, 1877
died 15. August, 1877
in Gunzenhausen

The family moved to Gunzenhausen and bought in 1874 the upper half of the house Kirchenstrasse 14. Leopold was registered as a yard goods dealer.

Son Simon became  a physician and on 15. August,1899 he married Regina Sara Gutmann born 27. Febr, 1876 at Burgstallstrasse 5 Gunzenhausen. Regina was the cousin of Jakob Wassermann, who later became known as an author.
At first Simon practiced in Dinkelsbuehl, then he moved the family to Bad Neustadt a. d. Saale, where they stayed from 1904 to 1941. In 1941 they emigrated to the USA.

Mr. Shimon Ansbacher of Israel provided both ID’s.
On 1. Sept, 2003 he sent the following e-mail to the Neustadt/Saale city chronicle:

The End of the Jewish Community in Neustadt/Saale
... In September 1939 the remaining 12 Jewish men in Bad Neustadt, (incuding the 67 year old physician Dr. Guggenheimer) were forced by the city government to clean up the Ingebrandsiedlung (a housing development) , which included sweeping the streets and emptying the cesspools. It was bitterly cold that January.
... Dr. Guggenheimer was the last Jew in 1941 who got away and arrived in the USA by way of Cuba. He had received many secret donations of goods and money. Christmas 1940 someone had sent the Jewish physician an anonymous package that contained a magnificent book of psalms in German translation, and a gift of money. The anonymous sender included a note:
'I wish to express my sincere thanks for all the good you, as the physician, have done for your patients, especially the Christians who came to you when they were ill. I hereby wish you holidays full of grace and a blessed new year?'

Mr. Shimon Ansbacher who has researched the family tree, has given us important information regarding the Guggenheimer family. He explains the name Regina as follows:

Regina (Ina) Gutmann, born 27. Febr, 1876 in Gunzenhausen. She may have had the Hebrew name “Malka”, because it was customary to give children a Jewish first name soon after birth. (Malka in Hebrew means Queen in German, so it is possible, Regina was chosen as the German version). She married Dr. Simon Guggenheimer on 15. August, 1899 in Gunzenhausen. She died 17. Febr. 1956 in New York.

Their children were:
Siegfried * 9. June, 1900 in Dinkelsbuehl
Martha * 23. July, 1901 in Dinkelsbuehl
Hildegard * 4. Febr. 1905 in Neustadt a. d. Saale (on the Saale river)

Dr. Siegfried Guggenheimer and his sister Martha Rosenfelder born Guggeheimer, later moved to the Bronx, New York.

A Bertha Stargardter born ca 1911, who lived in Long Island NY is also mentioned elsewhere. Regina’s father was Elias Gutmann of Gunzenhausen.

Salomon Guggenheimer, the older brother of Simon married Johanna Rindsberg born 21. June, 1876 in Neumarkt.
This couple had two children:

Hedwig Buxbaum © Stadtarchiv München
Hedwig Buxbaum © Stadtarchiv München

Hedwig, born 7. June, 1899 in Gunzenhausen. In 1923 she married the merchant Emil Buxbaum of Weilheim. The couple lived in Munich at Liebigstrasse 28 around 1939.  From information in the u. a. chronicle we could assume that the couple was murdered in Kaunas/Lithuania in 1941.

Theodor, born 3. June, 1901 in Gunzenhausen.


The couple Salomon Guggenheimer and Johanna born Rindsberg bought the house Gerberstrasse 13 for 40,000 Marks an ran a textile business there.

His brother Josef worked there too, as a textile merchant.
Salomon died in Weissenburg at the age of 48 in about 1918, so Josef continued to run the business with Johanna, the widow of Salomon. But then she also died in 1924. Josef together with his nephew Theodor, Salomon’s son, continues to run the textile business at “Guggenheimer’s Corner”.

Gerberstrasse 13 “Guggenheimerseck” (corner house at left) 1912
Gerberstrasse 13 “Guggenheimerseck” (corner house at left) 1912. © "Gunzenhausen in alten Ansichten" von W. Lux

In 1931 Theodor Guggenheimer married Alice Bernheimer born 1. Nov, 1906 in Lauchheim. The couple lived in Gunzenhausen but in the first year of Hitler’s reign Theodor was taken into „protective“ custody. That was probably the reason the family left the city so soon and moved to Teuerleinstrasse 5, Stuttgart, in 1935. From there they emigrated to the USA.
On 16. Febr.1938 the house was sold, probably by Josef Guggenheimer, to Ernst Seelenbinder for 40,000 Marks, the same amount they had paid for it.

Apparently Josef continued to live in Gunzenhausen and experienced the “Reichskristallnacht”. So he registered his move to Berlin on 30. Nov, 1938. from there he was deported to Minsk and was declared as missing.

On very rare occasions a Jewish family has reclaimed their house after WWII. Theodor Guggenheimer who had moved to New York in the meantime took possession of the house in 1951.

But in 1952 he died in New York, and his widow Alice Guggenheimer inherited the house. She soon sold it, in 1953, to the merchant Erich Huebner. After that house had a varied history and now is owned by Wolfgang Koch.