House of the Wannsee Conference

 

 

The Liebermann family at the Alsen colony

 

 

When Max and Martha Liebermann purchased the site at no. 42 Große Seestraße (today: Am Großen Wannsee), they already knew the Wannsee area for some time. Liebermann’s sister Anna, who was married to her great cousin Martin Liebermann, lived in a villa in no. 19 Straße zum Löwen since 1885. In 1892 Martha often went to see her sister-in-law to help her nurse her mother-in-law, who was seriously ill. During these visits she stayed at the Löwen pension, which was only 300 metres away from the villa of her sister-in-law. The pastel drawing of Martha Liebermann in a deck-chair was probably created there.

 

Gertrud, the daughter of Anna and Martin Liebermann, had a country house of her own built right next to her parents‘ house in no. 21 Straße zum Löwen. She was married to the banker Georg Meyer (1855-1934), whose banking house had its offices in Berlin-Mitte. Georg Meyer was a passionate yachtsman and a member of the upper middle class Wannsee Yacht Club. Today, an oil portrait in the vestibule of the club house reminds of him.

 

In 1938, Camilla Ziese, the wife of the architect Arthur Ziese from Wannsee, purchased the Meyer property in no. 21 Straße zum Löwen. In 1941 she had the villa converted so that it could house several families. On the basis of paragraph 8 of the ‘Directive on the Use of Jewish Assets‘ of 3rd December 1938, Getrud Meyer was compelled to sell the country house of Anna and Martin Liebermann in no. 19 Straße zum Löwen to the ‘Baufinanz G.m.b.H.‘ for far less than its value. During the war, the building was probably used by the Wehrmacht. Copy of the letter to lance-corporal Hertel, 1941 (Regional Archive)

 

          

 

This branch of the Liebermann/Meyer family became a victim of the racist killing programme of the Nazis. Gertrud Meyer was deported to Theresienstadt in 1942 and died there at the age of 77. The grandchildren Rudolf, Marie and Ellen Meyer, who was a painter like her great uncle Max Liebermann, were also deported and killed at Auschwitz in 1943. Other relatives of the painter, Siegfried Ruhemann and his wife, who was a Liebermann by birth, emigrated to England in 1939.

 

In 1952, the heirs were given back the property. The Italian Saibene leased the villa in no. 21 Straße zum Löwen and ran a café and restaurant for some years. In 1969, the housing association Gagfah, the new owner of the villa, had it demolished so that it could construct ten terraced houses on the site.

 

Liebermann’s only daughter Käthe, who was married to Kurt Riezler since 1915, fled to the USA with her husband and her daughter after the pogrom night in November 1938. Martha Liebermann could not be persuaded to emigrate. Large parts of her property were confiscated or compulsorily sold for far less than their value. Friends from the Resistance like Hanna Solf, count Bernstorff and baron von Uexküll tried in vain to pay the ransom money for Martha Liebermann in order to bring her to Switzerland or Sweden. On 5th March 1943 Martha Liebermann committed suicide in order to escape imminent deportation.

 

 

 

 

Update: August 31, 2004