These two cities are very well known, and may never recover from, their infamous histories. Berlin as the centre of Nazi German actvities and the wall, and Nuremberg for the Nazi Rally Grounds and the post-war trials.
Both cities are rebuilding and rejuvenating, and, at the same time, both are ensuring that their pasts are not forgotten.
Will, Rob and I visited the new Topology of Terror Museum, with its temporary exhibition “The Holocaust – What Did the Germans Know?“. All three of us were transfixed for almost three hours.
The next day our guide Karen showed us Berlin with all its layers of history, conflict and politics. Berlin is worth at least one more visit. I’m not going to say anymore. I hope you enjoy the photos.
Nuremberg is a lovely, albeit completely restored Franconian city, just north of Munich. It was the site of the first railways in Germany, and became an important railway hub. It also had a large flat area just to the south. These two factors contributed to it being chosen as the site of the Nazi party rallies from 1933 to 1937. Held once a year, they eventually attracted over one million visitors for the spectacles. As soon as the Germans attacked Poland the rallies were no longer necessary.
The Nazis also started construction of their massive Congress Hall, built in the style of the Coliseum in Rome, but much larger. Its unfinished hulk is now being repurposed as a concert space. The other structures of the rally grounds have been destroyed.
So – short post today. Overwhelmed by information about these two incredible cities.
Berlin
Nuremberg
Berlin, the Stolpersteine for Georg Steinhirt.
“Dr. Georg Steinhirt
INSTALLATION LOCATION
At Spandau Bridge 6
DISTRICT/NEIGHBORHOOD
center
RELOCATION DATE
March 5, 2024
BORN
January 29, 1896 in Berlin
PROFESSION
Judge
DEPORTATION
on December 9, 1942 to Auschwitz
MURDERED
in Auschwitz
Stumbling stone for Dr. Georg Steinhirt © Initiative Mitte
Dr. Georg Steinhirt © Family
Hildegard Emilie Henriette Porzig, partner of Georg Steinhirt © Family
Marriage certificate of Georg Steinhirt and Hildegard Porzig © Family
Georg Steinhirt was born on January 29, 1896, in Berlin. His parents were Markus and Therese Steinhirt, née Preuß. His father was an accountant. The family lived at Landsberger Straße 45 in Friedrichshain.
Georg Steinhirt matriculated at the Royal Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin on October 8, 1915, to study law. After successfully passing the state examination before the Judicial Examination Commission, he was appointed Court Assessor on October 20, 1923. On September 1, 1927, he was assigned a position as an assistant judge at the Public Prosecutor’s Office II in Berlin. In July 1928, he was appointed Senior Public Prosecutor.
Shortly after the Nazis seized power in 1933, Dr. Georg Steinhirt was banned from practicing medicine and dismissed from his position. On November 9, 1942, he was taken from his apartment by the SS and deported to Auschwitz on December 9, 1942, on the 24th transport from the East . He was declared dead on December 31, 1945.
Long before his deportation , Georg Steinhirt had a partner, Hildegard Emilie Henriette Porzig, née Heinrich. Hilde was Protestant, while Georg Steinhirt was Jewish. On September 15, 1935, the “Reich Citizenship Law” and the “Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor” were passed. Both of these ” Nuremberg Laws ” relegated German Jews to second-class citizens, prohibiting, among other things, intimate relations with non-Jewish Germans. Georg and Hildegard were forbidden to marry.
After the war, on December 14, 1951, Hildegard Porzig applied to the Senator for Justice in Berlin-Schöneberg for retroactive recognition of the marriage between Georg Steinhirt and Hildegard Porzig. (On November 30, 1950, the law on the recognition of marriages of those persecuted on racial, political, or religious grounds had been passed.)
The marriage of Georg Steinhirt and Hildegard was concluded with effect from March 1, 1936.”
https://www.stolpersteine-berlin.de/de/der-spandauer-brucke/6/georg-steinhirt
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