The Wernigerode Branch

Breite Straße 7

Jeanette’s name above the windows

“J. Reichenbach” stood above Jeanette’s shop windows at Breite Straße 7. She, Gustav, Fritz, Martha and Werner made this second Harz address part of the same family story.

The large sign did not stand for an abstract firm. It carried the initial of Jeanette Reichenbach.

Read the forced-sale deed Fritz Reichenbach

Göttingen · 4 June 1883

Gustav’s marriage record names his parents

When Salomon Gustav Reichenbach married Jeanette Rosenbaum, the registrar called him a Halberstadt-born son of the late merchant Jacob Reichenbach and Helene née Heynemann.

Gustav was Adolf’s brother. The marriage entry joins the Wernigerode household directly to the Reichenbach family in Halberstadt.

Göttingen civil marriage record for Salomon Gustav Reichenbach and Jeanette Rosenbaum — The civil record identifies Salomon Gustav Reichenbach as a Halberstadt-born son of the late merchant Jacob Reichenbach and Helene née Heynemann, and Jeanette Rosenbaum as a daughter of Abraham Rosenbaum and Bertha née Grunsfeld. Gustav and Jeanette signed the civil entry with the witnesses. It joins the Wernigerode household to Jacob and Helene’s Halberstadt family, but it does not describe the later business arrangements between the two shops.RB-SCAN-008

Signature and witness page from Gustav Reichenbach and Jeanette Rosenbaum’s marriage record — This second view of the 1883 civil record preserves the signatures of Gustav Reichenbach, Jeanette Rosenbaum and the witnesses. Their hands completed the official entry and joined the two households in law. The signatures prove participation, but they do not describe the couple’s later business arrangements.RB-SCAN-008b

The decisive family line · German original and English translation

„Salomon Gustav Reichenbach … geboren zu Halberstadt … Sohn des zu Halberstadt verstorbenen Kaufmanns Jacob Reichenbach und dessen Ehefrau Helene geborene Heynemann.“

“Salomon Gustav Reichenbach … born at Halberstadt … son of the late merchant Jacob Reichenbach of Halberstadt and his wife Helene née Heynemann.”

Source: Stadtarchiv Göttingen, Heiratshauptregister 1883, C 39 Nr. 164. The spelling Heynemann is the form used in this record.

1869 · one house in two cities

Adolph signed for the Wernigerode branch

An official notice registered Wernigerode as a branch of the Halberstadt house while Jacob was still alive. It authorized Adolph Reichenbach to sign pp. J. Reichenbach, placing the family business in both Harz cities by 19 February 1869.

The notice establishes the branch. It does not by itself identify the later shop at Breite Straße 7.

Official gazette notice registering Wernigerode as a branch of J. Reichenbach and naming Adolph Reichenbach as authorized signatory — The notice of 19 February 1869 registers Wernigerode as a branch of the Halberstadt house while Jacob Reichenbach was still alive. Under Prokura no. 12, Adolph Reichenbach was authorized to sign “pp. J. Reichenbach.” It ties the two Harz cities to one business during Jacob’s lifetime.RB-SCAN-GAZ-1869

The shop and its proprietor

Jeanette kept the business

Wernigerode had long barred Jewish residence. A regional history based on municipal records places Gustav among the first Jews admitted under Prussian authority in 1874. By 1876/77 he was listed at Breite Straße 697, today No. 7.

Jeanette’s dowry helped establish the business. The surviving research emphasizes that she—not Gustav—owned the shop and remained its proprietor, sitting at the till into the 1930s. Gustav registered the firm and served as managing director. Their only son Fritz eventually took over its operation.

The 1938 storefront image is an external-source research accession. The archive credits the source and does not grant downstream reuse rights for that photograph.

The address across time

A surviving building, four names

The 1938 storefront and Daniel’s present-day research photograph keep the commercial address visible across time.

Present-day storefront at Breite Straße 7 in Wernigerode, now marked Mein ELKA — This modern photograph shows the Wernigerode building where Jeanette and Fritz Reichenbach kept the family shop. Four Stolpersteine now lie outside the surviving shopfront. The building connects the address to the street today, but its present appearance is not proof of the 1930s interior.RB-PHO-0054

Four lives at Breite Straße 7

Jeanette, Fritz, Martha and Werner

Four lives, one house. Fritz’s death is in the Buchenwald register, 22 November 1938. Jeanette was deported to Theresienstadt in September 1942 and died six weeks later. Martha’s Stolperstein and the Berlin transport list do not agree; no Auschwitz intake card has been found. Werner rebuilt a life in Brazil.

Jeanette Reichenbach

Jeanette kept the shop at Breite Straße 7. She was eighty-two when the transport took her to Theresienstadt; she died there on 25 October 1942.

Read Jeanette’s biography →

Fritz Reichenbach

Gustav and Jeanette’s only son. Arrested on 10 November 1938 during the November pogrom; killed at Buchenwald on 22 November 1938.

Read Fritz’s biography →

Martha Reichenbach née Pohly

Fritz’s wife and Werner’s mother. Forced into labor in Berlin; the surviving accounts of her death conflict.

Read Martha’s biography →

Werner Reichenbach

Born in Wernigerode in 1914. Escaped with his wife Margarete in 1939 and rebuilt life in Brazil.

Read Werner’s biography →

1932 to 1933 directory entry for Wernigerode naming J. Reichenbach as third chair of the Jewish community board — The 1932–33 directory of Jewish communal administration names “J. Reichenbach” as third chair of the Wernigerode community board. In this setting J. Reichenbach is the house name used by the clothing shop at Breite Straße 7. Fritz was then running the store, but this line alone does not prove that the officer was Fritz personally.Open source record RB-DOC-0225

Jewish communal life · 1932–33

The house name appears on the community board

A national directory names “J. Reichenbach” as third chair of Wernigerode’s Jewish community board. In this town and year, that is the commercial house at Breite Straße 7.

Fritz was running the shop by then, but the printed line gives only the house name. Without a second source, it should not be captioned as Fritz personally.

26 August 1938

The forced sale in the instrument’s own words

Fritz’s deed does more than record a change of owner. Clause 7 states that he “is a Jew” and that the transaction required higher approval under the April 1938 regulation governing Jewish property.

Third page of the 1938 deed with the clause identifying Fritz Reichenbach as Jewish — Clause 7 states that the vendor “ist Jude” and invokes the 1938 regulation on Jewish property. The notary’s page makes racial coercion explicit inside the sale of Fritz Reichenbach’s house. It proves the legal condition imposed on the transaction, but it does not disclose a free market bargain.RB-SCAN-007

First page of the 1938 notarial deed for the sale of Breite Straße 7 in Wernigerode — The first page of the 1938 deed names Fritz Reichenbach as vendor of the Wernigerode property at Breite Straße 7. Fritz and the notarial parties entered the transfer into a legal record while antisemitic law constrained the sale. The page identifies property and parties, but the racial clause appears later in the deed.RB-SCAN-006

Second page of the 1938 notarial deed for the sale of Breite Straße 7 in Wernigerode — This second page continues the conditions governing the transfer of Breite Straße 7. Fritz and the other parties remained bound inside the same notarial transaction. The page belongs to the forced-sale record, but it cannot be read apart from the identifying first page and racial-law clause.RB-SCAN-006b

„… dass der Erschienene zu 2 Jude ist und dass … die Genehmigung der höheren Verwaltungsstelle für dieses Rechtsgeschäft notwendig ist.“

“That the person appearing as no. 2 is a Jew, and that the approval of the higher administrative authority is required for this transaction.”

Eleven weeks later Fritz was arrested; he died at Buchenwald four days before Dolf wrote the St. Moritz letter.

Theresienstadt Ältestenrat death notice for Jeanette Reichenbach née Rosenbaum — This ghetto death notice records Jeanette Reichenbach née Rosenbaum’s death on 25 October 1942, six weeks after deportation. Camp officials entered “Enteritis acuta — Darmkatarrh” as the cause. The notice fixes the administrative date and wording, but it is not an independent medical account of death under starvation, overcrowding and neglect.RB-SCAN-005

Persecution and divergent survival

The family did not leave Germany together

Fritz was murdered at Buchenwald in 1938. Jeanette was deported to Theresienstadt in September 1942 and died six weeks later. Martha was subjected to forced labor. The Stolperstein at Breite Straße 7 reads tot 1944 bei Bombenangriff; her OFP file and the Berlin list place her on the 33. Osttransport of 3 March 1943, classed for Auschwitz. No Auschwitz intake card or prisoner number has been found.

Werner and his wife Margarete escaped in 1939. Their survival in Brazil belongs to the same continuing family history as Dolf’s reconstruction of life in the United States.

See both branches in the family tree Fritz’s records Jeanette’s records Martha’s records

Principal sources

Follow the evidence

Göttingen City Archives, main marriage register 1883, C 39 no. 164.
Peter Lehmann, “Spurensuche — Jüdische Familiengeschichten in Wernigerode,” in Harz-Forschungen, vol. XXXVI (2023), pp. 107–115.
Notarial deed, instrument roll no. 79/1938, Wernigerode, 26 August 1938.
Archived copy: Wernigerode in Jahreszahlen, J. Reichenbach at Breite Straße 7
Original address: www.wernigerode-in-jahreszahlen.de/content.php?data-id=422&datum=1902.00
Wikimedia Commons: Wernigerode Stolpersteine