Julius Isaak Schweisheimer
Julius Schweisheimer was born in Ederheim, in the Nördlingen district. He moved to Munich in 1893. His brother Eugen had previously founded a banking house in Munich in 1885 with Simon Dispeker, a merchant and banker born on December 25, 1848, in Fürth, who died in Munich in 1911. When Julius arrived in Munich, he lived at Franz-Josef-Strasse 36 and replaced Simon Dispeker as a partner in the bank. Together with his brother Eugen, he ran the bank „E & J Schweisheimer“ on Theatinerstrasse for several years. Simon Dispeker’s widow, Bertha, briefly lived at Martiusstraße 8 in 1939 (see article Dispeker).
Around 1920, Julius became the director of Metallätzwerk AG, originally founded in 1886 as „Luppe & Heilbronner OHG“ by Otto Luppe and Milton Heilbronner at Äußere Wiener Strasse 102 (later at Irschenhauser Strasse 19). It was one of the leading firms in the German sign industry. Eugen and Julius were the sole shareholders: Eugen held 96.3% of the shares, and Julius 0.3%.
On May 4, 1935, both brothers sold their shares and ceased to be shareholders in the company. Julius also resigned from his position as director, and Eugen stepped down as chairman of the supervisory board. From 1935, Julius remained only an employee, and as of March 31, 1936, he was unemployed. The company was “Aryanized,” i.e., transferred to non-Jewish ownership, and renamed Dr. Fritz Leicher – Factory of Chemical Engravings. In 1952, the Munich production facility was dissolved, and operations moved to Scheidegg. Two years later, the company was taken over by the Bavarian Metal Sign Factory, owned by the Demmel and Holderried families.
On June 18, 1899, Julius married Frieda Schönthal in Fürth. Frieda had been born there on April 20, 1875. The couple initially lived at Leopoldstrasse 17½. From April 9, 1907, they lived in a rented apartment at Martiusstrasse 8/2. Frieda’s mother, Ida Schönthal (née Ullmann), born on April 25, 1850, in Fürth, also moved in with them on April 5, 1907, after the death of her husband, factory owner Philipp Schönthal.
Julius and Frieda had four children. Two died young: Fritz Walter on May 25, 1900, and Magda on June 10, 1901. Ruth was born on August 27, 1908, and Dora on November 8, 1911, both at Martiusstrasse 8.
Ida Schönthal, Frieda’s mother, died in Munich on February 28, 1935.
Ruth Kraemer (née Schweisheimer)
Ruth studied archaeology and art history in Munich, Berlin, and Paris, earning her doctorate in 1932 in Munich with a thesis on the sculptor Johann Georg Dirr. In her memoirs, she wrote:
„One day, a classmate from the Gymnasium invited me to attend a lecture with her on Egyptian art. That lecture ’sealed my fate‘.“
Shortly after earning her degree, Ruth worked as a trainee at the Staatliche Kunstbibliothek in Berlin but was dismissed in 1933 under the „Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service.“
Realizing early on that she would have to emigrate, Ruth began preparing for a new career.
„Everything changed, of course, when Hitler became German Chancellor on January 30, 1933. Since our future looked so bleak, we, the younger generation, knew we had to leave Germany as soon as possible.“
She studied photography with Siegfried Enkelmann at the Robertson Studio in Berlin:
„In order to prepare myself for the possibility that I might not be able to find a job in my profession, I signed up for a course in photography (…).“
In Berlin, Ruth met her future husband, law student Helmut Kraemer. In 1934, she left the studio and opened her own photography business for portrait, advertising, and architectural work in her parents’ apartment at Martiusstrasse 8. She operated it from August 2, 1934, to September 29, 1936.
She reached out to relatives in America for support with emigration and left from Le Havre to New York in 1936 aboard the S.S. Britannic. Initially, she lived with relatives Charlotte and Morris Weil. Like many émigré art historians, Ruth struggled with English at first, but her knowledge of Romance languages helped her adapt. Through a university friend, Helen Franck, she learned of an opportunity at the Pierpont Morgan Library, where she was eventually employed. This job allowed her to afford her own apartment, though her financial situation remained difficult.
In 1937, Helmut Kraemer also emigrated to the U.S.
„We were happily reunited and met almost daily to exchange experiences.“
They married in 1939, and Ruth (now calling herself Ruth Shearer Kraemer) left the Morgan Library to raise their children, Erika and Kenneth. She was granted American citizenship in 1940. Financial stability came only after Helmut passed the American bar exam. Once her children were older, Ruth resumed work at the Morgan Library, including in the Department of Prints and Drawings. She authored Drawings by Benjamin West and his son Raphael Lamar West, the catalog for a 1975 exhibition at the Morgan.
The Nazi persecution had cost Ruth her homeland and her father Julius. She turned her back on the German language.
“She only spoke German to her husband when she didn’t want her children to understand. She never taught them German. Though she traveled the world, she never returned to Germany. In fact, she was very outspoken about her belief that no one in the family who was forced to leave Germany should ever return.”
Ruth Shearer Kraemer died on September 27, 2005, in New York.
Dora Bustin (née Schweisheimer)
Dora, daughter of Frieda and Julius, married the businessman Ernst Bustin (born September 25, 1903, in Kochel). The couple emigrated to Buenos Aires on May 20, 1938, along with Ernst’s brother Franz Josef (born January 19, 1902). In 1939, Ernst (Ernesto) Bustin founded a machine tool factory in Buenos Aires, which still exists today. Unfortunately, little is known about the later lives of Dora and Ernst.
Final Years of Julius and Frieda Schweisheimer
Like many Jews, Julius and Frieda were forced to leave their home. In 1937, they moved to Franz-Josef-Straße 36, then to Leopoldstraße 52a/2, and on June 19, 1940, to the Pension Lieseke at Widenmayerstraße 6/4. Frieda died there on May 13, 1941. Julius’s sister, Hina Einstein, also lived there from June 20, 1940, until December 4, 1941.
Julius’s final address in Munich was the so-called „Jewish settlement“ in Milbertshofen at Knorrstraße 148, beginning December 4, 1942. Records show that he had 700 Reichsmarks in an account at Bayerische Vereinsbank, with 300 Reichsmarks in securities seized—his remaining assets.
On June 23, 1942, Julius was deported from Knorrstraße 148 to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where he was murdered on November 23, 1942.
Other Family Members
His brother Eugen Engstle and his sister Hina Einstein were with him in the Theresienstadt concentration camp and were murdered in July and October of the same year. Frieda’s brother Leo Schönthal, born on August 15, 1877 in Fürth, was deported to Piaski in Poland on April 4, 1942 and murdered there.
Restitution Efforts
In 1946, Ruth Kraemer and Dora Bustin filed restitution claims with the American military administration from New York and Buenos Aires. In 1949, the claims were registered with the Bavarian State Office for Restitution. The respondent was Fritz Leicher, who had acquired the Metallätzwerk AG shares from the interim owner Immobilienbesitz AG and had run the company since 1938.
In August 1959, Ruth’s lawyer wrote:
„Since 1933, it had become clear that the fully legal main shareholders could no longer retain the company due to the daily intensifying boycott and exclusion of Jews from economic life… The only way out was Aryanization.“ Julius resigned, ostensibly due to age, and Kurt Griebel from Stockdorf became director.
Leicher claimed to have “cleansed the company of parasites and Jewish bankers” and saw his takeover as a “meritorious act of de-Judaization.” Ultimately, a settlement was reached, and Ruth, Dora, and Eugen’s son Waldemar withdrew their restitution claims.