Richard Labisch

Richard Labisch was born on 29 November 1869 in Berlin, the son of Simon Labisch and Flora Labisch (née Berg). He had three half-siblings, all of whom were born in Samter; Regina, born on 6 April 1861, Recha, born on 30 July 1862, and Siegmund, born on 30 July 1863.

Richard Labisch was a merchant and managing director of the printing firm Richard Labisch & Co., Graphische Kunstanstalt G.m.b.H., see also the imagery of the bookplate created by Ephraim Moses Lilien. In 1905, he married Gertrud Placha in Berlin, who had been born there on 15 September 1885. The couple had two daughters: Ruth, born on 2 June 1906, and Eva, born on 23 December 1908. Both children were born in Berlin. The marriage between Richard Labisch and Gertrud Labisch, née Plachta, ended in divorce in March 1911. On 12 September of the same year, Richard married Betty Lewin, who had been born in Berlin on 13 June 1888.

Richard’s brother Siegmund Labisch became a photographer and, in 1895, founded the Zander & Labisch photographic studio with Albert Zander (1864–1897), which early on specialised in press photography and, during Germany’s imperial era and the Weimar Republic, also worked increasingly in the fields of industrial and architectural photography.

The Labisch family was persecuted as Jewish in Nazi Germany. Both Richard and Siegmund Labisch were forced out of their professions as a result of anti-Semitic legislation. Richard Labisch was imprisoned for a time at Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1938. In the same year, Siegmund Labisch moved in as a subtenant with Richard and Betty Labisch at their flat at Geisbergstraße 33 in Berlin-Schöneberg. Richard Labisch died on 15 August 1942 in Berlin; the circumstances of his death are still unclear. Siegmund Labisch was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp on 14 September 1942 and murdered there on December 7 of the same year. Betty Labisch was deported from Berlin to the Auschwitz extermination camp on 29 January 1943 and murdered; the exact date of her death is unknown.

Regina Labisch had married Simon Loewy (1860–??), a merchant from Moschin. Their daughter Lilli was born in Moschin on 5 October 1888. She later became an accountant and married the veterinarian Berthold Jacobi (1878–1917) in Berlin in 1914. Regina Loewy (née Labisch) and Lilli Jacobi (née Loewy) were both deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp and murdered there, Regina on 4 October 1942 and Lilli on 23 March 1943.

Recha Labisch married Paul Philipp (1859–1906), a merchant from Berlin. The couple had one son, Herbert Philipp, who was born in Berlin on 10 November 1890; he became a lawyer and died in Berlin in 1934. Recha Philipp (née Labisch) was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, like her brother, sister and niece, and was murdered there on 31 October 1942.

Richard’s daughter Ruth Labisch had married the merchant Hans Liepmann in Berlin in 1928; he had been born there on 20 August 1900. The couple had one daughter together, Ellen, who was born in Berlin on 7 November 1929. Ellen, Hans and Ruth Liepmann managed to escape from Germany around 1939, first to England and eventually to the United States, where they changed their surname to Leepman. Eva Labisch also managed to flee in time. She first emigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine and later, in 1947, also to the United States. Ruth Leepman (née Labisch) died in 1995; her sister Eva Labisch followed her in 1997.

The marks of provenance and objects connected to Richard Labisch are listed here in the co-operative provenance database Looted Cultural Assets.

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