Martin Wollsteiner

Since 2022, two books from the library of Martin Wollsteiner could be returned.

The profession and address on the stamps retained in the books clearly identified Dr Martin Wollsteiner as the previous owner of the book.

Martin Wollsteiner was born in Hoyerswerda on 28 February 1877 as the youngest of five sons of Salomon Wollsteiner and Lina Wollsteiner, née Jablonsky. His brothers were Arthur (born in 1870), Max (born in 1871), Ludwig (born in 1873) and Julius (born in 1875).

Dr Martin Wollsteiner was persecuted as Jewish in Nazi Germany. His licence to practise medicine was revoked in 1938. He was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp via the collection camp at Große Hamburger Str. 26 in Berlin on 14 September 1942 and murdered on 21 January 1943. Martin Wollsteiner was not married and had no children.

His brother Max Wollsteiner was an authorised signatory at Wilhelm Kuczynski's private bank in Berlin. He was a committed Zionist and had already been subjected to anti-Semitic terror before the transfer of power in 1933. He died in Prague in 1939, shortly before his planned emigration to Palestine. Max Wollsteiner's wife Hedwig, née Richter, had already died in Karlsbad in 1936. Their two children Hanns Salomon Wollsteiner (later Hanns Wolters) and Ruth Wollsteiner (later married Adler) managed to escape and survive the Shoah.

Julius Wollsteiner and his wife Berta, née Rothschild, were deported to the Litzmannstadt ghetto in 1941. He was murdered there on 23 January 1942, Berta Wollsteiner was deported to the Kulmhof extermination camp in 1942 and murdered there. As far as is known, the couple had no children.

Ludwig Wollsteiner was a banker and was last employed by the Berlin-Charlottenburg municipality. He was deported to Theresienstadt on 4 August 1942 and murdered there on 18 November 1942. Ludwig Wollsteiner was unmarried and had no children.

His eldest brother Arthur Wollsteiner was also deported to Theresienstadt with his wife Selma, née Monschke, on 5 August 1942, where Selma Wollsteiner was murdered on 4 February 1943. Arthur Wollsteiner survived the concentration camp and then returned to Berlin. He died there on 7 July 1949. Arthur and Berta Wollsteiner had no children.

It is unclear how the volumes were acquired by the Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin. The objects were accessioned as ‘gifts’ after the end of the war. The only information given in the acquisition journal regarding the suppliers is a reference to the ‘’Kulturamt‘’, which was used in an inflationary manner in the post-war period, and the book storage of the Berliner Stadtbibliothek. In his declaration of assets dated 29 August 1942, Martin Wollsteiner listed around 70 books. The books were appraised by the bookseller Max Niederlechner, who stated on 19 October 1942 that he had sold the books to an antiquarian bookseller, Gustav Schmidt, for 100 Reichsmarks. Gustav Schmidt's bookshop was located at Katharinenstraße 19 in Berlin-Halensee, just a 10-minute walk from Hektorstraße 16, the last home of Dr Martin Wollsteiner. As the two books of Dr Martin Wollsteiner's former property that have so far been identified in the stock of the Berliner Stadtbibliothek have not been recorded as purchases, it is unlikely that they were part of the books sold to Schmidt. A survey of the acquisitions of the Berliner Stadtbibliothek from 1942 to 1949 shows no acquisitions from Gustav Schmidt's antiquarian bookshop.