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About

Gertrud Rindskopf Warburg

Contact

dlpughe@gmail.com

For her 70^th birthday in November, 1926, Gertrud Warburg asked each member of her family for an unusual gift. This was after they revealed their planned festivities which would include ‘presents, displays by the grandchildren, and a dinner.’ But Gertrud protested that she had just ‘one wish:’ she wanted each member of the family to write an essay: “What does real culture entail?”

Gertrud Margaretha Rindskopf Warburg

Gertrud had been active in the cultural life of Hamburg for decades, but the changes since the turn of the century had transformed much about the city and within her family. Her lifespan (1856-1943) offers a unique portal into the way Hamburg itself evolved from the mid-19th century through the second world war. And her desire to understand what defines ‘Real Culture’ remains a burning question. What in a culture allows its citizens to creatively thrive; what are the signs of decay? It is something every family might answer differently then—and now.

Gertrud’s parents, Helene and Julius Rindskopf, had moved from Frankfurt to Amsterdam before Gertrud was born in 1856. She grew up aware of her German Jewish roots and yet fully embraced the liberal culture of The Netherlands. During a trip to Germany when she was 19, Gertrud met Albert Warburg, Manager of the W. S. Warburg bank, and one of three notable Warburg families in the Hamburg area. Albert and his brother Siegfried belonged to the Altona Warburgs, whose parents, Moritz and Helene (Cohen) Warburg were prominent in Altona civic life in the 19^th century.

The Warburgs in Hamburg originally came from Southern Europe around Venice and moved to the central German town of Warburg which they took on as their chosen surname. Some moved to the Hamburg area in the 16^th century and settled primarily in Altona, an unaffiliated Northern borough of Hamburg where Jews were allowed to own homes. It was initially under Danish rule, separate from Hamburg city limits, from 1640 until 1864 when Altona joined Hamburg during the unification of the German provinces.

Warburg lineages are complicated by the fact that many members shared similar first names and thus the various branches came to be identified by where they came to live in the Hamburg vicinity. Albert and Gerta were part of the Altona Warburgs affiliated with the W.S. Warburg Bank. The two other prominent Warburg families were the Alsterufer Warburgs, who lived within Hamburg near the Alster lake and descended from Siegmund Warburg (1835-1889), and the Mittelweg Warburgs whose villa was on Mittelweg street connecting the Rotherbaum and Harvesthude neighborhoods to the North of the Alster lake. The Mittelweg Warburgs descended from Moritz M. Warburg (1838-1910) and their bank, M. M. Warburg, was closer to the Hamburg city center on Ferdinandstrasse. The Alsterufer Warburgs

Within Hamburg society, the Warburg name was prominent and highly regarded though sometimes limiting social circles where Jews were tolerated rather than fully assimilated. Their wealth opened doors, but the involvement of the Warburgs in the arts and through their philanthropy is what gave them wider acceptance.

Albert Warburg, Gertrud’s husband, had grown up in Altona, stretches North of Hamburg along the right bank of the Elbe River. Under Danish rule it was notable for freedom of religion allowing its Jewish citizens roles in civic government. Salomon Moses Warburg (1747-1824), Albert’s great-grandfather, founded ‘S. Warburg’ on Breitstrasse in Altona as a ‘money exchange and paper shop’.

Wolff Salomon Warburg in 1854

Solomon’s son, Wolff Salomon Warburg (1778-1854)—Albert’s grandfather—expanded the business as the W. S. Warburg bank in 1825 and he went on to become president of the Altona Jewish community organization where his wife Betty was active in charitable work. They had four sons: Lesser, Moritz (Albert’s father), John, and Pius (1816-1900). John and Pius became co-partners in W. S. Warburg, Moritz was a silent partner, and Lesser left to become a printer/publisher in Schleswig. Pius was on the Altona City Council and founded the Betty Foundation in his mother’s name after her death to help ‘unmarried females without special profession or status.’[1]

_{[1] Wenzel, Gertrud – Broken Star: The Warburgs of Altona, Their Life in Germany and Their Death in the Holocaust. (Smithtown, NY: Exposition Press, 1981) p. 6}

When Gertrud and Albert married in 1876 she moved from Holland to Germany and fully experienced German culture for the first time. She was an amateur artist who brought a small collection of Dutch master paintings to their new Hamburg home on Bahnhoffstrasse near the Altona train station. Gerta (as she came to be called) and Albert had three daughters, two of whom, Ellen and Ada, were married with children by 1926. Her daughter Betty had lost her fiancé in the first World War, remained unmarried, and became a doctor with a private practice living with her mother.

Albert and Gerta moved with their daughters to a stately villa on the Palmaille, an elegant avenue in the Altona borough of Hamburg in 1891. The Palmaille was once Their house at 33 Palmaille was designed by Manfred Semper (1838-1916), the son of shared a large estate garden and view of the Elbe River with the villa at number 31 where Albert’s Uncle Pius Warburg (1816-1900) lived. Pius was the manager of W. S. Warburg Bank until 1874 when he turned over the management to Albert. Pius shared his house with Albert’s younger brother Dr. Siegfried Warburg and his family.

Pius Warburg was an avid art collector whose paintings are now housed in the Altona Museum. His taste ran to European and German 19th artists like Carl Spitzweg and Gabriel von Max, along with several Hamburg artists. His collection includes over 230 landscapes and 60 portraits. Two women artists are in his collection: Marie Zacharias (1828-1907) who was accomplished in landscapes and portraits, and and Elizabeth Reuter (1853-1903), who specialized in landscapes. These two paintings by Zacharias (not in Pius’s collection) simply illustrate an aspect of a woman’s daily life at the turn of the century.

Marie Zacharias – Rainy Day, 1904

Marie Zacharias – Woman Writing

It was into this cultural landscape that Gerta Warburg was transplanted and where she and Albert raised their daughters. In those rich years from the time of her marriage in 1876 until 1907 when they moved from Altona, the Warburg homes at 31 and 33 Palmaille were a place of literary, artistic and musical evenings.

Albert’s Uncle Pius at 31 Palmaille was a composer as well as an art collector. He had studied in Berlin and was forced to return to Hamburg to take over the W. S. Warburg Bank as a partner from 1842. In 1874 he resigned, turning over his partnership to Albert Warburg, so that he was able to devote full time to collecting paintings for his villa, playing cello and piano and composing music. His interests lay in the political and artistic circles in Hamburg. He was a City Councilor in Altona for 20 years from 1865 to 1885 and as chairman from 1868 to 1877. He also served in the Schleswig-Holstein Provincial Parliament from 1869 to 1887.

Pius held musical evenings that included Johannes Brahms, who had been born in Hamburg, and the Russian composer Anton Rubinstein who visited Hamburg on his European tour. Rubinstein’s opera based on the Roman emperor Nero premiered in Hamburg on October 1, 1879.

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