The ReichenbachFamily Archive
Language

Merchant, proprietor, mountaineer

Paul Reichenbach

20 October 1876 — 20 November 1935

The best-documented member of the family: businessman, civic participant and father of Ruth and Dolf.

Paul joined the Halberstadt section of the German-Austrian Alpine Association in its founding year, 1909, and remained on its rolls for more than two decades. His 1931 and 1932 routes crossed the Upper Engadine and the Zugspitze region.

In 1917 the Prussian government awarded him the Merit Cross for War Aid and addressed him at Hoher Weg 27, printed as “Hoheweg” in the notice. The award belongs to the history of a German Jew whose public service and German citizenship were later rendered meaningless by the state.

When Paul turned fifty on 20 October 1926, the Centralverein’s national newspaper publicly honored the long-serving former chairman of its Halberstadt branch. It praised his tireless years in the struggle against antisemitism and his distinction in many honorary offices. The notice gives documentary context to a large family photograph remembered as his fiftieth-birthday celebration.

He helped turn Hoher Weg 27 and Martiniplan 10 into a glass-roofed department store. In his final months he was still researching the family’s earlier history, tracing it to Gröbzig and planning a visit to the cemetery there.

Read Paul’s letter and its English translation

Paul died at Sedanstraße 52 at 7:30 p.m. on 20 November 1935, of what his family remembers as a heart attack. His death came sixty-six days after the Nuremberg Laws were proclaimed and only six days after the first implementing regulation defined who the regime would classify as a Jew. The laws did not medically explain his death, but they fixed its setting: a family already under racial persecution and a Jewish business under mounting pressure lost its most experienced proprietor.

Paul’s yahrzeit date is 25 Marḥeshvan. The civil register, cemetery register and gravestone together allow the two calendars to be read as one event. The epitaph’s words—“Suddenly he departed from this world”—preserve how the shock was remembered by his wife, children, family and community.

Read the complete award notice and translation

Sources

Records and testimony

  • Civil birth and death registers
  • 1917 award notice
  • Central-Verein-Zeitung, 22 October 1926, p. 566
  • DAV Halberstadt section reports
  • Address books
  • Passport
  • Cemetery register and gravestone
  • Family account concerning the heart attack
  • Nuremberg Laws and First Regulation, 15 September and 14 November 1935
All peopleFamily treeRelated documents

German name · Hebrew name

Paul in daily life, Yaakov in Jewish ritual

Throughout this site he is called Paul Reichenbach, the name used in his family, business and civic life.

His civil birth and death records preserve the full forenames Jacob Paul. His Hebrew gravestone names him Yaakov, the Hebrew form of Jacob. These are not different people.

German Jews commonly used German names in everyday and civil life while also bearing Hebrew names for Jewish religious and communal purposes. Hebrew names appear in ketubot, on gravestones and when a person is called to the Torah. The grave page preserves Yaakov where the original Hebrew inscription requires it; the rest of the narrative follows the name by which he lived: Paul.

Paul Reichenbach with a cigar · color-enhanced view

Halberstadt · date not established

Paul among his contemporaries

The color-enhanced image is the main view; its earlier low-quality copy and photographed back open from the complete About record.

Paul stands in profile with a cigar at a gathering in Halberstadt. The master scan of the reverse carries a short pencil notation beginning “#Spiegel” and including the measurement 7 × 9¼. It appears more likely to be a photo-finisher’s or framer’s order note than a caption or date. The mark may connect the print to Ruth’s later Spiegel household and custody of family photographs in America, but that identification remains unconfirmed.

Halberstadt · October 1926

Paul at fifty

A family photograph preserves the celebration. A newspaper printed two days after Paul’s birthday explains why the occasion mattered beyond the household.

The newspaper fixes the date and public tribute; the photograph preserves the family gathering.

Paul’s fiftieth birthday party
Paul Reichenbach at fifty

Kleine Chronik · original and translation

German diplomatic transcription

Der langjährige frühere Vorsitzende unserer Ortsgruppe Halberstadt, Herr Paul Reichenbach, vollendete am 20. Oktober seinen 50. Geburtstag. Wir gratulieren dem verdienten Manne, der mit unermüdlicher Arbeitskraft seit seit Jahren im Abwehrkampf steht, auf das herzlichste. Wir hoffen, daß er, der sich auch sonst in vielen Ehrenämtern in hervorragender Weise ausgezeichnet hat, noch viele Jahrzehnte seine Wissen und Wirken für unsere Ideale wird einsetzen können.

— Der 27jährige Apothekenverwalter Curt Lewy (Berlin) rettete am 10. Oktober an der Weidendammer Brücke in Berlin dem Jockei Foewert unter eigener Lebensgefahr das Leben. — Buchdruckereibesitzer Georg Marcus, der Vorsitzende unserer Ortsgruppe Berlin-Osten, ist auf Vorschlag des Wirtschaftlichen Ausschusses des Reichswirtschaftsrats zum Beisitzer beim Reichswirtschaftsgericht ernannt worden.

English translation

Mr. Paul Reichenbach, the long-serving former chairman of our Halberstadt local branch, celebrated his fiftieth birthday on 20 October. We offer our warmest congratulations to this deserving man, who for years has stood in the struggle against antisemitism with tireless energy. We hope that he—who has also distinguished himself notably in many honorary offices—will be able to continue devoting his knowledge and work to our ideals for many decades to come.

— The twenty-seven-year-old pharmacy manager Curt Lewy (Berlin) saved the life of the jockey Foewert at Berlin’s Weidendamm Bridge on 10 October, at risk to his own life. — Printing-house proprietor Georg Marcus, chairman of our Berlin-East local branch, has been appointed an assessor at the Reich Economic Court on the recommendation of the Economic Committee of the Reich Economic Council.

Abwehrkampf literally means “defensive struggle.” In the Centralverein’s work it meant organized resistance to antisemitic defamation, discrimination and attack. The newspaper appears to contain two compositorial errors—“seit seit Jahren” and “seine Wissen und Wirken”—which the diplomatic transcription preserves. The supplied reading was also checked against the full page: the later names are Curt Lewy and the jockey Foewert.

Source: Central-Verein-Zeitung, year 5, no. 43, 22 October 1926, p. 566, via Compact Memory .

Three surviving prints

Paul in midlife

Seen together, these family-held portraits become one evidence object: three different prints of Paul crossed into the archive.

The exact dates, locations and photographers remain open; each image keeps its own source, treatment note and uncertainty record.

Paul Reichenbach standing by a terrace
Paul Reichenbach in midlife, outdoors
Paul Reichenbach in midlife · framed print

Family-held portrait · before November 1935

Paul late in life

A new high-resolution scan returns the photograph to the evidence layer in its present condition.

The color-adapted copy is displayed beside it as an interpretation. A separate cleaned black-and-white edit is preserved in the archive and linked inside both About records, but is not repeated here as a third public image.

Paul Reichenbach late in life — direct scan
Paul Reichenbach late in life · color-adapted view

Magdeburg · 24 March 1917

A civilian award for wartime service

The Prussian government notified Paul that the King had awarded him the Verdienstkreuz für Kriegshilfe—the Merit Cross for War Aid—for his activity in patriotic auxiliary service.

The notice documents public service on the German home front. It is not a combat citation and does not make Paul a decorated soldier.

War Aid Merit Cross notice
Prussian Merit Cross for War Aid

Complete notice · German and English

German diplomatic transcription

Der Regierungs-Präsident.
Pr. [unleserlich] 601.
Magdeburg, den 24. März 1917.

Es freut mich, Ihnen mitteilen zu können, daß Seine Majestät der König Allergnädigst geruht haben, Ihnen in Anerkennung Ihrer besonderen Betätigung im vaterländischen Hilfsdienste das Verdienstkreuz für Kriegshilfe zu verleihen. Unter dem Ausdrucke meines herzlichen Glückwunsches übersende ich Ihnen anbei das Abzeichen dieser Allerhöchsten Auszeichnung mit dem Ersuchen, das angeschlossene Druckmuster zur Standesliste unter sorgfältiger Beachtung des Vordruckes gefälligst auszufüllen und alsbald an mich zurückgelangen zu lassen.

[Unterschrift]

An
Herrn Kaufmann Paul Reichenbach
in
Halberstadt.
Hoheweg 27.

Complete English translation

The Regional President
Reference no. 601
Magdeburg, 24 March 1917

I am pleased to inform you that His Majesty the King has most graciously been pleased to confer upon you the Merit Cross for War Aid, in recognition of your particular activity in patriotic auxiliary service. With my heartfelt congratulations, I enclose the insignia of this royal distinction and request that you kindly complete the enclosed printed form for the official roll, carefully following the printed instructions, and return it to me without delay.

[Signature]

To
Mr Paul Reichenbach, merchant,
in Halberstadt,
Hoheweg 27.

The decoration was instituted by Kaiser Wilhelm II on 5 December 1916 and could be awarded to men and women who had distinguished themselves in patriotic auxiliary service. The medal shown above is a comparative example, not Paul’s personal cross.

The clothing house and the ducal court

A separate commercial distinction

Paul belonged to a family clothing house that carried the title Herzoglicher Hoflieferant—purveyor to a ducal court. A full-page advertisement signs the firm “J. Reichenbach, Halberstadt, Herzogl. Hoflieferant,” and the 1905 Halberstadt directory lists J. Reichenbach at Hoheweg 27 as Hoflieferant for men’s and women’s fashions.

The sources establish the firm’s court-purveyor title, but they do not yet identify which duchy granted it. Family tradition connects Paul’s wartime recognition with clothing, uniforms and other contributions; the award notice itself does not state that specific reason.

Sources: the family-held award notice, including its text-bearing face and reverse; a contemporary advertisement naming the ducal title; and the Halberstadt address book, 1905, p. 10.

Primary sources in view

Paul in the records of his own club

The founding-year membership list and the later tour report turn “mountaineer” from a family adjective into a documented practice.

See all four cleared DAV reports and their complete source files →

Paul in the Halberstadt Alpine Club’s first report
Paul’s recorded Alpine routes

Primary document · 17 April 1935

The family’s first researcher

Paul was not only the subject of later family research. This letter shows him doing that work himself, tracing names, places and inherited stories across local archives and a cemetery.

Paul Reichenbach to Rudolf Simonis
German transcription

Herr Georg Wollenberg, hier, übergab mir heute Ihr Schreiben vom 27. März 1935. Herr Wollenberg ist ein angeheirateter Vetter und hat seine Kenntnisse nur durch mich bekommen. Ich werde Ihnen sofort nach den Osterfeiertagen ausführlich angeben, wo und wie Sie Ihre Nachforschungen evtl. anstellen können.

Das Schreiben, was sich in Ihren Händen befindet, ist das, was ich von der Gemeinde Gröbzig bekommen habe. Es steht fest, dass Anfang des 18. Jahrhunderts unsere Familie in Gröbzig gewohnt hat, ferner, dass mein Urgrossvater mit den Preussen von Gröbzig aus ins Feld gegangen und nicht wieder gekommen ist. Angeblich ist er an der Beresina gefallen.

Es steht weiter fest, dass der Leutnant Katte auf der Flucht vor Friedrich Wilhelm I. 4 oder 5 Tage von einer Urahne beherbergt worden ist. Die Gemeindeakten von Köthen sollen heute auch nicht mehr in Köthen sondern in Dessau sein. Nach Ostern werde ich sofort nach Gröbzig fahren um vielleicht auf dem dortigen Friedhof festzustellen, wieviel Reichenbachs dort begraben liegen.

Hochachtungsvoll — Paul Reichenbach

English translation

Mr. Georg Wollenberg, of this city, handed me your letter of 27 March 1935 today. Mr. Wollenberg is a cousin by marriage and obtained his knowledge solely through me. Immediately after the Easter holidays I will give you detailed information about where and how you may be able to conduct your research.

The letter in your possession is the one I received from the municipality of Gröbzig. It is established that our family lived in Gröbzig at the beginning of the eighteenth century; further, that my great-grandfather went off to war with the Prussians from Gröbzig and did not return. He is said to have fallen at the Berezina.

It is also established that Lieutenant Katte, while fleeing Friedrich Wilhelm I, was sheltered for four or five days by a female ancestor. The municipal records of Köthen are said no longer to be in Köthen but in Dessau. After Easter I will travel immediately to Gröbzig, perhaps to determine at the cemetery there how many Reichenbachs lie buried there.

Respectfully — Paul Reichenbach

The letter documents Paul’s research and his intended cemetery visit. The accounts of an ancestor at the Berezina and of Lieutenant Katte are family traditions reported by Paul; this document does not independently verify them. English translation prepared for the Reichenbach Family Archive.

Hebrew face of Paul Reichenbach’s gravestone

At the Jewish cemetery in Halberstadt

The gravestone

Hebrew face · transcription

היקר ר׳ יעקב בר אברהםרייכענבאך ע״ה נפטרכ״ה מרחשון שנת תרצ״ונפש יקרה פועל טובפתאום הלך לעולמולדאבון אשתו ובניוומשפחתו וכל יודעיויהי זכרו ברוךתנצב״ה

English translation

The dear Reb Jacob, son of Abraham Reichenbach, of blessed memory, passed away on the 25th of Marḥeshvan, 5696.A precious soul, a doer of good deeds.Suddenly he departed from this world,to the sorrow of his wife and children,his family and all who knew him.May his memory be a blessing.May his soul be bound in the bond of life.

The photograph shows the complete Hebrew face of the monument; the selectable text above presents its supplied transcription and English translation. Paul’s civil death record gives 7:30 p.m. on 20 November 1935. Because the Hebrew day had already begun at sunset, 25 Marḥeshvan 5696 and the civil date describe the same evening. His father’s stone names him Baruch Achiezer beside the German Adolph Reichenbach; Hebrew names could be added or changed within a life, and a son’s patronymic did not always match the name his father’s stone finally carried.

Historical setting

A sudden death in the autumn of 1935

The civil record establishes when and where Paul died; his family remembers the cause as a heart attack. The Hebrew epitaph is not a medical certificate, but its language is unmistakably one of sudden loss: “Suddenly he departed from this world.”

The chronology is stark. Nazi Germany proclaimed the Nuremberg Laws on 15 September 1935. The First Regulation to the Reich Citizenship Law followed on 14 November, defining in racial terms who the regime would classify as Jewish. Paul died six days later, on 20 November.

The laws formalized an exclusion that had been tightening since 1933. They affected every member of the household and deepened the danger surrounding a Jewish commercial firm already operating under Nazi pressure. Paul’s death did not create that crisis, but it deprived the family and business of their central figure at a perilous moment.

Paul J. and Daniel Reichenbach at Paul Reichenbach’s grave

Continuity and return

Three generations at one grave

On 25 June 2025, Paul J. Reichenbach and his son, Rabbi Daniel Dolph Reichenbach, stood beside the grave of Paul’s grandfather, Paul Reichenbach, in Halberstadt. The photograph places three generations together: the man buried there, the grandson named for him, and the great-grandson who built this archive.

The visit formed part of a family trip organized by Dr. Jutta Dick. From 1995 until her retirement in 2022, Dick directed the Moses Mendelssohn Akademie Halberstadt and its Berend Lehmann Museum for Jewish History and Culture. She remains a member of the board of the Stiftung Moses Mendelssohn Akademie.

Her decades of work in Halberstadt have helped descendants of the city’s Jewish families return to surviving places, records and objects—and to recover family histories from them.