People

Robert Simon Heinemann was born in Lüneburg in 1856 as the first child of Marcus and Henriette Heinemann. Like almost all male members of the Heinemann family, he attended the Johanneum grammar school. Unlike his ancestors, he became neither a merchant nor a banker, but a lawyer.

After studying in various places, he returned to Lüneburg in 1886 and set up as a lawyer. He married Selma Sternau from Dortmund and initially lived with her in an old town house in Obere Schrangenstraße, where his uncle Salomon Heinemann had previously lived. Their children Else, Fritz, Gertrud, Lotte and Kurt were born there. In 1898, the family moved into a new house in Schießgrabenstraße, which was just becoming one of the best residential areas in Lüneburg at the time. Hans was born there in 1902.

Robert Heinemann had his law office in a small extension behind the house. Among other things, he successfully defended the legendary natural healer "Schäfer Ast", who had been accused of being a charlatan. He was also able to help vegetable farmers from nearby Bardowick who were fighting for their rights in court. After the First World War, he brought the young, politically active lawyer Emil Strauß into his law firm. Robert Heinemann held the honorary title of councillor of justice and was appointed notary shortly before his unexpected death in 1920.

He was a liberal Jew. The family household was not religious, but Robert fasted on the highest Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur (even when he had to plead in court). He died of a serious illness as early as 1920. His daughter-in-law Ada Heinemann wrote about him in retrospect: "He was highly intelligent, very well educated, especially interested in history. When he and my mother-in-law came to Frankfurt for our wedding in 1918, it took him less than five minutes to get involved in a conversation with my father about Hanover"s history. [...] He had a good memory, was sharp and well-rounded as a personality [...] When England declared war on August 4, 1914, he immediately said: "Now Germany is lost. On August 4th! Who else had been realizing that that so early?"

Sources and info:

Gravestone for Robert and Selma Heinemann: epidat - Forschungsplattform jüdische Grabsteinepigraphik, Lüneburg, lbg-11

Register cards for Robert and Selma Heinemann, Lüneburg Town Archives

Schäfer Ast - eine norddeutsche Legende

Oberlandesgericht Celle, Personalakten Heinemann, 1920, Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv Hannover, Hann. 173, Acc. 49/72 Nr. 155

Letter from Ada Heinemann to Manfred Göske, Oct. 2, 1974, Manfred Göske Collection, Museum Lüneburg