People

Emma (Breinche) Heinemann was the fourth of 17 children born to banker and merchant Marcus Heinemann and his wife Henriette née Lindenberg. She was born on May 16, 1860. Two years after Emma"s birth, the family moved from the Heinemanns" ancestral home at Bardowicker Strasse 6 to a new home in Große Bäckerstraße 23. Marcus Heinemann had purchased the old patricians" house and had it remodeled to meet the needs of his business and growing family. Emma grew up here in the large circle of her siblings.

On July 3, 1879, Emma Heinemann married Adolf Lindenberg, a banker from Vilsen who had come to Lüneburg in 1877 to work in the Heinemann Bank. Adolf was Emma"s uncle, the youngest brother of their mother Henriette. After Emma left home, her mother Henriette gave birth to two more children before she died in 1883: Emma"s youngest brothers Willy and Henry.

Between 1880 and 1891, Emma herself had five children. The family initially lived at 8 Bardowicker Strasse, two houses away from the bank. In 1889, the Lindenbergs moved out of the old town to Lüne, just outside the city.

Around 1897, after another move, they had finally found their place: The family now lived in a villa with a large garden in Lüner Weg, one of the preferred places to live at the time. Their neighbors included the families of bankers Wallbaum and Clemens Hinsel, lawyer Emil Strauß, and president Paul von Hindenburg"s daughter Annemarie von Penz.

Even though her husband Adolf was not particularly religious, Emma always kept a strictly Jewish household, as she was used to at home. This meant a lot of work, especially before the high Jewish holidays, when the whole house had to be cleaned and prepared in the prescribed manner.

The Lindenberg children went to school in Lüneburg, the boys to the Johanneum, the girls to the Höhere Töchterschule. The family was in close contact with the families of Emma"s siblings Robert, Betty and Klara, who also lived in Lüneburg. Together they went on excursions, met for family celebrations and Jewish holidays.

None of the Lindenberg children stayed in Lüneburg: Alice went to England as early as 1902, Rudolf lived as an engineer in Breslau, Albert emigrated to the USA, Hans was killed in World War I, and the youngest daughter Grete went to Berlin as a teacher. But they stayed in touch: Emma"s grandchildren later remembered many wonderful visits to their grandparents in Lüneburg, especially the summers in the beautiful garden with its gooseberry bushes.

Emma Lindenberg née Heinemann died in 1921. At the time, Emma"s brother-in-law Moritz Jacobsohn was head of the Jewish community. In the community"s death register, he noted her important role within the Jewish community: "She was one of the best women in the congregation."

Both Emma and her husband Adolf, who died in 1929, were buried in the Jewish cemetery in Lüneburg. The Hebrew inscription on Emma"s part of the gravestone reads as follows (English translation): "Here lies buried the capable wife, pride of her husband [and her children], who opened her hands to the poor and needy, doing kindness and truth all her days, Mrs. Breinche, daughter of Mordechai, scholar of the Torah."

The joint gravestone of Emma Lindenberg and her husband Adolf is one of the few that remained after the cemetery was destroyed and completely leveled during the Nazi era. Together with several other gravestones, it had been used as building material for the foundations of a makeshift home which was erected in 1944. When this makeshift home was demolished in 1967, the Emma and Adolf Lindenberg stone came to light, along with a few others. It took a few more years before the gravestones were re-erected in the early 1970s, if only as fragments and not in their original position.


Sources and info:

Gravestone for Emma Lindenberg: epidat - Forschungsplattform jüdische Grabsteinepigraphik, Lüneburg, lbg-12

Name variants: Breinche