People

Salomon (Shlomo) Heinemann was born in Lüneburg in 1823. He was the fifth child of banker and merchant Simon Heinemann and his wife Betty, née Sußmann, who had come to Lüneburg from Bleckede around 1810. Salomon grew up with his large family in Bardowicker Straße.

Salomon did an apprenticeship as a merchant with his uncle Joseph Salomon in nearby Winsen and then, like his older brothers Sally and Marcus, worked as a banker and merchant in the family business. After their father died in 1855, the three brothers took over the already well-established business and continued to expand it with great success.

In 1864, Salomon married his relative Sophie Lindenberg from Vilsen, who was also a sister of his sister-in-law Henriette (wife of Marcus Heinemann). Sophie moved to Lüneburg to live with him. Their son Gustav was born in 1865 and their daughter Bertha in 1867.

The family initially lived in the family home in Bardowicker Straße, then stayed for a short time with the family of Salomon"s brother Marcus in Große Bäckerstraße and later in Obere Schrangenstraße. In 1880, they bought a large old Lüneburg house on the edge of the old town, on Neue Sülze, which became the family"s home for fifty years. Daughter Bertha married and moved to Hamburg, son Gustav stayed in Lüneburg and later became one of the directors of the Heinemann Bank, together with his relatives Louis Levy Heinemann and Adolf Lindenberg.

Like his brothers, Salomon was very active socially and culturally. He was one of the founding members of the Lüneburg Museum Association and was involved in many social causes.

Salomon Heinemann died in 1902 and was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Lüneburg. His gravestone reads in Hebrew: "Here is buried an upright and modest man, he was generous to the needy, peace-loving, he strove for peace and loved people, he earned a good name for himself. And he left a legacy of blessings, Mr. Shlomo, son of the Mr. Shimon." Salomon"s widow Sophie lived in Lüneburg for more than thirty years before she too was buried in the Jewish cemetery in 1934.

The double gravestone of Sophie and Salomon Heinemann is one of the few that still exist in Lüneburg today, following the destruction and complete leveling of the Jewish cemetery during the Nazi era. Together with several other gravestones, their stone had been built into the foundations of a makeshift home erected in 1944. When this makeshift home was demolished in 1967, their shared gravestone was uncovered. It took a few more years before the gravestones found were re-erected in the early 1970s, albeit not in their original location and only as fragments.

Sources and info:

Gravestone for Salomon Heinemann: epidat - Forschungsplattform jüdische Grabsteinepigraphik, Lüneburg, lbg-8

Name variants: Schlomo Shlomo