People

Betty Sußmann was born in 1792 in Bleckede, a small town on the Elbe River not far from Lüneburg. Her parents were Sußmann Emanuel Herz from Bleckede and Auguste, known as Gutta (Jelle), née Wahrendorf from Celle who belonged to the large Gans family dynasty. Through his connection, the Heinemanns were related to the famous Glückel von Hameln.

Betty grew up in Bleckede. Her granddaughter Clara Jacobson, née Heinemann, recalled later that Betty came from a large family and was reportedly the youngest of 25 children.

In 1815 or 1816, Betty Sußmann married merchant Simon Heinemann, who, like her, came from Bleckede but had been living in Lüneburg since about 1810. After several years there, he had finally been granted the status as "Schutzjude". Betty moved to Lüneburg to be with Simon. At Bardowicker Straße 6, they established “a banking business, combined with manufactured goods, wool, and wax. [...] They lived downstairs in modest rooms, while the upstairs was rented out.” This is how Betty"s granddaughter Emilie Heinemann recalled it in the 1930s.

In the following years, Betty gave birth to five children in Lüneburg: Rosa, Sally, Marcus, Salomon, and Mathilde. According to Emilie, Betty Heinemann was "a kind-hearted and intelligent woman, but always worried about whether her earnings would be enough to live on. The rooms they lived in were very cramped. Once, when a customer arrived late on a Friday evening, she was unable to get the children ready for bed as usual; the delay saved the children"s lives, because the ceiling of the bedroom collapsed. - All the young people who were apprenticed to them always enjoyed talking about their life in the Heinemann home."

Betty"s son Marcus, born in 1819, later enjoyed telling his children how he used to go with his mother every Saturday afternoon to have tea with “Aunt Betty Heine” and eat homemade cake. This referred to Heinrich Heine"s mother Betty Heine, nee van Geldern,, who lived with her husband Samson in Lüneburg from 1822 to 1828, in the house on Ochsenmarkt, now known as the “Heine House.” She was apparently a good friend of Betty Heinemann and her family. Moreover, there was also a distant family relationship between the Heines and the Heinemanns going back to the Gans family.

From the 1840s onwards, Betty Heinemann"s children gradually began to go their own ways. The eldest daughter, Rosa, married the merchant Meyer Herschel in 1848 and moved to Hamburg to live with him. The sons Sally, Marcus, and Salomon moved to other towns for their education, where they mostly trained with their father"s business partners. Like him, they became merchants and bankers. In the 1850s, they took on more and more responsibility in their father"s business. They also married during those years, but remained in Lüneburg, initially in their parents" house. The youngest daughter, Mathilde, stayed with her parents, who were increasingly in need of care. She did not marry until after their death.

In September 1855, Simon Heinemann died in Lüneburg. His wife Betty was also close to death at this point and almost blind. Granddaughter Emilie later reported on her last days: “When Grandfather died, the children kept his death a secret because Grandmother was also very ill. She still gave orders as to what food her husband should be given. She died of a boil, of weakness.” 

On October 12, 1855, Betty Heinemann, née Sußmann died, just over three weeks after her husband. Like her husband shortly before her, she was buried in Lüneburg"s Jewish cemetery. 

Sources and info:

Emilie Heinemann memoir, in: Lüneburg Town Archives, NBi33

Clara Jacobson memoir, in: Lüneburg Town Archives, NMa117

On the history of Bleckede"s Jewish community: http://www.judeninbleckede.de/

Digitized family documents, "Heinemann Collection", Leo Baeck Institute, New York:

http://findingaids.cjh.org/?pID=1640779

Name variants: Sussmann Hertz Heine