| Paul Redelsheimer und Companie Möbelhaus Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (“Paul Redelsheimer and Company Furniture Shop Limited Liability Company”) at Kurfürstendamm 47 in the Charlottenburg District of Berlin, after the shop was defaced by the Nazis with Jude (“Jew”) Paul Redelsheimer and Company was registered on March 18, 1933, by architect Gideon Paul Jacob Redelsheimer (May 12, 1873 – November 8, 1942). From what his family pieced together after World War II from records destroyed or damaged during the Battle of Berlin, he was trained as an architect. Redelsheimer specialized in interior design and furniture manufacturing at 22-23 Franzosishe Straße from 1904-1912 before moving to Kurfürstendamm 47. Also in 1904, Redelsheimer married Elsa Nördlinger (neé Dreifus, September 3, 1879 – May 31, 1944) They had 7 children, including Martel Martha Redelsheimer (March 4, 1902 – March 5, 1940) from her 1st marriage. Martha married Paul Bernstein (August 24, 1890 – September 16, 1984) and they had a daughter, Lili Bernstein (June 29, 1925 – March 20, 2000). Paul Bernstein was Paul Redelsheimer’s employee, and likely that’s how Martha and Paul met. Paul, Elsa and Martha lived in Berlin during the week and spent the weekends in their summer house in Sacrow near Potsdam. The whole family met regularly in Sacrow, where they bought another property and added a boathouse and a garage. Paul Redelsheimer’s commissions took him to Bremerhaven and Cottbus, where he designed the interiors of the respective city theaters, but most of his work took place on the Kurfürstendamm. He took over the interior design of what was then the Union Palace and is the Apple Store today in Kurfürstendamm 26, as well as the Cumberland House, Kurfürstendamm 193/194. During the worldwide Great Depression, Paul Redelsheimer’s furniture factory closed in 1930. The Redelsheimers reorganized with Paul Bernstein and their lawyer as partners, opening a new store in 1933 at Kurfürstendamm 47. 8 employees took care of the “manufacture of residential furnishings, furniture, buildings and construction contracts, purchase and sale of furnishings and the execution of related transactions.” After the Reichstag fire in February 1933, Paul, Martha and Lili Bernstein decided to immigrate to France and thus survived the Holocaust. On June 8, 1938, Paul Redelsheimer was expelled from the Reichskammer der bildenden Künste (“Reich Chamber of Fine Arts”) which included the Bund Deutscher Architektinnen und Architekten (“Association of German Architects,”) that Redelsheimer had been a member of for decades. The windows of Paul Redelsheimer & Companie Möbelhaus at Kurfürstendamm 47 were marked “Jude” in September 1938, and smashed in the Kristallnacht program of November 9, 1938. The Redelsheimers were forced to transfer their shares in Paul Redelsheimer und Companie Möbelhaus, including Paul Bernstein’s, without compensation. The beneficiaries are not known, but are probably the Aryan employees. On December 31, 1938, shareholders voted for the liquidation of the company. On March 25, 1939, Professor C. Reiner (???? – ????), an interior designer, and C. J. Hacker (???? – ????), businessman, presented their Aryan certificates in accordance with the National Socialist Nuremberg Laws as the new owners. The new company at Kurfürstendamm 47 was now called Reiner KG, Einrichtung in Neuem Geist (“Reiner KG, Establishment in a New Spirit”). In January 1939, the Redelsheimers sold their summer home in Sacrow at a loss. Even those funds were confiscated by Deutsche Bank on the orders of the Nazis. Forced out, Elsa and Paul moved into their garage house on Weinmeisterweg in Sacrow, leaving all the furniture in their house in Charlottenburg behind. Their applications to leave for Cuba and Belgium were rejected. All their valuables, their radio and telephone were confiscated. After September 12, 1942, the Redelsheimers were not allowed to purchase eggs, milk or wheat products with their ration cards. They were banned from using public transportation. Elsa and Paul Redelsheimer were arrested on October 3, 1942, by the Geheime Staatspolizei, the Gestapo (“Secret State Police”). They were forced to sign over their property to the state, pay taxes, and were immediately placed on the 3rd “special train for the elderly” that departed them from Berlin to the town of Bohusovice, near Litomerice, Bohemia, Czechoslovakia. From there they walked to Theresienstadt. Paul contracted typhus by the time he arrived. There was little resistance; many elderly Jews believed retirement will be possible in Czechoslovakia. Paul Redelsheimer died within a month of contracting typhus at Theresienstadt. Elsa survived at Theresienstadt without her husband for 2 more years; little is known about her life there. On May 16, 1944, she and 2,500 other people were transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in a cattle car. 2 weeks later, Elsa was murdered on May 31, 1944. Elements of the Redelsheimer family remain on the Kurfürstendamm. Various buildings that Paul Redelsheimer decorated still bear elements of his designs. After Martha Redelsheimer died in France, Paul and Lili Bernstein fled to Brazil. After World War II, Lili began investigating the history of her family. Eva Tanner and Peter Gründahl bought a house in Sacrow and began a beautiful restoration. So they found a photo of a young woman, nicely hidden behind a skirting board. Believing that the surviving family settled in London, Tanner wrote every living Bernstein there. By chance Lili’s niece Paula was a student there, and the 2 families who shared a common history in the house in Sacrow began to piece together the history of Paul and Elsa Redelsheimer. Today, a Stolpersteine (“stumbling stones or blocks”) for Elsa and Paul Redelsheimer are embedded outside the present-day building at Kurfürstendamm 47. Today, it is the Hotel Mondial, which displays this photo of hatred to remind guests of the previous owners who were killed in the Holocaust. The hotel’s restaurant is named after the Redelsheimer family with the permission of their great-granddaughter. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1753.jpg |
| Image Size | 491.77 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2500 x 1934 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | September 1, 1938 |
| Location | Kurfürstendamm |
| City | Berlin |
| State or Province | Berlin |
| Country | Germany |
| Archive | United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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