Stumbling Stone Barbarastraße 1

Stumbling Stone / Stolperstein for:

* Christian Daniel Nussbaum, born 1888, 1929-1933 / SPD, involuntarily admitted 20 March 1933 to Wiesloch Psychiatric Institution, murdered 25 June 1939.

Christian Daniel Nussbaum was married to Emma Eberle, born in 1894. From 1929-1933, he was a member of the Baden State Parliament (Badischen Landtags), representing the SPD (Sozialdemokratischen Partei Deutschlands). In spite of supposed parliamentary immunity, other representatives had been arbitrarily arrested – one with a fatal outcome. Nussbaum himself had begun to receive threatening letters. He was worried and got a license and purchased a gun. The day after an inflammatory hate article against him appeared in a Nazi publication, two men broke into his apartment here at Barbarastrasse 1 at 4 am on 17 March 1933. They then began to break into his bedroom, which he had locked. In self-defense he shot the men, who he believed were politically motivated criminals. They turned out to be policemen who had come to arrest him. Both died. The city mayor at the time said it was an accident; that mayor was fired. The Nazis wanted the death penalty.

Three days later, Nussbaum was involuntarily addmitted into the Wiesloch Psychiatric Institution. Six years later, he died there under suspicious circumstances. Was the cause of death complications of syphylis from WW1 service? or murder? Before he died, he was healthy enough that a nurse had recommended his release from the institution. Shortly after that, the mayor of Freiburg wrote a letter stating he expected "suitable measures" [geeignete Maßnahmen – Nazi code for murder] to be taken regarding Nussbaum. Two weeks later, Christian Daniel Nussbaum was dead. Recent research suggests he was murdered via medication.

Information on the fate of his wife was not found.

Another stolpersteine for Christian Daniel Nussbaum was installed in 2004 at 37102,Landsknechtstraße 9, the address where he had resided the longest in Freiburg.

"Stolpersteine" is an art project for Europe by Gunter Demnig to commemorate victims of National Socialism (Nazism). Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) are small, 10x10cm brass plaques placed in the pavement in front of the last voluntary residence of (mostly Jewish) victims who were murdered by the Nazis. Each plaque is engraved with the victim’s name, date of birth, and place (mostly a concentration camp) and date of death. By doing this, Gunter Demnig gives an individual memorial to each victim. One stone, one name, one person. He cites the Talmud: "A human being is forgotten only when his or her name is forgotten."

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Source

• Text: Anne Palmer
• Photos: Marlis Meckel
• Stolpersteine in Freiburg: Christian Daniel Nussbaum
• Badische Zeitung, 17 March 2017: Freiburg Nazi OB Kerber recommended murder of SPD members
• Stolpersteine.eu