City commemorates Jewish bookseller and cultural mediator
On April 1, 1925, Alfred Bodenheimer (1898–1966) founded Darmstadt bookshop at the corner of Rheinstraße and Saalbaustraße . One hundred years later, the city of Darmstadt, a center of science and research, is honoring the cultural legacy of the Jewish bookseller and cultural ambassador. Mayor Hanno Benz emphasizes:
"With his bookshop, Alfred Bodenheimer made a valuable contribution to the literary and cultural life of our city."
The bookshop was far more than just a bookstore. In the 1920s, it quickly became a meeting place for Darmstadt's literary, artistic, and musical scene . Readings, exhibitions, and concerts created an accessible and inspiring atmosphere. Among the guests were Arnold Zweig and Kurt Tucholsky Käthe Kollwitz , Picasso , and Vlaminck were exhibited .
A meeting place for free spirits
The bookshop was a place of openness: no obligation to buy , red armchairs and shelves , tea for guests – a space for encounters and learning. After the National Socialists seized power in 1933, the situation became increasingly precarious. Nevertheless, the bookshop remained a clandestine meeting place for freethinkers , when Alfred Bodenheimer was forced by the authorities to hand it over to the Berlin bookseller couple Robert and Marianne d'Hooge .
During the November Pogroms of 1938, Bodenheimer, like many other Jews from Darmstadt, was deported to Buchenwald concentration camp , severely mistreated, but later released. He managed to escape via England to the USA, where he lived in Baltimore . There he initially worked as a brush salesman , later in a library. He died in 1966, alone and forgotten in exile.
Cultural history at Peace Square
The original bookshop was destroyed in the air raids of 1944. After the war, Marianne d'Hooge, and later Hans-Dietrich zur Megede and Jeanette Seitz, continued to run the bookshop under the name "Darmstädter Bücherstube" (Darmstadt Bookshop) . The business finally closed in 1999.
Today, a memorial plaque in Saalbaustraße Alfred Bodenheimer – a man who shaped Darmstadt's literary and cultural landscape for decades .
(DARMSTADT – RED/PSD/fre/dk)
