150 years ago there were clothing manufacturing companies in the middle of Hamburg. The company Oppenheimer & Rappolt, later Rappolt & Söhne, is one of them and produced and sold – since the 1920s under the brand name Eres – elegant, practical and rainproof coats as well as other items of clothing.
Sylvia Steckmest, who studied fashion design and was born in Hamburg, has been researching Jewish history in Hamburg for many years. Coats from Hamburg for the World” marked the rise, but also the “Aryanization” of the company.
The company, which was founded in 1863, was initially located on Alter Wall, then on Admiralitätsstraße and from 1912 on Mönckebergstraße, where the imposing Rappolthaus designed by architect Fritz Höger still stands today. The members of the Rappolt family were able to successfully run the company founded by Joseph Rappolt (1835-1907) for decades and to place their products on the market, thanks in particular to their sons Paul (1863-1940) and Franz Rappolt (1870-1943) .
Rappolt & Söhne sold coats all over the world
“Around 1912, Rappolt & Sons were among the largest companies in their sector in Germany, they also exported internationally – even overseas. At times, 600 people worked in the Rappolthaus. In addition, there were 200 homeworkers. They mainly produced coats, which were less complicated to serialize than dresses. I describe how the Rappolts rose to the highest circles in Hamburg’s economy and also took on responsibility in the Chamber of Commerce. But during National Socialism, the company was ‘Aryanized’, the family was persecuted and almost wiped out,” explains Steckmest in a statement about the book.
The book traces the history of the Rappolts and tells of the disenfranchisement of this widely ramified family. Franz Rappolt died in Theresienstadt, his brother Paul shortly before deportation. The younger family members, such as Franz’s son, the lawyer Ernst Rappolt, or Paul’s daughter, the doctor Lily Rappolt, were able to emigrate from Germany to the USA with great difficulty.
“After the First World War, Paul and Franz Rappolt distinguished themselves as generous sponsors of the Hamburg Scientific Foundation. It is therefore particularly important to us to honor them as patrons of science. After 1933 neither could keep their business in Hamburg. They had to sell the Rappolthaus and the company in 1937/1938. The family and company history of the Rappolts exemplifies the Nazi crimes against Hamburg Jews. Sylvia Steckmest’s book is reminiscent of an important Hamburg family that has largely fallen into oblivion,” comments Ekkehard Nümann, President of the Hamburg Scientific Foundation and publisher of the volume.
Sylvia Steckmest, The clothing manufacturers Rappolt & Sons. Coats from Hamburg for the world (patrons of science, edited by Ekkehard Nümann for the Hamburg Scientific Foundation, New Series, Volume 5), Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2022.