Location
Treskow 109
District
Karlshorst
Stone was laid
25 October 2010
Born
08 May 1870 in
Occupation
Arzt
Dead
February 1937
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Stolperstein für Alfred Mode. Fotorechte: D. Janke.
Alfred Mode was born on 8 May 1870 in Berlin. His father Hermann Mode was the proprietor of ‘S. Mode’s antiquarian bookshop’ at Post Straße 28 in Berlin-Mitte. In March 1888 Alfred Mode completed his Abitur school-leaving exams at Köllnische Gymnasium. He then studied medicine at Friedrich Wilhelm University (now Humboldt University), graduating in March 1892. From August 1893 to June 1896 he was employed as a junior doctor in a surgery in Friedrichshagen, run by a Dr Jacoby. Around 1897 he moved with his father to Karlshorst, where he was one of the first two doctors to set up practice. His father left his bookshop to a successor and retired to live on his assets. Father and son lived at Auguste-Viktoria Straße 12 (now Ehrlich Straße) before moving to Stühlinger Straße 4 in around 1899. It is not known whether other family members lived with them.
On 31 October 1905, Alfred Mode married Elsbeth Lüdicke at Köpenick registry office. Eleven years his junior, Elsbeth came from Eberswalde, was of Protestant faith and had worked as a teacher in Köpenick since 1900. Alfred Mode’s father moved away to Charlottenburg, where he lived until his death in 1907. Around 1909, Alfred and Elsbeth Mode set up home at Treskowallee 98 (then between Stolzenfels Straße and Ehrenfels Straße), where Alfred ran a medical practice for many years. During the First World War, he was one of the only doctors remaining in the area and was consequently very busy. He was a co-founder and board member of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians in the district of Niederbarnim and frequently represented the association at medical congresses. He was also a fiduciary doctor for the Reichsbahn railways, responsible for an area stretching from the Rummelsburg shunting yard to Friedrichshagen, for 27 years. In an application for compensation that Elsbeth Mode submitted in 1954, she described her husband’s role as a respected and trusted authority figure, which suddenly changed in 1933:
“[His occupation] filled him with especial joy. The gratitude and loyalty of the families in his care, who often comprised several generations of rail-workers, and who knew him well as their family doctor and sought his advice and help not only in cases of sickness, was exemplary. Nazism put an end to that life. The boycott, the humiliation of being condemned to inactivity after holding so much responsibility and working so ceaselessly, caused him to become depressed; especially an article in the newspaper headlined ‘The Jew Mode still in office’, published shortly before 1 April, referring to his position as doctor for the railways.”
Shortly after this article was published in spring 1933, Alfred Mode was dismissed from the Reichsbahn railways medical service. Around the same time, he also lost his position as secretary of the statutory health insurance physicians’ association. In 1936 he planned a trip abroad to gain at least some temporary relief and relaxation. But his application for a passport was repeatedly intercepted by local police, delaying the process by several months. In February 1937 he was finally able to take a short vacation. It was, his widow later said, returning “from a ‘free’ country to a life in such tortuously humiliating circumstances [that] caused him to make the final, desperate decision to end his own life.” At the age of 66, Alfred Mode died by his own hand in his home in Karlshorst.
After her husband’s death, Elsbeth Mode was, in her own words, still “marked with a blemish”. She was registered separately, under Jews, with the police and “in 1939 [still had] great difficulties getting a passport to travel abroad. And a fellow resident, an SS Obersturmbannführer, made me perform extra tasks during the war, as the widow of a Jew.” Elsbeth Mode died in Berlin in 1975.
On 31 October 1905, Alfred Mode married Elsbeth Lüdicke at Köpenick registry office. Eleven years his junior, Elsbeth came from Eberswalde, was of Protestant faith and had worked as a teacher in Köpenick since 1900. Alfred Mode’s father moved away to Charlottenburg, where he lived until his death in 1907. Around 1909, Alfred and Elsbeth Mode set up home at Treskowallee 98 (then between Stolzenfels Straße and Ehrenfels Straße), where Alfred ran a medical practice for many years. During the First World War, he was one of the only doctors remaining in the area and was consequently very busy. He was a co-founder and board member of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians in the district of Niederbarnim and frequently represented the association at medical congresses. He was also a fiduciary doctor for the Reichsbahn railways, responsible for an area stretching from the Rummelsburg shunting yard to Friedrichshagen, for 27 years. In an application for compensation that Elsbeth Mode submitted in 1954, she described her husband’s role as a respected and trusted authority figure, which suddenly changed in 1933:
“[His occupation] filled him with especial joy. The gratitude and loyalty of the families in his care, who often comprised several generations of rail-workers, and who knew him well as their family doctor and sought his advice and help not only in cases of sickness, was exemplary. Nazism put an end to that life. The boycott, the humiliation of being condemned to inactivity after holding so much responsibility and working so ceaselessly, caused him to become depressed; especially an article in the newspaper headlined ‘The Jew Mode still in office’, published shortly before 1 April, referring to his position as doctor for the railways.”
Shortly after this article was published in spring 1933, Alfred Mode was dismissed from the Reichsbahn railways medical service. Around the same time, he also lost his position as secretary of the statutory health insurance physicians’ association. In 1936 he planned a trip abroad to gain at least some temporary relief and relaxation. But his application for a passport was repeatedly intercepted by local police, delaying the process by several months. In February 1937 he was finally able to take a short vacation. It was, his widow later said, returning “from a ‘free’ country to a life in such tortuously humiliating circumstances [that] caused him to make the final, desperate decision to end his own life.” At the age of 66, Alfred Mode died by his own hand in his home in Karlshorst.
After her husband’s death, Elsbeth Mode was, in her own words, still “marked with a blemish”. She was registered separately, under Jews, with the police and “in 1939 [still had] great difficulties getting a passport to travel abroad. And a fellow resident, an SS Obersturmbannführer, made me perform extra tasks during the war, as the widow of a Jew.” Elsbeth Mode died in Berlin in 1975.