Franziska Ury née Schlesinger

Location 
Solinger Straße 10
District
Moabit
Stone was laid
September 2003
Born
16 March 1847 in Berlin
Dead
in Berlin
Franziska Ury was born Franziska Schlesinger on 16 March 1847. She married Emil Ury, owner of a tobacco factory in Berlin. They were the third generation of the Ury family to live in Berlin. Emil Ury’s grandfather, Levin Elias Ury, had acquired citizenship of Berlin as an immigrant from Tangermünde and became the head of the town’s large Jewish community. Franziska and her husband Emil Ury had four children: Ludwig, Hans, Käthe and Else. Ludwig (1870-1963) was a lawyer, Hans (1873-1937) a doctor and Käthe (1881-1943) trained to be a gymnastics teacher before marrying the head of the Berlin planning department and building control office, Hugo Heymann. Else Ury embarked on a writing career after completing her schooling. Best known for her “Nesthäkchen” series, she became one of the most popular German children’s book authors of the 20th century. In 1905, the Ury family moved to Savignyplatz, Berlin. In 1920, Emil Ury passed away. After the Nazis came to power, the Urys were stripped of their rights and their lives were threatened. In 1937, Franziska’s son Hans found release by taking his own life. After the pogrom of November 1938, Ludwig and Käthe joined their children living abroad. Dr. Ludwig Ury went to live in London; Käthe Heymann and her husband Hugo went to Amsterdam. Even though she was already over ninety, Franziska Ury was forced to move into compulsory accommodation for Jews, where she was looked after by her daughter Else. In 1940, Franziska passed away, not in her familiar surroundings but in the confinement of the compulsory accommodation. Her two daughters, Käthe Heymann and Else Ury, were deported in 1943 to Auschwitz concentration camp, where they were murdered; Käthe together with her husband Hugo, her daughter, her son-in-law and one grandchild.