Biographie

Ludwig Pappenheim was born in Eschwege in 1887 as the son of Julius Pappenheim and Emma Pappenheim (born Aronstein). After graduating from school in 1902, he began training as a merchant in Cologne. Beginning in 1905, Pappenheim was a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). As a soldier in World War I, he was awarded the Iron Cross 2^nd Class in 1917. After the war, he first became a city representative of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) in Eschwege. In 1919, he moved to Schmalkalden and worked there as an editor for the paper known as "Volksstimme" (meaning "voice of the people). In 1923, Ludwig Pappenheim married Frieda Denner, with whom he had two sons and a daughter. Until 1933, he became a member of the Kurhessian municipal state parliament (Kommunallandtag) of the district of Kassel (until 1921 for the USPD, then for the SPD), town councilman in Schmalkalden (1920), district chairman of the SPD (1922) and a member of the of the institutional advisory board of the Breitenau workhouse (starting in 1925). In this capacity, he was committed to improving the prison conditions for the inmates at the Breitenau workhouse.

A few weeks after the National Socialists seized power, the Social Democrat Pappenheim was arrested in Schmalkalden on 25 March 1933. He was accused of having set up an arms cache. Although the Schmalkalden Local Court did not uphold the arrest warrant, Pappenheim remained in "protective custody." He objected to this on several occasions in writing. On 1 April 1933, he was transferred to the police prison in Suhl, from where he was transferred to the Schmalkalden court jail on 20 April 1933. There he had to answer before the court for "blasphemy". The charge was based on an article published in the "Volksstimme" in 1932. While Pappenheim was responsible for the paper in his capacity as an editor, he did not write the article himself. He was sentenced to three months in jail. After the end of his captivity, he was not released, but was again taken into "protective custody" and transferred to the police prison in Kassel. From there, he was transferred to the Breitenau concentration camp on 23 July 1933, where he was imprisoned for three months. Letters to his wife Frieda and his two sons remain from this time. In October 1933, Pappenheim was transferred to the Neusustrum concentration camp (Emsland camp). He was shot there on 4 January 1934 during an alleged escape attempt. His family was not allowed to lay him to rest in Schmalkalden. Only after many efforts was Frieda Pappenheim granted permission to bury her husband in the Jewish cemetery in Leipzig.

From the end of World War II to the end of the GDR, the village of Kleinschmalkalden was named after Ludwig Pappenheim. In 1997, a memorial stone was erected at the Eichelbach/Schmalkalden cemetery and in the village of Kleinschmalkalden. In addition, a special commemorative cobblestone (stolperstein) was laid for Ludwig Pappenheim in Eschwege in 2011.