Been through the unbelievable: The Baroness von Gröbenzell

Created: 04/25/2022, 09:47 am

A strong and intelligent woman: Anne-Lise von Branca.

She lived in Gröbenzell at the time of National Socialism.

© Gröbenkeeper/Pictures from old Gröbenzell

A street in Gröbenzell is reminiscent of a woman who had to go through the unbelievable: the Jewess Anne-Lise von Branca.

Gröbenzell – Her husband was considered an ardent National Socialist.

This probably saved her life, but did not protect the couple from reprisals.

Even in her own home, Anne-Lise von Branca (1895-1973) was not safe.

One tenant played her particularly badly.

She repeatedly insulted them with the worst anti-Semitic swear words and incited Gröbenzeller against them.

At the end of 1940, the neighbor denounced the Branca couple as work-shy rabble.

Whereupon Anne-Lise, the Jewess, was drafted to work.

Forced labor in a pharmaceutical company

At first she was employed in a pharmaceutical company.

Here she had given the name "Baroness von Branca" during an inspection and was then transferred to the Lohhof flax roasting plant as a punishment.

Her working hours were set so unfavorably that she mostly missed the return trip to Gröbenzell.

The work was so hard that she developed health problems.

Until the end of the war in 1945, she was employed in a dry cleaning and dyeing plant in Pasing.

(By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular FFB newsletter.)

At the time, she probably never would have dreamed that one day a street in Gröbenzell would forever remind her of her: Von-Branca-Strasse, which leads from Tannenfleck-Strasse to Lena-Christ-Strasse.

It is dedicated to the woman who also became known as Baroness von Gröbenzell.

This is what Hans Geigenfeind writes in the Gröben guardian book "Pictures from old Gröbenzell".

The street sign of the street in the south of the parish commemorating a special woman.

© Weber

But Anne-Lise also called herself that, as can be read in Kurt Lehnstaedt's book "Gröbenzell in den Jahres 1933 bis 1945".

Lehnstaedt dealt intensively with Anne-Lise von Branca and her husband Gerhard.

Von Branca was born in Hanover in 1895, the daughter of Carl Flörsheim, co-owner of a bed feather factory and later general agent for an insurance company.

The family was of Jewish faith.

After graduating from high school in 1917, von Branca began studying, which she completed in Munich in 1925 with a doctorate.

Anne-Lise von Branca was married to Gerhard von Branca: he was a National Socialist.

The marriage was not divorced, but ultimately saved Anne-Lise's life.

Fully identified with the Nazis

In 1932 the couple moved to Parkstraße 5 in Gröbenzell. Two years later, in 1934, Gerhard von Branca published the publication “The State Thought of the Third Reich”.

According to Lehnstaedt's studies, he identified here "unreservedly with the totalitarian and racist view of the state of National Socialism".

With a Jewish wife, however, it was also clear to him: “I knew that I could only be allowed to work as long as I was personally necessary.

That is how it was handled with the fundamental attitude of the NSDAP to the Jewish question.” He wrote this at the end of 1937/beginning of 1938.

Assassination attempt on husband

With a few exceptions, all acquaintances withdrew from the couple.

Businessmen in Gröbenzell were forbidden from selling anything to the couple.

Some stuck to it, with some at least Gerhard von Branca was able to buy something.

Most of the time, however, he did the shopping for the couple in Munich.

At the beginning of 1939, he was even shot at, his charge – attempted assassination of an Aryan – came to nothing.

Both survived.

After the end of the war, Anne-Lise von Branca reported about Gröbenzell in the local press for years, mainly about cultural events.

And in 1962 she wrote one of the chronicles about the place.

And finally she is part of the story herself.

(sus)

Also interesting:

You can find more current news from the district of Fürstenfeldbruck at Merkur.de/Fürstenfeldbruck.