Leseprobe

90 Building Culture and Social Life Built in 1911, the villa at Tiergartenstrasse 50 was, until late 1937, home to the lawyer and notary Dr Friedrich Salzburg, his wife Grete (née Gerstle), and their four children. Dr Friedrich Salzburg was the third son of Adolph Salzburg, a textile mer- chant originally from the Province of Posen who had the villa at Tiergartenstrasse 8 built in 1874. Other than the Salzburg family, Grete Salzburg’s widowed mother, Anna Gerstle (who died in 1924), also lived in the villa at Tiergartenstrasse 50, as did Grete’s brother, the factory director Hans Gerst­ le, and his family. The Salzburg family lived on the ground floor, while the Gerstles occupied the first- floor apartment. Anna Gerstle had purchased the plot in April 1910 for herself and her four children. In addition to Grete and Hans, Anna Gerstle orig- inally had two other sons, Fritz and Paul. The for- mer was killed in aerial combat over France in 1916, the latter was murdered in Geneva in 1919. Mrs Gerstle had a villa and garage built on the plot, commissioning the Dresden architectural firm Los- sow & Kühne with the design. Between 1909 and 1910, this firm had also drawn up the designs for the renovations to the Salzburg family’s villa at Tiergartenstrasse 8. Dr Friedrich Salzburg acted with power of attorney on behalf of his mother-in- law in all matters pertaining to the construction of the villa at Tiergartenstrasse 50. In 1992, 55 years after Dr Salzburg’s forced emigration from Germa- ny, the property was the subject of a successful restitution claim and returned to the legal owners’ descendants. They then sold the villa, which has been used as an office building ever since. Anna Gerstle had acquired the plot for the villa from a syndicate formed of three parties. The own- ership history of the land was complex, with former co-owners of the site including members of the family of her son-in-law, Dr Friedrich Salzburg. Be- tween 1810 and 1889, the property changed hands seven times. In 1889, the property was divided be- tween two companies and two private individuals. One of the companies, trading as ‘Eduard Rocksch Villa Gerstle-Salzburg, Tiergartenstrasse 50, around 1930. ‘Tiergarten- strasse 50, Dresden-A 20. Home of the Salzburg-Gerstle family since 1912.’ Construction of the New Gerstle- Salzburg Villa