125 Years – Dr. Karl Heß

A life for the Lilies: The German-Jewish Darmstadt lawyer Dr. Karl Heß, born on January 13, 1900, served as deputy chairman of SV Darmstadt 1898 during the Weimar Republic period from 1924 and from 1928 to 1933 as chairman. Born and raised in Darmstadt, he passed his school exams at the Altes Realgymnasium in 1918. This was followed by law studies in Giessen and a doctorate in Heidelberg. In 1926 Dr. Karl Heß established himself as a lawyer in Darmstadt.

Because Karl Heß was of German Jewish faith, the Nazis banned him from working at the beginning of the Nazi dictatorship and drove him out of his home in Darmstadt: He had to flee Germany in 1933 – first to southern France, then to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil at the beginning of 1934. In exile, he and his wife supported the family with a small business for over twenty years. Only later was Karl Heß able to work again in his actual job as a lawyer and headed the branch of the United Restitution Organisation in Rio de Janeiro. In this role, he represented compensation claims from those persecuted by the Nazis and victims of the Holocaust.

Despite his persecution and expulsion, Karl Heß continued to maintain close ties to Darmstadt and SV Darmstadt 98 after Germany was liberated from the Nazi dictatorship. In 1955 he visited his old hometown again for the first time and in 1963 he dared to return to Darmstadt with his wife. By 1968, the trained lawyer found work in the city’s legal office. Heß formulated his credo in 1965 as follows: „I did not come back as a Jew, but as a Jewish German who did not want to let Hitler have the triumph of having robbed him of his homeland.“

After his retirement, he initially stayed in Darmstadt, but left his homeland in southern Hesse again in 1973 to spend his twilight years with his son’s family in Porto Alegre, Brazil where he died on April 15, 1975 and was laid to rest. During the Weimar Republic, Karl Heß played a key role in the development of his SV Darmstadt 98 as a sports official and enthusiastic football fan. He represents numerous German-Jewish athletes, coaches, club chairmen, managers and sports sponsors who fell victim to the Nazis‘ racial madness and anti-Semitism.

A memorial plaque against forgetting and the Karl Heß-Platz in front of the Merck Stadium at Böllenfalltor, which was inaugurated on January 15, 2017, are intended to commemorate the life’s work of Dr. Remember Karl Heß, but also the injustice committed by the Nazis.