Kurt Mosler

Kurt Mosler was born on October 16, 1890, in Berlin. He came from a Jewish family. 

His parents were Max Mosler and his wife Lydia, née Merseburger (born May 6, 1858). Kurt had an older brother, Hans, who was born on April 23, 1889. Another brother, Erich, died as an infant six weeks after birth. The family of Max Mosler lived at Am Botanischen Garten 16 in Berlin-Lichterfelde. Kurt's father, Max Mosler, passed away on December 23, 1924. Afterward, Kurt's mother, Lydia, gave up the apartment at Am Botanischen Garten and moved in with her son Kurt.

Kurt completed a commercial apprenticeship at Dresdener Bank and spent some time in England before World War I. During World War I, he served in the German Navy. He married Frida Goldstein, who was born on September 15, 1891, in Berlin and also came from a Jewish family. The couple had two children: their daughter Traud was born on September 8, 1919, and their son Werner was born on November 23, 1922, in Berlin. According to their daughter Traud in the compensation claims she later filed, Kurt Mosler was evidently successfully employed at various banking and credit institutions.
From 1919 to 1924, the Mosler family lived in Lichterfelde, at Lorzingstr. 4. Kurt Mosler had a successful career in banking and insurance. In 1923, he purchased a property at Rothenburgstr. 24 in Steglitz, at the foot of Fichtenberg, between the Evangelical Matthew Church and the Botanical Garden near Steglitz Town Hall. The plot extended from Rothenburgstr. to Waetzoldstr. He had a villa-like house built with two semi-detached houses, and in 1925, he moved into the right hand house with his family and his mother Lydia.

According to an entry in the Berlin Commercial Register, Kurt Mosler founded his own bank and insurance company in 1929 at Königstr. 25/26, but it was liquidated by January 1, 1934, after the Nazis came to power. Kurt Mosler then tried his hand as a freelance broker and became a partner with Max Scheftel in a belt factory at Alexanderstr. 39. However, Kurt left the partnership with Max Scheftel in 1935. Scheftel continued to run the company alone until 1938, now located at Leipziger Str. 94. 
As early as 1935, Kurt Mosler attempted to emigrate to Holland to start a new life, but he was unsuccessful. He returned to Germany and in 1936 took out a mortgage on the property at Rothenburgstr. 24. He used the loan to renovate the house on Rothenburgstr. to create additional rental opportunities. He also used the money as start-up capital for the establishment of a printing company, which was registered in the Berlin address book in 1937 and 1938 as "Norm-Kleindruck-Vertrieb" at Wilhelmstr. 33. According to his daughter Traud’s statements in her compensation claims, her father Kurt was planning to emigrate to England at that time. However, in 1938, he was pressured under threat of concentration camp imprisonment to sell the business and transfer it by the end of the year. Kurt Mosler never received the purchase price.
In 1938, there were still two additional mortgages registered on the property at Rothenburgstr., according to land register entries. These were secured for the "Reich Flight Tax," which had to be paid for Kurt Mosler’s mother, Lydia, as well as for the widowed Gertrud Goldstein.

Gertrud Goldstein was married to Emil Goldstein, the brother of Frida's father Siegfried, making her Frida Mosler’s aunt. Emil and Gertrud Goldstein had lived at Im Dohl 47 in Berlin-Dahlem since 1926, but Emil Goldstein died shortly after. From 1930, the widow Gertrud Goldstein was listed as the owner in the Berlin address book. In 1935, the property "Im Dohl 47" was transferred to a new owner, and Gertrud Goldstein moved to Starstr. 2 b in Dahlem; in the 1939 census, she was recorded as living with Kurt Mosler at Rothenburgstr. 24.

In 1939, Kurt Mosler was forced to part with his property at Rothenburgstr. The value of the house was underestimated with the help of a broker and appraiser who allegedly found extensive structural damage. The property was sold in April 1939 to Max Notz (a wholesale importer of butter, cheese, and canned milk) and baker Georg Oberbach.
On October 1, 1939, Kurt and Frida Mosler had to vacate the house and moved with Kurt's mother Lydia to a three-room apartment at Prinzregentenstr. 4 in Wilmersdorf. Valuable household items – furniture, carpets, paintings, dishes – were stored with the company Kopania at Bergstr. 91 in Steglitz.

Possibly, Gertrud Goldstein also moved with Frida, Kurt, and Lydia Mosler into the apartment at Prinzregentenstr. 4. Her last known address was Güntzelstr. 17 in Wilmersdorf. She committed suicide on September 29, 1942.

The children of Kurt and Frida Mosler managed to flee Germany to England in 1939: daughter Traud in March 1939 and son Werner in late July 1939.

Kurt and Frida Mosler remained in Berlin – they could neither provide a guarantor nor show the required $100 to obtain a visa to leave Germany. Perhaps they did not want to leave Kurt's elderly mother Lydia, and Frida’s mother Rosalia alone in Berlin, who both were now 80 years old. Frida’s mother Rosalia died on 20. December 1940, Kurt’s mother Lydia died on July 29, 1941.

On March 2, 1943, Kurt Mosler was deported to Auschwitz with the 32nd Eastern Transport (a total of 1,756 people) and murdered.
His wife, Frida, was deported to Auschwitz on March 4, 1943, and murdered.
According to research by Gottwaldt/Schulle, there were 1,120 people in this transport who arrived in Auschwitz on March 6, 1943. Of these, 389 men and 96 women were admitted to the camp; all others were gassed. Crematorium II in Birkenau had been "test-fired" on March 5, 1943.

The children of Kurt and Frida Mosler, Traud and Werner, filed multiple compensation and restitution claims from England for lost household items, missed education opportunities, as well as for the restitution of the property at Rothenburgstr. and the unpaid purchase price for their father’s printing business. After years of disputes, small compensation amounts were paid compared to the lost assets. The restitution of the property at Rothenburgstr. ended with a settlement.

Kurt Mosler’s brother Hans emigrated to the USA. He was a graduate engineer and lived near his brother in Lichterfelde, at Unter den Eichen 127. Hans Mosler was listed in the Jewish address book in 1929 and in the Berlin address book in 1933. Before his flight, he apparently still lived in Schöneberg. He died in August 1939 in Melbourne, Australia.
Unfortunately, we were unable to find any information about the fate of Frida Mosler’s brother, Hans Goldstein.