THE COHN TOMB

The tomb of Louis Cohn (1843–1903) was built in the neoclassical style, in the form of a tympanum supported by columns decorated with composite capitals. It was made of granite and sandstone. The inscription plates are made of Carrara marble and are decorated with sculpted branches and laurel wreaths, symbolising immortality and victory.

Louis Cohn was born on 19 February 1843 in Szamotuły in the province of Poznań. Coming from a poor family, he moved to Breslau/Wrocław with his brother Moritz in 1857 in the hope of finding a better life. He started his business practically from scratch, learning the ropes in a small haberdashery shop owned by the Trautner sisters, located right next to the Wrocław Town Hall on Sukiennice Street. Cohn bought the shop from the Trautner sister and continued to run it under the name ‘Geschwister Trautner Nachfolger’, with only the addition of the word ‘Nachfolger’ (successor) hinting at the new owner, which may indicate that he had a good relationship with previous owners. The shop must have been profitable, because at the end of the 19th century, Cohn was already able to rent a larger shop and move the business to a tenement house at 52 Market Square. He soon decided to buy a dilapidated tenement house at 49 Market Square, which was demolished due to its poor technical condition, with a new five-storey building erected on the site in 1902 and adapted to the needs of a department store. The architects Richard and Paul Ehrlich were responsible for the design, while Louis Cohn was the investor. The new headquarters, with its stone-clad façade, large glass display windows and distinctive, electrically illuminated globe with the word ‘Trautner’ on it, became a recognisable brand on the Wrocław market. The upper floors house women’s and men’s clothing production facilities, while the two lower floors are used for shops and customer service. Interestingly, despite opening a completely new chapter in the company’s operations, Cohn retained its original name, referring to its early beginnings. Over the years, the brand ‘Geschwister Trautner Nachfolger’ was transformed into ‘Trautner’, commemorating the surname of the first owners.

The successful business development and favourable economic situation enabled Cohn to open a branch in Annaberg, a town in the Ore Mountains (Saxony) about 400 km from Breslau/Wrocław, providing employment to the largely poor population of the region. Cohn travelled there regularly, regardless of the weather conditions. He was a valued employer, respected and appreciated by local workers. As a testimony to the company’s connection to the Saxon town, one of the two medallions on the facade of the Wrocław tenement building still bears a bas-relief of Barbara Uthmann (1514–1575), a well-known entrepreneur from the Ore Mountains and promoter of lace and braid products.

Cohn devoted himself entirely to his work, and was a proud observer of his own success, but he was not able to enjoy his new company headquarters for long. He died on 29 March 1903 at the age of sixty, as a respected citizen of Breslau/Wrocław and an active member of the Jewish community. He represented the generation of post-emancipation, which focused on integration processes of German society, without losing one’s own identity, experiencing social and economic advancement through hard work and slowly becoming part of the business elite in Breslau/Wrocław. Cohn created his brand from scratch and steadily developed it for almost half a century. Following his death, architects Richard and Paul Ehrlich designed the Cohn family tomb at the Jewish cemetery on Lohestrasse (today Ślężna Street) in 1903, which also became the burial place for Louis’ immediate family: his first wife Ernestine Cohn, née Sachs (1851–1884), who died at the young age of 33, his second wife Margarethe Cohn, née Hainauer (1860–1939), and his son, the building surveyor Martin Cohn (1873–1922).

An ‘In Memoriam’ plaque is mounted on the tomb wall in memory of Louis Cohn’s son and his family, victims of the Holocaust, deported and shot on 29 November 1941 in Kaunas, Lithuania. Dr Willy Cohn, his wife Gertrud Cohn, née Rothmann, and their two young daughters, Susanne and Tamara, lost their lives there. Willy Cohn was a historian, secondary school teacher and author of a well-known diary documenting the fate of the Jewish community of Breslau between 1907 and 1941, published in fragments as No Justice in Germany: The Breslau Diaries, 1933–1941.

Dimensions (cm): 470 x 630 x 310

Author: Dr. Renata Wilkoszewska-Krakowska