Dr. med. Ernst von der Porten

Ernst von der Porten, born 10 May 1884 in Hamburg, married on 26 November 1911 Friederike Frieda Alexander, born 2 December 1885 in Hamburg, and they had three daughters:

1. Gerda Friederike, b. 9 Oct. 1912, Hamburg

2. Hanna Irene, b. 7 Oct. 1914, Hamburg

3. Eva Marianne, b. 19 May 1917, Hamburg

Ernst Von der Porten came from a family that had lived in Hamburg and Altona since 1630, went to the traditional Hamburg Johanneum grammar school and received his doctorate in medicine from the University of Heidelberg in 1908. Three years later, he opened a practice as a general practitioner in his house at Mittelweg 112 and at the same time conducted research on anesthesia, an field in which he became a specialist recognized throughout Europe. Ernst von der Porten practiced medicine in Hamburg until May 1938. He left National Socialist Germany for Brussels, Belgium during that summer.

He and his wife took their own lives in a hospital in Perpignan, France, on 12/13 December 1940. Their second daughter had died in childbirth in 1938, and the youngest, Marianne, died in Bergen-Belsen, Germany, around 15 February 1945.

The eldest daughter, Dr. Gerda Ottenstein-von der Porten, survived the war (d. 1985)

cf.: http://stolpersteine-hamburg.de/index.php?MAIN_ID=7&BIO_ID=939