Landhaus Rubinski, Monument on Heiliger See in Potsdam, Germany
Landhaus Rubinski is a three-storey villa at Seestraße 45 in Potsdam's Berliner Vorstadt, built in 1912 on the shore of Heiliger See. Its pale cream facade is divided by tall vertical pilasters, with a central balcony with black metal railing above a recessed entrance with two doorways. The red tiled roof has a triangular gable with an oval window over a band of small square windows. A low cream wall with black metal fencing and brick piers stands at the street.
Julius Rubinski, a Jewish merchant who managed the M. Hirsch department store on Brandenburger Straße, had the villa built in 1912. After his death in 1916, his widow Paula married the urologist Alfred Rothschild. In 1941 the house was sold to the Potsdam police; Paula Rothschild was forced to surrender her usufruct right in 1942. From 1941 to 1945 the SS officer and police president Heinrich von Kozierowski lived here.
Julius Rubinski, a member of Potsdam's Jewish community, had the villa built in 1912 while working as authorised representative of the M. Hirsch department store on Brandenburger Straße 31. His widow Paula ran that store until 1938. Since 19 May 2022, two Stolpersteine by Gunter Demnig in front of the property commemorate Paula and Alfred Rothschild.
The villa at Seestraße 45 is a private residence and cannot be visited inside; the facade, the low cream wall with black metal fencing and brick piers, and the Stolpersteine for Paula and Alfred Rothschild in front of the property can be seen from the public street. The site lies in the Berliner Vorstadt district on the shore of the Heiliger See.
Since 2022, memorial stones mark the site in remembrance of Paula and Alfred Rothschild, who lived here and were persecuted during World War II. These stones tell the personal stories connected to this house and that dark period.
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