Charlotte („Lotte“) Margarete Eva Friedmann (1903–1939) was the daughter of the Mannheim neurologist Max Friedmann (1858–1925) and his wife Emilie Neumann (1868–1922). Max Friedmann was a neurologist in Mannheim. He studied in Vienna and undertook his residency under Karl Ludwig Kahlbaum (1828-1899) in Görlitz. His research focused on neuropathological issues, neurological-psychiatric diseases in childhood and adolescence as well as psychoses and delusions; he published a total of over 60 scientific papers. He was active as a politician for the "Nationalliberalen" (National Liberals), later for the German Democratic Party.1
Doctoral Degree With the Distinction "Very Good"
Lotte passed the Abitur at the Karl-Friedrich-Gymnasium in Mannheim in March 1921 and took up medical studies in Heidelberg in the summer semester. After temporary stays in Freiburg and Zurich, she passed the state exam in Heidelberg in the spring of 1926. She completed her practical year at the Surgical and Medical Clinics in Heidelberg and at the Medical Polyclinic in Bonn. She received her doctorate in Heidelberg on April 11, 1927 under Helmuth Bohnenkamp (1892-1973) and Ludolf Krehl (1861-1937) with a dissertation on the influence of vegetative nerves on the oxygen consumption of the heart. Their work, which was rated "very good", was published in "Pflügers Archiv für die gesamte Physiologie des Menschen und der Tiere".2
Driven Into Suicide
After she received her licence to practise medicine in 1927, Friedmann worked as an assistant doctor at the Medical Polyclinic in Bonn and at the Altona Municipal Hospital in Hamburg from 1930.3 She qualified as a specialist in internal medicine in 1932 and became a panel doctor in Villingen at the practice of Nepomuk Hässler (1898-1981) in November 1932; she lived as a lodger at Niedere Strasse 24.4 When the licence to practise medicine was withdrawn from Jewish doctors under the National Socialist regime and its anti-Semitic legislation, Friedmann's licence was also withdrawn on June 26, 1935. She left Villingen as early as March 1934 and moved to her parents in Mannheim, and a few months later to Hamburg. There she got herself employed as a teaching nurse at the Israelite Hospital in Sankt Pauli and, after six months of training, worked as a nurse to earn her living.5 She lived at Eckernförder Strasse 4 in Altona. The loss of her job as a general practitioner put a great strain on Friedmann. She became mentally ill and was hospitalised several times. She committed suicide on February 24, 1939 by jumping off the roof of the Israelite Hospital in Simon-von-Utrecht-Strasse. She was buried at the Jewish cemetery in Mannheim.6 Today, two Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) that were laid in Hamburg commemorate the doctor.7
