Max Riess papers

Tax records pertaining to the business owned by Max Riess in Berlin, which specialized in the sales of mens accessories, including socks, gloves, and neckties. The records pertain mostly to income taxes paid by Riess during the late 1930s, up until his business was expropriated in 1941, and include taxes he had paid on his personal belongings and business inventories as part of the "Judenvermoegensabgabe" and other taxes targeting Jews during this period. Tax records pertaining to the business owned by Max Riess in Berlin, which specialized in the sales of men’s accessories, including socks, gloves, and neckties. The records pertain mostly to income taxes paid by Riess during the late 1930s, up until his business was expropriated in 1941, and include taxes he had paid on his personal belongings and business inventories as part of the "Judenvermögensabgabe" and other taxes targeting Jews during this period. Through the records that Riess kept, including correspondence with officials at the tax offices in Berlin-Mitte and Scharnhorst, a picture emerges of the declining sales and income of Riess’s business as it was targeted as a Jewish-owned business, and as additional taxes were levied on him, including the “Judenvermögensabgabe,” or the tax levied on German Jews following Kristallnacht in 1938. Riess was forced to accept a loan from his widowed mother, Olga Riess, but even this didn’t prevent the eventual loss of his business. Aryanization procedures were initiated in 1939, and by February 1941 he had recorded the dissolution of his business with the tax office in Berlin-Scharnhorst. Documents from 1942 show the forced collection of clothing from members of the Jewish Community of Berlin, and the items that Riess and his mother were forced to hand over. An additional file of print outs of e-mails from 2010, show how the Berlin office of the European Council of Jewish Communities sought to have a memorial “Stolperstein” placed on the sidewalk of Invalidenstrasse 156, outside of the building that once housed Riess’s business. This action was taken after a member of the Berlin office of the Council had received this file of Riess’s tax records, and decided to find a way to memorialize Riess.

The collection is arranged in five file folders, and then subdivided by topic within each folder, and within chronological order in each sub-folder.