born 19 December 1881 in Berlin
died 1941 (?) in Litzmannstadt (Polish: Łódź)
Historical former address Karlstraße 9
Stumbling stone Otto-Nuschke-Straße 9
Date of stone-laying 13 July 2007

Paula Sternberg was born into a Jewish family in Berlin-Spandau on 19 December 1881. Her parents Selig and Rosa Sternberg (née Joseph) had two more children – a son named Julius, born in 1879, and a daughter named Fanny, born in 1878. Selig Sternberg was the second-generation head of the well-known “Kaufhaus M. K. Sternberg” at Breite Straße 21 in Berlin-Spandau.

On 24 April 1906, Paula married Alfred Roderick Marcuse, who came from Fürstenwalde, where he owned a department store on the market square. On 18 October 1921, their son Klaus was born.After her husband’s sudden death in 1925, Paula attempted to continue the business, but eventually leased it to the Forrell corporation. Her plan was for Klaus to take over the business when he came of age. In the early 1930s, she moved back to Berlin-Spandau, where her brother Julius ran the family’s department store until he was forced to sell it in 1938.

In 1938, Klaus Marcuse fled to England, while Paula moved to Hamburg to live with her widowed sister Fanny Harrison. They lived at Sierichstraße 132. The last address of the two sisters was Brombeerweg 47. Apparently, they tried to follow their brother Julius Sternberg, who in the meantime had fled to Bogotá in Colombia from Hamburg.

On 25 October 1941, Paula Marcuse was deported to Litzmannstadt (Polish: Łódź) and murdered there. Her sister Fanny was deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp on 11 July 1942.

Family members:
Klaus Adolf Marcuse