Dr. Helene Langer (1888 - 1944)

Born on 14 July 1888 in Petropolis (Brazil), Helene Langer came to Prague after the death of her father in 1894, where she was taken in by her cousin Therese Zuckerkandl and her husband Professor Robert Zuckerkandl in place of their daughter. Helene Langer graduated in natural sciences and received her doctorate in 1912 in Prague as a bacteriologist. In 1916 she married Dr. Wilhelm Langer (1887-1973). With him she went to Jena in 1919, where their three children Emma (*1919), Herta (*1921) and Gerhard (*1923) were born. Wilhelm Langer, a lawyer and engineer, headed the hydrotechnical office established by Prof. Rudolf Straubel (1864-1943) at the Zeiss factory. The family initially lived at Beethovenstraße 15, and from 1929 they lived with their adoptive mother in the villa on Weinbergstraße.

After the Reich Pogrom Night in 1938, Helene Langer was one of the Jewish women temporarily arrested. For her, her children and her adoptive mother, staying in Germany became a threat to their lives. She stayed, also to stand by her sick adoptive mother Therese Zuckerkandl. During a business trip of her non-Jewish husband, who still offered her some protection, Helene Langer received the deportation notice on June 14, 1944. On June 16, she threw herself to her death from the cliff of the Luther pulpit in Jena's Mühltal.

The stumbling stone for Dr. Helene Langer was placed at Weinbergstraße 4a on May 7, 2008 (initiative of the Jenaer Arbeitskreis Judentum).