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Ludwig Konjetschni, actually Ludvík Konečný, most recently Louis Conney (* 24. August 1892 in Teschen, Austrian-Silesia; † 4. March 1968 in Sydney, Australia[1]) was a well-known and controversial restaurateur in Berlin and Sydney in the 1920s and early 1930s. Among other things, he operated - at changing locations - the internationally known and homosexual restaurant "Eldorado", during the Weimar Republic in Berlin, Germany.

Life and Work;

During the First World War, Ludwig Konjetschni (also numerous other spellings, such as Ludvík Konečný - depending on the document and time) became a Russian war captivity for two years as a fighter of the Austro-hungarian army. He cured a back ailment that had suffered in the process after escaping from imprisonment in Dresden-Weißer Hirsch in the Lahmann Sanatorium, which was used as a hospital. He came to Berlin from Dresden at the end of 1919. At that time, the capital of the Weimar Republic offered many Eastern European war, pogrom or revolutionary migrants a new home. 2] Especially in the booming coffee house industry, several of them saw their economic opportunity.

In March 1920, Ludwig Konjetschni opened in Charlottenburger Kantstraße 24, where he also lived, first the cabaret stage "Satyr" and then the restaurant "Alkasar"[3]. The latter was aimed primarily at Eastern European exiles, as many (more wealthy) Russian emigrants had settled in Charlottenburg. 4]

From 1924 to 1933, he operated the restaurant "Eldorado" first in Kantstraße 24, then in Lutherstraße 31/32 and finally in Motzstraße 15.

In mid-1932, he also took over the sophisticated Charlottenburg restaurant "Villa d'Este" from the Jewish restaurateur Josef König. Together with his long-time friend and business partner Harry Steffen, he founded the "Villa d'Este Cafe- und Restaurations-Betriebs Ges.m.b.H." and called the restaurant "Kaffee Aquarium". 5] Just as since the early 1930s, the "Eldorado" in Motzstraße, the "Kaffee Aquarium" also seemed to have been a popular meeting place for SA members.

But despite its great political proximity to National Socialism (entry into the NSDAP and SA on the 3rd March 1933[6]), Konjetschni was exposed to repression and slander by the National Socialists, but also by the Berlin Restaurant Association. 7] In the middle of 1933, he, who had been a Czechoslovak citizen since the end of the First World War, fled to Czechoslovakia. The first stop was the "Berghof Ausspanne" in the border town of Zinnwald, then Teplice-Šanov.

In Czechoslovakia, Konjechni was targeted by the authorities due to his political background. Still in Teplice-Šanov, he was arrested on the grounds of financially supporting the "Sudeten German Home Front" of Konrad Henlein. 8][9]

In December 1934, Konjechni moved to Prague. At the end of April 1936, he then moved to France. 10] From the south of France, the Konjechni couple emigrated to Australia in 1939. This is where the name change to Conney took place. As Louis Conney, he first became a partner of a restaurant in Sydney in 1940.[11] In 1946, under this name, he opened the "Photostudio Victoria" in Sydney, as well as the delicacy store "Maison des Delicatesses", both in the "Victoria Arcade" between Elizabeth and Castlereigh Street, which was demolished in 1965[12]

Family and Private life;

The first wife of Konjetschni was Elsa Frieda Augustin (* 25. January 1887 in Aachen; marriage on the 3rd September 1923 in Wandlitz, divorce on the 18th. December 1925).[ 13] According to the description in the marriage certificate, the daughter Alice Violetta (* 9.) went out of this connection before marriage. November 1921 in Berlin). On the 22nd In June 1931, he married the accountant Edith Else Heuer (* 23. February 1907 in Rixdorf/Neukölln).[ 14]

Both in 1930 and 1932, Konjetschni submitted naturalization applications to the Berlin police, which, however, were both postponed or decided in a rejected manner. As reasons, economic difficulties Konjetschnis ("Revelation oath") or 1932 his ownership of the "Eldorado" in Motzstraße 15 ("Meeting Point of the Transvestites") were put forward as reasons.

Epilogue;

At the beginning of the 1950s, the spouses Louis and Edith Elsa Conney (Australia) raised refund claims at the Reparation Office Berlin-Wilmersdorf regarding the local "Eldorado" and "Aquarium".

References;

1. The Sydney Morning Herald from the 8th March 1968

2. Marius Munz: Berlin as a refugee city (1918-1933). Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-656-12685-0.

3.Andreas Pretzel: From Dorian Gray to Eldorado. Historical places and dazzling personalities in the Schöneberger Regenbogenkiez. Berlin 2012, p. 111 ff.

4. Eastern European-Jewish migrants in Berlin in the 1920s/30s. Retrieved on the 18th. February 2021.

5. Claudia Molnar: The Berlin "Villa d'Este". Bürgerpalais · Dance room · NS-Kunsthalle. Norderstedt 2020, ISBN 978-3-7519-2190-9, p. 48 ff.

6. National Archives Prague, Prezidium ministerstva vnitra, No. 59.

7. Andreas Pretzel: From Dorian Gray to Eldorado. Historical places and dazzling personalities in the Schöneberger Regenbogenkiez. Berlin 2012.

8. Eldorado-Konny wanted to finance Henlein. In: Prague noon from 31.1.1934.

9. For this process, a large number of documents are in Czech archives: in the National Archives in Prague, in the Moravian State Archives in Brno and in the State District Archives Teplice.

10. National Archives Prague, Policejní ředitelství Praha II - evidence obyvatelstva/všeobecná spisovna.

11. Restaurant "Flinco", 363-364 Oxford Street: Dun's Gazette, Nov. 15, 1940, p. 285

12. Dun's Gazette, Dec. 20, 1946, p. 333 and April 9, 1948, p. 131

13. LK Barnim Marriage Register 1874-1936, Wandlitz 1916-1930, No. 14.

14. Berlin, Marriage Register 1874-1936, Lichterfelde No. 201.