Albert Kissinger was born in Bad Kissingen on March 20, 1881 as the son of Max and Ernestine Kissinger, née Frank. Since 1891 he attended Kissingen Realschule, from which he successfully gradutated in 1897. Already before World War I, he took on his father’s clothes shop and tailoring business at Marktplatz that had gained an immense reputation. With Albert at the helm, the business quickly expanded. In the summer months, he ran an additional branch of his main shop at Marktplatz in Lindesmühlpromenade and later in the Ballingbasar. 

In the Jewish Cultural Community, he was very active as a bursar and deputy chairman for many years. Just like his father he was characterized by peculiar charity and an extraordinary social commitment. In 1907, he married his wife Jenny Baer. She had been born in Mannheim in 1884 and the couple married there. Their first son Max was born on September 9, 1908 and the second son Ernst was born in Bad Kissingen on January 7, 1910. 

After his son Max had emigrated to Palestine in 1935, the two brothers Max and Ernst tried hard to get an immigration permit for their parents, which at first was in vain. But it was not only the British Mandate’s authorities that caused problems. Their parents didn’t want to leave Germany for the time being because they felt very attached to it. Because of the boycott in the Nazi Era, Albert Kissinger had got into financial troubles which made it difficult to finance emigration. In addition, he hoped that Nazi terror was just a temporary phenomenon and the situation in Germany would get to normal again. 

The atrocities of Pogrom Night in 1938 were to change Albert Kissinger’s attitude all of a sudden. He realized then that staying in Bad Kissingen would endanger their lives and decided to endeavor a highly dramatic flight from Germany together with his wife. His son Ernst remembers: “As you know, all male Jews in Bad Kissingen were arrested. My father was already very ill at that time (Parkinson) and was not arrested because of that. Nevertheless, my parents escaped the next day, just like they were, to the Northern border (I don’t remember the place name) and were sent back. They went through the whole of Germany to the southern border where they were let in by Switzerland as cousins living in Switzerland had provided guarantees for them. In July 1939, they could eventually immigrate here (to Palestine). You can imagine what that meant for elderly and ill people in psychological and physical respects. I can only tell you the bare facts as it is impossible to find words for the suffering and feelings they endured. That they could get out of Germany in November 1938 without suffering any harm is close to a miracle.” After their dramatic odyssey across Germany, the couple lived in Lausanne for some time before they could emigrate to Palestine together in July 1939.

But there were only few years left in Palestine for the seriously ill Albert Kissinger. He already died in 1941 at the age of only 60.