On 26 May 2023, Gunter Demnig laid ten stumbling stones in Nuremberg, five of them in memory of former Jewish citizens of Nuremberg. These included Otto and Sophie Metzger, who fled to England in 1939.

Otto Metzger was born on 24 November 1885. Otto’s parents were Ludwig Metzger and his wife Gretchen (née Guldmann). His father was a businessman and a privy councillor of commerce. Otto studied engineering in Munich, Zurich and Berlin. He then worked for 18 months as an engineer in the USA.

On returning to Nuremberg he married Sophie Josephthal in 1914. Sophie was born on 21 April 1894. Her father was the well-known lawyer, Emil Josephthal. In 1915 the couple lived at Bucher Strasse 20a. In the First World War Otto served as an officer in the Bavarian Army and was decorated on several occasions. From 1920 onwards he was director general of the company “South German Metal Industry” (“Süddeutsche Metall Industrie”), which employed around 2,000 people. Since 1912 Otto had been working for its predecessor company. He was forced to leave the firm in 1937 because he was Jewish.

In the so-called “Night of Broken Glass” on 9/10 November 1938, Otto was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned for six weeks in Dachau. He was severely mishandled in the camp. In February 1939, he and his wife managed to flee to England. Thanks to business connections he had already established in the country, he was quickly able to find employment there.