POST 144: SPURIOUS AND AUTHENTIC HISTORIC DOCUMENTS RELATED TO MY GREAT-GREAT-GRANDFATHER, SAMUEL BRUCK (1808-1863)

 

Note: In this post, which I anticipate will be of limited interest to most readers, I examine primary source documents related to my great-great-grandfather Samuel Bruck (1808-1863) which shed light on his business activities and legacy. The fact that he owned one of the first hotels in Ratibor in Silesia [today: Racibórz, Poland] and had his hand in other commercial ventures made finding information about him easier than it would have been for a less prominent individual.

Related Posts:

POST 11: RATIBOR & BRUCK’S “PRINZ VON PREUßEN“ HOTEL

POST 11, POSTSCRIPT: RATIBOR & BRUCK’S “PRINZ VON PREUßEN” HOTEL

POST 11, POSTSCRIPT 2: RATIBOR & BRUCK’S “PRINZ VON PREUßEN” HOTEL

POST 60: 200 YEARS OF THE ROYAL EVANGELICAL HIGH SCHOOL IN RATIBOR & A CLUE TO THE BRUCK FAMILY

POST 132: FATE OF THE BRUCK’S “PRINZ VON PREUßEN“ FAMILY HOTEL IN RATIBOR (RACIBÓRZ): GEOPOLITICAL FACTORS

 

Thanks to the assistance of readers, friends, and distant relatives, over the last few months I’ve acquired primary source documents that shed light on the activities of a few of my earliest Bruck relatives from Silesia (Figure 1) when it was a part of Prussia before Germany became a unified state in 1871. Primary source documents including contemporary registers of vital events, such as births, marriages, and deaths; records certifying these occurrences; contemporary handbooks and address directories; and concurrent historical accounts or diaries, are my “gold standard” for verifying the age and context of ancestral events. While these records are not infallible, they come as close as possible to confirming the timing of vital events.

 

Figure 1. General map of Silesia when it was part of the state of Prussia

 

In this post, I will discuss some evidentiary materials that my dear friend Peter Albrecht von Preußen and others have unearthed related to my great-great-grandfather Samuel Bruck (1808-1863). (Figure 2) Samuel is thought to be the original owner of the family establishment in Ratibor, Prussia [today: Racibórz, Poland], the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel (Figure 3), believed to have been purchased in around 1850. However, a recently uncovered memoir penned by Eberhard Friedrich Bruck (1877-1960), one of Samuel’s grandnephews, currently being translated by his granddaughter, Helen Winter née Renshaw (b. 1948), now suggests Samuel’s father, Jacob Bruck (1770-1836), may originally have conceived the idea of building the hotel. As we speak, I am trying to run to ground other primary source documents that can not only confirm which Bruck ancestor first owned the hotel but possibly when the hotel might have been constructed.

 

Figure 2. Samuel Bruck (1808-1863)

 

 

Figure 3. Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel

 

Before launching into the documents that Peter Albrecht (Figure 4) and others have found and what I learned about Samuel, I would like to share with readers something I discovered in the process. I mistakenly believed that because the Bruck’s Hotel was in Ratibor, relevant archival materials would be restricted to the “Archiwum Państwowe w Katowicach Oddział w Raciborzu,” that’s to say the “State Archives in Katowice Branch in Racibórz.” Such is not the case. While I’ve assuredly found records about the Bruck’s Hotel in Racibórz’s archives, thanks to one of my readers I recently learned about and obtained archival materials related to the hotel from the State Archives in Wrocław, Branch in Kamieniec Ząbkowicki [formerly Kamenz, Prussia]. These latter materials will be the subject of a future post as they speak to the subject of the last days of my family’s ownership of the hotel in 1926-1927. My point to readers is that even if your family originates from one specific town in Silesia, you should keep an open mind as to which archives you search for ancestral information.

 

Figure 4. My good friend Peter Albrecht von Preußen

 

Because Peter’s surname is contained within the name of the former family establishment in Ratibor, Bruck’s Hotel “Prinz von Preußen,” and the fact that both of our families have deep ties to Silesia, caused Peter to take an interest in finding Bruck-related documents. Among other things, his discoveries shed light on my great-great-grandfather Samuel Bruck’s business activities.

Materials uncovered about Samuel Bruck provide a cautionary tale of the lens through which primary source documents should be examined. Just because historical files are related to an individual with the same name as one’s ancestor does not guarantee they are relevant, particularly if the surname is reasonably common in a geographic area.

In the online extracts of files archived at the Archiwum Państwowe w Opolu, State Archives in Opole [formerly Oppeln, Prussia], Peter found the following two files related to a Samuel Bruck from the former Prussian town of Zülz [today: Biała, informally Biała Prudnicka, Poland]:

Die letzwillige Bestimmung des Breltesten und Handelsmannes Samuel Bruck Zülz: 1820-1835” (Figure 5)

(“The last will and testament of the brethren and merchant Samuel Bruck Zülz: 1820-1835”)

Die gerichtliche Annahme und Niederlegung das von dem Kaufmann Samuel Bruck am 13 Januar 1832 verschlossen übergebene Testaments: 1832-1839” (Figure 6)

(“The judicial acceptance and filing of the will handed over by the merchant Samuel Bruck on 13 January 1832 in sealed form: 1832-1839”)

 

Figure 5. Index in the State Archives in Opolo to the file containing “The last will and testament of the brethren and merchant Samuel Bruck Zülz: 1820-1835”
Figure 6. Index in the State Archives in Opolo to the file containing “The judicial acceptance and filing of the will handed over by the merchant Samuel Bruck on 13 January 1832 in sealed form: 1832-1839”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Though the wills relate to a Samuel Bruck who filed testaments in the town of Zülz [today: Biała, informally Biała Prudnicka, Poland], this alone was not enough to convince me they related to someone other than my ancestor. As I just mentioned, I’ve found documents on the Bruck’s Hotel in Ratibor in archives other than Racibórz. For geographic reference, Opole is roughly 26 miles north-northeast of Biała. (Figure 7)

 

Figure 7. Map showing the distance between Biała (German: Zülz) and Opole (German: Oppeln)

 

Let me briefly digress. Readers cannot fail to notice that the two wills filed with the court in Zülz date from when Samuel Bruck, born in 1808, would respectively have been only 12 and 24 years of age. However unlikely writing wills at such a young age might appear to us, I try and imagine how different things might have been almost 200 years ago. I considered the possibility that Samuel had been extremely precocious and might have felt obligated to write a will as improbable as this seems.

Persuaded both files might relate to my ancestor, I ordered them. (Figures 8-9) Upon their arrival, I asked my fourth cousin Thomas Koch if he could help me make sense of the 39 pages of records I’d been sent; Thomas is the great-great-grandnephew of Samuel Bruck, thus he has an interest in the Bruck’s Hotel and Samuel Bruck.

 

Figure 8. Cover page of the 1820 file for the merchant Samuel Bruck from Zülz
Figure 9. Cover page of the 1832 file for the merchant Samuel Bruck from Zülz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were some immediate clues the wills from Zülz related to someone other than my Samuel Bruck. The Samuel Bruck in question was apparently the owner of a local pawnshop and an ironmonger (i.e., a dealer in iron and hardware), as well as a money lender, trades I’ve never heard associated with the Samuel Bruck from Ratibor. The Zülz wills also refer to Samuel as a parish or community elder, terms unlikely to have been applied to a 12 or 24-year old person. For the most part, the files document what court officials said, the actions of Samuel Bruck, and the fees to be paid by Samuel. Something notably absent that would affirmatively have allowed me  to determine the testator are named heirs, none of whom are identified.

Convinced the Samuel Bruck from Zülz, though likely related to my Bruck family from Ratibor (Biała and Racibórz are only about 38 miles apart (Figure 10)) in some unknown way, was not the former owner of the Bruck’s Hotel, I investigated other possibilities. I examined the Church of Latter-Day Saints Family Historic Center Microfilm 1271493 for Zülz, and discovered a Samuel Bruck born there on the 10th of September 1761. (Figure 11) It seems likely this Samuel Bruck is the person whose 1820 and 1832 wills were filed locally.

 

Figure 10. Map showing the distance between Biała (German: Zülz) to Racibórz (German: Ratibor)

 

Figure 11. Record from LDS Family Historic Center Microfilm 1271493 for Zülz listing a Samuel Bruck born there on the 10th of September 1761

 

One document, however, that unequivocally relates to the Samuel Bruck from Zülz is a notice about a bankruptcy auction that took place on the 23rd of June 1837 in Zülz (Figures 12a-b), presumably following this Samuel Bruck’s death in 1836 or 1837. The reason for this certainty is that this Samuel Bruck is identified in the notice as a “Eisenhändlert,” an iron trader, just as his wills identify him. According to Peter, while it is unusual for the estate of a deceased person to wind up in bankruptcy, this is possible when there are no heirs and/or no will. We know two testaments existed, so likely there were no heirs.

 

Figure 12a. Bankruptcy auction notice for the estate of the iron trader Samuel Bruck placed in a newspaper from Zülz dated the 23rd of June 1837

 

Figure 12b. Transcribed bankruptcy auction notice for Samuel Bruck identifying him as a “Eisenhändlert,” an iron trader

 

There is another document in my possession that should have clued me in to the fact that Samuel Bruck from Zülz was not my great-great-grandfather. In connection with his research, my retired lawyer friend from Racibórz, Paul Newerla, who has written extensively about Ratibor and Silesia found a historic publication from 1820 about the grand opening of the Royal Evangelical High School in Ratibor on the 2nd of June 1819. (Figures 13a-c) It lists the names of the enrolled students, including both Samuel Bruck and his younger brother, Jonas Bruck (1813-1883). It is more reasonable to surmise that at the age of 11, Samuel Bruck would have been in school in Ratibor rather than writing wills.

 

Figure 13a. Cover of 1820 publication about the grand opening of the Royal Evangelical High School in Ratibor on the 2nd of June 1819
Figure 13b. Inside cover of 1820 publication about the grand opening of the Royal Evangelical High School in Ratibor on the 2nd of June 1819

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 13c. Page 70 of the 1820 publication listing the names of enrolled students, including Samuel Bruck and Jonas Bruck who attended the inaugural class at the Royal Evangelical High School in Ratibor on the 2nd of June 1819

 

 

Samuel Bruck is listed in an 1843 merchant member book, entitled “Grosses Adressbuch der Kaufleute, Fabrikanten und handelnden Gewerbsleute von Europa und der hauptplazen der fremden Weltheile: Brandenburg, Preussen, Posen, Pommern, Schlesien,” “Large address book of the merchants, manufacturers, and trading professionals from Europe and the main square of the foreign world salvation: Brandenburg, Prussia, Posen, Pomerania, Silesia.” (Figures 14a-b) Interestingly, 1843 corresponds with the year that a city map of Ratibor shows the location where the Bruck’s Hotel once stood having a building on the lot. (Paul Newerla, personal communication) Samuel Bruck’s listing in the 1843 merchant member guide, however, may or may not have anything to do with his ownership of the Hotel “Prinz von Preußen” at this time. Samuel is known to have been involved in other businesses.

Figure 14a. Cover of 1843 merchant guide, entitled “Grosses Adressbuch der Kaufleute, Fabrikanten und handelnden Gewerbsleute von Europa und der hauptplazen der fremden Weltheile: Brandenburg, Preussen, Posen, Pommern, Schlesien,” listing Samuel Bruck from Ratibor

 

Figure 14b. Page from 1843 merchant guide listing Samuel Bruck from Ratibor

 

As a related aside, Ratibor was once a walled city. It was not until 1828 that the Oder gate, the tower nearest where the Bruck’s Hotel was eventually built, was demolished; the removal of this gate made it possible to extend Oderstraße, the street on which the Bruck’s Hotel stood (Paul Newerla, personal communication). It’s safe to assume that it was only after 1828 that the Hotel “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel could have been built.

As readers can generally make out from the photo of the hotel (see Figure 3), it was a reasonably large building known to have had 32 guest rooms. How long the hotel took to build, who paid for the construction, and the date of the grand opening are yet unknown. Whether I will be able to work out the answers to these questions is a big unknown.

The famous Austrian composer, Johann Strauss II, is known to have performed twice at the Hotel “Prinz von Preußen” once on the 17th of October 1850, then again, a month later, on the 17th of November 1850. Neither advertisement makes mention of the “Bruck’s Hotel,” only “Prinz von Preußen.” Possibly at the time Samuel Bruck did not yet own the hotel.

By the middle of 1852, Samuel Bruck assuredly owned the establishment because he signed a contract on the 14th of October 1852 permitting the so-called Liedertafel to hold meetings in the hotel’s ballroom beginning in January 1853. (Figures 15a-c) Page 20 (Figure 15c) mentions the “Hotelbesitzer Bruck,” that’s to say, the hotel owner Bruck. This citation occurs in a 1909 publication, entitled “Festschrift zum 75 jährigen Jubelfest der Liedertafel,” “The commemorative publication for the 75th anniversary of the Liedertafel,” in Ratibor. It was released on the 25th and 26th of September 1909 in conjunction with the unveiling of the Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorf monument in Ratibor. (Figure 15d)

 

Figure 15a. Page 20 of book about the Liedertafel mentioning the Bruck’s Hotel
Figure 15b. Page 21 of book about the Liedertafel mentioning the Bruck’s Hotel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 15c. Page 20 of Liedertafel book with Bruck’s Hotel citation circled

 

Figure 15d. Cover page of the book marking the 75th anniversary of the “Liedertafel” in Ratibor, released in conjunction with the unveiling of the Eichendorff monument

 

 

The Liedertafel translates literally to “song board.” It was a co-ed musical society or amateur choir, which in the case of the Ratibor group consisted of about 88 members. They met in the large ballroom of the Bruck’s Hotel every Thursday and Friday evening for an à la carte dinner with plenty of alcohol, followed by a sing-along to music played by a pianist, often accompanied by a bassist, cellist, and violinist. Their contract with the hotel suggests Samuel Bruck was a well-regarded and integrated member of the community.

Another mundane document tracked down by Peter Albrecht shows that Samuel Bruck was allowed to operate as an inn keeper by the police after obtaining fire insurance for the hotel through a company in Stettin [today Szczecin, Poland] called “Pommerania.” (Figure 16) Although the announcement published in Oppeln, Prussia [today: Opole, Poland] on the 4th of March 1856 makes no specific mention of fire insurance, to secure police permission to operate the inn, it is implicit that fire insurance was obtained.

 

Figure 16. March 4, 1856, announcement in Oppeln paper proving Samuel Bruck had obtained police approval to operate his inn after obtaining insurance from a company called “Pommerania,” located in Stettin [today: Szczecin, Poland]
 

An advertisement Samuel Bruck posted in April 1858 indicates that he was involved in more than running an inn and being a lumber wholesaler. According to this ad he also sold lump lime (Figure 17):

Figure 17. April 1858 advertisement by Samuel Bruck offering lump lime for sale from his lime kiln in Moerau [German: Mohrau; Polish: Morów]

 

Transcribed: 

Kalk-Anzeige

Von meinem in Moerau gelegenen Kalkoefen verkaufe ich besten Stueckkalk, den Waggon von 33 Tonnen mit 27 Rthlr. (Reichstahler) frei hier. Gefaellige Auftraege werden prompt und bestens ausgefuehrt.

Ratibor, im April 1858

 S. Bruck 

im Hotel “ Prinz von Preußen”

 

Translated: 

Lime Ad

From my lime kiln located in Moerau I am selling the best lump lime, the wagon of 33 tons with 27 Rthlr. (Reichstahler) free here. Appropriate orders are executed promptly and in the best possible way.

Ratibor, April 1858

S. Bruck

in the hotel “Prince of Prussia”

 

Let me offer a few comments about this ad. The spelling of many place names in Prussia changed between 1890 and 1900, so “Moerau” became known as “Mohrau,” (Figure 18) and is now known as Morów, Poland. It is about 57 miles northwest of Racibórz. (Figure 19)

 

Figure 18. Old map from Meyers Gazetteer showing location of Mohrau, Prussia

 

Figure 19. Map showing the distance between Racibórz and Morów

 

From 1855 onwards, a Prussian ton was equivalent to 200 kilos or almost 441 pounds. Thirty-three Prussian tons was equivalent to 6,600 kilos, 6.6 metric tons, or 14,551 pounds. Presumably this was the maximum weight an ox cart could handle.

Samuel Bruck passed away in July 1863. In June 1864, an official notice was placed in the Ratibor paper stating that Samuel Bruck’s handelsgesellschaft, holding company, which had been inherited by Samuel’s seven children, was ceded by the co-heirs to Samuel’s oldest child, Oskar Bruck, making him the sole owner of the S. Bruck Handelsgesellschaft. (Figure 20)

 

Figure 20. June 2, 1864 notice from Ratibor paper announcing Samuel Bruck’s “handelsgesellschaft,” holding company, which had been inherited by Samuel’s seven children, was ceded by the co-heirs to Samuel’s oldest child, Oskar Bruck

 

Transcription: 

Bekanntmachung

Bei der sub Nr. 69 unseres Firmen-Register fūr den Kaufmann Samuel Bruck eingetragen Firma S. Bruck ist zufolge Verfügung vom 2ten Juni 1864 der Vermerk:

Die Firma ist durch Erbgang auf die Geschwister Oskar, Fedor, Jenny, Emilie, Julius, Helene und Wilhelm Bruck übergangen und die Miterben haben dieselbe dem Kaufmann Oskar Bruck abgetreten, und sub Nr. 189 unseres Firmen-Registers der Kaufmann Oskar Bruck hierselbst als Inhaber der hiesigen Firma S. Bruck zufolge Verfügung von dem selben Tage eingetragen worden.

Ratibor, den 2. Juni 1864

Königliches Kreisgericht, 1. Abtheilung

 Translation: 

Announcement

According to the decree of June 2, 1864, the company S. Bruck, registered under No. 69 of our register of companies for the merchant Samuel Bruck, is marked:

The company has passed by inheritance to the siblings Oskar, Fedor, Jenny, Emilie, Julius, Helene and Wilhelm Bruck and the co-heirs have ceded the same to the merchant Oskar Bruck, and sub No. 189 of our company register the merchant Oskar Bruck has been registered here as the owner of the local company S. Bruck according to the decree of the same day.

Ratibor, June 2, 1864

Royal District Court, 1st Department

 

We learn a few unexciting things from this announcement. First, Oskar Bruck was a kaufmann, a merchant, which would have required a four-year apprenticeship. Had I not already known the names of Samuel’s children, this announcement would have provided this information. Samuel Bruck’s Handelsgesellschaft was registered as Number 69 in the District Court, while Oskar Bruck’s Handelsgesellschaft is registered as Number 189. As we speak, I’m trying to determine whether these files still exist in the Racibórz archives.

The final document related to Samuel Bruck involves a landmark Prussian case that his eldest son Oskar Bruck got involved in following his father’s death. The  case is discussed at length in a book on Prussian case law published in 1867, entitled “Central-Organ fur die deutsche handels- und Wechselrecht,” “Central Organ for German Commercial and Exchange Law.” (Figure 21)

 

Figure 21. Cover of Prussian case law book published in 1867, entitled “Central-Organ fur die deutsche handels- und Wechselrecht,” “Central Organ for German Commercial and Exchange Law,” providing a detailed description of the landmark case involving Samuel and Oskar Bruck’s estate

 

While the following will be of limited interest to most readers, let me briefly outline and summarize the salient points of this very involved case for readers.

In addition to being an inn owner, Samuel Bruck was a lumber wholesaler, and may have made his money here which enabled him to construct and/or purchase the Bruck’s Hotel. Shortly before his death in 1863, Samuel entered into a contract with a Dutch merchant, David Schwedter, agreeing to sell him 260 pieces of 4” x 4” structural lumber, possibly the equivalent of four ox carts of finished product. The Dutchman lived in the vicinity of Berlin, and had requested Samuel deliver the milled lumber there, which he’d agreed to.

Following Samuel’s death, Oskar Bruck acted on an interim basis on behalf of the the S. Bruck Handelsgesselchaft, which the probate court only officially granted him authority to do in his own name on the 2nd of June 1864 (see Figure 20). Regardless, following his father’s death, he notified Schwedter by mail that the transaction would go forward as planned and that he would run the S. Bruck Handelsgesselchaft.

Either Samuel before his death or Oskar contracted with an agent named Atzpodim who had a warehouse in Brieskow (Figure 22), near Frankfurt an der Oder. Schwedter had agree that Atzpodim would be the pickup point for the lumber. Oskar Bruck shipped the lumber to Atzpodim who acknowledged receipt of the materials. Oskar then notified Schwedter the lumber was ready for pickup at Atzpodim’s warehouse, and invoiced him, as agreed upon.

 

Figure 22. Old map from Meyers Gazetteer showing location of Brieskow, near Frankfurt an der Oder

Schwedter then mailed a letter to Oskar requesting him to instruct Atzpodim to transport the lumber to J.J. Stramer’s warehouse located in Stralow [today: Stralau in the Friedrichshain district of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg in Berlin, Germany]. (Figure 23) The distance between the two towns is about 64 miles. (Figure 24)

Figure 23. Old map from Meyers Gazetteer showing location of Stralow [today: Stralau]
Figure 24. Map showing the distance between Brieskow and Stralau

 

Three or four days later, Schwedter filed for bankruptcy. Atzpodim had not yet shipped the lumber to Stramer for reasons that are not entirely clear, although possibly Atzpodim through word-of-mouth had learned of Schwedter’s financial woes and sought to protect the young Oskar Bruck. I surmise Atzpodim had been one of Samuel’s trusted business associates over the years.

At this point, the trustee for the Bankruptcy Court in Frankfurt an der Oder sued Atzpodim for release of the lumber. Had the lumber already been delivered, the Bankruptcy Court would have carried it on their books and could then have sold it at a bankruptcy auction; Oskar, as creditor, would have been paid pennies on the dollar. Atzpodim, by not delivering the lumber to Stramer, saved Oskar from a steep financial loss.

Prussian law dealt with merchandise in bankruptcy proceedings where the debtor had taken possession of the merchandise three days or less before the debtor filed for bankruptcy and had paid not in cash but with credit.

In the case at hand, Atzpodim didn’t receive instructions from Oskar Bruck until the 26th of November 1863. Schwedter filed for bankruptcy on the 30th of November 1863. The Supreme Court in Berlin upheld the lower court’s ruling that the lumber shipment fell under the 3-day rule. If the lumber had been delivered to Schwedter, which it obviously wasn’t, he would have been required to return it because he hadn’t paid in cash but by credit, with a so-called Wechsel.

Let me say a few brief words about a Wechsel. According to German law, even today, transactions based on Wechsels can only be transacted by full merchants, meaning those who have completed a 4-year apprenticeship and received a kaufmann’s certificate. Upon certification, the kaufmann is registered either as a sole proprietor or as a Handelsgesellschaft, a trading company, like those Samuel and Oskar Bruck had recorded, in the Handelsregister, commercial register, of the city where the business is licensed.

The Wechsel allows the parties to do several things. It can be used as collateral for a bank loan. It can also be used as a futures contract; thus, with a Wechsel in hand, Schwedter could have sold the lumber at a higher price for a profit. Similarly, Samuel or Oskar could have sold his obligation to produce the lumber to a different sawmill (other than the one they originally contracted with) or another lumber merchant for a profit.

In closing, let me say a few things. The specifics of the information contained in some of the primary source documents cited above are less important than the fact they still exist. For researchers seeking comparable information about their ancestors who may have owned or operated businesses, an awareness that such documents may still exist can be useful. Often, it’s a question of knowing where to look and what to ask for. On a personal level, the fact that my family was involved in a legal case that was deemed of sufficient importance to merit inclusion in a book about Prussian commercial and trade law is fascinating.

Cobbling together one’s family history invites a clichéd comparison to the saying that “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

POST 118: SEVERAL POLISH DATABASES CONTAINING ANCESTRAL INFORMATION ON PRUSSIAN ANCESTORS

 

Note: A query from a reader about my ancestor Dr. Walter Wolfgang Bruck’s first marriage led me to obtaining Walter’s marriage certificate to his first wife, which in turn guided me to several Polish databases readers may find useful when researching their own Prussian ancestors. It is worth noting the data from some BUT not all these sources may also pop up when using ancestry.com. In the interest of thoroughness, readers may also want to check the ones cited in this post. I explain some of the challenges of using these sources.

Related Posts:

POST 99: THE ASTONISHING DISCOVERY OF SOME OF DR. WALTER WOLFGANG BRUCK’S PERSONAL EFFECTS

POST 100: DR. WALTER WOLFGANG BRUCK, DENTIST TO GERMANY’S LAST IMPERIAL FAMILY

POST 101: DR. WALTER WOLFGANG BRUCK: HIS DAUGHTER RENATE’S FIRST HUSBAND, A “SILENT HERO”

POST 102: DR. WALTER BRUCK, HIS SECOND WIFE JOHANNA GRÄBSCH & HER FAMILY

POST 109 (PART 1): JOHANNA & RENATE BRUCK’S WARTIME TAGEBUCH (“DIARY”)—YEARS 1940-1941

 

In January of this year, I received an email through my Blog’s Webmail from a gentleman named Stephen Falk from Point Roberts, Washington. Mr. Falk contacted me after reading Blog Post 99 about my accomplished relative from Breslau, Germany [today: Wrocław, Poland], Dr. Walter Wolfgang Bruck, subject of multiple earlier posts, wondering whether I was aware of Walter’s first wife, Margarethe “Grete” Skutsch (1872-1942). I confirmed that I knew about her. Stephen, it so happens, has the same relationship to Margarethe Skutsch, second cousin twice removed, as I do to Walter. In passing, Stephen mentioned that he was unaware that Walter had remarried and had fathered two children with his second wife.

Regular readers may recall that in Post 100 I discussed how I discovered Dr. Bruck had previously been married. Quoting what I wrote earlier:

In researching when and where Walter’s older sister, Margarethe Prausnitz née Bruck, was born and died, I found an ancestral tree showing Walter had been married before he married Johanna Bruck née Gräbsch, the mother of his two children. This came as quite a surprise to me. According to this source, the name of Walter’s first wife was purportedly Margarethe STUTSCH.

I have repeatedly told readers that unless I can locate primary source documents, I am hesitant to believe what I find in other people’s trees. Case in point. While I was eventually able to confirm Walter had indeed previously been married, I learned his first wife’s maiden name was SKUTSCH not Stutsch, complicating my search. Sadly, I found that Margarethe Skutsch, born the same month and year as Walter, March 1872, was murdered in Theresienstadt in 1942.

I unearthed two primary source documents confirming Margarethe’s connection to Walter Bruck. The first was her Theresienstadt death certificate, very rarely completed post-mortem for Jews who died there, giving her married name. The second was the 1907 death certificate for Margarethe’s mother, Berta Skutsch née Grosser, at which Walter was a witness. A picture from around 1917 shows Margarethe and Walter seated at an outside picnic table with the Grand Duke of Oldenburg and his wife, indicating they were still married at the time. Walter’s biography which abruptly ends around 1894-95 gives no indication he was married before he left for America to attend the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, so the duration of his first marriage is unknown.

In Part I of Post 109, I also made mention of a seemingly ongoing connection between Walter Bruck’s first and second wives following Walter’s death in 1937. Again quoting:

Personally intriguing is the mention made on March 30, 1940, that Renate [Dr. Bruck’s surviving child by his second wife] went to visit ‘Tante Margarethe’ to wish her a happy birthday. The quotation marks indicate that while she was not a relative, she was still referred to as an aunt. There is no doubt this is Dr. Walter Wolfgang Bruck’s first wife who was Jewish, Margarethe Bruck née Skutsch. She was born on March 30, 1872, in Breslau [Wrocław, Poland], and murdered in the Theresienstadt Ghetto on the 22nd of September 1942. It is surprising that Johanna and Renate were in touch with Walter’s first wife, although, as this was certainly the case, it’s astonishing that Johanna made no mention in the diary when Margarethe was deported. Perhaps Johanna had already distanced herself from this Jewish ‘aunt’ by then?

Soon after establishing contact with Stephen Falk, he informed me that he has a copy of Walter Bruck and Margarethe Skutsch’s marriage certificate (Figures 1a-d), which he graciously shared.  From the certificate, which my good German friend Peter Hanke transcribed and translated for me, I learned several interesting things. (Figures 2a-b)

 

Figure 1a. Page 1 of Dr. Walter Bruck and Margarethe Skutsch’s 1896 wedding certificate with a notation in the upper right-hand corner dated the 8th of January 1924 indicating they were officially divorced on the 21st of December 1923
Figure 1b. Page 2 of Dr. Walter Bruck and Margarethe Skutsch’s 1896 wedding certificate providing the names of witnesses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 1c. An attached sheet dated the 24th of January 1939 adding the name “Sara” to Margarethe Bruck née Skutsch’s name to indicate she was Jewish. Dr. Walter Bruck died in 1937 so there was no need to add the name “Israel” to his name
Figure 1d. A second sheet attached to Walter and Margarethe’s marriage certificate with a list of other Jewish people who had “Sara” or “Israel” added to their names

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2a. Transcription of Walter and Margarethe’s 1896 marriage certificate including the sheets attached in January 1939

 

Figure 2b. Translation of Walter and Margarethe’s 1896 marriage certificate including the sheets attached in January 1939

 

As I correctly surmised from Walter’s biography which I discussed in Post 100, he was not yet married to his first wife when he departed for America in around 1894-95 to attend the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. According to his marriage document Walter and Margarethe married on the 20th of October 1896 in Breslau, Germany. The certificate confirmed that by the time of their marriage in 1896, Walter had already converted to the Protestant religion. For a long time, I thought his conversion might have coincided with the death of Walter’s mother in around 1917, but clearly Walter anticipated the benefits professionally of being Protestant. As he and other Jews who converted would later learn, according to Nazi ideology he would always be considered “racially” Jewish. Walter died in 1937, perhaps by his own hand, so did not live long enough to have “Israel” added to his name, but as readers can see, Margarethe had the name “Sara” added to hers identifying her as Jewish (Figure 1c); sadly, as previously mentioned, she was deported to and murdered in Theresienstadt in 1942.

It is not uncommon for German marriage certificates to include the date of a divorce decree should a marriage be dissolved. As readers will note, a handwritten entry was added to Walter and Margarethe’s 1896 marriage document on the 8th of January 1924 affirming they had been divorced since the 21st of December 1923. (Figure 1a) The timing of the divorce is intriguing. In Post 102, I included a copy of Dr. Walter Bruck and Johanna Graebsch’s wedding announcement dated the 13th of December 1923 (Figure 3), thus, eight days before Walter’s first marriage officially ended.

 

Figure 3. Walter Bruck and Johanna Gräbsch’s wedding announcement dated the 13th of December 1923, eight days before Walter’s divorce from Margarethe Skutsch became official

 

Judging from the entry to Johanna and Renate Bruck’s Tagebuch cited above, it appears that Walter’s second wife had a cordial relationship with his first wife at least until it became too dangerous for Johanna and Renate to associate with the Jewish-born Margarethe Bruck née Skutsch during the Nazi era. While the reasons for the dissolution of Walter and Margarethe’s marriage will likely never be known, perhaps their inability to have children may have been the cause? To date, I have found no evidence they ever had any together.

The marriage certificate contains additional ancestral information about Walter and Margarethe’s parents, information previously known to me, though for readers in a similar situation, such documents can often yield new ancestral data.

Stephen gave me a direct link to Walter and Margarethe’s 1896 wedding document. The source is the “Archiwum Państwowe we Wrocławiu,” the State Archives in Wrocław, which has free, online genealogy collections as well as onsite family history collections. Prior to being contacted by Stephen, I had never accessed the Breslau online records, so will spend a little time broadly explaining to interested followers how to navigate the database. Readers should be forewarned that based on my limited exploration of the website I find it extremely user-unfriendly. Beyond the obvious challenge of negotiating a Polish website, even with the translator automatically turned on, there appear to be specific sequential steps to be followed to access the desired files.

Relatedly, my good friend Peter Hanke provided a link to a website entitled “Ahnenforschung in Schlesien—Liegnitz, Breslau, Lauban, Hirschberg,” Genealogy in Silesia—Liegnitz, Wroclaw, Lauban, Hirschberg that includes a portal page for specifically accessing the documents of the State Archives in Wroclaw (the Standesamt or the German civil registration offices for Breslau I, II, III, IV which were responsible for recording births, marriages, and deaths). (Figure 4) For ease, it helps to begin with the link to “Genealogy in Silesia” just mentioned.

 

Figure 4. Portal page from the “Ahnenforschung in Schlesien—Liegnitz, Breslau, Lauban, Hirschberg” link taking you to the vital records from the former Breslau registry offices

 

Before briefly explaining how to access the Wroclaw records, some background about the city of Breslau is helpful. By the end of the Middle Ages in around 1500, the city had already more than 25,000 inhabitants, something few of the more than 4,000 places in Silesia had reached by the end of WWII. By 1840, 100,000 people were already living in Breslau. From then on, a tremendous growth spurt ensued because of the construction of the railway and the beginning of industrialization. In 1900 the population had quadrupled to 400,000 as outlying areas were incorporated into the city. By 1939 there were 630,000 inhabitants in Breslau. Most readers with an ancestral link to Prussia likely have relatives with a connection to Breslau simply because it was the largest city in Silesia.

I was able to track down a map of Breslau as it looked in 1863 hoping I could locate the streets where Walter and Margarethe lived before they got married 33 years later. The marriage certificate tells us Walter resided at Schweidnitzerstraße 27 (Figure 5), and Margarethe at Zwingerplatz 2. Both locales are found on the 1863 map (Figure 6) although Hindenburgplatz, where Walter later owned a sumptuous home, was then an outlying area known only as “nach Kleinburg.” Peter Hanke also gave me a link to a website containing many high-resolution historic maps of Breslau, including Kaiser Wilhelm Strasse which bisected Hindenburgplatz (Figure 7); for readers interested in understanding the city’s layout through time, I include the link: http://igrek.amzp.pl/result.php?cmd=pt&locsys=1&uni=-706307&box=0.0001&hideempty=on

 

Figure 5. 1897 Breslau Address showing where Dr. Walter Bruck and his father Dr. Julius Bruck lived, Schweidnitzerstrasse 27

 

Figure 6. 1863 map of Breslau showing the locales where Schweidnitzer and Zwinger were located, locales, respectively, where Dr. Walter Bruck and Margarethe Skutsch lived when they were married in 1896

 

Figure 7. 1895 map of Breslau showing the relative locations of Schweidnitzer, Zwingerplatz, and Kaiser Wilhelm Strasse

 

Moving on, let me describe how to access Breslau’s birth, marriage, and death records from the “Ahnenforschung in Schlesien—Liegnitz, Breslau, Lauban, Hirschberg” website. As previously mentioned, Breslau had four Standesämter, or civil registration offices, referred to as “Standesamt BRESLAU I-IV” on the site’s portal page. The responsible registry office was based on one’s street address. Determining the responsible Breslau Standesamt for one’s ancestors without an address and address book is nigh near impossible.

That said, I like a challenge, and attempted to determine the civil registry office for Dr. Walter Bruck for the last year he was alive, specifically, 1937. Living on a street that was in the late 19th century and early 20th century known as Kaiser Wilhelm Strasse, during the Nazi era it was called “Straße der S.A.” “S.A.” stands for Sturmabteilung (SA) which was the paramilitary combat organization of the Nazi Party. The precise address of Dr. Bruck’s residence in 1937 was Hindenburgplatz 17 (Figure 8), bisected initially by Kaiser Wilhelm Strasse, and later by the renamed Straße der S.A. (Figure 9)

 

Figure 8. Dr. Walter Bruck’s listing and address from a 1937 Breslau Address Book showing he lived at Hindenburg Platz 17, a plaza bisected by Kaiser Wilhelm Strasse, renamed during the Nazi era to “Straße der S.A.”

 

Figure 9. 1939 map of Breslau showing that Kaiser Wilhelm Strasse was then called “Straße der S.A.,” which bisected Hindenburgplatz

 

The next step in determining the responsible civil registry office requires having an address book for the year in question, in this example, 1937. The following website (Category:Wroclaw Address Book – GenWiki (genealogy.net) has 104 Breslau Address Books intermittently spanning parts of two centuries and includes the year 1937. The fourth part of this Address Book shows the all-important street directory, which lists the relevant civil registry office under one of the columns. In the case of Hindenburgplatz 17 the responsible Standesamt was “4,” the responsible Evangelical parish was “10,” and the responsible Catholic parish under the column titled “parochia,” was “III.” (Figures 10a-b)

 

Figure 10a. Page from Section 4 of the 1937 Breslau Address Book which identifies the “Standesamt” (civil registry office) responsible for specific Breslau addresses and cross references the relevant Evangelical and Catholic parishes by number

 

Figure 10b. Closeup from Section 4 of the Breslau Address Book with Dr. Bruck’s home address, Hindenburgplatz 17, showing that it was served by Standesamt IV, and that the responsible Evangelical parish was “10” (St. John’s Church) and the Catholic one was “III” (St. Carolus-Kapelle)

 

Readers will rightly wonder which Evangelical and Catholic churches the parish numbers relate to. This information is also found in the fourth part of the address books, in subsection five entitled “V. Abschnitt. Kirchen und Friedhöfe,” Section V. Churches and Cemeteries. (Figure 11) So, in the above example, the Evangelical parish 10 refers to St. John’s Church, while the Catholic parish III would have been St. Carolus-Kapelle. Knowing that Dr. Bruck was a Protestant, I searched for the surviving church registers for the St. John’s Church, none of which are known to have survived WWII.

 

Figure 11. Section 4, Subsection V of 1937 Breslau Address Book entitled “V. Abschnitt. Kirchen und Friedhöfe,” Section V. Churches and Cemeteries, with the names of Breslau’s former Evangelical and Catholic parishes

 

Later, I will briefly discuss one Breslau parish record of personal interest I surprisingly found amongst surviving records for a different Evangelical parish, the church of St. Elisabeth’s.

For readers in fact interested in tracking down the responsible civil registry office as well as the parish for ancestors listed in the various Breslau address books, the following link provides a “how-to” guide on doing so: http://www.christoph-www.de/breslau%201.html; this how-to guide is entitled “Breslau für Familienforscher,” “Wrocław for Genealogists.” (Figure 12) Bear in mind that not all Breslau directories include a table in the fourth part of the book cross-referencing street addresses with civil registry offices and responsible parishes. In this case, readers should examine directories a year or more before or after the target year.

 

Figure 12. First page of “how-to” guide entitled “Wrocław for Genealogists”

 

Continuing. I will use “Standesamt BRESLAU IV” to illustrate how to access the Breslau birth, marriage, and death records. Once you’ve selected a specific civil registry office, you’ll be taken to another page where readers will find the following listings in Polish on the left side (Figure 13): Zespół1428-0 – Urząd Stanu Cywilnego (Zespół1428-0 – Registry Office); Seria1 – Księgi urodzeń (Birth records) (Figure 14); Seria2 – Księgi małżeństw (Marriage registers); and Seria3 – Księgi zgonów (Death books). You can either select birth, marriage, or death records, or “Show All the Listings” in the center part of the screen (i.e., at the time of this writing, there were “233 Results” available). Next, scroll down and select the specific year and records you’re interested in which will take you to another page; scroll down on this page, and select the hyperlinked URL. Images of the vital documents will show up which you can then scroll through systematically; if you know the specific month and/or day you’re looking for you can short-circuit the process. If you attempt to access the vital records from a place other than “Show All the Listings,” which it is possible to do, the hyperlinked URL won’t appear.

 

Figure 13. Cover page of “Standesamt Breslau IV” from which to access birth, marriage & death vital records

 

Figure 14. Page from which to access birth books for Standesamt Breslau IV

 

I want to draw readers attention to another source of information that will take you to maps and plans of the city of Breslau. By selecting “Standesamt Breslau I,” you’ll come to a page entitled “Team 1425-0—Civil Registry Office in Wrocław I” (Figure 15) Click where it says “430 Results,” and on the center of the next page select the box “Civil Registry Office in Wrocław.” (Figure 16) The next page yields “5504 Results” (Figure 17); on the left side you can select “Files of the city of Wrocław” which takes you to a different page with “489 Results” with the icons of Breslau maps through time. (Figure 18)

 

Figure 15. Page from which to begin accessing civil records, maps, and plans for “Standesamt Breslau I”

 

Figure 16. Page with “430 Results” from which to select “Civil Registry Of Wrocław”

 

Figure 17. Page with “5504 Results” from which to select “Files of the City of Wrocław” along the left side of screen

 

Figure 18. Page with ”489 Results” showing icons of old maps and plans of Breslau

 

Suffice it to say with all the digital information available through the “Archiwum Państwowe we Wrocławiu,” one could spend many days studying the offerings; I’ve barely touched on what can be accessed but for interested genealogists the more narrowly you can focus your research with vital dates and addresses of one’s ancestors, obviously the easier things will go.

Before personally acquainting myself with the digital records available at the Wrocław Archives, I asked Stephen to check on specific vital documents where I knew the approximate date or year of the event. Initially, I had hoped to obtain the birth certificates for Walter and Johanna Bruck’s two daughters, Hermine born in 1924, who lived only a few months, and Renate born in 1926. Unfortunately, in Poland as in Germany there is a “protection period” before vital documents can be released to the general public. While the births of both Hermine and Renate took place when Breslau was part of Germany, the protection period is governed by Poland; Poland won’t release Hermine and Renate’s birth certificates, respectively, until 2024 and 2026, so 100 years after their births. In Germany, the protection period for birth certificates is 110 years. In the case of death records, Germany releases them after 30 years but in Poland one must wait 80 years.

Having learned that the protection period for marriage records in both Germany and Poland is 80 years, I had hoped I could uncover Walter Bruck and Johanna Gräbsch’s 1923 or 1924 marriage certificate, to no avail. Perplexingly, the marriage records for this period are not yet digitized. I’ll return to my search for information on Walter and Johanna’s marriage momentarily in discussing another Polish database readers can search for information on Prussian ancestors.

To remind readers, Walter and Johanna’s daughter Renate was married three times. Her first husband, whom I’ve previously wrote about in Post 101 was Matthias Eugen Walter Mehne; according to his daughter Bettina Mehne he was born in 1908 in Breslau. While many birth records from this year exist in the Wrocław Archives, Stephen could not find M.E.W. Mehne’s birth certificate so one can only assume it was among those destroyed during WWII.

Matthias Mehne’s address, Tauenzienplatz 1, means the responsible Standesamt was 4. The responsible Evangelical parish for this address was “2,” while the responsible Catholic parish was “VI.” In the case of the address associated with Matthias Mehne, the Evangelical parish would have been St. Mary Magdalene, while the corresponding Catholic parish would have been St. Dorothea (=Minoritenkirche). It’s unknown to me whether Matthias was an Evangelical or a Catholic, and while church records survive for both parishes, I was unable to find a baptismal or birth record for him amongst these records.

In the aforementioned how-to guide “Wrocław for Genealogists,” the surviving Evangelical and Catholic parish records are identified, and a hyperlink provided to some of them. Uncertain whether any would have relevant records for my ancestors, I started by examining the Evangelical records for the first Evangelical church, St. Elisabeth parish church (Elisabeth-Kirche zu Breslau | Breslau/Wroclaw, Staatsarchiv | Polen | Matricula Online (matricula-online.eu). Miraculously, I stumbled upon the marriage register listing for Johanna Gräbsch to her first husband, Dr. Alfred Renner, confirming they were married on the 6th of May 1905. (Figure 19) While I had previously located their marriage certificate in ancestry.com, it fails to indicate they were married in St. Elisabeth’s Evangelical Church. Armed with this new information, I naively hoped that Johanna Gräbsch’s marriage to Walter Bruck in late 1923 or early 1924 might also have taken place in the same Evangelical Church, so I carefully scrolled through the rest of marriage register for St. Elisabeth’s, to no avail.

 

Figure 19. Page from Marriage Register for Breslau’s St. Elisabeth’s Church recording Johanna Gräbsch’s 1905 marriage to Dr. Alfred Renner

 

Given Dr. Bruck’s prominence in the city of Breslau during his lifetime, Stephen Falk made an excellent recommendation. He suggested I try and track down a contemporary newspaper that might have included an announcement of Dr. Bruck’s second marriage. I was quickly able to determine the largest Breslau newspaper of the time was the “Breslauer Zeitung” (i.e., “zeitung”=newspaper) but was uncertain whether historic copies of the tabloid can be found online. Consequently, I contacted my friend from Wrocław, Ms. Renata Wilkoszewska-Krakowska, Branch Manager, Museum of Cemetery Art (Old Jewish Cemetery), Branch of the City Museum of Wrocław. Renata graciously provided a link to another Polish database (https://www.dbc.wroc.pl/dlibra?language=en), the Lower Silesian Digital Library. (Figure 20)

 

Figure 20. Portal page for the “Lower Silesian Digital Library” from which to begin “Search”

 

The site includes some back issues of the Breslauer Zeitung, although none for the year Dr. Bruck remarried in either 1923 or 1924. As readers can see, in the very center of the Lower Silesian Digital Library portal page there is a search bar. Beyond looking for old Breslau newspapers, out of curiosity I also searched my family surname, and happened upon references related to three other eminent Bruck ancestors from Breslau, Dr. Julius Bruck (Dr. Walter Bruck’s father), Dr. Eberhard Bruck, and Dr. Felix Bruck. Readers with ancestral connections to Breslau can do similar searches. Occasionally, genealogists may even be rewarded by finding historic pictures of one’s predecessors.

I can’t conclude this Blog post without conceding the obstacles and challenges genealogists face in searching and finding information for ancestors who may hail from Silesia. The language barrier turns out to be the easiest to overcome. Readers should be able to figure out how to access the civil records from the Wrocław Archives, although the process of scrolling through all of them can be tedious, particularly when one does not have dates for any vital events in an ancestor’s life. Figuring out which Protestant or Catholic parish relatives may have lived in, and then hoping the church records for that parish still exist can also be exasperating. Knowing that the protection period for vital events has expired, and then being unable to find digitized copies of those records can be vexing. The list of challenges goes on, but my advice to genealogists is to persist. Experimenting by following some of the steps I’ve outlined should be helpful. Bear in mind that doing ancestral searches can at times involve a steep learning curve.