POST 156: THE ARRIVAL OF TRAIN SERVICE IN RATIBOR (RACIBÓRZ, POLAND) IN 1846 AS SEEN ON CONTEMPORARY MAPS

 

Note: A page from an 1845 book by Johann Knie translated by one of my cousins discussing trade and commerce in Ratibor (today: Racibórz, Poland) at the time includes a discussion of the regional railway companies involved and the route by which the train arrived in town. The places mentioned provide an opportunity for me to introduce unfamiliar readers to the Meyers Gazetteer, a compilation of German Empire (1871-1918) place names and maps, to better visualize things.

It doesn’t come naturally to me to be curious. My parents were not patient people who would encourage nor answer an endless stream of innocent queries. This line of questioning was quickly squelched. I admire people to whom this trait comes instinctively, who grew up in a more nurturing and cerebral environment. This may explain why I go into more detail on matters of historical context than readers may be interested in knowing. Readers can decide for themselves how much of a topic they want to learn about.

With the above as backdrop, I want to discuss one valuable resource I stumbled upon while doing my ancestral research, the so-called Meyers Gazetteer. Various references to it can be found on the Internet, including links to the database on ancestry.com and familysearch.org. Consequently, I hesitated to write a post about it. However, because I so frequently find myself returning to this compilation of German Empire (1871-1918) place names and maps, it occurred to me it might be valuable for others unfamiliar with this website to be aware of it. In this post I’ve chosen to illustrate using the arrival of the railroad in Ratibor in January 1846 as an example a potential use of the historic maps in the Meyers Gazetteer to better visualize the placement of the railroad; this is done in conjunction with contemporary Google maps.

I’ve previously explained to readers that most of Silesia (Figure 1) where my immediate family hails from is no longer part of Germany. Most of Silesia was given to Poland as compensation after WWII (Figure 2) following Poland’s loss of a much larger swath of land to the USSR in then-eastern Poland, land that is today part of the Ukraine. With Poland’s acquisition of German Silesia, the German town names were all changed to Polish place names that often make it difficult to locate the former German towns on present-day maps. This is where the Meyers Gazetteer is inordinately useful if the former German town name can be found in the database.

 

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

 

Figure 2. Map showing the parts of Upper Silesia given to Poland in 1921 and then after WWII

 

The idea for this post came to me recently after asking one of my fourth cousins, Helen Winter, nee Renshaw (Figure 3) from Wolverhampton, England, if she could briefly explain to me the contents of one page from an 1845 book by Johann Knie talking about Ratibor. The text is printed in Fraktur, Black Lettering, that Helen has gained some aptitude reading of late. (Figure 4)

 

Figure 3. My fourth cousin Helen Winter, née Renshaw in Attingham Park in Wolverhampton in 2023

 

Figure 4. Page from Johann Knie’s 1845 book written in Fraktur translated for me by my Helen Winter discussing trade and commerce in Ratibor at the time and the route by which the train arrived in town

 

I did not specifically ask for a transcription nor translation. On my own, I figured out the text addressed primarily trade and commerce in Ratibor in around 1845 so felt a summary would be adequate for my purposes. However because Helen took it as an intellectual challenge, an exquisitely done transcription and translation is what I received. And I’m thrilled Helen provided this because unexpectedly part of the text discussed the route by which the railway arrived in Ratibor and the various regional railway companies involved in its construction.

Because multiple German town names were mentioned and I was having trouble visualizing the route, I turned to the Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs-Lexikon des Deutschen Reichs, the “Meyers Geographical and Commercial Gazetteer of the German Empire.” As ancestry.com points out “This gazetteer of the German Empire is the gazetteer to use to locate place names in German research. It was originally compiled in 1912. This gazetteer is the gazetteer to use because it includes all areas that were part of the pre-World War I German Empire. Gazetteers published after WWI may not include parts of the Empire that were lost to bordering countries. Overall, this gazetteer includes more than 210,000 cities, towns, hamlets, villages, etc.”

They further note that “Gazetteers are very important to use when doing family history research. They not only help you pinpoint a specific place and associate them with the jurisdictions to which they belong, but they can also provide interesting facts about the community and help you to know where to look for additional records. For example, from Meyers Orts you may learn about the size of the town, if there was a post office, where the nearest train station was located, and where the civil registration office was located.”

The meyersgaz.org website, the portal I primarily use for searching German Empire town names, further remarks: “This is the most important of all German gazetteers. The goal of the Meyer’s compilers was to list every place name in the German Empire (1871-1918). It gives the location, i.e. the state and other jurisdictions, where the civil registry office was and parishes if that town had them. It also gives lots of other information about each place. The only drawback to Meyer’s is that if a town did not have a parish, it does not tell where the parish was, making reference to other works necessary.”

On the homepage of meyersgaz.org they note you’ll find a search box in which you type the name of your place using the following conventions: 

  • You can use a wildcard * (an asterisk) in your search. For example, “*gheim” will return “Balgheim, Bergheim, Bietigheim, Billigheim” and anything else that ends in “gheim.”
  • You can type only the beginning of a name and it will return all places that begin with those letters. For example, “Neu” will return “Neu Abbau, Neu Abschwangen, Neuacker, Neuafrika,” etc.
  • You do not need to include umlauts; “Munchen” and “München” will return “München.” You can type umlauts if you wish, but you should not expand umlauts, e.g. “ü” as “ue,” as that will return no hits. 

A list of identically named places will appear within different jurisdictions, allowing you to identify the town you’re interested in. 

As meyersgaz.org further notes, on the “Entry” page the following will be found: 

  • You will see the name of your town and a menu that includes the following items: Entry, Map, Ecclesiastical, Related, Email, and Feedback.
  • You will see the entry as it appears in Meyer’s, the extraction of the entry, the explanation of the extraction, and a map. The extractions include and are primarily limited to jurisdiction and parish information. The explanations are helpful for those who do not speak German or are not familiar with the old jurisdictions. For example, you will learn what Kreis, Bezirkskommando, and Landgericht mean.
  • By clicking on “View entry on PDF of the original page,” you can see the entire page on which the entry appears in the original gazetteer.
  • Click on “Show previous and next entry” to see the previous and following entries. If there was a correction in the Meyer’s addendum, this will also be noted. 

Meyersgaz.org remarks that by clicking on “Map” in the menu or on the map itself, additional information can be found: 

  • You will now see your town on the old Karte des deutschen Reiches. This set of maps was produced during the time of the German Empire and so corresponds chronologically to Meyer’s.
  • You can zoom in and out and the maps can be moved around with the mouse, so you can easily extend the search further around the main town.
  • If you click on the words “Toggle Historical Map” in the upper right-hand corner, you can switch to Google Maps. This is especially helpful if you are searching in Poland or other areas of the former German Empire that are now in other countries. This is because you can get the current, i.e. non-German, name of the town.
  • If you hover on “Toggle Historical Map,” you will see a menu. If you click on the menu items, you will see pins appear on the map that correspond to what you have chosen, either Jurisdiction (all places where other jurisdictions are given, such as Kreis, Bezirkskommando, and Landgericht that are included in the entry), surrounding Standesämter (civil registry offices), Catholic parishes, Protestant parishes, or Jewish synagogues. This will help you determine the location of the nearest parishes, etc., within a 20-mile radius, should you need to do an area search. You can also click on the pins and the names of corresponding towns will appear.
  • You may also see a map with a large red circle instead of a pin. This means that the place has not been geocoded yet and a specific place on the map has not been identified, but it falls within the area of the red circle. 

Interested readers are encouraged to access meyersgaz.org website and try out the site for themselves. The maps have allowed me to track down the location of German towns now located in Poland I would otherwise have had great difficulty finding. With respect to the ensuing discussion, I will partially illustrate this using the arrival of the railroad in Ratibor in 1846. I would add that my interest in the coming of train service to Ratibor is related to when the family establishment in Ratibor, the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel, was constructed; I believe the two events are closely interconnected and that the family enterprise opened in 1846 or soon thereafter. 

Helen Winter’s German transcription of the page from Johann Knie’s 1845 book about the route by which the railroad arrived in Ratibor is as follows: 

Die meist schlechte Beschaffenheit der von hier aus führenden Strassen wirkt hemmend auf den Landhandel, namentlich auf den Transito-Verkehr. Um so wichtiger muss für Ratibor die gelungene Anlegung der gleich anfangs erwänten Wilhelms Eisenbahn werden, da sie die Verbindung bilden wird, zwischen der Oberschlesien, oder Breslau-Krakauer Eisenbahn u[nd] der österreichischen von Wien nach Krakau führenden Ferdinands-Rorhbahn, sodass Ratibor die natürliche Zwischenstation alles Personen- und Güter-Verkehrs auf der Eisenbahnlinie von Breslau nach Wien sein wird. Das Privilegium der Bahn ist in der preuss[ische] Gesetz[es]S[ammlung] für 1844, Seite 127-146 nachzulesen. Ihre Entstehung verdankt dieses Unternehmen den Oberschlesien, welche seit 1840 in den öffentlichen Blättern, dann durch Gründung eines Aktien-Bereins dahin strebten, die oberschlesische oder breslaukrakauer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft auf der Unrichtigkeit des erst gewählten Traktus von Oppeln über Malapane [?? ic ??] nach der russische Grenze, aufmerksam zu machen u[nd] den Bemühungen des königl[iches] Regierungs-Presidenten Grafen Pückler auch gelungen, die oberschlesische Bahngesellschaft zu dem Entschlusse zu bestimmen, von Oppeln aus in der Richtung von Kandrzin bis Kosel u[nd] erst von da in östlicher Richtung über Gleiwitz nach Krakau zu bauen, dadurch wurde es möglich, Kandrzin bei Kosel auch als Anfangspunkt für die Wilhelms-Eisenbahn zu gewinnen. Die Bahn geht von Kandrzin rechts der Oder aufwärts bis Ratibor u[nd] hier mittelst der Stromǔberbrückung zu den links zwischen der Oder u[nd] der Stadt gelegenen Bahnhofe. Diese erste Bahnstrecke beträgt 3 7/8 M[eilen]; ihre Fortsetzung am linken Ober-Ufer bis zu dem wahrscheinlichebn End[gangspunkte] und berübergangspunkte 3 3/8 M[eilen]. Die Erdarbeiten zwischen Kandrzin u[nd] Ratibor sind beinahe gänzlich [EDITOR’S NOTE: gönzlich is, I think, a misprint], die bis Oderberg zum grossen Theil vollendet. Der Brückenbau wird mit allem Nachdruck betrieben; bereits sind die meisten Kammarbeiten vollendet. Die Schwellen sind sämmtlich an der Bahn 30,000 Ctnr. englische Schienen seit dem 1[rste] September 1844 noch mit niederem Eingangszoll beschafft u[nd] der bei schles[ischen] Hütten bestellte Uebrrest grösstenteils auch schon geliefert; so das bei günstiger Witterung die Bahn bis Oktober 1845 wird befahren werden können. Der Bahnhof ist zwischen Oder u[nd] Stadt auf der, für Entwickelung des Verkehrs günstigsten Stelle errichtet u[nd] eilt seine Vollendung ebenfalls entgegen. Die Stadt gabt dazu 15 Morg[en] u[nd] zur Bahnlinie auf dem 3/8 Meilen langen, stäbtischen Terrain ebenfalls circa 10 Morg[en]- Land[es] , welches ein Opfer von 7000 R[eichs]t[ha]l[er] erheischte. Die Abbrechung eines Hauses u[nd] die Erwerdung des zu mehreren Strassen erforberlichen Terrains, so wie der Ausbau dieser Strassen wird der Stadt eben so viel kosten. Die Stadtverordneten-Bersammlung hat nicht angestanden diese Opfer im wohlerwogenen Interessender Kommune dem Direktorium der W[ilhelm] B[ahn] nicht nur zu bringen, sondern selbst anzubieten, weil nur dadurch die Gesellschaft bewogen worden ist, den Baufond um mehr als 150,000 R[eichs]t[ha]l[er] zu erhöhen, um hier bei der Stadt vom rechten auf das linke Oberufer überzugehen u[nd] den Bahnhof an den Stadtmauern erbauern zu können, wärend derselber sonst rechts der Oder, fast 1/2 Meile von hier, erbaut worden wäre. Der Anschluss an die Nordbahn erfolgt dicht bei Oderberg, für die nächsten Jahre mittelst gewöhnlichen Fuhrwerkes; dann aber mittelst Zweiges der Nordbahn von circa 800 Ruth[e] Das Anlage-Kapital für die ganze Wilhelm [Bahn] beträgt statutenmässig 1,200,000 R[eichs]t[ha]l[er]. 

Below is the translation of the above text with footnotes about the various railway companies involved in construction of the railroad in and around Ratibor; Prussian units of measure; and Prussian currency: 

“The mostly poor condition of the roads leading from here has an inhibiting effect on overland trade, especially on transit traffic. It must be all the more important for Ratibor that the connecting route, projected at the very beginning of the Wilhelms-Eisenbahn [Wilhelmsbahn (A) or William Railway] should be successfully completed, between Upper Silesia, or the Breslau-Krakauer (Wrocław-Kraków) Railway (B), and the Austrian route from Vienna along the Ferdinands-Nordbahn [Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway (C)], so that Ratibor will become the natural connecting station for all passengers and goods traffic on the train lines between Breslau and Vienna. (Figure 5) The grant to the Railway is available to read at pages 127 to 146 of the Prussische Gesetzesammlung [Prussian Law Gazette] for 1844. That Company owes its existence to the above named company, which, firstly in the public newspapers, and then by founding a stock corporation, convinced the Upper Silesian, or Breslau-Krakow Railway Company [EDITOR’S NOTE: Upper Silesian Railway Company], of how wrong the originally chosen route, from Oppeln via Malapane (Figure 6) to the Russian border, would have been; the efforts by the royally appointed President of the government, Count Pückler, also succeeded in persuading the Upper Silesian Railway Company to reach the decision to build the line from Oppeln, in the direction of Kandrzin as far as Kosel (Figure 7) and, only from that point, in an easterly direction via Gleiwitz to Krakow, which would make it possible to use Kandrzin, near Kosel, as a starting point for the William Railway. (Figure 8) The railway route goes from Kandrzin, to the right of the Oder, up to Ratibor [EDITOR’S NOTE: meaning upriver as the Oder River flows generally south to north] and here, by means of a bridge across the river, to the station, which is situated on the left bank, between the Oder and the city. This initial railway track is 2 7/8 miles long (D). Its continuation along the upper left bank, up to the probable end of the track and upper crossing point is 3 3/8 miles. The earth works between Kandrzin and Ratibor are now entirely, and those at Oderberg for the most part, completed. The bridge construction is being pursued vigorously; already most of the work on the crest is complete. The sleepers are all on the track; 30,000 Ctnr. (E) of English rails have been procured since 1st September 1844, at a low rate of import duty and most of the remainder, ordered from the foundries of Silesia, have already been delivered; so that, allowing for reasonable weather, the railway can come into use by October 1845. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Train service commenced on the 1st of January 1846] The station, which was being built between the Oder and the city in a location that would facilitate the development of traffic, is also fast approaching completion. The city gave 15 acres of land for the station, and around 10 acres for the railway line on the 3/8 mile long, flat terrain, all of which required the sacrifice of 7,000 Reichsthaler. The City Council did not hesitate, in the interest of the public good, to take some of the financial burden on themselves, rather than expecting the Directors of the William Railway to bear the whole, as this was the only way in which the company could be persuaded to increase the building fund by more than 150,000 Reichsthaler (F), in order that the site of the station could be changed from the right to the left upper bank and that it could be built over the city walls, whereas it would otherwise have been built to the right of the Oder, more than a mile from here. The connection to the Northern Railway will take place close to Oderberg (G) (Figure 9), for the next few years by means of a conventional carriage, then by means of a branch line of the Northern Railway from circa 800 Rods (H) [EDITOR’S NOTE: there seems to be a bit missing in the copy of the book here]. The capital budget for the whole William Railway is fixed by statute at 1,200,000 Reichsthaler.” 

(A) The Wilhelmsbahn or William Railway was a private railway company in Prussia. It was founded in 1844 in Ratibor in Upper Silesia to connect the Upper Silesian Railway (Breslau—Oppeln—Kosel– Gleiwitz (WroclawOpole KoźleGliwice)) with the Austrian Emperor Ferdinand’s Railway. The name referred to Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, later the German Emperor Wilhelm I. For the first time, the railway line connected the Austrian railway network with the Prussian one. 

(B) Refers to the Upper Silesian Railway Company. In 1842, the Upper Silesian Railway Company, licensed since 1839, opened the first two sections of its main line: Breslau (Wrocław, Poland) to Ohlau (Oława, Poland) (Figure 10) on the 22nd of May and Ohlau (Oława, Poland) to Brieg (Brzeg, Poland) (Figure 11) in August. These are the oldest railway sections of present-day Poland. Step by step the Upper Silesian Railway (Oberschlesische Eisenbahn, OSE) line was extended, in 1846 connecting Katowice. In 1847 Myslowitz (Mysłowice, Poland) at the border of Austrian Galicia was reached and the connection to Kraków and Upper Silesian Railway complete. 

(C) The Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway was a railway company during the time of the Austrian Empire. Its main line was intended to connect Vienna with the salt mines in Bochnia near Kraków. The name is still used today in referring to several railway lines formerly operated by that company. 

(D) The distances in miles in the text refer to Prussian miles. One Prussian mile equates to 4.66 U.S. miles or 7.5 kilometers. 

(E) “Ctnr.” is the abbreviation for a Prussian “Centner.” A Prussian Centner equates to 113.43 American pounds or 51.448 kilograms. The metric Zentner used today is exactly 50 kilograms or 110.23 American pounds. 

(F) Abbreviated “Rtl.,” this refers to a Prussian Reichsthaler. The Reichsthaler was a standard thaler silver coin introduced by the Holy Roman Empire in 1566 for use in all German states, minted in various versions for the next 300 years, and containing 25–26 grams fine silver. 

(G) According to Johann Knie, the Wilhelmsbahn connected to the Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway near Oderberg, shown to the southeast of Ratibor in Figure 9. 

(H) The Prussian Ruthe or rod was 12 feet or 3.766 meters.

 

Figure 5. A contemporary Google map showing the circled location of Racibórz (Ratibor) relative to Wrocław (Breslau), Kraków (Krakau), Opole (Oppeln), and Vienna

 

Figure 6. Meyers Gazetteer map of Malapane [today: Ozimek, Poland]
Figure 7. Meyers Gazetteer map showing relative location of Kandrzin [today: Kędzierzyn-Koźle, Poland] to Cosel (Kosel) [today: Koźle, Poland]

Figure 8. A contemporary Google map showing the modern-day Polish place names discussed in Johann Knie’s text; the Wilhelmsbahn route went from modern-day Kędzierzyn-Koźle, Poland [Prussian: Kosel-Cosel] to Racibórz (Ratibor)
 

Figure 9. Railway map of Germany and surrounding countries in 1849; Oderberg (abbreviated “Oderbg.”) is where the Wilhelmsbahn and Northern Railway eventually connected southeast of Ratibor

 

Figure 10. Meyers Gazetteer map of Ohlau [today: Oława, Poland]

Figure 11. Meyers Gazetteer map of Brieg [today: Brzeg, Poland]
 

It is clear from Johann Knie’s 1845 book that, absent Count Pückler’s intervention, the Breslau-Krakauer (Wrocław-Kraków) Railway, that’s to say the Upper Silesian Railway Company, intended to bypass Ratibor in its construction of the railway into Poland. The passage refers to an easterly route from Breslau (Wrocław) to Oppeln (Opole) to a place called Malapane (today: Ozimek) toward Russia which Count Pückler was able to dissuade the Upper Silesian Railway Company from taking. He apparently also convinced the Upper Silesian Railway Company to connect Breslau (Wrocław) to Krakau (Kraków) via Oppeln (Opole), Kosel (also written Cosel; Koźle), Gleiwitz (Gliwice), and Katowice. This was critical because at a place called Kandrzin, just outside present-day Koźle, the Wilhelmsbahn or William Railroad was then able to connect their railway line to the Upper Silesian Railway. Thus, railway passengers could save time when traveling between Breslau and Vienna by avoiding Krakau. We also learn that Ratibor’s City Council donated land and money to offset part of the William Railroad’s construction cost. From Kosel to Ratibor, the tracks ran along the right or east bank of the Oder, then crossed the river near Ratibor via a bridge to the railway station located on the west or left bank of the Oder River, interestingly built over the city walls according to Johann Knie’s text.

In closing I would simply say that the maps and plans in Meyers Gazetteer in combination with contemporary Google maps provide the necessary overview for visualizing how important it was for the small town of Ratibor in the mid-1840s to ensure the railroad passed through town. It enabled the town’s economic expansion and led to the construction of the Bruck’s Hotel sometime between 1846 and 1850.

REFERENCES

Knie, Johann G. (1845). Alphabetisch-statistisch-topographische Uebersicht der Dörfer, Flecken, Städte und andern Orte der Königl. Preuß. Provinz Schlesien.

Alphabetisch-statistisch-topographische Uebersicht der Dörfer, Flecken … – Johann G. Knie – Google Books

POST 155: HISTORY OF THE PROPERTY WHERE THE BRUCK’S “PRINZ VON PREUßEN” HOTEL IN RATIBOR CAME TO BE BUILT

CORRECTIONS ADDED IN RED ON 3/1/2024 

Note: In a post I’ve long wanted to write, using maps and contemporary accounts, I discuss the history of the property where the inn stood that my family owned from ca. 1850 until 1926 in Ratibor [today: Racibórz, Poland], the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel. I also make a case for when I think the hotel was likely constructed.

 

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 61: THE WOINOWITZ ZUCKERFABRIK (SUGAR FACTORY) OUTSIDE RATIBOR (PART IV-GRUNDBUCH (LAND REGISTER))

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

 

I’ve spilled a lot of ink writing about my next of kin’s business in Ratibor, Germany [today: Racibórz, Poland], the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel (Figures 1-2), owned by three generations of my family from roughly 1850 until 1926. My recently departed friend Paul Newerla from Racibórz (Figure 3), a lawyer who found his second calling in retirement researching and writing about the history of Ratibor and Silesia, was very instrumental in furthering my understanding of the hotel’s history and generously sharing multiple historical references and illustrations related to the establishment.

 

Figure 1. The Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel

 

Figure 2. Entrance to the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel

 

Figure 3. In 2018 in Racibórz, Poland me standing alongside my recently deceased friend Mr. Paul Newerla in front of the historic statue of John of Nepomuk, now located in the middle of a parking lot

 

Paul was never able to tell me exactly when the inn was constructed and whether a previous owner had built the structure. For the longest time, I imagined the name “Prinz von Preußen” meant it might have been erected and lived in by a member of the von Preußen family, a royal lineage with longstanding ties to Silesia. Another friend whom I’ve often mentioned to readers, Peter Albrecht von Preußen (Figure 4), a descendant of this illustrious bloodline now living in the United States, explained to me that the “Prinz von Preußen” name was franchised from at least the 19th century. Thus, the Bruck Hotel’s incorporation of the Prinz von Preußen honorific may simply reflect a business arrangement. So far evidence of this has not been found.

 

Figure 4. My good friend Peter Albrecht von Preußen who was of enormous assistance in the course of writing this post

 

One document Paul was unable to track down in the Archiwum Państwowe w Katowicach Oddział w Raciborzu, the State Archives in Katowice, Branch in Racibórz, was the so-called Grundbuch, the land register, for the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel. Grundbuch means the applicable official register held by the Land Registry in which, among other things, the rights of ownership in, and encumbrances on, a plot of land are registered.

In Post 61, I discussed how Paul found the Grundbuch for the Zuckerfabrik, the sugar factory owned by distant family relatives, located in Woinowitz [today: Wojnowice, Poland] outside Ratibor, among the uncatalogued documents in the basement of the Racibórz State Archives. Regular readers know I’ve written multiple posts about the Zuckerfabrik. Had Paul been able to locate the Grundbuch for the Bruck’s Hotel, it might have shed some light on when the building was built and/or exactly when my family purchased the establishment. Whether the file still exists is an unanswered question though I suspect if it did Paul Newerla would have tracked it down.

Another of my Polish friends, Małgosia Ploszaj (Figure 5), from Rybnik, Poland, 15 miles east of Racibórz, was able to find a police file in the Racibórz State Archives related to the Bruck’s Hotel (Figures 6a-b), but this dated to the period that my grandparents, Felix (1864-1927) and Else Bruck (1873-1957), owned the hotel during the first quarter of the 20th century. This file includes reports on periodic inspections conducted by the local police; safety issues my grandparents were compelled to address; authorizations they were required to obtain to operate beyond normal working hours; violations for which they were fined, etc. Nothing in the file related to the history nor tenancy of the hotel prior to my grandparents’ ownership.

 

Figure 5. Another of my Polish friends Małgosia Ploszaj from Rybnik, Poland who discovered the early 20th century police file on the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel

 

Figure 6a. Cover of the police file on the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel found in the “Archiwum Państwowe Racibórz,” State Archives in Racibórz

 

Figure 6b. Closeup of the cover of the police file on the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel

 

My good friend Peter Albrecht von Preußen spent a good deal of time explaining the contents of this police file. Additionally, because of his own family’s connection to Silesia, he spent a lot of time searching publications for mentions of the hotel and the sequential Bruck family members who owned the inn, namely, Samuel Bruck (1808-1863), Fedor Bruck (1834-1892), and Felix Bruck (1864-1927). 

One of the most useful public domain sources Peter discovered was a 695-page book entitled “Geschichte der Stadt Ratibor,” “History of the Town of Ratibor,” written by Augustin Weltzel in 1861. (Figure 7) Therein, Peter found mention of a Bruck who was a “gastwirth,” an innkeeper, no doubt Samuel Bruck (1808-1863) the original owner of the Bruck’s Hotel. (Figure 8)

 

Figure 7. Cover of the 1861 book by Augustin Weltzel, “Geschichte der Stadt Ratibor,” “History of the Town of Ratibor”

 

Figure 8. Page from “Geschichte der Stadt Ratibor” mentioning the “gastwirth Bruck,” the innkeeper believed to be my great-great-grandfather Samuel Burck (1808-1863), first family owner of the Bruck’s Hotel

 

The book is written in Fraktur, which was the subject of Post 154. Unfortunately, the text has not been transcribed into German, nor has it been translated into Polish or English. However, because Peter can read Fraktur, he graciously perused and summarized relevant sections of Weltzel’s book.

This book was commissioned in 1859 by the Protestant Church in Breslau [today: Wrocław, Poland], who had searched in the archives and discovered that the history of the entire Upper Silesian region, a principally Catholic area at the time, had not been documented. As a result, Dr. Weltzel, a Catholic Priest, was contracted to write about Ratibor. This seemingly odd arrangement was an indirect outcome of the First Silesian War from 1740 to 1742 which resulted in Prussia seizing most of the region of Silesia (today mostly in southwestern Poland) from Austria but Catholics in Silesia being guaranteed the right to continue practicing their religion.

Based on Peter’s synopsis and analysis, I can reconstruct a partial history of the property where the Bruck’s Hotel was built and theorize when the hotel is likely to have been constructed. Another of my Polish contacts from Racibórz is Magda Wawoczny, an acquaintance in the Jewish Studies program at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. At my request, she graciously sent me high-resolution plans of Ratibor from 1831 and 1843, as well as a map from 1812 with a birds-eye view of Ratibor and its fortifications, that allow me to clarify using contemporary maps what likely was going on in the area at the time in conjunction with Augustin Weltzel’s description of historic events.

First, a brief digression. I’ve periodically told readers about my “boots on the ground” without whom I would be unable to relate my family stories to the depth I feel is required. As readers can easily tell, I have limited knowledge about many of the subjects I discuss so the assistance of knowledgeable people is crucial. In the case of this post, for example, I felt the need to illustrate with historic maps what Ratibor may have looked like at different points in time to make the case for approximately when the Bruck’s Hotel might have been constructed.

Erroneously recalling there exists a map from 1829 with the Bruck’s Hotel shown, I asked Magda, my student acquaintance from Racibórz, if she could track it down for me. In the process, Magda directed me to a historical portal run by her father, Grzegorz Wawoczny, a historian. The portal includes a post written by a German gentleman, Christoph Sottor, describing the oldest plans of the city of Ratibor. This is how I learned about the 1812, 1831, and 1843 plans of Ratibor mentioned above. This post was very useful and one I encourage readers with an ancestral link to Ratibor to skim: 

https://ziemiaraciborska.pl/najstarsze-plany-miasta-raciborza/

Let me continue.

Historically, Ratibor was a fortified castle-town. The period the Bruck’s Hotel could conceivably have been built is closely related to when the fortifications surrounding Ratibor were dismantled because of the hotel’s proximity to where the protective walls once stood. Let me briefly relate to readers some of the history of the town’s defensive system. The defensive walls have existed in Ratibor since 1299. They were extended in the 14th century, and several fortified towers and three wooden gates were later added. A deep moat was constructed in front of the walls. The curtain walls were reinforced in 1663 in anticipation of a Turkish invasion.

Beginning in the 18th century, the fortifications were gradually eliminated. Between 1764 and 1771 the moat was filled in.  According to Weltzel, the wooden gate (Figure 22) of the defensive tower nearest where the Bruck’s Hotel was eventually built was removed in 1825 and relocated to the Ratibor side of the bridge crossing the nearby Oder River; some of the nearby curtain walls were removed but the tower remained.

 

Figure 22. Example of a Medieval wooden gate that was part of a fortified tower

 

All that remains of the fortifications today is a Renaissance style tower constructed in 1574 and some remnants of the Gothic curtain walls that abutted this tower. (Figures 9-10) At the apex of the tower, there is an attic with embrasures (sometimes called gun holes) and four turrets. The building provided shelter for the garrison of defenders and was also used as a prison tower.

 

Figure 9. As it looks today, the surviving Renaissance-style tower and curtain walls that were once part of the fortifications surrounding Ratibor (picture courtesy of Magda Wawoczny)

 

Figure 10. The surviving Renaissance-style tower in Racibórz today (photo courtesy of Magda Wawoczny)

 

The removal of the moat, including the gradual elimination of some of the defensive structures, coincides with the end of the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). Let me say a few words about this conflict.

The Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) was a global conflict involving most of Europe’s great powers that was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Without getting too far into the weeds, suffice it to say the opposing alliances were led by Great Britain and France, each seeking to establish global pre-eminence at the expense of the other. France and Spain fought against England and their ally Prussia in Europe and overseas. Long-standing rivalries pitted these adversaries against one another in North America and the West Indies.

No less a personage than Winston Churchill described the Seven Years War, which went by different names in its respective theaters (e.g., Franch and Indian Wars (1754-1763); War of the Conquest in French-speaking Canada; the Third Silesian Wear (1756-1763) between Prussia and Austria) as the first “world war” because of its global reach.

For purposes of this post, suffice it to say that in Europe, Prussia sought greater influence in the German states (i.e., Prussia and the other German states did not unite to form Germany until 1871) while Austria sought to contain Prussian influence as well as regain Silesia which they’d lost at the end of the First Silesian War in 1742. Austria failed in this regard. Based on Augustin Weltzel’s discussions, it is evident the city’s fortifications suffered heavy damage from cannonball strikes during the conflict.

Perhaps, the end of the war, new economic opportunities, ongoing deterioration of the defensive walls and towers, along with a need to expand the city caused town officials to gradually remove the fortifications and towers.

The address of the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel was Oderstrasse 16. The inn stood on the northwest corner of Oderstrasse where it met Bollwerk Strasse. A 1929 street map of Ratibor includes the hotel’s name and location (Figure 11), while a 1933 plan shows the number “16” on Oderstrasse. (Figure 12) A map from around 1890 indistinctly outlines an area where the Bruck’s Hotel stood that is identified by the number “104,” which may indicate the lot number. (Figure 13) Since I don’t have copies of all Ratibor’s plans, it’s not clear when the hotel was first plotted on a map.

 

Figure 11. 1929 plan map of Ratibor with the “Bruck’s Hotel” name circled

 

Figure 12. 1933 plan map of Ratibor with “16” circled referring to the address of the Bruck’s Hotel, Oderstrasse 16

 

Figure 13. 1890 plan map of Ratibor with the indistinctly outlined plot where the Bruck’s Hotel once stood, identified as the number “104”

 

The “Prinz von Preußen” is listed in John Murray’s 1850 “Hand-Book for Travellers on the Continent” as a place for people to stay in Ratibor while voyaging between Breslau and Vienna. (Figures 14a-b) Family ownership of the inn is thought to have begun at around this time.

 

Figure 14a. Cover of John Murray’s 1850 “Hand-Book for Travellers on the Continent” discussing the “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel

 

Figure 14b. Page of John Murray’s 1850 “Hand-Book for Travellers on the Continent” discussing the “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel

Next, I’ll discuss a few of the historic maps I had access to, and what they suggest regarding the construction of the Bruck’s Hotel. I’ll also touch on some of Weltzel’s historic accounts for reference.

Let me start by discussing the map that Christoph Sottor dates to 1812 (Figure 15) that I previously described as a birds-eye view of the city with its still-standing fortifications.

 

Figure 15. 1812 birds-eye view of Ratibor and its fortifications, with the approximate location of the future Bruck’s Hotel marked

 

Sottor says the following about this map: 

On the newly made plan (in 1812 on the basis of measurements from 1810) the orientation to the west was improved, buildings in towns near Racibórz were described and projections of several buildings in Racibórz itself were marked. The “Situations-Plan von der Stadt Ratibor” covers a smaller area than the 1811 plan and is on a smaller scale, 1 : 7,200. The plan measures 48 cm x 32.3 cm. It was also created by the geometer Andre Wihrheim. The only copy of the plan is in AP Opole, reference number: AP Opole, Rej. Opole. Kart., sign. IX/92. I only have a blurry picture of him.” [EDITOR’S NOTE: “AP Opole” stands for “Archiwum Państwowe Opole,” the State Archives in Opole, Poland]

The main conclusion one can draw from this map is that the defensive towers and curtain walls were mostly still intact in 1812. This means the Bruck’s Hotel, whose approximate location I’ve shown on the map, could not yet have existed at this time since the curtain walls would have impeded its construction.

According to Weltzel, the Bruck’s Hotel was referred to as the “Prinzen von Preußen” (“Princes of Prussia”) rather than “Prinz von Preußen” (“Prince of Prussia”), with no mention of the Bruck surname. He also tells us the property where the hotel was eventually built had previously been owned by the so-called Schützengilde, the shooting club, and sat along Oder Gasse, as Oderstrasse was then known. The Schützengilde had two structures on their property, a Schützenzwinger, or clubhouse, and a Schießstand, or firing range. The clubhouse faced Oder Gasse, while the firing range sat towards the rear of the property closer to the Oder River.

At the time Weltzel was researching his book he had access to the shooting club’s records dating back to 1620. According to these documents the Schützengilde owned the property on Oder Gasse until 1824/25 when they sold it to the city of Ratibor in two transactions; by May 1825 the city had full possession of the entire property. Using the proceeds from the sale of the property, the shooting club purchased another property in town. Seemingly, Weltzel does not discuss how the city used the property following its acquisition.

Peter Albrecht von Preußen uncovered a YouTube video describing the activities of the Schützengilde today featuring none other than my late friend Paul Newerla. While the video is in both German and Polish with subtitles in both these languages, readers can get a general idea of how the shooting club operates today and view some of the antique weapons members fire: 

Schlesien Jornal 23 08 2016

youtu.be

 

In essence, Paul Newerla says that today the Schützengilde is principally a historical society and functions as a recreational club rather than as a defensive force as it once did. As previously mentioned, the club relocated from Oder Gasse in 1825, but moved again in 1898 to their present location. The existing clubhouse incorporates a tower (Figure 16) that may be a remembrance of the Oder Thor that once stood adjacent to their property on Oder Gasse. According to Paul, the oldest documents the club possesses date to 1925, so he is appealing to anyone that may have older artifacts or memorabilia to contact the club. And finally, we learn the Schützengilde was inoperative from the 8th of May 1945 until 2004, when it was resurrected.

 

Figure 16. The “Schützengilde’s” existing clubhouse incorporating a tower than be a remembrance of the “Oder Thor” near its original location on Oder Gasse

 

Let me turn now to the two high resolution maps from 1831 and 1843 that Magda sent me and discuss what inferences can be drawn from them. Both plans show two buildings on the property, the 1843 map more distinctly, where the Bruck’s Hotel would eventually be built. On the 1831 map (Figure 17), in the rear structure, that’s to say the shooting range, readers can vaguely make out what Weltzel refers to as a “wall extension” that paralleled the lane where Bollwerk Strasse was ultimately sited. It would appear the firing range incorporated as an extension a fragmentary part of the curtain walls that once surrounded Ratibor.

 

Figure 17. 1831 plan map of Ratibor with the two structures and the defensive curtain walls that were part of the “Schützengilde” along Oder Gasse vaguely visible

 

One thing we can conclude from the 1843 map (Figure 18) is that the Oder Thor, Oder Tower, the tower closest to where the hotel was ultimately built had apparently not yet been demolished, though as previously mentioned the wooden gate had been removed in 1825. The tower is labelled on the map suggesting it was still in place. It’s difficult to know precisely where the Oder Thor was situated relative to the hotel making it hard to know whether it would have impeded construction of the building; however, the defensive curtain walls would assuredly have prevented construction of the inn.

 

Figure 18. 1843 plan map of Ratibor with the “Oder Thor”, as well as the two structures that formed part of the “Schützengilde” circled

 

Another thing we can observe from the 1843 ocular map of Ratibor is that if you extend the line that was formerly part of the curtain wall and the extension of the Schießstand, it lines up perfectly with the side of the Oder Thor that was closest to the Oder River. 

So, we return to the question of when the Bruck’s Hotel might have been built and what the impetus for doing so would have been. A French travel guide dated 1836 entitled “Manuel du Voyageur en Allemagne” (Handbook for Travelers in Germany), mentions an auberge or inn in Ratibor, “Auberge de Jaeschke.” (Figure 19) Prior to construction of the Bruck’s Hotel this is believed to have been the only guesthouse in Ratibor.

 

Figure 19. Page from the 1836 “Manuel du Voyageur en Allemagne” (Handbook for Travelers in Germany) mentioning an “auberge” or inn in Ratibor named “Auberge de Jaeschke”

 

As previously discussed, the “Prinz von Preußen” is mentioned in John Murray’s 1850 publication “A Hand-Book for Travellers on the Continent,” and is described as a “very comfortable hotel.” (see Figure 14b) Clearly, by 1850 the “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel was open for business. This is further confirmed by a concert the famed Austrian composer Johann Strauss delivered on the 17th of October 1850 in the hotel’s concert hall. (Figure 20) A similar recital by Dr. Franz Lizst four years earlier on the 29th of May 1846 was performed at the so-called “Jaschke’schen Saale” (Figure 21), presumably part of the “Auberge de Jaeschke,” indirect evidence the newer and larger Prinz von Preußen concert hall was not yet open.

 

Figure 20. Notice for Johann Strauss’ recital at the “Prinz von Preußen” on the 17th of October 1850

 

Figure 21. Notice for Dr. Franz Lizst’s recital at the “Jaschke’schen Saale” on the 29th of May 1846

 

According to Weltzel, the anticipated arrival of the railroad in Ratibor, which began service on the 1st of January 1846, caused a “building boom” between 1842 and 1850. If the 1843 map is accurate, the Oder Thor still stood at this time, so construction of the hotel post-dates its removal. While there is no smoking gun, the indirect evidence points to the Prinz von Preußen having been built sometime between 1845 and 1847, coinciding with the arrival of the railroad. No doubt regular train service and mention of the Prinz von Preußen in an English travel guide would have accelerated the number of visitors and tourists from Germany, Austria, and far-off places who would have expected modern conveniences. It can only be hoped the hotel’s Grundbuch still exists and is eventually found to definitively answer the question of what year the inn was built.

 

REFERENCES

First Silesian War. (2023, July 20). In Wikipedia. First Silesian War – Wikipedia

Knie, Johann G. (1845). Alphabetisch-statistisch-topographische Uebersicht der Dörfer, Flecken, Städte und andern Orte der Königl. Preuß. Provinz Schlesien.

Alphabetisch-statistisch-topographische Uebersicht der Dörfer, Flecken … – Johann G. Knie – Google Books

Murray, John (1850). A hand-book for travellers on the continent. London: John Murray.

A hand-book for travellers on the continent. [1st] [2 issues of the 16th and … : John Murray : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Racibórz. (2024, January 25). In Wikipedia. Racibórz – Wikipedia

Seven Years’ War. (2024, February 24). In Wikipedia. Seven Years’ War – Wikipedia

Sottor, Christoph (2020, August 3). The oldest plans of the city of Racibórz. ZiemiaRaciborska.pl.

The oldest plans of the city of Racibórz – Ziemia Raciborska

Weltzel, Augustin (1861).

Geschichte der Stadt Ratibor : Weltzel, Augustin : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

 

 

 

 

POST 153: DOCUMENTING MY THIRD GREAT-GRANDPARENTS JACOB NATHAN BRUCK (1770-1836) & MARIANNE BRUCK, NÉE AUFRECHT’S (1776-) CHILDREN

 

Note: In this post, I present and synthesize some primary source documents I’ve collected proving the existence of my third great-grandparents’ children. A family memoir states they had twelve unnamed children though I can definitively account for only nine of them. I am not surprised given that large families often had children who died at birth or in childhood. I strongly suspect a tenth offspring, the oldest girl, who shows up on several ancestral trees, may have lived to adulthood though I cannot independently prove this. The point of this post is to illustrate the standard to which I hold myself accountable in verifying ancestral data, not simply tell another family story to which readers may not relate.

 

Related Posts:

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

POST 145: PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENTS ABOUT MY GREAT-GREAT GRANDUNCLE, DR. JONAS BRUCK (1813-1883)

POST 150: UPPER SILESIAN GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY, PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENTS FROM RATIBOR [RACIBÓRZ, POLAND]

POST 152: TANTALIZING CLUES ABOUT MY THIRD GREAT-GRANDFATHER JACOB NATHAN BRUCK (1770-1836) AND HIS LIFE IN RATIBOR [RACIBÓRZ, POLAND]

 

A distant Bruck relative, Bertha Jacobson, née Bruck (1873-1957) wrote a memoir for her granddaughter, Maria Jacobson (1933-2022). In this memoir, which Maria donated to the Leo Baeck Institute in New York before her death, Bertha notes that my third great-grandparents Jacob Nathan Bruck (1770-1836) and Marianne Bruck, née Aufrecht (b. 1776) had twelve children, though she doesn’t name them. As a challenge to myself, I set out to determine how many of these purported children’s existence I could find proof of in the form of primary source documents, my gold standard. I’ve summarized this data including the source in a table readers will find at the end of this post.

I’ve often admonished followers about cloning ancestral data that one finds on other people’s ancestral trees, especially if source documents are not identified. That said, ancestral trees are sometimes specific enough to direct researchers to other sources that can be independently checked to confirm the veracity of the information in a tree. Below I will give readers an example of how I was able to confirm the burial place of one of Jacob and Marianne’s children in Berlin through data found on an ancestral tree in MyHeritage.

Before delving into the evidence I’ve tracked down for Jacob and Marianne’s children, let me review the vital data I’ve found out about them. In Post 150 I told readers how I discovered my third great-grandfather Jacob Nathan Bruck’s death register listing for Ratibor among the primary source documents digitized by the Upper Silesian Genealogical Society’s “Silius Radicum” project. (Figure 1) The index proved Jacob died in Ratibor [today: Racibórz, Poland] on the 29th of June 1836 at the age of 66, meaning he was born in 1770. While I’ve been unable to uncover the exact date he was born, the Geneanet Community Tree Index claims Jacob was born on the 18th of February 1770. (Figure 2) Notwithstanding that the source of this data is Michael Bruck, my fourth cousin once removed, I’ve yet to see the source document from which Michael drew this information.

 

Figure 1. The death register listing found in the Upper Silesian Genealogical Society’s Ratibor Signature Book 1699 showing my great-great-great-grandfather Jacob Nathan Bruck died on the 29th of June 1836 at the age of 66

 

Figure 2. Geneanet Community Tree Index claiming Jacob Nathan Bruck was born on the 18th of February 1770

 

A related aside. Another one of my distant Bruck relatives, Marianne Polborn, née Bruck (1888-1975) developed a family tree which includes some vital information for Jacob and Marianne Bruck. (Figure 3) Jacob’s date of birth matches that found on the Geneanet Community Tree Index. While I’m inclined to believe the 18th of February 1770 was indeed Jacob’s birth, the skeptic in me asks whether Michael Bruck had access to Marianne Polborn’s ancestral tree, so that everyone is copying the same unverified information from a record that is not a primary source document? This is likely a rhetorical question.

 

Figure 3. Marianne Polborn, née Bruck’s (1888-1975) family tree with vital information on Jacob Bruck and Marianne Aufrecht

 

I draw readers’ attention to another date on Marianne Polborn’s ancestral tree, namely Jacob and Marianne’s marriage date, specifically, the 16th of May 1793. Given the confirmed dates of birth for some of Jacob and Marianne’s children towards the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, this seems like a plausible marriage year. While this tree is the sole unconfirmed source of their wedding, even if Marianne was already pregnant when she and Jacob married, a not uncommon occurrence I’ve learned, their oldest child would likely not have been born much before 1794. The earliest confirmed birth year for any of their children, as I will discuss, is 1796.

Another date I draw readers’ attention to is the purported date of birth of Marianne Aufrecht, the 21st of August 1776.

Marianne Polborn does not specify when Marianne Bruck died, although the Geneanet Community Tree Index claims she died on the 3rd of August 1835. (Figure 4) I believe this is a case of “false precision.” Let me explain. By chance, when scrolling through the Church of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) Family History Library Microfilm Roll Number 7990058 with the names of Jews who died between 1832 and 1838 in Neisse [today: Nysa, Poland], located 54 miles northwest of Racibórz, I stumbled on the death register listing of the “witwe Marianne Bruck” who died at 70 years of age on the 3rd of August 1835; “witwe” means widow. (Figure 5) As discussed above, I know for sure Jacob Bruck died in 1836 so obviously in 1835 Marianne would not yet have been a widow. Also, if Marianne’s birth year was 1776, which I’m inclined to believe, had she died in 1835 she would only have been several weeks short of her 59th birthday. Finally, unless Marianne was visiting Neisse, her death there rather than in Ratibor seems odd.

 

Figure 4. Geneanet Community Tree Index claiming Marianne Bruck, née Aufrecht died on the 3rd of August 1835

 

Figure 5. Page from LDS Microfilm 7990058, listing people who died in Neisse, Prussia [today: Nysa, Poland] between 1832 and 1838, including the “widow Marianne Bruck” who died on the 3rd of August 1835 at 70 years of age
 

Let me now discuss Jacob and Marianne’s children. 

Helene Bruck (unconfirmed) 

Often the oldest of Jacob and Marianne’s offspring listed on ancestral trees is Helene Bruck shown married to an Itzig Mendel Guttmann Aufrecht. As I discussed in Post 150, I located Marianne’s death register listing in the Upper Silesian Genealogical Society’s database proving she died on the 20th of May 1838 at the age of 68 (Figure 6), identical to the year Jacob Bruck was born, 1770. Thus, the Helene Bruck married to Itzig Aufrecht was not one of Jacob and Marianne’s children, but more likely Jacob’s cousin. It’s conceivable Jacob and Marianne named their first-born daughter Helene, but I cannot independently verify this nor prove she existed.

 

Figure 6. The death register listing found in the Upper Silesian Genealogical Society’s Ratibor Signature Book 1699 for Marianne Aufrecht, née Bruck, married to Itzig Mendel Guttman Aufrecht, showing she died on the 20th of May 1838 at the age of 68

 

Wilhelmine Bruck (1796-1864) 

Wilhelmine Bruck’s existence is incontrovertible. Proof of her marriage to Wilhelm Friedenstein is found on LDS Microfilm 1184449 showing they got married on the 7th of November 1814 in Ratibor, identifying her father as Jakob Nathan Bruck. (Figure 7) Find-A-Grave shows she was born in 1796 and died in 1864, and is interred in the Stary Cmentarz Żydowski we Wrocławiu, the Old Jewish Cemetery, in Wrocław, Poland. (Figure 8) My friend, Dr. Renata Wilkoszewska-Krakowska, is the Branch Manager of this cemetery and sent me a picture of her headstone giving her precise birth and death dates. (Figure 9) Her husband is not buried alongside her.

 

Figure 7. Page from LDS FHC Microfilm 1184449 showing that two of Jacob Nathan Bruck’s daughters got married, Wilhelmine on the 7th of March 1814 and Dorothea Babette Bruck on the 25th of February 1817

 

Figure 8. Information in Find-A-Grave for Wilhelmine Friedenstein, née Bruck showing she was born in 1796 and died in 1864 and is buried in the “Stary Cmentarz Żydowski we Wrocławiu,” the Old Jewish Cemetery, in Wrocław, Poland

 

Figure 9. Wilhelmine Friedenstein, née Bruck’s “matzevah” or headstone in the Old Jewish Cemetery, in Wrocław, Poland

 

Dorothea Babbett Bruck 

Although no birth or death information has so far been uncovered for another of Jacob and Marianne’s daughters, her existence again is irrefutable. According to LDS Microfilm 1184449, Dorothea married Salomon Freund on the 25th of February 1817 in Ratbor, and her father is listed as Jakob Nathan Bruck. (see Figure 7) 

Moritz Bruck (1800-1863) 

A German book published in 1845 entitled “Gelehrtes Berlin in Jahre 1845,” roughly translated as “Scholarly Berlin in 1845,” includes a biography of Moritz Bruck stating he was born on the 24th of December 1800 in Ratibor and that his father was Jacob Bruck. (Figure 10) He was a respected doctor and was actively involved in researching and writing about cholera. Unlike his older brothers, Moritz attended the gymnasium, high school, in Brieg, [today: Brzeg, Poland], 80 miles northwest of Racibórz. His 1824 dissertation written in Latin was entitled “De myrmeciasi,” and was about ants popularly known as bulldog ants, bull ants, or jack jumper ants due to their ferocity; his dissertation includes a dedication page for his father. (Figures 11a-b)

 

Figure 10. Moritz Bruck’s biography on page 46 of book entitled “Gelehrtes Berlin im Jahre 1845” showing he was born on the 24th of December 1800

 

Figure 11a. Cover page of Moritz Bruck’s 1824 Latin dissertation “De myrmeciasi”

 

Figure 11b. Page from Moritz Bruck’s dissertation acknowledging his father

 

On MyHeritage, I discovered the “Tuchler Family Tree,” which correctly indicates Moritz died on the 25th of October 1863 in Berlin and is buried in the Jüdische Friedhof in der Schönhauser Allee, a fact I confirmed by having one of my German cousins call the cemetery. At a future date, I will include a photo of his headstone. This is one of the few occasions I found vital information on a family tree that I was independently able to verify. 

Fanny Bruck (1804-1879) 

LDS Microfilm 1184449 indicates that like her sisters Wilhelmine and Dorothea, Fanny got married in Ratibor on the 26th of November 1822 to Isaac Seliger. (Figure 12) Kurt Polborn, my fourth cousin from Germany, shows she died on the 29th of August 1879 in Breslau [today: Wrocław, Poland]. Given the exactitude of her death, I asked Kurt about it, and he sent me a copy of a letter Fanny wrote on the 19th of February 1873 informing authorities in Breslau her husband Isaac had passed away on the 13th of February 1873. (Figure 13) The Julian and Hebrew calendar dates of death for both Isaac and Fanny are written at the bottom of this correspondence; the source of this letter is the online archives of the Centralna Biblioteka Judaistyczna, Central Jewish Library. I was able to locate Isaac Seliger’s death register listing on LDS Microfilm 7990011 confirming he died on the 13th of February 1873. (Figure 14)

 

Figure 12. Page from LDS FHC Microfilm 1184449 showing that another of Jacob Nathan Bruck’s daughters, Fanny, got married on the 26th of November 1822

 

Figure 13. Letter Fanny wrote on the 19th of February 1873 informing authorities in Breslau her husband Isaac had passed away on the 13th of February 1873; Fanny and Isaac’s death dates are written along the bottom (source: online “Centralna Biblioteka Judaistyczna,” Central Jewish Library)

 

Figure 14. Page from LDS FHC Microfilm 7990011 with Isaac Seliger’s death register listing confirming he died on the 13th of February 1873

 

Because the LDS Church does not have the Breslau death register covering the years between 1874 and 1910, I asked my friend Renata from the Old Jewish Cemetery in Wrocław if she could help track down Fanny Seliger’s death register information. Coincidentally, Fanny is buried in the Old Jewish Cemetery. Renata confirmed she was born on the 8th of November 1804 and died on the 29th of August 1879. A photo of her matzevah, headstone, will soon follow. (Figure 15-COMING SOON) 

Isaac Bruck (~1805-?) 

Isaac Bruck is estimated to have been born in 1805 or 1806. Along with his Samuel Bruck, both of their names show up on the roster of students who attended the inaugural class when Ratibor’s gymnasium, high school, opened in June 1819. (Figure 16) The roster indicates Isaac was 13 years old at the time, while his brother Samuel was 10 years of age. Isaac and Samuel’s unnamed father is listed as an “arendator,” beer tenant or distiller, which Jacob Bruck was known to have been. I discussed this topic in Post 152.

 

153-Figure 16. Isaac and Samuel Bruck’s names among the students who attended the inaugural class of the Ratibor “gymnasium” when it opened on the 2nd of June 1819

A particularly intriguing document I located mentioning Isaac Bruck was in a gazette entitled “Amtsblatt für den Regierungsbezirk Marienwerder,” dated the 26th of May 1828. The Marienwerder gazette printed a notice to be on the lookout for the deserter Isaac Bruck from Ratibor, who in 1828 was said to be 22 years old. (Figure 17)

 

Figure 17. Police notice in the gazette entitled “Amtsblatt für den Regierungsbezirk Marienwerder,” dated the 26th of May 1828 seeking Isaac Bruck’s arrest for desertion; he was 22 years of age at the time

 

The Marienwerder Region (German: Regierungsbezirk Marienwerder) was a government region (Regierungsbezirk) of Prussia from 1815 until 1920 and again 1939-1945. It was a part of the Province of West Prussia from 1815 to 1829, and again 1878–1920, belonging to the Province of Prussia in the intervening years, and to the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia in the years 1939-1945. The regional capital was Marienwerder in West Prussia [today: Kwidzyn, Poland].

According to LDS Microfilms 1194054 and 1194055 for Gleiwitz [today: Gliwice, Poland], Isaac and his wife Caroline Bruck, née Stolz, are known to have separated on the 19th of July 1835. (Figure 18)

 

Figure 18. Pages from LDS Microfilms 1194054 and 1194055 for Gleiwitz [today: Gliwice, Poland], announcing Isaac and his wife Caroline Bruck, née Stolz’s separation on the 19th of July 1835
 

Isaac Bruck is my cousin Michael Bruck’s 4th great-grandfather who he estimates died in 1856 or 1857. 

Samuel Bruck (1808-1863) 

Samuel was my third-great-grandfather, and the original owner of the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preussen” Hotel in Ratibor. His existence is beyond doubt. I discussed Samuel in Post 144, so direct readers to that installment. 

Heimann Bruck (~1812) 

Heimann Bruck first attended Ratibor’s gymnasium, high school, in April 1823 when he was 11 years old. (Figure 19) Heimann’s unnamed father is said to be a “Destillateur,” distiller, which Jacob Bruck is known to have been.

 

Figure 19. Heimann Bruck’s name among the roster of students who attended Ratibor’s “gymnasium” in April 1823 when he was 11 years old

 

Heimann married Rosalie “Rosa” Bruck on the 21st of August 1832 in Neisse, Prussia [today: Nysa, Poland]. Heimann’s father is identified as “Jacob B.” and Rosa’s father as “David B.” (Figure 20) Jacob and David were likely cousins.

 

Figure 20. Page from LDS Microfilm 7990058 listing Heimann Bruck and Rosa Bruck’s marriage in Neisse on the 21st of August 1832

 

In an 1826 Ratibor publication entitled “Einladungsschrift der Offentlichen Prufung der Schuler des Konigs. Gymnasium in Ratibor am 5, 6, und 7 April,” “Invitation to the Public Examination of the Pupils of the Royal Grammar School in Ratibor on April 5, 6 and 7, 1826,” Heimann Bruck’s name appears as having graduated from fourth class Latin. This may correspond with Heimann’s graduation from the gymnasium. (Figure 21)

 

Figure 21. Heimann Bruck’s name in an 1826 Ratibor publication showing he graduated from the “gymnasium”

 

Various ancestral trees indicate Heimann died in 1875 but this information is unconfirmed. 

Jonas Bruck (1813-1883) 

Jonas Bruck’s history is well-known. Primary source documents related to my 2nd great granduncle were discussed in Post 145. Jonas first attended Ratibor’s gymnasium in 1824 at 10 ½ years of age (Figure 22) and is shown in an annual Ratibor yearbook to have graduated in 1828.

 

Figure 22. Jonas Bruck’s name among the roster of students who attended Ratibor’s “gymnasium” in April 1824 when he was 10 ½ years old

 

Rebecka Bruck (1815-1819) 

Jacob and Marianne last known child is Rebecka Bruck and is their only child whose birth was recorded on LDS Microfilm 1184449 for Ratibor. (Figure 23) Her fate was unknown until I found her death register listing in the Upper Silesian Genealogical Society’s Signature Book 1699 indicating she died in Ratibor on the 16th of September 1819 at 4 years 8 months of age. (Figure 24)

 

Figure 23. Page from LDS Microfilm 1184449 for Ratibor recording Rebecka Bruck’s birth on the 10th of January 1815

 

Figure 24. The death register listing found in the Upper Silesian Genealogical Society’s Ratibor Signature Book 1699 showing that Rebecka Bruck died in Ratibor on the 16th of September 1819 at 4 years 8 months of age

 

In closing, let me make a few remarks. As readers can tell, I hold myself to a very high standard when documenting vital statistics for individuals I’m researching. On rare occasions, ancestral trees with vital data will direct me to information I can verify. Thanks to German and Polish friends and family, while compiling source documents for this post, I was able to uncover vital information for three additional children of Jacob and Marianne, namely, Wilhelmine Bruck, Moritz Bruck, and Fanny Bruck. While there are likely limits to what more can be uncovered, particularly for their children who died at birth or in infancy, I remain convinced additional primary source documents exist and that I may eventually find them. As things now stand, I’m confident I’ve proven the existence of nine of Jacob and Marianne’s children and confirmed the birth and death dates of six of them.

 

REFERENCES 

Amtsblatt für den Regierungsbezirk Marienwerder. (1828)

https://archive.org/details/bub_gb__pwDAAAAcAAJ/mode/2up?q=%E2%80%9CAmtsblatt+f%C3%BCr+den+Regierungsbezirk+Marienwerder

“Einladungsschrift der Offentlichen Prufung der Schuler des Konigs. Gymnasium in Ratibor am 5, 6, und 7 April.” (1826)

https://sbc.org.pl/en/dlibra/publication/696629/edition/655777/einladungsschrift-zu-der-offentlichen-prufung-der-schuler-des-koniglichen-gymnasiums-zu-ratibor-am-9-10-und-11-april-von-e-hanisch-director-des

Koner, Wilhelm (1846) “Gelehrtes im Jahre 1845.”

Gelehrtes Berlin im jahre 1845 : Wilhelm Koner : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

 

VITAL DATA & SOURCE OF INFORMATION ON JACOB NATHAN BRUCK & MARIANNE BRUCK, NÉE AUFRECHT’S CHILDREN

NOTE: My frustration with ancestral data in other people’s family trees is that they are often unsourced. In the table below, I’ve noted whether the data is “confirmed” or “unconfirmed.” I do not generally consider hand drawn family trees to be irrefutable proof of accuracy, nor do I consider the Geneanet Community Tree Index a primary source document. Even among contemporary records, I’ve occasionally found errors though generally consider the information in these registers and certificates to be the best available. I welcome corrections and additions from readers that have a personal interest in the information provided below.

 

 

NAME

(relationship)

EVENT DATE PLACE SOURCE
         
Jacob Nathan Bruck (self) Birth 18 February 1770 (unconfirmed) Pschow, Prussia [today: Pszów, Poland] Marianne Polborn, née Bruck family tree; Geneanet Community Tree Index
Marriage 16 May 1793 (unconfirmed)   Marianne Polborn, née Bruck family tree
Death 29 June 1836 (confirmed) Ratibor, Prussia [today: Racibórz, Poland] Upper Silesia Genealogical Society, Ratibor Signature Book 1698_0078; Geneanet Community Tree Index
Marianne Aufrecht (wife) Birth 21 August 1776 (unconfirmed) Teschen, Prussia [today: Cieszyn, Poland] Marianne Polborn, née Bruck family tree; Geneanet Community Tree Index
Marriage 16 May 1793

(unconfirmed)

  Marianne Polborn, née Bruck family tree
Death 1835 (unconfirmed)   Geneanet Community Tree Index
Wilhelmine Bruck (daughter) Birth 24 April 1796 (confirmed)   Headstone at the Stary Cmentarz Żydowski we Wrocławiu (Museum of Cemetery Art, Old Jewish Cemetery), Wroclaw, Poland
Marriage (to Wilhelm Friedenstein) 7 November 1814 (confirmed) Ratibor, Prussia [today: Racibórz, Poland] LDS Family History Center Microfilm 1184449; Upper Silesia Genealogical Society, Ratibor Signature Book 1699_0053
Death 21 December 1864 (confirmed)   Headstone at the Stary Cmentarz Żydowski we Wrocławiu (Museum of Cemetery Art, Old Jewish Cemetery), Wroclaw, Poland
Dorothea Babbett Bruck (daughter) Birth      
Marriage (to Salomon Freund) 25 February 1817 (confirmed) Ratibor, Prussia [today: Racibórz, Poland] LDS Family History Center Microfilm 1184449
Death      
Marcus Moritz Bruck (son) Birth 24 December 1800 (confirmed) Ratibor, Prussia [today: Racibórz, Poland] 1845 biography entitled “Gelehrtes Berlin in Jahre 1845
Marriage (to Nannette v. Aldersthal) 16 October 1836 (confirmed) Berlin, Germany Berlin Marriage Certificate
Death 25 October 1863 (confirmed) Berlin, Germany Tuchler Family Tree on MyHeritage; buried in the Jüdische Friedhof in der Schönhauser Allee in Gräberfeld J, Erbbegräbnis 170 (Grave Field J, Hereditary Burial 170)
Fanny Bruck (daughter) Birth 8 November 1804 (confirmed)   Headstone at the Stary Cmentarz Żydowski we Wrocławiu (Museum of Cemetery Art, Old Jewish Cemetery), Wroclaw, Poland
Marriage (to Isaac Seliger) 26 November 1822 (confirmed) Ratibor, Prussia [today: Racibórz, Poland] LDS Family History Center Microfilm 1184449; Upper Silesia Genealogical Society, Ratibor Signature Book 1699_0055
Death 29 August 1879 (confirmed) Breslau, Prussia [today: Wrocław, Poland] Headstone at the Stary Cmentarz Żydowski we Wrocławiu (Museum of Cemetery Art, Old Jewish Cemetery), Wroclaw, Poland; Letter written & signed by Fanny Seliger dated 19 February 1873 in the online archives of the Central Jewish Library (https://cbj.jhi.pl/documents/375623/8/)
Isaac Bruck (son) Birth ~1805 (unconfirmed) Ratibor, Prussia [today: Racibórz, Poland] Königl. Evangel. Gymnasium zu Ratibor am 2. Juni 1819, roster of students (Isaac said to be 13 years old in June 1819); Amtsblatt für den Regierungsbezirk Marienwerder, Vol. 18, 26 May 1828, p. 213 (Isaac said to be 22 years old in May 1828)
Marriage (to Caroline Stolz)      
Separated 14 July 1835 (confirmed) Gleiwitz, Prussia [Gliwice, Poland] LDS Family History Center Microfilms 1195054 & 1194055 for Gleiwitz [Gliwice, Poland]
Death      
Samuel Bruck (son) Birth 11 March 1808 (confirmed) Pschow, Prussia [today: Pszów, Poland] Caption on family photo; Pinkus Family Collection, Leo Baeck Institute
Marriage (to Charlotte Marle) 18 January 1831 (unconfirmed) Ratibor, Prussia [today: Racibórz, Poland] Marianne Polborn, née Bruck family tree
Death 3 July 1863 (confirmed) Ratibor, Prussia [today: Racibórz, Poland] Caption on family photo
Heimann Heinrich Bruck (son) Birth ~1812 (unconfirmed)   Königl. Evangel. Gymnasium zu Ratibor, 1819-1849 roster of students (Heimann said to be 11 years old in April 1823); MyHeritage family tree
Marriage (to Rosalie “Rosa” Bruck) 21 August 1832 (confirmed) Neisse, Prussia [today: Nysa, Poland] LDS Family History Center Microfilm 00799058, page 17 of 596 & 68 of 596;
Death 1875 (unconfirmed) Breslau, Prussia [today: Wrocław, Poland] MyHeritage family tree
Jonas Bruck (son) Birth 5 March 1813 (confirmed) Ratibor, Prussia [today: Racibórz, Poland] Headstone at the Stary Cmentarz Żydowski we Wrocławiu (Museum of Cemetery Art, Old Jewish Cemetery), Wroclaw, Poland; Königl. Evangel. Gymnasium zu Ratibor am 2. Juni 1819, roster of students (Jonas said to be 10.5 years old on April 1824)
Marriage (to Rosalie Marle)      
Death 5 April 1883 (unconfirmed) Breslau, Prussia [today: Wrocław, Poland] Headstone at the Stary Cmentarz Żydowski we Wrocławiu (Museum of Cemetery Art, Old Jewish Cemetery), Wroclaw, Poland
Rebecka Bruck (daughter) Birth 10 January 1815 (confirmed) Ratibor, Prussia [today: Racibórz, Poland] LDS Family History Center Microfilm 1184449
Death 16 September 1819 (confirmed) Ratibor, Prussia [today: Racibórz, Poland] Upper Silesia Genealogical Society, Ratibor Signature Book 1699_0067
         

 

POST 148: METAPHORICALLY, THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

 

Note: In this post, I discuss how I recently came into possession of images of ancestors from a branch of my family that originates mostly from Breslau [today: Wrocław, Poland], and learned about a memoir written by the grandfather of the English lawyer who shared these pictures.

 

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

POST 143: TOM BROOK, BBC JOURNALIST ON SCENE THE DAY JOHN LENNON DIED

 

A scant three months ago, on the 29th of September 2023 to be precise, I received an email from a lawyer living in Wolverhampton in the West Midlands of England, Helen Winter, née Renshaw. (Figure 1) I say “scant” because in the short period since we’ve been in touch, we’ve already exchanged several hundred emails.

 

Figure 1. Helen Winter, née Renshaw in Attingham Park in Wolverhampton in 2023

 

In Helen’s initial missive, she explained that she is a descendant of the Bruck family and that her maternal grandfather was Professor Eberhard Friedrich Bruck (1877-1960). (Figure 2) He taught law at the University of Bonn until enactment of “The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service” (German: Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums, shortened to Berufsbeamtengesetz) by the Nazis on the 7th of April 1933. The primary objective of this law was to establish a “national” and “professional” civil service by dismissing certain groups of tenured civil servants, including individuals of Jewish descent and non-Aryan origins. Additionally, the law forbade Jews, non-Aryans, and political opponents from holding positions as teachers, professors, judges, or within the government. It also extended to other professions such as lawyers, doctors, tax consultants, musicians, and notaries.

 

Figure 2. Helen’s grandfather, Professor Eberhard Friedrich Bruck (1877-1960), with his dachshund “Seppel” in 1913 in Mittenwald, Bavaria

 

Following Eberhard’s dismissal as university professor and confiscation of his home, he fled to the United States and wound-up teaching at Harvard University. As Helen further explained, her grandfather wrote a memoir for his daughter, Helen’s mother (Figure 3), relating the history of his branch of the Bruck family. As a Christmas gift to her nephews and nieces, Helen has slowly been translating the account. Her grandfather’s chronicle makes mention of the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel, the family business in Ratibor [today: Racibórz, Poland] owned by three generations of my family. (Figure 4) While researching the history and fate of the hotel, Helen stumbled on multiple blog posts where I made mention of the establishment.

 

Figure 3. Margot Renshaw, née Bruck (1917-1985), Helen’s mother and Eberhard’s daughter

 

Figure 4. The Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel in Ratibor [today: Racibórz, Poland] in 1942, owned by my family for three generations from ca. 1850 until 1926

Helen has promised to share her grandfather’s translated story but has given me a preview of the brief entry her grandfather Eberhard Bruck wrote about his great-grandfather, Jacob Nathan Bruck, my great-great-great-grandfather from Ratibor. Since Jacob arguably died in 1832 or 1836 and Eberhard was born in 1877, he would not have known him personally. Eberhard’s written accounts of Jacob are likely stories he heard about him growing up and may have been clouded by the lens through which childhood memories are often remembered. In an upcoming post, I intend to discuss the meager details I’ve been able to uncover about my earliest known ancestor from Ratibor but suffice it for now to say the particulars caused me to more thoroughly investigate when the Bruck’s Hotel might have been built. These findings will be the basis for yet another post because they give insights on avenues others may want to follow in examining their own family histories.

On various occasions I’ve told readers that my ancestral tree has fewer than 1,500 names, which pales in comparison to multiple trees I’ve come across with more than 100,000 names. I use my tree mostly to orient myself to the people I write about on my blog. That said, I have people in my tree, living and deceased, whose names I’ve come across without knowing anything about them. This was the case with my fourth cousin Thomas “Tom” Friedrich Brook until he contacted me asking if we were related; I wrote about Tom in Post 143. (Figure 5) This was also true of Helen who previously existed only as a wraith. Coincidentally, Tom and Helen Winter are second cousins who’ve never met (i.e., Helen and Tom’s grandfathers were brothers), and like Tom, Helen is my fourth cousin.

 

Figure 5. My fourth cousin, Tom Brook (b. 1953) who coincidentally is Helen Winter’s second cousin

 

In conjunction with translating her grandfather’s memoirs, Helen recently obtained family documents and pictures her older sister was curating. (Figure 6) Scrutinizing these items in combination has caused Helen to become obsessed with ancestral research. I can relate!

 

Figure 6. Helen with her older sister Anna (right) as children (photo courtesy of Helen Winter)

 

It is not my intention to further dwell on this branch of my family. However, as I just mentioned, I have numerous individuals in my tree I know nothing about and have no idea what they looked like. As names only, they are lifeless. Helen has been like the gift that keeps on giving because she has sent me pictures of many of my ancestors, including some of the earliest known ones from Breslau [today: Wrocław, Poland]. Acquiring these visuals for my ancestral tree is like filling in my Bingo card!

Among the most beguiling images Helen sent are ones of Jacob Bruck’s son and daughter-in-law, Dr. Jonas Julius Bruck (1813-1883) (Figures 7a & b-10) and Rosalie Bruck, née Marle (1817-1890) (Figures 11-12) and his famous grandson, Dr. Julius Bruck (1840-1902). (Figure 13) Julius is known for having designed in 1867 a water-cooled diaphanoscopic instrument for transillumination of the bladder via the rectum.

 

Figure 7a. Miniature painting from the 1830s of Dr. Jonas Julius Bruck (photo courtesy of Helen Winter)

 

Figure 7b. English-language caption on the back of the miniature painting of Jonas Bruck indicating that Jonas’s wife didn’t care for the painting because she thought her womanizing husband had it done for another woman (photo courtesy of Helen Winter)

 

Figure 8. A second painting of Dr. Jonas Bruck (photo courtesy of Helen Winter)

 

Figure 9. Yet a third painting of Dr. Jonas Bruck (photo courtesy of Helen Winter)

 

Figure 10. A photograph of Dr. Jonas Bruck later in life (photo courtesy of Helen Winter)

 

Figure 11. A photograph of Dr. Jonas Bruck’s wife, Rosalie Bruck, née Marle (photo courtesy of Helen Winter)

 

Figure 12. A second photograph of Rosalie Bruck, née Marle (photo courtesy of Helen Winter)

 

Figure 13. A photo of the famous and fashionable Dr. Julius Bruck (1840-1902) in August 1880 (photo courtesy of Helen Winter)

 

Jonas and Julius Bruck and their respective wives are interred in a mausoleum-like structure at the Old Jewish Cemetery in Wrocław, Poland (Figure 14), and are among my only Bruck ancestors whose burial location is known. Because I am friends with the Branch Manager of the Old Jewish Cemetery, Dr. Renata Wilkoszewska-Krakowska (Figure 15), I shared the pictures Helen sent with her and she was thrilled to receive them since some of the people are interred in “her” cemetery.

 

Figure 14. The mausoleum-like structure at the Old Jewish Cemetery in Wrocław, Poland where Drs. Jonas and Julius Bruck and their respective wives are interred (photo courtesy of Dr. Renata Wilkoszewska-Krakowska)

 

Figure 15. Dr. Renata Wilkoszewksa-Krakowska receiving her Ph.D. diploma at the recently renovated Baroque Leopoldina Hall at the University of Wrocław, built between 1728-1732

To close this post, I will share two other images (Figures 16-17) Helen has sent over the last several weeks, like the twelve daily gifts of Christmas! Suffice it to say, my Bingo card is becoming quite full!

 

Figure 16. Tom Brook’s father, Casper Bruck (1920-1983) in his military uniform (photo courtesy of Helen Winter)

 

Figure 17. Tom Brook’s father and uncle, Casper Bruck and Peter Bruck (1922-1977) as children (photo courtesy of Helen Winter)

 

POST 145: PRIMARY SOURCE DOCUMENTS ABOUT MY GREAT-GREAT GRANDUNCLE, DR. JONAS BRUCK (1813-1883)

 

Note: In this post, I briefly discuss some primary source documents sent to me by a reader mentioning one of my renowned ancestors, Dr. Jonas Bruck (1813-1883) from Wrocław, Poland [German: Breslau], who owned an inn 120 miles away in the town of Zyttna, Prussia [Żytna, Poland]. Initially uncertain whether this related to my great-great-granduncle, after having the documents translated, I confirmed it was indeed his property.

 

Related Posts:

POST 68: DR. JULIUS BRUCK AND HIS INFLUENCE ON MODERN ENDOSCOPY

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

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

 

I beg the indulgence of readers as I continue my examination of primary source documents related to some of my earliest Bruck relatives from Silesia. For reference, in Post 144, I discussed primary source documents referring to my great-great-grandfather Samuel Bruck (1808-1863) who is thought to have been the original owner of the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel in Ratibor, Prussia [today: Racibórz, Poland], the family business there owned through three generations.

In this post, I briefly examine a document citing Dr. Jonas Bruck (1813-1883) who was Samuel’s younger brother. (Figure 1) The first mention I found of Jonas was in the same 1820 publication, entitled “Denkschrift über die feierliche Eröffnung des Königl. Evangel. Gymnasium zu Ratibor am 2 Juni 1819” by Dr. Carl Linge, where his older brother Samuel was listed. (Figures 2a-c) Translated as “Memorandum on the ceremonial opening of the Royal Evangelical High School in Ratibor on June 2, 1819,” this publication names all the students who attended the inaugural class upon the high school’s opening in June of 1819.

 

Figure 1. My great-great-granduncle Dr. Jonas Bruck (1813-1883)

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2c. 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

 

The Bruck surname was reasonably common in Upper Silesia where my father’s family was concentrated for more than 100 years. When I come across mention of the family surname, I am apt to only make a mental note unless I’m aware of an ancestral connection to the town in question or unless the citation mentions ancestors to which I can link to on my ancestral tree. Thus, a question I received in June from a Polish gentleman named Mr. Jan Krajczok who lives in Rybnik, Poland caused me outwardly to have a dismissive reaction. However, his family’s three centuries-long connection to the nearby village of Żytna (i.e, Rybnik and Żytna are only about 10 miles apart) and the latter’s proximity to Ratibor, where many Brucks hail from, gave me pause. (Figure 3)

 

Figure 3. 1901 map showing the relationship of Ratibor, Prussia to Zyttna, Prussia

 

Let me provide a little more background. Mr. Krajczok was referred to me by my retired lawyer friend from Racibórz, Paul Newerla, who has written extensively about the history of Ratibor and Silesia. While helping his friends from nearby Żytna, Poland [Germany: Zyttna, Prussia], Jan checked land registration records of 19th century owners in the village and in Register 34 seemingly found Jewish surnames; if true, these surnames would relate to the memories and oral histories of current town dwellers who recall stories of purported Jewish owners of an inn in Zyttna. According to Jan, while the inn no longer stands photos supposedly survive along with a beer glass from the inn. Jan explained that he is trying to find a connection between the last owners listed in the register and the people who occupy the space now.

While researching names found in the primary source documents, including “Heimann Ajruck (which he thinks is “Bruck”),” “Moses Mendel Bruck,” and “Jonas Bruck,” Jan stumbled upon my blog. (Figures 4a-c) He found mention I had made of “my” Dr. Jonas Bruck in Post 68, among others. To remind readers, Dr. Jonas Bruck was the father of my famed ancestor, Dr. Julius Bruck (1840-1902) (Figure 5), from Breslau, Prussia [today: Wrocław, Poland]. I don’t expect readers to recall but in 1867 Dr. Julius Bruck designed a water-cooled diaphanoscopic instrument for translumination of the bladder via the rectum; this instrument consisted of an illuminated platinum thread inserted into a double glass wall cylinder with the instrument’s outer glass chamber cooled by water. Julius and his father Jonas, and their respective wives are interred in the Old Jewish Cemetery in Wrocław in a mausoleum-like structure that has been restored. (Figure 6)

 

Figure 4a. Page 1 of land registration records from Zyttna, Prussia, Register 34

 

Figure 4b. Page 2 of land registration records from Zyttna, Prussia, Register 34

 

Figure 4c. Page 3 of land registration records from Zyttna, Prussia, Register 34, specifically mentioning the dentist Dr. Jonas Bruck

 

Figure 5. Dr. Julius Bruck (1840-1902), my famed ancestor from Breslau, Prussia [Wrocław, Poland] who invented the stomatoscope
Figure 6. Restored tombstones in the Old Jewish Cemetery in Wrocław, Poland of Dr. Jonas and Julius Bruck and their respective wives

 

Jan wondered whether Dr. Jonas Bruck from Breslau and Jonas Bruck from Zyttna could have been one and the same. Żytna and Wrocław are about 120 miles apart (Figure 7), so I was hard pressed to imagine why the dentist would have owned or managed an inn in Zyttna, unless of course it was an investment which he leased to a tenant. While I was dubious of the link, I’ve been working on my ancestry for long enough to realize that seemingly unrelated people and places connect in unexpected ways. For this reason, I promised Jan that I would ask my German friend, Peter Hanke, the “Wizard of Wolfsburg,” to translate the German-language documents.

 

Figure 7. Map showing the distance between Wrocław and Żytna

 

My friend Peter learned the following from the land registration records. Under “Moses Mendel Bruck,” the register shows that on the 26th of November 1842 he purchased the plot of land with a building from Adolph Richter for 14 Reichsthaler. (see Figure 4c) Ownership was documented on the 4th of April 1846. The next entry confirms the involvement of “the dentist Dr. Jonas Bruck.” On the 18th of December 1845 he buys the inn from Moses Mendel Bruck for 35 Reichsthaler, and his ownership is also documented on the 4th of April 1846. Dr. Jonas Bruck sells the inn to Johann Kotzian between the 23rd of May 1859 and the 24th of June 1859 for 35 Reichsthaler.

The relationship of Moses Mendel Bruck and Jonas Bruck is not evident to me since I don’t have Moses in my family tree and have never found mention of him in my research. I suspect that he may have been one of Jonas and Samuel Bruck’s older brothers, but this is mere conjecture.

In any case, notwithstanding my doubt as to Dr. Jonas Bruck’s involvement in the ownership of an inn at quite a remove from Wrocław, this is yet another reminder to myself that when researching Bruck relatives in Silesia I should keep an open mind as to how far afield I’m likely to discover relevant information.

Naturally, I shared Peter Hanke’s translation of the primary source documents from Żytna with Jan Krajczok, who in turn shared them with the villagers. The townspeople were absolutely thrilled that evidentiary materials confirmed what had previously only been a faint recollection that a Jewish family had owned an inn in town during the 19th century. Paraphrasing Jan, what was also particularly satisfying is that a historic connection to Jews once living in the area that the Communists had sought to eradicate had been reaffirmed.

Jan concurred that as improbable as it seems that a dentist from Wrocław would own an inn and a plot of land in a small village 120 miles away, he could well imagine that Jonas was the formal owner and that he employed someone to run the establishment.

Karczma in Polish means inn. Jan happens to be a teacher of literature and philosophy and clarified that in Polish culture the person of a Jewish innkeeper is held in high regard. He explained that in Poland’s national poem, Pan TadeuszSir Thaddeus by Adam Mickiewicz, the character Jankiel who is an innkeeper and a friend of the main heroes and a loyal keeper of their secrets, is esteemed and known to virtually all modern-day Poles.

The inn in Żytna was torn down after the war because of its deteriorated condition. Jan sent me a picture postcard of the inn. (Figure 8)

 

Figure 8. Picture postcard of the “gasthaus” or inn in Zyttna that my ancestor Dr. Jonas Bruck owned between 1845 and 1859

 

In closing I would note that some contemporaries of our ancestors with identical names have no known connection to our forebears, such as the Samuel Bruck from Zülz discussed in Post 144, while others are indeed our relatives, such as the Dr. Jonas Bruck from Żytna. Discerning between the two is not always a simple exercise.

 

REFERENCE

Linge, Dr. Carl (Director des Gymnasiums zu Ratibor) (1820). Denkschrift über die feierliche Eröffnung des Königl. Evangel. Gymnasium zu Ratibor am 2 Juni 1819, nebst den dabei gehaltenen Reden des Consistorialrath Dr. Wachler, und des Dr. Linge, und andern Beilagen herausgegeben von Dr. C. L., etc. The British Library. Digitized: August 20, 2018.

 

POST 143: TOM BROOK, BBC JOURNALIST ON SCENE THE DAY JOHN LENNON DIED

 

Note: In this post, I discuss a fourth cousin, familiarly known to his BBC News followers as Tom Brook, who was one of the first British journalists to report live outside John Lennon’s home on New York’s Upper West Side following his murder on December 8, 1980. Serendipitously, I was recently contacted by Tom’s second cousin, a lady from Wolverhampton, England, who is currently translating her grandfather’s memoir which happens to contain references to my earliest known Bruck relatives from Ratibor [today: Racibórz, Poland]. In upcoming posts I will begin to discuss documents I’ve recently uncovered related to some of these early family ancestors.

 

An application on Geni World Family Tree allows you to enter the name of two people and have it tell you how these people are linked, often a convoluted and rather uninteresting connection. Since we’re all ultimately related, I’ve never personally availed myself of this Geni function though others whom I converse with through my blog have on occasion sent me graphics illustrating our “kinship.”  I’m aware of but again have never used a different application available elsewhere that allows someone to determine how they are related to famous people. Since I’m decidedly not a “stargazer,” this is of no interest to me.

At various times, I’ve mentioned that I have a family tree on ancestry.com’s platform with between 1200 and 1300 names. While this may seem like a large number, I’ve seen trees with more than 100,000 names. As I’ve periodically told readers, I use my tree mostly to orient myself to the people about whom I write. However, regular readers know that over time I’ve started writing about much more than my own family in the interest of retaining and expanding my readership.

At the risk of offending distant relatives, I tend to lose interest in next of kin beyond fourth cousins. That said, whenever someone contacts me asking whether we might be related or telling me they think we are related, as an intellectual exercise, I will take pencil and paper to try and work out our ancestral relationship. Occasionally, this leads to hearing from people with a captivating pedigree or making engaging connections. This post is about just such a person, plus a more recent contact from a different individual who I discovered is the second cousin of the person who originally reached out to me. Long-term followers of my blog know that uncovering connections between seemingly unrelated people and events is something I find particularly engrossing about doing ancestral research.

Around Thanksgiving of 2022, I received an email from a genial journalist named Thomas Friedrich Brook (b. 1953) (Figure 1), more familiarly known as Tom, who’s lived in New York for 40 years. After stumbling on my blog, Tom wondered whether we might be related. Given our identical surnames, this makes sense. He briefly explained his lineage, telling me his father was born Caspar Friedrich Bruck (1920-1983) in Breslau [today: Wrocław, Poland], and that his grandfather was Werner Friedrich Bruck (1880-1945) (Figure 2), a university professor in Münster, Germany until 1933 when Hitler came to power. Werner’s brother, Eberhard Friedrich Bruck (1877-1960) (Figure 3) was a prominent lawyer, whom Tom told me he’d met a few times growing up.

 

Figure 1. Tom Brook (b. 1953)

 

Figure 2. Tom Brook’s grandfather, Werner Friedrich Bruck (1880-1945)

 

Figure 3. Tom Brook’s great-uncle, Eberhard Friedrich Bruck (1877-1960)

 

Tom’s family settled in London in 1948, and like my family when they came to America, changed their surname to “Brook.” Following his grandfather’s divorce, Werner ended up teaching at the New School in New York until his death in 1945.

Since all of Tom’s family are in my tree, including Tom whose name I had stumbled across during my research, I was quickly able to establish that he and I are fourth cousins.

Tom Brook’s mention that he is a journalist caused me to Google his name, and I learned he is a New York-based journalist working primarily for BBC News and is seen primarily on BBC World News and BBC News Channel. He is the main presenter of its flagship cinema program “Talking Movies,” and has presented every episode since it was first broadcast in February 1999.

In a subsequent email Tom mentioned that he has a large photo album with pictures of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, plus a drawing of a visit from Kaiser Wilhelm II, Germany’s last Kaiser. The existence of this drawing reaffirms my family’s connection to Kaiser Wilhelm. It’s my great hope that despite Tom’s dreadfully busy schedule, we might eventually connect so I can view his family heirlooms.

Fast forward to late September of this year when I was contacted by an English lady named Helen Winter née Renshaw (b. 1948) (Figure 4) from Wolverhampton, West Midlands, in the central part of England. Like most of my contacts these days, Helen stumbled on my blog while researching the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel in Ratibor [today: Racibórz, Poland], the hotel my family owned there for three generations. She told me her grandfather Eberhard Friedrich Bruck had mentioned the family hotel in a memoir he wrote for his daughter, Margot Renshaw née Bruck (1917-1985), that’s to say, Helen’s mother. This is when I realized that Eberhard happens to have been Werner Friedrich Bruck’s older brother, making Helen Winter and Tom Brook second cousins.

 

Figure 4. Helen Winter née Renshaw (b. 1948), Tom Brook’s second cousin and Eberhard Friedrich Bruck’s granddaughter, in Attingham Park in Shropshire, England

 

Becuase Tom and I have lost touch since our initial contact in 2022, I asked Helen whether she knew of her second cousin and, if so, how to contact him. She explained that while she was aware of him, they’d never met though her older sister had met Tom when she was younger. Intriguingly, she mentioned something I overlooked when initially reading Tom’s Wikipedia entry, namely, that he had been the first British journalist to report live from outside John Lennon’s home in the famed Dakota Apartment building (The Dakota – Wikipedia) on New York’s Upper West Side, following the murder of the former Beatle.

I must briefly digress. Long-term watchers of the CBS News Hour may recall Steve Hartman’s regular award-winning program “Everybody Has a Story.” For those unfamiliar with this series, Hartman would throw a dart at a map and then randomly choose an interview subject from the local phone book. Steve would uncover something alluring or unusual that had happened to that person, and fashion a human-interest story based on their conversation. Running for seven years beginning in 1998, Hartman produced more than 120 pieces in this series. While Tom Brook will better be remembered for his career as a BBC journalist and his long-running entertainment show, I couldn’t help but think that if Steve Hartman had randomly selected his name from a local phone book, Tom’s reportage of John Lennon’s murder outside his apartment building in New York City would have stood out as an unusual occurrence in his life.

On the 40th anniversary of John Lennon’s murder, which took place on the 8th of December 1980, Tom penned an article in which he basically conceded the point I’m making. Quoting: “Lennon continues to define my career. I have been a broadcast journalist for more than 40 years. In that time, I have filed more than 3,000 stores for BBC outlets and have interviewed most of the big names in the movie industry.

But all people want to know when they meet me is what it was like to cover John Lennon’s death.”

As we speak, Helen Winter is in the process of translating her grandfather Eberhard’s memoir. While he was a lawyer in Bonn, Germany, and like his brother Werner lost his position in 1933 when Hitler ascended to power, his memoir also discusses his early Bruck ancestors from Ratibor. Helen has teased me with some of the facsinating things Eberhard wrote about them that may reveal more about my family’s earliest connection to this town. Stay tuned.

REFERENCE

Brook, Tom (8 December 2020). “John Lennon: I Was There the Day He Died.” BBC News. London. Archived from the original on 8 December 2020.

POST 141: ZBIGNIEW LEWANDOWSKI, POLISH FORCED LABORER IN AN UNDERGROUND NAZI INTERNMENT CAMP

 

Note: Inspired by a reader, in this post I investigate the location of a Polish forced labor camp situated near Kamenz, Germany [today: Kamieniec Ząbkowicki, Poland], a place I’ve discussed in several earlier posts. Determining its location caused me to examine the purpose of the various networks of underground caves and subterranean structures the Nazis constructed in the latter stages of WWII in the mountainous regions of Germany, Austria, and Poland.  

Related Posts:

POST 114: EDWARD HANS LINDENBERGER, A DISTANT COUSIN: MIGHT HE HAVE SURVIVED BUCHENWALD?

POST 114, POSTSCRIPT—EDWARD HANS LINDENBERGER, A DISTANT COUSIN: DID HE SURVIVE BUCHENWALD?—HIS FATE UNCOVERED

POST 135: PICTORIAL ESSAY OF THE VON PREUßEN CASTLE IN KAMENZ, GERMANY [TODAY: KAMIENIEC ZĄBKOWICKI, POLAND]

 

A gentleman, Mr. Wayne Lewan, from New South Wales, Australia recently contacted me through my blog regarding his father, Zbigniew Lewandowski. Wayne’s surname is obviously a truncated version of his ancestors’ family name. He happened upon several recent blog posts I wrote about Castle Kamenz [today: Kamieniec Ząbkowicki, Poland] that my friend Peter Albrecht von Preußen’s family owned through several generations.

Wayne sent me two pages (Figures 1a-b) documenting that his father had indeed been a forced laborer in Kamenz in Silesia near Breslau [today: Wrocław, Poland] between 1944-1945, when Silesia was part of Germany. I found these and other pages, including Zbigniew Lewandowski’s photograph (Figure 2) on his 1948 “Application for Assistance” requesting help to immigrate to Australia, in the online Arolsen Archives database. This database has the largest collection of information on Nazi victims, including documents on concentration camps, forced labor and displaced persons.

 

Figure 1a. Page 1 of “Application for Assistance” form completed by Zbigniew Lewandowski on the 17th of December 1948 requesting help to immigrate to Australia; form shows he was interned in “Kamenz, Schles. (Silesia), near Breslau” between July 1944 and January 1945

 

Figure 1b. Page 2 of “Application for Assistance” form completed by Zbigniew Lewandowski on the 17th of December 1948 requesting help to immigrate to Australia

 

Figure 2. Photo of Zbigniew Lewandowski attached to his 1948 “Application for Assistance” form showing he was born on the 1st of March 1926 in Mława, Poland

 

 

According to Wayne, his father was picked up by the Nazis in a street roundup in Warsaw on the 17th of July 1944. Given the timing of his arrest, it is likely that Zbigniew was arrested during the Warsaw Uprising, the World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led by the Polish resistance Home Army. Following Zbigniew’s arrest, he was held in Kamenz between July 1944 and January 1945, then moved to Mühldorf, a subcamp of the Dachau concentration camp located near Mühldorf in Bavaria, where he was liberated in May 1945.

Aware that present-day Kamieniec Ząbkowicki, Poland, located in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship (i.e., an “administrative district”) of south-western Poland, has a population of only about 4,200 people today and is a small community, I became curious as to where exactly in Kamenz the internment camp might have been located.

For geographic reference, Kamieniec Ząbkowicki is approximately 80 miles northwest of Racibórz (Figure 3), where my father was born, and roughly 50 miles south of Wrocław, Poland [formerly: Breslau, Germany]. (Figure 4) Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. Kamieniec Ząbkowicki is an important railroad junction, located on the main line which links Wrocław with Kłodzko [Glatz, Germany] and Prague.

 

Figure 3. Map showing distance from Kamieniec Ząbkowicki to Racibórz

 

Figure 4. Map showing distance from Kamieniec Ząbkowicki to Wrocław

 

The reason the location of a forced laborer camp in Kamenz is so fascinating is that in the numerous discussions I’ve had with Peter Albrecht von Preußen the existence of such a purported camp has never previously come up. And, in fact, the document Wayne Lewan sent me merely indicated his father had been interned in “Kamenz, Schles., near Breslau,” (see Figure 1a) making no allusion to Castle Kamenz proper. Still, while my online research yielded no mention of any forced laborer camp near Kamenz in Silesia, I confusingly discovered there had been a concentration camp in another town by the same name located in Saxony; the latter was a subcamp of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp.

I began to wonder whether an internment camp might have existed underground near Castle Kamenz. While researching this possibility, I learned that the Nazis had begun a secret construction project in the Owl Mountains [Polish: Góry Sowie; German: Eulengebirge] beneath Książ Castle, located only about 43 miles northwest of Castle Kamenz. Książ Castle is a castle in northern Wałbrzych (Figure 5) in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland, and the largest castle in Silesia. It stood to reason that if the Nazis had begun fabrication of massive underground bases beneath a nearby castle in Silesia, they might have done the same beneath Castle Kamenz. Nonetheless, Peter Albrecht confirmed that a similar assembly project had never been built under Castle Kamenz.

 

Figure 5. Map showing distance from Kamieniec Ząbkowicki to Wałbrzych near where Książ Castle is situated

 

The project underneath Książ Castle was code named “Project Riese” and involved the construction between 1943 and 1945 of seven massive underground bases. The purpose of this vast subterranean network project remains uncertain. Some sources suggest that all the structures were part of the Führer Headquarters; according to others, it was a combination of headquarters (HQ) and arms industry, with Książ Castle intended as an HQ or other official residence, and the tunnels in the Owl Mountains planned as a network of underground factories. The tunnels were never finished though thousands of prisoners of war, forced laborers, and concentration camp inmates worked and died during the construction work.

In any event, the revelation of underground bases the Nazis excavated or natural caves or old mines they expanded upon has opened a plethora of topics I’ve either never previously discussed or only touched upon. They relate to the final phase of WWII when their development was widespread throughout the mountainous areas of Germany, Austria, and Poland and widely involved the use of forced laborers, prisoners of war, and concentration camps inmates. Because they often lack documentary evidence, they invite endless speculation as to their true function. I will briefly explore some of these issues.

Let me begin by discussing what I learned from Peter Albrecht as to the presumed location of the forced labor camp in Kamenz vis a vis Castle Kamenz. Some of Peter’s information comes from an informant named Stefan Gnaczy who started the local historical society and the small museum in Kamieniec Ząbkowicki; regrettably, Stefan passed away in 2019, though his son Matthew Gnaczy continues to be involved with the historical society and museum.

Before relating what Peter has learned about the forced labor camp near Castle Kamenz let me review some of what I presented to readers in Post 135 for context. Peter’s great-great-grandfather Friedrich Wilhelm Nikolaus Albrecht von Preußen (1837-1906) was gifted Castle Kamenz by his mother upon his marriage to Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg (1854-1898) in 1873. Shortly thereafter he started to build a large steam boiler house (Figure 6); the source of heat for a boiler is typically combustion of any of several fuels, such as wood, coal, oil, or natural gas. It’s unknown to me which of these fuels was used to create the steam, though underground pipes running through a tunnel connecting the boiler house to the castle are known to have carried the steam between the two.

 

Figure 6. The steam boiler house as it looks today; one of the towers of the castle can be seen in the background through the trees

 

Upon Nikolaus’ death in 1906, Castle Kamenz was inherited by his eldest son, Friedrich Heinrich von Preußen (1874-1940), mentioned in several earlier posts. Beginning around this time, he converted approximately 50 rooms into apartments and outfitted them with baths, telephones, radios, and electricity. By then, the boiler house had an electric generator and the tunnels now carried not only steam but electricity. The significance of this will soon become clearer.

Prior to Friedrich Heinrich’s death in 1940, he sold Castle Kamenz to his second cousin, Waldemar von Preußen (1889-1945), who owned the castle throughout WWII.

According to what Peter has learned from local residents of Kamieniec Ząbkowicki as well as the historical society, there is a tunnel/cave system running below the town that is at least six miles long, perhaps longer depending on who you believe. Purportedly, the system was developed hundreds of years earlier for unknown reasons by monks from the former Kamieniec Abbey, which still stands but was secularized in 1810. The caves and tunnels thus predate Castle Kamenz which was constructed between about 1838 and 1872.

Part of this web of tunnels and caves may have included the adits of the former gold and arsenic mine located in Złoty Stok [German: Reichenstein, Germany] mined in the Middle Ages, located a mere 6.1 miles south of Kamieniec Ząbkowicki. (Figure 7)

 

Figure 7. Map showing distance from Kamieniec Ząbkowicki to Złoty Stok [German: Reichenstein, Germany] where gold and arsenic mining took place during the Middle Ages
 

Peter was able to discover there was indeed a forced work camp near Kamieniec Ząbkowicki at a place formerly call Reichenau, Germany [today: Topola, Poland], located 3.6 miles southeast of the castle. (Figures 8a-b) Topola is a village in the administrative district of Kamieniec Ząbkowicki.

 

Figure 8a. Old map showing the relative location of Kamenz [today: Kamieniec Ząbkowicki, Poland] formerly called “Camenz” and Reichenau [today: Topola, Poland]
Figure 8b. May showing the distance from the Kamieniec Ząbkowicki Palace to Topola

 

The source of the information on Topola is a report prepared by the Lux Veritatis Foundation, based in Warsaw, called “The Compilation of Places of Crimes Committed against the Civilian Population by the Nazi Occupant on the Polish Territories in Years 1939–1945.” According to Volume 3 of this compilation entitled “The Report on the Losses Sustained by Poland as a Result of German Aggression and Occupation During the Second World War, 1939–1945” (Figure 9) which includes a “List of Atrocity Sites,” 82 Polish citizens, including Poles, Jews, and Romanis, were murdered in Topola during its existence, likely from the extremely harsh and tortuous working conditions. (Figure 10)

 

Figure 9. Cover of the unpublished report by the Lux Veritatis Foundation entitled “The Report on the Losses Sustained by Poland as a Result of German Aggression and Occupation During the Second World War, 1939–1945: List of Atrocity Sites”

 

Figure 10. Pages 10-11 of “The Report on the Losses Sustained by Poland as a Result of German Aggression and Occupation During the Second World War, 1939–1945: List of Atrocity Sites” with Topola circled

The Lux Veritatis’ “List of Atrocity Sites” was compiled based on the work of the Central Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes Committed in Poland. According to the report, “Each volume contains the records of Nazi German atrocities committed in a particular voivodeship (according to the territorial administrative division of Poland in the 1970s), and presents the facts and figures as known to Polish scholars in the 1980s and up to the early 1990s. This series of volumes does not include data on Nazi German concentration and death camps, POW camps, or atrocity sites on territories now beyond the borders of Poland.”

The report further states the following as to the vast scale Nazi Germany’s efforts to exterminate the people of Poland: “Polish citizens were killed in individual incidents of murder, in mass executions by firing squad, during raids to ‘pacify’ whole villages, butchered while held in German prisons, hanged on the gallows in public executions, or slaughtered in barbaric atrocities of miscellaneous other types. Victims included women and children as well as persons with no connection at all with the circumstances triggering an atrocity, who just had the bad luck to be there when the killing started. The German authorities occupying Poland pursued a policy of collective accountability and executed ‘hostages’.”

Given Topola’s proximity to Castle Kamenz and the estimated extent of the nearby tunnel/cave system beneath Kamieniec Ząbkowicki, Peter knows the Nazis tapped into the electric grid and also siphoned off steam from the castle’s electric generator and boiler house to power whatever activities they were clandestinely pursuing. Naturally, this left the castle with limited electricity and steam.

The boiler house tunnel system is currently undergoing restoration, and Peter sent several photos of the ongoing work. (Figures 11a-f) Clearly, the tunnel system once connected to the larger web of subterranean tunnels and caves that were part of the Topola network, though the photos confirm the juncture was sealed off. Apparently, this was done in 1947 by Poland’s Communist government in a covert operation.

 

Figure 11a. Inside of restored tunnel connecting the Castle Kamenz to the boiler house
Figure 11b. Inside of restored tunnel connecting the Castle Kamenz to the boiler house

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 11c. Inside of restored tunnel connecting the Castle Kamenz to the boiler house
Figure 11d. Inside of restored tunnel connecting the Castle Kamenz to the boiler house

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 11e. Inside of restored tunnel connecting the Castle Kamenz to the boiler house
Figure 11f. Inside of restored tunnel connecting the Castle Kamenz to the boiler house

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peter emphasizes, however, that in the time that his ancestor Prince Waldemar owned the castle during WWII no forced laborers were used in the operation of Castle Kamenz’s operations nor were any interned in the boiler house tunnel system since the latter is too narrow.

The absence of documentary materials about Reichenau and, more generally, the question on what purpose the various secretive Nazi bunkers and subterranean bases served, invites further examination and speculation.

According to Peter’s informant, the forced laborers that lived and worked in the underground bunker or cave in Topola (Reichenau) may have been gulaged by the infamous Organization Todt (OT). This organization was a civil and military engineering group in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, named for its founder, Fritz Todt, an engineer, and senior member of the Nazi Party. Incidentally, Todt was responsible for the construction of the German autobahns.

OT had oversight for a huge number of engineering projects both in Nazi Germany and in occupied territories from France to the Soviet Union during WWII. The organization became notorious for using forced labor. From 1943 until 1945 during the late phase of the Third Reich, OT administered all constructions of concentration camps to supply forced labor to industry.

Todt was killed in February 1942 near Rastenburg when his aircraft crashed shortly after take-off. He was succeeded as Reichsminister and head of the OT by Albert Speer. This coincided with the absorption of the organization into the renamed and expanded Reich Ministry of Armaments and War Production. Approximately 1.4 million laborers were in the service of the organization. About one percent were Germans excused from military service, another 1.5 percent were concentration camp inmates, and the remainder were prisoners of war and forced laborers from occupied countries. Many of the laborers did not survive the arduous work which they were condemned to.

Suffice it to say, that according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website, “Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its allies established more than 44,000 camps and other incarceration sites (including ghettos). The perpetrators used these locations for a range of purposes, including forced labor, detention of people deemed to be ‘enemies of the state,’ and mass murder.”

It is possible, and indeed likely, that if forced laborers were used for whatever activities were being undertaken in the tunnel and cave system at Topola, the OT might have brought the needed workers from concentration camp Gusen (Figure 12), located three miles from Mauthausen concentration camp, and 280 miles south-southwest of Kamieniec Ząbkowicki. Recall that Kamenz was a major railway hub to Breslau and Prague, the latter 153 miles directly north of Gusen.

 

Figure 12. Map showing general direction from Kamieniec Ząbkowicki via Prague to the Gusen concentration camp where forced laborers used at Topola may have come from

 

A possible clue as to what clandestine activities may have been going on beneath Topola is the presence of a high-ranking Nazi official named Hans Kammler who is reputed to have maintained a residence in Kamieniec Ząbkowicki after 1943. Hans Kammler was an SS-Obergruppenführer (translated as “senior group leader,” the highest commissioned SS rank after only Reichsführer-SS) responsible for Nazi civil engineering projects and its top V-weapons program. He oversaw the construction of various Nazi concentration camps before being put in charge of the V-2 rocket and Emergency Fighter Programs towards the end of WWII.

V-weapons formed part of the range of the so-called Wunderwaffen (superweapons, or “wonderweapons”) of Nazi Germany, and were intended to be used in a military campaign against Britain, although only the V-1 and V-2 were ever used against them. The V-2 and other German guided missiles and rockets were developed by the Peenemünde Army Research Center (German: Heeresversuchsanstalt Peenemünde, HVP).

Britain’s RAF successfully bombed the Nazi’s rocket production facilities at Peenemünde in August 1943 in Operation Crossbow. Following this successful raid, Albert Speer recommended transferring the V-2 rocket production underground. Hitler immediately agreed, and he and Speer decided that the SS, with its access to a massive supply of slave labor, was best suited to undertake this task.

As the SS construction chief, Hans Kammler was selected to oversee the project. The secret weapons projects for which Kammler was given responsibility included manufacturing both the Messerschmitt Me 262, the first operational jet fighter, and the V-2, which Kammler—in a construction effort of ruthless brutality and speed—had in production before the end of 1943.

The first below-ground project began at a huge fuel storage facility in the German state of Thuringia. By late August 1943, Kammler had a sizable detachment of concentration camp inmates from Buchenwald working at the new underground installation. There were so many slave laborers by the end of 1943 that the subcamp of Mittlebau-Dora was established. The latter supplied slave labor from many Eastern countries occupied by Germany (including evacuated survivors of eastern extermination camps), for extending the nearby tunnels in the Kohnstein and for manufacturing the V-2 rocket and the V-1 flying bomb. Gypsum mining in the hills in the Kohnstein had created tunnels that were ideally suited as a fuel/chemical depot and for Nazi Germany factories, including the V-2 rocket factory.

Regular readers may recall Post 114 and Post 114, Postscript where I discussed one of my distant cousins, Edward Hans Lindenberger, who was compelled to work in the underground tunnels near Buchenwald and Mittlebau-Dora and was never heard from again, no doubt a victim of the Nazis policy of working concentration camp inmates to death.

Assuming the accounts of Hans Kammler’s presence in Kamieniec Ząbkowicki after around 1943 are credible, given the responsibilities he was assigned by Hitler and Speer, it is reasonable to assume that he was engaged in preparing the caves around Topola to produce secret weapons. The mounting pressure on the Nazis from the Allies as the war proceeded suggests that most of the planned underground bunkers and caves were never completed. Pictures of the unfinished bunkers that were part of Project Riese, for example, show old winches, abandoned munitions carts, and primitive railway tracks leading into the tunnels, but not enough to conclusively determine what activities were planned.

In the absence of documentary evidence, one can only surmise what the network of caves, tunnels, bunkers, and subterranean structures scattered throughout Germany, Poland, Austria, and elsewhere were developed for. Likely, they were intended for a range of different purposes, including production of munitions, planes, and missiles; headquarters from which to direct troop movements; places to house batteries of cannons; safe havens from which to make a last stand; and even locations to stash war plunder. What I find mystifying is that among the myriad Nazi documents that survived WWII, seemingly few related to the purpose of the underground caves exist. Either they were never produced, which seems unlikely, destroyed before the Allies could get their hands on them, or carted off by the Allies and are still classified.

Fascinatingly, treasure hunters have expended a lot of time, money, and effort exploring and radar scanning from above searching for underground cavities where a “Nazi gold train” rumored to contain 300 tons of gold, diamonds, other gems, and industrial equipment may have been hidden. According to legend, the train was loaded by the Nazis and entered a tunnel in the mountainous Lower Silesian region before Soviet Army Forces closed in, but the train was never seen again. There are periodic reports in the media about treasure seekers claiming to have found evidence of this train. According to Peter, the tunnels connecting Castle Kamenz to the boiler house are periodically broken into by fortune hunters seeking this chimera.

There is another factor complicating understanding the purpose of the various subterranean structures, namely inaccessibility and/or flooding of the chambers. In the case of Reichenau, the Neisse River runs through it. To the southwest of the site there was once a quarry. According to Stefan Gnaczy, Peter’s informant, in 1947 the Polish government sealed off the entrance to the caves and tunnels and flooded the quarry including the sealed entrance diverting water from the Neisse River. Stefan further claims to have found an unpublished Polish government report from the 1960s stating that only half of the underground tunnel is accessible for exploration, with the remainder flooded.

Coming full circle back to Wayne Lewan’s father. According to his father’s records, he was stationed in Kamenz for only about six months. It’s not clear why he was moved from Kamenz to Dachau concentration camp in January 1945. His pre-war occupation was telephone lineman mechanic, and perhaps he was considered a skilled worker whose abilities were better utilized in Dachau. (Figure 13) Regardless, alerted to the fact that Zbigniew Lewandowski had once been interned in Kamenz led me to track down the camp where he was likely held and to investigate Nazi underground bases and tunnels, the purpose of which remain shrouded in mystery.

 

Figure 13. 1946 or 1947 photo of Wayne Lewan’s father, Zbigniew Lewandowski (right), believed to have been taken at Dachau

 

REFERENCES

Hall, John. “Inside the Nazi’s abandoned military shelters in Poland.” DailyMail.com, 12 August 2015. https://www.dailymail.co.uk

Ilsley, Natalie. “Top 5 Nazi Discoveries.” Newsweek, 31 August 2015.

Lux Veritatas Foundation. “The Report on the Losses Sustained by Poland as a Result of German Aggression and Occupation During the Second World War, 1939–1945: List of Atrocity Sites.”

Sulzer, Andreas. “The two lives of Hans Kammler/Hitler’s Secret Weapons Manager.” YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkKFX9HLAxc

“10 Nazi bunkers and subterranean bases.” Heritage Daily. https://www.heritagedaily.com/

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Forced Labor.” https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/forced-labor

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Gusen.” https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/gusen

 

 

 

 

POST 120: FAMILY PHOTOS, DISCOVERING & DECODING THEM

 

Note: In this post, I discuss “stashes” of family photos I’ve uncovered, and the efforts I’ve undertaken with the help of near and distant relatives to identify people in some of those images even absent captions. In a few instances the photos are significant because they illustrate individuals renowned or notorious in history. In other cases, a good deal of sleuthing was required, including comparing the pictures of people in captioned versus uncaptioned images. On other occasions, I recognized portrayals of family members I knew growing up. And, in rare instances, I was able to determine a photographed person based on an educated guess.

 

Related Posts:

POST 15: BERLIN & MY GREAT-AUNTS FRANZISKA & ELSBETH BRUCK

POST 17: SURVIVING IN BERLIN IN THE TIME OF HITLER: MY UNCLE FEDOR’S STORY

POST 31: WITNESS TO HISTORY, “PROOF” OF HITLER’S DEATH IN MY UNCLE FEDOR’S OWN WORDS

POST 33: FINDING GREAT-UNCLE WILLY’S GRANDCHILDREN

POST 34: MARGARETH BERLINER, WRAITH OR BEING?

POST 41: DR. OTTO BERGER & OTHER “SILENT HEROES” WHO HELPED MY UNCLE DR. FEDOR BRUCK SURVIVE THE NAZI REGIME

POST 45: HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE: RECALLING MY PAULY ANCESTORS

POST 56: REFLECTIONS ON LIFE AND FAMILY BY THE PATERFAMILIAS, DR. JOSEF PAULY

POST 65: GERMANY’S LAST EMPEROR, WILHELM II, PICTURED WITH UNKNOWN FAMILY MEMBER

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

 

The antisemitic and racist laws enacted by the Nazis short-circuited my father’s career as a dentist. Pursuant to his formal training at the University of Berlin, followed by an apprenticeship in Danzig (today: Gdansk, Poland), my father, Dr. Otto Bruck (Figure 1), opened his own dental practice in Tiegenhof in the Free City of Danzig (today: Nowy Dwór Gdański, Poland) in April 1932; by April 1937, my father was forced to flee Tiegenhof, and by March 1938 he had left Germany altogether, clearly seeing the handwriting on the wall. As an unmarried man with few family ties, this was an option open to him. My father would never again legally practice dentistry.

 

Figure 1. My father Dr. Otto Bruck as a dental apprentice in Danzig in 1931

 

My father considered the five years he spent in Tiegenhof to be the halcyon days of his life. Judging from the numerous photos of his days spent there, including those illustrating his active social life, his professional acquaintances, and recreational pursuits, I would be hard-pressed to argue otherwise.

I originally intended in this post to briefly discuss with readers the history of Polish Mennonites because Tiegenhof, the town where my father had his dental practice, was largely Mennonite when my father lived there. The Mennonites arrived in the Żuławy Wiślane region (i.e. “the Vistula fens,” plural from “żuława”), the alluvial delta area of the Vistula in the northern part of Poland, in the 17th century. They came to escape religious persecution in the Netherlands and Flanders. I have instead decided to devote the subsequent Blog post to discussing the history of Polish Mennonites, and briefly explore how the Mennonites, who are committed to pacifism, inexplicably, became strong adherents of Hitler. I intend in the following post to use photos from my father’s collection to focus on one Mennonite family, the Epp family, with whom my father was acquainted and friends with. They have a dark history related to their connection to the Nazi regime.

Getting back on track. Curious whether the office building where my father had both his dental practice and residence still existed (Figure 2), in 2013 my wife Ann Finan and I visited Nowy Dwór Gdański. We quickly oriented ourselves to the layout of the town, and promptly determined that his office and residential building no longer stands. I would later learn that the structure had been destroyed by Russian bombers when Nazi partisans shot at them from this location.

 

Figure 2. The office building in Tiegenhof in the Free City of Danzig in October 1934 where my father had his dental practice and residence, which no longer exists. Note the swastikas festooning the building

 

During our initial visit to Nowy Dwór Gdański, we were directed to the local museum, the Muzeum Żuławskie. The museum docent the day we visited spoke English, so I was able to communicate to her that my Jewish father had once been a dentist in the town and had taken many pictures when living there of Tiegenhof and the Żuławy Wiślane region. I offered to make the photos available, which I in fact did upon my return to the States.

In 2014, my wife Ann and I were invited to Nowy Dwór Gdański for an in-depth tour and a translated talk. Naturally, during my presentation, I used many of my father’s photos. There was a question-and-answer period following my talk, and one Polish gentleman of Jewish descent commented on how fortunate I am to have so many photographs of my father, family, and friends. I agreed. In the case of this gentleman, he remarked he has only seven family pictures, which I think is often true for descendants of Holocaust survivors. In my instance, my father’s seven albums of surviving photos, covering from the 1910’s until 1948 when my father came to America, are the reason I started researching and writing about my family.

Given the importance pictures have played in the stories I research and write about, and the development of this Blog, I thought I would highlight a few of the more interesting and historically significant pictures in my father’s collection, as well as discuss other “stashes” of photos I’ve uncovered. Obviously, it’s impossible and would be of scant interest to readers to discuss all the photos.

My father was a witness to the rise of National Socialism from the window of his dental office in Tiegenhof. On May 1, 1933, my father photographed a regiment of “SA Sturmabteilung,” literally “Storm Detachment,” known also as “Brownshirts” or “Storm Troopers,” marching down the nearby Schlosserstrasse, carrying Nazi flags, framed by the “Kreishaus” (courthouse) on one side. (Figure 3)

 

Figure 3. Father’s photograph of Nazis marching down Schlosserstrasse in Tiegenhof on May 1, 1933, taken from his dental office

 

Again, a year later to the day, on May 1, 1934, my father documented a parade of veterans and Brownshirts following the same path down Schlosserstrasse led by members of the Stahlhelm (“Steel Helmet”), a veterans’ organization that arose after the German defeat of WWI.  (Figures 4a-b) In 1934, the Stahlhelme were incorporated into the SA Sturmabteilung, the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party.

 

Figure 4a. A year later May 1, 1934, Nazi Storm Troopers and WWI veterans again marching down Schlosserstrasse in Tiegenhof

 

Figure 4b. WWI veterans, “Stahlhelme,” at the head of the Nazi parade on May 1, 1934, in Tiegenhof

 

Then again, the following year, on April 5, 1935, there was another Nazi parade. On this occasion Field Marshall Hermann Göring visited and participated in the march through Tiegenhof. The day prior, on April 4, 1935, Hermann Göring had visited the Free City of Danzig to influence the upcoming April 7th parliamentary elections in favor of Nazi candidates.  The visit to Tiegenhof the next day was merely an extension of this campaign to influence the Free City’s parliamentary elections.  In the photos that my father took on April 5th there can be seen a banner which in German reads “Danzig ist Deutsch wenn es nationalsozialistisch ist,” translated as “Danzig is German when it is National Socialist.”  (Figures 5a-b) It appears that along with everyday citizens of Tiegenhof and surrounding communities, members of the Hitler Youth, known in German as Hitlerjugend, also lined the street in large number.

 

Figure 5a. Nazi Field Marshall Hermann Göring standing in his open-air limousine on March 5, 1935, as he parades through Tiegenhof

 

Figure 5b. A Nazi banner reading “Danzig ist Deutsch wenn es nationalsozialistisch ist” (translated as “Danzig is German when it is National Socialist”) hung across the street that Field Marshall Hermann Göring traveled down on March 5, 1935, as he paraded through Tiegenhof

 

Students of history know about Hermann Göring but for those who are unfamiliar with him, let me say a few words. He would evolve to become the second-highest ranking Nazi after the Führer. Unlike many of Hitler’s sycophants and lieutenants, Göring was a veteran of WWI, having been an ace fighter pilot, a recipient of the prestigious Blue Max award, and a commander of the Jagdgeschwader a fighter group that had previously been led by the renowned Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen. Göring was drawn to Hitler for his oratorical skills and became an early member of the Nazi Party. He participated with Hitler in the failed Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, during which he was wounded in the groin. During his recovery he was regularly given morphine to which he became addicted for the remainder of his life.

Göring oversaw the creation of the Gestapo, an organization he later let Heinrich Himmler run. He was best known as the commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, although after the Nazi victory over France, he was made Reichsmarschall, head of all the German armed forces. He amassed great wealth for himself by stealing paintings, sculptures, jewelry, cash, and valuable artifacts not only from Jews and people whom Nazis had murdered but also by looting museums of defeated nations.

Towards the end of the war, following an awkward attempt to have Hitler appoint him head of the Third Reich and thereby drawing Hitler’s ire, he turned himself in to the Americans rather than risk being captured by the Russians. He eventually was indicted and stood trial at Nuremberg. The once obese Göring, who’d once weighed more than three hundred pounds, was a shadow of his former self at his trial. Expectedly, he was convicted on all counts, and sentenced to death by hanging. His request to be executed by firing squad was denied, but he was able to avoid the hangman’s noose by committing suicide using a potassium cyanide pill that had inexplicably been smuggled to him by an American soldier.

My uncle, Dr. Fedor Bruck, has been the subject of multiple previous posts (i.e., Post 17, Post 31, Post 41). My uncle, like my father was a dentist. He was educated at the University of Breslau (today: Wrocław, Poland) and had his dental practice in Liegnitz, Germany (today: Legnica, Poland) until around 1933 when he was forced to give it up due to the “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service” passed by the Nazi regime on the 7th April 1933, two months after Adolf Hitler had attained power.  My uncle’s life is of interest because he miraculously survived the entire war hidden in Berlin by friends and non-Jewish family members. His story has also been of interest because he counted among his friends a woman named Käthe Heusermann-Reiss, who had been his dental assistant in Liegnitz.

Following the loss of his business my uncle relocated to Berlin hoping the anonymity of the larger city would afford him the possibility to continue working under the auspices of another dentist, which it did for a time. Käthe Heusermann also moved to Berlin and opportunistically landed herself a job as a dental assistant to Hitler’s American-trained dentist, Dr. Hugo Blaschke. In this capacity, she was always present when Dr. Blaschke treated Hitler. Following the end of the war, she was interrogated by the Russians and asked to identify dental remains which had been recovered in a burn pit outside the Reichstag. The bridgework performed by Dr. Blaschke on Hitler was outmoded so Käthe was easily able to recognize Blaschke’s work and Hitler’s teeth, a fact Stalin kept hidden from the world. Following Russia’s capture of Berlin at the end of the war, my uncle who’d temporarily been hiding in Käthe’s apartment learned from her that Hitler had committed suicide. This dangerous information resulted in Käthe being imprisoned in the USSR for many years, and my uncle barely escaping the same fate. Surviving among my father’s photographs is a noteworthy picture taken in Liegnitz of my uncle and Käthe Heusermann. Though uncaptioned, I have been able to compare it to known pictures of Käthe to confirm it is her. (Figure 6)

 

Figure 6. My uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck in his dental office in Liegnitz, Germany with his dental assistant Käthe Heusermann-Reiss who would later go on to become the dental assistant for Dr. Hugo Blaschke, Hitler’s dentist. Following the war, she would identify Hitler’s dental remains, a fact the Russians hid for many years

 

As I have told readers in multiple earlier posts my father was an active sportsman, and an excellent amateur tennis player. Among my father’s belongings I retain multiple of the prizes he was awarded for his achievements, including many newspaper clippings documenting his results. In August 1936, my father attended an International Tennis Tournament in Zoppot, Germany (today: Sopot, Poland), located a mere 32 miles from Tiegenhof. During his attendance there, he photographed the great German tennis player, Heinrich Ernst Otto “Henner” Henkel (Figure 7), whose biggest success was his singles title at the 1937 French Championships. Interestingly, Henkel learned to play tennis at the “Rot-Weiss” Tennis Club in Berlin. My father was a member of the “Schwarz-Weiss” Tennis Club in Berlin, so perhaps my father and Henner played one another and were acquainted. Henner Henkel was killed in action during WWII on the Eastern Front at Voronezh during the Battle of Stalingrad while serving in the Wehrmacht, the German Army.

 

Figure 7. The famous German tennis player, Henner Henkel, in August 1936 at the International Tennis Tournament in Zoppot, Germany

 

As I mentioned above, my father left Germany for good in March 1938. He was headed to stay with his sister Susanne and brother-in-law, then living in Fiesole, a small Tuscan town outside Florence, Italy. During his sojourn in Italy, before eventually joining the French Foreign Legion later in 1938, my father visited some of the tourist attractions in Italy, including the Colosseum in Rome. One of the images that my father took there has always stood out to me because of the paucity of people around what is today a very crowded and visited venue. (Figure 8)

 

Figure 8. The Colosseum in Rome in August 1938

 

My father’s collection of photos number in the hundreds but I’ve chosen to highlight only certain ones because they illustrate a few personages or places that may be known to readers. My father’s collection is merely one among several caches of images I was able to track down through family and acquaintances. I want to call attention to a few pictures of family members that grabbed my attention from these other hoards.

In Post 33, I explained to readers how I tracked down the grandchildren of my grandfather’s brother, Wilhelm “Willy” Bruck (1872-1952). Based on family correspondence, I knew my great-uncle Willy wound up in Barcelona after escaping Germany in the 1930’s and theorized his children and grandchildren may have continued to live there. Official vital documents I procured during a visit there convinced me otherwise, that at least his son returned to Germany after WWII. I was eventually able to track down both of my great-uncle’s grandchildren, that’s to say my second cousins Margarita and Antonio Bruck, to outside of Munich, Germany. (Figure 9) I have met both, and they’ve shared their family pictures, which again number in the hundreds.

 

Figure 9. My second cousins Margarita and Antonio Bruck from near Munich, Germany in May 2022, source of many family photos

 

The cache included many images of family members, but there are two pictures I was particularly thrilled to obtain copies of. My uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck (1895-1982), previously discussed, fought in WWI on the Eastern Front. (Figure 10) Among the family memorabilia I retain is a postcard he sent to his aunt Franziska Bruck on the 3rd of September 1916 coincidentally from the Ukraine announcing his promotion to Sergeant. (Figures 11a-b) The ongoing conflict between the Ukraine and Russia makes me realize how long the Ukraine has been a staging area for wars.

 

Figure 10. My uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck in his WWI uniform

 

Figure 11a. The front side of a postcard my uncle Fedor mailed to his aunt Franziska Bruck during WWI from the Eastern Front in Ukraine on the 3rd of September 1916

 

Figure 11b. The backside of the postcard my uncle mailed from the Ukraine on the 3rd of September 1916

 

Regular readers may recall that my father was born in Ratibor, Germany (today: Racibórz, Poland), in Upper Silesia. The family hotel there, owned through three generations between roughly 1850 and the early 1920’s, was known as the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel. Among my second cousins’ photos is a rare image of the entrance to this hotel, which no longer stands. (Figure 12)

 

Figure 12. The entrance to the family hotel in Ratibor, Germany (today: Racibórz, Poland), Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel circa. 1914. The hotel is no longer standing

 

I introduced readers to two of my grandfather’s renowned sisters, my great-aunts Franziska and Elsbeth Bruck, way back in Post 15. Their surviving personal papers are archived at the Stadtmuseum in Spandau, the westernmost of the twelve boroughs of Berlin; these files have been another source of family photographs. Franziska Bruck was an eminent florist, and it is reputed that one of her clients was the last German Kaiser, Wilhelm II (1859-1941). One undated photograph taken in my great-aunt’s flower shop shows Duchess Cecilie Auguste Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1886-1954), the last Crown Princess of Germany and Prussia, who was married to Kaiser Wilhelm II’s son, Wilhelm, the German Crown Prince. (Figure 13)

 

Figure 13. Duchess Cecilie Auguste Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1886-1954), the last Crown Princess of Germany and Prussia, married to Kaiser Wilhelm II’s son, visiting my great-aunt Franziska Bruck’s flower school in Berlin

 

My second cousins Margarita and Antonio Bruck introduced me to one of my third cousins, Andreas “Andi” Pauly, also living part-time in Munich, Germany. (Figure 14) The Pauly branch of my extended family, which originally hailed from Posen, Germany (today: Poznan, Poland) has been the subject of multiple blog posts, including Post 45 on Pauly family Holocaust victims and reflections in Post 56 by the paterfamilias, Dr. Josef Pauly (1843-1916), Andi Pauly’s great-grandfather. Josef Pauly and his wife Rosalie Pauly née Mockrauer (1844-1927) had eight daughters and one son born between 1870 and 1885; thanks to photos provided by Andi Pauly, not only was I able to obtain images of all nine children but also some of Pauly cousins I knew of by name.

 

Figure 14. My third cousin Andreas “Andi” Pauly, source of many family photos

 

Again, it is not my intention to boggle readers’ minds by showing all these photos but I want to focus on one particular picture I originally obtained from Andi Pauly that was the subject of Post 65. The photo was taken in Doorn, Netherlands on the 28th of May 1926, and shows a then-unknown Bruck family member standing amidst a group that includes the last German Kaiser, Wilhelm II, his second wife, Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz (1887-1947), and her youngest daughter by her first marriage, Princess Henriette of Schönaich-Carolath (1918-1972), and the Royal Family’s entourage. (Figure 15) At the time I wrote Post 65, I was unable to determine who the Bruck family member was, nor whom the initials “W.B.” stood for.

 

Figure 15. Postcard of the last German Emperor Wilhelm II, his second wife Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz (1887-1947), and her youngest daughter by her first marriage, Princess Henriette of Schönaich-Carolath (1918-1972), taken in 1926 in Doorn, the Netherlands. A then-unknown member of the Bruck family is surrounded by the Royal Family’s entourage

 

Fast forward. In early 2021, I was astonished to receive an email from a Dr. Tilo Wahl, a doctor from Köpenick in Berlin, who stumbled upon my Blog and contacted me. He shared copies of the extensive collection of personal papers and photographs he had copied from the grandson of one of my esteemed ancestors, Dr. Walter Bruck (1872-1937), from Breslau, Germany (today: Wrocław, Poland) Again, this relative and my findings related to Dr. Walter Bruck have been chronicled in multiple earlier posts. The very same image discussed in the previous paragraph I had obtained from Andi Pauly was included among Dr. Bruck’s images. It was then I realized the unidentified Bruck family member standing with Kaiser Wilhelm II, his family, and his entourage was none other than Dr. Bruck’s second wife, Johanna Elisabeth Margarethe Gräbsch (1884-1963). (Figure 16) I discussed these findings in Post 100.

 

Figure 16. Same photograph as Figure 15 that Dr. Walter Bruck took of his wife Johanna and the Kaiser’s entourage in September 1925 with identifications (photo courtesy of Dr. Tilo Wahl)

 

Dr. Walter Bruck’s collection of papers and photos yielded images of multiple family members about whom I was aware, including one of Dr. Walter Bruck’s three siblings. However, one that stands out amongst all these photos was the one of Dr. Walter Bruck’s grandfather Dr. Jonas Julius Bruck (1813-1883). (Figure 17) Dr. Jonas Bruck is buried along with his son, Dr. Julius Bruck, in the restored tombs at the Old Jewish Cemetery in Wrocław, Poland. (Figure 18) Dr. Jonas Bruck was a brother of my great-great-grandfather Samuel Bruck (1808-1863), the original owner of the Bruck’s “Prinz von Preußen” Hotel in Ratibor, Germany (today: Racibórz, Poland) I previously discussed.

 

Figure 17. Dr. Walter Bruck’s grandfather, Dr. Jonas Julius Bruck (1813-1883)

 

Figure 18. The restored gravestones of Dr. Jonas Julius Bruck, his son Dr. Julius Bruck, and their respective wives interred in the Old Jewish Cemetery in Wrocław, Poland

 

In various places, I found fleeting references that Dr. Walter Bruck and Johanna Elisabeth Margarethe Gräbsch had both previously been married. I eventually found historic documents, my gold standard, confirming this. Using educating guesses based on incomplete captions and estimating the timeframe a few pictures in Dr. Walter Bruck’s collection were taken, that’s to say during WWI and before, I was even able to find pictures of both of their previous spouses among his photos.

Dr. Walter Bruck’s album also contain multiple pictures of his daughter, Renate Bruck (1926-2013). She was married three times, with images of two of her husbands included. Thanks to Post 99 Renate’s twin daughters, whom I knew about but had no expectation of ever finding since they’d left England years ago, instead found me. From this, I learned that Walter Bruck’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren live in Sydney, Australia.

I suspect the story I’m about to relate may resonate with some readers, the topic of missing or incomplete captions on pictures of one’s ancestors. Let me provide some context. During the time that my uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck was a dentist in Liegnitz, Germany he carried on an illicit affair with a married non-Jewish woman, Irmgard Lutze (Figure 19), with whom he had two children, my first cousins Wolfgang (Figure 20) and Wera Lutze. During the Nazi era time when it was prohibited and dangerous for an Aryan to have an affair with a Jew, the cuckolded husband nonetheless raised the children as his own. Therefore, they had the Lutze rather than the Bruck surname.

I knew both first cousins well, though both are now deceased. In any case, included among my cousin’s photographs was one that left me perplexed. It showed three generations, the eldest of whom was identified as “Tante Grete Brauer (mother’s sister).” (Figures 21a-b) The “Brauer” surname reverberated only because when perusing my great-aunt Elsbeth Bruck’s papers at the Stadtmuseum I discovered multiple letters written by Brauers. At the time I had no idea this represented another branch of my extended family.

 

Figure 19. My uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck standing next to Irmgard Lutze, the married Aryan woman with whom he fathered two children

 

Figure 20. My uncle Dr. Fedor Bruck’s now-deceased son and my first cousin, Wolfgang Lutze (1928-2014), in Hurghada, Egypt in October 2005

 

Figure 21a. Photo found among my first cousin’s pictures of my grandmother’s sister, Margarethe Brauer née Berliner (1872-1942) who was murdered in the Holocaust

 

Figure 21b. Caption on backside of Figure 21a.

 

As I discussed in Post 34, I would eventually work out that “Tante Grete Brauer” was my grandmother Else Bruck née Berliner’s sister, Margarethe Brauer née Berliner (1872-1942) who was murdered in the Holocaust. Prior to finding this isolated picture of my great-aunt, I was completely unaware of her existence. I’ve repeatedly told readers that my father had scant interest in family and rarely spoke of them to me growing up, so I was not surprised by this discovery.

I will give readers one last example of caches of family photos I’ve been able to recover by mentioning my third cousin once-removed, Larry Leyser (Figure 22), who very sadly passed away in 2021 due to complications from Covid. Over the years, Larry and I often shared family documents and photos. Several years ago, he borrowed and scanned a large collection of photos from one of his cousins named Michael Maleckar which he shared with me. As with any such trove, I found a few gems, including one of my own parents at a party they attended in Manhattan the early 1950’s. My father literally “robbed the cradle” when he married my mother as she was 22 years younger than him. This age difference is particularly pronounced in the one picture I show here. (Figure 23)

 

Figure 22. My third cousin once-removed, Larry Leyser, another source of many family photos

 

Figure 23. From left to right, my father (Dr. Otto Bruck), my mother (Paulette Bruck), my uncle (Dr. Fedor Bruck), and one of father’s cousins (Franz Kayser) at a party in Manhattan in the early 1950’s

 

I will merely say, in closing, that I am aware of other caches of family photos that unfortunately I have been unable to lay my hands on. I completely understand that some of my cousins are busy leading their lives and don’t share my passion for family history, so they are excused. One other thought. The longer I work on my family’s history, the more I realize how much I regret not talking with my relatives when they were alive about some of our ancestors as my stories would be broader and would then be grounded in truths rather veiled in so much conjecture.

 

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

Sussman, Jeffrey. Holocaust Fighters: Boxers, Resisters, and Avengers. Roman & Littlefield, 2021.

 

 

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.

POST 117: DR. WALTER WOLFGANG BRUCK—DENTIST TO NOBLES, ARISTOCRATS, & NOTED SCHOLARS AND ACADEMICIANS

 

Note: In this Blog post, I introduce readers to the visitors and clients who signed one of two guestbooks maintained by my ancestor Dr. Walter Wolfgang Bruck, an array of nobiliary and accomplished patrons representing many duchies and disciplines.

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

 

Figure 1. Dr. Walter Wolfgang Bruck (1872-1937) shown wearing the medals that Dr. Wahl purchased at auction in 2013 from Walter’s grandson, Nicholas Francis David Newman (1960-2015)

 

Dr. Walter Wolfgang Bruck (1872-1937) (Figure 1), acclaimed dentist and distant relative of mine from Breslau, Germany [today: Wrocław, Poland], has been the subject of multiple Blog posts. Thanks to a German doctor from Köpenick, Berlin, Dr. Tilo Wahl, who photographed or purchased at auction many personal letters, photos, medals, and memorabilia belonging to my esteemed ancestor and generously shared scans of them with me, I have had a trove of materials to mine for Blog stories. The current post is another result of a closer examination of Dr. Bruck’s private papers.

 

Figure 2. Aerial photograph of Dr. Bruck’s home and dental practice at Reichspräsidentenplatz 17, also called Kaiser Wilhelm-Platz, destroyed during WWII

 

During the late 1920’s and the early 1930’s Dr. Bruck and his family lived in Breslau, Germany in a luxurious home at Reichspräsidentenplatz 17, also called Kaiser Wilhelm-Platz (Figure 2), with the owner of record at the time being Walter Bruck. Following the death of Paul von Hindenburg, the German general and statesman who led the Imperial German Army during World War I and later became President of Germany from 1925 until his death in 1934, Reichspräsidentenplatz was renamed by the Nazis to Hindenburgplatz. The renaming of the square was reflected in Breslau address books from 1935 onwards. By 1937, however, Walter’s wife Johanna Bruck was now shown as the owner of record even though Walter continued to live there until he died on the 31st of March 1937. The change in ownership from Walter to Johanna Bruck was a measure to avoid expropriation of the estate by the Nazis as Walter was considered “Jewish,” whereas his wife was deemed to be “Aryan.”

From surviving pictures and two guestbooks belonging to Dr. Bruck that Dr. Wahl physically acquired we know that Dr. Bruck and his wife Johanna Bruck née Gräbsch often entertained and had overnight guests. The visitors seemingly were expected to sign the larger of the guestbooks upon their departure. (Figures 3a-b) This register is 35 pages long with the first guest signature written on the 13th of July 1900 and the last one on the 14th of January 1934. Though the visitors included known family members the bulk of the autographs and entries appear to have been recorded by friends, acquaintances, and colleagues, many of whom were renowned and accomplished individuals. Possibly later I will write a post about this first guestbook and tell readers about some of the names I recognize or have been able to uncover information about.

 

Figure 3a. Cover of the larger of Dr. Bruck’s two guestbooks
Figure 3b. First page of Dr. Bruck’s larger guestbook

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, this Blog post will deal with the much shorter second guestbook, what I’ll characterize as the register for “special” guests. I presume that most of the people who signed this register were clients of Dr. Walter Bruck rather than guests of my ancestor, although one cannot preclude the possibility that some of these acclaimed individuals were provided with accommodations. Names and several business cards are found on seven pages of this guestbook. (Figures 4a-g) My friend Peter Hanke graciously deciphered the names, and, astonishingly, found web links to most of the people. There are 42 separate entries representing 40 different individuals. In the case of a few individuals the written name was insufficient to positively identify the person; only one signature could not be construed. The earliest signature is recorded in January-February of 1923, and the last one on the 7th of October 1932, making the time span this guestbook covered much shorter than the first one.

 

Figure 4a. Cover of Dr. Bruck’s guest register containing the names of “special” visitors
Figure 4b. Page 1 of Dr. Bruck’s register for “special” guests

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 4c. Page 2 of Dr. Bruck’s register for “special” guests
Figure 4d. Page 3 of Dr. Bruck’s register for “special” guests

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 4e. Pages 4-5 of Dr. Bruck’s register for “special” guests

 

 

Figure 4f. Page 6 of Dr. Bruck’s register for “special” guests
Figure 4g. Page 7 of Dr. Bruck’s register for “special” guests

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Given the illustrious cadre of clients Dr. Bruck treated, it is impossible in a few words to render justice to their enormous accomplishments. Still, there are a few things that stand out in the roles some played in historic events of their day or as relatives to individuals known to readers. I will identify the signators whose names could be made out and highlight a few things of possible interest.

 

1. Edwin G[ra]f Henckel von Donnersmarck: Januar—Febr[uar] 1923

(Count Edwin Henckel of Donnersmarck, January-February 1923)

 

Figure 5. Edwin Henckel von Donnersmarck (1865-1929)

Edwin Henckel von Donnersmarck (1865-1929) (Figures 4b & 5) was a German-Polish count, landowner, mining entrepreneur, and member of the Prussian House of Representatives.

 

 

 

 

 

 2. Herzog Albrecht Eugen von Württemberg: Febr[uar] 1923

(Duke Albrecht Eugen of Württemberg, February 1923)

 

Figure 6. Duke Albrecht Eugen of Württemberg (1895-1954)

Albrecht Eugen Maria Philipp Carl Joseph Fortunatus Duke of Württemberg (1895-1954) (Figures 4b & 6) was a German officer and prince of the Royal House of Württemberg. Albrecht Eugen belonged to the Catholic line of the House of Württemberg. At the beginning of WWI, he was drafted into the Württemberg Army where he served four years as captain of the 1st Württemberg Grenadier Regiment; he fought in Flanders, France, and Italy. With the death of King Wilhelm II of Württemberg in 1921, Albrecht Eugen inherited the lordship of Carlsruhe in Silesia, where he worked as a farmer and forester.

During WWII, Albrecht Eugen Herzog von Württemberg again did military service in the Wehrmacht, but not at the front, but in staff service, without a rank as a general staff officer. Because members of the House of Württemberg were known as opponents of the Nazi regime, Albrecht Eugen remained in the rank of captain and was not promoted. He was involved in missions in France, Romania, and the Soviet Union. In 1943 he was forced to resign from the Wehrmacht due to the “Prince’s Decree” (German: Prinzenerlass) This refers to a secret decree issued by Adolf Hitler in the spring of 1940. In it, he prohibited all princes that were soldiers in the Wehrmacht who came from the princely and royal houses that had ruled until 1918 from participating in combat operations in WWII. On the 19th of May 1943, Hitler completely expelled all members of formerly ruling princely houses from the Wehrmacht.

By January 1945, Albert Eugen was forced to flee from Carlsruhe (now spelled Karlsruhe) in the current German state of Baden-Württemberg, as Russian troops besieged the area. His castle there with its extensive library of over 30,000 volumes was destroyed by the Red Army.

On the 24th of January 1924, Albrecht Eugen Duke of Württemberg married the Bulgarian Princess Nadezhda (1899-1958), a daughter of Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria. Like her husband, she too signed Dr. Bruck’s guestbook and was probably also one of his patients. (see signature 19) 

3. Otto Lummer, Direktor des Physikalischen Instituts der Universität Breslau, Geh[eimer] Reg[ierungs-] Rat, Dr. ing. h.c. etc.—März 1923

(Otto Lummer, Director of the Institute of Physics of the University of Breslau, Privy Government Councilor, Doctor of Engineering, h.c. etc., March 1923)

Figure 7. Otto Richard Lummer (1860-1925)

Otto Richard Lummer (1860-1925) (Figures 4b & 7) was a German physicist. Among multiple other inventions, with Eugen Brodhun (1860-1938) he developed the photometer cube. A photometer cube or photometer is an instrument for measuring photometric quantities such as luminance or luminous intensity. In astronomy, it is used to measure the brightness of celestial bodies, while in photography, as readers know, the photometer is used as an exposure meter.

 

4. P. fon Riechterstein und Boguslaury Lomobusci

 UNKNOWN 

5. Prof[essor] Dr. Julius Pohl

(Professor Dr. Julius Pohl)

Julius Heinrich Pohl (1861-1942) (Figure 4b) was an Austrian-German pharmacologist and biochemist. From 1897 to 1911 he was Professor of Pharmacology at the German University of Prague and then Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Breslau until 1928. 

6. Herzogin von Pless

(Duchess of Pless)

Figure 8. Mary Theresa Olivia Cornwallis-West, called “Daisy von Pless” (1873-1943), in 1898

This signature belongs to Mary Theresa Olivia Cornwallis-West, called “Daisy” (1873-1943) (Figures 4b & 8), who was born in Ruthin Castle, Wales, Great Britain. She became the Princess of Pleß [today: Pszczyna, Poland], the Countess of Hochberg, and the Baroness of Fürstenstein [today: Wałbrzych, Poland]. She was considered the first high-society lady of the European aristocracy. Quoting about her from a website entitled “hostedby.pl”:

 

 

Figure 9. Current map showing the distance from Pless, Germany [today: Pzczyna, Poland] to Breslau, Germany [today: Wrocław, Poland]
Duchess Maria Teresa Olivia Hochberg von Pless, born on June 28, 1873, known as Daisy, was a English aristocrat connected with the palace in Pszczyna, Poland [German: Pless] (Figure 9) and castle in Książ, Wałbrzych [German: Waldenberg] (Figure 10), eldest daughter of Colonel William Cornwallis-West, the owner of the castle Ruthin and estate Newlands, and Mary Adelaide from the home of Fitz-Patrick. She spent all her happy childhood in the Ruthin Castle in North Wales and in a manor house in Newlands. She was closely associated with the court of King Edward VII and George V, relative to the major aristocratic houses of Great Britain. Her brother George was the stepfather of Winston Churchill. She was considered one of the most beautiful aristocrats of her time. Her involvement with the House of Hochberg resulted from an invitation to a masked ball hosted by the Prince of Wales where she met her future husband, Hans Heinrich XV, Prince of Pless, eleven years her elder.

 

Figure 10. Current map showing the distance from Waldenberg, Germany [today: Wałbrzych, Poland], where the castle of Fürstenstein [today: castle in Książ] is located, to Breslau, Germany [today: Wrocław, Poland]
 

On the 8th of December 1891, (one year after first meeting him) the eighteen-year-old Daisy married wealthy Prince Hans Heinrich XV Pless Hochberg. The wedding took place at London’s Westminster Abbey, and the witness was Edward, Prince of Wales. The wedding was very impressive (the Hochberg Family was the third richest family in Germany and the seventh richest in Europe), echoed in the wide world with the political and aristocratic guests from all parts of Europe. After the wedding ceremony Daisy and her husband went on their honeymoon around the world. After that she came to the Ksiaz, where she felt at this point like a princess from a fairy tale: she had her own castle, own service, beautiful costumes, rich husband and… was terribly far from her native home in England.

Daisy hosted lavish parties at her family’s immense estates in Silesia and at the magnificent castles of Fürstenstein and Pleß. Invitations to her affairs were highly sought. She was friends with the outstanding men of her time, including the last German Emperor Wilhelm II. Despite her fairytale existence and trying to become a good subject of her new country, Daisy von Pless felt a British sense of superiority over Germany, which she considered “uncivilized.”

At the beginning of WWI, Daisy von Pless left Fürstenstein Castle for political and family reasons. As an Englishwoman, she was constantly subjected to political hostility and accusations of treason. From August 1914, she worked as a Red Cross nurse on hospital trains in France and experienced the end of the war in 1918 in an Austrian hospital in Serbia.

She did not return to Silesia until 1921. On December 12, 1922, Daisy divorced her husband in Berlin and received a severance payment, which lost value due to inflation. She first lived in the English community of La Napoule near Cannes and in Munich until she moved back to Waldenburg for financial reasons. The entire property of the von Pless family was expropriated in 1939, and in 1940 she had to move out of the castle when a new Führer’s headquarters was expanded there. She visited the Groß-Rosen concentration camp nearby several times and sent food there to demonstrate her revulsion with the Nazi regime. In 1943, lonely due to chronic diseases and social isolation, she died impoverished in Waldenburg. Her coffin was reburied in an unknown place before the Red Army invaded in 1945. 

7. H XXX Reuss – 16. April 1923

(Prince Heinrich XXX of Reuss, 16th of April 1923)

Figure 11. Prince Heinrich XXX of Reuss (1864-1939) and Princess Feodora of Saxe-Meiningen on their wedding day, the 28th of September 1898, in Breslau

This signature belongs to Prince Heinrich XXX of Reuss (1864-1939). (Figures 4b & 11) On September 28, 1898, in Breslau, he married Princess Feodora of Saxe-Meiningen (i.e., located in the southwest of the present-day German state of Thuringia (Figure 12)). He was born in the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha [German: German Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha] (Figure 13) which was a dual monarchy in Germany. This means that one ruler ruled over two countries, in this case the duchies of Coburg and Gotha.

 

 

Figure 12. Contemporary map of the States of Germany

 

Figure 13. Map of the German Reich (1871-1918) showing the various states that united to form the German Empire (by Deutsches_Reich1.png: kgbergerderivative work: Wiggy! (talk) – Deutsches_Reich1.png, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7223281)

 

8. Hansheinrich [Hans Heinrich] Fürst von Pless [?]

(Hans Heinrich Prince of Pless)

Figure 14. Hans Heinrich XV, Prince of Pless, Count of Hochberg (1861-1938), in 1916

Hans Heinrich XV, Prince of Pless, Count of Hochberg (1861-1938) (Figures 4b & 14) was a German nobleman and mining industrialist and married to Daisy von Pless (1873–1943) (see signature 6). They and their three children often lived at Fürstenstein Castle, the largest castle in Silesia. It is located on the northern edge of the town of Wałbrzych [German: Waldenberg] in the Książ district in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland (see Figure 10). Prince Pleß had a close relationship with Kaiser Wilhelm II, who regularly spent the hunt season in autumn at Pleß Castle. The emperor also commissioned the prince with confidential missions. During WWI, Pleß Castle was the seat of the imperial headquarters for months.

After the end of the war and the re-establishment of the Polish state, Hans Heinrich remained in Upper Silesia. The attempt to sell the entire property before July 12, 1922, the official takeover of Upper Silesia by Poland after WWI, failed. Thus, Hans Heinrich XV became a Polish citizen, although he was often on trips abroad or lived on the estates located in Germany. 

9. Bolko Graf von Hochberg—18. April 1923

(Bolko Count of Hochberg, 18th of April 1923)

Figure 15. Hans Heinrich XIV Bolko Graf (Count) von Hochberg (1843-1926)

Hans Heinrich XIV Bolko Graf (Count) von Hochberg (1843-1926) (Figures 4b & 15) was a German diplomat, conductor, and composer. He was born at Fürstenstein Castle [German: Waldenberg; Polish: Wałbrzych] (see Figure 10) and came from the noble family of the Counts of Hochberg who resided at Fürstenstein Castle.

 

 

 

10. Per aspera ad astra – R. Pfeiffer—30.4.23

(“Through hardships to the stars,” R[udolf] Pfeiffer: 30th of April 1923)

This signature belongs to Rudolf Carl Franz Otto Pfeiffer (1889-1979) (Figure 4b) who was a German classical philologist (i.e., a person who studies classical antiquity usually referring to the study of Classical Greek and Latin literature and the related languages; it also includes Greco-Roman philosophy, history, archaeology, anthropology, art, mythology, and society as secondary subjects)

Per aspera ad astra is a Latin phrase meaning “through hardships to the stars” or “Our aspirations take us to the stars.” The phrase is one of the many Latin sayings that use the expression ad astra, meaning “to the stars.” 

11. Hermine Kaiserin Wilhelm II.—23.IV.23

(Hermine Empress Wilhelm II, 23rd of April 1923)

 

Figure 16. Hermine Kaiserin Wilhelm II (1887-1947) with Kaiser Wilhlem II and her youngest daughter by her first marriage in Doorn, Netherlands

 

Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz (German: Hermine, Prinzessin Reuß zu Greiz (1887-1947) (Figure 4c) was the second wife of Germany’s last Emperor, Wilhelm II. (Figure 16) They were married in 1922, four years after he abdicated as German Emperor and King of Prussia. He was her second husband; her first husband, Prince Johann of Schönaich-Carolath, had died in 1920. I have previously explained Dr. Bruck’s relationship with Kaiser Wilhelm II and his second wife in Post 100.

 

12. Geheimrat Professor Dr. Max Koch—25. Juni 1923

(Privy Councilor Professor Dr. Max Koch, 25th of June 1923)

Maxwell “Max” Koch (1854-1925) (Figure 4c) was a German-born Australian botanical collector. 

13. Dr. jur. Bernhard Grund, den 17. Juli 1923—Präsident der Handelskammer

(Dr. jur. Bernhard Grund, President of the Chamber of Commerce)

Friedrich Wilhelm Bernhard Grund (1872-1950) (Figure 4c) was a German lawyer, entrepreneur, and DDP (Deutsche Demokratische Partei or German Democratic Party) politician. Grund was variously a member of the Prussian House of Representatives (1913 to 1918), the Prussian Constituent Assembly (1919 to 1921), and the Prussian Landtag until his resignation on 22 October 1924. Since the 15th century, the term Prussian Landtag has referred to various political institutions in Prussia. 

14. Dr. Felix Porsch–Erster Vicepräsident des Preuß[ischen] Landtags—15.3.1924

(Dr. Felix Porsch, First Vice-President of the Prussia Landtag, 15th of March 1924)

Figure 17. Dr. Felix Porsch (1853-1930)

Dr. Felix Porsch (1853-1930) (Figures 4c & 17) was a German lawyer and politician of the Centre Party. The latter gained its greatest importance between 1871 and 1933 (i.e. the period between the founding of the German Empire and the end of the Weimar Republic). It was the party of Catholics and political Catholicism in the strongly Protestant-dominated German Empire.

 

 

15. Fürstin Hatzfeldt—24. Mai 1924 [Trachenberg bei Breslau] (Figure 18)

(Princess Hatzfeldt, Trachenberg [today: Żmigród, Poland] near Breslau, 24th of May 1924)

Hatzfeld, also spelled Hatzfeldt (Figure 4c), is the name of an ancient and influential German noble family. It is not clear who exactly was this princess.

 

Figure 18. Current map showing the distance from Trachenberg [today: Żmigród, Poland] to Breslau, Germany [today: Wrocław, Poland]

16. H. v. Frisch—Universitätsprofessor—Direktor d[es] Zool[ogischen] Instituts u[nd] Museums—2.VI.1924

(H. von Frisch, University Professor—Director of the Zoological Institute and Museum, 2nd of June 1924)

Figure 19. Karl von Frisch (1886-1982)

Karl von Frisch (1886-1982) (Figures 4c & 19) was a German-Austrian ethologist (i.e., someone who studies animal behavior) who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973, along with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Konrad Lorenz. His work centered on investigations of the sensory perceptions of the honeybee, and he was one of the first to translate the meaning of the waggle dance. Waggle dance is a term used in beekeeping and ethology for a particular figure-eight dance of the honeybee. By performing this dance, successful foragers can share information with other members of the colony about the direction and distance to patches of flowers yielding nectar and pollen, to water sources, or to new nest-site locations. 

17. M[ax] Friederichsen, Universitätsprofessor Dr. phil, Direktor des Geographischen Instituts—3.6.1924

(M[ax] Friederichsen, University Professor, Dr. Phil., Director of the Geographical Institute, 3rd of June 1924) 

Maximilian Hermann Friederichsen (1874-1941) (Figure 4c) was a German professor of geography. Between 1923 until 1937 he worked at the University of Breslau. He was forced into retirement because of his wife’s Jewish ancestry on account of the Nazi “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service.” 

18. Dr. Fritz Reiche, Universitätsprofessor für theoretische Physik—5.6.1924

(Dr. Fritz Reiche, University Professor for theoretical physics, 5th of June 1924) 

Dr. Fritz Reiche (1883-1969) (Figure 4c) was a German theoretical physicist who emigrated to the United States in 1941. I will not try to unintelligibly explain to readers the disciplinary studies Reiche was involved in. There is, however, one fascinating account from a book written by a Robert Jungk entitled “Heller als tausend Sonnen,” “Brighter Than A Thousand Suns,” worth mentioning. The book describes the history of the atomic bomb and its carriers. According to this book, shortly before his departure to the United States in March 1941, Max Reiche was approached by the physicist Friedrich Georg Houtermans asking him to deliver a secret message to physicists in America about the atomic bomb. Anticipating that the Nazis would urge the German physicists to build an atomic bomb, the German theoretical physicist Werner Karl Heisenberg, one of the key pioneers of quantum mechanics, was supposedly trying to slow-walk the process. Reiche delivered this message to Rudolf Ladenburg, whom he knew from Berlin and Breslau, who forwarded the message to Washington. However, according to a play entitled “Copenhagen” by Michael Frayn, a three-person play based on the historic meeting of the two physicists Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr and his wife Margrethe in 1941 in German-occupied Copenhagen, there are strong doubts as to whether Heisenberg and his working group were really trying to thwart the construction of the atomic bomb. Perhaps, future historic documents may reveal the truth?

 

19. Nadejda [Nadezhda] Herzogin von Württemberg—18.VII.1924

(Nadezhda, Duchess of Württemberg, 18th of July 1924)

Figure 20. Nadejda [Nadezhda] Herzogin von Württemberg (1899-1958)
Nadezhda (1899-1958) (Figures 4d & 20) who spent her childhood mainly in Sofia and Euxinograd, Bulgaria as well as on the estates of her father came from the House of Saxe-Coburg (see Figure 13). After WWI she had to leave Bulgaria with her family and went into exile in Coburg. In 1924 she married Duke Albrecht Eugen (see signature 2) with whom she had five children. From 1925 to 1930 the couple lived in Carlsruhe (now spelled Karlsruhe) in the current German state of Baden-Württemberg (see Figure 12).

 

 

20. Universitätsprofessor Dr. Ludolf Malten—Direktor des Philologischen Seminars

(University Professor Dr. Ludolf Malten, Director of the Philological Seminary)

Heinrich Wilhelm Ludolf Malten (1879-1969) (Figure 4d) was like Rudolf Pfeiffer (see signature 10) a German classical philologist and religious scholar. As previously mentioned, philology is the literary study of Latin and Ancient Greek, the two languages considered “classical.” In 1919 Malten became a professor at the University of Königsberg in East Prussia. In 1922 he moved to the University of Breslau, where he remained until the end of WWII. After his escape from Breslau in 1945 as the Red Army was approaching, Malten went to the University of Göttingen where he spent the remainder of his career. 

21. ?????

UNKNOWN 

22. Professor Puppe—Direktor des Gerichtsärztlichen Instituts—Geheimer Medizinalrat

(Puppe, Director of the Judicial Medical Institute- Privy Medical Councilor)

Georg Puppe (1867-1925) (Figure 4d) was a German forensic and social physician. He basically founded the field of social medicine which essentially deals scientifically and practically with the state of health of the population and its determinants, the organization of health care, social security, and the political determinants of health, as well as the effects and costs of medical care. According to some experts, social medicine is a bridge between medicine and other disciplines, such as law, sociology, social work, psychology, statistics, and economics. 

23. Professor R[obert] Wollenberg—Direktor der Univ[ersitäts] Nervenklinik—Geheimer Medizinalrat

(Professor R[obert] Wollenberg, Director of the Univ[ersity] Nerves Clinic – Privy Medical Councilor)

Figure 21. Robert Wollenberg (1862-1942)

Robert Wollenberg (1862-1942) (Figures 4d & 21) was a German psychiatrist and neurologist. Between 1921 and 1930, when he retired, he worked at the Silesian Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Breslau.

 

 

 

 

24. Sieghard Prinz zu Schoenaich-Carolath—1925

(Sieghard Prince of Schoenaich-Carolath, 1925)

Figure 22. The seemingly not so happily married couple, Sieghard Prince of Schoenaich-Carolath (1886-1963) and his wife Gräfin Elisabeth zu Castell-Rüdenhausen (1906-1977)

Sieghard (1886-1963) (Figures 4d & 22) was a Prince from the Schoenaich-Carolath family, a Lower Lusatian noble family that came to Silesia as a branch in the 16th century; the Silesian branch was elevated to the rank of Imperial Count in 1700 and to the Prussian princely status in 1741. Lower Lusatia is a region and former territory in the south of the state of Brandenburg, northern Saxony, and western Poland. Its principal city is Cottbus. He got married in May 1936 to Gräfin (Countess) Elisabeth zu Castell-Rüdenhausen (1906-1977), from whom he divorced in 1956.

 

 

25. Friedrich Christian Herzog zu Sachsen—10.III.1925

(Friedrich Christian Herzog of Saxony, 10th of March 1925)

Figure 23. Friedrich Christian Herzog Prince of Saxony (1893-1968)

Friedrich Christian Albert Leopold Anno Sylvester Macarius Prince of Saxony Duke of Saxony (1893-1968) (Figures 4e & 23) was the second eldest son of King Frederick August III of Saxony, the last King of Saxony, and his wife Louise of Tuscany. Friedrich Christian Herzog was the younger brother of Georg, Crown Prince of Saxony (see signature 29), born a mere eleven months later.

 

 

 

 

26. Fürst [Rudolf ?] Kinsky, Wien—[BUSINESS CARD—Figure 4e]

(Prince [Rudolf?] Kinsky, Vienna)

Kinsky of Wchinitz and Tettau (originally Wchinsky, Czech Kinští z Vchynic a Tetova) is the name of a Bohemian noble family, which is known in documents since 1237. Historically, the family acquired important properties in the Kingdom of Bohemia, a medieval and early modern monarchy in Central Europe and the predecessor of the modern Czech Republic. By 1929, roughly 50 percent of Prince Rudolf’s (1859-1930) extensive Bohemia properties had been expropriated. The remaining Czech possessions were lost after WWII due to nationalization because of the Beneš Decrees, though some former possessions in the Czech Republic were returned to the family after 1990. The Kinskys provided numerous important statesmen in the Kingdom of Bohemia and in the Habsburg Monarchy. The historical capital of Bohemia was Prague, since 1918 the capital of Czechoslovakia and now the Czech Republic.

 

27. Friedrich Christian Herzog zu Sachsen—17.III.1925

(Sieghard Prince of Schoenaich-Carolath, 17th of March 1925)

(see signature 25 & Figure 4e) 

28. Prof. Dr. Eugen Kühnemann—Geheimer Regierungsrat—9. Mai 1925

(Prof[essor] Dr. Eugen Kühnemann, Privy Councilor, 9th of May 1925)

Figure 24. Dr. Eugen Kühnemann (1868-1946)

Dr. Eugen Kühnemann (1868-1946) (Figures 4e & 24) was a German philosopher and literary scholar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

29. Kronprinz Georg Herzog zu Sachsen—19.8.1925

(Crown Prince Georg Herzog of Saxony, 19th of August 1925)

Figure 25. Georg, Crown Prince of Saxony (1893-1943)

Georg, Crown Prince of Saxony (1893-1943) (Figures 4e & 25), the last Crown Prince of Saxony, was the heir to the King of Saxony, Frederick Augustus III, at the time of the monarchy’s abolition on 13 November 1918. After the abolition of the monarchy and the abdication of the emperor and the federal princes, George became a Roman Catholic priest. As I implied under Duke Albrecht Eugen von Württemberg (see signature 2), during the time of the National Socialists, former royal members were unpopular, so Georg Herzog devoted himself to consulting at this time. He died of a heart attack while swimming at the age of 50. Georg was the older brother of Friedrich Christian Herzog of Saxony (see signatures 25 & 27).

 

 

30. Carl Budding—Deutscher Staatsvertreter bei der Gemischten Kommission und dem Schiedsgerichte für Oberschlesien

(Carl Budding, German State Representative to the Mixed Commission and Arbitration Court for Upper Silesia)

Figure 26. Karl (Carl) Johann Ferdinand Budding (1870-1945)

Karl (Carl) Johann Ferdinand Budding (1870-1945) (Figures 4e & 26) was a lawyer, Reichskommissar (Reich Commissar) in Silesia, and the District President of West Prussia between 1925 and 1936.

 

 

 

 

31. Alois Fürst zu Löwenstein—3.2.1926

(Alois Fürst of Löwenstein, 3rd of February 1926)

Figure 27. Aloys Fürst of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg (1871-1952)

Aloys Fürst of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg (1871-1952) (Figures 4e & 27) was a member and from 1908 head of the southern German noble family Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg, a centrist politician and from 1920 to 1948 president of the Central Committee of German Catholics. Adolf Hitler’s seizure of power in 1933 made it impossible for the Central Committee to continue working. In 1934, for the planned German Katholikentag, German Catholic Day, Prussian Prime Minister Hermann Göring demanded an oath of allegiance to the Third Reich, which Aloys zu Löwenstein refused to provide resulting in cancellation of the event; it would not again take place until 1948. 

32. Prinzessin Felicie von Thurn u[nd] Taxis—30.XI.1926 (Figures 4f & 28)

(possibly: Luise Mathilde Felicie Marie von Thurn und Taxis (1887-1949), 30th of November 1926)

 

Figure 28. Luise Mathilde Felicie Marie of Thurn and Taxis (1887-1949)

 

33. Prinz v. Hatzfeldt Trachenberg—11.4.1927

(Prince v. Hatzfeldt Trachenberg, 11th of April 1927)

Figure 29. Prince Hermann von Hatzfeldt, Duke of Trachenburg (1848-1933) in around 1910

Prince Hermann von Hatzfeldt, Duke of Trachenburg (1848-1933) (Figures 4f & 29) was a German nobleman, member of the House of Hatzfeld, civil servant, Prussian politician, and major general from Silesia.

Hermann Friedrich Anton was the 3rd Prince of Hatzfeldt of Trachenberg (see Figure 18). He was born at the family castle in Trachenberg and raised Catholic. In 1874 he succeeded his deceased father, who was excommunicated in 1847, as head of the Hatzfeldt-Trachenberg line. On the 1st of January 1900 he was awarded the hereditary title “Duke of Trachenberg” in primogeniture. From 1894 to 1903 he was President of the Province of Silesia. In 1872 he married Natalie Gräfin von Benckendorff (1854–1931), who is presumed to be signature 34. 

34. Prinzessin von Hatzfeldt Trachtenberg—11.4.1927 (see signature 15)

(Princess Hatzfeldt, Trachenberg [today: Żmigród, Poland] near Breslau, 11th of April 1927)

(see signature 33 & Figure 4f) 

35. v[on] Gröning—Universitätskurator—Regierungspräsident z. D.—12.4.1927 (v[on] Gröning, University Trustee-Governor (retired), 12th of April 1927)

Albert Heinrich von Gröning (1867-1951) (Figure 4f) was a German administrative lawyer in Prussia. From 1926 Gröning was curator of the Silesian Friedrich-Wilhelms-University and state commissioner for the Technical University of Breslau. 

36. Prinzessin Biron [?] von Curland—10.10.1927

(Princess Biron of Curland, 10th of October 1927)

Figure 30. Herzeleide Prinzessin von Preussen (Prinzessin Biron von Curland) (1918-1989)

Countess Herzeleide of Ruppin (1918-1989) (Figures 4f & 30) was born on Christmas Day 1918, shortly after the defeat of the German Reich and the collapse of the monarchy. For this reason, she was given the name Herzeleide, which in German means “heartbreak.” Her grandfather was Kaiser Wilhelm II, the last German Emperor, and her father was Prince Oskar of Prussia, the 5th son of Wilhelm II. On August 15, 1938, Herzeleide married Prince Karl Biron von Courland, and was thereafter known as Herzeleide Prinzessin von Preussen (Prinzessin Biron von Curland).

Biron of Curland is a Courland noble family, originating from Latvia (Courland in Latvia is Kurzeme), that also settled in Silesia and Bohemia. Branches of the family still exist today. Courland (Latvian Kurzeme) (Figure 31) is one of the four historical landscapes of Latvia, along with Semgallen (Zemgale), Central Livonia (Vidzeme) and Latgale (Latgale).

 

Figure 31. The four historical landscapes of Latvia, including Courland

 

37. Wanda, Fürstin Blücher von Wahlstatt—26.IX.1928

(Wanda, Princess Blücher of Wahlstatt, 26th of September 1928)

Gräfin Wanda Ada Hedwig Blücher von Wahlstatt (Prinzessin Radziwill) (1877-1966) (Figure 4f) was married to Gebhard Leberecht Fürst Blücher von Wahlstatt (1836-1916), a Prussian nobleman and member of the Prussian House of Lords. Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher was the 3rd Prince Blücher von Wahlstatt, a family of the Mecklenburg nobility (see Figure 13). He was one of the great feudal landowners of Silesia. 

38. Blandine Gravinaoth [?]—23.IV.1929

(Blandine Gravina, 23rd of April 1929)

Figure 32. Blandine Gravina (1863-1941) in the upper left with her family and Richard Wagner, her mother Cosima’s second husband, in 1881

Blandine Gravina (1863-1941) (Figures 4f & 32) was a daughter of Cosima Wagner and Hans von Bülow and a granddaughter of Franz Liszt. Blandine’s parents divorced in 1870, and her mother Cosima married Richard Wagner later that same year. Richard Wagner, known to many readers, is considered one of the most important innovators of European music in the 19th century.

 

 

 

39. Eudoxie Prinzessin von Bulgarien—31.XII.1929

(Eudoxie Princess of Bulgaria, 31st of December 1929)

Figure 33. Princess Eudoxia of Bulgaria (1898-1985) in 1932

Princess Eudoxia of Bulgaria (1898-1985) (Figures 4f & 33) was a Bulgarian princess who played the role of the First Lady of Bulgaria for some time until her brother Boris married Princess Joan of Savoy. Eudoxia’s sister was Princess Nadezhda (see signature 19), and her brother-in-law was Duke Albrecht Eugen of Württemberg (see signature 2).

Princess Eudoxia was born in Sofia, Bulgaria as the eldest daughter of King Ferdinand I of Bulgaria and his first wife, Princess María Luisa de Borbón-Parma. Princess Eudoxia never married or had children and lived with her sister Nadezhda’s in-laws in Germany. 

 

40. Adolf G[ra]f Arnim-Muskau

(Adolf Count Arnim-Muskau) 

Adolf Friedrich Heinrich Graf von Arnim-Muskau (1875-1931) (Figure 4f) was a German sports official. From 1913 to 1919 he was a member of the International Olympic Committee. 

41. M[agnus] Freih[er]r v[on] Braun—Reichsernährungsminister—7.10.1932 –[BUSINESS CARD—Figure 4g]

(M[agnus] Baron v[on] Braun, Reichminister of Agriculture, 7th of October 1932)

Magnus Freiherr von Braun (1878-1972) was a German lawyer and politician. In the last two governments of the Weimar Republic (1919-1933) he served as Minister of Agriculture (1932-32). One of his sons was the armaments and missile manager Wernher von Braun (1912-1977), the very well-known German and later American rocket engineer who pioneered weapons and space travel. 

42. Dr. iur. [Dorotheus] Kracker von Schwartzenfeldt—Kaiserlich Deutscher Gesandter a.D. (fragt ergebenst an, ob er Dienstag den 5. d[es] M[onats] zu irgend einer Zeit …..) z[ur] Z[ei]t Breslau, Tauentzienstr. 71

[BUSINESS CARD—Figure 4g]    

(Dr. iur. [Dorotheus] Kracker von Schwartzenfeldt, Imperial German Envoy (retired)) (humbly inquires whether he will be available on Tuesday, the 5th of March at any time. . .)

This business card belonged to Dr. iuris Dorotheus Kracker von Schwartzenfeldt (1869-1953). He was the Kaiserlicher Legations-Sekretär und Geschäftsträger in Bogotá (Imperial Legation Secretary and Chargé d’Affaires in Bogotá) and had previously worked for the last German Emperor Wilhelm II in Doorn, Netherlands, after the Kaiser abdicated the throne following WWI.

As mentioned at the outset, the entries in Dr. Bruck’s guestbook for “special” visitors and/or dental patients covers the period from January-February 1923 until October 1932. Among the signatures, you will notice multiple names that include former hereditary titles. To remind readers, the nobility system of the German Empire ended in 1919 when it was abolished. Today, the German nobility is no longer conferred by the Federal Republic of Germany, and constitutionally the descendants to German noble families do not enjoy legal privileges. Former hereditary titles, however, are permitted as part of the surname (i.e., the nobiliary particles von and zu), and these surnames can then be inherited by a person’s children. The continued use of hereditary titles by Dr. Bruck’s visitors should not surprise anyone given the brief time since their use had been abolished in 1919.

Beyond the former members of the nobility that signed Dr. Bruck’s guest register, one will also notice an array of accomplished individuals in the fields of law, politics, science, academia, and more. This speaks to the rarified environment in which Dr. Bruck worked and socialized.