POST 57: DISAPPEARED WITHOUT A TRACE, MARIA POHLMANN NÉE PAULY

REMARK: My apologies to readers who may have thought I too disappeared. I’ve spent the last few weeks updating my family tree on ancestry.com to better visualize my connection to people I’ve researched and written about. My tree is by no means comprehensive in terms of all the relatives I could conceivably include. The greatest pleasure I derive in having a tree, which numbers a modest 750 individuals, is attaching pictures or portraits of family, although it’s also a place where I can consolidate for easy retrieval all historic documents, information, stories and photographs related to those kinsmen. The tree also provides a visual cue on which branches of the family I’ve explored and where other intriguing stories may emanate from.

Note: This brief post is about Maria Pohlmann née Pauly, my great-great uncle and aunt Dr. Josef and Rosalie Pauly’s sixth-born daughter, and my frustration in being able to discover her fate even though she was married to a very public figure.

Figure 1. My great-great-uncle Dr. Josef Pauly (1843-1916)
Figure 2. My great-great-aunt and Dr. Josef Pauly ‘s wife, Rosalie Pauly née Mockrauer (1844-1927)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regular readers are now reasonably well-versed in the fact that my great-great-uncle and aunt, Dr. Josef Pauly (Figure 1) and his wife Rosalie Pauly née Mockrauer (Figure 2), had nine children born between 1870 and 1885, eight of whom were daughters. I’ve systematically told their stories, sometimes in their own words, including relating the sad fate that befell some daughters, husbands and grandchildren at the hands of the National Socialists on account of their Jewish heritage. I’ve stressed the irony of this given that the paterfamilias Dr. Josef Pauly was brought up as a Protestant. Still, as students of history know only too well, Dr. Pauly’s surviving family members were deemed “racially Jewish” and targeted for extermination by the Nazis.

Figure 3. My third cousin, Andi Pauly, Josef and Rosalie Pauly’s great-grandson, in Munich, 2016
Figure 4. Maria Ulrike Pauly, born 21st July 1877 in Posen, Germany [today: Poznan, Poland], as a young girl (Photo courtesy of Daniel Alejandro Sandler)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the grateful assistance of one of Dr. Pauly’s great-grandchildren, the oft-mentioned Andi Pauly (Figure 3), I’ve worked out the fate of eight of Josef’s children. The only daughter whose destiny remains unknown is that of his sixth-born daughter, Maria Ulrike Pauly, born in 1877. (Figure 4) In this post I will share with readers the little I’ve been able to uncover about her, although most of what I’ve learned relates to her husband, Alexander “Axel” Pohlmann, a very public figure. As followers will read in the next post regarding Josef and Rosalie’s youngest daughter, Therese “Tussy” Pauly, I hope publication of this current post may provoke a response from a casual visitor that may shed light on Maria’s fate.

Figure 5. Maria Pauly amidst a large Pauly family gathering estimated to have taken place ca. 1895
Figure 6. Maria Pauly with her parents, five siblings and two friends in a picture taken in the early 1890’s
Figure 7. Another image of Maria Pauly with her parents and five siblings, likely also taken in the early 1890’s

 

 

 

 

 

 

Among the family photos given to me by Andi Pauly are several of his great-aunt Maria where I judge she was between 17 and 24 years of age, pictured either at a large family gathering (Figure 5) or in the company of her parents and some of her siblings (Figures 6-7); from another source, I obtained the picture of Maria as a young girl. (Figure 4) Included among the pictures of Maria is one with her husband Alexander Pohlmann taken at their marriage, surrounded by the entire wedding party (Figure 8a-c); the marriage is incorrectly identified as having taken place in 1902, although I determined from the “Posen Einwohnermeldekarte,” Posen residential registration cards, they were actually wed on the 30th September 1901. (Figure 9) Along the margins of the wedding picture, many attendees were identified by name by Klaus Pauly, Andi Pauly’s father. The identifications, I later discovered, were provided by one of Maria Pohlmann née Pauly’s nieces, Susanne Vogel née Neisser. Given my intimate familiarity with the Pauly family tree, I was able to identify additional people by cross-referencing other photos given to me by Andi where some of the same people had been named.

Figure 8a. Alexander “Axel” Pohlmann and Maria Pauly on their wedding day, 30th September 1901 in Posen, Germany, with the name of some congregants identified in the margin of the photo
Figure 8b. Closeup of Axel Pohlmann on his wedding day, 30th September 1901
Figure 8c. Closeup of Maria Pohlmann née Pauly on her wedding day, 30th September 1901

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 9. “Posen Einwohnermeldekarte,” Posen residential registration card, showing Alexander Pohlmann and Maria Ulrike Pauly wed on 30th September 1901 (date circled in upper right)

 

In contrast to all of Josef and Rosalie Pauly’s other children, Andi was unable to provide any insights on what happened to his great-aunt Maria nor where she might have wound up. I was unable to discover a single reference to her on ancestry.com. I also checked the Yad Vashem Victims Database but, fortunately, there is no suggestion she was murdered in the Holocaust, unlike other members of her family.

Figure 10. Alexander Pohlmann listed in a 1930 Magdeburg (Saxony) Phone Directory, identifying him as a “Reg. Präsid. (= Regierungspräsident),” President of the Government
Figure 11. Alex. Pohlmann listed in a 1950 Freiburg im Breisgau (Baden-Württemberg) Address Book, identified as a “RegPräs aD (=Regierungspräsident),” retired President of the Government

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having failed to uncover direct evidence of Maria’s fate, I researched her husband. I knew his name from their wedding picture, as well as from information provided by Andi. I found German Address Book listings for Alexander Pohlmann when he lived both in Magdeburg (Figure 10) and Freiburg im Breisgau (Figure 11), and what I initially thought were listings for him in Berlin, but later discovered were a false trail. I did a Google query, and nothing materialized. In such instances, I often turn to Wikipedia.de, the German version, since many of the people I’m researching are of German origin. Information on Maria’s husband immediately surfaced.

Alexander Pohlmann, I learned had been a very public figure. He was born on the 10th September 1865 in the town of Graudenz, Prussia [today: Grudziądz, Poland], son of the Lord Mayor of that town. After graduating from school in Freiburg in Breisgau, he studied law and administrative sciences in Breslau, Leipzig, and Berlin. From 1896 until 1898 he worked in the city administration of Frankfurt on the Main, and then until 1903 as a full-time city councilman in Posen [today: Poznan, Poland], where he likely met Maria Pauly. Between 1903 and 1920, Alexander Pohlmann was the Oberbürgermeister, the Lord Mayor of Kattowitz, Prussia [today: Katowice, Poland], thus beginning shortly after his marriage to Maria in 1901.

From 1904 until about 1912, Pohlmann was a member of the Oberschlesischen Provinziallandtages, the Upper Silesian Provincial Assembly, then between 1912 and 1918, belonged to the Preußischen Abgeordnetenhaus, the Prussian Chamber of Deputies.

In November 1918, Alexander Pohlmann participated in the founding of the Deutsche Demokratische Partei (DDP) (Figures 12-13), the German Democratic Party, along with former leaders of the Progressive People’s Party to whom he’d belonged. The DDP was committed to maintaining a democratic republican form of government. Its base consisted of middle-class entrepreneurs, civil servants, teachers, scientists and craftsmen. It considered itself a decidedly nationalistic party that opposed the Treaty of Versailles, yet, understood the need for international collaboration and protection of ethnic minorities. The party was the one voted for by most Jews, and was, therefore, referred to as the “party of Jews and professors.”

Figure 12. Photo of Alexander Pohlmann (upper right) and other members of the “Deutsche Demokratische Partei (DDP)” he helped found in 1918
Figure 13. Another photo of Alexander Pohlmann (middle right) with members of the “Deutsche Demokratische Partei (DDP)”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1919-20, Pohlmann was a member of the Weimarer Nationalversammlung, the Weimar National Assembly, and from 1920 to 1922, a member of the Reichstagsabgeordneter, the Reichstag. After Upper Silesia was separated from Germany, Pohlmann lost his position in the Reichstag. Following his tenure as Lord Mayor of Kattowitz, until his retirement in 1930, Pohlmann was the Regierungspräsident des Regierungsbezirks Magdeburg, the President of the Government of Magdeburg in the German state of Saxony. Pohlmann passed away in 1952 in Freiburg im Breisgau (German state of Baden-Württemberg).

The only point in detailing Alexander Pohlmann’s governmental positions is to highlight the lengthy and very public nature of his career. For this reason, it seems odd no trace of his wife’s fate has so far come to light. Hoping to learn something about Maria via her husband, I contacted the Muzeum Historii Katowic, the Museum of History of Katowice, to inquire about her but the Museum could add nothing to what I already know. I await responses from both the State Archives in Katowice (Poland) and the State Archive Magdeburg (Germany) regarding any additional information they may have on Alexander Pohlmann, respectively his wife. Watch this space for future updates.

One thought on “POST 57: DISAPPEARED WITHOUT A TRACE, MARIA POHLMANN NÉE PAULY”

  1. What a lot of work to search out the names of people in those photos and then attaching them to their fate and the tree!

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