POST 6: DR. OTTO BRUCK & TIEGENHOF: 1932 POCKET CALENDAR

Figure 1. Father’s 1932 Pocket Calendar

 

I have already informed the reader that one particularly useful item among my father’s remaining personal effects is his “1932 Pocket Calendar” in which he recorded the anniversaries and birthdays associated with family, friends and acquaintances, and in a few instances even noted the names and phone numbers of business associates. The Pocket Calendar itself was for a business called “Rudolf Witt,” located in Danzig on what was then “Langgasse 48-49,” which sold fine paper and gift articles. (Figure 1)

Almost all the names are written in Sutterlin, the bizarre saw-tooth script previously discussed that was widely used in Prussia between 1915 and 1941; towards the front of the Pocket Calendar there are even a few lines of “shorthand,” or “stenography,” which I am still trying to decode. With the help of German relatives, I was able to decipher all the names, although in a few instances these reveal only given names. I became interested in learning about my father’s circle of friends and acquaintances and determining whether I could match up photos with each of the names, or find other evidence of how they might have interacted with my father. I was remarkably successful in this endeavor.

In his 1932 Pocket Calendar, my father recorded names and names by specific dates, along with the names and phone numbers of a few friends and business associates. Below are scans of the pages with the names and events shown, my interpretation as to who or what is recorded, and pictures, where available of the people in question.

DATES AND NAMES

January 13th, “Linchen Regehr” (Figure 2).  Linchen Regehr was the wife of Heinrich “Heinz” Regehr, Director of the Deutsches Bank in Tiegenhof.

Figure 2. Pocket Calendar page with name of Linchen Regehr

 

 

February 17th, “Gerhard Hoppe Geb.(=Geburtstag (birthday))” (Figure 3).  February 17th was the birthday of Gerhard Hoppe, dentist and good friend of my father living in Neuteich, Free State of Danzig [today: Nowy Staw, Poland] (Figure 4)

Figure 3. Father’s 1932 Pocket Calendar with names of Gerhard Hoppe & Kurt Lau
Figure 4. Gerhard Hoppe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 19th, “Kurt Lau Geb.” (Figure 3)  February 19, 1892 was the birthday of Kurt Lau (Figure 5), my father’s good friend and father of Juergen “Peter” Lau to which an entire Blog post has already been devoted.

Figure 5. Kurt Lau, father of Juergen “Peter” Lau

 

March 3rd, “Mutter Geb. (mother’s birthday)” (Figure 6)  Else Bruck, née Berliner was my father’s mother born on March 3, 1873 in Ratibor, Germany. (Figure 7)

Figure 6. Father’s 1932 Pocket Calendar with the birthdays of his mother and cousin indicated
Figure 7. My father’s mother, Else Bruck née Berliner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 8th, “Heinz Geb.” (Figure 6) March 8, 1905 was the birthday of one of my father’s first cousins, Heinz Loewenstein, born in Danzig and living there while my father lived in Tiegenhof. (Figure 8)

Figure 8. Father’s first cousin, Heinz Loewenstein

 

March 28th, “Vater (father)” (Figure 9)  Felix Bruck, born on March 28, 1864 in Ratibor, Germany, was my father’s father. (Figure 10)

Figure 9. Father’s 1932 Pocket Planner with his father’s birthday noted
Figure 10. My father as a baby in the arms of his father, Felix Bruck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 9th, “nach Tiegenhof gekommen” (Figure 11)  April 9, 1932 is the day my father first drove to Tiegenhof to begin his career there as a dentist.

April 16th, “Geburstag” (Figure 11)  My father himself was born on April 16, 1907 in Ratibor, Germany.

Figure 11. Father’s Day Planner with the date he drove to Tiegenhof to begin his dental career and his own birthday indicated

 

 

April 20th, “Dr. Kurt Schlenger” (Figure 12)  April 20, 1909 was the birthday of Dr. Kurt Schlenger, one of the sons of Otto Schlenger, owner & operator of Tiegenhof’s “Dampfmahlmuhle.” Dr. Schlenger was a musician & musicologist who professionally arranged many classical pieces of music, mostly for wind instruments.  Otto Schlenger’s grand-daughter scanned a page from her grandfather’s address book (Figure 13), showing that Kurt lived in Koenigsberg, East Prussia [today: Kaliningrad, Russia].  My third cousin uncovered Kurt Schlenger’s Ph.D. dissertation which included a curriculum vitae (Figure 14), translated as: “I, Kurt Hans Otto Schlenger, was born in Tiegenhof on 20 April 1909 as son of the mill owners Otto Schlenger and his wife Martha born Ruhnau.”  A member of the Schlenger family even provided me a picture of Dr. Kurt Schlenger (Figure 15).

Figure 12. Father’s 1932 Pocket Calendar with the birthdays of both Dr. Kurt Schlenger & his sister Susanne noted
Figure 13. Page from Alfred Schlenger’s Address Book showing where his brother, Dr. Kurt Schlenger, lived in Koenigsberg, East Prussia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 14. Curriculum vitae from Dr. Kurt Schlenger’s Ph.D. dissertation giving his date and place of birth and names of his parents
Figure 15. Dr. Kurt Schlenger, ca. 1935 (photo courtesy of Dr. Heinrich Schlenger, Kiel, Germany)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 20th, “Susanne” (Figure 12)  My father’s sister, Susanne Mueller, née Bruck, was born on April 20, 1904 in Ratibor, Germany and perished in Auschwitz in 1942. (Figure 16)  An entire blog post will be devoted to her in the future.

Figure 16. Susanne Mueller née Bruck

 

May 31st, “Idschi Epp Geb.” (Figure 17)  May 31, 1893 was the birthday of my father’s good friend, Idschi Epp. (Figure 18)

Figure 17. Father’s 1932 Pocket Calendar with Idschi Epp’s birthday recorded
Figure 18. Idschi Epp in Stutthof at the house of her brother, Gerhard Epp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 10th, “Suschen” (Figure 19)  Suse Epp, sister of Idschi Epp, was born on June 10, 1877, and was also a friend of my father. (Figure 20)

June 10th, “Werner Meifert” (Figure 19)  According to Danzig Address Books, Werner was a “Gerichtsreferent” (Court Speaker), later a “Gerichtsassessor” (Court Assessor), although after 1936 he is no longer listed. Likely a Jewish friend of my father who fled or was killed.

June 12th, “Hanni” (Figure 19)  Hanni Wagner was the sister or possible wife of father’s once-good friend, Hans “Mochum” Wagner, and June 12th was likely her birthday. (Figure 21)

Figure 19. Father’s 1932 Pocket Calendar with the names of multiple friends & acquaintances recorded
Figure 20. Suschen Epp, oldest sister of Idschi Epp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 21. Hanni Wagner seated between her brother Hans “Mochum” Wagner and Alfred Schlenger

 

June 13th, “Dicken und Hedsch Schlenger” (Figure 19)  Alfred & Hedwig “Hedsch” Schlenger were owners of Tiegenhof’s “Dampfmahlmuehle,” and June 13th was Hedsch’s birthday. (Figure 22)

Figure 22. Hedsch & Alfred Schlenger standing on the steps of Tiegenhof’s Dampfmahlmuehle

 

 

June 23rd, “Todestag v. Vater (death of father)” (Figure 23)  My father’s father, Felix Bruck, died on June 23, 1927 in Berlin. (Figure 24)

Figure 23. Father’s 1932 Pocket Calendar indicating the day his father died

 

Figure 24. My grandfather Felix Bruck’s death certificate showing he died on the 23rd of June 1927 in Berlin

 

July 26th, “Heinz Stumer” (Figure 25)  According to 1931 & 1933 Danzig Address Books, Herr Stumer was a “Zahnarzt” or dentist, and likely a colleague and/or friend of my father. (Figure 26)

Figure 25. Father’s 1932 Pocket Calendar with Heinz Stumer’s name recorded
Figure 26. 1931 Danzig Address Book listing Heinz Stumer’s profession as Zahnarzt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 3rd, “Fr. Jeglin” (Figure 27)  Possibly the wife of Oscar Jeglin, owner of a drugstore in Tiegenhof with whom my father may have had professional dealings.

August 9th, “Herr Wiebe” (Figure 27)  Unclear who this refers to.

August 10th, “Erwin Wann” (Figure 27)  Unclear who this refers to.

Figure 27. Father’s 1932 Pocket Calendar with the names of various friends & acquaintances

 

August 17th, “Fedor” (Figure 28)  Fedor Bruck (Figure 29) was my father’s oldest brother, born on August 17, 1895 in Leobschutze, Germany [today: Głubczyce, Poland]. (Figure 44)

Figure 28. Father’s 1932 Pocket Calendar listing his brother’s birthday
Figure 29. Fedor Bruck standing next to his automobile, a DKW, one of the ancestor companies of modern-day Audi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 44. My uncle Fedor Bruck’s birth certificate showing he was born on the 17th of August 1895 in Leobschutze, Germany (today: Głubczyce, Poland)

 

 

September 15th, “Dr. Behrendt” (Figure 30)  This person, who appears in a 1943 Tiegenhof Address Book, was likely one of my father’s professional colleagues. (Figure 31)

Figure 30. Father’s 1932 Pocket Calendar with Dr. Behrendt’s name
Figure 31. Page from 1943 Tiegenhof Phonebook listing Dr. Behrendt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 26th, “Rolfi Steinbach” (Figure 32)  Unclear who this refers to.

Figure 32. Father’s 1932 Pocket Calendar listing Rolfi Steinbach

 

 

November 18th, “Erika Geb.” (Figure 33)  The birthday of one of my father’s girlfriends. (Figure 34)

Figure 33. Father’s 1932 Pocket Calendar listing his girlfriend Erika’s birthday
Figure 34. My father’s girlfriend Erika in Florence, Italy on June 29, 1938, when she visited my father there after he’d left Tiegenhof

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 9th, “Truden!” (Figure 35)  Likely the birthday of Trudchen Wagner, one of father’s girlfriends and sister of Hans Wagner. (Figure 36)

Figure 35. Father’s 1932 Pocket Calendar identifying his girlfriend Truden’s birthday
Figure 36. My father with his arm around his girlfriend Trudchen Wagner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 23rd, “Kathi Lau Geb.” (Figure 37)  December 23, 1892 was the birthday of Kathi Lau, wife of Kurt Lau and mother of Peter Lau. (Figure 38)

Figure 37. Father’s 1932 Pocket Calendar listing Kathi Lau’s birthday
Figure 38. Kathi Lau, Juergen “Peter” Lau’s mother

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ADDRESSES AND PHONE NUMBERS (“Anchriften und Fernsprecher”)

Figure 39. Father’s 1932 Pocket Calendar listing addresses & phone numbers of business associates

 

 

“Fa. M. Broh 22636”  (Figure 39) Business was a “Eisengrosshandlung,” a firm involved in selling wholesale goods for the manufacture of homes. Unclear what type of relationship father had to this firm. (Figure 40)

Figure 40. Danzig Address Book listing for Firma Broh

 

“Bertram 27408”  (Figure 39) Danzig Phone Directories from the 1930’s list an individual by the name of “Fritz Bertram,” identified as a “Zahnarzt” or dentist who manufactured bridges and dentures. (Figures 41-42)

Figure 41. Danzig Address Book listing for Fritz Bertram
Figure 42. Fritz Bertram sailing on the Bay of Danzig with friends

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Hoppe-Neuteich 47”  (Figure 39) Dr. Gerhard Hoppe was a good friend of my father and a dentist in Neuteich, Free State of Danzig, located SSW of Tiegenhof. (Figures 4 & 43)

Figure 43. 1935 Danzig Address Book listing dentists including Gerhard Hoppe in Neuteich

 

 

As is evident from the above, I’ve successfully been able to decipher most of the people and events recorded by my father in his Pocket Calendar. Being a visual person, I also set out to find pictures of as many of these people as possible, using either my father’s photos or ones sent to me by descendants of my father’s friends and acquaintances; additionally, using Danzig Address Books and Phone Directories from the 1930’s, I was able to identify business colleagues with whom my father dealt and, in one instance, even correlate a picture with one of these people. It goes without saying that without my father’s surviving pictures, as well as the network of former Tiegenhof residents and descendants who subscribed to the “Tiegenhofer Nachrichten,” very little of this type of reconstruction would have been possible. The network of people with whom my father interacted, however, ranged beyond Tiegenhof to include Danzig, and included many business people in both communities.

POST 4: DR. OTTO BRUCK & TIEGENHOF: HANS “MOCHUM” WAGNER

Among the photos included in my father’s albums from his time living in Tiegenhof are many of an unnamed man who at one time was clearly a dear friend of my father (Figure 1).  As opposed to the frequent mentions of the revered Schlummermutter (discussed in my previous Blog post) when I was growing up, there was nary a mention of this once-close friend.  However, my father often mentioned that by the time he left Tiegenhof in 1937, most of his former friends and acquaintances no longer spoke to him nor frequented his dental practice.  In retrospect, I can only conclude that this former friend fell into the category of people who no longer acknowledged my father’s existence during the era of the National Socialists.

Figure 1 – My father, Dr. Otto Bruck, with his once-close friend, Hans “Mochum” Wagner

 

 

Clearly, my father felt no need to caption the numerous pictures with this friend, so I had absolutely no clues to go on when I began to investigate this man’s identity.  Again, my initial “go-to” source was Peter Lau, who as I’ve previously discussed grew up in Tiegenhof between roughly age 5 and age 15.  He immediately recognized my father’s friend as “Mochum Wagner.”  Interestingly, I eventually came to find or was given photographs of Mochum Wagner that spanned almost his entire life from childhood to soldier in the German Army.

Peter Lau was able to tell me a few things about Mochum Wagner and his family, some of which I’ve independently been able to confirm.  Peter told me that Mochum was the son a chimney sweep.  In German, a chimney sweep is called “Schornsteinfeger.”  In my first Blog post, I mentioned a book on Tiegenhof, entitled “Tiegenhof und der Kreis Grosses Werder in Bildern” by Gunter Jeglin, where a listing of businesses in existence ca. 1935 can be found.  Under the listings for “Schornsteinfegermeister,” there is indeed one for a “J. Wagner.”

Peter also mentioned that Mochum Wagner had been inseparable friends with Langer Hannemann, son of the lawyer who readers may recall occupied office space in the same building where my father had his dental practice.  Peter also conveniently shared one of the few remaining photos from his father’s collection of Tiegenhof showing this Langer Hannemann, a man reputed to be 1.95m. tall (6’4”);  two unknown men; and, Mochum Wagner (Figure 2).

Figure 2 – From left to right: Langer Hannemann, two unknown men, & Hans “Mochum” Wagner

 

 

In my father’s photos of Mochum Wagner, he is clearly seen to be extremely fit.  Peter told me that his father, Kurt Lau, traveled to Berlin with Mochum Wagner and a few other young people from Tiegenhof to see Jesse Owens participate in the 1936 Olympics.  Peter recalled that his father took pictures of this trip using his Leica camera, photos which regrettably have not survived.

Figure 3 – My father with his girlfriend and sister of Mochum Wagner, Trudchen Wagner

 

Peter remembered that one of my father’s many girlfriends was Mochum Wagner’s sister, Trudchen Wagner (Figure 3), and, indeed, in my father’s “1932 Pocket Calendar,” previously discussed, next to date December 5th my father wrote “Truden!”  While not specifically captioned, there are several photos of Mochum Wagner and my father with their respective girlfriends, and one is clearly a woman seen in other photographs who appears to be Mochum’s sister.

Peter recalled that Mochum Wagner was a Lieutenant in an infantry division of the German Army, and was killed early on during WWII.  Ironically, Langer Hannemann, Mochum Wagner’s good friend who was a banker in Berlin, went MIA during WWII and was presumed also to have died during the war.

I mentioned at the outset that I was able to locate photographs of Mochum Wagner from his time as a young boy to his time in the German Army, and it is worth explaining to the reader how this came to happen.  In the aforementioned Gunter Jeglin book, I had the good fortune to find two photographs of “Hans ‘Mochum’ Wagner,” as he was in fact known.  A 1922 class photo shows him as a lad of perhaps 10 to 12 years of age (Figure 4).

Figure 4 – Mochum Wagner in a 1922 class picture as a young lad

 

 

Then, in a 1938 photo, after my father had already left Tiegenhof, Mochum Wagner is standing among a group of children born between 1931-32 and identified as a compulsory education (i.e., “Volksschule”) teacher (Figure 5).

Figure 5 – A 1938 photo of Mochum Wagner as a compulsory education teacher

 

As in prior posts, I must again digress to set the stage for explaining how I obtained photos of Mochum Wagner in his German Army uniform.  I’ve previously mentioned that my father’s 1932 Pocket Calendar contained a list of names of family, friends and acquaintances next to dates that in most cases appear to coincide with anniversaries and birthdays.  Among the surnames that were listed were “Schlenger”; “Dr. Kurt Schlenger” was noted by date April 20th, and “Dicken & Hedsch Schlenger” were recorded by date June 13th.  Curious as to whether the dates were significant, I again pulled out the “Tiegenhofer Nachrichten” and wrote to various people in the index whose maiden or surname was “Schlenger.”  One lady I wrote to on September 13, 2013 was Ms. Beate Lohff, née Schlenger, who responded a short ten days later.  As with many people to whom I have written “cold” letters over the years, Ms. Lohff was exceptionally surprised to receive my correspondence.  Thus began an extremely productive exchange of information.

Ms. Lohff explained the June 13th date noted in my father’s Pocket Calendar for “Hedsch Schlenger” corresponded with the day that her grandmother, Hedwig Schlenger, née Fenger, was born; she was married to Alfred Schlenger, son of Otto “Opa” Schlenger, owner of the “Dampfmahlmuehle Tiegenhof” (i.e., steam-operated flour mill).   Incidentally, Rudi Schlenger, Peter Lau’s good friend, was Alfred Schlenger’s nephew, son of Alfred’s brother Franz Schlenger.  And, the aforementioned Kurt Schlenger was the third of Otto Schlenger’s three sons, a musician and musicologist.  In any case, in her initial email, Ms. Lohff included a picture of Alfred and Hedsch Schlenger standing on the steps of the flour mill (Figure 6).

Figure 6 – Hedwig & Alfred Schlenger on the steps of the “Dampfmahlmuehle” in Tiegenhof

 

Eventually, Ms. Lohff would go through her grandmother’s collection of photos, and send me two unexpected pictures.  The first, taken in 1943, showed Peter Lau’s father, Kurt Lau, with Hedsch Schlenger, and two other named but unknown men, “Wilfried” and “Alfred Koenig.”  The second, taken in 1942 in Steegen, part of Danzig, was of Mochum Wagner, in his German Army uniform, likely with his sister Hanni Wagner, and, again, Alfred Schlenger (Figure 7). Here was the actual proof of Peter Lau’s recollection that Mochum Wagner, not surprisingly, was in the German Army during WWII.  More remarkable is that through a careful step-by-step process, I was able to trace Mochum Wagner’s life in Tiegenhof from his time in grade school to his eventual life in the German Army that led to his untimely death.

Figure 7 – Mochum Wagner is his Army uniform, likely seated next to his sister Hanni Wagner, and Alfred Schlenger

 

In the next Blog post, I will trace two more of my father’s friends from his time in Tiegenhof.