Home Genealogy People Places Schumann History Gravestones Documents A Short History of the Schumann Family The earliest known Schumann in this line was Johann Carl Schumann, a sculpture in Mausdorf, Germany, born before 1764. He was the 3^rd great-grandfather of Karl Wilhelm Schumann, the father of the last three Schumanns in this line. Sources: Certified copies of baptismal, confirmation, marriage and death records, the private journal of Hanchen Schumann née Kröger and interviews with Liselotte Meta Matilde Anthes before her death. Ancestors of Karl-Wilhelm Schumann Generation 1  Karl-Wilhelm Schumann was born on the 14th of February 1914 in Hamburg- Barmbeck, Germany and baptized on the 1^st of October 1916. He was killed on the 4^th of March 1977 in Wedel/Holstein, Germany, in an automobile accident. He was buried at Ohlsdorf Cemetery in Hamburg. He was the son of Willi Fritz August Schumann and Elsbeth Anna Magdalena Christiana Koch. He married Liselotte Meta Mathilde Anthes on the 21^st of November 1939 in St. Johannes Kirche, Hamburg Eppendorf, Germany, the same church as her parents. Elsbeth Koch was born on the 14^th of August 1916 in Wittstock an der Dosse, Germany. She was the daughter of Carl Heinrich Reinhold Anthes and Ida Erna Agnes Christiane Burmeister. Karl-Wilhelm never saw his father, who was killed in battle in the Champagne district of France in World War I. Karl-Wilhelm had only a Volkschule education, which lasted eight years. This barely qualified him for any vocational training, which was difficult to obtain in any case during the German depression in the aftermath of World War I. A teacher encouraged him to take a writing course and after he completed it the teacher went to the Wörmann Africa Line shipping company and convinced them to accept him as an apprentice in business administration. After he completed his apprenticeship he was employed in the Wörmann offices. At the age of 18 years he left this job to sail around Africa three times as a mess-boy on a freighter of the Wörmann Africa line. Between each trip he worked in the Wörmann offices. After these three voyages he went back to his office job at the Wörmann Line. He thought he may like to be a farmer and worked for one year on a farm, but it did not appeal to him. As a boy Karl-Wilhelm was a member of the "Pfadfinder" (boy scouts) and, although the Hitler Youth took control of most youth organizations, he never joined the Hitler Youth. He volunteered for military service in the cavalry in 1935, because voluntary service was limited to one year. But before he was discharged voluntary service was extended to two years and he had to remain in the army for another year. During the last year of his service his fiancée, Liselotte Anthes was performing one year of a social services program and they finished their service at the same time. After Karl-Wilhelm's discharge he returned to his job at the Wörmann Line. Karl-Wilhelm and Liselotte were engaged 14 February 1939. In May 1939 Karl-Wilhelm's aunt by marriage, Irmgard Koch from German South West Africa, invited them both on a trip from Kassel via Switzerland to Italy. Irmgard was 33 years old and Karl-Wilhelm was 24 at the time. Irmgard had inherited a fortune from her husband and they travelled in a grand style, driving a Hudson with red leather upholstery. In June 1939, shortly before the war, Karl-Wilhelm and Liselotte heard lots with permission to build houses were available in Wedel/Holstein, a suburb of Hamburg. Karl-Wilhelm already had a sailboat he wanted to keep in Wedel. When they went to investigate only one lot was left, a 1,200 square meter (18% more than a quarter acre) plot for 1.30 Reichmarks per square meter, for a total of 1,560 Reichmarks. He had only 100 Reichmarks and a valuable stamp collection, but said he would take it sight unseen. The entire area had been a large asparagus field. Karl-Wilhelm and Liselotte Anthes were married on 21 November 1939 in St. Johannes Kirche, Hamburg Eppendorf, the same church where her parents married. The war had already started in September with the German invasion of Poland and Karl-Wilhelm was already in the cavalry, because he loved horses. War marriage waiting times were reduced and were completed in one to two days because the soldiers had to leave for the front. He was sent to a reconnaissance unit in Stolp, West Prussia, became part of Poland after the end of World War II. In 1940 he was transferred to Holland and Belgium, where the army took his horse away and gave him a bicycle. This was a great blow because he entered the army in the first place to be with horses. He was transferred to Laôn, France in 1941 and in 1942 to St. Quentin, France, near where his father was killed in the first world war. There he had two dogs named Stalin and Churchill. He had a French girl friend name Julienne, who followed him from Laôn to St. Quentin and Liselotte forwarded Julienne's love letters. Julienne sent baby clothing to Karl-Wilhelm's daughter Antje. In Spring 1944 he was sent to East Prussia, now Poland. While there he visited his sister Irmgard's father-in-law in Lyck East Prussia. He was later sent to the Pripjet Swamps near Kiev in the Ukraine, but was soon returned to East Prussia because he was the only son of a hero who fell in battle in World War I. While he was in the Ukraine and Prussia Liselotte forwarded Julienne's letters to him. After their apartment in Hamburg was badly damaged by British bombs that caused a terrible fire storm, Liselotte took her two daughters, Antje and Hilke, to Iserlohn in the Sauerland to escape the bombing. They lived with Karl-Wilhelm's sister Irmgard, whose husband was a Lutheran pastor. Liselotte did not hear from Karl-Wilhelm between Christmas 1944 and June 1945. A birth announcement of Geesche was sent to his last known address in east Prussia, that was then surrounded by Russians. Liselotte did not know that his company left East Prussia for Stuhlweißenburg, Hungary before the Russians entered East Prussia. He received the birth announcement there. The war was ending and his company abandoned their equipment and moved into Germany. They made their way to middle Germany out of Russian held territory and surrendered to the British. The German company commander had an English wife and the British did not imprison the German prisoners. They simply told them to go home. Karl-Wilhelm went to Iserlohn to bring his family back to Hamburg. They found refugees, who had fled the Russians in East Prussia, living in their apartment. The government required home owners to take in refugees and Liselotte’s father had chosen the best possible tenants. The refugees had made enough repairs to make it barely habitable. Hamburg was in ruins and few jobs were obtainable. Karl- Wilhelm and his farther-in-law earned money by removing bombing rubble. A member of Karl-Wilhelm's sailing club, Mr. Esser, was a high official in the Social Democrat Party (SPD) and said because Karl-Wilhelm had never been a member of the NAZI party or the Hitler Youth, he could get him a job in the Hamburg Ministry of Health provided he joined the SPD. The SPD is ideologically similar to the Democrats in the U.S.A. He remained a member until his death. They wanted to build a house on their property in Wedel, but if the family moved to Wedel they could not get food ration cards, because there were already so many refugees in Wedel the town could not absorb more. Mayor Schach of Wedel was also an SPD member. Karl-Wilhelm wrote Mayor Schach a Letter with the salutation "Dear Comrade Schacht" and explained his problems with food ration cards. He received them for the family the next day. In 1946 the family built their one floor house in Wedel and lived more or less from the fruits of their garden. The house was built largely of rubble Karl-Wilhelm and his father-in-law, Carl Reinhold Anthes, collected from the ruins of Hamburg. In 1952 they built the second floor. Karl-Wilhelm wanted to immigrate to Canada and took a welding course because he heard welders were in demand in Canada. They did not go, because he learned in the Health Ministry that there was a vacant concession to operate the "Kantine" (restaurant) at Rissen Hospital in Hamburg-Rissen. Hamburg-Rissen is just inside the Hamburg city limits and very near Wedel. Karl-Wilhelm obtained this concession in 1953 and he continued to operate the Kantine until his death. In 1938, before the war, Karl-Wilhelm bought a sailing yacht named "Lütten" for 800 Reich Marks. In 1939 Lütten was replaced by "Lütten II", which burned in a boat hall beside the Goldbek canal, when the hall was destroyed in a bombing raid by the British. In 1959 he bought "Lütten III" and it was christened by his daughter Antje. In 1954 they bought the yacht "Lilo". Almost all vacations were spent sailing on the Elbe and among the Danish and Swedish islands in the Baltic Sea. After 31 years of marriage Karl-Wilhelm divorced Liselotte for another woman. He kept the Kantine and "Lilo" and signed his half of the house and part of his pension over to Liselotte. His second marriage lasted eighteen months, until he left his second wife for a woman the same age as his daughter Antje. He never divorced his second wife. On the 4^th of March 1977, while passing a tractor on a country road, he hit an on coming car head on and was killed. Generation No. 2 Willi Fritz August Schumann was born on the 25^th of November 1884 in Winterhude near Hamburg, Germany, at 5 AM on a bitter cold day. His confirmation in the Lutheran church was on the 4^th of April 1900 and he died on the 6^th of October 1915 in the Champagne district of France, killed in battle in World War I. He was the son of Friedrich Wilhelm Schumann and Hanchen Sophie Elisabeth Kröger. He married Elsbeth Anna Magdalena Christiana Koch on the 25^th of November 1909 in Windhuk, German Southwest Africa. Elsbeth Anna Magdalena Christiana Koch, was born on the 28^th of July 1886 in Hannover, Germany and died 1963 in Neumunster, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. She was the daughter of Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Koch and Maria Magdalene Elise Daez. Elsbeth went to German Southwest Africa to visit her two brothers Willi and Albert in 1905 when she was 19 years old. She met Willi Schumann there and married him in 1909. Elsbeth had to pay a traffic fine for riding her horse too fast through an intersection in Windhoek. Willie Schumann's mother, Hanchen, wrote in her diary that he always had trouble with his ears and on the 1^st of January 1898 he had a cure with Dr. Hagedorn to heal his ear drums. She wrote it appeared that the cure was successful, but this proved not to be the case. As a young man Willi Schumann and his brother Hans went to German Southwest Africa, now called Namibia, in ca. 1900 to prospect for diamond on their own behalf. They never found any and Willi later worked as an official in the city government of Windhoek where he met Elsbeth Koch. Willie was a good violin player and entertained his friends and family at a time when there was almost no other form of entertainment. Willi and Elsbeth's first child, Irmgard, was born in Windhoek, German Southwest Africa on the 4^th of August 1910. He returned with his family to Hamburg, Germany in ca. 1912. Because of life long ear problems Willi was exempt from military service in the First World War. Swept up in the jubilation among his young friends, following early victories, he joined them in their rush to volunteer for service. Willi Schumann was killed in battle on the 6^th of October 1915 in the Champagne district of France. He never saw his son Karl-Wilhelm, who was born on the 14^th of February 1914, twenty months before his death. Despite searching through war grave association records, like thousands of others, his grave site has not been found. Children of Willi Schumann and Elsbeth Koch: 1. Karl-Wilhelm Schumann, born 14 Feb 1914 in Hamburg-Barmbeck, Germany; died on the 4^th of March 1977 in Wedel/Holstein, Germany, in an automobile accident. He married Liselotte Meta Mathilde Anthes on the 21^st of November 1939 in St. Johannes Kirche, Hamburg Eppendorf, Germany. 2. Irmgard Schumann was born on the 4^th of August 1910 in Windhoek, German Southwest Africa, now called Namibia. She died on the 7^th of July 1995 in Wedel/Holstein, Germany. She married Heinz Lehrbaß in Windhoek German Southwest Africa. He was born in Lyck, East Prussian, now in Poland. Irmgard returned to Germany at an early age. After graduating from the university and working as a school teacher. She returned to Africa to visit relatives and met her future husband Heinz Lehrbaß. He had graduated from a seminary and was working in Africa as a Lutheran Pastor. During World War II Heinz served in the army, not as a Chaplin, but as a staff officer to Field Marshal Rommel in his Africa Campaign, until he was captured. He said the American colonel who interrogated him after his capture was a banker in the Federal Reserve Bank. Generation No. 3 Friedrich Wilhelm Schumann was born on the 15th of December 1846 in Lützen, Germany and died of a heat stroke on the 17^th of June 1915 in Hamburg, Germany. He was baptized: 25 Dec 1846, Lützen, Germany. He was a music director. He was the son of Friedrich August Schumann and Henriette Rosine Buchheim. He married Hanchen Sophie Elisabeth Kröger on the 31^st of May 1876 in Hamburg, Germany on a rainy Wednesday. Hanchen Sophie Elisabeth Kröger was born on the 4th of January 1856 in Marien-Straße 10, 1st Floor, Hamburg, Germany and was baptized on the 26^th of March 1856, St Michaelis Kirche, Hamburg, Germany. She died on the 29th of July 1924 in Hamburg. She was the daughter of Hans Friedrich Andreas Kröger and Caroline Marie Louise Becker. After their marriage Friedrich and Hanchen lived in, what she describes as, a delightful apartment in Schröderstift-Straße 12, Hamburg Germany, near the Dammtor and the zoological gardens. They choose the apartment because Friedrich was in the 76th regiment and it was near the barracks. In her journal Hanchen Sophie Elisabeth Kröger wrote that on the 10^th of December 1899 a seventh son Fritz was born and they had him baptized on the 4^th of April 1900, which was another son, Willi's, confirmation day. She had seven sons, but only mentioned five by name in her journal, which implies two died at an early age. Hanchen played the piano well and gave piano lessons. She gave lessons to Agnes, who later married her son Hans. When Fritz was born they were living at Heitmann-Straße 8, in Hamburg, but soon moved to Winterhuder-Weg 24. On Winterhuder-Weg they had a ground floor apartment with a nice garden where Fritz could play in the fresh air. Hanchen's son Hans returned on the 26^th of October 1899 from the Cameroon in Africa very ill and stayed in Hamburg-Eppendorf Hospital four weeks. Hanchen says that she was very ill at the same time and this was a difficult time. But the end result was good, because her son was at home. Hanchen was interested in having her sons marry daughters of distinguished Hamburg families. One of her sons married a Sieveking, who was from an illustrious Hamburg Family, but it is not clear which son. Agnes, who had taken piano lessons from Hanchen, was from a wealthy family and she inherited 160,000 Gold Marks. This was a huge fortune at that time and Hans divorce his wife to marry Agnes. She spent 60,000 Gold Marks to pay debts Hans has incurred in Africa. Children of Friedrich Schumann and Hanchen Kröger: 1. Hans Emil Traugott Schumann was born on the 21^st of June 1878 in Schröderstift-Straße 12, Hamburg, Germany, at 9 PM in fine weather. He married Agnes. 2. Paul Carl Wilhelm Schumann born the 15^th of November 1881. 3. Willi Fritz August Schumann, born on the 25^th of November 1884 in Winterhude near Hamburg, Germany, at 5 AM on a bitter cold day. He died on the 6^th of October 1915 in the Champagne district of France, killed in battle in World War I. He married Elsbeth Anna Magdalena Christiana Koch on the 25^th of November 1909 in Windhuk, German Southwest Africa. 4. Reinhold Carl Henry Schumann born the 6^th of November 1886. 5. Fritz Schumann (probably Friedrich) born in 1899. 6. Two more sons not named in Hanchen’s diary. Hans' mother Hanchen wrote on "second day of Easter" on the 11^th of April 1898 that time had flown, but until now she had not had the desire to write that her eldest son Hans had been in the 76th regiment since 1 October 1897, although he had no enthusiasm for the military. She wrote that on the 11^th of December 1898 Hans went to the Cameroon in Africa aboard the ship “Helene Wörmann.” Hans stayed there at the company L. H. C. Wörmann until he developed a chronic illness. On the 26^th of October 1899 he returned to Hamburg aboard the "Aline." He arrived seriously ill and stayed in Hamburg-Eppendorf Hospital four weeks. When he was far from healthy again he set off for German Southwest Africa, (now known as Namibia). He departed on the 22^nd of December aboard "lulu von Brohlen" or Bohlen and travelled via Swakopmund to Rehoboth. He committed himself for four years. Hans divorced his wife to marry Agnes, who had inherited 160,000 Gold Marks. This was an enormous fortune at that time. Hans took Agnes on a trip to Africa travelling first class all the way. Agnes spent 60,000 gold marks to pay debts Hans had incurred in Africa.

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