Chapter 5.

                                   The Family of Ludwig Friedrichs

After having told the rather lengthy story of the Rosenthal family, I must return to Ludwig
Friedrichs and his family.
Ludwig (8) and Minna Rosenthal (9) were married in 1835. I have a
tiny card on which "Cammerarius Rosenthal" Minna's father, invites his sister Wilhelmine
Margarethe and her husband "Altermann Luhde" to attend the wedding.

Ludwig and Minna had four children,
Carl (4), my grandfather, Marie, Hermine, and Clara.
Ludwig died of typhoid fever when he was 39 years old (1842). The children were then, 4, 2,
and 1 year old Minna took over her husband's business with the aid of a manager; but after six
years she gave up doing this. She then had a hard time raising her children. Her manager,
however, was able to buy an estate.

None of Minna's three daughters got married. (Incidently, the same is true of the three daughters
of her brother Johann Carl.) One of the reasons that none of Minna's daughters married may
have been that Minna could not provide a trousseau for her daughters; but that was not the only
reason. Apparently, a young man was interested in Clara and wanted to marry her. In fact, I have
a small letter containing a poem written by him for Clara. But nothing came of it. Later on it was
said that Minna did not allow Clara to get married; Clara should take care of her.

Minna was said to be a stern mother. On the other hand, a letter she wrote shortly before her
husband's death shows that she loved him dearly. Also in later years the letters she wrote to her
children show her concern.

While Clara lived with her mother and took care of her until she died (1869), Marie and Hermine
were teachers and governesses. When Marie and Clara were 38 and 35 years old (1876), they
moved into a retirement home in Putbus on Rügen. This home was founded by Hofrat Bernhard
Engelbrecht, the administrator of the Count Malte of Putbus, sometime after 1810, when the City
of Putbus was developed by this Count. Hofrat Engelbrecht was one of those who had signed the
will of Adolph Heinrich Friedrichs. Since Engelbrecht's wife was a nee Arnd, a daughter of
Heinrich Arnd, the members of the Friedrichs family qualified to be admitted to the retirement
home. Aunt Marie was still alive and well in 1916, when I visited her in this retirement home
during my stay on Rügen in that year.

Hermine had first founded a private school; later on (1878) she became the director of a newly
established trade school for women, a rather novel institution at that time. This school was
located in Kiel, a city at the southwestern corner of the Baltic Sea, where her brother lived at that
time.

This brother of Hermine, my grandfather, Carl Friedrichs (4), would have liked to attend a
university and study mainly history; but he could not do so since his mother could not have
supported him. So he started as a clerk in a bookstore in Greifswald. Later on he took a position
in a bookstore in Kiel. There he met another clerk, Hermann Heiberg, who at that time was also
working in that store.

Later, Carl took a position in the book store of Hermann's father in Schleswig and soon, (1863),
he got engaged to Hermann's sister, Nanny (5). A year later Carl was made the owner of the
"Schwerssche Buchhandlung" in Kiel, which was the main bookstore used by the professors at
the University in that city. A year later
Carl and Nanny got married (1864).

Before telling about the life of Carl and Nanny Friedrichs I must relate ” at least to a certain
degree " the story of the Heiberg family, which is quite involved and colorful.


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