Turmoil in the Parental Home at Wolmirstedt
Klopp Family Tree
Chart I – II
Around the turn of the century the rope maker’s apprentice Ferdinand Klopp turned 21 years of age. The family structure in the overcrowded house in Wolmirstedt threatened to fall apart. The business of rope making was just beginning to secure an income to feed the family. It was also quite foreseeable that the continuously expanding family would soon reach the breaking point.
Although the siblings Jula and Karl, the nineteen-year old Rosa, the eighteen-year old Alma, possibly also the fifteen-old Anna had most likely been placed elsewhere, the parents Emma and Peter Friedrich Klopp still had to care for the remaining five sons and three daughters. In addition, they had to cope with the newly-weds Friedrich, their eldest son, and Marie-Luise Klopp, who was expecting her first child. This all happened at the same time, as my grandmother Emma was expecting her 16th child, my father Ernst Klopp.

In this tense and often emotionally charged atmosphere lack of control and anger were heaped onto the ‘Late Bloomer’ Ferdinand. His father P.F. Klopp turned violent and beat him up on several occasions. The dummy, as Ferdinand was often branded never forgave this kind of humiliation. Father Klopp in the meantime was seeking comfort through beer and schnaps in ‘Fatjes Hotel’ or in the ‘Anchor’. One night in May 1900 his alcoholic excesses cost him his life, when on his way home he fell off his horse.
Beautiful Post..!!!
LikeLike
Peter it’s commendable that you have dug up for such information! How do you manage this? Specially when this information relates to an era from which there are no survivors – pre 1900’s!! And what about the pictures?
LikeLiked by 1 person
The credit goes to a distant cousin of mine, who wrote a book on the Klopp family. It is written in German, so my task is to translate for that branch of the family that has made North America their home. Thank you so much for your kind comment!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow! both you and your cousin’s efforts need to be appreciated!
LikeLike
what do we learn from this post? Don’t drink too much. Always enjoy your stories, Peter, regards from Hamburg
LikeLiked by 1 person