Anna Rosa Klopp

Baroness Anna von Waldenfels, neé Klopp – Part II

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Conversion to Catholicism

Anna’s mother-in-law living at Etzenhausen near Dachau insisted that she and her baby converted to the Catholic faith. This intent according to the Wolmirstedt-Zielitz family clan represented the ultimate of impertinence towards the family, which from earliest times has presumably adhered to the Lutheran confession.

As long as Ludwig Max von Waldenfels has been for 16 long years serving in the same Metzger regiment (1905 battalion assisting officer, 1909 promoted to senior lieutenant, 1913 captain and company commander), religious questions played a minor role in Ludwig’s life. However, the choice of his wife was an entirely different matter. Anna did not befit his social status.

Anna and Ludwig must have been trying for years to navigate around the cliff of Ludwig’s mother’s adamant position. Now because of mother-in-law’s pressure and of related inheritance and financial questions, the situation demanded a sacrifice, from which there seemed to be no escape. The future husband had earlier introduced Anna to his mother as a ‘society woman’. The wedding took place on October 19, 1916. At the same time little Fritz Georg most likely was baptized into the Catholic faith. Obviously money and inheritance matters accelerated the decisive step.

Twelve years had passed until the Klopp offspring Fritz Georg received the prestigiously sounding name von Waldenfels now even with the blessing of his grandmother and the Catholic church. Now the Klopp family of Wolmirstedt and Zielitz could no longer despise Anna for her loose life style they had accused her before, but her conversion to catholicism definitely made her a renegade in their envious eyes. It made no difference whether her change of religion was based on Jewish or Catholic causes. Despicable was everything that deviated from the Wolmirsted-Zielitz norm, even at the risk of having confused in their stupidity apples with pears.

Anna Rosa Klopp (1881 – 1924) – Part III

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Two Tragic Deaths in one Year

Klopp Family Tree – Chart I – II

Rosa Diesing née Klopp unexpectedly passed away in Elbeu on December 1, 1924 at the early age of 43 years. Her husband, about whom very little information had been brought to light by the author Eberhard Klopp, had received his just punishment according to her brother’s mother-in-law Louise Weihe. He departed from the place of his ‘misconduct’ and disappeared with the children from the radar screen of the Gardelegen-Zielitz Klopp/Weihe family circles. In the same year, Auguste Weihe, Friedrich’s wife passed away thus fulfilling the sombre and evil oracle that I have alluded to in the previous post. In a footnote the author of the Klopp Family Chronicles, Eberhard Klopp, mentioned however that the two women most likely died of too great a burden and exhaustion through their hard work in caring for their beloved children.

The Old Market in Poznan - Photo Credit: lis.uw.edu.pl

The Old Market in Poznan – Photo Credit: lis.uw.edu.pl

Her daughter Rosel (Rosa), born on September 6, 1905 in Gostyn/Poznan, married the estate manager of the farms now belonging to Poland, Hugo Meyer. In the 1920’s he found employment as electrician at the Grusen-Machine-Works in Magdeburg. Already  before the war she and her husband  belonged to the Christian Science sect. Their membership was frowned upon as being highly suspect by the Nazi regime and later after the war by the Communist authorities in East Germany (GDR). They had to endure many hardships on account of being spied upon and harassed by both the Nazi and Communist regimes. During the GDR times they camouflaged their meetings of their brothers and sisters in faith by calling them coffee parties (Kaffee-Kränzchen). After Germany’s reunification in 1989 the congregation was allowed to use the church hall of the Evangelical Church at Magdeburg-Lemsdorf. From now on they also could openly receive religious literature and audio cassettes from the West.

Lemsdorf Saint Sebastian Church - Photo Credit: wikipedia.org

Lemsdorf Saint Sebastian Church – Photo Credit: wikipedia.org

The youngest Diesing daughter Erika was married to a dentist, who after long-lasting use morphine died of a nerve disease. In her second marriage she lived with an official of the town of Kirn/Nahe. Erika was still alive in 1990. Since the three sons Werner, Willy and Fritz died in action during WWII, the male family line of the Diesing family has thus become extinct.

Anna Rosa Klopp (1881 – 1924) – Part II

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Futile Rescue Mission for Brother Friedrich

Klopp Family Tree – Chart I – II

Already in the middle of 1919 the Diesing family resettled in Gommern near Magdeburg. Mother Emma, having to abandon her place in West Prussia, which now belonged to Poland, found temporary shelter with the Diesing family. From here according to a postcard written from the inn “Gasthof zum Stern” Emma made contact with her son Ferdinand in Elbeu.

City Hall of Gommern - Photo Credit: wikipedia.org

City Hall of Gommern – Photo Credit: wikipedia.org

In 1921 Rosa made a last-ditch attempt to seek reconciliation between the family members most of them leaning towards the Emma Klopp faction and the few others of Emma’s eldest son Friedrich (see the Klopp Grandparents VIII for more details on the bitter family feud that lasted half a century). Friedrich had been written off and treated as an outcast by the rest of the family.

Magdeburg - Monastery of Our Lady - Photo Credit: wikipedia.org

Magdeburg – Monastery of Our Lady – Photo Credit: wikipedia.org

So August Diesing, acting on Rosa’s urgent plea, got together with his brother-in-law Friedrich Klopp. He acquired by auction an abandoned school building with the intention to open up a construction business. The plan seemed to be a promising one, since August with the expertise in masonry and carpentry was well qualified for the envisioned new venture. Friedrich, however, in view of his impoverished financial situation, could at best offer merely his good will and hands for this new type of business.

In a time, when August faced the fate of many others in Germany and struggled with financial problems and increasing unemployment, he gave up his noble plan to help out his wife’s eldest brother with employment and a modest income. Instead, he turned to the other financially more robust members of the Klopp family to support his business. This treachery according to an oracle pronounced by Friedrich’s mother-in-law in Zielitz could not be left unpunished. “Whoever gets involved with the Klopps should know exactly, what he is letting himself into.” How this oracle is being fulfilled will be the subject of the next post on Anna Rosa Klopp.

Anna Rosa Klopp (1881 – 1924) – Part I

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Introducing the Fifth Child of Friedrich and Emma Klopp

Klopp Family Tree Chart I – II

Rosa’s Marriage with August Diesing

On June 6, 1881 Rosa was born in Jersleben. Her father P.F.W. Klopp had just given up the mill at Osterweddingen due to an interim phase at his trade. In his home town Jersleben he recovered sufficiently to prepare the short-lived enterprise of the ‘Düppler’ mill at Olvenstedt. Since the family returned in 1885 via Magdeburg-Neustadt to Jersleben, Rosa was introduced to the school in 1887 either there or in Wolmirstedt.

Stassfurt - Photo Credit: wikipedia.org

Stassfurt-Atzendorf – Photo Credit: wikipedia.org

She did not resettle with her mother Emma in Elsenau, West Prussia, but married in 1903 the carpenter and later construction master August Diesing (1875-1939) of Atzendorf near Staßfurt. At the time of the wedding he was employed at a local construction company.

Rosa and August had seven children: Werner, Elsbeth, Rosa, Alice, Erika, Willy, and Fritz. The eldest son, most likely born in 1903, wears a marine uniform on a photo from 1920.

Monastery of Gostyn - Photo Credit: dreamstime.com

Monastery of Gostyn – Photo Credit: dreamstime.com

Since 1905 at the latest, the family was residing in Gostyn, Posnan and participated in 1908 in the acquisition of a dairy business lease with brother-in-law Ferdinand Klopp (1879 – 1952, see previous posts).  Daughter Rosa, known as Rosel, was born there in 1905. Also all subsequent children were born there, before the region became part of the re-established country of Poland.

In 1919 the Diesing family established themselves on a temporary basis at Lebus west of the River Oder. Carpenter Diesing also appeared to have acquired land and worked on it for a while in the agricultural domain.