Nazi era

Meta Emma Klopp – Friedrich and Emma’s Fourteenth Child – Part 4

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Denunciation by a Spiteful Housemaid

Vincenz’s wife did not overcome the family tragedy. Disputes with the husband and domestic quarrels were on the increase. Amalie Mülbert went her own separate way. In 1934 she was admitted to the Heidelberg Psychiatric Clinic. Vincent had to look after the four remaining children all by himself.

In this unfortunate private situation, a dangerous threat came about through the denunciation by the former housemaid, Appolonia Bitsch. Since 1933 the Nazis ruled in their fortress Mannheim. On 3 October 1934, the NS leader of “District Group Mannheim Quadrant 7” reported to his boss Fehrmann that the wife of the party member Friedrich had found out through her new housemaid Bitsch the following remark made by Professor Mülbert: “Adolf Hitler associates with loose women and prostitutes.” Frau Friedrich insisted that the case as related to “the charge of defamation of the Führer be officially recorded at the court of the Party.” Thus, the mechanism of the  new regime was set into motion.

Group leader Fehrmann passed on the original message to Mülbert’s school superintendent Heck. He demanded an inquiry and asked if the NS Party court, the school district office or the NS Teachers’ Association should deal with the matter. Heck, himself a member of the party, took due notice and arranged on 15 October 1934 further investigation by the school office leader Kuh. The noose around Mülbert’s neck was getting tighter, especially as the party and the office of the civil servants were working hand in hand together.

Mülbert’s file did not contain the official statements of the two informers. For that reason, Vincenz Mülbert was summoned to appear before the Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei) in Mannheim. His wife, in the middle of divorce proceedings, was being questioned in the meantime by the Gestapo.

To be continued …

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.