Germany Connectors Challenge July 2023: Artists

Question

This month we will be connecting artists for the Germany Connectors Challenge:

Paul Klee (Connected - Thank you Florian and Klaas) - His father was German and his mother Swiss, so there are multiple possibilities for a connection

Josef Albers (Connected - Thank you Jelena and Manuela!) - His wife was also an artist

Max Liebermann (Connected - Thank you Jelena!) - A painter and printmaker of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry

Adolph Friedrich Erdmann von Menzel (Connected - Very circuitously) - Known as Adolph Menzel until he was knighted in 1898

Have fun!

Comments

And we are :). Josef Albers will show up as connected tomorrow

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Excellent set of choices (I say as an art historian). Have we got women artists too? Not just Anni Albers (major figure like her husband) but other important 20th century Germans like Paula Modersohn-Becker, Jeanne Mammen, Hannah Höch?

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We've been connecting artists about once a year, so maybe next year we'll do female artists.

I took a look and Paula Modersohn-Becker is already connected, I couldn't find a profile for Jeanne Mammen and I considered Hannah Höch, but she didn't have any connections so I thought she might be hard.  On the other hand, we connected everyone this month, so maybe we needed someone harder!

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Thanks, there are always a lot of artists worth doing (and musicians, and writers, and so on)!

Answer 1

Max Liebermann doesn't have any connections yet on WikiTree, but he has children, a wife, siblings, parents, grandparents and so on connected to his family search profile which could provide some clues.  https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LKGW-N6T

Comments

Great selection of artists! When I was in college in the 1980s I took a color theory class based on Albers' work.

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His grand daughter Käthe Riezler married in the US Howard Burton White. Maybe this American spouse might help to connect Max Liebermann. But I have not found any obvious connection so far and will try to focus more on the German side by now (I am more experienced with German records)

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I'll take a look and see if I can connect Howard Burton White. Ordinarily connecting Americans is easy, but White is a very common name, and New York City is a huge metropolitan area.

Answer 2

I´ll work on connecting Josef Albers. Found some hints about his parents in law from Berlin. Will see how far I can get...

Comments

You should go through the Ullsteins. I once had a look at them. There is quite an easy connection I think, and then also the editor family Ullstein is connected. Toni belongs to them.

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Right. Just figured that out. I am looking for a source that proves thatLeopold Ullstein is the father of Toni Ullstein. With that connection established Josef Albers would be linked to the global tree.

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I got it! https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd128354305.html saying: "Aus Leopolds erster Ehe mit Mat(h)ilda Be(h)rend (1830–71) entstammen die Kinder [...]. In zweiter Ehe war er verheiratet mit →Elise Pintus (1850–1923), mit der er die Kinder [...] und →Antonie (Toni) (1877–1946) hatte."

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Perfect! Consider Josef Albers & family as connected :-)

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Wow!  Great job.  I was worried he was going to be difficult.

Answer 3

Max Liebermann: Found his father Louis Liebermann and grandfather Joseph Liebermann .They already had a Wikitree profile, unfortunately not connected to the global tree yet.

Comments

Max LIebermann will be connected once I can connect the American line of his grandson-in-law.

And here we gooooo. This one was the profile that I considered hard to connect. Great!

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Great team work! Thanks to both of you.

Answer 4

Adolph Menzel also has a large tree on familysearch:  https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/G8HR-XSS  

I am currently looking for a connection through his sister Emilie Charlotte Amalie (Menzel) Krigar.  

Comments

Her father in law built the first locomotive of "Germany", pretty cool

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Nice profile Florian for the locomotive builder Johann Friedrich Krigar!  

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I connected Adolph Menzel through a very circuitous  route.  The 38 degrees from him to me travel from Germany to Norway, and through another Germany Project member to the United States.

I tried connecting him through German lines, but quickly got stuck.

Answer 5

Great job everybody! Paul Klee is the only one missing. I researched his Klee ancestors together with Isabelle some time ago. But could not find any easy connection for this side of the family. Maybe the Swiss part of his family looks more promising...

Comments

I found via the online desk of the Staatsarchiv St. Gallen some information about the Fri(c)k family in Sennwald (evangelisch-reformiert): Familienbuch (ZVA 12.1295), page 22.  Heinrich Franz Frik married 25 Sep 1840 with A.Kath. Rosina Riedtmann from Basel. He was born or bapt. 16 Jan. 1806, son of Johannes Frik b. 2 Aug 1768, son of Johannes Frik and Anna Leuener, married 7 Jan. 1795 with Susanna Margaretha Müller from Appenzell. According to the Family-Register they lived in Moitiers, Neuchâtel.

Answer 6

We still have a week to connect Paul Klee. Maybe Livia Theodora (Meyer) Klee (1922-2011), his daughter-in-law has some connection potential?

Here at least is a bit stated about her father's genealogy:
https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/gnd118581856.html

Especially Rosina Emilie Merian looks like one might be able to connect with some high society folks we already have profiles for ...

According to [1] Meyers grand uncle was Amadeus Merian, who is at the bottom right of this family tree

Comments

And one of his ancestors would be this one, who is connected:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Merian-43

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I created the profiles, but especially https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Merian-111 could use a bit of sourcing

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More details about the Merian-family is available: Historisches Familienlexikon der Schweiz. 

 

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After more research I found a connection via his Riedtmann line. The mother of Anna Catharina Rosina Riedtmann (Riedtmann-3) was Rosina Margaretha Schweizer from Bern.

Via this Bernese connection my wife is 10th cousin once removed with Paul Klee. But there is a lot of input to be made to show this connection in WikiTree.

Answer 7

Challenge completed!

Comments

Yay!  Great job everyone!

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More winning!  Good job!