Germany Connectors' Challenge April 2024: 20th Century Notables

Question

This month we have four 20th century German notables to connect.  Would you like to help?

Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger - Pope Benedict XVI - Born 1927 in Marktl, Bayern (30 starting connections)

Helmut Kohl - Bundeskanzler 1982-1998 - Born 1930 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Rheinland-Pfalz (Connected - Thanks Manu!) (14 starting connections)

Johannes Wilhelm Geiger - Geiger counter - Born 1882 in Neustadt an der Haardt, Pfalz, Bayern (Connected - Thanks Manu!) (9 starting connections)

Alfred Lothar Wegener - Continental drift - Born 1880 in Berlin - (1 starting connection)

Have fun!

Comments

Helmut Kohl: I found sources for his wife´s family from Bremen and managed to built a rather complicated connection to Australia (Ernst Julius Carl Franz Le Goullon). His father could need more primary sources. But at least he´s connected. But hopefully somebody will find a nicer / shorter way...

Answer 1

All Details to Johannes (Hans) Wilhelm Geiger can be found currently on my webtrees page: https://famfo.geiger-zaehler.de/index.php?route=%2Ftree%2FFamfo_GEIGER_HEIM%2Findividual%2FI7664%2FJohannes-Wilhelm-Geiger . His data I get confirmed of one of the last living sons from Hans for roundabout 2 years. Also the full ancestry tree from him can be found here. Unfortunately, the direct connection to me is not 100% validated, but seems possible. But also an indirect connection/reference can be established between him and my wife's grand-father, who was an assistant from Hans during his time in Tübingen as Prof, see also https://geiger-zaehler.de/genealogie/gemeinschaften/202-johannes-hans-wilhelm-geiger-physiker. Has I'm in the beginning of document all my ancestors on WikiTree, the most data is not available here yet.

Comments

Hans Geiger is now connected through Elisabetha Christiana Flander (Majer). Connection should show up soon...

Answer 2

Alfred Lothar Wegener is in the familysearch tree:  https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/L4CD-VDN

And his great-grandfather has a WikiTree profile, but is sadly also unconnected:  Georg Jacob Ludwig Wegener

Comments

The real url for Alfred Lothar Wegener is https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/L4CD-VDN

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Oops!  Thanks for the corrected link.  I had some extra spaces after the url.

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I live in the Alfred-Wegener-Straße. Does that count as a connection?

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Can´t find any church records for Wittstock, where the Wegeners came from. His wife´s family goes back to Hildesheim (Wehmeyer) and Russian Germans from Schwedt in Brandenburg (Köppen)... But so far no close connection in sight...

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His daughter married mountan explorer Heinrich Harrer from Austria (the on from "Seven years in Tibet").

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Maybe the association linked here can help?
https://wiki.genealogy.net/Wittstock#Genealogische_Gesellschaften

Answer 3

Wilhelm Geiger could be connected via the physicist Max Planck:

Wilhelm Geiger (b.1882, d.1945)
M: Maria Plochmann (b.1858)
M: Albertina Maria Eisenbach (b.1832)
F: Johann Karl Friedrich Eisenbach (b.1799, d.1837)
F: Karl Friedrich Eisenbach (b.1769, d.1834)
M: Maria Rosina Osiander (b.1727)
M: Faustine Margarethe Bilfinger (b.1703, d.1751)
M: Faustine Margarethe Orth (b.1678, d.1727)
F: Johann Philipp Orth (b.1640, d.1696)

Max Planck (b.1858, d.1947)
F: Johann Julius Wilhelm von Planck (b.1817, d.1900)
F: Heinrich Ludwig Planck (b.1785, d.1831)
F: Gottlieb Jakob Planck (b.1751, d.1833)
M: Veronika Dorothea Lang (b.1732, d.1799)
M: Maria Elisabeth Bilfinger (b.1698, d.1762)
M: Maria Veronika Orth (b.1669, d.1742)
F: Johann Philipp Orth (b.1640, d.1696), same as above

Both lines were first validated by Arndt Richter, who also connected the same Orth line to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Karl Liebknecht; compare http://goethe-genealogie.de/verwandtschaft/ahnengemeinschaften_personen.html#506.

Comments

Those lines all eventually connect to Orth-707.

Answer 4

According to this newspaper article Ratzinger is related to Paul Breitner and to the Chief of Munich Tourism from 1985 until 2002. No clue if that helps.

But in this forum post there are some additional dates and ancestors for the ancestors of Barbara (Perlinger) Razinger (1814-1862)

Here there are some records of ancestors:
https://meinevorfahren.at/prominente/benedikt-xvi-requiescat-in-pacem/