1820's divorce in Germany?

Question

I've been going over records, and they aren't making a lot of sense to me.  I could really use more eyes.

It seems that my ancestor married, divorced his wife, married another woman.  When the 2nd wife died, he remarried his 1st wife.

It just seems odd to me, because all this happened between 1823-1831 in Bradenburg, Germany.  Was this common?  Could this be correct?

Now I'm questioning if they are different people, but they really seem to be the same.  Marriages seem to have taken place in the same town.  The 2 marriages to his 1st wife even happened in the same church.  

Here are the marriage records:

August Gottlieb Loescher to Caroline Friederike Paschke in 1823: 1823 Marriage

August Gottlieb Loescher to Bianca Franzisca Petri in 1829: 1829 Marriage  Bianca died in 1830

August Gottlieb Loescher to Caroline Friederike Loescher, formerly Paschke in 1831: 1831 Marriage

Answer 1

Hey Melissa, it is certainly not common. But it is not impossible eighter. I did a quick lookup in the original records and they show clearly that your assumptions are correct. In the second marriage he is called "a divorced husband" and in the 3rd marriage it clearly says, that he was married to the bride ones before already.

Thats kind of a dragic story though.

If we have a profil for the guy I can put on the complete Translation if needed.

Greetings.

Comments

Thank you so much, Danny!  

Here is his profile: August Loscher

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Hey Melissa. After a deeper look into the matter, it seems to me, that the family connected to the given profile is very conflated. The given daughter Auguste, who married Franz Lange and then emigrated to America is NOT the daughter of August Löscher here in question.

Before I can do anything here on the profile I need to know were the assumpion comes from. And what is the last Ancestor you can actually be sure of. The Lange family that supposedly emigrated lived in Bukowitz, Western Prussia. This has nothing to do with Brandenburg. So if the Lange family are your key-immigrants, we would have to start from scratch with them. Anyways, the August Gotlieb Lange here has to be removed from Auguste (Löscher) Lange, since her farther is Christoph Löscher from Bukowitz.

Are you on discord by any chance? comunication there would be a bit more directly. Otherwise you also can PM me.

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Good catch Danny!

Melissa, I went to the Protestant churchbook in Bukowitz to confirm the marriage date for Franz/Frank Lange & Auguste Loescher, assuming this is your right couple. (Link to Archion page here, image 11, line 56.)

Franz was the son of Friedrich Lange. And Auguste was the daughter of Christoph Löscher, a Mühlenbesitzer (mill proprietor). They were both residents of Salesche.

The Bukowitz baptismal register has a record (page 28, image 34, entry 39) for their daughter Pauline Wilhelmine, who was born in Wentfin. (In this record, Franz's occupation is Mühlenbesitzer.) 

I didn't find entries for any of their other children in the Bukowitz book. I wonder if they moved to a nearby parish?

Answer 2

A year ago I tried to obtain a divorce record in respect of a couple who were married in Gotha, Thuringia in Oct 1879 and got divorced in Berlin, Brandenburg in Apr 1884 (according to a genealogical publication dated 1920). However, I was told by the Archives in Berlin that divorce records are not kept at all - they are destroyed after the lapse of a couple of years. Should you be looking for divorce records I do hope that you will be more successful.

Comments

Further to my previous comment: Divorces were definitely not uncommon during the first half of the nineteenth century - I have come accross a number of them during my many years of research. Apart from infidelty of one or both the partners, the other most common ground for divorce was mental illness ("Irrsinn oder Geisteskrankheit"). In those days anything from "maternity blues" to a nervous break-down or depression (conditions which today can be successfully treated) was then classified as being mentally ill and valid reasons to file for a divorce.