1894 – A cabinet photo shows the Marcus family in Kiel Friedrichsort, Germany. Photo: Hugo Lasch, Kiel
The story behind the image
I purchased a set of five historic photos showing the progress of a German family in 1894. While I don’t know them, the notes on the back of the photos, apparently written by a friend of the family, were detailed enough to perform a deeper analysis.
So, please meet the Marcus family.
The parents were Friedrich Carl Marcus, born 1862 in Gerbstedt in Germany, and his wife Theresa Franziska Langheinrich, born 1871 in Erfurt. They got married in Erfurt in 1889 and got at least four kids there: Wilhelm (1889), Elsa (1891), Richard (1892), and Hedwig (1893). Friedrich Carl had entered the army and when he married Theresa, he had the rank of a Sergeant (‘Unteroffizier’ in German) in the 3. Thüringischen Infanterie Regiment Nr. 71 in Erfurt.
After Hedwig was born, they apparently moved to the Baltic Sea, where Friedrich Carl became a customs officer. This photo was taken by Hugo Lasch who had his studio in Friedrichsort near Kiel. It’s not clear to me why the image was taken in Kiel and why it shows just three of their four kids at this point in time (in 1894.) The ones on the image are – from left to right – Richard, Elsa, and Hedwig.
Her daughter Helene, however, was born in 1895 in Heiligenhafen, and in Kiel they had one additional child, Erich (1898).
- Friedrich Carl died in Kiel in 1927 at the age of 64.
- Theresa died in Kiel in 1938 at the age of 67.
- Wilhelms fate is entriely unclear.
- Elsa married a Mr. Stave and died in Kiel in 1957, shortly before her 66th birthday.
- Richards fate is unclear. It seems he moved back to Erfurt to become a police officer.
- Hedwig married a Mr. Henschel but died already in 1919 in Kiel, just 25 years old.
- Helene became an office assistant. She died in 1918 in Kiel, unmarried, at the age of just 23 years.
- Erich married Berta Roxin in Kiel in 1925, but she died shortly after giving birth to their first child, Vera, in Kiel in 1930, aged 31 years. Erichs remaining fate is unclear.
There is a long handwritten comment on the back of this photo:
“The Markus family with the children Else, Richard and Hedwig. Mr. Markus was at the customs office in Heiligenhafen and got transfered to Kiel later. Whenever grandpa received a new uniform, Mr. Markus got the old one. Then just the strands needed to be changed. Back then, the officers from police and customs wore green uniforms.”
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Little is known about photographer Hugo Lasch who ran his studio in Friedrichsort just outside of Kiel. Today, this quarter belongs to the city of Kiel. The studio was located in the street Prieser Strand, next to the popular Hotel Wartburg (today Hotel Kieler Förde) and you can still find many of his photos on eBay and elsewhere.
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | c. 1894 |
| Photographer | Hugo Lasch, Kiel Friedrichsort |
| Location | Friedrichsort, Kiel, Germany |
| Image Source | Albumen print from a glass negative, mounted to hard cardboard, cabinet format (c. 10.0 x 14.3 cm), with photographer stamp |
| Digital Image Source | EPSON Perfection 4870 Photo |
| Digital Image Source Format | TIFF, 48 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Format | JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Dimensions | 9579 x 13395 Pixels |
| Copyright | Public Domain/Photo: Hugo Lasch |
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