1906 – A cabinet photo shows the kids of Franz Otto Rößler and Marie Elisabeth Dorothea Minna Leue in Heiligenhafen, Germany. © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com/Photo: Hermann Loose
The story behind the image
I’ve told you about The Rößler Lot I acquired last year. It consists of 30+ images of Franz Otto Rößler (1856-1930), his wife Marie Elisabeth Dorothea Minna Leue (1862-1924), and their children. The majority of images are in good or very good condition.
Today I share an exciting image – six of their seven kids in a group shot dated 1906. (Another girl, Marie Antonie, died in 1902 shortly after birth.)
Why is this image exciting?
Firstly, this is not yet another cabinet photo that lacks context. There must be thousands of them, ripped from photo albums of deceased family members and sold on various channels without mentioning names or dates. Sometimes, the information can be reconstructed partially with a lot of effort, but usually this task fails. Not for this photo. We do have names, a location, a date – and more photos that seem to provide proof for the information. I think this is exciting.
Second, with this information it is possible to research the lives of the young folks portrayed. At the age of 5 (Alfred Emil) to 15 (Otto Georg), they certainly had their dreams, plans, and goals, and yet their lives probably developed in other directions, unforseeable at the time in 1906 when they gathered in a photo studio in Heiligenhafen for this photo. I did some research to find out what happened to them.
From left to right, we see:
- Martha Minna (1892-1978) – married in 1915 and moved to Krempe in Northern Germany. With her husband she had at least five children.
- Julius Karl (1896-1979) – emigrated to Canada in 1930, settled in province Alberta, and got married in 1932.
- Max Paul (1893-1950) – already looks like a teacher on this image and indeed became one. He left Northern Germany and went to Thüringen – the place of his ancesters – where he married in 1920. He was declared dead in 1961. The date of death was fixed as 31st December 1950.
- Alfred Emil (1901-unkown) – got confirmed in 1917 in Heiligenhafen and presumably survived WW1. But there are no further traces of him.
- Otto Georg (1891-1914) – was the oldest of the kids. He seems to have become a soldier and was reported missing in WW1 in France. I did not find further traces of him.
- Wally Louise (1898-unknown) – got married in 1926 in Heiligenhafen to a local. After that, her trace disappears.
Again, I think none of the group expected any of this happening to them during their lifetime: WW1, the world economic crisis in 1928, WW2, the separation of Germany, and – in Julius Karl’s case – emigration to Canada. This is stuff for a fantasy family saga, only that it was real.
To conclude the post on a funny note, it is interesting to see that just Wally (on the right) looks straight into the camera; all the other kids apparently looked elsewhere.
Design ideas
The high resolution image
| Capture Date | 1906 |
| Photographer | Hermann Loose |
| Location | Heiligenhafen, Germany |
| Image Source | Albumen print from a glass negative, mounted, cabinet format (c. 9.9 x 14.8 cm), photographer stamp on the front |
| 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 | 13980 x 9335 Pixels |
| Copyright | Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com/Photo: Hermann Loose |
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