Restart - picking up where I left off
This was the picture that always caught my attention when I would look through the photos again and again.
What was written after “general”?
Who was Bob?
What princess was named “Lolly”?
I was so curious as to who these people were and how they were connected to my family so I decided to start with the energy I had behind this photo.
I first searched for generals during WW1, interwar, and WW2 period in Germany and Austria (since I knew my grandmother was from Germany). Nothing.
My next step was see what royal families existed during this period of the photo which I guessed early 1900’s based on how the people dressed. I used this website to see if there were any physical similarities, which I know was a long shot but I was ambitious. No immediate luck.
I thought I was hopeless so I decided to go in search for a historian who specialized in royal families in Germany and Austria during this period. I used the website - WomenAlsoKnowHistory.com. One historian I found emailed me back but then never continued correspondence. When I found the second historian, I decided to go visit her office in person since she was located in Vienna. Unfortunately, she wasn’t in her office so her colleagues heard my story and directed me to the National Archives in Vienna (she later got back to me saying she could be of no help and recommended an AI program to help me with old German handwriting - this one). I would also like to point out that one of the nice gentlemen who was in the Habsburg research area said that the general in the picture was far too young to be a general. I told him I assumed it was taken before he became a general (keep this in mind for later).
So here I am - no historian, nothing else but to continue the crumb trail of open doors and went to the National Archive in Vienna. I was told by the second historian’s colleagues to ask for a certain collection of books which would show the family trees of the royal families, if they existed. I was given the contact name of Maria RÖHSNER. I met her in person at the archives and she was surprised to hear someone wanted to see these collections of books. When I mentioned that my great grandmother’s last name was Hendel, she got excited and said that another colleague of hers researches extensively the family Hendel. Turns out it was Hendl, not Hendel (lol). That researcher practically ran downstairs to us and when he found out there was an e between the d and l it was like looking at a kid who was disappointed in a birthday/Christmas gift!
I suggested to Maria that based on the pictures I had with names, that they could possibly be from the Auersperg family tree (a branch of the Habsburg family). She said that the family still exists and one of the descendents likes to help researchers and so I was given the contact email address to this Auersperg.
I immediately went back home and sent an email with some picture attachments to this descendent of the Auersperg family. Unfortunately, she got back to me saying she could not recognize anyone in the pictures. So, yet again, another dead end.
In the meantime, I asked my mother (who has the photos since I moved to Europe) to double check the photos and see if there were anything written on the backs of the photos. Sure enough, a first name for the general was written on the back of this photo - Karl.
Born 1889 in Potsdam, died in 1945. Report of his crimes on November 11, 1938 were used in the Nuremberg Trials to convict the Nazi officers.
Here is the following about Karl Lucke from Wikipedia:
Lucke was the son of a master machinist. After attending elementary school , he found a job as a groom in the Imperial Stables in Berlin in 1903. He then joined the Prussian Army as a professional soldier in 1906. He was a member of the Baden Dragoon Regiment No. 20. He took part in the First World War with another dragoon regiment from 1914 to 1918, and was finally discharged in October 1919 with the rank of deputy officer.During the Weimar Republic, Lucke worked as an administrative employee (or civil servant) at the Baden State Insurance Institute . In this capacity, he rose to the rank of administrative inspector.
Politically, after the First World War, Lucke quickly oriented himself towards the political right: in 1921 he joined the Freikorps Damm, a local military association in Baden that had emerged from the residents' militias, of which he was to be a member until its dissolution in 1928.
On 1 July 1930, Lucke joined the NSDAP (membership number 270,575). For this party, he initially took on tasks as an advisor to the Baden Gau leadership for questions concerning members of the public administration. From 1931 he was also a member of the NSDAP's street fighting unit, the Sturmabteilung (SA). In 1933, Lucke was elected as a representative for the NSDAP in the last Baden state parliament before the forcible dissolution of this body by the National Socialists. He was also a member of the Darmstadt city council.
Lucke gave up his post as a civil servant in 1934 to become a full-time SA leader. After taking over the command of an SA standard in 1932, he was entrusted with the command of a brigade for the first time in 1934. He then led various brigades until 1942, including the SA Brigade 50 in Starkenburg with headquarters in Darmstadt from 1938 to 1942. In this position he was involved in organizing the destruction of thirty-five synagogues in southern Hesse by SA members on the night of November 9-10, 1938, by passing on a corresponding order from the SA group leadership in Mannheim to the leaders of SA standards 115 (Darmstadt), 145 (Bergstrasse), 168 (Offenbach), 186 (Odenwald and Dieburg) and 221 (Groß-Gerau) and instructing them accordingly.
Since 1939 he also held the position of deputy leader of the SA group Kurpfalz . Lucke reached the formal high point of his SA career in 1942, when he was appointed leader of the SA group Mittelrhein and (presumably at the same time) was promoted to the rank of SA group leader.
- Wikipedia [source]
So, Bob’s friend, Karl Lucke, really was a general. I’m glad I finally found out who this guy was and what happened to him. As for his death in 1945, I still need to dig into this part but for now I’m satisfied.
1 of 4 people identified in the first picture. One small step.
Till next time.
- Caitlin
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