Saturday 8 March 2014

Another Walk, and: Who Was Dolly Dick?

With daylight lasting considerably longer now than it did only a few weeks ago, I have started to walk home again whenever I have enough time and the weather is right. This week, this was the case twice; I walked home (not directly from work, but getting off the train in the small town next to my hometown, one stop before I'd have to) the 5 km or so both on Tuesday and yesterday.


On Tuesday, it was nearly 6.00 pm by the time I reached this crossing on the fields, and the light had the particular mellowness I like so much about that time of the day. I had this beautiful sunset to my left for a while until I decided to take a picture of it (with my mobile phone, which really doesn't have a good camera).
Yesterday, I left work a lot earlier (at 4.00), and there were many other people out and about, so I did not take any pictures.

We're in for a beautiful weekend with plenty of sun and temperatures are expected to reach 20 Celsius! What a difference to this time last year, when I still had to wear my padded winter coat, scarves and gloves in April.

Unfortunately, though, I'll have to be careful about weekend activities. On Wednesday, I woke up with a sore throat, and it has become worse over the last two days; can hardly speak now (which maybe isn't too bad for some, he he) but generally feel alright, not ill as such. 

Were you wondering about the headline of today's post? Let me get to that now.
On this recent post I showed you pictures from the Old Cemetery. One picture I did not show you was this one:


A large family grave (when do you actually say "grave" and when do you say "tomb"? I honestly don't know the difference), such as a wealthy family would have back in the days when this cemetery was not yet the "old" one, but the only one of Ludwigsburg.

What intrigued us at first when we walked up to this grave was the small, simple stone cross, just visible behind the rusty iron fence in the left corner of the plot. Why was this one seperate from the others? It certainly wasn't for lack of space on the large stone tablets against the wall, because on there, a name was added as late as 2001, when actually the cemetery had long ceased to be used officially, and the stone cross was much older than that. Who had been close enough to the family to be buried on their plot, but not close enough to have their name added to the headstone?

My imagination was captured in particular, though, when I saw one person's name and dates:


Look at the middle panel, where it reads (in the lower half of the panel):
"Dolly Höring geb. Dick" (meaning Dolly Höring, née Dick), followed by
"geb. in London, 23. Juni 1873" and "gest. 23. Febr. 1933 Schlachtensee".

Now, who was Dolly Dick? How did a lady from London end up marrying into a family of doctors in Ludwigsburg? Which one of the men named on the headstone had been her husband?

Three cheers for google! I managed to find out a few things about "Dolly". First of all, Dolly was her nickname - unusual for that to appear on a tombstone, isn't it? Her full name was Kate Anna Dick. Her father was one Charlos (I imagine this to be a transcription error; isn't it much more likely that the name was Charles, not Charlos?) James Adolph Dick, a London merchant who had married a German woman, too: Anna Scriba from Darmstadt.
Kate ("Dolly") had four siblings. In 1899, when she was 26, she married Otto Höring from Ludwigsburg. The wedding was in Frankfurt. Otto was 33 and, unlike most of his male relatives, who were doctors, worked as "Regierungsbaumeister". Today, I suppose that would be a Civil Engineer. 
A typical bridal couple of around this time would have looked like this:


(These pictures are not mine. I nicked them from various places on the web.) Possibly, Dolly had a hairstyle like this around that time:


And maybe one of her day dresses looked like this:


Anyway, it is entirely left to my imagination as to how she met Otto, and what her life with him was like. Her father died 4 years after the wedding, her mother died in 1913 in Oslo (then called Christiania), Norway - another intriguing change of scene. The person underneath Dolly's name on the tomb, Adolf Höring, was probably her son, born seven years after she married Otto.

Dolly was only 60 when she died. By then, in 1933, people dressed and lived differently from when she left her parents' home in London to live in a foreign country with her new husband. It was the beginning of a new era for Germany, one that would lead to terrible atrocities commited by many of my countrymen and -women, the extents of which are still very much in our minds today. 

She did not live long enough to know about any of this. Her husband died in the last year of WWII, by then back in his hometown. Whether Dolly ever lived in Ludwigsburg at all, or was merely buried here because it was her husband's hometown, I don't know.

40 comments:

  1. Hello Meike:

    How lovely to be enjoying the better weather and longer days by taking a walk on your return home from work. We think getting off the train one stop before your own is a very splendid idea.

    We were most intrigued to read about Dolly Dick about whom you seem to have found out a great deal.

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    1. Hello Jane and Lance,
      This walking the last leg of my way home from work is the best I can do to mark the end of the working day and get into the right mindset for what Germans call Feierabend; literally "celebratory evening", and for which I don't think there is an equivalent English term.

      As for Dolly Dick, I wish I could have found out more!

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    2. Perhaps the American equivalent is "happy hour"? Or not.

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    3. It's not quite the same, I think; Happy Hour can be whenever an establishment says so, and it usually simply means a reduced price for certain drinks within a clearly limited space of time. But Feierabend means so much more, it starts immediately when one finishes work (no matter what time that is) and lasts until one goes to bed. Also, it does not depend on where or how it is spent. Just quietly sitting at home in front of the computer is Feierabend just as much as going to a wild party.

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  2. How interesting - you've brought back someone from total obscurity and perhaps someone will find your post when they are googling a relative one day! I think the difference between a tomb and a grave is that a tomb is usually a sort of building or containment for the body - the body is "entombed" there. A grave is usually just a where the person is buried, with a gravestone to mark it.

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    1. That thought (about someone maybe finding my post when googling their family names) had crossed my mind after I pressed the "publish"-button for this post, too, Jenny.
      Thank you for your explanation about tomb and grave!

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  3. In haste....but isn't it wonderful that spring seems to be on the way!

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    1. It is not just on the way, but well and truly here in my area, Frances! And yes, it's wonderful!

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  4. How interesting. I always wonder about the lives of people whose gravestones we see.

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    1. So do I, which is one reason why I like cemeteries. The older, the better.

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  5. I hope you are well, Meike, and kicking out any viruses or infections! This walk and this mysterious tomb are very intriguing. I think you must enjoy research and speculation very much. The older I get the more I realize that every person's life is a special story and the more I am interested in them.

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    1. Afraid to say I am not better today. RJ strongly advised me yesterday on the phone to stay home all week, which is something I am quite unwilling to do. But I will make an appointment at my GP today and see what he or she (they are a husband and wife sharing a surgery) says.

      You are so right, there isn't really such a thing as "ordinary" people, is there! A story behind everyone.

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  6. And I must apologize for abandoning your hummus chronicles. It was interesting and I like the idea but it seemed too few people were taking part. Yet I want to hear the ending! What did you have in mind?

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    1. Actually, I didn't have anything particular in mind, I was prepared to just see where the contributions of my co-writers would take the story. It was a fun experiment but apparently not fun enough for everyone else.

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  7. I like graveyards too; There is a beautiful one in Santa Barabara, CA where much of my family is and it overlooks the pacific. Many tombs are scattered, mostly for the large, well to do families who lived in the estates and imposing houses in town. Here in the sates, 1933 was a year of hard times for many as it was the Depression Era, when work was scarce and everyone scrambled to survive. These are the stories I heard from my grandparents. I wonder if it was like this in Germany as well? I remember Grandma saving every bit of string and even all the soap bits were melted down and put into one large piece again.!
    Its so wonderful to have winter nearly behind us, and the sun setting later to enjoy more of the day.
    Best , j.

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    1. Julie, the hardships of the Depression Era hit Germany as well as nearly every country; in addition to it being difficult times economically anway, Germany also was still struggling with repair payments imposed on the state for having caused the First World War. All this combined made it easier for Hitler to rise to the top of the government. A poor people that feels ill-treated by others (justified or not) is much easier to manipulate than a self-confident nation stable enough in itself to resist an aspiring dictator.

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  8. Meike, how fascinating. What a good researcher you are! Your question about grave vs. tomb intrigued me, so I checked with the OED, which defines a grave as "a hole in the ground," and a tomb as "a burial place, especially a large underground vault, or a monument to a dead person (or in the case, a family) erected over their burial place." You should write a story about Dolly, she sounds really interesting, and I'll bet you'd do a wonderful job. xoxo

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    1. Thank you for this detailed explanation of the difference between a tomb and a grave, Carol!
      I have actually really been thinking about Dolly's life being worth turned into a book. If I did not need to work to earn my living, I might seriously consider it, and I know I'd enjoy the journey tremendously!

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  9. You are so knowleadgeable. I love to look at old pictures and imagine how people lived back then.
    Have a nice week! 5km is a lot of walking, but it's good for you.

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    1. Me too, Caramella, and weren't people in general MUCH better dressed back then, with a lot more care going into their outfits than the sloppy stuff you often see nowadays?
      5 km is less than an hour for me, I really enjoy it and will do that whenever possible.

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  10. Looking at old head stones is always interesting. I am guilty of the same kid of curiosity. And making up stories to go with the names is great fun. Mind you, I’ve never gone so far as to google names. You’ve given me an idea.

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    1. It was just so unexpected to come across a London-born woman on the cemetery of a small, provincial town in Baden-Württemberg. Thinking about her was a good occupation for my mind, and it is moments like those that I am truly glad there are such things as search engines.

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  11. I love that you researched and found out this out. You know this is just the kind of thing that I find interesting. Oh, I just typed something so long to you that I must make it into a post!! Look out for it, and I will mention your name as my inspiration. Thank you, Meike!

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    1. Now you've got me all curious about what was it that my post inspired you to write!
      I love research and putting what I found into words - it is part of being a Librarian, I guess :-)

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    2. When I get my post together, I will do a link to this post and will let you know! I love research too, but think of myself as a journalist, that is the of kind of lean, spare writing that I love and aim for.

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    3. Okay! Just finished the post about the two books that this reminded me of...and I have a link back to this post! :-)

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  12. A tantalising mystery. Thank heavens Dolly died before World War II and didn't witness the terrors that non-Germans are still reluctant to reflect upon when in the company of modern German people. Shhh! You mustn't talk about that.

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    1. Somehow, the fact that her nickname was used on the headstone makes me think that she was well loved by her family, and therefore must have been a happy woman, having found a new home with her German husband in a country which wasn't originally hers.
      As for the atrocities committed before and during the war, there aren't many Germans from those days still around, which makes it all the more important never to forget, and never let something like that happen again.

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  13. I read your reply to the comment from Yorkshire Pudding and I just want to say to your last sentence....AMEN!

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    1. Thank you, Kay!
      I have just come back from your blog where I read the post with the link to this one in it. Again, thank you!

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  14. Very interesting post, and I like your insights via research. We live behind an old cemetery and I have googled an unusual name or two. When I walk there, I usually think about the people and their lives so long ago...

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    1. Hello Slamdunk, welcome to my blog and thank you for stopping! I guess you have come here via Kay's post with the link to this one?
      Yes, old cemeteries are great for inspiration.

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  15. Interesting post. I have often researched complete strangers in this way, it can be quite a challenge, but I enjoy following the clues. I enjoyed the way you gave examples of what she might have dressed like, it puts it all in context.

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    1. Thank you, Tracey! It is something I very much love about the internet, you can so easily go from place to the other, and find pictures of all aspects of life from a certain era so that you can fill an image you have in your mind with colour and life.

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  16. Ancestry.com has a family tree for Kate:

    Ancestry
    Heath Family Tree



    Kate Anna Dick
    Birth 23 Jun 1873 in Blackheath, Kent, England
    Death

    Timeline

    Birth
    1873 23 Jun
    Blackheath, Kent, England

    Residence
    1881 Age: 8
    Lee, London, England
    Age: 7; Relation: Daughter

    Marriage to Otto Gustav Adolf Horing
    1899 7 Oct Age: 26

    Baptism
    Lewisham, Kent, England

    Family Members
    Parents

    Charles James Adolf Dick
    1835 – 1903

    Anna Maria Louisa Henrietta Scriba
    1849 – 1913

    Otto Gustav Adolf Horing
    1863 –

    Private

    Private

    Margarete Kate Charlotte Horing
    1900 –

    Source Information

    1881 England Census
    1 citation provides evidence for Name, Birth, Residence

    Ancestry Family Trees
    This citation provides evidence for Kate Anna Dick

    England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index, 1837-1915
    1 citation provides evidence for Name, Birth

    London, England, Non-conformist Registers, 1694-1921
    1 citation provides evidence for Name, Baptism

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    1. Hello Now Voyager,
      thank you for confirming what I have found elsewhere on the net! Your dates match mine exactly. I am just a bit puzzled about this bit:
      "Residence
      1881 Age: 8
      Lee, London, England
      Age: 7; Relation: Daughter"
      Now, of course she was 8 years old in 1881 (having been born in 1873), but what does the "Age: 7" mean?

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  17. That is an absolutely fascinating post and is a classic example of how one benefits from reading all the comments too.

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    1. The census records the age of person on a specific date. In this case the census was taken before her 8th birthday. I also thought it was interesting that her tombstone says she was from London, when she was actually from Blackheath. In genealogy we use all the available records to put the person into perspective. Birth or marriage records are more considered more reliable than death records. Folks seem to get more sentimental over the death records. I've found that people tend to be most truthful for the census taker, probably because the government impressed them with their seriousness! (A friend found your post and alerted me because I used to be a librarian masters student and I am a genealogist!)
      Chancy Wooldridge
      Laguna Hills, CA

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    2. Thank you very much for your explanation, this is most interesting and my first encounter with the details of genealogy. Possibly London was chosen for the tombstone because it counts as part of London (with a London post code), I've just looked it up on the map.

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