People and fates
One family, many lives
Biographies bring documents, photographs and family memory together, including places where the surviving evidence is incomplete.
FounderJacob Reichenbach
c. 1814–1817 — 17 December 1872
The earliest documented proprietor in the family’s Halberstadt commercial story.
No identified portrait is known.Son of Jacob ReichenbachDavid Otto Reichenbach
1851 — 20 August 1857
A child of Jacob Reichenbach and Helene Heinemann, recorded only in the family genealogy and Halberstadt’s cemetery register.
Second generationAdolf (Adolph) Reichenbach
1843 or 1844 — 26 December 1900
Jacob and Helene’s son; Paul’s father and a merchant of Halberstadt.
Merchant’s wife, mother and Schwerin–Halberstadt linkGoldine Marcuse Reichenbach
8 February 1850 — 12 October 1913
Born in Schwerin, she joined the Marcuse and Reichenbach families through her 1872 marriage to Adolf Reichenbach.
Merchant, proprietor, mountaineerPaul Reichenbach
20 October 1876 — 20 November 1935
The best-documented member of the family: businessman, civic participant and father of Ruth and Dolf.
Margarete’s mother · HettstedtJenny Liebenthal née Schottländer
Engaged at Pentecost 1887
Margarete Reichenbach’s mother, documented in 1887 as the only daughter of L. Schottländer and his wife née Salzmann of Hettstedt.
Margarete’s father · HallePhilipp Liebenthal
Merchant of Halle · engaged 1887
Margarete Reichenbach’s father, documented in 1887 as a merchant of Halle.
Mother, widow, emigrantMargarete Reichenbach née Liebenthal
1889 — 7 August 1966
The recipient of Dolf’s St. Moritz letter and the person around whom the family’s reunion was imagined.
Son, refugee, American designerAdolf “Dolf” Reichenbach
15 December 1914 — 28 December 1979
The author of the St. Moritz letter, who escaped and rebuilt a family life in the United States.
Daughter and emigrantRuth Helene Reichenbach
16 May 1909 — 26 November 1987 (index-correlated)
Paul and Margarete’s daughter, Dolf’s sister, and one of the family members who escaped.
Ruth’s husband and emigrantAlbert Rothschild
Married Ruth Reichenbach on 3 August 1933
Ruth’s second husband, remembered in Dolf’s wedding song through courtship, family humor and a shared departure for the United States.
No identified portrait is known.Merchant and proprietorErnst Reichenbach
25 March 1885 — 27 November 1942
Paul’s brother and, by 1928, his co-proprietor at Hoher Weg 27 and Martiniplan 10.
Merchant, property owner and documented son of Jacob and HeleneLudwig Reichenbach
c. 1846 — 7 May 1920
A merchant of J. Reichenbach and early owner of Martiniplan 10, directly identified in his 1920 civil death record as the son of Jacob Reichenbach and Helene Heinemann.
Documented son of Adolf and GoldineMax Reichenbach
Born 15 July 1882 · later life unresolved
A newly documented sibling of Jacob Paul Reichenbach, established by his Halberstadt civil birth entry.
Collateral Reichenbach relativePaula Wollenberg née Reichenbach
Born 18 April 1877 · forced from Halberstadt 12 April 1942
A Reichenbach relative whose marriage brought Georg Wollenberg into the family business, and the mother of Hans Wollenberg.
Relative by marriage and business partnerGeorg Wollenberg
7 February 1871 — 18 August 1938
Paula Reichenbach’s husband, a partner in J. Reichenbach and the probable ‘Uncle Georg’ in Dolf’s wedding song.
Son of Paula and Georg WollenbergHans Wollenberg
Born 3 June 1907 · forced from Halberstadt 12 April 1942
The son of Paula Reichenbach and Georg Wollenberg, named in Halberstadt’s record of the family business and deportation.
No identified portrait is known.Property owner and deporteeKurt Reichenbach
Born 26 May 1889 · forced from Halberstadt 12 April 1942
A Reichenbach merchant named in the property record and on Halberstadt’s memorial to the deported.
Jacob’s son; Wernigerode merchantSalomon Gustav Reichenbach
19 August 1848 — 19 June 1928
Adolf’s brother and the documented bridge between the Halberstadt and Wernigerode branches.
Wernigerode merchantJeanette Reichenbach née Rosenbaum
26 October 1859 — 25 October 1942
Owner of J. Reichenbach at Breite Straße 7 and the woman whose initial remained above its windows.
Wernigerode merchantFritz Reichenbach
14 March 1884 — 22 November 1938
Owner of the shop at Breite Straße 7, dispossessed and killed at Buchenwald.
Wernigerode family; forced laborerMartha Reichenbach née Pohly
Born 15 November 1889 · deported 3 March 1943
Fritz’s wife and Werner’s mother, driven from Wernigerode into forced labor and persecution.
Refugee and survivor in BrazilWerner Reichenbach
13 March 1914 — 1992
Fritz and Martha’s son, who escaped Germany with his wife Margarete and rebuilt life in Brazil.
Quedlinburg merchant · buried in HalberstadtMoritz Reichenbach · Moshe HaLevi
died 6 June 1936
Recorded as Moritz Reichenbach in the cemetery register and as Moshe HaLevi on his wife Miriam Mathilde’s Hebrew gravestone.
Quedlinburg household · buried in HalberstadtMiriam Mathilde Reichenbach née Loewenthal
died 17 December 1928
Named in Hebrew as Miriam Mathilde, wife of Moshe HaLevi Reichenbach, and in the cemetery register as Mathilde Reichenbach née Loewenthal.
Builder of Reform Jewish youth lifePaul J. Reichenbach
Forty-four years in Reform Jewish youth leadership
Dolf’s son took the story he grew up with — escape, and a life rebuilt — and made it his life’s work: the camps and Israel journeys where Jewish teenagers discover they belong.
Rabbi, educator and archive builderRabbi Daniel Dolph Reichenbach
16 April 1990 — present
Paul J.’s son carries Dolf’s name into a life shaped by Israel, Jewish education, the rabbinate and the work of returning family memory to public history.
The family togetherDolf, Margarete and Paul ReichenbachBefore November 1935 · Continue to the family narrative