Adolph was Jacob and Helene’s son, Goldine’s husband and Paul’s father. He carried the family’s working life forward in Halberstadt.
Adolph married Goldine Marcuse at Schwerin on 27 July 1872. In 1876 he personally registered the birth of their son Paul and signed the record. The civil entry gives the full forenames Jacob Paul, but the family, business and civic record consistently calls him Paul.
His German-inscribed gravestone survives in Halberstadt and preserves a genuine date conflict: the family Ahnentafel gives 30 September 1843, while the stone gives 1 Tishri 5605, corresponding to 14 September 1844.
His gravestone carries his name in both languages. The German face reads Hier ruht Adolph Reichenbach, geb. d. 1. Tischri 5605, gest. d. 5. Teweth 5661. The Hebrew face names him Baruch Achiezer, known as Adolf Reichenbach, and gives the same date of death: the 5th of Tevet 5661 — Wednesday, 26 December 1900. The Hebrew inscription remembers a man “great in counsel and in the work of his hands, upright in speech, performing much good, and beneficial to others.”
Paul’s own epitaph names him Yaakov son of Avraham. Hebrew names could be added or changed within a life, and the name a man’s stone finally carried was not always the one his children had grown up saying.
A memorial dedication on the reverse of his cabinet-card portrait remembers him as “industrious as an ant,” prudent and clear-sighted as a strategist.
Family and household
People connected to this life
- Helene Reichenbach née Heinemann · mother
- Jacob Reichenbach · father
- Goldine Marcuse Reichenbach · wife
- Paul Reichenbach · son
- Max Reichenbach · son
- Ernst Reichenbach · son
- Anna Jacob née Reichenbach · daughter · family memory, as on Anna’s page
Sources
Sources
- Paul’s birth register
- Ahnentafel
- German face of Adolf’s gravestone
- Hebrew face of Adolf’s gravestone
- Paul’s Hebrew gravestone patronymic
- Memorial cabinet card
- Family correction supplied by Rabbi Daniel Dolph Reichenbach, August 2026
What remains uncertain
Two dates survive for Adolf’s birth: the family Ahnentafel gives 30 September 1843, while the gravestone gives 1 Tishri 5605, corresponding to 14 September 1844.