Paula Reichenbach’s husband, a partner in J. Reichenbach and the probable ‘Uncle Georg’ in Dolf’s wedding song.
The Berend Lehmann Museum records that Georg Wollenberg married Paula Reichenbach in 1903 and became a partner in the Reichenbach clothing business. The 1928 and 1938 Halberstadt directories connect him directly to J. Reichenbach and place the Wollenberg household at Moltkestraße 11.
Paula’s Halberstadt birth act, no. 343 of 18 April 1877, names her parents as the merchant Ludwig Reichenbach and Lina née Asch, living at Hoheweg 24. Antonie’s 1879 act names the same address and writes their mother as Pauline. Curt’s 1889 act names Ludwig and Pauline at Hoherweg 47. The three civil births now confirm the sibling relationship recorded on the separate 1945 tracing card.
In April 1935 Paul described Georg as an ‘angeheirateter Vetter’—a cousin by marriage—and explained that Georg’s knowledge of the deeper genealogy came from Paul. In November of that year Georg appeared at the civil registry to report Paul’s death.
Dolf’s 1933 wedding song recalls an ‘Uncle Georg’ watching Ruth’s childhood fence mishap on Lindenweg. Georg Wollenberg is the strongest candidate: he was alive, closely embedded in the family and business, and recognized by Paul as kin by marriage. The poem does not give a surname, so the identification remains probable rather than final.
Georg died on 18 August 1938, three months before Kristallnacht and four years before Paula and Hans were deported.
Family and household
People connected to this life
- Paula Wollenberg née Reichenbach · wife · daughter of Ludwig Reichenbach and Lina or Pauline née Asch
- Hans Wollenberg · son
- Paul Reichenbach · cousin by marriage in Paul’s wording
- Ruth Helene Reichenbach · possible niece in the familiar language of Dolf’s wedding song
Sources
Sources
- Halberstadt civil birth act no. 343 for Paula Reichenbach, 18 April 1877 (FamilySearch)
- Halberstadt civil birth act no. 312 for Antonie Reichenbach, 6 April 1879 (FamilySearch)
- Halberstadt civil birth act no. 535 for Curt Reichenbach, 26 May 1889 (FamilySearch)
- Ludwig Reichenbach civil death act no. 359, 7 May 1920 (FamilySearch)
- National Refugee Service tracing card, Arolsen Archives DocID 131596011
- Berend Lehmann Museum Reichenbach business panel
- Halberstadt address books, 1928 and 1938
- Paul Reichenbach letter to Rudolf Simonis, 17 April 1935
- Paul Reichenbach civil death record
- Dolf Reichenbach’s wedding song, 3 August 1933
What remains uncertain
Paula’s, Antonie’s and Kurt’s civil birth acts document their parents and confirm the sibling relationship recorded on the 1945 tracing card. The identification of Georg Wollenberg as Dolf’s ‘Uncle Georg’ is a strong contextual inference, not an explicit surname identification in the poem.