Johannes Jacob Wolff (help needed)

[Deutschritter]

Jacob Wolff (1869--1926) was the owner of a cigar factory with over 4.000 employees. He was once Einjährig-Freiwilliger, but when? Wikipedia has him in the Königlich Bayerisches 11. Infanterie-Regiment „von der Tann“ ... but why should a gentleman from Hamburg serve in the Bavarian Army? Which regiment? He was probably Unteroffizier, later Vizefeldwebel (Reserve? Landwehr?). 1914, 45 yeras old, he reported to the Fliegertruppe, bought and brought his own plane with him. On 6 May 1917 he was finally promoted to Leutnant, some sources say "der Reserve", others "Landwehr". On 27 July 1917, now a 48 year old Jagdflieger, he was badly wounded. Can anyone help out? Thanks! Here are his decorations, corrections welcome. Please look at the picture (surely private), he is wearing his Ritterkreuz II. Klasse as a Komturkreuz (neck order).

 

Landwehr-Dienstauszeichnung, II. Klasse (LD2) am 16. April 1903

Rettungsmedaille am Band am 20. Juni 1916

Eisernes Kreuz (1914), II. Klasse und I. Klasse

... EK II am 30. Juni/1. Juli 1916

... EK I am 30. Mai 1917

Militär-Flugzeugführer-Abzeichen am 10. September 1916

Hamburgisches Hanseatenkreuz am 3. November 1916

Ehrenbecher für den Sieger im Luftkampf am 23. Februar 1917 (Verleihungsurkunde von Ernst von Hoeppner unterschrieben)

Silberne Medaille vom Roten Halbmond

Hausorden vom Weißen Falken, Ritterkreuz II. Klasse mit Schwertern am 4. September 1918

Verwundetenabzeichen (1918) in Schwarz

Flieger-Erinnerungsabzeichen (1914) im Mai 1919

 

 

Edited August 1, 2021 by Deutschritter

[Deruelle]

Hi

In the O'Connor's book, volume 5, page 65 he "presented himself to the local command in Hamburg as a volunteer on August 2, 1914"

 

Christophe

[GreyC]

Hi,

 

10 hours ago, Deutschritter said:

but why should a gentleman from Hamburg serve in the Bavarian Army?

 

Because he was registered there (somewhere in Bavaria). It did not matter where you were born, but where you lived at the time you where called to serve. Given the LD2Kl was awarded in 1903 (presuming he did not serve actively after his time in the reserve) these were awarded upon entering the Landsturm, he started service around 1890/1891. You said as Einjähriger which makes sense given his background. Interesting though, that he wasn´t promoted to Officer status earlier than 1917 as Einjähriger. For me that means he found no regiment that wanted to have him as officer. (Just read the WIKI article that confirms my assumption). As he was promoted in 1917, when he was already out of the Reserve I guess Offizier der Landwehr would be correct.

Best,

GreyC

PS Having just read the WIKI article in which it says that after the Abitur he did an apprenticeship, this could well have been in Bavaria.

PPS: The Stammrollen for the Bavarian army are available at the Bavarian State Archive in Munich. The peacetime ones are not online, but with name, unit and approx. date of entry you could request a copy of his data from there, I presume.

 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2021 by GreyC

[laurentius]

18 hours ago, Deutschritter said:

Please look at the picture (surely private), he is wearing his Ritterkreuz II. Klasse as a Komturkreuz (neck order).

That would make for a nice addition to the mistakes in wear thread. Lovely picture overall.

 

Kind regards, Laurentius

[Deutschritter]

17 hours ago, GreyC said:

Hi,

 

 

Because he was registered there (somewhere in Bavaria). It did not matter where you were born, but where you lived at the time you where called to serve. Given the LD2Kl was awarded in 1903 (presuming he did not serve actively after his time in the reserve) these were awarded upon entering the Landsturm, he started service around 1890/1891. You said as Einjähriger which makes sense given his background. Interesting though, that he wasn´t promoted to Officer status earlier than 1917 as Einjähriger. For me that means he found no regiment that wanted to have him as officer. (Just read the WIKI article that confirms my assumption). As he was promoted in 1917, when he was already out of the Reserve I guess Offizier der Landwehr would be correct.

Best,

GreyC

PS Having just read the WIKI article in which it says that after the Abitur he did an apprenticeship, this could well have been in Bavaria.

PPS: The Stammrollen for the Bavarian army are available at the Bavarian State Archive in Munich. The peacetime ones are not online, but with name, unit and approx. date of entry you could request a copy of his data from there, I presume.

 

 

 

Thank you, GreyC!

[GreyC]

Pleasure!

GreyC

[Glenn J]

On 01/08/2021 at 19:54, Deutschritter said:

On 6 May 1917 he was finally promoted to Leutnant, some sources say "der Reserve", others "Landwehr".

 

He was promoted to Leutnant der Landwehr I on 4 May 1917. Militär-Wochenblatt issue 183 of 1917, column 4521.

 

Regards

Glenn

 

[GreyC]

Thank you for proof for my assumption in my last post.

GreyC

[VtwinVince]

Details of this guy's service are quite astonishing, especially the age at which he became an aviator.

[laurentius]

2 hours ago, VtwinVince said:

Details of this guy's service are quite astonishing, especially the age at which he became an aviator.

He must have thought the sky was the limit, just look at the White Falcon, he was preparing for something grand.

[Deutschritter]

Here with his young wife Elsa (1898–1977) and with comrades. I am sure you recognize the young chap sitting on the stairs in front of him (with cigarette). 1926, even with the Great Depression (seems even then every man wanted to smoke cigars), he died a multimillionaire, making his wife very rich.

 

 

Edited August 4, 2021 by Deutschritter

[Valter]

Really astonishing story and great portraits, thanks for sharing, Deutschritter!

 

The guy surely had a dream-life: a millionaire, fighter pilot, war hero, beautiful young wife ... What else could you want?

 

Reading short wiki article (and my german is quite limited), his story is even more interesting and intriguing. According to the article, he was denied officer status before WW1 because of his Jewish origin and fact that his parents were born in low social class (regardless they became rich later). And our pilot was a pacifist before WW1, financially supporting peace movement. Then he "bought and brought" his own plane as a volunteer ... Really cool!

 

Even his portraits breathe a mature, seasoned man with both wisdom, determination and courage, a sharp contrast with the majority of other pilots, who were a generation younger. It would be very interesting to read a more detailed biography (book) about his life.

Oh, I forgot one question, a bit off-topic maybe. Did his cigar factory survived? Or which company is its hier?

[BlackcowboyBS]

cool photos and nice story, reminds me of his american counterpart Howard Hughes. I wonder about the man in the front row with his cigarette, is that young Hermann G? I really like the chap on the left side with his monocole, that is pure officiers style at that time being. 

[VtwinVince]

Doubtful that he was denied officer status due to his religion, many officers in my grandfather's regiment were Jews.

[Deutschritter]

Yes, sitting on the stairs is a young Hermann Göring! The Hamburger Cigarren Handels AG (HACIFA) had merged with his fathers, now brothers L.Wolff Cigarrenfabriken. As an AG the company still existed 1945 (see first picture) and 1954, around 1960 it became the HACIFA Hamburger Cigarren Handels G.m.b.H., which still existed 1965 (see second picture).

 

 

 

Edited August 18, 2021 by Deutschritter

[GreyC]

3 hours ago, VtwinVince said:

Doubtful that he was denied officer status due to his religion, many officers in my grandfather's regiment were Jews.

Hi,

antisemitism in the Prussian/German army was a fact.

The link below leads to a summary on the antisemetic stance of politicians and the German military towards the German Jewish population. The German military conducted a statistical survey in 1916 to determine how many Jews were serving in the Imperial army:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judenzählung

17,3 % of the German population was Jewish and over all the same percentage was found to serve in the German army. So there was no reason to blame Jews for being cowards or the like. HOWEVER:

According to military historian Christian Stachelbeck there were 51 000 active officers and 226 000 reserve officers in the German army. So 277.000 total. As far as I know there were only 2000 Jewish military officers in the imperial army (besides roughly 12.000 medical doctors, pharmacists, Militär-Beamte with officers rank according to WIKIPEDIA, if these numbers hold. According to an article in the Spiegel even only 3000 officers, doctors and Militärbeamte).

Now I don´t call that many, not even proportionate, even if you add the doctors etc. and go with the higher WIKIPEDIA numbers.

The facts show: although the German Jews were proportionally represented in the German army, the percentage of Jewish officers was well below of what could or should have been.

Major der Artillerie Meno Burg was the only Stabsoffizier (Major or higher) in the Prussian army during the 19th century. According to the Spiegel, from 1885 on there were  no jewish Reserveoffiziere in the Prussian army until the start of the war.

https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/juedische-soldaten-in-deutschen-armeen-grausame-taeuschung-a-946547.html

And this, although from 1880 to 1909 between 25.000-30.000 Jews served in the military as Einjährige, who overwhelmingly ended up as Reserveoffiziere - normally.

https://www.grin.com/document/430851

Only in 1914 were Jews allowed to become officers due to the strains the war put onto the German officer´s corps.  So it is not doubtful, that he was not allowed to be promoted to officer status. Until 1914 it was against the regulations of the army!

So what your grandfather might have experienced is not the rule, the officers in his regiment must have been promoted after 1914 and if there were many, it was not the norm.

GreyC

 

 

 

Edited August 18, 2021 by GreyC

[ArHo]

@GreyC thank you, nothing to add - to the point!

[saxcob]

57 minutes ago, GreyC said:

 

17,3 % of the German population was Jewish

 

 

This seems to be a misunderstanding.

 

Actually only 0.95% of the German population was Jewish (in 1912).

 

17,3 % of the Jewish population was found to serve in the German army.

Edited August 18, 2021 by saxcob

[GreyC]

Hi saxcob,

thank you for your comment. I checked and indeed between 1871-1918 there were never more Jews than 1,25 % of the German population. I misinterpreted the text. However that does not change the antisemetism of the German officer´s corps and the abscence of active and reserve-officers in the German army from 1885.

GreyC

[saxcob]

10 hours ago, GreyC said:

 However that does not change the antisemetism of the German officer´s corps and the abscence of active and reserve-officers in the German army from 1885.

 

No doubt about that.

[VtwinVince]

I think in the case of Wolff his age played the major factor in his being denied anything, and a testament to his willpower was his military CV. And Imperial Germany was certainly not the only country which had widespread anti-Jewish feelings, you need go no further than France or England to find such sentiments.

[Deutschritter]

... and let us not forget the thousands of, formerly Jewish, Officers who had (themselves or their parents) converted to Christianity.

[GreyC]

6 hours ago, VtwinVince said:

I think in the case of Wolff his age played the major factor in his being denied anything

Yes, but not because of biological reasons, if that´s what you are getting at. When he was in the army the leniency in the wake of the war of 1870/71 with regard to letting Jewish Einjährige be promoted to Reserve-Offiziere was  gone. As I wrote before, from 1885 onwards till September 1914 no Jewish Reserve-Offiziere were allowed in the Prussian army. He probabbly served in the early 1890s and even if it is correct that he served with a Bavarian unit his reserve time and then Landwehr-service was most probable in a Prussian unit. Hence no officer´s patent.

 

„.. and let us not forget the thousands of, formerly Jewish, Officers who had (themselves or their parents) converted to Christianity.“

 

Quite, right!

Though strictly speaking they were no longer considered Jews, officially.

Which didn´t spare them antisemetic sentiment within the army.

As Kuno Graf von Westarp put it in 1935 looking back on his time as reserve-officer in the imperial army:

„Unsere grundsätzliche Gegnerschaft gegen jüdische Offiziere beruhte indessen nicht so sehr auf religiösen als auf völkischen Gründen. Angehörige der jüdischen Rasse sollten und könnten den deutschen Soldaten nicht kommandieren."

„Our fundamental opposition against Jewish officers is based not so much on religious grounds as it is based on racial grounds. Members of the Jewish race should never and could never command the German soldier."

GreyC

 

 

 

Edited August 19, 2021 by GreyC

[Bayern]

On 18/08/2021 at 16:52, GreyC said:

Hi,

antisemitism in the Prussian/German army was a fact.

The link below leads to a summary on the antisemetic stance of politicians and the German military towards the German Jewish population. The German military conducted a statistical survey in 1916 to determine how many Jews were serving in the Imperial army:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judenzählung

17,3 % of the German population was Jewish and over all the same percentage was found to serve in the German army. So there was no reason to blame Jews for being cowards or the like. HOWEVER:

According to military historian Christian Stachelbeck there were 51 000 active officers and 226 000 reserve officers in the German army. So 277.000 total. As far as I know there were only 2000 Jewish military officers in the imperial army (besides roughly 12.000 medical doctors, pharmacists, Militär-Beamte with officers rank according to WIKIPEDIA, if these numbers hold. According to an article in the Spiegel even only 3000 officers, doctors and Militärbeamte).

Now I don´t call that many, not even proportionate, even if you add the doctors etc. and go with the higher WIKIPEDIA numbers.

The facts show: although the German Jews were proportionally represented in the German army, the percentage of Jewish officers was well below of what could or should have been.

Major der Artillerie Meno Burg was the only Stabsoffizier (Major or higher) in the Prussian army during the 19th century. According to the Spiegel, from 1885 on there were  no jewish Reserveoffiziere in the Prussian army until the start of the war.

https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/juedische-soldaten-in-deutschen-armeen-grausame-taeuschung-a-946547.html

And this, although from 1880 to 1909 between 25.000-30.000 Jews served in the military as Einjährige, who overwhelmingly ended up as Reserveoffiziere - normally.

https://www.grin.com/document/430851

Only in 1914 were Jews allowed to become officers due to the strains the war put onto the German officer´s corps.  So it is not doubtful, that he was not allowed to be promoted to officer status. Until 1914 it was against the regulations of the army!

So what your grandfather might have experienced is not the rule, the officers in his regiment must have been promoted after 1914 and if there were many, it was not the norm.

GreyC

 

 

 

Hello , regarding the German Jews and the Army , specially the Prussian Army , pre 1914 many Jews entered in the Army as One Year Volunteers . normally in Infantry of the Line regiments but also in Artilley or Pioniere units. the Cavalry was more restrictive but ... one Garde kavallerie regiment was notorious for receive Jewish OYV , it was the second Garde dragoner Regiment nicknamed  King Sauls Own and the twelve tribes. the Jewish OYV serving in the Prussian Army inclusive was kindly caricaturized by contemporary artists. 

[GreyC]

23 minutes ago, Bayern said:

Hello , regarding the German Jews and the Army , specially the Prussian Army , pre 1914 many Jews entered in the Army as One Year Volunteers

 

 

On 18/08/2021 at 21:52, GreyC said:

from 1880 to 1909 between 25.000-30.000 Jews served in the military as Einjährige

But, I repeat myself, were not promoted to officer´s rank.

GreyC