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Continued: THE HEINE FAMILY
Our family is fairly heavily populated by Germans. These families include the Heines, the Hoffstetters (perhaps originally Hosstetter), and the Fishers (Vischers). The Heine family originated in northwest Germany, in Prussia and the Hoffstetters in southwest Germany, near Stuttgart. The origin of the Fishers is unknown.
Through the courtesy of Reverend Irmgard Meise, a Luthern minister in Holzminden, and Christian Kauffmann, a descendant of the Heines, we have learned a fair amount about the family recently. The Heine story is a fairly interesting study in contrasts between two branches of the family. Our side is protestant and contains a number of civil servants and military people. The other branch of the family includes a Jewish Chevalier, some prominent physicians, a Jewish banker, the famous poet Heinrich Heine, and a princess of Monaco.
FRIEDRICH WILHELM HEINRICH HEINE Lets take a look at our side of the family first. The first record of our side of the Heine family relates to Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Heine, who was born about 1791. Records show that he was an enlisted man in the service of the Prussian Army, Artillery Battery 27, 4th Army Corps of the Brandenburg Dukedom. He recieved an award similar to the iron cross on December 1, 1814, possibly for service against the Russians or French about the time of the Battle of Leipzeig and the Napoleonic Wars of 1813-1814.
Wilhelm Heine then became a border control customs officer for the Kingdom of Prussia, perhaps in recognition of his war service. He first surfaces in Luthern Church records in the town of Munden, on the Weser River in northwest Germany. He and his wife, Caroline Louise (Grunbaum) Heine had seven children, including our ancestor Carl or Charles Heine, who later emigrated to the United States and fought in the civil war. Unfortunately, Caroline Heine died of child fever on the birth of her last child in 1839 at the age of 40.
Wilhelm must have moved his family, because the next records place them in Holzminden, a town not too far south of Munden, in the province of Hanover, later a province of the Kingdom of Prussia. Wilhelm's sister, Sophie Marie Therese, married into the prominent family of Carl Wilhelm Gustav Haarman, founder of a ducal engineering school in Holzminden in 1798. The family photo album contains many pictures of the engineering school and the residences of the Haarmann's, located on Haarmannplace. Our Great, Great, Great Grandmother, Augusta (Heine) Hoffsteter apparently visited her cousin, Aunt Clara, on Linden Strasse there as late as 1914.
Records show that Wilhelm Heine retired on a pension from the Prussian customs service in Holzminden, died, and was buried there at the age of 79 in 1870.
HEINRICH HEINE
Family legend has it that we are related to the German poet, Heinrich Heine. Grandmother Augusta (Heine) Hoffstetter has a book of his poems by him dated 1881. We are currently trying to establish the connection between our family and Heinrich's through Wilhelm Heine's ancestors.
Harry (Heinrich) Heine, as he was originally named, was born in Dusseldorf on the Rhine River on December 13, 1799. His father, Samson Heine (1764-____) was reputed to be a rich but plebean Jewish merchant who married into the semi-aristocratic von Geldern Family. The von Gelderns were descended from an apparently colorful Talmudic scholar/plaboy, Simon the Elder von Geldern, sometimes called Chevalier von Geldern, a friend and drinking buddy of Prince George von-Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
Heinrich Heine's mother, Piera (Betty) von Geldern (1771-1859) was the daughter of the famous physician of the times, Aulic Counlor von Geldern. Apparently medicine was the only profession open to Jews in those days.
Heinrich Heine spent his childhood in Dusseldorf and although Jewish, was educated by French Priests. He later attended the University of Bonn. He was cared for by his Uncle Salomon Heine, a successful banker. After failing in attempting a commercial career in Frankfort and Dusseldorf, he left his uncle's banking business and after considering law (which would have required his conversion to christianity) to become a poet. At one point, Heine renounced Judaism, but felt quite remorseful about it. Religion must have been painful for him, because he still used his Christian name, Heinrich, rather that his birth name, Harry.
After a stint in Berlin and a love affair with a cousin, he married a French peasant woman, Mathilda Crescent Mirat and lived in Paris from 1831 on. His Uncle Salomon disinherited him in 1844 and Heinrich died a tragic death on February 16, 1856, "developing a spinal condition which shrank him to the size of a child." He was buried without mass or "Kaddish", according to his express wish, in the cemetary of Montmarte. His poems were not published until after his death.
SALOMON HEINE
Salomon Heine was born on October 19, 1767 in Hanover, Germany. He died on December 23, 1844 in Hamburg and was buried in the Jewish cemetary in Ottensen. At 17, he had traveled from Hanover to Hamburg on foot, with very little money. When he arrived in Hamburg, he was unknown: when he was buried, thousands attended his burial, including the Mayor, various Senators, Earl Blucher and the President of Altona.
Salomon Heine started working as an errand boy for a banker and then tranferred to a better position in another bank. He associated with a bill-broker from Halle and in 1797, he and M.A. Hecksher founded a bank with Lewin Hertz and Jacob Oppenheimer, wher Heinrich Hein worked until 1818. Despite the war, Salomon Heine was able to keep his business going. He had little education (his education was in Hebrew and not German) and later became associated with Rothschild, who attributed their financial success to carrier pigeons, even though rail and horse service was available at the times.
Apparently Salomon Heine campaigned for reform of the laws which restricted Jews in Germany. He was a noted philanthropist and had a son, Carl Beer Hiene. Salomon was the granduncle of Mary Alice Heine, Princess of Monaco.
MARY ALICE HEINE
Mary Alice Heine, the granddaughter of Salomon Heine, became the Princess of Monaco. She was born on February 10, 1858 in New Orleans, where her father, Michael and Uncle Armand were bankers who came to New Orleans to organize cotton financing for their firm and who later removed to Paris. Her Father and uncle built the historic building which houses the Pickwick Club and sever other cotton and tobacco storehouses. She was the great granddaughter of Madam Christian Miltonberger, whose home is a landmark in New Orleans and the grandniece of Heinrich Heine.
When Mary Alice returned with her father to Paris at the age of 16, she met the Duke Armand de Richilieu, who was smitten with her beauty and whom she married a year later. Five years later the Duke died, and she met Prince Albert, heir to the throne of Monaco. Monaco had become an eight square mile sovereign principality in 1861, and a subsequent treaty had specified that if a reigning Grimaldi died without issue, Monaco would become a French protectorate and be subject to two things Monegasques dreaded most: French taxes and conscription into the French Army.
Mary Alice and Prince Albert were married in 1882, and Alice reigned over the philanthropies and arts in Monaco. They separated in 1902 when the marriage failed to produce offspring. Alice opened a salon in Paris and entertained some of the world's most notable people, including Winston Churchill and President Woodrow Wilson. She died in Paris on December 23, 1925 and was called the "goodhearted servant of the Underprivileged."
Abs. Margarete Schurig
Zweimen Krs. Morsburg
4201 DDR
Dear Mrs. Schurig:
Thank you for your kind letter and the information about the Heine family. I'm looking for records of my ancestors, especially Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Heine (geb. ca. 1791). Kirchenbuchfuhrerin Meise of Holzminden (where the family lived for some time) told me that Friedrich Heine's daughter, Sophie Marie Therese Heine, was born in Zweimen on September 14, 1828, and therefore we thought the family might come from your area.
I am also interested in how my Heine ancestors are related to the famous German poet, Heinrich Heine.
If you have any further information, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks again for your thoughtfulness,
L. Dow Davis
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