my ancestors: Richard Robert Max und Auguste Korn

Richard Robert Max Korn
November 20, 1852 - March 3, 1894
parents:
father: Carl Friedrich Ferdinand Korn
mother: Therese Marie Dorothea Korn nee Borchardt

ring

Aug 29, 1882

Auguste Korn nee Rustenbeck
Aug 29, 1857 - Nov 23, 1909
parents:
father: Johann Heinrich Erdmann Rustenbeck
mother: Wilhelmine Sophie Elisabeth Rustenbeck geb. Bohneberg

children:
daughter: Elisabeth Ingeborg Therese Wilhelmina (Oct 16, 1883-Nov 27,1887)
son: Frithjof Heinrich Carl (April 8, 1885 - July 1, 1945)
son: Richard Conrad (September 13, 1886 - ?)
son: Carl Oskar (Feb 20, 1888 - March 3, 1888
daughter: Gertrud Ingeborg (Feb 10, 1890- Aug 14, 1890)

Richard Robert Max still hasn't revealed all his mysteries to me. He was born in Magdeburg in 1852 as the eldest of 4 siblings. His father was a teacher of accounting and the family was well off. Richard Robert was interested in chemistry and also was an ambitious young man full of dreams.

Auguste was born and grew up in Magdeburg as well, the daughter of a butcher.

When they were teenagers they lived only a few streets away from each other, so it is easy to imagine that the two met each other in the street, at church, at some youth events. Maybe Richard Robert bought some meat at her family's butcher shop. Soon enough they fell in love with each other.

Auguste married Richard Robert on her 25th birthday, so she kind of got him as a birthday present.

After they had married she moved with Richard Robert to Stockholm where he had already opened a business. In October 1883 their first daughter Elisabeth Ingeborg Therese Whilhelmina was born. My greatgrandfather Frithjof followed in April 1885 and Richard Conrad in 1886.

At the time Stockholm was an economic trading and service center and lots of new immigrants arrived in the city. It also had a big German speaking congregation.

Unfortunately I couldn't find out yet what Richard Robert really did in Stockholm. In the phone book he was either listed as fabrikör (small manufacturer) or kemiker (chemist) and he seemed to have sold his products in a (wholesale) shop (grosshandlare) called A M Holmgren.

During the first years everything was going well. But then Richard Robert Max fell seriously ill. The family became poor and spent more time in Magdeburg again. Carl Oskar and Gertrud Ingeborg were both born there. They finally decided to stay permanently in Magdeburg and opened another shop there in 1892/93 while the A M Holmgren shop was also still open in Stockholm.

On March 3, 1894 Richard Robert finally passed away being only 42 years old. Except for Frithjof and maybe Richard Conrad for whom I could only find his birth entry all other children had also already passed away, starting in 1887 with their eldest daughter. And to make things even worse Auguste's brother and only sibling died just one month and one day after her husband.

Auguste now tried to run the business alone but didn't have enough experience and so soon found herself defrauded of her money and business.

I have no idea what she did until 1903. Did she still have some income (from Sweden?), did she have a job somewhere or did Otto Korn, the younger brother of Richard Robert pay for her until her son Frithjof was old enough to care for her? We don't know. All we know is that she lived quietly during those years raising her son.

But she was entrepreneurial and in 1904 she tried to open a restauration business. Her brother had been a butcher like her father but had also done restaurations so she probably had some experience by helping him. After a few years she gave up on this business however and started a restaurant, again drawing on the experience in her family as her grandparents had already had one.

In November 1909 she herself passed away early, being only 52 years old.

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