Karl Meng's Siblings

We know a little now about the Meng family in Hohen-Sülzen and this includes a couple of Karl Meng’s siblings and a cousin or two. 

Johannes Meng ( 05-08-1830  -  27-12-1870)

In 15 Jan 1865 Johannes Meng worked for Jakob Keil and caught something like meningitis according to the Meng letter from 1865.  He had leeches and strong medication and managed to survive.  Took him six weeks to recover.  Johannes died in 1870 aged 39 of “typhoid and nerve fever” and is buried with his parents Reichard and Maria Eva Meng and brother Jacob in Hohen-Sülzen.  We are not sure if he married.  “The Hannes had to drive to France (it was war time and he had to carry goods there for the soldiers). He was 7 weeks away. When he came back, he already didn´t feel well. He had the problem until 14 days before Christmas, then he kept on to lie in bed. Hannes lay first. Friday Jakob went to get the doctor for Hannes. He had the nervefever. Jakob and mother lay down Sunday. Marie lay in bed Monday, she was so ill with the nervefever, that she almost died. Marie is not yet healthy, but she is up again. Hannes died the 27th of December and was buried the 29th”

Christian Meng (29-10-1832  -  ?)

Christian must have died young as he is not mentioned in the Meng letters dated 1863-1873.

Margaretha Meng  (13-02-1836  -  09-03-1914)

Margaretha (known as Gretchen or Greth) married Adam Velde. Jakob Keil in his letter from 1863 was very happy in the company of Gretchen and her husband.  The Velde's have a son at this stage Luischen who can now walk and talk fluently and clear.  Gretchen was pregnant again.  In the letter from 1871 she was still standing along with Baweth to care for family members who were sick.  As eldest member of the family she now had notary authorisation on her parents estate.  She died aged 78 years old.  She is buried in the old Hohen-Sülzen graveyard with her sister Anna Maria. 

Catherine Meng  (12-06-1838  -  ?)

Catherine is mentioned briefly in the Meng letters.  She had to lie in bed for two days with  “nerve fever” in 1871 but survived.  We are not sure if she married

Wilhelm Meng  (10-04-1841  -  ??-06-1843)

Wilhelm died young at age two.

Jacob Meng (28-05-1843  -  03-01-1871)

Jacob died aged 27 and is buried with his parents and brother Johannes in Hohen-Sülzen.  We are not sure if he married.  He died of “typhoid and nerve fever”.

Anna Barbara Meng (04-04-1845  -  before 1902)

Anna Barbara (known as Babette or Baweth) married Philipp Stamm on 02-07-1870.  He then left for war on 21-07-1870.  According to her husband in the Meng letters she did lots of work on the fields with Katharin (presumably her sister) and a servant while her sisters Marie and Greth didn't do much at all.  This upset her husband.

In 1902 Philipp Stamm ( the first or second) was mentioned as father of the children Richard, Karl, Friedrich and Otto. Their mother, Barbara b. Meng was already dead in the year 1902 and the four children were not yet adult, when she died.  Philipp Stamm (in 1902) married a woman b. Keil and in the document are mentioned the children: Konrad, Adolf, Philipp, Eva Richard, Karl, Friedrich and Otto.

Anna Maria Meng (27-01-1850  -  08-11-1916)

Anna Maria Meng (known as Marie or Mari) married Jakob Umstadt on 02-07-1872 in Hohen-Sülzen.  She is buried with her sister Margaretha in the old Hohen-Sülzen graveyard.  One of her direct descendants Helmut Umstadt lives in Germany. In the Meng letter from 1865 Marie is mentioned as being very unwell over the summer.  She could not eat but could still work.  She recovered once the summer heat was over.  In the letter from 1871 Marie also got the "nervefever" along with most of her family and nearly died.  This may have been meningitis or encephalitis.  Her husband Jacob Umstadt was involved in a deal selling the Meng family mine.  He received the barn at the schoolyard and half of the cellar when Reichard and Eva Maria Meng died.

Luisa Meng (09-02-1853  -  02-08-1853)

Died at about six months old in Hohen-Sülzen.

Friedrich Meng  (05-10-1855  -  31-08-1903)

Friedrich (known as Fritz) was the youngest son of Reichard Meng and Maria Eva Dörrschuck and yet he was the one to take over his father’s house.  This was because his older brothers had either died or moved away.    In the estate Fritz received the following:  “Fritz received the house beside Kring and the garden. When everything was ready Fritz became manager of the Erdkaute [something like a ground mine.  The Meng’s had a sand and loam mine that was worth less than the clay mines in the area at that time]. Then it happened as it had to happen - to say it shortly – for boys who educate themselves and don't accept any advice from others. It didn't work any more with the ground mine, day by day it became worse and the factory couldn't get the material they needed, and the production stopped for a while; the workers stopped working for several days. The factory had big problems. The manager of the factory came and I asked him how the business works. The manager said, he wanted to buy the business (ground mine). I agreed at once.” 

Also about Fritz in this letter from 1873:  “Dear brother in law, I want to tell you something more about Fritz. Fritz worked as long in the ground mine as it existed, and came for the meals to our place. I always told him to learn a job or to go to join the army. He didn't want either. Sleeping long, not working at all and living easy, that was what he liked all the time. When the ground mine was sold he worked there a couple of weeks longer but he couldn't make it, then they fired him. After all this he decided to learn to be a baker. He went to Worms to a nice place and stopped learning after 2 days there. After that father brought him to Weißenheim am Sand to his uncle, there he wanted to learn to be a baker, and there he endured 8 days.  Now he came back home and wanted to work for the food at my place, but Baweht threw him out. He went to Mr. Umstadt and he took him. Mr. Umstadt may now wait until he recognizes the lazy bone and that he enjoys drinking his beer.”

Friedrich was listed as one of the citizens of Hohen-Sülzen and worked as a Landwirt (farmer).  In 1881 he had plans drawn up for a new house to replace the very tiny house he grew up in with his parents and siblings.  The new house had two floors and an attic area.  This house was called house number 74 (now Kirchstrasse, 17).

In 1898 there was an election for the town hall and only one person voted for Friedrich Meng.  It was a local joke that perhaps he voted for himself as this was the only vote cast.   The son of a former priest in Hohen-Sülzen by the name of Wilhelm Briegleb, wrote a small theatre book with the title "De Rothausreformader", which is translated: “the man who reforms the town hall”.  Some names in the book are the original names of the locals and some are changed. One of the persons “Sibille Müller”  aka Friedrich Meng gets only one vote.   In reality there was no female to vote for.  In the book that Briegleb wrote, the locals discuss the necessity of getting water for all houses. They fear, that this might be too expensive.  The village received water in 1909 and electricity in 1913.  Canalisation (to take the wastewater outside the village) finally came in the year 1989! Then the streets were renovated.

Friedrich married Elisabetha Stamm and had seven children as follows:

Magdalene Meng (abt. 1887 - ?)

Luise Meng (1889 - 1963)

Emelie Meng (? - ?)

Eugen Meng (? - ?)

Richard Meng (1896  - 1974)

Johannes (Hans) Meng (abt. 1898 - ?)

Elisabetha Margareta Meng (19-08-1903 - abt. 1921)

Friedrich Meng died on 31-08-1903 after committing suicide by hanging himself in the stable at the back of his house.  This was tragic as his daughter Elisabetha Margareta had only just been born.  This daughter died young at 18.

Friedrich’s son Richard went on to have five children, Hans and Kurt who were twins, Maria (Maya), Herbert and Richard.  The son Richard born in 1926 was the last Meng living in Hohen-Sülzen until he died in 1976.  His house at 17 Kirchstrasse, Hohen-Sülzen was sold in 1976.  Richard’s sister Maya Schneider (née Meng) is still alive in Germany in 2011.