When Gustav Graf von Brandenburg was a young law student at the Humbolt University in Berlin 1843-1844 he married secretly Caroline Henriette Wagner who was totally unaware of the Noble heritage of her husband. When she became pregnant he was in the awkward position of having to tell his parents who would have requested that the King assist them with their problem son. King Friedrich Wilhelm IV requested to see his cousin Gustav and annulled the marriage as they did not have his permission and sent him away to the Prussian Embassy in Paris in August 1844. Meantime Caroline Henriette gave birth on 14th July 1844 to a son naming him Gustav August Hermann.
Three years later Caroline Henriette married Prussian Guardsman Johann Gottlieb Rockel in Potsdam 1847 and by the following year they were in South Australia. He gave his name Rockel to the boy Gustav August Hermann who now has a great many descendants in New Zealand, many males with the Y haplogroup I-FT79323 downstream from I-M223 relate directly back to King Friedrich Wilhelm II. That is the true Hohenzollern Y haplogroup at that time!
Since 2015 many Rockels have been proven to share autosomal DNA with other Hohenzollern cousins from all over the world.
Much more detail is available on FB.
https://www.facebook.com/Rockel-Families-941085745934378
We are fortunate that a great many Rockels have left their memoirs for later generations to review the family histories. There seemed to be a deep need within many to write about their lives, probably to make some sense of our very fleeting existence. Naturally, some of the most painful events have been left out or passed over without much commentary but those memoirs do assist in better understanding both the tumultuous and mundane even though the context of social nuances is so changed from today.
When I was a child, I was aware that our name was of German origin, now slightly changed with an extra L to anglicize its pronunciation with emphasis on the second syllable. This was done by several sons of Gustav Rockel around the time of World War One when so much anti-German sentiment was prevalent, a change very much encouraged by their wives who were all of English extraction. Even in my own childhood, it was not a sensible thing to mention our German heritage so soon after the end of the Second World war, notwithstanding that so many Rockels had fought against the German Nazis. There were rumors that we were descendants of Nobles and once did have the prefix von and that this had also been dispensed with to better assimilate into New Zealand society. There was also a reference in Debrett’s Peerage to a Gustav August Hermann Hohenzollern (Rockel ) of Carnarvon, Fielding NZ. See Debrett’s illustrated Peerage 1973 page 290 where it is alongside the reference to Evangeline Coventry, a daughter of Gustav and Eliza Rockel marrying Henry Halford Coventry, a descendant of the Earl of Coventry.
One of the more intriguing finds concerning our Noble heritage was “The Xmas Box” manuscript which came to light after Eliza Rockels death in 1939 when all her papers were left to her daughter Lena. The Xmas Box is an allegorical story written by Gustav in 1894 in an attempt to explain the circumstances surrounding his birth in Berlin in 1844. Gustav August Hermann was born at a quarter past five in the morning on the 14th of July 1844 to twenty-two years old Caroline Henriette Wagner in Berlin, recorded in the Church records for the Evangelisch- Lutherische Kirche, Altlutheraner local community Berlin situated on Annenstrasse Luisenstadt. Note it was an old Lutheraner church, a very conservative breakaway from the Reform Church. Caroline Henriette was all her life, involved in the church. We do not know where she was living but could assume it was close by within easy walking distance. Usually, there is a birth record and a baptismal record, in this case only the one record and no persons are listed as godparents. The church record only states that she was in the care of her stepfather Arendt the toothbrush maker from Potsdam. Gustav in his “Xmas Box” writes his mother was in lodgings at that time. The birth record has a blank where the child’s father is named and the child is written down as being illegitimate.
Caroline Henriette Wagner was born on the 24th April 1822 Konigsberg East Prussia to Martin Ferdinand Wagner and Wilhelmina Friedrika Wagner nee Morr. Martin Ferdinand was a corporal in the 10th company, 2nd East Prussian Infantry Regiment thus Caroline Henriette was baptized in the Konigsberg Garrison church on 5th May. Her mother died in 1827 in childbirth and Martin Ferdinand remarried that same year to Juliane Rebecca Reimann. He seems to have left the army for a time to work in his brother-in-law's (Johann Andreas Reimann) leather workshop on Ripponstrasse. The Wagner family is now living in apartment 17 at 18 Bergstrasse Konigsberg, “in the shadow of the Kings castle.” At some time during the 1830s, Martin Ferdinand relocated to the Potsdam Prussian Guards Regiment as an Unterofficer, we assume with his family living in the married men’s quarters and he is recorded as dying in the Potsdam military community aged 44-45 on the 13th of August 1838 of Krampfe, most probably severe abdominal pains caused by typhoid. There were other soldiers also dying of the same affliction at the same time. Caroline Henriette was then 16 years of age. I have no record of her stepmother remarrying other than the notation of a stepfather Arendt on Gustav's birth record. Furthermore, Geoff Rockel records the Bergstrasse apartment Konigsberg as still being in Wagner's possession in 1860 at the time of Juliane Rebecca Wagners' death there. It cannot be discounted that Arndt was in fact a minder for Caroline Henriette Wagner on behalf of Gustavs' Father.
Very little was ever recorded from this time, a time of great shame and embarrassment from the personal treachery and abandonment she alone had to deal with. Much of this time we have to surmise until further evidence comes to light.
We know that Caroline Henriette was well educated and a seamstress which was considered a respectable occupation for a young woman, so it is highly likely that she was in the employ of a senior officer of the regiment, living with his family from the age of sixteen in Potsdam where the Guards Regiments were based as the Regiment did act as a large family of sorts. In all likelihood, this is where she met Gustav's father who would have been a regular visitor to the officer's house probably visiting a fellow student son of the household. The following year 1844-45 so traumatized Caroline Henriette that she would never speak to her son about his father for the next fifty years and only then, made a little easier after the death of Gustav’s stepfather and with the knowledge that her son was increasingly greatly disturbed by not having a sense of identity. For the greater part of his life, Gustav only knew that “his natural father belonged to an ancient family of high rank and great influence.” Geoff Rockel wrote: “There can be little doubt that the question of his paternity had become somewhat of a personal neurosis” It had affected his relationship with his stepfather Johann Gottlieb for he had surely rebuked him about his father's abandonment of him and his mother, also the devotion of the stepson Gustav to his mother, bought about because of the trauma during his first three years was a cause of criticism. “He had often seen his mother cry and he also knew that his father was not always kind to her. He had always loved his mother and this seemed to make his father angry and often bought down on him the full weight of his wrath. He learned to dread and fear this man but not to love him.” Gustav wrote: “There were not many bright spots in his childhood. His gentle, loving sensitive nature shrank from the stern, austere, unsympathetic. So he grew up into manhood, knowing no kind, loving father's hand to guide and direct, only that of hardness and bitterness. He often longed to love his father, he tried to. Why could he not? What spell or ban prevented father from being kind to him? What was the cause father so often broke out into such bitter irony to his mother. Father died without any softening to him.”
Gustav writing some fifty years later about receiving his mothers' letter finally revealing the circumstances surrounding his birth in 1894 wrote: “He knew intuitively what it contained, he knew the time had come to clear up that mystery. That mystery he had so often asked his mother to solve for him.”
What follows are snippets taken from the Xmas Box story written in 1894 and submitted to a Wellington weekly “New Zealand Mail” short story competition. Gustav wrote: “The story is original and founded on absolute facts the most of whom I have personal knowledge.” He changed all names and places, relatively thinly veiled, and asked that his name not be published. His mother was still alive and he had no wish for her or himself to be recognized. The shame and stigma surrounding the story were very real, his mother and sister were part of the social society such as it was in Masterton, and did not need further upset in their lives. An exert from the Xmas Box: Gustav August Hermann Rockel
It was a long letter. A life’s history of sorrow, grief, and disappointment. It began by telling her son she could conceal no longer what had burdened her life all these long years. When I was young, continued the letter, very young, I made the acquaintance of a gentleman, not much my senior in years. He was very tall, had beautiful blue eyes, and was, altogether a very handsome man. His manner and general bearing were noble in the true sense of the word. We did not meet often, but when we did so, I could not conceal from myself that I was not indifferent to him. In time, our acquaintance ripened into mutual regard. He was always very affectionate to me and loaded me with presents. Upon my pressing him to tell me of his family and more of himself, he told me, he belonged to a proud ancient family named Falkenhorst, that he was a student at the University of Blank. I remonstrated with him that our love could come to nothing, as his family would never consent to a union with a poor dependant burgher's daughter. He did not deny the truth of my reasoning but avowed his deep love for me and solemnly declared whatever happened he would remain true to me. All my pleading, all my earnest supplications for us to part, even at the sacrifice of our love, had I not my own heart to conquer? How could I expect to conquer his deep earnest love? So in spite of my convictions, I yielded and we were quietly married.
As we work our way through this story, let us investigate some of these phrases and what they may actually refer to. The greater part of Gustav’s story not told here is a very bland, unsophisticated, tedious, and dull thing. It is not until he writes transcribing from his mother's German-language letter to him that the tone changes and it becomes full of passion and feeling. Many German words do not necessarily translate well to English which gives a clue to the letter's authenticity.
A life’s history of sorrow, grief, and disappointment. Her marriage to JG Rockel was at times tempestuous, Caroline Henriette was described by grandchildren as “gay,” naturally the old-fashioned meaning of “spirited” would be close. These same grandchildren described both grandfathers (JG Rockel and TU Mckenzie ) as tyrants who loved their spouses but grandchildren would not know of the darker moments, however, they did record Grossmutter calling Johann Gottlieb Rockel a “niedrige Kerl” and a “Gartner.” It was well known that JG Rockel was in the habit of taking choral crystals to curb his quick temper and violent disposition.
The Rockel family had fallen on hard times caused by a world depression in the late 1870s and JG Rockels life was “clouded by troubles other than commercial reverses” He died the night after falling from a horse, possibly taking strychnine mixed with chloral in a befuddled state June 1880! For much more detail about these times consult “We Rockels” by Geoff Rockel
Proud ancient family named Falkenhorst, There is no such family but the name is a play with words literally meaning an “eagles nest” which is Gustav referring to the Hohenzollern.
Student at the University of Blank. That is the University of Berlin.
Poor dependant burgher's daughter. Well, she was the daughter of a Prussian Army office administrator at the time of his death. Was she referring to a stepfather Arendt, a businessman from Potsdam? I don't know but family researchers may find out more in time.
I yielded and we were quietly married. There is simply no way that Caroline Henriette would have entered into a relationship requiring living in sin. They recognized that there would certainly have been family objections and the couple got married quietly without family in the belief that they would present his family with a fait accompli. That love would conquer all. Such a wedding could only be performed by a priest and church. There would have been witnesses to the event. Well, she was twenty-one and he twenty-three and a student! He was obviously a financially well-supported student. She most certainly knew his true name but understandably had not associated it with the old Noble family Hohenzollern which is why it was such a surprise later on. We continue with Gustav's mothers explanation:
Oh, that I should live to have to confess the wrong done by me, to my own son. A wrong that I can never redress. But I must proceed. We lived in a neat comfortable cottage in the suburbs with a nice garden in front. Henry spared no pains to make my surroundings agreeable and when not busy with his studies, devoted his time to me and often took me out, either in society or to parties in the country. It was a very happy time those few months of bliss with my husband. But it was the calm that always proceeds a great storm and I had a few warnings that made me fear that danger was threatening us. Henry came home one night very much troubled, I could see something had occurred that had very much affected him. He seemed to have suddenly grown much older and was very absent-minded. When I questioned him about it he put his arm around me and duly said: “Oh it’s nothing love don’t be alarmed” and so laughed it off. Shortly after this he came home one day earlier than usual, very much disturbed. He greeted me affectionately but told me he had to leave at once on urgent business, and bade me cheer up as he would be back in two days at most. I need hardly say that the time seemed very long to me, it was the first time we had been separated since our marriage. I could not forget the frightened troubled look in his eyes. But why should I have any fear or mistrust him? Had he not done all a loving husband could do? was I not like the apple of his eye? And yet, and yet. Oh, the torture of those misgivings. My husband, ah, let me still use that dear name, my husband returned at the time expected but what had happened, was this the same Henry? Weary and careworn he threw himself into one of the chairs. Anxiety and trouble was graven in every one of his noble features. I see him now as he sat there crushed with his face buried in his hands. All my solicitude, my caresses were of no account to rouse him. I don’t know how long he sat thus, but my attention was called to the noise of loud steps in the corridor which stopped in front of the door. It was an officer I saw at a glance. Henry lifted his eyes. The officer saluted deferentially and waited to be accosted. “What do you want” asked Henry curtly. “His Majesty the King commands to deliver this letter into your Royal Highness's own hands.” replied the officer.
With this, he approached Henry respectfully and handed it to him. My husband turned deadly pale as he read. I never knew what it contained. Henry presently said to the officer, “Leave me” “His majesties commands are imperative” said the man. Henry slowly rose and whispered to me that he would return presently, with that he went out and that was the last time I ever saw him.
You cannot understand what I endured in those days, what suspense and what anguish tore at my heart. I now know who my husband was. He was a Royal prince of the reigning house and to my horror, I also discovered that our marriage on the grounds of Royalty was null and void. I had to leave the house that I had been so happy in and went into lodging. I had some money in cash besides some valuable jewelry and other things which I could turn into cash. So for the time being I was not in immediate want. While here you were born. Oh, I had something still to live for, were you not my all now? And I was still madly clinging to the hope, a wild vain hope that your father would return. Oh, the hopeless longing and yearning of my heart. I never knew what happened to him at the time. I lived there with you for several years, precariously supporting ourselves with needlework. I made the acquaintance of your reputed Father here. He paid great attention to me. His love at first was utterly repugnant to me, but he respectfully pressed his suit. I told him my story. He earnestly promised to adopt you. I did not want him. I could not love him, but the thought of you made me yield. I thought to shield and give you a name. Shortly after my marriage, we immigrated to the colonies.
During the August school holidays in 1894, Grossmutter Caroline Henriette and her daughter Tante Lena visited Gustav and Eliza, at home at Onepu and it is believed that they then had the opportunity to further discuss the subject of his paternity. After having written his Xmas box stories the essay lay among papers that were eventually discovered in 1939 after Gustavs' wife Eliza had passed away. The matter was much discussed among some family members who had all known of their fathers' likeness to Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm III. None of Gustavs' children who were still alive knew at all who his real father was. There tended to be skepticism among the boys who were really not interested, and it was the next generation that pursued the matter further in the 1960s when magazine articles about the Kaiser Wilhelm II alongside black and white photos were sent around various Rockel families with much commentary about there own and other cousins likenesses to Hohenzollern Princes. Over the ensuing years, Geoff Rockel spent a great deal of time researching the Rockel families, collecting photos and memorabilia as well as several trips to Europe where he and my mother Maureen pre perestroika visited the East German Archive in Leipzig and collated enough material to conclude circumstantially there was a very good possibility that Gustav may well have been a son of a Prussian Prince but who? Generations of Rockel have endeavored to discover the truth concerning Gustav's paternity, Geoff Rockel writing several books on family along with other family historians has well documented our lives in New Zealand and in the old countries. The exception always was the enduring mystery of Gustav's paternity along with that sense of unfulfillment felt by adopted children. Those feelings of rejection and loss of love are still passed down the generations reading Gustavs' words to this day.
On Geoff Rockel's gravestone at (Fraser Field) are the words of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1795. Much like Gustav, Geoff felt after a lifetime of family research that he may well discover in the next life the great truth of Gustavs' parentage as well as being an appropriate poem for his greater family "I am with you, however far away you may be. You are next to me! The sun is sinking, Soon the stars will shine for me. Oh, would you be there!
Ich denke dein, wenn mir der Sonne Schimmer
Vom Meere strahlt;
Ich denke dein, wenn sich des Mondes Flimmer
In Quellen malt.
Ich sehe dich, wenn auf dem fernen Wege
Der Staub sich hebt;
In tiefer Nacht, wenn auf dem schmalen Stege
Der Wandrer bebt.
Ich höre dich, wenn dort mit dumpfem Rauschen
Die Welle steigt.
Im stillen Haine geh ich oft zu lauschen,
Wenn alles schweigt.
Ich bin bei dir, du seist auch noch so ferne,
Du bist mir nah!
Die Sonne sinkt, bald leuchten mir die Sterne.
O wärst du da!
Will our generation of Rockel finally be able to quell that ache?
Our home flows over with four generations of memories of a family long passed, the file boxes heave with their life stories, their deeds, aspirations, and tears for children lost and loved ones. Poetry, drawings, and photos of old families in their vigor and youth bursting out of fingered albums. Their visages look down on me from the dining room wall, so many great grandparents who came to a new land to hew the bush and build a new Europe and a fairer society in the South Pacific.
I also feel that longing to rediscover who we are after Gustav essentially took to his grave the knowledge of who his father was. Gustav wrote that when his mother spoke to him at that visit in 1894 “from her own lips all that was to be known” it was if a new light had shone into their hearts and filled all its recesses with new warmth, had not the fury of a life long storm, a storm that allowed no peace, no rest, that had obscured the light of joy so long passed away and had he not gone to his rest too, for whom a heart had suffered so much? Peace had come at last and with it, the pure unsullied hope, freed from all earthly dross, of a happier, lasting meeting.
New DNA technologies and the invention of the internet have finally been able to move our search forward. No longer scrambling over faded tombstones covered in blackberry, or peering at scrolls of microfiche. Since 2015 it has been confirmed that we share autosomal DNA with other Hohenzollern descendants. Prior to that time, it could only ever be a fairy story.
Nothing was officially recorded in Berlin or Potsdam Church records of a marriage between Caroline Henriette Wagner and her Prussian Prince or a father's name on the birth and baptism certificate for their son Gustav. That was done deliberately by the church and Prussian State, essentially at the direction of the Hohenzollern family.
I have researched closely the lives of Waldemar von Preussen, his brother Aldabert and especially Albrecht, the youngest son of King Friedrich Wilhelm 3rd and Queen Louise. Any one of those three men could have been the lover of Caroline Henriette being in Berlin and Potsdam at the right time but none match as well as the University law student Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Graf von Brandenburg, son of Friedrich Wilhelm Graf von Brandenburg and Mathilda Aurora Freiin von Massenbach. Friedrich Wilhelm Gustav von Brandenburg was born on 24th August 1820 and baptized on the 6th October in the Garrison Community Church Berlin over a month later most likely on account of organizing the number of Noble Aunts and Uncles attending. The proximity to the Prussian monarchy and their extensive family connections is clearly observed from the entries of the godparents. King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, his sons Friedrich Wilhelm (IV.) and Wilhelm (I.), Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and his brother Grand Duke Nicholas (later Emperor Nicholas I) with his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, Charlotte, daughter of Friedrich Wilhelm III.) Anhalt-Köthen's sister and brother-in-law, as well as Count Gustav Adolph von Ingenheim and Eliza Radziwill.
His father was at this time Commander of the Regiment der Gardes du Corps which was the personal bodyguard of the King of Prussia based in Berlin but with units in neighboring Potsdam. Gustav was the third son, his older two brothers Friedrich and Wilhelm were twins born the previous year March 30th in Potsdam and he followed them into the Knights Academy Brandenburg an der Havel, a boarding school aimed at educating the Brandenburg and Pomeranian nobility, most probably from the age of eleven and expected to pass out with an Arbiter certificate (German University entrance examination.) Foreign languages and the natural sciences were taught, however, the focus was on law and political science. Anyone who wanted to be employed in the Prussian civil service had to have attended such a Ritterakademie for at least two years. The brother Wilhelm Brandenburg joined the Guard Cuirassier Regiment of the Prussian Army on July 1st 1836 aged seventeen. There he was promoted to secondary lieutenant on July 1st 1837 and from 1846 aged twenty-seven was promoted to a Regimental Adjutant. This was the most elite of the Guards regiments and all men had to be over six feet tall. The regiment was stationed in Berlin, the barracks were at Feldstrasse 39, today Alexandrinestrasse, corner of Gitschiner strasse Berlin Kreuzberg. His twin brother Friedrich joined his fathers' regiment either based in Berlin or half a day ride away in Potsdam. Promoted to Rittmeister and then later promoted to Commander of the Leibcompanie 1852, aged thirty-three.
Gustav on graduating the Knights Academy Brandenburg an der Havel with his Arbiter then entered University in Breslau 1840. At that time his father had been given command in 1839 as Lieutenant General of the VI Army based in Breslau so it was probable Gustav was living with his parents whilst studying law there. Friedrich Wilhelm Graf von Brandenburg had in 1832 purchased a Schloss and estate of 171 hectares including the village of Domanze some thirty-eight kilometers south of Breslau so it could be assumed that the family did spend time on the estate away from the garrison apartments in their free time. When Gustav departed Breslau to enter Berlin University is unknown but he was there by 1843 and studying to complete his Auskultator exam in 1844. The auscultator was the first stage of a three stage post university education in the judiciary and on passing, one could be admitted as a court trainee. By 1847 he had completed the last stage. An auscultator was not paid job but was an early version of an internship leading hopefully to a long-term law position. But what of his life between those two points?
He was at this time, 1843 aged twenty-three when he met Carolina Henriette Wagner and they started courting culminating in marriage. During the 1840s much of the area immediately south of Unter den Lindenstrasse toward the later built 1850 Landwehrkanal was housing for soldiers' families, mostly two-story buildings with gardens behind them. Closer to the Army barracks near the Kanal site on what was Feldstrasse ( Field street) but is now the intersection of Alexanderstrasse and Gitschinerstrasse, it was much more rural and houses were not built until after the 1860s. Caroline Henriette said they lived in a cottage with a garden. She also mentioned an officer at the door in a corridor so it may well have been a small apartment building with a garden in a relatively rural area still within easy walking distance to the Humbolt University on Unter den Lindenstrasse. The Garde du Corps barracks were only two and a half kilometers away from the Graf von Brandenburg apartment on the corner of Wilhelmstrasse and Unter den Lindenstrasse which is where many of the Hohenzollern families resided. I should imagine that Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg took a coach to and from the barracks. The Altlutherener Church on Annenstrasse where Caroline Henriette most probably regularly worshipped taking Gustav August Hermann 1844 and later in 1847 her second child Johannes Martin Rockel to be baptized was under two kilometers from the university and only a little over one kilometer from the barracks where the brother Wilhelm von Brandenburg probably resided. Most likely after she was married to guardsman Rockel in the Potsdam Garrison church, they still lived close by. All of this area was burnt out with incendiary bombs in World War Two, nothing remains of that time other than old maps.
With regard to her being “ So in spite of my convictions, I yielded and we were quietly married,” that implies few people, she had lost her parents, maybe her stepmother was still in Potsdam. Her brothers would have left home and gone. Her employer would have been aware of the changed circumstance. Most certainly Gustav von Brandenburg would not have told his parents who were at that time three hundred kilometers away in Breslau, possibly some of his siblings knew. In the normal course of events, a church wedding would involve the bans being read on three Sundays as well as an exchange of letters between parishes establishing that it was legal union in that it would not be bigamous. They obviously knew this and Caroline Henriette agreed after much protestation to a morganatic marriage. Gustav's grandfather had done this previously on several occasions, the time with his grandmother Sophia von Donhoff, Friedrich Wilhelm II used Johann Friedrich Zollner a preacher at the Marienkirche Berlin to marry her quietly with little fuss and with his lawful wive’s
agreement. I believe that Caroline Henriette knew Gustav was a von Brandenburg but had not realized that he was descended from an illegitimate child of Hohenzollern. He obviously did not tell her for that surely would have been the end of the romance. She would have known that his father was Lieutenant General of the VI Army based in Breslau and that the brothers were with the Gardes regiments Potsdam and Berlin and that they were indeed a noble family. All officers were vons. She herself was a military child, daughter of a soldier, and knew of the social hierarchy surrounding such things and of the socially impossible situation she faced. In German society distinctions mattered, a person's Stand (Standeserhohung-elevation) indicated which legally defined class of society he or she belonged to and Caroline Henriette wrote: “I remonstrated with him that our love could come to nothing, as his family would never consent to a union with a poor dependant burghers daughter”. Peasants were the lowest hence her abuse to JG Rockel calling him a “niedrige Kerl” and a “Gartner.” She obviously considered herself to be socially his superior. There was a high degree of nativity exhibited from both of them and definitely a sense of entitlement clouded the judgment of von Brandenburg for he knew of and saw this behavior exhibited openly by his male cousins and uncles. As to who married them we do not know nor is there a record that would have been destroyed by the Secret Police led by von Wittgenstein at the behest of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV.
The young man was a student studying law and obviously living on an allowance provided by his parents. This situation is so true, blinded by love, mostly oblivious to the reality of their situation. Caroline Henriette wrote: when not busy with his studies, he devoted his time to me and often took me out, either in society or to parties in the country. It was a very happy time those few months of bliss with my husband. But it was the calm that always proceeds a great storm and I had a few warnings that made me fear that danger was threatening us. Henry (Gustav) came home one night very much troubled, I could see something had occurred that had very much affected him. He seemed to have suddenly grown much older and was very absent-minded.
It is possible that Gustav and Henriette did travel to Gut Beerbaum, an estate previously belonging to his grandmother Sophia von Donhoff who had died in 1838 and bequeathed it to her son Friedrich Wilhelm and daughter Julie who had married Ferdinand Friedrich von Anhalt-Kothen in 1816. Beerbaum was some thirty kilometers to the northeast of Berlin and since the Brandenburgs were not farmers but active military officers, the very large estate was managed by a firm of estate managers. The manor house was vacant and only used occasionally by family so I can imagine that the grandsons did party there. Gustav's society friends would have been students from similar social backgrounds as himself, some, probably old pals from the Ritterakademie. News of these activities and rumors of his relationship with Caroline Henriette would have reached his parents in Breslau resulting in letters being sent to Gustav with please explain. This then would have been exacerbated when she revealed that she was now pregnant. Suddenly the weight of the world would have been on his shoulders. What previously had seemed so wonderful and certain, now increasingly was threatened when he knew most certainly it would come to a conclusion in a meeting with his parents and most likely an outcome, not to his satisfaction. This meeting would account for the two-day absence from home as recorded by Caroline Henriette where Gustav met his parents and attempted to argue his case for his marital situation. It would have been pointed out to him the consequences, that he was on an allowance which could be withdrawn plus if he pursued this path, his expectations of succession rights or inheritance would be withdrawn. Gustav if he had any courage and initiative should have argued his case, after all, he was training as a lawyer and increasingly the laws in Prussia around marital mismatches were slowly changing. He knew that he was facing an unpaid period of tenure as he completed his Auskultator. How was he going to support his wife and child? Perhaps he did storm out declaring that he would carry on, prepared to leave the benefits of the nobility behind, and returned home to slump in his chair. Caroline Henriette wrote: “My husband, ah, let me still use that dear name, my husband returned at the time expected but what had happened, was this the same Henry (Gustav)? Weary and careworn he threw himself into one of the chairs. Anxiety and trouble were graven in every one of his noble features. I see him now as he sat there crushed with his face buried in his hands. All my solicitude, my caresses were of no account to rouse him.”
Gustavs' mother, Mathilda Aurora von Massenbach had been a Lady in Waiting for Queen Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria prior to Friedrich Wilhelm becoming King. They remained very good friends and it can be assumed that Gustavs' parents were in a strong position to request that the King do something about their son's actions. It was at this point that Gustav received the summons.
Caroline Henriette wrote: “My attention was called to the noise of loud steps in the corridor which stopped in front of the door. It was an officer I saw at a glance. Henry( Gustav) lifted his eyes. The officer saluted deferentially and waited to be accosted. “What do you want” asked Henry(Gustav) curtly. “His Majesty the King commands to deliver this letter into your Royal Highness's own hands.” replied the officer. With this, he approached Henry (Gustav) respectfully and handed it to him. My husband turned deadly pale as he read. I never knew what it contained. Henry (Gustav) presently said to the officer, “Leave me” The officer replied “His Majesties commands are imperative”
“Henry (Gustav) slowly rose and whispered to me that he would return presently, with that he went out and that was the last time I ever saw him.”
King Friedrich Wilhelm IV was known to be conservative and this was a less than ideal time to broach such subjects. He and Elisabeth had recently taken into his home his brother's children after Albrecht and Mariane had a scandalous marriage breakdown, she running off with the horse whipper van Rossom and Albrecht with Rosalie von Rauch. The King had declared he was cleaning out the cesspool. Also, cousin Prince Aldabert had sired a son in 1840 by the dancer Therese Elssler, and he had notions of marrying her. Other cousins had sired multiple illegitimate children, most were disinherited or sent away to the colonies. His own brother Prince Wilhelm had children with Elisa Radziwill and their father had not allowed marriage for reasons of State to proceed and those children disappeared to the English colonies. Even he was reputed to have sired a child by one of his sister Charlotte’s Ladies in Waiting in Russia.
Gustavs' parents would have requested of the King that their son be told in no uncertain terms that he had needed the King's permission to marry and since he had not undertaken to do so, the marriage between Gustav and Caroline Henriette was null and void. King Friedrich Wilhelm IV would have obliged. Furthermore, he arranged for Gustav to be sent far away from Berlin to Paris where he would continue his Auskultator in the Prussian Embassy as a minor functionary. From Caroline Henriette's account: “You cannot understand what I endured in those days, what suspense and what anguish tore at my heart. I now know who my husband was. He was a Royal prince of the reigning house and to my horror, I also discovered that our marriage on the grounds of Royalty was null and void.” No doubt Caroline Henriette made inquiries resulting in someone representing the von Brandenburgs visiting her and explaining exactly who her husband was and making it plain their relationship was now at an end and furthermore she had better quickly arrange alternative accommodation. Caroline Henriette wrote: “I had to leave the house I had been so happy in and went into lodging. I was still madly clinging to the hope, a wild vain hope that your father would return. Oh, the hopeless longing and yearning of my heart.”
And what of Gustav? In fairy tales, the prince runs off with the commoner and lives happily ever after. He could have run off to America with her as some did and assume anonymity in a free land with few constricting social norms. He never was so brave, gallant, or adventurous. That was the pathway for his former wife Caroline Henriette. Not for him to take a risk, a bland man, a safe, cautious, and steady man trained for the civil service. Not for him the cut and thrust of battles like his brothers or father! Perhaps I am unduly harsh. He never married, never had any other children or affairs that I am aware of. Was she his only one true love and he swore vengeance on his family by way of ensuring from him at least, no noble grandchildren for what his parents did? We do not know. Were his parents, uncles, and aunts such strong personalities that he was completely subjugated? Were six of his siblings also so traumatized by these actions they never married. Three daughters of Friedrich Wilhelm and Mathilda Aurora von Brandenburg spent a greater part of their lives in the nunnery (Kloster) at Heiligengrabe about 100km northwest of Berlin. This Heiligenstife took in women born to Noble families who were now in straightened circumstances. Noble widows and old maids families paid the nunnery a fee to look after them. The daughters were at that time aged 33,35 and 36 years of age. Were they rejected because they were so unattractive, had no redeeming qualities, could not love men, or did the family have no money or little future prospects? One daughter became a Lady in Waiting for Queen Augusta the wife of Kaiser Wilhelm 1st and the only one to marry was Mathilda to Erdmann von Puckler in 1847.
It is recorded that Gustav had by 1847 completed his trainee exam and then left Paris for Breslau Silesia where he worked for the Government Council from 1848-to 1849.
We know that in1844 there were discussions held with King Friedrich Wilhelm IV to work out how the von Brandenbugs were going to pay out Julie von Anhalt-Kothens half share of the Beerbaum estate, now six years after Sophie von Donhoffs death. On the 17th of August 1844, the need for support was discussed with Queen Elizabeth, I assumed it to be financial rather than emotional support for Mathilda Aurora von Brandenburg plus on the next day the need to discuss plans for the marriage of her daughter to Erdmann von Puckler. August was also the month her son started work in Paris and Caroline Henriette had just given birth to Gustav August Hermann two weeks earlier. The daughter Mathilda in any event did not marry von Puckler for another three years. Were there financial constraints? Was the family in upheaval? Was there even a plan to marry the daughter early and adopt the brother Gustavs' child into that union? At any rate, Caroline Henriette, a solo mother without family support, did an exemplary task, successfully raising her child in such an appalling situation. In the 1894 letter to her son, she had remarked that “I never knew what had happened to him at that time” indicating that at some time after her crisis she had actually found out. Our family has always suspected that after her marriage to JG Rockel they received assistance to immigrate and establish themselves in South Australia. Gustav August Hermann did mention his mother received a small annuity every year and he was seemingly familiar with a firm of solicitors on Grenfell street Adelaide South Australia. On moving to New Zealand the family had business with the German consul Friedrich Krull, however nothing has been found to prove that the von Brandenburg or Hohenzollern had any further contact of any kind after her abandonment! She mentions that at this time 1844-1847 she led a very precarious existence taking in needlework to support herself and her son. Gustav August Hermann's earliest childhood memories are of this time. He wrote, that he remembered beautiful houses and trees, and fountains, people were there too, beautifully dressed ladies and gentlemen. Some of these the latter were dressed alike in green and some red. My great grandfather Herbert said his father could also remember his mother working at a large heavy table with green felt on it. I should imagine it was her sewing work desk and he was of an age just able to peer above it. His memories of men in green and red would be soldiers which is understandable as most of her friends and acquaintances would be associated with the barracks at Potsdam where her father had been based. There always was in my family a strong belief from anecdotal stories that the Regimental and Garrison Church authorities took a strong interest in her situation so much so she felt pressured by them to accept Landwehr Grenadier Johann Gottlieb Rockel Garde Regiment as her husband and again according to family legend, he was only very reluctantly accepted.
Johann Gottlieb Rockel was at the time of his marriage to Caroline Henriette aged twenty-three and she twenty-five. They were most certainly not unknown to each other. Rockel was born to Anna Rockel, his father unknown. Anna worked in Schloss Bledau, her Rockel family had been Tennant farmers on the nearby Grunhoff estate for hundreds of years and before that time had been Jotvingian Baltic tribes peoples. They stemmed from Rukal, son of Skomant who had fought against the Teutonic Knights in 1260 AD, adventurers from Germany introducing Christianity, rape, and plunder at the point of a sword. Rockel, Reimann, Morr, and Wagner are recurring names in many villages and small hamlets on the Samland Peninsula in East Prussia, so it is possible that Caroline Henriette and JG Rockel were even distant cousins! JG Rockel was raised by an Uncle Hermann Rockel in Powunden and possibly apprenticed to Reimann's bootmaking workshop on Rippenstrasse Konigsberg. This workshop was associated with the army trade school. This is the same Reimann, father of Caroline Henriette's stepmother Juliane Rebecca who married her father Martin Ferdinand Wagner. At the age of twenty, JG Rockel was drafted into the Grenadier Garde battalion of the 2nd East Prussian Regiment Konigsberg in the autumn of1844 then from there into Kaiser Alexander Garde Regiment commanded by Colonel von Doring and garrisoned in Potsdam. Perhaps JG Rockel was requested by the Reimans of Konigsberg to look up their daughter Juliane Rebecca Wagner which led to him meeting up with Caroline Henriette Wagner in her straitened circumstances, she later wrote these words, “I made the acquaintance of your reputed Father here. He paid great attention to me. His love at first was utterly repugnant to me, but he respectfully pressed his suit. I told him my story. He earnestly promised to adopt you. I did not want him. I could not love him, but the thought of you made me yield. I thought to shield and give you a name.”The fact remains that despite her reluctance, when they married on the 28th June 1847 in the Garrison church in Potsdam she was six months pregnant with his child, Johannes Martin Rockel. Johannes Martin Rockel was born on 14th October 1847, Prussia was in unrest politically, a series of crop failures, famine, and a financial depression led to the Vormarz, a period preceding the 1848 March revolution. Friedrich Wilhelm IV had been dragging his feet with liberalizing the government. There was insurrection all over Europe producing riots in many cities. We believe Rockel then with one of the Garde-Reserve Infanterie Regiment based in Potsdam was sent to maneuvers at Kustrin on the Oder river and then back to the Spandau Garrison. He was one of the soldiers sent to quell the Berlin riots, said to have been a sharpshooter and involved with the shooting of rioters and clearing the barricades on Luisenstrasse, and then guarding the streets between the Royal Palace and the Opera House.
Gustav von Brandenburg was now in Breslau, having returned earlier from Paris in 1847, he would have attended his sister Mathilda’s wedding to Erdmann von Puckler Freiherr von Groditz 24th May 1847 held at the von Brandenburg families Schloss Domanze Silesia, then taking up his new job in the Government Council in Breslau. It was also at this time according to the Political Archive that he became a Premier Leutnant d.R (First Lieutenant in the army reserves) holding that position until he turned sixty years of age in 1879. His father Friedrich Wilhelm then Commander of the sixth army based in Breslau was asked in November 1848 by his half nephew Friedrich Wilhelm IV to return to Berlin to take up the position of Prime Minister. The appointment reflected the Kings intention to quell the ongoing uprisings. What better than a relative and a strong military man in your pocket. Von Brandenburg together with the King removed the Assembly from Berlin and then dissolved it and imposed a new constitution restoring the leading role of the crown, the army, and the bureaucracy.
The Rockel family, Johann Gottlieb, Caroline Henriette, Gustav August Hermann, and Johannes Martin in late March 1848 only two weeks after the riots, billeted for a time in Hamburg while the Regiment was on route to put down a border dispute with Denmark. From here they slipped away to Bremen, down the river to Bremerhaven leaving Prussia on 10th April 1848 on the Leontine and away to a new life in Hoffnungsthal Lyndoch Valley South Australia, arriving in Port Adelaide on 1st August 1848.
On April 22nd, 1850 it is recorded that Gustav was conscripted to the Prussian Foreign Service, the start of his diplomatic career as an Attaché to the Paris Embassy. His Aunt Julie von Anhalt-Kothens had passed away childless. His sisters except one remained unmarried. His twin brothers had advanced their military careers, and also unmarried, Friedrich was soon to become Chief of the 6th company Garde du Corps. Wilhelm was promoted to Squadron Chief of the Garde Cuirassier Regiment. They followed near identical career paths so much so that it was said when one cut himself the other would bleed.
Their father Friedrich Wilhelm Graf von Brandenburg Prime Minister of Prussia died suddenly, aged fifty-eight, only two years into his job in perhaps almost suspicious circumstances on the 6th November 1850 after having fallen unwell three days previously during negotiations with the Russians and Austrians in the Russian Embassy Warsaw after opposing his nephew King Friedrich Wilhelm IV concerning the mobilization of the Prussian army against Austria. The following was recorded, Sagen November 8th, 1850, in the diary of Dorothea von Biron, a notorious gossip and good friend of Grafin von Brandenburg who was present in Warsaw accompanying her husband.
“We are passing through dark days. Just at the time when Count Brandenburg had gained a hearing for his pacific views, he fell ill and died. Radowitz is certainly going to Erfurt, but Ladenberg is returning to the council, and orders are published to make every preparation for war. Count Brandenburg died in consequence of overstrain during the last two years of the acrimonious scenes through which he had to live at Warsaw, of the very stormy discussion which took place in the council on his return, and also of a chill which followed this hurricane. An important despatch came in during the night and he got up to reply to it: he was immediately taken with a shivering fit and was carried off with a gastric fever complicated with gout; he was bled and given an emetic most inadvisedly, so people say. It is possible, but doctors seem to me to be nothing but the agents of Providence; they cure or kill according to the completion which the sick man's task has reached. This death deprives the King of one of his most loyal and disinterested (unbiased) servants. The hand of fate is obvious in all these events and produces general despondency and consternation.”
In any event, just hours after von Brandenburgs' death, Prussia did mobilize and had a short skirmish against Austrian-backed Bavarian troops before negotiating an embarrassing settlement.
Dorothea von Biron, Sagen November 15th, 1850 “My brother-in-law came back yesterday from Berlin where he had left a state of peace. The King had visited the Austrian Minister; a long explanation took place which began with some temper and afterward grew calm. Eventually, they separated in mutual satisfaction. I can only pray that nothing but good may result from this explanation and that no further clouds will come to obscure the horizon. Radowitz has so infuriated the Prince of Prussia that in a council held upon the return of the Count of Brandenburg (body) from Warsaw in which Radowitz preached peace, the Prince accused him of treachery to his country in no measured terms. The poor Count (von Brandenburg) felt this reproach so deeply that it is generally thought to have been the cause of his death. The fact remains that in his delirium this scene was continually before his mind and caused him the greatest uneasiness.”
Enough said, European politics seems hardly changed today from two hundred years ago. If von Brandenburg was poisoned by hawkish Prussian advisers we will never know but the whole of that period was one of continuous political intrigue. It certainly had consequences for the von Brandenburg family. The son Gustav returned from Paris for the funeral held in the Berlin Dom, and his father's body entered the crypt below.
The will distributed the estates of Domanze and Beerbaum equally among his six children with his wife Mathilda von Brandenburg having a life interest in them by way of income. Gustav returned to the Prussian Embassy and was promoted to Legation Secretary in 1851 His mother unfortunately only lived for a further six years passing away in 1855, her body was also placed in the Berlin Dom. It seems at this time that Mathilda von Puckler may have bought out her sibling's shares of Beerbaum and Domanze but they remained able to live and enjoy those properties for the rest of their lives. This is uncertain, however, the properties did move to von Puckler ownership in 1909. It is at this time Gustavs sisters Alexandrine and Julie entered the aristocratic Kloster at Heiligengrabe. In 1847 Abess Luise von Schierstedt had founded an educational institution for girls from impoverished Noble families indicating possible financial constraints for the sisters since their parents were now deceased and they were in their thirties. They may well have been teachers at this institution. Younger sister Elisabeth joined them there a few years later. They spent most of their lives there, two at least later living for a time and dying at Domanze in Silesia. The youngest sister Marianne born in 1834 became a lady in waiting for Empress Augusta von Saxe -Weimar wife of Kaiser Wilhelm 1st, who had a habit of installing his lovers as ladies in waiting for his wife. I don’t know if Marianne was such a companion to him. On the 14th of May 1855, Gustav Graf von Brandenburg aged thirty-five was transferred to the Prussian Embassy in London as Legation Councilor. His mother had passed away on the 5th of March, he would have returned home for the funeral and then been reassigned to Westminster from Paris.
In 1856, it seems at the instigation of Gustav von Brandenburg and with the agreement of his siblings it was decided to build a mausoleum close to the Evangelical church at Schloss Domanze. The bodies of their father and mother now in the Berliner Dom crypt were transported from the capital to Domanze where there was a small parade through the village followed by speeches and a male choir singing with the caskets placed in the crypt beneath the small chapel. Originally there was an altar with a black marble cross in the center of the chapel with the words, “Selig sind die Toten, die im Herrn gestorben sind,”over the door. The chapel interior has a wooden ceiling. It is still in use today as the cemetery chapel, the original church is now gone, pulled down in 1960. The design of the mausoleum was prepared by Stieler from Berlin with construction undertaken by Wenzig from Frybork and Vogel from Breslau.
In the nineteenth century, a chestnut avenue led from the road to the palace, and a manor and farmyard was established. On both sides of the entrance, two identical small buildings were erected, which probably served as a coach house and a gatehouse. Behind them, opposite to each other, large buildings were built, the one on the right was intended for a stable and a granary, while in the outbuilding on the left there were apartments for officials and a stable for horses. The economic and administrative part was separated from the residence by a dry moat, and the palace courtyard was entered by a stone bridge.
Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg had spent a great deal on upgrading the Schloss since purchasing it in 1832. Many stained glass windows were installed, now works of art thankfully preserved in Wroclaw. This was a description from that time. There is a fountain in front of the main entrance to the palace, surrounded by old linden trees. The stone lion holds in its paws the coat of arms of the Brandenburgs, the owners of the palace since 1832. Near the rocky slope, a garden pavilion with bathing facilities and a belvedere with a view of the distant mountains was built. The baroque garden at the foot of the residence was turned into a landscape park in the 19th century, and the garden slopes were planted with lilacs, which made Domanice known as the "lilac castle".
By the time Gustav August Hermann moved with his parents to New Zealand in 1860 from South Australia, he had besides his brother Martin, now four half-sisters, Anna b 1851, Clara b 1854 Gertrude b 1856, and Lena b 1859, and five cousins, born to Erdmann and Mathilda von Puckler. It is highly likely Gustav August Hermann had no knowledge of them and his embarrassing existence was probably never spoken of in this family. The cousins were Wilhelm b1849, Friedrich 1852,Nikolaus b 1854, Erdmann b 1857 and Mathilda b 1859. I record them because we Rockel in New Zealand relate to the descendants of Friedrich von Puckler living in Germany today matching them generation by generation. When we look at old black and white photos, they seem to be of a time so long ago, that they can seem to have little relevance to ourselves in 2022. However, on reflection, not always, Tante Lena for instance, the younger half-sister of Gustav August Hermann born in 1859, she remained unmarried and looked after her mother Caroline Henriette until she passed away in 1912.
This was three years after Caroline Henriette's first husband Gustav von Brandenburg had died in 1909 aged 89. I was born in 1952 and Tante Lena passed in 1955 aged 97. She was bright and alert in her old age and would have known of my birth. I remember well Gustav August Hermann's son, Herbert Martin, my great grandfather born in 1869 so we do span well the gap in time.
Our family has photos that date back to the mid-1860s so it is not unreasonable to expect that Gustav Graf von Brandenburg being the last surviving member of his family would have been in possession of the family photo albums with photos extending back at least forty years. On his death, in 1909, any such memorabilia would have passed to his sisters von Puckler family and in the normal course of events they would have passed down to the present-day descendants. I have asked the von Puckler von Schwichow family if they have any knowledge of such things and to date have not had a reply. The now elderly family members escaped from Silesia as children probably only with the clothes they were wearing so it is likely that all such things were destroyed by the Russians in the burning of the Von Puckler Schloss in 1945. There is always a chance that like many records gathering dust in storage in Germany that they may surface in the future. There is only one photo of his fathers' sister. Alexandra Friederike Wilhelmine Marianne (May 3, 1834-December 5, 1885), she was a lady-in-waiting of Empress Augusta. Gustav Graf von Brandenburg was recorded in the English 1861 census as Legation Councillor living at the German Embassy, Carlton house in Westminster St Martin in the Fields, Middlesex England under Prussian Embassy Envoy Albrecht Graf von Bernstorff and general staff and servants of about thirty housed within the Embassy. Graf von Bernstorff left the same year to become Prussian Foreign Minister. It was said he had excelled at promoting excellent Anglo-German relations. It seems that Gustav was acting head for a year until von Bernstorff returned after having had Otto von Bismark replace him as Foreign Minister.
On 23-6-1864, Gustav was promoted as the Prussian and later North German Federation Envoy to Portugal based in Lisbon, a post he held for just over ten years. There was a large German community of Germans living in Lisbon and Gustav is recorded as the inaugural president of the German Club in Lisbon, December 17-1870, a post he held for the whole tenure of his embassy post. It was at this time many German businesses became established in Portugal. This jolly club thrived and later had a farm and school but in the First War 1914-18, Portugal confiscated the property of the club. Again in the Second World War, all the archives went missing thus no further information about Gustav von Brandenburg is forthcoming. Are we to assume he lived like a cloistered saint, probably not, but no children have been discovered as yet either in England or Portugal!
From this time, Gustav von Brandenburg was now employed by the Auswartiges Amt, (Foreign Office) established in 1870 to form the foreign policy of the North German Confederation and later the German Empire. The Foreign Office was said to be very socially exclusive, one needed a university degree, preferably in jurisprudence, two foreign languages as well as a considerable private income of at least 6000 marks per annum. This was said to be the reason why many German diplomats had married rich women because without the wealth of their wives they would never have been able to join the Foreign Office. In the 19th century, it was believed that only aristocrats had the proper social standing and grace to correctly represent the Empire abroad as ambassadors.
Below is a little history as recorded by the present-day club.
A report by the Prussian Legate, Count Raczinsky, on the Germans in Portugal, reveals that in the middle of the century there were already about 400 Germans residing in Lisbon. Some were on duty at the Court, others were officers in the Portuguese army and navy; the majority, however, worked in the commerce and banking sectors. Many of these Germans played an important role in the development of the welcoming country that for some became the new “homeland”. We cannot list here all those who at the time contributed to the development of relations between Portugal and Germany. To mention just a few, we remember Alfred Keil, the composer of the Portuguese national anthem, the Wagner, Neuparth and Haupt families of musicians, the painters August Roquemont and Ludwig Katzenstein, the Biester, Biel, Borchers, Gildemeester, Lindenberg, von Weyhe, Hintze, Baron von Kessler, Wimmer. We know, from documents and letters, that in those years the Germans met many times and that they enjoyed a good reputation with the Portuguese kings D. Fernando II (also German), D. Pedro V, and D. Luís I. As a result of this situation and the events in Germany and Europe, which culminated in the founding of the German Empire in January 1871, the Germans residing in Lisbon and surroundings founded, on December 17, 1870, the “German Club in Lisbon”. As honorary president, the first German Legate in Portugal, Count von Brandenburg, was appointed. A few weeks later, the first headquarters were opened at Rua do Alecrim 28, which was leased, under special conditions, to the Portuguese king D. Luís I of the house of Bragança. This first club headquarters was located in the city center at the time, having, from its rooms and terrace, a splendid view over the Tagus estuary and the port.
Two decades later, the Club was faced with difficulties, as it had received the termination of the rental contract by the Bragança house. In a letter dated March 22, 1893, the Club's president, Alfred Carpesius, tried to annul the termination of the contract. This letter no longer managed to change the decision to install one of the first Portuguese breweries in the building, later known as “Cervejaria Jansen”. However, through the intervention of the royal family, the Club managed to install itself, in the following year, in a new headquarters in Pátio de Pimenta 2. It was in this house that the Club lived one of its heydays, until the beginning of the First World War. Far beyond the borders of Lisbon, the Club became famous for its conviviality and its active cultural life. The house was frequented by poets, and musicians, With the beginning of the first world war (1914-1918) and the withdrawal of many Germans residing in Portugal, the German Club in Lisbon was faced with an increase in difficulties. At this time, namely in 1915, Mr. Hans Wimmer came to preside over the Club and pursue its objectives, albeit with significant difficulties, until in 1916, following the declaration of war by Portugal, the Club's life was completely extinct.
There is no evidence left to leave any clues about what sort of person Gustav Graf von Brandenburg was, only the bare bones of his job description and the number of years working in an embassy to formulate the measure of the man. To date, no photos of him exist. Was he a bland grey bureaucrat with no interests, passions, or any relationships after our Caroline Henriette? Was he not prepared to have a contrary opinion recorded against him but wished only to live a quiet unassuming life after having experienced parents and Palace interference in his idealistic student days? Rockel traits do not generally follow these characteristics but are often noted as outspoken, contrarian types trending to verbosity. Hopefully, in the future, evidence can be found to shed a little light on what his personality was like!
Gustav's grandfather, Christian von Massenbach, a General and author was a vocal critic of the Kings handling of the Battle of Sale. Friedrich Wilhelm III confiscated von Massenbachs memoirs and later imprisoned him in Kustrin Fortress for fourteen years for treason. His Grandmother Julie Sophie von Donhoff was also a well-known haughty hot head. On one occasion she marched into Friedrich Wilhelm II personal Royal opera box in a disheveled state in front of hundreds of people, throwing her son (Gustav's father) in a cradle at his feet saying, “There, take back your property”! He may well have inherited some of those characteristics! The following ten years in the Brussels embassy must have been fraught at times.In September 1876, a Geographic Conference was held in Brussels initiated by King Leopold II of Belgium to coordinate the European advance into Africa. King Leopold began to acquire a colony as a private citizen, later becoming infamous as responsible for the mass genocide of over five million people as he exploited the Congo amassing a huge personal fortune. Gustav would have been involved in presenting the German Reich’s position. Germany was still very much involved in establishing a new unified Germany. Without a deep water navy and unable to participate in imperialistic scrambles for remote colonial territory in the style of Great Britain whom Germany greatly admired, Bismark was in charge of foreign policy, and as von Brandenburg's Boss, he concentrated on German interests in the Continent until 1891 before he started acquiring colonies abroad. Gustav von Brandeburg held his position as Ambassador in Brussels for ten years until January 24th, 1888 as well as becoming in 1880 a Wirklicher Geheimer Rat. A Real Privy Councillor (with the predicate of excellence) "Real Privy Council" was given as a distinction to the highest officials. The same is usually associated with the predicate excellence. He held both positions until his retirement on 13 January 1888.During the 1880s Germany belatedly joined other European powers in the scramble for colonies in Africa. Such was the risk of European nations coming into conflict over African territory that it was decided to hold a conference to mutually decide on regulations they should all abide by. King Leopold under the auspicious of his holding company had hired Henry Stanley to explore the Congo region and establish a colony with a view toward further expansion in Africa and King Leopold wished to be recognized as sovereign of most of the area to which he and Stanley had laid claim. A great deal of political maneuvering took place culminating in the Berlin Congo Conference of 1884-1885. With support from the British and the initiative of Portugal, Otto von Bismark, called on representatives of 13 nations in Europe as well as the United States to take part. Gustav was present at this conference since he had a good understanding of both the Portuguese and Belgians' points of view versus the German perspective and wishes. The General Act of the Berlin Conference formalized several points: powers could only possess colonies if they maintained sufficient authority to administer and defend them. Leopold won his claim, “The Congo Free State” only to lose it years later after the dreadful things he perpetrated there. Neither did the 1884 German colonization of German South-West Africa go well for the Herero and Nama tribes who rebelled against German colonization and were then subject to ethnic extermination by German troops.Awarded with high orders of merit aged sixty-eight, Gustav von Brandenburg retired from the Foreign Office in 1888 with an annual pension of 12,500 marks. In 1888, a top English civil servant earned about 300 pounds per annum, a tradesperson about 100 pounds. At that time roughly exchanged, 12,500 marks were worth 600 pounds. Besides his pension, Gustav collected rentals from the Beerbaum and Domanze farm estates so he would have been moderately well set up for his retirement. Two sisters had passed away, one sister, Alexandra Friederike, the lady in waiting for Empress Augusta had passed away on December 5th, 1885, Luise Julie, an honorary lady at Heiligengrabe Kloster the year before on August 24th, 1884 so the estate's earnings would have been shared amongst his remaining siblings.1888, was the “Year of the Three Kaisers”, the death of Kaiser Wilhelm 1st and sadly the death of his son Kaiser Friedrich III from throat cancer only three months later, then the inauguration of his son Wilhelm as Kaiser Wilhelm 2nd. Gustav would have arrived back in Germany from his Brussels Embassy post-February and hardly settled in before having to attend his cousin's funeral in March. It is likely that he along with his two brothers, Friedrich and Wilhelm, now retired Generals would have attended all three functions. I have looked closely at Anton Werner’s detailed paintings for them but cannot discern them as yet. Apart from one sister, Friederike Wilhelmina Elisabeth Mathilde who had married Erdmann von Puckler, all siblings remained unmarried and possibly for a short time were once again all together in their old age at Schloss Domanze. It appears that the two remaining sisters at the Kloster Heiligengrabe who were probably in teaching positions at the nunnery retired in their final years to Schloss Domanze.Gustav outlived them all and buried them in the von Brandenburg family crypt at Domanze next to the Lutheran Church. The church was naturally pulled down by the Catholic Polish people from the eastern part of Poland annexed by Ukraine along with displaced Poles from Małopolska and relocated by the Russians to Domanze before the expulsion of the Germans from villages and farms in 1945-1947.The two twins Friedrich and Wilhelm died within three months of each other, mirroring in death as they had done in life, with almost identical careers. Wilhelm von Brandenburg died March 22nd 1892, his brother Friedrich on August 3rd 1892. Sister Friederike Wilhelmina Georgine Elisabeth September 13th 1893 and last sister Wilhelmina Charlotte Friederike Julie Alexandrine on August 8th 1902.Did Gustav Graf von Brandenburg at this time feel his mortality, had the siblings discussed what had occurred all those years ago when so young bending to parental influences? Now none of them with children except for the von Puckler nieces and nephews?It was in August of 1894 that Caroline Henriette Rockel told her son Gustav August Hermann the true identity of his biological father and it was in November that he wrote his allegorical story “The Xmas Box” for a Newspaper short story competition. In the story, he says that the arrival of a letter from Germany with a bequest precipitated his mother's explanation to him. In the same story, he says his mother had received annually a small stipend through a firm of solicitors in Adelaide South Australia where the family had emigrated from Berlin Prussia in 1848.Caroline Henriette had always refused to tell her son of his real father, for a multitude of reasons but mostly feelings of shame for having been placed in such a terrible situation, alone with a child, all those years ago and no doubt shame for her first husband Gustav Graf von Brandenburg for having no strength of character or courage standing up for them both against his Hohenzollern family. She had waited two years for him to return, he never did. In the year 1894 when our Gustav finally learned of his noble heritage, he was fifty years of age, a most distinguished-looking man with a strong resemblance to Kaiser Friedrich III. He and Eliza were parents of twelve children and nearly forty grandchildren. Did Gustav Graf von Brandenburg ever know how his abandoned son had flourished so far from the fatherland? Johann Gottlieb Rockel, his son Martin and son-in-law Thomas Parsons had for a number of years a brewing business relationship with the Prussian Governments Resident German Consul Friedrich August Krull based in Wellington until 1881. It is not improbable that Krull may have communicated with Gustav von Brandenburg, a fellow Envoy for the German Foreign Service in Brussels keeping him abreast of his distant family. We will never know. Nor do we know the veracity of a bequest to Gustav August Hermann or an annuity for his mother. Bank records were long ago destroyed. A will for Gustav von Brandenburg may exist somewhere, yet to be discovered.Gustav August Hermann never told his children who he was, nor did he ever try to contact his father as far as we know. “The Xmas Box” story was never found or spoken of for another forty-five years. At the time of his mother's revelation, his father was still very much alive, not dying until 1909 at the age of eighty-nine most probably all alone in his Schloss except for servants leaving all family assets to his sister's children, the von Pucklers. My Grandfather Alfred was born in 1901, a great-grandson that Gustav von Brandenburg never had a chance to know of him, all such a shame. Back in Prussia, the Brandenburg branch of the Hohenzollern family had withered away, finally to have all former evidence of their existence expunged by the avenging Russian 1945 advancement in one last indignity. As the front line passed through the town, the coffins in the crypt were emptied out on the grass by looting soldiers and the bodies were checked for jewelry and other valuables. The remains were gathered up by villagers sometime later and re-interred in the crypt which was filled in and the door forever sealed. Within two years all those same villagers were forcibly removed from their homes and farms and expelled to Iserlohn Westphalia. The headstones over their forefather's graves in the churchyard were then bulldozed clean to remove any evidence of German history.
Anycomments welcome: Paul Rockel rockelkaym@xtra.co.nz
