I managed to find a birthdate for him - he was born on 27 May 1820, in Hamburg1, to Johann Ludwig Mondientz and his wife Anna Catharina née Kuntzmann. He appears to have been the eldest child in a family of at least seven children. Adolph’s father was the Markt Vogt (Market Bailiff) of the Neustadt in Hamburg.
In January 1842 Adolph was conscripted for military service in the Hamburg Citizen Militia2. The term of service was 3 years, but after training, if it was peacetime, they were given 11 months leave per year, and had compulsory weapons training for the remaining month. It is likely that Adolph would have been required to assist during the great fire of Hamburg in May 1842, assuming he had finished his training.
The next we hear of Adolph was in December 1843, aged 23, when he fathered a daughter (Emma Auguste Bertha) to Auguste Borsch3. Baby Emma was baptised in St Jacobi church, Magdeburg, on 1 January 1844. Adolph was named in the baptism record as the father, but it is unknown whether Adolph was ever in Magdeburg or whether the baby was conceived there. There is no evidence that Adolph and Auguste ever married, and Auguste and Emma remained in Magdeburg, while Adolph continued his life without them. Did he even know of the existence of his first child? Further research has revealed that Auguste apparently moved to Berlin with Emma, and married and had further children with another man.
Since there wasn’t really a family business for Adolph to follow his father into, Adolph ended up working as a Dekorations Maler (decorative painter) in theatre productions. He also worked as an Inspicient (stage manager), and sometimes acted in productions as well. Whether the work in this field was not terribly steady, or Adolph had itchy feet, he moved around a lot, mostly in towns and cities close to the Rhine River, from what is now north-western Germany down to the Frankfurt area.
On 11 June 1844, the mother of Adolph’s future children, Charlotte Eufemia Arnoldine Völker gave birth to her first child, Gottlieb Völker4, in her home town of Cleve. Unfortunately one half of the page of the parish record for Gottlieb’s birth is not available on FamilySearch, so I don’t know whether there is any father listed for Gottlieb’s birth. There is no evidence that Adolph was in Cleve at this time, therefore we must assume that Gottlieb’s father was not Adolph. However, once he arrived in Cleve (late 1847/early 1848?) and partnered up with Charlotte, he apparently took on Gottlieb as his own.
Adolph first appears in the theatre almanacs for the year 1845, when he was 25 years old, once he had finished his military service. He worked as the Inspicient (stage manager) and Decorateur (decorator), at the Osnabrück Theatre, as well as performing in various acting roles when required5. 1846 saw him working at the Hanau and Offenbach United Theatre as stage manager6. In the 1847 season, Adolph was the decorative painter and theatre master in Mülheim an der Ruhr7.
By 1848 Adolph had arrived in Cleve, apparently shacked up with Charlotte Volker, and she’d given birth to their first child, Adolphine Franciska, on 22 September8. Adolphine was baptised on 10 October 1848 at the Evangelical church in Cleve. The baptismal record states that her parents were resident in Cleve, and she was the second child (after Gottlieb?) and first daughter of her parents. I have not managed to locate a marriage record for Adolph and Charlotte, and it is possible they never officially married and were able to get away with it because they moved so often.
In 1848 Adolph applied to have his Hamburg citizenship dismissed. I’m not totally sure what actual benefits (or negatives) there were for Adolph, being a citizen of a city that he no longer lived in. Did it mean he had to pay tax there? He’d already completed his military service, so he wasn’t trying to get out of that.
28 December 1849 Johann Ludwig born in Iserlohn, baptised 12 Jan 18509. He died in Bonn, where the family were living, on 6 July 1856 when he was six and a half years old10.
In 1851 an interesting “Explanation” was published in the Bonner Zeitung11, whereby Adolph Mondientz gave a grovelling apology to Herr Director Wilhelm Löwe (at the time the director of the Köln Theatre), with whom he had apparently been in dispute. I’m not sure how exactly they intersected as Löwe was only at the Theatre in Köln for the 1850-1851 season (apparently his time there was not successful) and Adolph is not listed in the 1850 theatre directory. According to the “Explanation” it seems that Adolph had been using Löwe’s name to obtain work in private homes, possibly in Bonn, and Löwe appeared to have a very low opinion of Adolph’s decorative painter abilities. So from this we might deduce that Adolph had been working as a decorative painter in a residential setting, as opposed to in a theatrical setting, during this period.
Later in the year the Mondientz family moved on to Elberfeld, where he worked as a performed at the Elberfeld Theatre. On 19 September 1851 daughter Emma Johanna was born in Elberfeld12.
In 1852, the Deutscher Bühnen-Almanach listed both Herr and Frau Mondientz as Abgegangen (departed) from the Aachen Theatre13. However, an advertisement for the Aachen Theatre in the Echo der Gegenwart expressly notes that the set decoration for a performance of Under der Erde was painted by decorative painter Herr Mondientz14.
After that, Adolph didn’t work in the theatre for a few years. Did the situation with Herr Director Löwe have a big impact on his work? The family seems to have settled in Köln during this time, and son Georg Friedrich was born there on 14 October 185315. The family was listed in the 1854 Köln Adress-Buch as living at Kleiner Griechenmarkt 70, and Adolph was working as a painter (Maler). The family was listed in 1855 as living in Catherinengr. 30, and Adolph as a decorative painter.
By the 1855 theatre season, Adolph was back, working as a performer in the Cleve and Arnheim Theatre16, presumably while visiting his wife’s family in Cleve. The family only stayed up north in Cleve for one season, and then moved back south to Coblenz, where Adolph was the stage manager at the Coblenz Theatre for the next theatre season17. It would seem that during their travels south, sadly their son Johann Ludwig died in Bonn, on 6 July 1856, aged six and a half18.
Some time around 1856, daughter Sophie Friederike Wilhelmine was born. I have not found a birth record for her, however, this vague date of birth is calculated from her age of 33 when she died in January 188919.
Adolph is not listed in any theatre almanacs in 1857, so we can only assume he was working privately. On 9 October that year, daughter Caroline Mathilde was born In Coblenz. Once again, I have not found a birth record for her, this information instead coming from her marriage record20.
Adolph was working at the Offenbach Theatre as the stage manager in 185821. Adolph’s world changed when Charlotte died in Bockenheim on 28 September 1858. Adolph put a notice in the Kölnische Zeitung advising relatives and friends of her death after a long period of suffering, from pulmonary tuberculosis22. The notice said he and their six underage children mourned the passing of his dearly beloved wife. In October, not even a month later, a benefit concert was held for Adolph in Bockenheim, where they were living23. In December another benefit performance was held for Adolph in Giessen24, as he had moved on to Offenbach Theatre for work (which was also linked with the theatres in Gießen and Marburg)25. Clearly, despite struggling to care for his six children, the show had to go on for Adolph. The eldest child, Gottlieb, was only 14 at the time of his mother’s death - was he sent out to work to help make ends meet? One assumes Fanny (Adolphine Franziska), aged 10, was put in charge of looking after the younger children, including Sophie and Caroline, who were both still infants.
Adolph moved on to Düsseldorf next, where he worked at the Düsseldorf Theatre from 1859-1861. Some theatre posters for the time have survived, and show that as well as Adolph being involved, his daughters Fanny and Emma sometimes performed when child roles were required. What better way to mind your kids while working, than to have them there with you, involved as well! As well as his own children, there was also a “Marie Mondientz” who was a child actor in a couple of productions. I have written about her here.
It would seem that the children’s maternal extended family were concerned about Adolph’s ability to provide for his children as well. According to an auction notice in the Clevisches Volksblatt26, they (Charlotte’s sister, brother-in-law and brother) brought some sort of legal case against Adolph in his capacity as father and guardian of his underage children, and as a result handed down in the regional court in Cleve on October 19, 1861, there were four properties put up for auction. Its not clear to me exactly what was going on here, but I can only assume that the money from the sale of the properties was going to be used for the care of the children.
From some time in 1861, Adolph moved his family to Krefeld, in order to work at the theatre there. Fanny and Emma continued to act in productions when child roles were called for. By 1865, Adolph appeared to have found someone to help him look after his family, as a woman named Anna Catharina Geurts gave birth to his child, Louise Emily, on December 1027. Did they marry? I have found no record of this. I do not know what became of Louise, or her mother.
It is unknown where or when Adolph Mondientz died. According to his daughter Caroline Mathilde’s marriage record in 1880, he lived in Siegburg, working as a decorative painter, but I don’t know if this was his current residence at the time or where he lived when he died. I suspect it may have been his current residence in 1880, because it does note that her late mother’s last residence was Bockenheim (zuletzt wohnhaft zu Bockenheim)28. I have found someone’s genealogy records online that suggest Adolph died in Siegburg in 1862, but he was definitely alive after 1862, working and fathering a child!
I get the impression that Adolph was perhaps the black sheep of his family, choosing an unusual career path for the day. I wonder if he ever returned to Hamburg once he left to strike out on his own? I think he was a generous person, and felt things deeply. He may have been a bit of a player (children to three different women, none of whom he was known to have married), but I believe he was loyal to those he cared about. He took on a child who was not his own, and was heartbroken by the death of his wife Charlotte. He transported a gaggle of children around with him, even after Charlotte died. He may not have lived the most orthodox existence for his time, but I think his character was generally good.
I do wonder for his children though - the only one I know anything about was his daughter Caroline Matilda, my great great grandmother. She married into a Catholic family, even though she was Lutheran, they emigrated to Australia, had a good number of children, and then she committed suicide when she was 38 years old. I believe, had he known of this, Adolph would have been greatly distressed. However, I do think he would have been extremely proud of his grandson George, Caroline’s son, who was a silent movie actor known as George Beranger.
1. Hamburg.de, Bestand 332-2, Generalregister 1816-1866. The register doesn’t have any details of the birth/baptism, just details of where to find the record. I haven’t been able to access any actual records for the correct parish in Hamburg at this time.
2. Hamburger Nachrichten, 21 January 1845, page 5.
3. Ancestry, Saxony, Anhalt, Anhalt-Bernburg, Anhalt-Dessau and Anhalt-Köthen, Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1760-1890. Auguste’s full name was Louise Sophie Auguste Borsch.
4. FamilySearch Film 8210290, page 22, lefthand side not photographed, righthand side: image 369.
5. Almanach für Freunde der Schauspielkunst 1846, Berlin, p247.
6. Almanach für Freunde der Schauspielkunst 1847, Berlin, p163.
7. Almanach für Freunde der Schauspielkunst 1848, Berlin, p248.
8. FamilySearch Film 8210290, page 43, lefthand side: image 497, righthand side: image 390.
9. Archion, Iserlohn Oberste Stadtgemeinde, Taufen für 1849-1857, Band 14, image 21.
10. Bonner Zeitung, 13 July 1856, p6.
11. Bonner Zeitung, 19 April 1851, p4.
12. FamilySearch Film 108257378, image 402.
13. Deutscher Bühnen-Almanach, 1853, Berlin, p34.
14. Echo der Gegenwart, 18 December 1852, p4.
15. Kölnische Zeitung, 19 October 1853, p4. In “Civilstand der Stadt Köln, Geburten”. The name given in the notice was Friedrich.
16. Deutscher Bühnen-Almanach, 1856, Berlin, p427.
17. Deutscher Bühnen-Almanach, 1857, Berlin, p408.
18. Bonner Zeitung, 13 July 1856, p6.
19. Düsseldorfer Volksblatt, 25 January 1889, p4.
20. Ancestry, Hesse, Germany Marriages 1849-1930, p314, no.1014.
21. Deutscher Bühnen-Almanach, 1858, Berlin, p302.
22. Kölnische Zeitung, 2 October 1858, p4.
23. IntelligenzBlatt der Freien Stadt Frankfurt, 2te Beilage, No 250, 22 October 1858.
24. Anzeigeblatt für die Provinzialhauptstadt Gießen: Amtsblatt des Kreises Gießen, 29 December 1858, p4.
25. Deutscher Bühnen-Almanach, 1859, Berlin, p153.
26. Clevisches Volksblatt, 28 December 1861, p3.
27. Ancestry, Germany, Select Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898, Film 996110.
28. Ancestry, Hesse, Germany Marriages 1849-1930, page 314, record no. 1014.
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