Karl Friedrich Wyss Family Migration Route

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]
Surname/tag: Wyss

When and where did the family of Karl Friedrich Wyss migrate from Switzerland to Germany?

This page is to collect information and show the migration route of Karl Friedrich Wyss and his descendants.

Contents 1 Switzerland 2 Germany 2.1 Marriage and birth of children 2.2 Death in Germany 3 Further migration of their children 3.1 Citizenship

Switzerland

Karl Friedrich Wyss was born on 10 Sep 1858 in Möschberg, Oberthal, Switzerland. He married Elisabeth Sterchi on 21 Apr 1882 in nearby Höchstetten (today Grosshöchstetten), Bern, Switzerland.

They had four children:

• Maria Martha, born 13 Oct 1882 in Walkringen, Bern, Switzerland
• Arthur Franz, born 21 Jan 1884 in Ramiswil Aelbli, Solothurn, Switzerland
• Karl Friedrich, born 18 Nov 1884 in Ramiswil, Solothurn, Switzerland and died 18 Feb 1885 in Niederbipp, Bern, Switzerland
• Maria Frieda, born 16 Dec 1885 in Flumenthal, Solothurn, Switzerland

Elisabeth Sterchi was born on 22 Nov 1859 in Biglen, Bern, Switzerland. She died on 1 Jan 1886 in Flumenthal, Solothurn, Switzerland.

Germany

After the death of his wife, Karl Friedrich Wyss and his children migrated to Germany at some point. I don't know anything about the family between the death of Elisabeth Sterchi and the second marriage of Karl Friedrich Wyss.

Marriage and birth of children

Karl Friedrich Wyss married Dorothea Luise Lautensack on 5 May 1892 in Creuzburg. They had six children:

• Luise Alma, born 5 Dec 1892 in Wilhelmsglücksbrunn (see German Wikipedia, baptised on 8 Jan 1893 in nearby Creuzburg
• Ernst Hermann, born 12 Nov 1895 in Weissensee, Thüringen and was baptised on 22 Dec 1895 in Sömmerda
• Hermine Bertha Klara, born 28 Nov 1897 in Weissensee. Karl Friedrich's profession was Oberschweizer and he lived in Weissensee on the Weissenburg (see German Wikipedia.
• Arthur Friedrich, born 8 Dec 1900 in Stedtfeld, Kreis Eisenach. Karl Friedrich's profession was Oberschweizer.
• Frieda Ella, born 7 Mar 1905 in Stedtfeld, Kreis Eisenach. Karl Friedrich's profession was Oberschweizer.
• Hilda Gerda, born 1 Jun 1909 in Rosenthal, Berlin

Note in December 2023: New photographs and documents showed up in the family. The oldest photograph of Karl Wyss and his wife Dorothea Wyss née Lautensack, owned by I. Caruso, was cut by hand and thus doesn’t contain any information about the photographer. Now another copy of the same photograph was inherited in the family, which contains the photographer’s information: “Chr. Beitz, Hof Photograph, Arnstadt Poststrasse”. According to fotorevers.eu, Christian Beitz worked in Poststrasse at least in the years 1883, 1884, 1887, 1894 and passed away in 1912. This would fit with the dating of the photograph to about 1895. This also means, Karl Wyss and his family lived in or close to Arnstadt about 1895. This needs more research such as an adressbook or documents from the local archive.

Karl Wyss is not listed in the addressbook of 1894 in Arnstadt. He might not have had an own household or not (yet) lived in Arnstadt city. Caruso-344 14:51, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

Death in Germany

Dorothea Luise passed away on 23 Aug 1913 in Berlin-Reinickendorf in Germany.

Karl Friedrich was mentioned twice in the address books in Berlin:

• Adressbuch 1915, Berlin: Molkereibesitzer, Rosenthal, Prinz Heinrich-Strasse 25, 2. Eing. Erdg.
• Adressbuch 1929, Berlin: Molkereibesitzer, Rosenthal, Prinz Heinrich-Strasse 25, H. Eing. T. Rel. 3550.

Karl Friedrich died on 5 Oct 1937 in Berlin-Wilhelmsruh in Germany.

Further migration of their children

Some children remained in Berlin, some migrated (back) to Switzerland:

• Maria Martha was a deaconess and thus didn't marry and had no children. Her passport shows some of the places where she probably lived: The prior passport was issued on 19 Oct 1926 in Berlin. The inherited passport was issued on 7 Jan 1936 in Berlin and was renewd in Berlin on 4 Jan 1937, 4 Jan 1939, 3 Jan 1940, 3 Jan 1942, 3 Jan 1945. The passport has stamps from the German frontier police ("Deutsche Grenzpolizei Lustenau-Bahnhof") on 3 Apr 1945, from the Swiss frontier control ("Schweiz. Passkontrolle St. Margrethen") and the Swiss fronter doctor on 3 Apr 1945. Then stamps from registering in Ober-Engstringen on 17 Jul 1945, departing from Ober-Engstringen on 4 Dec 1945 and registering in Gerlafingen on 20 Dec 1945. In Switzerland, she later lived in Unterseen, Canton of Berne - maybe because her aunt and uncle lived there?
• Arthur Franz married a German woman in 1915. As their daughter's birth (1925 in Berlin) was registered in Switzerland, he might have kept his Swiss citizenship. I don't know yet if he gained German citizenship later. He died in Berlin in 1957. His daughter married in Köln, Germany, but I don't know anything about her life and family afterwards.
• Maria Frieda married her German husband 1933 in Berlin. She died in 1966, probably in Berlin.
• Luise Alma was registered in Switzerland on 3 Jan 1923 with an adress in Thun, Canton Bern. She married her cousin on 16 Feb 1923 in Biglen, Canton Bern. She lived in Biglen the rest of her live, only moving to nearby Rüegsau to the retirement home in 1984. According to an unsourced obituary from a newspaper, Alma grew up with 8 siblings in several big farms. She moved to Switzerland in 1911. But as this obituary only mentiones her two sons but not her daughter, it might be not all accurate.
• Ernst Hermann married a German woman in 1922 in Berlin. Their daughter was born in 1923 in Berlin. With Swiss citizenship, all three of them were repatriated from Germany to Switzerland after World War 2. They arrived in Zürich, Canton Zürich around March 1946. Their daughter married and had two children in Urdorf, Canton Zurich.
• Hermine Bertha Klara married her German husband in 1923 in Berlin. She died 1972 in Berlin. They had a daughter who married in Berlin, but later moved to south-est Germany.
• Arthur Friedrich married his German wife in 1929 in Berlin-Wedding. He died in Berlin-Buch in 1969.
• Frieda Ella married her German husband in 1932 in Berlin. I don't know her death date yet, but I was told that Ella lived in West-Berlin.
• Hilda Gerda married her German husband 1931 in Berlin-Reinickendorf. Hilde died in 1998. I was told she lived in Berlin. Her husband died in 1993 in Berlin-Reinickendorf. Their daughter Renate was born in Berlin and lived there her whole lifetime. Renate had two children (still living): one lives in Berlin and one moved to Switzerland around 2004, not knowing the Swiss relatives until very recently.

Citizenship

As much as I know, all children of Karl Friedrich Wyss were born with Swiss citizenship. Switzerland allows multiple citizenships, while Germany only allows one. In both countries, a woman would take over the citizenship of her husband. In Switzerland, a women had to state at the wedding, if she wanted to keep her own citizenship, which usually would lead into two citizenships.

Luise Alma left Germany in 1911 or 1923 - more information is needed. While I have official documents that confirm the repatriation of Maria Martha and Ernst Hermann after WW2. As Arthur Franz and Arthur Friedrich remained in Germany, I assume that they gained German citizenship before 1946. But I need to search for sources. Caruso-344 09:24, 16 April 2023 (UTC)