The Neumann Family Prussian Backstory - Part one

Amalie Neumann-Haizinger1 (1799-1884)
My husband's third great grandmother1

   Some time ago I wrote (Here) that I had located documents in the Prussian archives in Berlin that showed that my husband's 2nd great grandfather Carlos Luis Alberto Neumann was indeed the Prussian consul in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, as family lore had said.  Another document in that group was a letter that said that "He is rumored to be the son of the actress Madame Neumann, who later became Madame Haitzinger..."2  The archivist who sent me the documents noted in her cover letter that Amalie Neumann-Haizinger was a well-known actress at the time. I had to follow up on this to see if the rumor was true.  My first look at Google went to theater biographies of Amalie Neumann-Haizinger.  Those only mentioned two daughters, both of whom followed her into the theater. I looked further into Prussian birth, marriage, and death records as well as other documents and found that she did have a son, Karl (or Carl) Ludwig, but was he the same as my Carlos Luis, the consul?  Would my research make the connection?

   Amalie Morstadt was born on May 6 1799 in Karsruhe, Baden-Wurttemberg Prussia to Georg Michael Morstadt (1763-1842), and Friederika Jacobina Pasterts (or Pastertine) (1774-1822)3.  Her father was involved with the theater, and Amalie made her stage debut singing and acting in 1810. 4   She met a fellow actor, Carl Ludwig Neumann born in Berlin in 1786, son of Carl Ludwig Neumann (b. abt 1756 ) and Charlotte Wilhelmine Sophia Epien (b. abt 1760) 5 and they married on Jan 26, 1816, in Karlsruhe.  Their first child, Karl Ludwig Neumann, was born on April 13 of that year.  They had two other children, Louisa Friederike (1818), and Adolphine (1822) before Carl Ludwig senior died on Sep 4, 1823, in Karlsruhe.

   According to a memoir penned by her daughter Louisa, Amalie left the children with their grandfather at his home at Waldstrasse 14 in Karlsruhe while she continued her theatrical career, traveling to various engagements around Germany.  According to Louisa's memoir, Karl "had first and foremost the reputation for being the naughtiest boy in the whole town."6   Amalie was very successful and was described in a memoir by a fellow actress Karoline Bauer "Amalie Neumann, nee Morstadt was the most brilliant artiste and the most fascinating beauty of our stage. In her playful coquetry, she was irresistible for old and young."  Karoline also quoted at length from a work by Heinrich Heine, Brief von Berlin, 7 June, 1822 about Amalie "What shall I say about Mdme. Neumann, who charms everybody, even the critics? See what a beautiful face can do!.... The beautiful woman has even been cast in iron, and small iron medals are sold, upon which is stamped her likeness. I tell you the enthusiasm for this Neumann is epidemical here, like the cattle-plague."7

     On January 3, 1827, Amalie married Anton Haizinger.  He was a well-known operatic tenor who, in 1826 had accepted a lifelong engagement at the Karlsruher Hoftheatre.8  According to Louisa, Anton was very good to his step-children, educating them at the best schools. Young Louisa traveled for two years including time in Baden-Baden where she became "...the playmate of Princess Maria of Baden, later Dutchess of Hamilton."9. On July 19, 1827, Anton and Amalie had a son, Anton Ludwig Paul Sigismund Haizinger (known as Tony).  The four children were encouraged to sing and act and Louisa recalled a performance arranged by Amalie for the Grand Dutchess of Baden in which all of the children played the parts in a musical Vaudeville and Anton rehearsed them and was the orchestra.10

    So far my research showed that Amalie Morstadt Neumann, the actress, from Karlsruhe, did indeed have a son named Karl, born about the right time to be my Carlos, and I filled in part of Amalie's interesting life.  Would the documents confirm the details from the Prussian consular files?  The story will continue in the next blog post.

1. Painting Amalie Haizinger by Franz Seraph Strimbrand c 1850 accessed 6/23/22 on Wikipedia  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalie_Haizinger

2.  Letter in Royal Prussian Archives: Bremen 24 June 1853 from Fredtd Uelm, the Royal Prussian Consul, to The Royal Prussian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, translated by Nina Gafni.

3. Ancestry.com. Baden and Hesse Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1502-1985 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. accessed 30 June 2022 source for all subsequent birth, marriage and death dates in Karlsruhe cited in this post except if otherwise noted.

4. Amalie Haizinger Wikipedia entry accessed 30 June 2022.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalie_Haizinger

5.Ancestry.com. Baden and Hesse Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1502-1985 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.

6.Bettelheim-Gabillon Helene and Schönfeld Luise Neumann. Amalie Haizinger Gräfin Louise Schönfeld-Neumann: Biographische Blätter. C. Konegen (E. Stülpnagel) 1906. http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/11390508.html. Accessed 20 June. 2022.  Original from Harvard University. Translated by Nina Gafni

7. Bauer, K. (1884). Posthumous Memoirs of Karoline Bauer: From the German. United Kingdom: Remington & Company. accessed via Googlebooks.com July 3 2022 pp 83-84.

8.. Wikipedia Anton Haizinger:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Haizinger accessed Oct 4, 2022

9. Bettelheim-Gabillon Helene and Schönfeld Luise Neumann. op. cit.pp.55-59

10. Bettelheim-Gabillon Helene and Schönfeld Luise Neumann. op.cit.pp.55-59