Paula Reichenbach’s husband, a partner in J. Reichenbach and the probable ‘Uncle Georg’ in Dolf’s wedding song.
The Berend Lehmann Museum records that Georg Wollenberg married Paula Reichenbach in 1903 and became a partner in the Reichenbach clothing business. The 1928 and 1938 Halberstadt directories connect him directly to J. Reichenbach and place the Wollenberg household at Moltkestraße 11.
In April 1935 Paul described Georg as an ‘angeheirateter Vetter’—a cousin by marriage—and explained that Georg’s knowledge of the deeper genealogy came from Paul. In November of that year Georg appeared at the civil registry to report Paul’s death.
Dolf’s 1933 wedding song recalls an ‘Uncle Georg’ watching Ruth’s childhood fence mishap on Lindenweg. Georg Wollenberg is the strongest candidate: he was alive, closely embedded in the family and business, and recognized by Paul as kin by marriage. The poem does not give a surname, so the identification remains probable rather than final.
Georg died on 18 August 1938, three months before Kristallnacht and four years before Paula and Hans were deported.
Known household
Recorded connections
- Paula Wollenberg née Reichenbach · wife · married 1903
- Hans Wollenberg · son
- Paul Reichenbach · cousin by marriage in Paul’s wording
- Ruth Helene Reichenbach · possible niece in the familiar language of Dolf’s wedding song
Sources
Records and testimony
- Berend Lehmann Museum Reichenbach business panel
- Halberstadt address books, 1928 and 1938
- Paul Reichenbach letter to Rudolf Simonis, 17 April 1935
- Paul Reichenbach civil death record
- Dolf Reichenbach’s wedding song, 3 August 1933
Evidence note
The relationship by marriage is documented, but Paula’s exact line of descent is not. The identification of Georg Wollenberg as Dolf’s ‘Uncle Georg’ is a strong contextual inference, not an explicit surname identification in the poem.