Notizen zu dieser Person
Birth:
He was born on the 24th of August 1889 in the village Godzieszki in the Godziesze parish in the province Kalisz (German: Kalisch) in Poland. His parents were Michal and Marianna Rachfalak. (G1)
Godziesze is a village in the district (Polish: powiat) Kalisz in Poland. In 1789 Godziesze had 300 inhabitants and in 1885 there were 3994 inhabitants. The Catholic church was rebuilt in 1782. It is built in wood. It still stands in 1997. A school was built there in 1868. From the second partition of Poland (1793) until 1807 this area belonged to Prussia. From 1807 until 1815 it belonged to France under Napoleon's rule. From 1815 until 1919 it belonged to Russia. After 1919 the powiat Kalisz became part of Poland again.
Childhood:
His mother died when he was 2 1/2 years old. (G1)
During my visit to Poland in 1997 I visited the farm in Godzieszki, which is owned by the descendants of Ludwig Rachfalak's older brother Antoni. They told me that Ludwig Rachfalak was born in this property and that he grew up there.
Move to Germany:
Maria Skurtys, who lives in Godziesze Wielkie, wrote to me that Ludwig Rachfalak, when a young man, went to Germany to look for work. In 1992 she wrote to me that her father (Tomasz Rachwalak) told her that Ludwig Rachfalak left Poland shortly before World War I started.
He arrived in Bremen on the 13th of September 1913. (B8)
He spoke Polish.
Stephan Rachfalak from Bremen told me that Ludwig Rachfalak travelled to Bremen, because he wanted to migrate. Before the World War I broke out, he worked on building sites. The war started on the 28th of July 1914.
Both Maria Skurtys and Stephan Rachfalak said that he moved to Bremen before the start of World War I.
Ludwig Rachfalak probably moved into a flat in Bremen with a married woman named Veronika Kaszubowski at the end of 1913 or in 1914.
Veronika Kaszubowski had been living separately from her husband Peter, since the middle of 1911. (B1)
It is possible that Ludwig Rachfalak had met Veronika Kaszubowski nee Joks earlier. They grew up in villages in Poland that are only 20 km apart! It is possible that they met in their youth, even before Veronika Kaszubowski married her first husband. Veronika Kaszubowski travelled to Poland in the middle of 1911. Her first husband had left her. She had a child with him. There was no child-minding organization in Germany at that time! She took her son to Mikstat. It is possible that she met Ludwig Rachfalak then. Mikstat is 20 km from Godzieszki. According to a 'Meldeamt' record in Bremen, she returned to Northwestern Germany on the 21st of April 1912 and settled in Bremen. She left her son Bruno with her mother in Poland. Perhaps Ludwig Rachfalak followed her to Bremen.
Life in Bremen:
At the end of 1914 Veronika Kaszubowski lived in a flat at 53 Zwingli Straße in Bremen. I don't know whether Ludwig Rachfalak lived there also.
In June 1916 they moved to a flat at 64 Münchener Straße in the suburb Findorff. They lived there for many years. (B8)
Ludwig Rachfalak and Veronika Kaszubowski had four children before they married. Johann Kaszubowski is the oldest.
Veronika Kaszubowski was divorced from her first husband in the civil court in Verden near Bremen on the 22nd of July 1920. (B3)
Ludwig Rachfalak married Veronika Kaszubowski on the 21st of May 1921 in Bremen. They had four more children. (B1)
World War II:
In 1939 World War II broke out.
According to Ludwig Rachfalak, junior, Ludwig Rachfalak, senior only started learning the German language about this time. Ludwig Rachfalak, junior said that previously he and his siblings could not communicate with their father.
Death:
He died 2.40 p.m. on the 16th of December 1958. He left behind his wife and seven grown up children.
Other Information:
The first part of the name "Rachfalak" is a corruption of Rafal, which is Polish for the first name Raphael (German: Rafael). The -ak ending means "son of". The name "Rafal" as a first name is rare in Godziesze. Perhaps the family originally was Jewish.
Guenter
Koerner
