Happy Wedding Wednesday, everyone! Today I want to share a lovely wedding photo with you from 1910. Someone has labelled this photo with:
“Magdalena Ernerth née Lohn with husband Peter, married on January 8, 1910, Coblenz”
Such a good-looking couple, well-dressed and ready for big plans for the furture! But my smile soon disappeared when I found yet another tragic story hidden from view of this photograph.
Just after Christmas of 1916, Magdalena must have received a telegram with the horrid news that Peter had perished from his head wounds he received in the battles of Verdun in France, on December 27, 1916. His name has been forever carved into stone of the WWI memorial in Kesselheim in Koblenz.
He was 32 years old at the time and father of three small children.
Magdalena never re-married. She was probably too busy tending to her sons Peter (1910-1988), Josef (1912-1975) and Ernst Jakob (1913-1965) as well as to their farm with lots of farmwork in their fruit gardens and fields. I can only imagine her heart breaking a thousand times all over again when she had to send off her three sons to fight in WWII. Luckily, they all survived, married and gave Magdalena several grandchildren. Magdalena passed away in 1970 at the age of 82.
I reached out to a regional historian who has been looking into the military records of everyone who perished from the region and he was able to confirm my findings as well as give me a bit of context and background information. I am in awe of Magdalena’s strength and resilience. She endured so much heartache and hard work. She lost her own parents as a child, and then her own children lost one of theirs. She made the best of her life, and I truly hope that she found happiness and joy through it all!
I hope to make contact with Magdalena and Peter’s grandchildren so that I can return this wedding photo to the family.
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