Engagement and Marriage
At Margarethen-Lyceum
Joseph Carlebach the teacher, approximately 1914/15
Dr. Joseph Carlebach was working at the time as senior teacher for Mathematics and Art History. He asked permission to participate – as a pupil – in the drawing lessons and to get a seat next to by now “already” 15 year old Lotte. Wonder why?
Lotte Preuss, the pupil
A longstanding friendship connected Dr. Preuss’ household and Carlebach’s parental home in Lubeck. In 1911, Dr. Joseph Carlebach published a review on the book “Biblical and Talmudic Medicine”, which Julius Preuss had completed on his sick bed through tireless research; and after Grandpa Preuss passed away in 1913 he wrote a moving obituary on him.
In Martha Preuss’ Berlin apartment (Linienstrasse 119), the widow set up a boarding house for religious students studying at the local University and at the Rabbinical Seminary. A weekly learning circle was organized in her home, which was also held in memory and honor of Julius Preuss. In this framework Joseph Carlebach was a frequent visitor at the Preuss’ house – albeit not a boarding guest – and favorite narrator telling about his teaching experiences in Jerusalem, as well as a reader of classical dramas – until after the outbreak of World War I, when he voluntarily enlisted in the military and was stationed in Kovno.
After a long break, on one of his sporadic visits to Berlin in 1917 during a leave of absence, he was facing Lotte after not seeing her for months. She, a young beautiful girl who had just turned seventeen, and he, a bearded captain in uniform – almost twice as old…
Marriage Proposal
Dr. Joseph Carlebach in uniform
…And as was the custom of that time: “He asked for her hand”. However, according to a Bible verse she herself was asked: “Will you go with this man?” And she answered – after thinking about it for 12 hours – “Yes, I will” (Genesis 24, 57-58).
Lotte Preuss, the 17-year-old engaged bride
Engagement
Lotte’s bridal handkerchief
Young Lotte felt somewhat lost at her engagement party among the numerous bubbling Carlebach brothers and sisters – all of them much older, married and exuberant. And when the antique grandfather clock stroke ten o’clock, even her guardian told her: “Lotte, time to go to sleep…”
The young married couple
All the married Carlebach couples
Married Life
Lotte, following her husband – the officer – to Lithuania in winter 1919 as Mrs. Principal, was a teenager – the same age as the Carlebach High School’s senior pupils, a fact that sometimes caused their mothers turn up their nose.
At the prospect of the first teacher meeting at their small Kovno apartment, Lotte asked: How does one make meatballs for 20 teachers with a war ration of 200 grams of ground meat?
The First Pregnancy
Lotte’s bearded husband in full uniform at the Berlin department store (Hirschfeld or Tietz): “I need a maternity dress for a teenager…” One wonders what the elegant saleswoman thought of that…
Joseph Carlebach in war uniform, 1918
And in Case the First Baby is a Boy…
Written consultation with Rabbi Dr. Ephraim Carlebach from Leipzig, the sympathetic brother-in-law.
Dr. Ephraim Carlebach
(Lubeck 1879-1936 Tel Aviv)
From Lotte’s handwritten letter, 1919::
How does one act during the ceremony of circumcision? Who gets the honor of Sandak and who will sing the blessings?
