Helmi von Schlippenbach née Helmrich - from Frankfurt to Malaga

What I love about this blog - besides all the beautiful old images - is the history I get to learn and explore while uncovering the stories of the people in these photographs. This particular photo led me down both familiar and unfamiliar historical paths, and I can consider myself a little richer in knowledge after writing this post.

The photograph shows Helmi Helmrich, who sat for this portrait at the Arthur Marx photo studio in Frankfurt in the summer of 1893.

I believe she was Katharine Marie Susanne Margarethe Sophie Wilhelmine “Helmi” Helmrich (I get dizzy from all these first names 😊), born on May 19, 1878, in Groß-Karben, Hessen, Germany. Groß-Karben is situated about 17 km from Frankfurt. Her father, Ernst Helmrich, was a medical doctor, and her mother, Margarethe (née Brückmann), was the daughter of a farmer from Dortweil, Hessen.

Helmi married Huldrich Mario Felix von Schlippenbach on March 20, 1900, in Sondershausen, Thüringen, Germany. Huldrich had Baltic German roots and was considered part of the Baltic nobility at the time. His father, Ulrich von Schlippenbach, was born in Kuldīga (in present-day Latvia) in 1828 and married Huldrich’s mother, Gabriele Eleanore Baroness von der Ropp, in 1878 in Liepāja (also in present-day Latvia). I don’t know when or why Huldrich came to Germany - possibly to study, as was common among wealthier Baltic Germans - nor how he met Helmi.

Do you want to see the young man Helmi fell in love with? I thought so! I was fortunate to find a photograph of Huldrich online:

Helmi and Huldrich’s next chapter together took them to Antwerp, Belgium, where they had their five children: Felix Ulrich (b. 1901), Ernst Gustav (b. 1902), Anna Marie (b. 1904), Frieda Sophia (b. 1906), and Georg Alfred (b. 1908).

The next time I encounter the couple in the records, they are in Málaga, Spain - under much more complicated circumstances. I found them on the passenger ship Hero, leaving Málaga on July 28, 1936, bound for Bremen. The passenger list describes the von Schlippenbachs as “Málaga refugees.”

I had to look this up to understand. In 1936, the Spanish Civil War began between Republicans and Nationalists. In early 1937, Málaga was captured by Francoist troops (supported by Germany and Italy). This led to one of the first major mass flight and massacre events of the war - the so-called Desbandá. Tens of thousands of civilians fled Málaga along the coastal road toward Almería. Refugees were bombed from the air and attacked from the sea. People who escaped this situation were often referred to in German-speaking contexts as “Málaga refugees.” I wonder if the von Schlippenbachs managed to escape the worst, as their vessel had already left in July 1936.

I believe Huldrich was an engineer and machine designer. Several patents were registered in his name, including mechanisms for oxidizing, reducing, or otherwise treating ores and other materials, as well as a rotary hearth furnace, which he assigned to large American companies in the 1910s.

I don’t know what became of the couple after their names appeared on the passenger list. Some public family trees on genealogy platforms suggest Huldrich died in Málaga in 1937, while others indicate 1947.

Helmi’s son Felix Ulrich married Marjorie Grice-Hutchinson, a historian of economic thought in southern Europe. She was born in England and lived in Málaga. The couple married in 1951. According to her 2003 obituary, Felix Ulrich was a farmer and owner of a large estate near Málaga known as San Julián. He died in the 1980s.

I found their second son, Ernst Gustav, living in Freiburg in 1928 as a Bergstudent (mining student). It seems he may have followed in his father’s footsteps and become an engineer. In the 1965 city directory of Wetzlar, he is listed as Dipl.-Ing. (graduate engineer).

Helmi’s eldest daughter, Frida Sofie Victorine Boy, appears to have arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1961, though I do not know for what purpose.

Her second daughter, Frieda Sophia, married Dr. phil. Richard Boy in 1937.

Helmi’s youngest son, Georg Alfred, seems to have been living in Munich in 1965. I do not know his occupation, as he is simply listed as “Freiherr” (Baron).

I don’t know what became of Helmi after her mention on the 1936 passenger list. As her son Felix Ulrich was living near Málaga in the 1950s, I wonder whether she might have remained in Andalucía after her husband’s death. However, I have not found any further trace of her in the records.

So I will leave you here with this colorful family story. Please let me know if you are a descendant of Helmi’s children!

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/bea9af_2b4f9add95964937969c51932ba32aba/720p/mp4/file.mp4