Figure 1.--Here we see a Polish family, I believe from Olmütz. I'm not sure if this was in the Polish area under Prussian or Austrian administration. The caption here reads "Rudolf Weigl (siedzi) z matka i rodzenstwem: siostra Lili (z prawej) i bratem Fryderykiem (z lewej)." I think that means,"Rudolf Weigl (sitting) with mother and siblings: sister Lili (on the right) and brother Fryderyk (on the left)." The "iem" at the end of "Fryderykiem" puts "Fryderyk" into the instrumental case (required by "z" (= "with")). We do not know Polish, but are drawing on analogy with Russian. Lili was a a girl and the other two boys. I believe that the portrait was taken about 1891. Click on the image to see the children a few years earlier.
Here we see a Polish family about 1891, although the name sounds German. They lived in Olmütz which was in the Austrian or Prussian area. The young mother wears a black dress, perhaps she is in morning. She has three children, two boys and a girl. The girl wears a short-sleeved white dress. The boys wear a curious outfit. It looks raher like a tunic suit made to look like a jacket with large buttons. With it they wear kneepants and long black stockings. Their two-tone shoes are rather destinctive. While the boys and girls are dressed diffeerently, they wear the same long stockings and shoes. Note the bows on the shoes. All of the children have long hair. The boy in the middle has the longest hair. It looks to have been done in a wave, but is not done into ringlets.
Nationality
The family name sounds German. A reader writes, "I am not sure if this really is a Polish family. The name Weigl is German, typically Austrian/Bavarian." The Austro-Hungarian Empire was a multi-national state. There was presumably considerble inter-marriage between Poles, Germans, Czechs, Jews and others. This family today views itself as Polish as the caption is in Polish. It says:" Rudolf Weigl (sitting) with Mother and "rodzenstwem" (I don't know what this word means, possibly some kind of a title used for upper-class families): sister Lili (on the right) and brother Fryderyk (on the left)". The name of the brat (brother) is Fryderyk. Bratem Fryderykiem is a grammatical declension. A Polish reader writes us, "Their surname does sounds German, but that doesn't mean that family is necesarily German. Poland throughout its history has had settlements of German people. In medieval times many cities and villages were settled on 'German law' with people invited from the west. As a result, many people has German surnames. Two famous Polish politicans, for example are Miller (prime minister) and Huebner. I'm sure the Weigls here are Poles and they considered themselves as Poles, although the origins of this family are German." There are other examples on HBC. Se for example Walter Otto Fergusson Tepper. That name sounds German and Scottish. The whole idea of nationality can in fact be quite complicated and there are various ways of defining nationality. The NAZIs stressed blood (ancestry). Our Polish reader here focuses more on cilture and language. People throughout the Austrian-Hungarian Empire after World War I had to wrestle with nationality. See for example a boy with a German father and Czech mother--Franz Zapletal.
Location
The family lived in Olmütz which was in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Moravian city of Olmütz is in what is now the Czech Republic. The Czech name is Olomouc.
Chronology
Here we see a Polish family about 1891.
Clothing
The young mother wears a black dress, perhaps she is in morning. She has three children, two boys and a girl. The girl wears a short-sleeved white dress. The boys wear a curious outfit. It looks raher like a tunic suit made to look like a jacket with large buttons. With it they wear kneepants and long black stockings. Their two-tone shoes are rather destinctive. While the boys and girls are dressed diffeerently, they wear the same long stockings and shoes. Note the bows on the shoes.
Hair Styles
All of the chikldren have long hair. The boy in the middle has the longest hair. It looks to have been done in a wave, but is not done into ringlets. The hair style looks to us to have a rather French influence. Our readers have discussed tge Geman name and perhaps ancestry of this family. HBC notes that the hair style of this family does not look very German-influenced at all. So it is is not only the Polish language that suggests that the family is not German.
