Liebreich Archaeology - history of the name
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| The Liebrich Coat of Arms, recreated in 1999 by Jon Liebrich for his father David Leebrick.You can read more about the roots of various clusters of Liebrichs and Leebricks around the world on David Hartzell Leebrick's pages |
It is a great name. Lieb = cute, and Reich = rich. Who wouldn't want to be cute and rich? Or maybe it is more to do with acknowledgeing the patriotism of the bearer's Lieb (love) for his Reich (country). But where does it come from?
Here is my potted history of the name and details of a few ancestral Liebreichs.
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| The oldest recorded Liebrich Coat of Arms. Johann Liebrich von Krüfftelbach was awarded the right to us this by Emperor Charles V on January 23, 1548 in Augsburg. |
It is one of a family of name variants which include Liebrich, Lieberich, Liebricht, Liebericht, Liebrecht, Löbrich, Löberich, Löbericht, Lubrich, Lübrich, Lüberich, Leibrick, Lieberick and Leebrick. In the US, the name has been variously transcribed as Leebrich, Leibrich, Liebrick and Leebrick, and in the UK as Leverich and Leveridge.
The name first appeared in the Palatinate (Pfalz) region region of Germany in the early Middle Ages. According to an unattributed 1927 article, there was family of Lubrichenowa or Lubrigenowa in Rheinmündung, Wormsgau between 774 and 779 AD - over 1200 years ago. In 814, a certain Liubric Frieso is named in the community prayer book of the Blidenfeld Monastery in Klingenmünster in the Palatinate. A Liberich is mentioned in 1028 or 1054 in the community prayer book of Weissenburg Monastry in the Alsace region.
There is an unverified reference to a Baron von Liebrich accompanying William the Conqueror on his invasion of Britain in 1066. He is apparently mentioned in the Doomsday Book, and he went on to found the Leverich and Leveridge lines in the UK.
In 1150, a nobleman, called Grundherr Liberich is recorded as living in Worms, and by the 14th century there are Liebrichs and/or Lieberichs in Wetterau, Lehngau and around Würzburg. There is a Lyberich of Quenenbach (now Oberquembach near Wetzlar) between 1270 and at least 1329, and Lubrichs, Lübrichs, Liebrechts and Liebreichs are recorded in Würzburg from 1313.
In Saxony in the late eighteenth century, there is evidence of Liebreichs, who can most likely trace their name to these Germanic roots.
For more on the Liebrichs of the Palatinate and Saxony, check out www.Liebrich-Land.de
Throughout the Middle Ages, Jews were under great pressure in Germany and Austria to adopt Germanic names. Jews frequently adopted Christian first names as their family names, perhaps in an attempt to assimilate more easily by shedding their Hebraic names.
In 1745 the anti-semitic Empress Maria Theresia of Austria (1740-1780) issued an edict expelling all Jews from Czech crown lands because of alleged disloyalty in the Prussian War. In 1748, under economic and diplomatic pressure, the expulsion was reversed, and instead Jews were forced to pay an exorbitant "tolerance tax". They were also made to conduct their affairs in German, and many more adopted German names at this time in order to blend in. It is possible that one or more Jews took the name Liebreich at this time.
Within two years of succeeding Maria Theresia, in 1782, Emperor Joseph II had passed the so-called "Tolerance Patent", removing the taxes and allowing the opening of Hebrew schools. As a quid pro quo, however, in 1787, all Jews living in the Austrian Empire were forced to adopt a family name, another point at which the name might have been adopted in Austrian territories.
Information on Jewish names from the Jewish Encyclopaedia
The first reference to the name Liebreich in the Jewish community is from the first half of the nineteenth century, when it pops up in both Germany and Moravia, Czech lands which formed part of the Austrian empire. It would be great to know if there was just one original Jewish Ur-Liebreich, who adopted the name in Saxony and then somehow spawned a nest of Liebreichs in Moravia, or whether the name was adopted separately in two or more places.
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| A typical scene from Gewitsch (Jevícko) in the nineteenth century. Is that my great-great-grandfather's cart? |
At the same time, in the nineteenth century, a far more illustrious (jewish) branch of the family was living in Königsberg, East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia).
Richard and Oskar Liebreich, two brothers born in Königsberg in 1830 and 1839, were part of the extraordinary group of Jews that contributed so much to Central European culture and learning towards the end of the nineteenth century. Oskar became one of the world's leading chemists, discovering lanolin. Richard was one of ophthalmology's leading lights, inventing the Liebreich ophthalmoscope, spending a number of years at St Thomas's hospital in London, and possibly establishing the first Liebreich presence in the UK before moving back to Paris.
It may be that the Königsberg Liebreichs stemmed from a separate strain of Liebreichs, who adopted the name in Germany, perhaps borrowing it from their Saxon or Pfalz neighbours, or it may be that they are an outgrowth of the Moravian Liebreichs. It is also possible they are part of a third strain.
It was around the middle of the nineteenth century that Liebreichs began emigrating to the United States, first settling in Louisiana and Florida, and then colonising Texas. Most of them appear to stem from the Austrian Liebreichs.
Even before the outbreak of WWII, Jews living in the Sudetenland, which included Gewitsch, were systematically stripped of their rights, including property rights; many, my grandfather Otto among them, moved to cities, including Vienna, where they could be more easily assimilated. My father emigrated to the UK in 1960 from Israel, which he had entered in 1938 as an illegal immigrant, together with his brother Jehuda, cousin Edith and parents Otto and Martha.
Of the 120,000 Jews still living in Czech lands and Moravia at the outbreak of war, around 80,000 perished in the concentration camps. Of the 40,000 survivors, 20,000 escaped overseas and 20,000 survived by hiding or supressing their identities. Of those 20,000 who stayed put and survived, the majority then left Czechoslovakia during emigration waves in 1948 and 1968.
An unknown number of Liebreichs fell victim to the Holocaust. A few records are starting to turn up on the internet - there are likely to be many more.
Some Liebreichs survived the war in Germany and Central Europe. Perhaps they were jewish and disassociated themsevles from their Jewish roots, or perhaps the Liebreichs of late 18th-century Saxony were not Jewish. That would, however, leave a mystery as to what happened to the German Jews we are told adopted the name in the Middle Ages.
Modern Liebreichs appear to be connected either with the Liebreichs of Saxony or Moravia. As far as I can tell, most of those who bear the name (spelled Liebreich rather than any other variant) outside Germany seem to trace their roots back to the Jewish Liebreichs of Austria.
If any Liebreich reading this wants to firm this up with some proper genealogical research, I wish him/her good luck and would love to hear the results. I would be happy to update these pages accordingly. Meanwhile, here are a few Liebreichs from the past who have broken the surface of the underworld to turn up on the internet.
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J.J. Liebreich - Auctioneer & earliest correctly-spelled Liebreich on the web.
The January 1790 edition of Sächsischen Geschichte (Journal of the History of Sachsen), published in Dresden, contains a report of an auction held in 1779 of the prints, books and personal effects of a young couple. The "Proclamator und Tarator (?)" of Amourettenburg (?), who announces the auction is one J.J. Liebreich. It doesn't say what had happened to the couple.
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Jette Liebreich - Wife
Born Jette Kohn on 20 Feb 1858. Died 16 Jan 1924 in Wilhermsdorf. Which Liebreich did she marry? Was it one of the famous ones?
Matthias Eugen Oskar (Otto) Liebreich - Professor of Pharmacology
Born 14 February 1839 in Königsberg, died 2 July 1908 in Berlin. Ran away from home after graduating from school to become a sailor, but lost his ship became stranded off the Côte d'Azur on its maiden voyage, and Oskar decided to become a chemist (?). Despite his unconventional life, Oskar became one of the most important and prolific German medical researchers in the final decades of the 19th century. He discovered lanonin, was responsible advances in food preservation and the treatment of Syphilis, and investigated the workings of formalins and strychnines. In 1869, working in Berlin, he determined that chloral hydrates functioned as a hypnotic to relieve insomnia in anxious and depressed patients who were not insane. It became the Prozac of the time. By 1900, Otto was a member of the Imperial Board of Health in Berlin, writing "It is now close upon half a century since the coloring of pale-colored sausages was introduced...". He died in 1908.
Dr Richard Liebreich - the rock star of Ophthalmology
Oskar's brother, I think, and probably the most famous Liebreich. Born in Königsberg, East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia) on 30 June 1830, he studied in Königsberg, Berlin and Halle. He learned about Ophthalmoscopes in 1854 from the great physicist, Helmholz, and the next year, at the tender age of 25, he invents the Liebreich Ophthalmoscope while working in Utrecht and Berlin, thus guaranteeing his place in history. He moves to Paris in 1862, and then spends from 1870 to 1878 as ophthalmic surgeon and instructor of ophthalmology at St. Thomas's Hospital in London. After his return to Paris in 1878, Richard continued his private practice, but devoted an increasing amount of time to the serious study of painting. He died in Paris in 1917.
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Carrye Liebreich
Born 18 Mar 1884, died 11 Jan 1969, Carrye Liebreich married Sigmund Sass. She is buried in Pineville, Rapides Parish, Louisiana.
Florence
Born 1860, died 1937. Buried, Rosena Chapel Cemetery, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana.
Ellen
Born Ellen Haas, 31 Aug 1885, died 22 Mar 1972. Buried, Rosena Chapel Cemetery, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana.
Francis Henry
Born 20 Aug 1917, died 1 Oct 1920 (at the tragically young age of three). Buried, Rosena Chapel Cemetery, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana.
Hyman
Born 31 Oct 1881, died 17 Oct 1944. Hyman is the link between the Texas and Louisiana Liebreichs. In 1920 the census shows him living in Texas. Buried, Rosena Chapel Cemetery, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana.
Isador
Born 7 Jun 1889, died 29 Jul 1940. Member of the American Legion. Buried, Rosena Chapel Cemetery, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana. Census records show Isador living in Smith County, Texas, in 1910.
Maurice
Born 1892. Buried, Rosena Chapel Cemetery, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana.
Pincus
Born 1853, died 1911. Buried, Rosena Chapel Cemetery, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana.
Rosalind
Born Rosalind Heninger, 8 Nov 1890, died 20 Nov 1989. Buried, Rosena Chapel Cemetery, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana.
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Leon J. Liebreich - Professor of Theology
Professor at the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion. Has a prize for liturgy endowed in his name. Author of "The Songs of Ascents and Priestly Blessings", "The impact of Nehemiah 9:5-37 on the liturgy of the synagogue", etc, etc. Graduated in 1931 from Franklin K Lane High School, Evergreen avenue & Eldert, Brooklyn. Described by a former pupil and Rabbi (Dr Lawrence A Hoffman), in what must be the most wonderful epitaph conceivable for a professor, as "a complete faculty unto himself".
School: Link >>>
Monograph Reference 1: Link >>>
Monograph Reference 2: Link >>>
Hathalia
Born 16 Feb 1899, died 25 Sep 1953, Hathalia Liebreich Frost was the wife of Isidore Forst. She is buried in the Oakwood Cemetery, Tyler, Smith County, Texas.
Herman Liebreich
One of the Texas Liebreichs, Herman was born on 1 January 1894 and died on 16 August 1986, in Shelby County Texas. He was a corporal in the US Army, and was buried in Fort Bliss National Cemetery, El Paso County, Texas.
Linda Hempel Liebreich
Another Texas Liebreich is Linda Hempel. She died on 26 June 1984. Was she Herman's wife? Probably.
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Henriette Mildwurm (nee Liebreich)
Born 24 January 1889, died 24 December 1973 aged 84. Wife of the late Julius Mildwurm, mother of Robert Mildwurm, grandmother of Alan and Debbie Mildwurm. Sister of Sigfried Liebreich of London, England. Private services were held Tuesday at SINAI MEMORIAL CHAPEL, Divisadero St. at Geary. Entombment, Salem Garden Mausoleum. As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, 26 December 1973 (page 34).
Isaac Henry Liebreich
Born 16 October 1876, Isaac Henry is one of the original Liebreichs who emigrated from Europe. He was a tailor for the United States Army in Dade Island (off the coast of Tampa), and pops up in the Military Records as a naturalised citizen living in Tampa Florida, but together with his wife Ida had a son, Herman, who was born in New York and spawned the Liebreichs of Connecticut, who later went on to populate Colorado and California with little Liebreichs...
Isaac and Ida had other children, including a younger son, Leonard Liebreich, who was born and died in Florida, although he spent most of his life in New York, where his son Lyle grew up - father to former "teenager of angst" (see living Liebreichs), Amelia.
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Charles Edaward
Shareholder in the Leeds General Cemetary Company Limited, 1883.
James Emil
Shareholder in the Leeds General Cemetary Company Limited, 1886.
Liebreich, of Liebreich & Beardsell - Wool Merchant
A Liebreich operated as a wool merchant from premises at 24-26 Basinghall Street Wool Exchange in London, 1911. This is not a direct link to my part of the family, but may be a descendent of old Richard the Ophthalmologist, who moved to the UK in 1870.
Siegfried Liebreich
My great-uncle (paternal grandfather's brother), also brother of Henriette Liebreich who married Robert Mildwurm. An Austrian-born pastry chef who moved to London before the war, married Lili and/or Gretl and lived in Ealing, but never had children.
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Dr Anette (Aenne) Liebreich - Art Historian
Born 1899 in Bocholt, Westfalia, Germany. A well-respected scholar in the history of costume, she studied and worked at Kiel University throughout the 1920a. As a Jew, however, She was refused her doctorate despite the recommendations of her professors. In 1933, she was forced out of her job. She moved to Paris and was lucky enough to find work as an Assistent at the Sorbonne, where she was awarded a doctorate for her work on Claus Sluter, which is still regarded as seminal. During the next few years, Aenne continued to work at the Sorbonne, publishing monographs in, among other publications, the "Revue Belge d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'art". Full of foreboding at the spread of anti-semitism across Europe, she committed suicide in the winter 1939/1940 when the Germans captured the city.
Siegfried Liebreich - Member of "Class of Geniuses"
Born 15 August 1900, graduated from Döblinger Gymnasium, Vienna, in 1918 as part of the "class of geniuses" that included Nobel laureate physicist Wolfgang Pauli. A Siegfried Liebreich was Arrested in Hamburg in 1938 as part of Aktion "Arbeitsscheu Reich" to put Jews with previous convictions, even the most trifling offences, into concentration camps. Siegfried was deported to Lublin's Izbica ghetto on 9 April 1942 and is thought to have been killed that summer in the Belzec extermination camp.
Pauli info & possible picture of Siegfried: Link >>>
Info on Aktion: Link >>>
Meir Liebreich - Yeshiva Committee Member
Some time between 1924 and 1940, Meir was a member of the Yeshiva committee of Przemysl, Poland. Liebreich was spelled in the Hebrew alphabet as follows: "lamed, yod, yod, bet, resh, yod, kaph". Possible alternative spelling in latin script: Liebrach. Did Meir die in the Holocaust? Probably.
Mention of Meir: Link >>>
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If you find a link to information on any other Liebreichs of the past, then please email it to me for inclusion. Sorry, but the rules are, only actual Liebreichs, i.e. those that use the name. Please bear in mind that this is a fun site, not a genealogy site.