The parents of Paul Walter Ludwig, Sr. were both born in the 1860s in the Kingdom of Saxony in what is now Germany.
Paul’s Parents
Friedrich Reinhold Ludwig (known as Reinhold or Rein) was born on Nov. 13, 1861 in Seifhennersdorf, Germany. Seifhennersdorf is a small town that sits directly on the border with Czechia, in the extreme southeast corner of Germany where Poland and Czechia meet Germany. Reinhold was born in the upstairs living quarters of a sturdy house at Am Grossen Wehr 12 in the Mitteldorf neighborhood of Seifhennersdorf, not far from the church, the train station, and the shops in the town center. Reinhold lived in that house until his early teens, when he went away to the Gymnasium in Zittau for several years, probably 1873-1877. That school, now called the “Altes Gymnasium,” is located at Johannisplatz 2. Founded by education reformer Nikolaus von Dornspach in 1586, it is one of the oldest high schools in Germany. After Zittau, Reinhold attended university in Jena, Chemnitz, Leipzig, and finally Dresden, where he received his degree around 1882.
Anna Hedwig Hübner (known as Hedwig) was born on August 5, 1860 in Hermannsdorf, Germany, a small village along the border with Czechia, not far from Annaberg. Some records list her first name as Marianna. Hedwig was born in the schoolteacher’s living quarters in the top floor of the schoolhouse, about a block east of the church. In 1862 that building became the boys’ school, and a new girls’ school was built right next to the church, and the Hübner family moved into the upstairs living quarters of that school.
Reinhold and Hedwig met in the early 1880s in Dresden. They were betrothed by the time Reinhold traveled on the S. S. Fulda to the USA in 1884 to study at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. When Reinhold graduated in 1887, he returned briefly to Germany. Reinhold and Hedwig were married on August 18, 1887 in Dresden, then traveled on the S. S. Eider to the USA and on to Reinhold’s first call to a church in Russell, Kansas serving Volga Germans.
Paul’s Paternal Grandparents
Reinhold’s father was Johann Christian Friedrich Ludwig, (known as Christian) born in Seifhennersdorf in 1829 and died in Seifhennersdorf on November 13, 1897. His occupation was listed as bookkeeper, but he also was joint owner (with his brother Johann Christian Gottlieb Ludwig, known as Gottlieb) of a small textile factory located in the lower floors of the houses at Am Grossen Wehr 10 and 12. The house at #12 held seven looms for weaving cloth, and the house at #10 held 4 or 5 vats for dyeing the finished cloth. Christian was also an elder in the Seifhennersdorf church until the family began attending a Saxon Free Church congregation in the home of Mr. Wilhelm, a cousin of Reinhold’s mother and baptismal sponsor to Reinhold.
Reinhold’s mother was Amalie Auguste Richter Ludwig, born in 1833 in Seifhennersdorf and died in Seifhennersdorf on July 12, 1907. Amalie and Christian are buried near the southeast corner of the Seifhennersdorf cemetery, just across the street from the church. The gravestone marking the family burial plot was embedded in the cemetery wall above the graves from 1897 to about 1995, when it was removed to make space for new burials, which had not yet happened as of 2017. Amalie and Christian lived in the upstairs rooms at Am Grossen Wehr 12 until Christian died in 1897. After that, Amalie moved into the house owned by her daughter Frieda Neumann (and husband Gustav Neumann) at Leutersdorfer Strasse 14 on the corner of Spitzkunnerdorfer Strasse until her own death in 1907.
Paul’s Maternal Grandparents
Hedwig’s father was Karl Heinrich Hübner, born on August 2, 1817 in Beierfeld and died July 20, 1881 in Dresden. Presumably he was buried in the cemetery associated with Martin-Luther-Kirche in the Neustadt neighborhood of Dresden, as that was the closest church to the apartments where the Hübner family lived at Martinstrasse 7 (now Martin-Luther-Strasse) and Priessnitzstrasse 31 and 29 between 1875 and 1881. Karl was cantor, organist, and schoolteacher for the church in Hermannsdorf from about 1840 to 1875, when poor health forced him to retire. The family moved to Dresden, where they lived in several different apartments with or near Hedwig’s older brothers, one of whom was working as a fire fighter in the north part of Dresden.
Hedwig’s mother was Friederike Wilhelmine Schubert, born February 12, 1820 in Annaberg. She died January 27, 1885 at the home of one of her older daughters in Coswig near Meissen and is buried in the cemetery associated with Peter-Pauls-Kirche, now on Johann-Sebastian-Bach Strasse in Coswig (since 1907). Friederike’s funeral would have been held at the Alte Kirche, built in 1496 and still standing at 7 Ravensburger Place two blocks to the west of the new church. After Karl died in 1881 while the family was living at Priessnitzstrasse 29 in Dresden, Friederike and Hedwig took in lodgers in order to pay the bills. One of the men who boarded there was Reinhold Ludwig, who worked in Dresden from 1882-1884 for the postal service of the new united German Empire.