This section of the webpage is about the Knatz family in Zueschen, a village not far from Niedenstein and in particular, Carl Heinrich Knatz who was trained in his father’s brewery and then traveled to Africa to open a brewery there. While in Africa he started a family there but after being deported returned to Germany, he had a family there. The documents here tell his story of trying to return to Africa. The Brewery in “Zueschen jetzt Fritzlar” was founded in 1865 and closed in 1920.
In 2003, I received an email from Veronica Knatz who was living in Swakopmund, Namibia, Africa. Veronica wanted to find out about her grandfather who was in South West Africa in late 1904. Her grandfather built the Otavi Hotel and brewed his own beer there. But he was forced to leave Africa. Veronica thought he might have died in a train accident in England. Although I tried to find out some information for her, and even looked at lists of passengers killed in train accidents when I was in London, I never had much luck. In 2009 Veronica contacted me again. She learned her grandfather Carl Heinrich Knatz, was born in Zuschen Germany on April 19, 1876. Carl’s father’s name was Heinrich Knatz. Carl arrived in Namibia as a soldier in 1905. He owned the Hotel and Brewery in Otavi, called Hotel Otavi. While in Africa, Carl Knatz was living with a black woman named Sophia Goaxus and they had a son Hans born in 1910 in Otavi. At that time, whites were not allowed to marry blacks, so Veronica’s grandfather and grandmother were never married. Carl was forced to leave Africa in 1919 because he was living with a black woman. So he left behind in Africa his son Hans and Hans’ mother. Back in Germany Carl married and had a family. He is buried in Oppenheim. Carl’s son, Hans also married a black woman named Marline Owoses born 30 November 1918, and they had two children, one of which is Veronica. Veronica has made contact with the Knatz family in Zuschen and this is what she found out: