Die russische Linie der Familie Kobrow reicht bis in das Jahr 1753 zurück. Auch hier entfiel wie bei den Norwegern das “w” am Ende. Dafür gab es aber ein “von” dazu. Ein berühmtes Mitglied dieser Linie ist die polnische Künstlerin Katarzyna von Kobro.
Nachfolgend die Geschichte der russischen Linie. Sie wurde von Ernst Kobro aus Oslo im Jahre 1990 verfasst. Ob alle Angaben und Daten 100%ig richtig sind kann leider nicht mit Sicherheit sagen.
A SURVEY OF THE RUSSIAN KOBRO FAMILY
Worked out by Ernst Kobro, Oslo, Norway
The oldest known member of the Russian Kobro family is Nikolai Georg Wilhelm Kobro, who at the age of 76 died in June 1829 in Gorodok in Russia. Where he was born and who his parents were is unknown. However, much talks in favour of the theory that the cradle of the Russian Kobro family, as in all probability is also the case with the Norwegian Kobro Family, is to be found in Eastern Germany, where the family name of Kobro or Kobrow has known since the 12th century. (??) The possibility cannot therefore be excluded that the parents of Nikolai Georg Wilhelm Kobro sometime in the middle of the 16th century (??) for some reason decided to leave Germany in order to start up a new life in Russia. The theory of the Russian Kobro family’s German origin seems also to be well supported by the family’s constant use of common German first names for their sons – like Georg, Wilhelm and Karl, whereto also comes their frequent marriages with women of German background. Another event which supports the above theory, is that when Nikolai Georg Wilhelm Kobro in 1824 was knighted, he added a “von” to his family name, which is also how German gentry for centuries have marked their noble rank.
The Russian revolution in 1917 had dramatic consequences for the members of the rather small Kobro family which by that time lived in Russia. Their homes were broken up and the family members split. Some fled to safer places and others died or disappeared. The sad result hereof is that there is today only one direct descendant living of the old Russian Kobro family, who still carries the Kobro name, namely Georg Kobro (VI-2), who lives outside Munich, where he works as an assistant professor in Russian at the university of Mainz, and also takes jobs as a simultaneous translator in German and Russian, whereto comes a part time engagement as a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church in Munich. Fortunately he has got three sons, whereby the continuity of the old Russian Kobro family should be secured.
Another direct descendent of the Russian Kobro family living in Warszawa today is Georg Kobro’s cousin, Nika Strzeminska (VI-1), daughter of Katarzyna Kobro (V-1) and her husband, Wladyslaw Strzeminski, also a Russian descent.
Because so many old family documents got lost in all the turbulence which existed both during the Russian revolution and during the second world war, and further also because so many members of the family who survived the last war and who possessed additional valuable information of their family, were dead when I started this study, the story is unfortunately far from complete. Nonetheless I think that it gives quite a good picture of a very interesting family, the roots of which one day and with good luck might very well be found somewhere in Eastern Germany together with those of the Norwegian Kobro family.
Oslo, June 1990
THE RUSSIAN KOBRO FAMILY
I - 1 NIKOLAI GEORG WILHELM VON KOBRO. The progenitor of the family. Born 1753 – Dead at age of 76 June 1829 in Gorodok (Gouv. of Witebsk, today White Russia). About his parents is only known that his father’s first name was Nikolai. Graduated from the Military Medical Academy in St. Petersburg. Served as military staff doctor in the Witebsk Government in Gorodok. Appointed “Hofrat” and practised as a district doctor. His name is mentioned in the first published registers (1809 and 1822) of Russian doctors. Knighted by Czar Alexander I in 1824 and he and his descendants given the right to use the name von Kobro. Married to Elisabeth Christine von Franck, born in 1774, died by drowning 25.11.1818 in Gorodok. In the marriage there was 2 known children (twins) born 25.11.1806 in Gorodok:
II - 1 ANDREAS WILHELM VON KOBRO. Son of Nikolai Georg Wilhelm Kobro (I-1). Born 28.11.1806 in Polotzk – died in Saratow at unknown date. Graduated from the Military Academy in St. Petersburg 23.3.1828. Served as colonel and commander in chief in Saratow. Promoted to Major General og the Imperial Army and commander in chief in Kalisz. Married 9.4.1836 in Polotzk to Pauline von Seck, born 17.4.1814 in Neuborn (Kurland), died 1.6.1838 in Polotzk of tuberculosis. In the marriage with Pauline there were three children:
After the death of his first wife, Andreas married later in 1838 her twin sister Albertine von Seck, who unfortunately also died rather early on 14.7.1840 of tuberculosis like her sister. There were no children in this short marriage. Andreas is also said to have had a third marriage without that it has been possible to bring about any name of a wife and neither whether they had any children.
III - 1 NIKOLAI KARL VON KOBRO. Son of Andreas Wilhelm von Kobro (II-1). Born23.2.1837 in Polotzk – died 30.3.1902 of cancer in Libau. Graduated 1856 from the Constantin Military Academy. Served first as a second lieutenant at the Mitava Garrison in Latvia. Later on promoted to lieutenant and served at the Frontier Guards. For merits in putting down polish rebels he was in 1863 granted the order of St. Stanislaw 3rd class with sword. Resigned 1863 from military service and worked as supervisor at various custom houses. 24.6.1875 promoted to Court Counsellor (hofrat). For excellent service he was in 1887 granted the order of St. Stanislaw 2nd class. Furthermore he was in 1896 granted the order of St. Stanislaw 4th class for 35 years excellent service. In his first marriage (name of wife unknown) there was a daughter Paulina, born 11.1.1858, who lived together with her mother. In his second marriage with Luisa Amalie Erdmut Peschel there were 5 children:
III - 2 PAULINE ALBERTINE VON KOBRO. Daughter of Andreas Wilhelm von Kobro (II-1). Born 14.3.1838 in Polotzk – died 16.2.1918 in Mitau (Kurland). Married 26.7.1856 in Illuxt to Alexander Ewald Johann Schmidt, born 19.11.1825 in Goldingen – died 20.11.1867 in Dubuschek in Kurland. Of the six children in this marriage shall be mentioned Carl Ewald Gustav Schmidt, born 14.5.1857, who was educated as lawyer and was living in Berlin. In 1934 Dr. Schmidt winded up his lawyer business and for the last few years of his life he devoted himself to his hobby, the study of his family. Around 1936 he published the results of his research in a little book “Beiträge zu einer Geschichte der Familie Schmidt zu Grubin”. This book contains a longer chapter, wherein in detail is described the partly heavy fate of his mother, Pauline Albertine von Kobro. In connection with his family research dr. Schmidt corresponded regularily with his cousin Nikolai in Riga (IV-1).
III – 3 KARL WILHELM VON KOBRO. Son of Andreas Wilhelm von Kobro (II-1) Born 14.3.1838 in Polotzk. Date of death unknown. Was in 1873 appointed colonel and chief in command of the 7th Sapper Battalion. In 1883-92 he was commander in chief in Witebsk. Married (1) in 1860 to Helena Bachturm. In this marriage there was a daughter, Nina Karlowna, who in 1912 worked as a teacher in St. Petersburg. Married (2) on 22.8.1881 to Mathilde von Löwis, born in Riga on 11.9.1856. Whether there were any children in this marriage is unknown.
IV – 1 NIKOLAI ALEXANDER MICHAEL VON KOBRO. Son of Georg Wilhelm von Kobro (III-1) Born 29.9.1869 in Latvia. Died in May 1942 in Poznan, Poland. Managed for many years his own company in Moscow. At the same time he was running parallel business undertakings in Riga as well as Archangels. In Riga he owned a house, where he together with his family often spent his summer holidays and where he could devote himself to his big hobby, sailing. At the time of the outbreak of the Russian revolution in 1917 he was staying in Archangels. He saw no point in returning to Moscow, where there was no possibility for him to continue his business anyway. He decided therefore instead to leave Archangels and to settle down for good in Riga. The war and revolution separated the family. First around 1922-23 were his wife and daughter, Vera, granted permission by the communistic regime to leave Moscow in order to settle down in Riga. In Riga had Nikolai started a new company under the name of Lichtwerk and Kobro, which also operated with a branch office in Archangels. Whne the Soviet troops in 1940 occupied Latvia, he felt forced for the second time in his life to give up his business andtogether with his daughter Vera to flee to the Polish city Poznan, which by then was under German control. In order to avoid a worse fate, he applied for German passports for himself and Vera, which they were granted. Married 9.10.1894 to Evgenia Vailievna Rosanova, who descended from a Moscow family of the intelligentsia. She was born in a village Kaluga outside Moscow, where the family owned a big mansion house. She died in Riga around 1924. In the marriage there were five children:
IV – 2 OLGA ANASTASIA HELENA VON KOBRO. Daughter of Georg Wilhelm von Kobro (III-1) Born 10.1.1875 in Odessa – died 8.11.1961 in Kiel in Western Germany. Married 11.2.1905 in Goldingen to Felix Gustav Coulin, born 19.11.1879 in Libau. The Coulin family, which was of Swiss origin, had around 1850 emigrated from Nechâtel to Russia. Felix Coulin worked for many years as a priest in the German congregation in the Saratow/Czaritzyn area. In 1921 he and his family emigrated to Stettin, then a German city, and where all the members of the family were granted German citizenship. Adter the end of the second word war, when Stettin became a Polish town, the entire family moved to Kiel. In the marriage there were 5 children:
V – 1 KATARZYNA KOBRO. Daughter of Nikolau Kobro (IV-1) Born in Moscow 26.8.1898. Died 21.2.1951 in Lodz in Poland. Started her art studies in 1917 at the School of Painting, Sculpture and Building in Moscow. After the revolution she was a student at one of the so called Free workshops in Moscow. Later – about 1920 – she became a member of a group, Affirmation of New Art, in Witebsk. Katarzyna met the artist Wladyslaw Strzeminski in 1918 in Moscow. He was born in Minsk on 21.11.1893 and died in Lodz on 26.11.1952. In 1920 Katarzyna and Wladyslaw moved to Smolensk, where they got married. Here the two were teaching after suprematistic principles in art schools. They were great artists and became pioneers of the Polish Avant-Garde, and by the time famous not only in Poland, but also abroad. In September 1939, when World War II broke out, the couple moved to Wilejaka in White Russia, where they hoped to avoid Nazi oppression, but after a short time they returned to Lodz, where they experienced some dreadful years during the Nazi occupation. Aafter the war Katarzyna was confronted with the fact that several of her own sculptures from her studio had been destroyed as “Entartede Kunst”. Only a few of her works exists in original today, but several sculptures have been attempted reconstructed. At an exhibition in February 1986 of “Three pioneers of Polish Avant-Garde” at the Hennie-Onstad Art Center outside Oslo, both Katarzyna Kobro and Wladyslaw Strzeminski were represented with works. In the marriage there was a dayghter, Nika (VI-1)
V – 2 VERA KOBRO. Daughter of Nikolai Kobro (IV-1) Born 17.8.1906 in Riga. Died 1.7.1968 in Munich. Educated as a journalist in Riga. From 1929 to 1940 she worked in the Russian newpaper “Segodnja”. When Soviet in 1940 occupied the Baltic states, she fled together with her father from Riga to Poznan in Poland. There, and partly also in Lodz, she worked as a language teacher (Russian, German and English). This section of Poland was by that time occupied by German military forces. During her stay there both she and her father applied for German citizenship which was granted them. However, because she was helping Polish children she came in the spotlight of the German Gestapo. She was thus called up by them for interrogation, the result of which was that she lost her teaching job. After the death of her father in 1942, she fled again before the rapidly advancing Soviet army, and after a tough time and a lot of drama, she ended at long last up in Vienna at the same time as the city was occupied by the Russians. During her stay in Vienna she got acquainted with an English soldier of Russian origin. When this man left her after having made her pregnant, she found herself in quite a desperate situation. She saw no other solution to her serious problem than in 1947 to leave her flat in the Russian sector and everything she owned, and to flee by foot to Salzburg in the British Zone. After having endured many problems and difficulties she gave on 1.1.1948 in Salzburg birth to her only child, the son, Georg (VI-2) After a few years in Salzburg she found life so heavy and hopeless that she applied for residence permit in Munich, which was granted. There she and little Georg were lodged in a former concentration camp barrack. She had still nostalgic feelings for Riga, the city where she was born, and had spent a big part of her life. Apparently not realizing that the Riga of 1960 under communistic rule was something quite different from the free and independent city which she remembered and loved, she applied for permission for herself and her son to settle down in Riga, and got it. Already when arriving to Riga in 1960 she understood that she had made a serious blunder, which gave her a terrible shock. Then started a long-lasting and nerve-racking fight with the Russian authorities for permission to leave Riga and returning to Munich. After two years of struggle her application was finally granted. However, the hard time in Riga had cost her dearly – namely her health and in the end her life. On 1.6.1968 she died in Munich in the arms of her beloved son.
VI – 1 JACOBINA (NIKA) STRZEMINSKA. Daughter of Katarzyna Kobro (V-1) and Wladyslaw Strzeminski. Born 6.11.1936 in Lodz in Poland. Studied 1955-60 at the Medical Academy of Lodz, graduated with Physician’s Diploma in 1961. 1961-65 studied anthropology at the University of Lodz. Graduated in 1965 as Master of Anthropology, worked in Lodz 1962-68, first as a General Practitioner at the Dispensary and Emergency Service and later on at the Internal Medical clinic. Started in 1968 to study psychiatry. Worked at the Neurological and Psychiatric Institute in Warszawa, where she in 1971 was approved as a specialist in psychiatry and in 1974 obtained the degree of M.D. and Ph.D. After the doctorates she went to great efforts to obtain appointment as a ship surgeon. After 3 years she finally succeeded, becoming the first woman ever in Poland in this profession. She is also a diligent writer and has published works on the history of Anthropology, and Anthrop psychiatry as well as on the health of sailors. In 1977 she started writing fiction – marine stories and reportage series, many of which have won prizes in literary contests. She has written a biography of her parents, titled “How was it” and a scenario of a feature film about them, titled “Love, Art and Hate”. Married 11.3.1960 in Wroclaw to Ryszard Olgierd Mazurowski, born 26.2.1936 in Brzesc. Marriage dissolved in December 1967.
VI – 2 GEORG KOBRO. Son of Vera Kobro (V-2) Born 1.1.1948 in Salzburg, Austria. Moved 1954 with her mother to Munich, where they stayed until 1960, when he followed his mother to Riga, Latvia, where they remained for two years, before going back to Munich, where the mother died in June 1968. Studied during the years 1968-73 Slavian and East European history, graduating as Magister Artium. Paralell herewith he took studies to become interpreter in Russian and German. Worked from 1973 as assistant professor in Russian at the University of Mainz. Besides hereof he frequently takes jobs as a simultaneous translator at big conferences. Participates also in international symposia. Graduated in 1989 as Dr. Phil. in East European history. Since 1986 court translator. Besides hereof he has since 1981 worked as Deacon at the Russian Orthodox Church in Munich. Married 23.10.1973 in Munich to Helena Bilowa-Bilak, born 20.4.1951 in Kars in Turkish Armenia, which up to 1921 belonged under the Russian Armenia. Helena’s grandfather was an officer in the Czarian army and her father, Vitalij Bilow-Bilak a taxi-driver. Her mother, Irma Kaiser, was of Caucasian German origin. Both her parents died in Istanbul. Irma in 1973 and Vitalij in 1984. Until 1975 Helena worked as a secretary. Children:
All of the three oldest children speak and write two languages, German and Russian.
Håndskrevet notat: Tilleggsopplysninger om enkelte medlemmer av den russiske Kobroslekt, meddelt meg muntlig av Nika Strzeminska i Oslo 1.7.1990.
MARIA KOBRO, datter av Nikolai (IV-1) Gift 2ganger – 1. gang før den første verdenskrig, andre gangen etter den annen verdenskrig. Da Nika besøkte henne i Moskva enten i 1962 eller i 1964, levde hennes ektemann nr. 2. I eller circa 1964 underrettet nr. 2 ektemann Nika om Marias død. Nika lovde å undersøke om hun fremdeles hadde det brevet, i så fall å la meg få en kopi av det med engelsk oversettelse og også la meg vite mannens navn. Til svar brev fortalte meg, at hun dessverre ikke hadde funnet dette brevet. Videre opplyste Nika at Maria og hennes ektemann ca. 1949-50 av myndighetene i Moskva ble forvist til en Gulag-leir på øya Sachalin utenfor Sibirs østkyst. Der oppholdt de seg til ca 1955, da de slapp fri. Maria var professor i russisk språk og litteratur ved Lomomosows universitet i Moskva.
VERA KOBRO, datter av Nikolai (IV-1) Nika, som besøkte Vera i München i 1957 og 1958, kom med følgende oppsiktsvekkende tilleggsopplysning om henne. I følge Nika var den mannen som Vera møtte i Wien, og som ble Georgs far, en amerikansk major, som var gift i Amerika, noe som Vera formentlig ikke fikk vite før lenge etter det første møte. Ellers fortale Nika, at Vera selv hadde fortalt henne at hun i Riga omkring 1928/29 ?? ekteskap, som endte i skilsmisse omkring 1935/36. Og videre opplyste hun at Vera under sitt opphold i Salzburg, etter at Georg var født, hadde inngått et fornuftsekteskap med en amerikaner ved navn Berner ???? i forbindelse hermed antok familienavnet Berner for seg selv og Georg ! Hensikten med ekteskapet var at hun som gift med en amerikansk borger, skulle søke visum både for seg selv og Georg for å reise til Amerika for å treffe Georgs far. Hun fikk visumet, reiste til USA med Georg, der de oppholdys eg i et par år. Hun fikk seg en jobb, hadde også til å begynne med kontakt med Georgs far. Vera likte seg imidlertid ikke i USA, og returnerte etter et par år til München, sammen med Georg. Da Nika møtte Vera i München for første gang i 1957 het hun fremdeles Vera Berner og Georg altså Georg Berner. I de tå årene, 1960-62, da Vera oppholdt seg i Sovjet, sammen med Georg, bodde de først en stund hos Maria og hennes ektemann i Moskva, men da de ikke hadde ?? til å ha dem hos seg i lengre tid. ?? et par måneder reiste de derfor videre til en landsby i Sibir, der hun var blitt invitert av noen hun kjente. Hvor lenge Vera oppholdt seg der, visste ikke Nika, men de reiste i alle fall videre til Riga der hun og Georg oppholdt seg til 1962.