Franz & Margot Neumann
Franz & Margot Neumann
by Vivienne Allan
Franz and Margot Neumann were refugees from Hitler’s Germany who met and married in Wellington and settled in Invercargill.
Franz was a highly qualified dentist and he also had a PhD in Philosophy from Wurzburg University. He was academically inclined with a love of languages and the arts, especially paintings and music. He came to New Zealand with his parents Helene and Max Neumann and stayed briefly in Wellington before moving to Dunedin. Max was a well-respected architect in Munich where he had specialised in designing residential and commercial buildings. Few are now still standing, however when he and Helene decided they must leave Germany, he made a detailed inventory of not only his buildings but also everything in the family home, photographs as well as documentation. The Neumann’s were given two options by the German authorities before they could leave the country. They could either take their belongings or their financial assets, not both. They decided on their belongings which were then shipped to New Zealand.
Franz went regularly to Wellington where he met Margot Wolff who had come from Berlin. Any thoughts of marriage were put on hold when he was interned on Somes Island due to an over-zealous neighbour who assumed he must be a spy because he came from Germany. But the issue was resolved very quickly when the authorities realised the Neumanns were refugees. Franz and Margot were married in Dunedin in 1942 and moved to Invercargill which became their home for the rest of their lives. When Franz’s parents died, everything that had come from Germany was moved to Invercargill and what didn’t fit into their home was gifted to the Anderson Park Art Gallery or the Southland Museum. There was a synagogue in Dunedin but not in Invercargill.
Margot had come to New Zealand with relatively few personal belongings. Her father had died when she was only three and she had lived in central Berlin with her mother and three sisters. Her mother had maintained written contact with her brother-in-law Edwin Wolff and his wife Ilse who had come to New Zealand in 1938 from Hamburg. She feared Hitler’s rise to power, so she had contacted Edwin and made arrangements for Margot to come from Berlin to New Zealand. This was achieved in part through the generous efforts of Dr Lemchen who had emigrated to New Zealand some years earlier. Margot had never met the family before, but she soon became the ‘third daughter’ and an integral part of the family.
Franz made his mark as a dentist in Invercargill. His practice was located in rental premises on Dee Street. He and Margot were keen on fishing and loved spending weekends in Te Anau. They were enthusiastic supporters of the cultural events in Invercargill including concerts and theatre and they established a circle of friends that included Eve and Vernon Poole. Margot and Eve being the only two Jewish women in Invercargill at the time, became close friends. Margot created a German conversation group which met weekly in her home and she was a member of the Invercargill Women’s Club. Although one of her sisters was able to escape Germany and she moved to the US, the other members of her family were killed in concentration camps. Despite living in Invercargill while the rest of her adopted family were in Wellington, Margot and Franz still made an effort to see them a lot. Margot’s niece Carol still lives in Wellington and remembers her very fondly. Little if anything is known of Franz’s family, and current efforts to find any relatives have not been successful.
There is an interesting post-script to the Neumann’s story. In 2000, a tableau called ‘Our People, time and place’ was designed by former Southland Museum curator Russell Beck and situated in Don Street. It incorporates the surnames of all the families who were living in Invercargill that year. It was covered by a maroon coloured aluminium umbrella. Margot was surprised and delighted to discover the Neumann name included in the list stamped on the tiles. She hadn’t known.
Margot and Franz Neumann are buried in the Jewish section of the Dunedin South Cemetery where Max and Helene Neumann are also buried.