Johann Heinrich Hübbe was born 17 April 1771, the fifth son of Johann Michael Hübbe (1734-1805) and Eva née Sandhagen (1737-1805), and died 17 January 1847. In 1797 he married Maria Christine Heyer (1774-1842).
Their children were:
Hans (1800-1842);
Wilhelmine
(1801-1878) , married Ferdinand Mutzenbecher (1805-1848);
Heinrich(1803-1871)
Ulrich (1805-1892);
Agathe (1807-1808);
Mathilde (1809-1809);
Amalia, our great-grandmother (1811-1889), married
Johann Friedrich Voigt (1804-1886) in 1832;
Hugo (1813-1896).
Fresh information about our Hübbe ancestors has come from several of their descendants following the first publication of this website; their help is gratefully acknowledged.
One of the most interesting documents to survive is a narrative engraving that was commissioned from the artist, Otto Speckter, by the family of Johann Heinrich, for the Christmas festivities in 1838. On the occasion of the golden wedding in 1882 of Johann Heinrich's son-in-law and daughter, Johann Friedrich and Amalia Voigt, an explanation of the engraving was written by their son Leonhard Voigt, probably for the benefit of the younger generations who could well have been unfamiliar with the background. My copy of Leonhard Voigt’s manuscript has now been lost, probably during my move from Swanage to Whetstone, but the transcript that I made remains. Leonhard's information has been comprehensively supplemented by a commentary on the engraving prepared in 1938 by a descendant of Hugo Hübbe.
The engraving, reproduced brlow, consists of five vignettes surrounded by elaborate symbolic decoration. Otto Speckter, by the way, was not only a friend of the family, but in 1848 married Hugo's sister-in-law..
The central lower picture shows as at Christmas 1838, from right to left: Ulrich reading letters from Hans and Heinrich; Johann Heinrich and his wife Maria Christine; Amalia Voigt (née Hübbe) with Siegfried (a few months old); Hugo at the tree; and Johann Friedrich Voigt with his daughter Maria, aged 2. In front are Wilhelmina with the Voigt children Friedrich (aged five), and Leonhard (aged three, to be the author of the manuscript referred to above). Our grandfather, Ludwig Reinhard Voigt, would be born nine years later.
The vignette at the lower left shows Hans, a doctor living in the city of Merida, Yucatan, with his Spanish wife Rejon and their three children, and that on the lower right Heinrich, a marine engineer then living in Cuxhaven, with his wife Amalia Elisabeth and their three children.
The two upper vignettes illustrate a dramatic episode from 25 years earlier, December 1813. Napoleon’s army had retreated from Russia, but still occupied Hamburg, which was now under siege by the Allies, and facing starvation. The Commandant, Marshal Davout ordered that only those inhabitants who had sufficient provisions to survive for six months were to be allowed to remain in the city; all others would be forcibly expelled. Johann Heinrich (third from the left in the upper left vignette) was a member of the Commission appointed to draw up the lists, of those who would be allowed to stay, those who were borderline, and those, said to number 20,000, who would be expelled. He was appalled by the order - expulsion in the middle of winter could be a death sentence - and he managed to ensure that those inhabitants at risk either were able to leave the city with their possessions intact before being expelled, or were provided with sufficient food and shelter and so allowed to remain. The figure in the armchair at the right-hand side is Charlot, the chief of the gendarmerie. Davout (1770-1823), one of the most distinguished of the Napoleonic field commanders, was a stern disciplinarian. For Johann Heinrich to thwart his orders was an act of great courage, and the cause of considerable anxiety to his wife and family, who are shown in the upper right vignette anxiously awaiting his return; his eldest son Hans is at the table writing out the lists organized by his father.
