Sans Souci, Robinson Road [????-????]

Submitted by dieter127 on Sun, 08/24/2014 - 09:54
Current condition
Demolished / No longer exists

Photos that show this Place

1895
1901

Comments

"sans souci" Robinson Road, HK

Dear David, 
I am looking for information on a house with the name "sans souci" inRobinson Road. Dr. Erich Paulun, lecturer at the Medical College forChinese (founded in 1887) lived at this address from 1895 to 1899. Is thereany information or even an old photo of this house? This name should beassumed that it was a beautiful villa. 
best regards 
Dieter Schubert 
china-galerie@t-online.de

 

Source for San Souci name?

Can you upload the source document for the house name?  I cannot find it on my 1901 map of Robinson Road.

It is mentioned as the residence of Mrs O. von der Hyde in the Ladies Directory for 1895 & 1896. Unfortunately, neither gives us a street number:

1895   Heyde Mrs. O. von der   Sans Souci   Robinson Road    

Regards, David

Dear Annelisec, dear David,
thank you very much, that was a big help. Even Dr. Ho Kai and Dr. Manson lived in the Robinson Road. It's missing Dr. Gerlach, ...  and we have almost the founding committee of 1887 for the HK College of Medicine for Chinese together.

I'm looking for the true history of the founding of schools of medicine 1887 in Hong Kong and 1907 in Shanghai. English and German have then well understood .... before two wars changed that. Either way ... Hong Kong was a step ahead.

regards, Dieter

If you can find a copy of "The Directory & Chronicle for China, Japan, Corea, Indo-China, Straits Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Netherlands India, Borneo, the Philippines, &c" for the years you're interested in, that might pin it down.

There's a copy of the 1894 edition online, which lists Paulun (then in Shanghai), Heyde, and Gerlach, eg:

http://books.google.com.hk/books?ei=bQn8U9PsCMPc8AXD94LQDg&id=fR4PAAAAY…

Regards, David

Dear Annelise,

 
is it possible that I can get a copy of this map (1901)? I want to know everything about the stay of Dr. Paulun in Hong Kong. Thank you for help.
regards
Dieter

Dear Annelise,

thank you very much. We can yet be sure that 1896 Paulun lived in "sans souci Robinsson Road", maybe possession of a couple von der Heyde. On May 1, 1900, a son, Erich von der Heyde, was born in HK. 1906 the parents moved to Bremen in Germany.

Erich von der Heyde played an inglorious role during the Nazi era, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_von_der_Heyde

The descendants of Pauluns (lost) sister are part of the history of the Communist Party in Germany from 1920 ... later there were executions and killings by the Nazis. The survivors built the GDR on ... to 1982 in active politics and culture (actors, writers, university teachers). Just not under the name Paulun; Kuckhoff and others.

Paulun was in Shanghai as a benefactor of the poor in the Jewish community. This became known only after his death in 1909.

An interesting and tragic family history.

Step by step we will kow more details.

regards Dieter

Dear Annelise, dear David,
there is still hope to find "sans souci" in this Robinson Road. Sheet 9 does not contain the entire Robinson Road, It’s  followed further on sheet 11 and 12 down to about Albany Road. Cf. attached screeshot. Erich von der Heyde was born on May 1, 1900, and the family went back to Germany until 1906. They will hardly have changed the name of the house before 1906. This may have done the new owners.

regards  Dieter

Hi Dieter,

If you markup the buildings with letters A,B,C,...  then you can probably identify them over time. To start with you could look at the 1924 map to see which buildings we already know: http://gwulo.com/1924-map-hong-kong-western (That map hasn't been upgraded yet, so for now please use the version from the old server: http://old.gwulo.com/1924-map-hong-kong-western)

Regards, David

CHARLES CHANTREY INCHBALD was the owner of the Inland Lot 706 on Robinson Road on which three unnamed houses stood.  In 1891 he granted a right of way to Gustv Adolph Wieler, owner of IL 1252 - the fourth unnamed house.

1899    CONFIRMATION OF GRANT MEMORIAL NO. 19052    FRIEDICH ALEXANDER ALFRED BIISING BROCKELMANN

Apologies if the following is obvious , but being monolingual I needed to google the meaning of "Sans Souci" to discover it is french for "without care" or "no worries". It's also the name ("Sanssouci") of the summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, completed in Potsdam in 1747. Given the large number of German sounding names mentioned above associated with the Hong Kong Sans Souci, perhaps it was owned by a German national who chose to name it after his or her late kings palace?

Dear Herostratus,
this map is a great find. Thank you very much.

"Sans Souci" is well known in Germany. Frederick the Great (Frederick II) spoke French better than German. He is well remembered here because he invited to Prussia people who were persecuted for their religion. "Those who work and pay their taxes are allowed to ascend to heaven as they please". Huguenots from France and Salzburg Protestants from Austria accepted this offer. This led to the economic rise of Prussia. (The negative image of Prussia only emerged with Wilhelm II.).

My ancestors came from Austria to Prussia at that time. Therefore until today: Work, pay your taxes and keep distance from the church.

kind regard    dieter127