Naftali Hersch Spira - A Second Marriage at 60
An unexpected marriage
My mother's great grandfather Naftali Hersch Spira married Rosa Fischer in Vienna on March 1, 1923, before a magistrate. This came as a surprise to me, as I hadn't heard any stories of him marrying again after his first wife Rifke died in 1922. They had been married in Ulanow (Galicia) in 1883. This is where Naftali is in the tree:
Naftali's marriage with Rosa didn't last very long — they divorced in 1925. I started wondering what the story was. Not only because Rosa and Naftali married at 60 — after all, love can come at any age — but also because, while the marriage was registered with the city magistrate, the divorce only turns up in the records of the Jewish community. Why didn't they marry religiously to begin with? And why was the marriage dissolved in the religious community?
It seems they were in a hurry to get married, as they asked for the banns to be up for only three days:
Aus Gründen beruflicher Natur wird um Abkürzung des Eheaufgebotes auf 3 Tagen gebeten.
For reasons of a professional nature, a reduction of the period of banns to 3 days is requested.
And this after the arduous process of coming up with some 20 documents for their application to be married before the civil authorities:
- 1921-03-10 Marriage certificate Jakob Fischer and Rachel Rosi Löwy born Bisenz, married Sept 27, 1919.
- 1923-01-16 Marriage certificate of Ignatz Löwy and Rosa Bisenz, married on July 26, 1885
- 1923-01-16 Divorce certificate from the Bezirksgericht Leopoldstadt
- 1923-02-02 Erklärung, Feb 2, 1923
- 1923-02-16 Confirmation of residence for Naftali. II. Malzgasse 9 since April 8, 1915.
- 1923-02-17 Statement of residence for Rosa. IX. Glasergasse 9
- 1923-02-17 Confirmation of absence of pregnancy from the borrough police commissariat Alsersgrund
- 1923-02-19 Death certificate of Rifka Spira, died on Nov 17, 1922
- 1923-02-19 Death certificate of Jacques Fischer
- 1923-02-21 Permission for Naftali to marry without a birth certificate
- 1923-02-22 Statement from the IKG that the marriage between Naftali and Rosa cannot be concluded in the israelite Bethaus in Vienna's 1st borrough in the period until April 16, 1923.
- 1923-02-23 Approval of reduction of the notice period of the banns
- 1923-02-23 Registration of the banns (Anmelden)
- 1923-02-23 Instruction to the Kanzleidirektion to put up the banns fro a reduced period of three days
- 1923-02-23 Three copies of the banns, and one draft
- 1923-02-23 Protocol, where two witnesses attest to Naftali's first marriage and the death of his wife
- 1923-02-26 Naftali's added oath on the same document
- 1923-03-01 Eheschließungsprotokoll Marriage protocol
More about Naftali
I learnt a lot of new things from he documents submitted for Rosa and Naftali's marriage. First and foremost, Naftali's date of birth and who his parents were. He was born in Ulanow in Galicia in 1862 as the son of Isaak Spira and Helene Schleien.
However, he didn't have a birth certificate and had to swear an oath both as to his birth and to his first marriage. Naftali's oath about his first marriage:
This reads as follows:
Ich erkläre an Eidesstatt, daß ich im Dezember 1883 in Ulanow meine Frau Ryfka, geborene Werner, geheiratet habe, u. daß dieselbe am 17. November 1922 in Wien gestorben ist u. hier begraben wurde. Wien, 26. Febr 1923
I solemnly declare that I married my wife Ryfka, born Werner, in Ulanow in December 1883, and that the same died in Vienna on November 17, 1922 and was buried here. Vienna, Feb 26, 1923
Naftali lived in Vienna in the Malzgasse 9 from April 4, 1915 until at least 1925.
Whereas I already knew the names of his mother and father in law, I had no idea who his parents were. The discovery of a stack of documents related to Naftali’s second marriage finally gave me their names: Isak Spira and Helena Spira, née Schleien.
The Bride
Rosa Bisenz, born March 25, 1862, in Nicolsburg (Mikulov) in Moravia, daughter of the flour merchant Herschl Bisenz and Fanni née Neuron
- 1885: Married Ignatz Löwy, furniture merchant, b. July 6, 1858 in Rudolfsheim
- Marriage dissolved in 1923 by the Bezirksgericht Leopoldstadt
- 1919: Married Jakob Fischer, son of Elias Fischer and Therese née Berger from Papa in Hungary
- Rachel Rosi, Möbehändlerin, IX. Glasergasse 9 born March 18, 1862... gerichtlich geschieden
- Jacques Fischer, Kaufmann, died in 1921 of a stroke in Glasergasse 9
The reason why she had to submit to a pregnancy examination, is presumably the following paragraph from the Civil Code of 1811:
The final divorce
Divorce letter presented on Dec 14, 1925 Divorced on Dec 25, 1925 Marriage date recorded as March 1, 1923