Spooky Trees

Break in the Hunt for Clara Bauerle

Clara Bauerle
Clara Bauerle

Regular readers of this blog will know that I have been trying to follow the trail of German cabaret singer, Clara Bauerle. Former mistress of German spy, Josef Jakobs, in recent years, Clara has been put forward as a candidate for Bella in the Wych Elm. It’s an intriguing theory… mistress of a German spy parachutes into England in the summer of 1941 and ends up stuffed into a hollow elm tree for her troubles.

Except for the tiny detail that German music resources indicate Clara Bauerle passed away in Berlin on 16 December 1942. I’ve been digging away at that date, trying to find something more substantial than online resources. The Bavarian Music Lexicon Online was the original source I found that mentioned Clara’s death date, but what was the primary source for that information?

A few weeks ago I wrote to the editor of the BMLO and… lo and behold… I got a response. He directed me to the German Theatre Museum in Munich and their annual almanac from 1944. An email to the museum only confirmed that Clara Bauerle was born 27 August 1905 in Ulm and died on 16 December 1942 in Berlin. Nice… but not helpful.

I keep hoping that genealogy resources will catch up with my research timeline (births from 1905) but… that hasn’t happened. So… a couple of weeks ago, I seized the bull by the horns and requested Clara’s birth registration from the Standesamt in Ulm. I figured it was a long shot, given that I didn’t know the district in which she was born. Imagine my surprise last week when I received a letter from the Standesamt. Inside was… the birth registration for Hedwig Clara Bauerle, born 27 August, 1905!

Clara’s parents were Obsthandler (fruit handler) Adolf Bäuerle and Dorothea Barbara Schäufele. This might come in handy if I ever track down her death registration. It might also put me on the track of siblings. Both of Clara’s parents were Protestant. The handwriting on the form was a bit sketchy for me so I scanned a high-resolution image to email to my mother, to confirm my translation of the handwriting. As I looked at the scanned image, I noticed a marginal note at the bottom of the form.

The gist of the note was that Clara died on 16 December 1942 in a district of Berlin. The note gave the registration and district number for her death registration. It really is amazing to me how blind I can be to things that are right in front of my nose! A quick email to the relevant Standesamt in Berlin yielded the response that death registrations older than 30 years are the purview of the Landesarchiv Berlin. Righto then… a request to the Landesarchiv is in order.

Keeping my fingers crossed that in a couple of weeks, I’ll finally be able to finally lay Clara Bauerle to rest.

7 thoughts on “Break in the Hunt for Clara Bauerle”

  1. what did she die of and i saw this in "mysteries at the museum" travelchannel us. they made no reference to bella of the wych elm or hagley hall but did say she may have been a spy.

  2. Hi. My great aunt is Clara Hauser. I have many pictures and letters she sent to my grandfather here in the USA .However they are written in German. She is not Bella in the witch elm. My grandfather state's that she committed suicide. Would like to connect with you. Regards, Claire Robertson

  3. Clara Baurele is my great Aunt. She is not bella in the witch elm. I have many pictures and letters that she sent to my grandfather here in the USA. However they are written in German. My name is Claire Robertson

    1. Hi Claire, my mother meanwhile 88, had the photography (the autograph card) of Claire Bäuerle in her bedside table. She told me, that Claire Bäuerle is related with us and that my grandparents send fruits to Claires parents who then sold them in their grocery. She met Claire as a little girl and she remembered her as a Lady who wore great clothes and smelled very nice….
      She also talked about suicide but was not willing to tell me more…
      Is it possible to get some photos in a digital form from Claire Bäuerle, which I could show my mother? I am sure she would be very happy about it.
      My name is Gerd Unger from Germany

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