WOLFGRAMM FAMILY: Wolfgramm Origins- with photos

Here is a bit of information from another Wolfgramm blog, the site can be found HERE.

"My paternal ancestry that I know about is Prussian and Jewish. Prussia is the V-shaped region comprising states in Germany's north-east that spread into what is now the Polish south-west. Prussians invented Germany in the 19th century, thanks to Bismarck. Other great Prussians predating Bismarck include Catherine the Great (the princess who became Czarina of Russia), and Frederick II of Prussia - better known as Frederick 'the Great'. Jews were typically oppressed by Germans of all kinds starting from the time of the Crusades and Prussian Jews were no exception, but by the early 19th century, Napoleon found reason to grant them theoretical citizenship and legal equality. Some of the beneficiaries of this improvement were Jews in the southern Prussian county of Pommern.

Wolfgramms - also variously spelled as Wulfgram, Wolfram and often with two 'ff's as well as two 'mm's - may have been among them. The name means ‘does not fear wolves’. In the 1850s, the German writer, Victor von Scheffel, commended the prose of Wolfgram to his readers. In the early 13^th century, Wolfram von Eschenbach – a Bavarian - commends his readers to the finest writer of German prose, Wulfgram. According to Germanic legends, a 5^th century (Roman Empire) Wulfgram was a protégé of Theodoric I, King of the Goths (ie. Visigoths) from 418 to 451CE. Theodoric was an ally of Gundicar (or Gunther or Gunnar), first King of the Burgundians. These two were engaged in war against Attila, King of the Hun from 434 to 453CE. Gundicar was killed by Attila’s forces in 437CE. According to this tradition, Wulfgram died a heroic death in a subsequent stoush with Attila and his palace guard. He and four others from Theodric’s court lost their lives defending Gundicar’s widow, Hildiko, from the Hun.

My ancestors (great-grandfather Wolfgramm) came from the Prussian town of Pyritz (in Pommern county) as it was then, Pyrzyce as it is now (as it is within Poland's borders). Pyrzyce is a town in a region of beautiful lakes and forests and known for its sizeable Jewish community. Many of the Wolfgramms are listed in the Pommern telephone directory of 1939 and are found among the lists of (Polish-Prussian) Jews of the region. Other Wolfgramms turn up from time to time – one was a co-founder of the KPD, the German Communist Party, after the First World War. Some are listed among the 359 from Pyritz/Pyrzyce who died in the First (Great) World War. My father's family were interned in New Zealand during part of the Second World War - that's what I was told, but no one seems to know where, under what circumstances or for how long. Uncle Bill Wolfgramm was a pioneer in putting South Sea hawaiian-style popular music on vinyl records straight after WW2. More recently, Paea Wolfgramm won a silver medallion for heavy weight division boxing at the Atlanta Olympics (1996). Greg Wolfgramm played rugby league for ‘Canberra Raiders’ in the Australian NRL competition during the early ‘90s. More Wolfgramms were and are pop singers and some are grid-iron players in America."