Albert Dell German (1876-1945) The German family came from Wales to Wisconsin in 1867 and settled near Ithaca in Richland County. The large family home still stands near Aubrey Corners just off Highway 58. Albert was the youngest of seven children. His brother Grant German was principal at Ithaca Schools and later became County Superintendent of Schools. His sister, Anna, was musically talented and studied at Valparaiso, Ind. She taught music at the County Normal; the annex on the south end of the Warehouse was meant to be her music studio. Albert stayed on the farm until he married his first wife Alta Moore in 1899. He started his German Jobbing Service soon after locating in Richland Center. A.D. German is primarily known for his relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright and the subsequent design and partial construction of the German Warehouse. It is interesting to compare the notoriety of A.D. German and his warehouse to that of one of his primary business competitors in A.H. Krouskop. Krouskop was extremely successful in amassing a considerable fortune while German had a modicum of success as far as making money through the A.D. German Wholesale Grocery Company. Doc Krouskop never married; A.D. German married multiple times. Krouskop had business hurdles such as the fire that destroyed his opulent store on Central Avenue, but always managed to come back stronger than before. A.D. German lost a large sum of money on the sugar market and a fire in 1918 that caused $100,000 in damages which he did not recover from and consequently the A.D. German warehouse was never totally completed. A.D. German’s first wife Alta Moore died prematurely in 1906 at age thirty two leaving daughters Anna nine years old and Viva four years old. She died rather quickly when she came down with influenza. This was the strain of influenza that was a world wide pandemic in 1918. He had built a brick home on Church Street in 1906 and in 1907 bought the Mitchell House Hotel and renamed it the Hotel Badger. The German Warehouse was built on the site occupied by the hotel. German purchased the Hotel Badger from his brother-in-law, Dr. G.R. Mitchell who had married Albert’s sister Minnie. Dr. Mitchell’s first wife was the murder victim in the notorious Rose Zoldoske poisoning trial. Frank Lloyd Wright was not the only person around touched by scandal. In the Richland Democrat of October 4, 1916, Mr. German explained his plans to build a warehouse to house the commodities he traded, flour, sugar, feed, and other grocery items. He announced the plans were being prepared by the Architect Frank Lloyd Wright and that the building would cost approximately $30,000. Additionaly, the building would have a restaurant, retail shops, a wholesale outlet store and a gallery for local artists to exhibit as well as Frank Lloyd Wright. German had another set back regarding the Warehouse when his competitor, A.H. Krouskop built a large, imposing residence on the corner of Central and Haseltine Streets that blocked railroad access to the Warehouse. The building eventually cost $125,000 when construction had to be stopped in 1921 and the functions other than a wholesale grocery warehouse never came to fruition. German used the warehouse for wholesale storage of sugar, flour, feed, coal, cement and groceries from 1921 through 1927. German lost ownership of the Warehouse in 1932 when Richland County took over ownership of the Warehouse due to unpaid taxes. A.D. German married a second time to Mae B. Joslin the youngest daughter of Major W.H. Joslin. Major Joslin had served in the civil war and his family was well known in Richland Center. Albert and Mae married in 1912. She died prematurely at age forty four from a stroke. German’s third marriage to Lucille Haas was short lived. It is said she left German when he lost the Warehouse to bankruptcy for the second time in 1936. A.D. German relocated to Florida, where he married again, then Cincinnati, eventually settling in New York City. He died while on a trip to Holland, Michigan in 1945 at the age of sixty nine. He was buried in the East, likely the Baltimore area. An informative narrative about the building of the German Warehouse and the relationship between Frank Lloyd Wright and A.D. German is Margaret Scott’s “Frank Lloyd Wright’s Warehouse in Richland Center.”
Posted on: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 17:59:53 +0000
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