Anna Boch died in 1936,
Eugene Boch in 1941
Their cousin Octave Maus in 1919 already.

While Anna Boch had kept a diary, Octave Maus many letters
uncle Eugene kept little notes.
How did the editor of this website,
born decades after them get his information ?

Maria von Boch Brügmann There was also the loved aunt Maria von Boch Brügmann (1899-1980) wife of uncle Dodo. Maria and Dodo had lived at the Villa Ziegelberg. The picture of young uncle Dodo standing behind the car was taken around 1910. His father Edmond von Boch (1845-1931) was Eugene and Anna's direct cousin. His grandfather was Eugene von Boch the brother of Anna's father Victor Boch. Edmond build the villaZiegelberg in 1878. Considered as a bit scandalous Dodo and Maria had left their villa around 1930 and moved to the south of Germany. Maria knew everybody the editor of this article (as a child and teenager) his mother his grandfather (a nephew of Maria's husband) his great grandfather (a direct cousin of her husband) and Anna Boch & Eugène Boch (when they were old - they were direct cousins of her father in law) . Maria was very stylish glamorous and generous, she always had lots of time for children. Aunt Maria had extraordinary presents nobody else was giving but the best was when she invited the children to a Very Beautiful Grand Hotel, like the Hotel Vierjahreszeiten in Munich. And there ... in the Hotel Lobby she had all the time in the world to tell them fairy tales ... "You know uncle Dodo and You once had an aunt and an uncle that lived in Belgium and France ... We knew them very well. They had been friends with all the famous impressionist painters, Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Paul Czesanne, Paul Signac, Georges Seurat, Henri Toulouse Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, Dodge Mac Knight ..". And sometimes Maria was talking about another Fairytale Lady she had met many times sitting in the same Vierjahreszeiten Hotel Lobby. All the children that had the chance to know Maria will remember her all live.

Odette de Blignières Odette de Blignieres (1913-2009) coming soon

Anna Boch died in 1936,
Eugene Boch in 1941
Their cousin Octave Maus in 1919 already.

While Anna Boch had kept a diary, Octave Maus many letters
no notes from uncle Eugene are left.
How did the editor of this website,
born decades after them, get his information ?

Helen von Boch Helen von Boch (1938-2007) was a designer for Ceramics She more or less grew up at the Faiencerie. Villeroy & Boch ad brochures prays that some people in the Boch family have a creative talent, a talent that can be found from one generation to another. It might be true for some, less true for others. Helen, born 3 generations later was definately the most artistic one of her time ... But there was a major difference between the possibilities the family was giving. in the 19th century and today. Victor Boch and his brother Eugen von Boch had treated all children more or less equally Later the spirit became very different making a major difference between boys and girls. Eugene Boch and his three sisters, Anna, Jeanne and Elisha had all inherited a lot of shares. Helen and her sisters howether were given a very limited amount in total contradiction to extend of their fathers fortune ... La Bomba desigend in 1970 When he was a child the editor of this websites remembers Helen driving a tiny car that was almost falling apart while her younger brother and her younger cousin Alexander were compeating who had the latest Porsche. And this though Helene's designs were the companies best money makers. Her boheme and non-conformist Anna Boch style lifestyle irritated There was a story that had amused him as a child While Helen was taking driving lessons sometimes there was nobody to drive her to the driving classes in the nearby town of Merzig. Instead of missing them she decided to jumped into one her father's automobiles and arrived at the astonished driving school all by herself ... When the editor was 15 his mother had asked her cousine Helen to "babysit" her children for the last 2 weeks of the summer vacation. Every evening Helen was telling him crazy stories They had heavy arguments because what Helen said was in total contradiction with what his grandfather had told him. Conversations lasted to the middle of the night. Uncle Eugene was also one of the topics and his relation with Vincent van Gogh you would not tell to "well educated children". And then the stories about her design job at the Ceramics company. As a "woman" she had never been paid a big salary. Her designs made millions and millions of Deutsche Marks ... but the day she asked to get some royalties it was impossible to find any money for it. An American firm would have given her bonus after bonus and stock options as a little "thank you" and an "encouragement", her own family acted very differently. When getting into financial difficulties her wealthy younger cousin Alexander von Boch managed to buy the few anteile (family shares) she had inherited for an "friendship = family = discount" price. This also meant no more dividends when she was getting old. At the end of her life Helen was as poor as Vincent van Gogh ... No royalties and no dividends. Her cut off phone line were entertaining the "cocktail or walking out of church conversations". They were considered as a punishment for beeing unconventional, just like her great aount Anna Boch. If Anna Boch would still be alive this kind of mentality would not have been possible. Anna would been horrified. 2007 The picture was taken some time before her death. She wanted to have it on her funeral card. Helen is sitting next to a statue of the company founder Jean Francois Boch. As she has been treated so badly she developped an unusually strong relation with those of her family that had lived before her times. And thus she knew things nobody else knew. It was fascinating to listen to her ... When Helen died many "secrets" went ...

Dr Therèse Thomas Dr Therese Thomas was a the curator of the Museum of Ceramics. Dr Thérèse Thomas, once hired by Luitwin von Boch to run the Museum of Ceramics in Mettlach, has a passion for Anna Boch. She collected uncountable information on her. Never discouraging Dr Thomas kept searching and followed up on any source to recuparate valuable and lost Information of the times of the Impressionists. Catalogue Raisonne by Dr Thérèse Thomas 1979 Ziegelberg was converted into a place to host the reopened Museum of Ceramics. As a child the editor of this article had learned to tourguide the museum and his teachers were his grandfather and a charming Lady Dr Therese Thomas with a bit of a French accent. And recently in a phone conversation Dr Thomas told him "You never stoped asking questions" more coming soon ...