Johannes Colsman (1868-1922)
Rittmeister der Reserve (cheval officer) in the Royal Prussian Ulanen-Regiment Großherzog Friedrich von Baden (Rheinisches) No.7 In the years about 1916-1918 during the German occupation he was Ortskommandant of the Staffelbezirk (military district) of Kobylnik in the Province of Wilna.

Johannes Colsman was born in 1868 in the little town of Langenberg near Elberfeld. His father was a merchant and (as he himself later became) one of the owners of a silk manufacturing plant founded in 1750 and which still exists today. His mother, who came from a Barmen patrician family related to the Engels-family, died in London. In Prussia, the sons of the industrialists served in cavalry-troops. Johannes served in the cavalry, as did his father and also Johannes' eldest son. Among his papers was found a personal letter written by Prince Max of Baden, who, in 1918, became the last chancellor of the German empire and who was Johannes Colsman's superior in his young days at cavalry.

During his education, he spent a year in the United States, residing mostly in New York  about 1899.
He married a female cousin and had two sons and three daughters. His eldest son served in the same regiment as a lieutenant for the whole period of the war. The other children were younger.

After his unexpected death in 1922, his son followed him into the family company. The family was very conservative, socially-conscious (involved in much social welfare works) and religious in the Protestant faith. I remember my grandfather (the eldest son) venerated him.

That is all I know at this time. I hope to find his memoirs one day. The letters from the war give detailed information of the hard times the people suffered, many of his relations died in the war. That war was only the beginning of the catastrophes of the century. The houses where the family lived still exist in our town which was not destroyed like all the cities around.

Hans Colsman