Per “ Illustrated Catalogue of Properties offered for Lease ,” Govt Printer , Wellington , 1924 .
Spemann Family Collection
After Lucy Warns and Adolf Spemann married they developed a 110-acre cocoa plantation at Aleisa on the hilly country west of Apia . A typical cocoa plantation from this period is shown above .
Between 1906 and 1911 five children were born to the union . Then misfortune entered the family narrative . After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 , a patriotic Adolf Spemann ( pictured ) reportedly decided to return to Germany to fight for his country . This is the story that has come down through his descendants . A less eyebrow-raising scenario is possible – he may have been in Germany at the time of war ’ s outbreak placing his oldest daughter , Liesel , in education . Family tradition has Adolf trying to enlist in the army but being rejected because he had flat feet . However , by mid-1915 Mr Spemann is fighting on the Western Front in the 7 Company , Das-Reserve-Infanterie Regiment 111 , 28 th Reserve Division .
His commanding sergeant , August Brysch , spoke of Spemann as “ a good friend and the bravest man in my group .” Brysch observed , “ He was luckier than most others .” But on 1 July 1916 , at the Battle of Fricourt , on the Somme , in France , Adolf ’ s luck ran out . As he was looking over the top of a trench a shell exploded in front of him and shrapnel pierced his throat . He fell back into Brysch ’ s arms and died . Spemann ’ s squad were soon afterwards threatened by the British and only had time to wrap his body in a tent and leave it at the mouth of a dugout before withdrawing .
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