Johann Gottlieb Pfalz

(1808 - 1872)

 Gottlieb (Bogdan) Knauff

Elisabeth Fein

(1819 - 1862)

Russianized descendant of German "colonists" and sewing machines dealer or manufacturer in Ekaterinoslav, Gov't Tauria, South Russia

Ivan Gustav Falz-Fein

Sofia Louise Bogdanovna Knauff

bd. 1845, Elisabethfeld (Southern Ukraine)

dd. 1890

bd. 1835, Ekaterinoslav
dd. March 1919, Port Khorlý, shot through the closed door by two Red Army soldiers who wanted to loot before retiring before the White Army

Sofia was the  daughter of an  impoverished merchant in Ekaterinoslav, and when the three Falz-Fein brothers came to her town looking for a wife, she opted for the youngest one, Gustav, but was forced by their parents to marry Eduard. However, as he was busy on his ranch, she traveled with Gustav all over Europe and married him after Eduard's death which left her the only proprietress  of Askania Nova until its confiscation in 1918. After her oldest son Friedrich had finished his studies at the university of Dorpat in 1890, she entrusted the management of all her estates to him, he living at Askania Nova, she at Preobrashenka. When after the October Revolution the whole Falz-Fein family flocked to the southern Ukraine, she retired to her own port for the export of hides and wool, Port Khorlý, where the Bolsheviki interred her while they confiscated and devastated Askania Nova and Preobrashenka. She was the only member of the Falz-Fein family who was determined not to flee to Germany

spouses: 1, 2