BIOGRAPHY

Lucie Neumann was born in Schöneberg, Berlin, on 16 September 1906. An only child, she often attended Emperor Wilhelm II’s parades with her father during her early years. Tragically, she lost her father to liver cirrhosis when she was just eight years old.

Neumann worked for the construction company Strabag until 1961. During the Second World War, she was once tasked with locating a missing transport train for the company — a search that eventually led her all the way to Croatia.

She married once at a young age, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1950. She never married her later partner, Wilhelm. In 1961, at the age of 55, Neumann moved to Düsseldorf with Wilhelm — a self-employed master painter — who passed away in 1964.

Neumann had a lifelong passion for travel, reading, and writing. She traveled extensively across the world and was fluent in both English and French. Finland, Morocco, Greece, and Italy were her favorite destinations. She held a subscription to the Rhine Opera for over 30 years and was a regular visitor to the Schauspielhaus theatre. An avid reader, she especially loved the works of Hemingway. When she moved into a nursing home around 2013, she owned a personal library of nearly 1,000 books. Although declining eyesight eventually prevented her from reading books, she continued to read the newspaper every day.

Lucie Neumann passed away in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on 19 February 2017, at the age of 110 years, 156 days.

RECOGNITION

Neumann’s age was validated by the ESO on 20 January 2020.

ATTRIBUTION

* “Lucie Neumann feierte zum 107. Mal Geburtstag” – NRZ. 17 September 2013

* “Lucie Neumann feiert 110. Geburtstag” – Westdeutsche Zeitung, 16 September 2016

* “Die älteste Frau in Düsseldorf ist 110 Jahre alt geworden” – NRZ, 16 September 2016

* “„Sie ist friedlich eingeschlafen“ ” – NRZ. 21 February 2017

GALLERY