Ella Neumann was born in Schwarzwald, Baden-Württemberg, Germany on 9 October 1906. As a child, shortly before World War I began, she saw then-Emperor Wilhelm II during his visit to Aachen, riding a horse through the city.
In 1939, she married her husband, Paul, who worked as a bricklayer and foreman. During World War II, she was drafted by the Nazis to work in a production facility. In the years following the war, she and her husband experienced periods of poverty as Germany rebuilt itself; the couple never had children, and were married for 57 years until Paul’s death in 1996. She continued to live by herself for another seven years, until a broken femur in 2003 compelled her to move into a retirement home.
Ella Neumann passed away in Mulheim on 7 August 2018, at the age of 111 years, 302 days.
Her age was verified by Georg Fürholzer, and was validated by LongeviQuest on 9 April 2024.
* “Die älteste Mülheimerin ist jetzt 110 Jahre alt: “Glückwunsch, Frau Neumann!” – Mülheimer Woche, 8 October 2016