Gustav Tolkien (Poggenphuhl, Königsberg), slightly wounded in 1915

Source: ancestry.co.uk

As we know J.R.R. Tolkien took part in the Great War and in the Battle of Somme (1916), and came down with trench fever. Tolkien was invalided to England on 8 November 1916. In the same time another Tolkiens fought on the opposite side in the German Army. One of them was a Gustav Tolkien...

Musketier Gustav Tolkien, 1915

ancestry.co.uk presents at the moment about 400 people from Germany with the Tolkien family name. One of them is Gustav Tolkien from Poggenphuhl near Königsberg, East Prussia. He was a Musketier in the 10. Kompagnie in Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 3., III. Bataillon from East Prussia.

The genealogical records from ancestry.co.uk prove that the Tolkien family members lived almost only in East Prussia, in small towns and villages near Königsberg before the 20th century. If today most Tolkiens (or Tollkühns) live in Hamburg and other West German towns, it is an effect of the post-war migrations from the east German provinces (like East Prussia, Pommern), now parts of Poland, Russia etc.