Referring to Carl Wilhelm Farwerck‘s wife, I realised that I never really looked at Johanna. I didn’t even have her years of birth and death present when I needed them. Time to change this.
It wasn’t too difficult to find out when Johanna lived. She was born in Amsterdam on 3 May 1901 and she passed away on 15 May 1992 in Hilversum. At the time she had children, grand children and grand grand children. Thus says the obituary, see at the end of this text.
Borrius and Willy Farwerck got married on 7 December 1920 in a Lutheran church in Amsterdam like her parents, so it seems that this didn’t come from the Farwerck side of the family.
Johanna’s husband has passed away in 1964, Franz in 1989. I know in 1943 Willy and Johanna moved in with Farwerck in Hilversum and their sons moved into the house in the garden. One of the sons remained in Hilversum when married later. The Emmastraat remained Franz Farwerck’s property until shortly before he died, so Johanna didn’t live there when she passed away.
In the biography I say that Johanna’s original name is “Boris”, but that it has been Latinised. I’m sure I didn’t come up with that myself, but I’m unsure where I noticed it. The last name is indeed somewhat confusing. When I looked around for the information, I noticed variations to the last name.
Johanna’s parents were C.J. Borrius (1864-1939) and C.S. van Kempen (1865-1941). There appears to have been one sister M.A. Borrius (1899-?) who has been married to C. Hellingman.
The advertisements of both Johanna’s parents passings are also signed by H.W.M.J. Borrius Broek who married A.G. Chrispijn, a strange variation on the name Borrius. H.W.M.J. appears to be a son of C.S. van Kempen, but with another man, so he is Johanna’s half-brother who took the last name of both of his fathers when his mother remarried.
Johanna and Willy had three sons as you can read in the text about Carl Wilhelm. Online photos can be found of Johanna and the first two sons. A cut-out you can see below. On these photos Carl Wilhelm isn’t present, but a grandson of Johanna and Willy sent me a photo that seems to be from the same series and this one does include C.W. and Franz Otto Farwerck, the (grand)father. Also, this little text opens with a cut-out of the marriage photo of C.W. and Johanna also sent to me by the grandson.
In Franz Farwerck’s biography I write that Johanna and Willy joined him on several efforts. For one, Johanna was one of the directors of the carpet factory Veneta. Looking back, I’ve found only one indication for this. In a newspaper article from 1932 members of some committee are named. One of them is “J. Farwerck, Verenigde Nederlandse Tapijtfabrieken “Veneta” Hilversum”. This has to be Johanna.
Johanna is said to have been active in the Theosophical Society. I didn’t find many indications for that other than that she is mentioned in the book The Politics Of Divine Wisdom which is about women in the early Theosophical Society. The mention is very brief.
Of another thing I am sure. Franz Farwerck was initiated into mixed gender Freemasonry in 1911, his brother in 1917 (I think by his brother) and Johanna in 1921. She didn’t have the pace of the brothers Farwerck. She was passed to the second degree in 1923 and only in 1926 she was raised. Johanna does not seem to have been active in ‘higher degrees’. A year after her initiation, Johanna wrote about women in Freemasonry. A text that was first published in the Bouwsteenen and later in a separate booklet.
I’m not sure in which lodge Johanna was initiated. Both brothers Farwerck have been initiated in Christiaan Rosencreutz in Hilversum. Both brothers have helped to found the lodge Hiram Abiff in Amsterdam and Willy seems to have moved there permanently. Johanna has been active in this lodge too. The foundation was only in 1925. My guess is that also Johanna initially joined Christiaan Rosencreutz. This is about all information about Johanna and Freemasonry.
There is another initiative that Johanna has joined with the brothers Farwerck: the National Socialist Movement. Johanna’s and Willy’s two oldest sons too by the way. There is a bit of a strange twist to this though. In 1940 Willy Farwerck left Le Droit Humain when the organisation refused to dismantle itself which Willy and a few other members of Hiram Abiff had demanded, but Johanna is not under the letter of resignation. She was a known member of the N.S.B., so I doubt she’ll have remained a member long after the German occupation.
Johanna must have had a good relationship with her husband’s brother. Franz seems to have practically lived in Amsterdam most of the time, while the entire extended family (so Johanna and Willy with children) lived in Hilversum during the summers. During the war, Johanna and Willy even moved into the main house where Franz lived and the sons moved into the garden house.
It is likely that Johanna remained living with Franz after her husband passed away in 1964. In 1967 Franz sold the house though. Did both move to Wernerlaan 41 which is the correspondence address in Franz’ obituary? That could be a reason to believe that at that address one of Johanna’s children lived. It is not a too big house though (not nowadays at least) and it is quite something to not only have your mother move in with you, let alone, also a (dying) uncle. Perhaps this part needs some more investigation.
Johanna survived Franz by 23 years. The obituary of herself has yet another address: Koloniepad 22 in Blaricum. This appears to be quite a house. Did she move together with one of her children again? K.J. Farwerck and T.W.C. Farwerck-Hoolboom are mentioned as living in Blaricum as you can see.
That’s it for now. Not too much.