Two Countries – Two Wars The English Church in Hamburg and an indomitable caretaker

Mabel Wulff, B.E.M.

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This booklet tells the story of an extraordinary woman, Mabel Wulff, from Newport in Wales and her husband, Hamburger Max Wullf.They met at the Seamen’s Mission in Newport, married in 1909 and moved to Hamburg with their two sons after the First World War. Mabel Wulff became caretaker of the English Church in Hamburg in 1924, a position she kept throughout the Second World War and into the 1960s. When incendiary bombs fell on the church, she put out the fires, thus saving the church from almost certain destruction. Her life was not that of a simple verger – she showed great courage and fortitude in often harrowing times and in the face of personal tragedy. For her extraordinary service, Mabel Wulff was awarded the British Empire Medal in 1956.