Lismore House, a tale of two families, a German Consul and a German Hero!

A story of two families and a Scottish born German Hero involved in the plot to assassinate Hitler ...


Lismore House, overlooking the River Kelvin - photo by R. Rawles

Lismore House on Kelvin Drive is a Grade B listed detached house which was certainly occupied by a "Mrs Kiep" as she is listed on the Address book below. Two German brothers, with the name of Kiep, set up "Carl Kiep & Brother" in Glasgow, importing timber.


Lismore House


Photos by A.Rawles

Lismore House overlooks a bend in the Kelvin River. The house still contains many period features, including marble fireplaces, German light fittings, wood panelling and carvings.  The other house connected with the family (early 1900s) is at 4 Hughenden Terrace.

115 Kelvin Drive (glasgowwestaddress.co.uk)

The River Kelvin from Lismore House

I have attempted an excerpt of a family tree for the two families involved ... 


(Note: I am not entirely sure of the spellings of the names !)

Johann Nikolaus Kiep was the German Consul in Glasgow until 1914 when war broke out and the family quickly disappeared once hostilities broke out and they never returned to the house.

(1230) - Scotland > 1882-1915 - Slater's Royal National Commercial Directory of Scotland > 1903, Part 2 - Slater's Royal National Commercial Directory of Scotland ... (Royal National Directory of Scotland.) With ... map, etc - Scottish Directories - National Library of Scotland (nls.uk)

One half of the family lived at Hughenden Terrace and included Otto who was a hero of the German Resistance and involved in the plot to assassinate Hitler:

Johann Nikolaus Kiep (1847 -1935)

Charlotte Kiep

Otto Kiep - a forgotten hero

Walter Kiep:

Louis Leisler:

An interesting Thesis - Migrants and Internees - Germans in Glasgow 1864 - 1918 - includes a lot of references to the Kieps .... (if anyone reads this please send any updates that I can add to this page!)

Migrants and internees : Germans in Glasgow, 1864-1918. - Durham e-Theses


This following document provides further context of the situation at the time of World War 1 for Germans living in Glasgow and includes the interesting sentence "in 1911 about one hundred thousand or 12.3% of Glasgow's inhabitants had been born outside Scotland. The migrants in Glasgow in 1911 from outside Scotland came mostly from Ireland, England and Wales, the British Colonies and foreign countries such as Italy and the German, Austrian-Hungarian and Russian Empires, including partitioned Poland and the Baltic countries." Within Our Gates: A New Perspective on Germans in Glasgow during the First World War | Journal of Scottish Historical Studies (euppublishing.com) and also mentions Paul Rottenburg (Charlotte's father?), a chemicals merchant , who had come to Glasgow as a 21-year-old in the 1860s. He headed Leisler, Bock & Co. and was Chairman of the Deutscher Verein from 1893 to 1913. He was President of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce in 1896–1897 and a member of the Conservative Club. When he died in 1929 the Glasgow Herald called him a ‘Notable Glasgow Citizen’ and claimed he had been ‘one of the most devoted and loyal of citizens’.  He also joined with 27 naturalised German business leaders visited Lord Provost Dunlop and subsequently sent him a letter to condemn the sinking of the Lusitania, contributed to the fund for the victims of the Lusitania and renew their oath of allegiance to His Majesty the King. However, most retired quietly from public life.


Re: Lismore House
In one place I read that Lismore House was built for the German Consul in 1844 by his wife as part of her wedding dowry!
But ... in that as far as I can tell he lived in 4 Hughenden Terrace, I am not sure about further details of this story - maybe someone can add more information?


Patents for Hydraulic parts / turbine parts... one of the Johann Nikolaus Kieps ..... see google


Map Reference: Eurowalk 3: West End Wander

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