Mothers of the Nation

ROUNDROBIN CLASSBOOK

OF THE GRADUATING CLASS OF 1927

HAMBURG SCHOOL FOR WOMEN (exact name??),

Members of the Class:
Elfried Benecke
Gertrud Beyer
Käthe Brandes
Dora Düker
Gertrud Frischgesell, “Muschi”
Carla von Lauenstein
Annemarie Lepel
Helga Ritter
Ilse Schomaker
Hildegard Schulze, sister of Margarete
Margarete Schulze
Else Sporleder

 

Preamble to the Roundrobin-Classbook

Roundrobin- Volume I
The book with our entries must travel in the order in which the names are listed above.
Each person must send it forward within two weeks at the most.
On the 1st of April of every year, the book must be sent to Carla von Lauenstein
Please write in any change of address at the front

Groß-Hansdorf April 30,’27

I start this book with a wish that we all take pleasure in it and participate with equal interest. Also would like to think that all of you are having as good a time in their respective practica or further studies as I am having right now. After one month of work, Grete and I both collected our first wages. We are naturally blissful. Besides which, there is lot to tell after one month, and I’m sure that’s what really matters to all of you.

Grete and I live in a small but very nice room with many flowers and much sunshine (when the sun shines!) and a gorgeous view onto the park and the woods, which are particularly beautiful at this in Spring with all the greening trees. Unfortunately, we don’t always have time to go for walks during our free time, although, whenever we do, we enjoy it a great deal. Our room is set up in a very cozy way and yesterday we had our first day of moving things around to make it even cozier; I have a hunch this won’t be the last time we do it.

At work, I ended up in the kitchen and Grete on the ground floor. Together with our house-manager Fräulein Lotze and an apprentice-boy, she maintains the bedrooms, offices and living rooms of Frau Director and the Doctor of the facility, and makes sure that everything’s in order for mealtimes.

We have just been told that, as of next Monday, Grete will be working in the kitchen and I on the ground floor; as long as I can also be in the kitchen at preserve-making time, I’m happy. The first days were very stressful for us. We’d crash into bed at mid-day and in the evening. Things have become much easier in the meantime.

In the kitchen, I work mostly with a housekeeper, her helper and two cook’s apprentices, not to mention a baker’s apprentice and five vegetable scrubbers. In all, there are here 14 kitchen apprentices and 7 helpers. Fräulein Schmelzer, the cooking-teacher was sick for a long time and only comes back to work next Monday. It was too bad, for she is very nice and I could have learnt a lot more from her; on the other hand, her absence meant I had much more autonomy (Subject for a composition!) and was quite satisfied. The housekeeper is called Fräulein Nissen, is very nice and is herself a product of the Bremerstraße (Bremerstraße was the address of the girls’ school). I was glad to hear that they always look forward to receiving students from Bremestraße (more so than from Altona). There is another housekeeper here, who used to be at the Tesdorpstraße where she was taught by Frl. Hammerschmidt and Frl. Buesche, which is very nice. I really enjoy working in the kitchen. I am learning about measurements, although rather differently from at school: stupendous amounts of roux calling for 7 shovels of flour and about 2 pounds of margarine; soups calling for 2 or 3 pounds of semolina. My break is ending. So, I’ll conclude this letter with warmest greetings and best wishes for your activities.

Carla von Lauenstein.
Wyk auf Föhr May 3,’27
Dear Classmates!
I too have had a soft landing in my practicum. Unlike Grete Schulze, I did not land on the ground floor, but on the 2d floor. The work is very boring. I have done more than I ever need to do in the way of dusting, laundry and bed making. When I’m done in the 2d floor, I must go through the whole house and inspect the work of all the helpers and maids. Of course I learn to look at everything with a critical eye and scold; which isn’t exactly pleasant, to have to call in the helper and tell her:” Hey, Miss XY, you didn’t dust well” or “the children’s drawers weren’t put away just so!” It is especially unpleasant with the helpers, for I have to be their friend while hitting them over their head (oh dear, I hope Fräulein Pfannenstiel doesn’t read this). If there are preserves being made in the kitchen, or if Frau Welling, the director, wants a free afternoon, I have to help in the hot kitchen. As happened today: I and three other people put away 120 pounds of rhubarb. The same amount was processed on Thursday and again next week. Still, it is fun, despite all the piecework.

Until now, there hasn’t been anything special to do. There are only twelve children here at the time, of whom five are sick in bed with chickenpox. The latter are cared for by one of the kindergarten nurses and we hardly see them. As a result, the house is fairly quiet and boring. But in a week we’ll see some action, for ten more kids will arrive, and then a week later another bunch — maybe as many as 65 children. Things will get pretty lively, but there’ll also be a lot of work! In the high season, there are three helpers here, two kindergarten caretakers, a nurse and a maid, my humble self, and let’s not forget the three managers, who are all nurses. Besides that, the house also has a big garden with gardeners and helpers. All in all, it’s a respectable operation.

Only one thing is too bad, which is that I have so little time to go and enjoy the sea. Tanneck (the children’s home) lies right next to the woods and behind them, is the sea. Every morning they organize a long-distance walk in the grove for all our kids dressed in gymnastics outfit. It looks really great.

In the afternoon, during my free time, I take the sleeping cure on the South Balcony. Yesterday and today, we were even able to sunbathe. That was divine.

All my best wishes that your practicum and/or year of study will be as good as mine.
Fondly,
Your Annemarie Lepel.

Quassel Estate, 15 of May 27
Dear old classmates!

It’s been three days since the book arrived here, so here I come to tell all of you what we’ve been up to here. I’m afraid I don’t enjoy as much free time as Annemarie, Carla and Grete; at best I have a little time to myself on Sundays. Anyway, here we go! Mornings: arise at 5, 5:30 at the latest; then I have to stack the smokehouse with fresh wood and fuel; then I have to do the milk-intake, enter everything in the books etc. Then it is on to breakfast preparation and that means everything has to be done to a T for our customers as well as for the 10 staff people. Right after that I throw myself into lunch preparation; again, I have two kitchens side by side: one for the guests and one for us; as you can guess it is a regular madhouse! There is no gas here, so everything has to be done on a woodstove. I have to learn an appalling number of new recipes. After lunch, I have to clean my kingdom: the food pantry. If the weather is nice, it’s on to the garden, to pull beets, hoe, seed etc. If it rains, we repair linens. At 4 PM, it’s bread-slicing and butter-spreading all over again. We serve a hot meal every evening for the guests and for the staff. Work is over after dinner. By then, it’s usually 9 o’clock; I’m dog-tired and collapse into bed; only rarely do I spend the evening downstairs. Sunday is baking day; I throw pie-bottoms into the oven (a frightfully capricious beast!). All of last week, we had a “big housecleaning” (there are 20 rooms) and the monthly laundry fell at the same time; the laundry lasted three days. I didn’t do any washing; meaning that I did even more ironing, every night till 10. By then, even attaching new legs to my body wouldn’t have kept me standing. There are two children in the house: a three-year old and an infant, a cute little thing. I must prepare his food and a lot of the time I must mother him. So these are the broad lines of my work. Sometimes it’s just too much, but one must clench one’s teeth. On top of that, I was sick a few days, I was totally exhausted; all I’m eating for the time being is oatmeal and tea. O joy! Aside from that, things are very, very nice here. The other girls are nice to me; the family circle is pleasant (it consists of the Estate Manager, his 22 year old daughter in law, a seemingly very hardworking person; the person who looks after the chickens, the secretary, my humble self and the children. Everybody is still grieving, which is a bit depressing, but the children bring life into the household.

The Estate itself is very beautiful, especially now in Spring- everything is green; they have every kind of domesticated animal here. Aside from that, there’s nothing really thrilling. Sundays are spent writing letters; there’s absolutely nothing to do up here.
For your info, I now have very short nails (this was not my own desire, but I just needed them short).
So, good bye till our class-day next year. I must finish this letter now, because I have to run to the cow-barn and get the milk for all the day laborers.

Fondly, Helga Ritter
Cross your fingers that I won’t turn moldy! (As you know I have a tendency to it anyway! And pl-ee-ze don’t make fun of me, yea??)

Lüneburg May 20, 27
My dear classmates!

I just came off work. I worked really hard today, so as to have my time open on Sunday. Aside from that, I let things ride quietly, since this isn’t a very big farm. This means that I will not be able to give you a long report like Helga’s.

Unfortunately, I am still at home; it has been too difficult to find a good place where I can learn midwifery. Of course, I have a very easy time here. Every afternoon, I go into the garden and help my fiancé. Right now, there is a lot to do in the garden- I am also sewing busily away at my trousseau. First, I do the lingerie; as you can well imagine, it is really fun. What is also really wonderful is that we all seem to be so well prepared from school.

Aside from that, I also work as a decorative painter. I have a lot of work and the pay is good. People order blouse-ribbons a half-dozen at a time. I also had to paint several scarves. Not so long ago, I was able to paint a dress. I barely have any occasion to put away my paint bottles. I love it. It makes me some money and it is all tax-free. If the evening is nice, Luten and I go out. Yesterday we went rowing by starlight on the mirror-smooth Ilmenau River. (illustration possible)

I hope you too have such wonderful times! It will be Whitsun soon, I look forward to it already, maybe St. Peter will have pity on me, and I can escape a little while.

Best greetings to all.
Your Ilse Schomaker.

Potsdam May 28, 1927
Dear Eleven All,

How nice to be keeping in touch! I was frightfully happy when I found the book the other day, as I came back dead-tired from school. I will tell you right away how my life goes here. The first part of half of my stay is almost over; there will be holidays in one week! I’m really looking forward to them! All in all, I have really adjusted very well. I feel completely at home in my bachelorette’s room, a really nice room. Potsdam is a charming town. You can all envy me for that, for until now I have had enough time to take in the many beauties of the town (have several potential illustrations for Potsdam: both lakes and buildings). Despite indifferent weather, I have taken some very beautiful walks and gone on hikes. The Havel-Lakes that frame the town are wonderful. There are also many beautiful spots in the parks with all kinds of monuments and mansions. You won’t believe how many castles and manor houses there are around here; I certainly had no idea. The way to school is also beautiful; every day, I walk across the New Garden and along the Heiligensee. You really can’t compare the school with that of the Bremerstraße. The installations are a bit more modern; in spite of it, I feel a stronger attraction to the Bremerstraße, for I haven’t had a chance to penetrate the spirit of this school. We do some very sensitive work here, for instance in Sketching, all we draw are impressions, nothing realistic, but rather impressions of textiles, threads, dark, light etc. At first, it felt really odd. All the other subjects are taught in a very modern way too. We have hardly done any practical work; all we do is try out new things. In Free Manual Handwork, we make crochet samples; in Sewing we make samples of embroidery patterns. Whatever had been considered ‘natural’ in Hamburg is not at all so here, so I first have to find my way into the work. I have already noticed, though, that in Hamburg they had taught us quite a bit on the theoretical subjects. As for the rest, I’ll get used to it. The lectures on Art History are a lot of fun. I was really ignorant until now, and am very happy to learn more. The man who gives those lectures illustrated with slide projections is a brilliant speaker and quite fascinating. Once a week we drive to Berlin for lectures on Economics and Pedagogy. This is fun too; it almost feels like being halfway to University, as we sit scribbling away at our lecture-notes. And of course, we get to know Berlin. The only drawback is that on those days we have to get up so early, at 5:30 (I imagine that those of you who are on practica will rumple their noses at my laziness!) This way we get to Berlin by 11, and have time to see everything. Recently I attended an art exhibit at a weekend colony. I don’t know if you know that there’s a whole colony here of little weekend houses. It was very interesting. As you see, there is a lot of variety. There is hardly any danger of our ‘faces turning green’. Sewing and darning till our eyes fall out, taught by a pretty old-fashioned bore that reminds me a little of Fräulein Jaeger. If your sewing deviates even the slightest bit from the straight thread, right away she goes: “Darling, you’ll have to rip it open again.” Recently, she announced she would bring along her magnifying glass! charming, no? My schoolmates are very nice, there are 17 of us, only one with a pageboy haircut, all of them very solid students, which is really striking, although I’m told that this seminar is always like that. The one thing I miss here is singing. A few of the girls like to sing, but most of them are much stronger singers than I am. Aside from that, we are really jolly and easygoing. Tomorrow some of us (not the whole class) will go on an outing to Paretz1, which is pretty far away. I better get a good night’s sleep. So I’ll end here.

Best greetings to all from your
Hildegard Schulze.

[1 Paretz: Neighborhood of the town of Ketzin, District Nauen, near Potsdam, along the Havel River and the Paretz-Niederneuendorf Canal. (illustration )]

Groß- Hansdorf, May, (sic) 3, 27

Dear old class,

Although this is the second time in a very short interval that this book is reporting from Gross-Hansdorf, there are all kinds of new things to tell you about our work. For in the meantime, we each have switched assignments once or twice. In May, we switched assignments with each other, which seemed a bit strange at first. We had so thoroughly acclimated to the earlier jobs that we kept drifting back to them without even thinking about it. In the end though, Carla could be convinced to like working on the ‘ground floor’ and I started to like the kitchen and we were able to tell each other stories, share our problems and our joys, having had the experience of work in both areas. As for myself, I must honestly admit that my new assignment gives me much more pleasure, because it is actually much more interesting and presents at least a little bit of an intellectual challenge, which can hardly be said of dusting, trimming string beans and other such delights. The work in the kitchen is constantly changing. I do early and late shifts on alternate weeks; in the first case, I’m up by 5, wake up the kitchen apprentices and start them out on their work. Then I am mostly free after dinner, i.e., 7:30. During the ‘early shift days’ duties are in the bread-kitchen, where we must prepare sandwiches for 100 children (2-300 slices for each meal), and besides, we prepare snacks for the staff. One is never busy the whole day since there is at least one apprentice to help out.

Along the way, I also work in the ‘cooking-kitchen’ mornings from 10 to 12, afternoons till 6. I often have had to bake. Of course shortbread based on 200 grams of flour is hardly what we deal with here: at the very least 2 pounds of flour; don’t even mention making cake with 1 pound of flour, average anywhere between 6 and 12 pounds, which will be just enough for Sunday coffee break. At first we really had to laugh at the size of the containers in which all imaginable ingredients had to be mixed, (I am sure the others who are doing practica understand me, right?) And consider that this place does not even do such a big business.

On late-shift weeks, I don’t need to be at my post before 7, in exchange for which I get to be the last one in the kitchen at night. How late, varies of course from day to day. It is generally 8:30, but it can go as late as 9:15, 9:30. On such a week one is in the cooking kitchen the entire day, Carla has already told you that in the kitchen we work under the supervision of a teacher and a house-manager. Last week was a bit different, actually. The teacher needed to do some paperwork and handed the whole mess over to me, while the house manager was busy in the bakery. My Lord! How anxious and nervous I was in order to complete everything, in a sweat a good part of the time (that’s without the heat from the stoves). There are three apprentices to direct, who can’t do anything alone, and one isn’t necessarily sure oneself. But the good people who devour the meal in half an hour after one slaved away the whole morning, don’t suspect all the effort that went into it and that is very reassuring. Work lets off a bit afternoons. For evening meals, the children only receive a simple grain mush or a soup, which after a few weeks one is able to do in one’s sleep. If there is nothing in particular to make for the staff, one bakes in the afternoon, or starts preparing things for the next day.

The work pleases me also so much, because we only cook with very good ingredients and to very high standards, yet without any waste. We learn everything in a very “concrete” way. Since the 1st of June, Carla is now employed in the laundry. There is a lot of work there and it is probably the most physically demanding. But it is fun: she especially likes the work, because the other people working in the laundry are all very nice people; and these moments -as we all know- give a completely different feeling to the work.

I still need to tell you something about one special activity, which keeps us in the straight and narrow practicing the good old exercises: each of us teaches handwork once a week, Carla to the apprentices, I to the helpers. At this point, this is the most interesting handwork class that one could conceive, for we are doing patching and machine-repairs. By the time the poor things have finally understood the work (which is going to take a while) all the linen will have been repaired. Which makes it all the more exciting.

Aside from work, one more thing, namely that, on the whole, our life here is very nice and happy. We don’t exactly have masses of free time, but we can enjoy all the wonderful beauty offered by nature all around us. Whenever we go out in the evening for one last little “airing”, we can hardly bear to separate. Mostly of course, we are too tired to stay up much longer than we are allowed to (10:00). The beautiful weather and the cozy moments which we often negotiate for ourselves with the house-managers are really too precious to sleep them away. Actually, one gets used to the work, without having to drop into bed at every opportunity, as was the case when we first started out here.

Today I am very happy because I am going home for Whitsun. I especially look forward to hearing directly from Hilde all that’s going on in Potsdam.

For now, most heartfelt greetings to all from your
Margarete Schulze.

Spandau, 17 June 1927
Dear All!

Well, I guess my turn has come to report. It has been very pleasant to hear from you all, and to know that you are all so happy. I can honestly say the same about myself; after the last two years, being here feels like a cool Summer morning, even if one has to work a little hard. We are constantly aware of our happiness at having come down here. It would be a great place for the whole class. Every morning at 7, we must appear on the gymnastics grounds in full dress (which is not much of course, basically a better swimsuit). We sing a ‘’’community-song’” with the “gentlemen” (which is what they call male beings here), then someone reads a little verse by Jahn or some such. Before Whitsun, this would then be followed by each class going into the woods for a vigorous 2 hour run. The classes are determined by body height, so that Elfriedchen and I were in the same class, with a gym teacher called Fräulein Pagenstecher. We would go into a different part of the woods every morning and exercise with variations determined by the lay of the land. We did calisthenics, folkdance, ball playing; tree climbing, ditch-jumping, robbers and princesses; you can’t believe how much fun we had! By 9 AM, we’d head back to school dirty and tired. A quick shower, and then on to lectures. Theory, Use of Gymnastics Apparatus, History of Physical education, Medicine and First Aid, Theory of Rowing or Swimming. Only thing is: one is often tired! For a while, we really got into loud stomping and scraping our shoes on the floor as a form of applause (strongly disapproved of!!, however). Some of the lectures are shared with the “gentlemen” . – Then it’s back to physical work. Swimming, massage or medical gymnastics. You should really see us going on all fours, crawling and hopping when we do orthopedic gymnastics. For massage, we practice on each other. Right now we work on the back and get to do a lot of heavy “kneading”, which is actually a very pleasant feeling. Rest at 1 PM, by which time our stomachs rumble like crazy. They sure build up our appetites here!! “Uhauhau!” (That’s our cannibals’ call to slaughter) No question of sleeping, of course. By 2 PM, we go on to three hours of rowing. Rowing in place wasn’t exactly the greatest fun on earth, but as they say, no pain, no gain. It makes it all the more fun now to work out on the boats with rolling seats! Our rowing teacher is a short rump of a man with the most incredibly swayed back, yet really energetic and relentless. I had a bad cold and missed two sessions and will have to make it up even though I have proved that I know my stuff. – When we float around the Havel in our rowboats, he comes along in his motorboat yelling at us in his metal snout, and yells at us whenever we make any mistake. When Jule (that’s his name) is out of sight, everything is free and easy.

Since Whitsun, the work has become much more demanding. In the morning, we don’t go into the woods, but do floor gymnastics till our bones ache. After the exercises, we run around the place a few times, then we throw javelins, throw weights, play rounders etc. Two hours of that is pretty exhausting, which of course we can take. Whenever we go from one piece of equipment to the next, we march there singing at the top of our lungs.
So the gymnastics area is constantly filled with happy singing! We also have an option to play tennis, although for now I don’t have a racquet and can’t afford to buy one. In the summer, they’ll be offering a sailing course. That is a bit costly too, and in any case, I think I’d like to go home.

Unfortunately, the weather so far has not been great. So at the slightest opportunity we go and laze around in the sun on the big lawn by the Gymnastics Square. We won’t be able to do too much of that soon, because we’ll have to get ready for exams, which means practice and more practice. It won’t be long till August when we have our exam. We try to pretend it’s not happening!

I guess I’ve talked enough, also I’d better leave some room for Elfriedchen.

Greetings to the Eleven/Elves (Euch Elfen) your Else Sporleder.

Gut Heil! Gut Heil! Gut Heil! (“Hip, hip, hurrah” is no longer ‘in’)

Spandau 21 June ‘27
Dear ones all!

So here comes more news about our beautiful Spandau. Else has already given you our schedule and told you how happy we are here. They work us hard, but that’s true of you also, and evenings we crash into bed! But there are so many different things to do aside from our work, we can hardly complain of boredom! Just think, before Whitsun, the entire school went and stayed in Youth Hostels for 8 days; our class, together with the men’s 2d and 3rd classes went to Chorin near Eberswalde. Those were wonderful days, despite the cold weather. We’d get up at 7, go for a quick wash in the brook and calisthenics. Then on to walks in the woods, for Chorin is in a charming location, completely surrounded by green; we’d have a big breakfast there and play till afternoon. Afternoons we’d run out again, or we went sightseeing; when it was raining, we’d sit inside and sing. In the evenings, we did folk dancing outdoors. One day, we actually got to dance in front of Mackensen when he came to visit the Cloister nearby. Needless to say, we were proud of ourselves! We had all kinds of experiences, and I’ll tell you one day about our “Wedding Cake” One afternoon, we walked to Chorinchen to drink some good coffee, it was on Ascension Day, time for a little treat! We were all getting pretty excited at the thought of beautiful cakes and coffee –flötje piepen – but when we got there the only baker in town had only one cake left which had been ordered for a wedding to be held the next day! And we were starving (surprise! surprise!) So, quickly, we asked him where the wedding would be and we all went there. We sang one song and all the windows opened and even the beautiful bride looked out (we nearly lost our voices, when we saw her, she was so beautiful!) and miracle of miracles! after a few more songs, and a soulful rendering of “Love brings great Joy” she was so moved that she sent two little peasant girls to the baker and they returned with a big platter full of Strauselkuchen! Great!! For thanks, we sang some more for our generous donor and marched back to the village and the youth hostel in single file, cake at the front! Then we stood in a circle, and cut it into as many pieces as needed for each to get a piece. You won’t believe how much we laughed and even now when we say the name “Chorintchen’ we get all excited. You should have been there! Else and I keep wishing you’d be here, especially when we all sing together, which we used to do so well in Hamburg! Those really were divine days, and on top of that, I was looking forward to going home. We had ten days vacation which of course passed much too quickly, even though we were looking forward to going back to Spandau. On Sunday, we went to Berlin to the Great Regatta; it was great: old Jule will have to yell at us a lot in his horn before we row like that! On the 29th, there is a sports festival at the stadium, and our class will be in the obstacle race; we are practicing like crazy, and then of course, it’ll soon be practice time for the exam in August, which will be pretty hard.

All right dearies, time to finish. Tonight is Summer Solstice, which means finishing dinner quickly.
Hope everything is well with all of you. Best greetings
your Elfriede Benecke.

Harburg, 29 June 1927
Dear Class,

Today, I have only a little time to write to you. I shall write in more details some other time, when we are not right in the middle of getting ready for our Summer trip. Tomorrow we are going on our vacation trip to Lyck in Eastern Prussia, where we are invited by my uncle. I’m really excited. It is supposedly very beautiful out there in the Lake District of Mazuria. Naturally, we also want to go see Königsberg, and on the way home we will probably spend a few days in Berlin. Isn’t that great? Maybe I’ll tell you all about it in my next letter. Actually I’m really only writing for Annemarie, Dora and Katchen. All the others have already heard about it. As you know I really like it in the Gym School (and of course I’m happy to hear how much you enjoy your studies and activities) I’ll just tell you about our schedule. Gertrud Frischgesell can give 1000 more details. Unfortunately, all the classes are in the afternoon, because teachers-in-training also participate. That’s the only drawback.

Mondays from 3:15 to 8: Theory. Includes Pedagogy which anyone who already took the exam doesn’t have to take again, so I get to start an hour later.
Then History of Phys. Ed, Methodology, Anatomy (all in the building for Further Education on Biederstrass
Tuesdays: Gymnastics 4-7 (Lerchenfeld)
Wednesdays: 1-3 Swimming (at the Lübecker Tor)
Thursdays: Light Athletics
Fridays morning: Swimming, afternoon Gymnastics
Saturday: free
On top of that, we must do gymnastics in a sports association two evenings a week, for me that’s Tuesdays and Thursdays- I am quite satisfied with it…although at times it’s a bit much; well, at least one is always kept busy. How the poor things do it that must be holding down jobs at the same time, I can’t imagine!

The teachers are all very nice and conscientious, especially Foht. With him, one dares do all kinds of things that one wouldn’t have dreamed of doing: we have learnt to play Handball and Soccer, next comes Rounders. The other day we attended a Handball Game between the upper classes of Uhlenhorst and Hamm neighborhoods. It was the decisive tie-breaking game. It was pouring rain. The field was one big puddle; when they were finished, the poor guys looked worse than the legendary Wild Pigs!

Actually, it’s probably better to distribute athletics and apparatus-gymnastics as they do in Spandau, except that they have much less time in which to learn everything. During the winter, we will only have two gymnastics classes: Bode and Laban .

Recently we went to see the Stadium with a Swimming pool at the Altona Popular Park. We were really impressed by the 10-meter diving board, although we could only look down from it. It’s an enormous height. I’m just as glad we must make do with 3 meters.

In summer, there will be swimming in a number of outdoors pools, but there was no chance for it so far. It’s always very nice: besides the breaststroke, we practiced three kinds of backstrokes, side-crawl hand over hand, back crawl, back butterfly, underwater swimming (which always makes me feel like I’m going to burst), spring-diving and diving from a swimming position, diving from a headstand, pike-diving, running dive (the latter so far has mostly consisted in spectacular bellyflops). We’ll know a lot more by the time we are done.

I almost forgot to tell you that we are also learning massage. All the girls in the class are nice; not that we love all of them equally. Two of them never came back after the first test, and another one has dropped out. Actually, the three who dropped out were the least likable.

I think that’s all for now. Without my intending it so, it has turned into a long scribble after all.

Quickly! On Whitsun, I got a really cute nephew! He weighed 8 pounds and is gaining quickly. At first he made the most comical, crunched up faces, but he’s getting more and more well mannered by the day. Sometimes he opens his eyes big and suddenly shoots off little side-glances; it’s hilarious. Inge is very proud of her little brother Hans; of course, we are all very happy.

Be well, all of you. Don’t work too hard, especially you guys in the practicum.

When is the book coming back this way? I hope that it will circulate quickly so that we have the pleasure more often.
Fond greetings from your
Gertrud Beyer.

I was going to tell you all about the Jubilee at the old Bremerstrasse joint but forgot to do so. There were a lot of really beautiful performances. Greta and Carla were also there, so maybe they’ll tell us about it. Then again, maybe you’ll get to hear it at Christmas, when we all meet in person.
Good bye again!

Stettin , 7 July 1927

Faulheit lass nach, oder ich dreh dir ‘n Hals um! Laziness watch out, if I catch you I’ll twist your neck! (saying?)

Dear friends!

As you well know, heat expands all bodies, and so naturally the little amount of time which had been allocated to me by law, has somehow expanded. Before I knew what was happening, 5 days turned to 8.

Stettin is currently plagued by a heatwave. It’s especially hot at the fifth floor of the warehouse of the Brothers Horst, on Paradeplatz. Unfortunately, I sit in that same fifth floor from 8 to 1 and from 3 to 6:30 in front of one of fifty electrical machines, head bent, spine twisted– pearls of sweat on my forehead and, whenever one drop of this noble fluid falls on the hot machine, it steams angrily (just reading this line gives me the shudders) And all this for nothing, as it says in the old song: “ Hei schimpf sick Verwalter- und ersett’n schoene Knecht”

To reach said fifth floor, I have to climb 173 (or is it 137?) steps (four times a day makes it 692 (or 548?) steps). I have to do it on foot, since “personnel” is not allowed to use the lift. On the other hand, the “Personnel” gets 10% off everything on the lower floor, and so tomorrow, I’m getting myself the perfect bathrobe for 9 Deutsch Mark (DM) (and for 50DM, you can get one made of crazy materials that would look great as a bedside mat, not so great as a tablecloth and positively horrid as a bathrobe). Of course once I have my bathrobe, I will feel obligated to ‘take it for a walk’. This will happen: on the 1st of August, God willing (God in my case lives in Potsdam) I’ll be on the steamboat to Rügen. Hopefully the weather will have improved by then, as is the case now; so other people will have to bake/sweat/ while I loll around in the sun– After this little detour, it’s back to business! All right! So you have climbed the 1,000 steps with me, now I’m about to open the door of the workshops; careful now, put on gas masks! A stunning per-fume-stink-smell (can’t find the word, I’m still stupefied!) of unventilated human beings and sickeningly sweet starching hit us. Now imagine you’re being introduced to Fräulein Krause, Head of the Laundry, and Fräulein Wodrich, Second-in-Command, both going back to Karla Dudy’s time. One word in edgeways: the Krause woman is as fleshy as she is pleasant and the Wodrich woman is as thin as she is bad-tempered (lit. ‘goatish’). I am really convinced that as people get older, there gets to be a clear relationship between body shape and character: the rounder, the nicer; the thinner the more poisonous! Come on in! Meet the cutters (Fräulein Kien, Fräulein Wise, Fräulein Preusse, all born in 1905 (Fräulein Preusse is no taller than me, and not getting any taller soon!) Then there’s Frau Kletschke, the practicum teacher and then the rest of the crowd of workers, with whom I have not yet established a really ‘social’ relationship, for it is only recently that I took my courage in both hands and got myself near an “electric” (electrical sewing machine) where I sit cheek by jowl with them. The electric machine is a wondrous object. The pedal, which is no good for one’s health and generally very demanding, is placed under the table; and its rhythm makes me seasick, it being, alas, completely unsynchronized with my own natural rhythm. Oh well, let’s get this newsrag off, two reports have already gone to Potsdam at great pain and strain

At least Little Carla is coming in the Fall, and we’ll dictate letters to each other straight into the pen, right Carla?

Now kids ,please don’t mind me, but I think we’d better take care to economize paper, so I’ll drag myself to bed! (Tscha, Kinner, nahmt mi dat ni oewel, ick glaeuf, wi moet mit dat Papier ‘n baeten spoersamer umgohn, dussenthalben klau ick nu in’t Bett!)

Hope you are all as well as I am. Happy greetings,

Your Käthe Brandes.

Hamburg 19 July 1927
Dear Class-Sisters!

Here the twelve of us are dispersed to the four winds, and it is nice to have this book to hold us together. Your reports have been really interesting. Poor hard-working wretches you! I, by contrast, have it really easy.

As you know, I had hoped to enter the Gymnastics Seminar. But since I wasn’t prepared enough, they weren’t able to accept me. (I now feel like a ‘stupid sheep’ for not having taken gymnastics earlier) So I went to the High School authorities and registered for the short (lower level) swimming exam. The test will be this Fall.

Then I went to Fräulein Günther, and she offered me a chance to attend Hasselbrookstrasse as a guest-student. I’ve been there since the end of April and really like it. There are two kitchens in the Public School; I spend three days in the first, then the next three days in the other. As a guest student, I’m not kept very busy. I must say it is boring at first: since the guests change every day, we cook the same thing day after day. In the morning, I don’t need to get there till 9:45, I have till ten to weigh ingredients, and then the children arrive. We have 18-24 children every day, they are quite capable and reliable, also very clean. They always feel more comfortable coming to me with their questions than to Frl. Hinsch or Fr. Pape, who are both on the elderly side. The latter would be the perfect demonstration of how not to do things. She asks the children what they must do next, down to the smallest detail (for instance, how many liters of water to use to boil salt potatoes.) As a result, the children never feel confident about the things they know. Frl. Hinsch on the other hand is a good teacher.

Tuesdays and Thursdays, I take swimming lessons with very nice colleagues, all of them (trained) swimmers. Mondays and Wednesdays, I do gymnastics at the Gymnastics Club, which I enjoy enormously. Wednesdays, the Club has it own Swimming Practice, and I usually manage to attend it.

As you can see, I’m hardly overworked. I’m afraid things will change after the summer vacations, though. I better tell you: I got a job in Wandsbeck, as (are you sitting down?) Housekeeping Teacher for Continuing Education Students. I’ll start once a week only, but that’s a beginning. How did I get the job? I just went quite unashamedly to the Director in charge and asked if they could use me. He was pleasant, was familiar with the Bremerstrasse and seemed to know and like Fräulein Rudtke. By the time this book returns to me, I’ll be able to tell you all about my experiences being by then an experienced, duly appointed teacher.
I realize that my epistle got quite long, so I’d better stop for now.
Warm greetings
Your Dora Düker.

Hamburg, 22 July ‘27
Dear Colleagues!

I returned from my trip three days ago. My heart is still bursting with memories, and Gertrud Beyer already told you everything about the Gymnastics Course, so I’ll write a little about the Rhine instead.

Just imagine, I did see the celebrated Old Father Rhine, the most beautiful of all rivers, with its old castles. On July 2d, I took the Holiday Special train to Cologne. It was Sunday morning, bells were ringing everywhere. After we got rid of our luggage, we visited the Cathedral the vault of which is supported by gigantic sheaves of pillars . We visited during High Mass, which was an indescribably festive experience. Afterwards, we visited the Treasure of the Cathedral, sparkling and glittering with all its golden ciboriums, incrusted with diamonds, brilliants and other precious stones. (Illustrations) Unfortunately, we were too tired from the long train ride to do much more in the way of a town visit. The next day, we took the train again to the Siebengebirge where we looked down onto the Rhine from the old, crumbling ruin of the Drachenfels Illustration?. The view from the top was gorgeous. At a diagonal across the river one can see Roland’s Corner and Roland’s Bow , and down below, lying in the middle of the stream the wooded Nonnenwerth Island. After that, we alternated boat and train to travel to Bingen. The further up we went, the more beautiful the Rhine became, edged with high rocky cliffs and vineyards. We spent the night in Assmannshausen . In this charming little town, there is a continuous stream of singing; one can hardly close one’s eyes before 1 in the morning. It sounds like an unending Potpourri; no sooner is one song ended that another starts with barely an interruption. Bells are ringing everywhere, and one sees the Rhine veiled in a blue mist, it is like a dream, an opera.

On the way back, we took the steamboat again, then the train to the Lorelei, the Palatine area, the Ehrenfels ruin and the fortifications of Wehrenbreitstein on the way to visit my relatives in Hamborn. (travel posters available from that year)

So, don’t worry about my going to waste. In 14 days, gym starts again. Our gym teacher came back from her holiday with a suitcase full of books and articles that we all must read. I feel a bit dizzy at the thought of it. I’ll end here. As you know, I’ve never been one for long speeches and letters.

Heartfelt Greetings
Your Gertrud Frischgesell.

Gross-Hansdorf Convalescence Home August 2, 1927
Dear Class!

Reading Trudel’s report on the Rhine gave me wandering fever. Gertrud Beyer and I were (felt) drawn more to the East.

The disappointment of not having any vacations is compensated a bit by the realization that everyone else has gone back to work. So I’ll tell you about our work.

Since we last wrote, Gertrud has moved over to the Laundry, and I’m back in the Kitchen where I had started. I had a lot of fun during my time at the Laundry. We were with a House Manager, a helper and two apprentices, all very compatible with each other. Our work was divided in two washdays and two ironing days. On washdays, I originally had to wash by hand all day. Later I got to use the machines: washing machine, rinsing machine and centrifuge. By the time it gets on the line, the laundry is almost dry.

With ironing, I started out ironing the way we used to do it in school, slowly and carefully, but when one spends the whole morning ironing nothing but linens, even though things swim in front of one’s eyes, one gets into the swing of it. – Right now, Grete is still working on Fräulein Doktor’s jumpsuit that requires extra care with its lace and stuff- otherwise she’d be on her break with me. I’m looking forward to returning to the Laundry in September.

There is a lot to do in the kitchen now; there isn’t a moment when someone doesn’t appear to report that so and so is sick in bed with a throat infection. Ten staff members are already sick. It’s only a matter of days before Grete and I take to our beds!

The House-Manager with whom I work in the kitchen is also sick, and the very next day after I wrote to you, I was assigned to represent her, so here I’m left alone to muddle through in the kitchen. Sometimes things go well; sometimes it gets pretty chaotic. The meal isn’t finished in time, or there isn’t enough of it; always a bit exaggerated of course. It’s too bad that Gertrud and I are supposed to help the apprentices clean the vegetables: it will be too late to go for a swim by the time we finish. In previous weeks, on every beautiful day, all of us apprentices, students, house managers and Frl. Doktor went together, even if it is just a very small pond disguised by the fenced area in which we display our swimming skills. I must say I envy Käthe in Rügen with the Baltic Sea next doors.

Last Saturday I was at home in Lüneburg and walked through the streets, thinking I might run into Ilse Schomaker. ‘Thinking’ something might happen may affect one’s luck. In this case, my luck was not with me: I still enjoyed the fantasy, though. By now Grete has finished her fancy ironing job and is sitting next to me, busy looking very domestic as she darns stockings. Free time is almost over and the book has to be sent on its way. So that’s it!

Warm greetings from Grete and myself to the whole dear class.
Carla v. Lauenstein.

I send all twelve my fond greetings and best wishes for the continuation of your work.
Karla Dudy (one of the teachers from Bremerstrasse)

Wyk a/ Föhr 14 August 1927
Dear Class Comrades!

*What joy this little book is! We know what everyone is doing. Just one suggestion for economy’s sake. The book has made one complete round and is already half full. I would suggest not starting each letter on a new page.

Second request: “ Please do come on December 28, 1927 to my apartment in Hamburg, so we can have a Class-Day” If this doesn’t work for you, if you can’t be in Hamburg or vicinity, please write so we can eventually change the venue.

Business done. Now to personal news. Things are well with me. The work is piled up (those who are doing a Home Economics Practicum as I am will know what I mean) We are making preserves by the hundredweight. When the red currants are done (around the 20th of this month), I will be in charge of the kitchen for one month. At that point, I’ll be cooking for 55-60 people. Quite a thing. I’m looking forward to it, even though I do have a teeny, tiny case of the butterflies. But take courage! it will come out fine. The worst that can happen is that I add too much salt to the food. After all, I have always worked independently here.

Aside from work, there are many pleasures. From the guesthouse proper, we have sailing parties and we go for excursions with a car. I have already visited Sylt and Amrum. I know Föhr like my own pocket. Social life is not precisely exciting around here. It’s a place for ‘turning sour’ (I hear it’s a lot like the Quassel Estate!) At the height of the season, there were exactly fifteen male guests at the spa. When you go to one of the ‘Reunion’ (Balls) you need to bring your own Male if you wants to dance! Of course when it comes to dancing etc. ,Hamburg will allow us to catch up. That’s not what the Practicum is for. I’ve already started working on my weight. I gained 10 pounds, and weigh all of 112 pounds! Great achievement isn’t it?! Have you had similar success?

Fond greetings to all and see you all at Christmas.
Annemarie Lepel.

Blücher Estate 19 August 1927
Dear old ghosts!
(Favorite Mecklenburg expression!)

My turn again to immortalize my henscratchings in this book. Damn! [ Helga uses the word Donnerwetter which translated into English ranges from Good Lord! by Jove! (literally the closest but anachronistic here), Heavens above!, to Blast it! to Damn! the latter two seem more in keeping with Helga’s personal style, the self-designated ‘shocker’] was I happy when the mail carrier brought it to me yesterday! By 11 o’clock in the evening I was glued to the book and had hungrily devoured all your news. It’s great to see you all so jolly. Important news: I have moved from the Quassell Estate to the Blücher Estate near Boizenburg on the Elbe; the relationships within the family were so bad that I couldn’t stand it any longer. No point trying to explain these things, one needs to have lived them. In very short order, I came here, and find it quite wonderful. More about this later. Just a few things about my life in Quassel. You already know the main thing I was doing; to this was added my training for chicken husbandry under the watch of the poultry manager whom I often had to replace for a day at a time. This meant darting out with buckets of food and water in countless stalls, for countless animals, I had to feed the animals 5 times a day, and each kind of animal had of course a different menu. At first fishmeal, dry yeast, nettles, slops etc. all looked exactly the same to me. I couldn’t have told you black from white. In the end, I figured it out, Hallelujah! I keep searching the chicken’s nests for eggs, and get annoyed when they sit for hours without producing. While I was in Quassel there was one celebration: the 25th Jubilee of the Privy Councilor. The celebration started at 2 o’ clock in the afternoon. The whole village came in full folkloric dress . The children presented dances. After the performances, there was coffee with monstrous quantities of cakes. After we had all filled our stomachs, young and old played all kinds of games on the castle meadow. The most beautiful part was in the evening: the dance in the horse barn! Kids, it was divine! I danced, or rather hopped with the whole village; for the old people danced as vigorously as young lambs, and the younger people did a pretty good job of swinging their legs. After the first waltz, my body was already rattling; I got so numb that I must have been 3 cm shorter the next day. But still, it was really great. Oh! and people stepped on one’s feet also! Any quack with a magic oil could have made a fortune in Quassel the next day. This, unfortunately, was the only pleasant part of my whole stay in Quassel.

All right, so now I am in Blücher, with the Leaseholder Schultze and his wife, to replace their two daughters who got married. On top of the work I do, I’m also expected to bring some life into the joint. (I do have the voice for it!) Quick! a few details, for it is already way past 11 (23 hour!) My workday starts at 5:30 (Every morning I feel like smashing my alarm clock!) With the maid, I dust every nook and cranny on the first floor. After that, I go over my own room, which is actually quite nice. When that’s done, I go on to my beloved chicken feed, of which there is a lot here too, although in smaller amounts. After the feeding, I clean the manure (the smell is said to be healthy!) etc. One gets used to everything! Actually, I have become quite fond of the whole animal husbandry thing. Then it’s on to lunch which I eat with the French Nanny. We cook for 13-15 people; for there are eleven people here, good, young and lively rascals. I have also learnt to use the centrifuge for butter making; and I bake bread. Next week I am supposed to kill the pigeons; this is a really frightening prospect. Afternoons, we darn cloths and stuff bedding or we work in the garden. Fridays and Sundays are big housecleaning days. Quite a bit of work in this Masters’ Domain [sarcastic?]. There is always tons of work to pick up. Pleasures are rare here too, but it doesn’t strike one so much because there are always visitors, and the family life is very pleasant. I am feeling really comfortable here. I too have gained a lot of weight. From 103 to 125 pounds!!! And I have a great tan.

All right, Lepel, regarding the Class-Day: I hope that I can arrange to be there. But I can’t be sure yet. It would be really wonderful if we could all fall into each other’s arms at Christmas: many, many thanks for the invitation.
So kids, time to stop; this letter is never going to end!

Fond greetings
Your Helga Ritter.

 

Lüneburg (n.d.)
My dear Class!
I have decided to forget about the date or else you’ll be mad at me, but Elfriede also took a peek at the book. So the delay has done some good. I was really happy to see the book. It is astonishing how much you all do. By contrast I have a ridiculously easy time, and hope I don’t have to pay for it later. Just think though, in a few days I’m out of Lüneburg. I have landed a job as an intern in a flower-business in Düsseldorf. I am delighted. It was too hard to find something intelligent for me to do. I’ll have a lot of news to tell you when we meet at Christmas. I hope that all ends well after the long delay. I will probably be living 1/2 hour away from the store on Metzerstrasse with the Schulzes, relatives of a Lüneburg friend. If they are as nice as our Schulzes are, I’ll be happy there.

I’m leaving here next Thursday with a friend who is invited to visit relatives there. It will be a 10-hour trip in the Express train. I’m already looking forward to seeing the beautiful Rhine. Thanks to Trude for giving me a foretaste. – My (fiancé) Luten claims I’ll be back here in a week, but I’ll hope for the best, even if it’s hard at times. That’s it for news. –¬Dear Annemie, whether I get a vacation at Christmas is still unclear. Thank you a thousand times for the invitation. It would be delightful.

Right now things are really working out. In July, I took a little break for a trip in the Harz. I spent 14 days in Lautental with my mother. We lived in the Waldkater in a resort home that is completely isolated between Hahnenklee and Lautental. We did many beautiful outings from there and saw many beautiful things there. On the way back we stopped and did some sightseeing in Hanover and Goslar. Those were wonderful days. My aunt was with us the whole time. – My fiancé went on a trip the week after (aud die Socken?? meaning) First he went to Munich and then went hiking in the Alps, climbed the Zug etc. He would have a lot more to tell about his 10-day trip than I. The world is so beautiful, let’s hope it does not get destroyed soon.—

The eternal thunderstorms have been frightful. When we arrived in Lautental, we had a thunderstorm unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The water was tumbling down the mountain, seemingly aimed right at our hotel; there was standing water in the lower floors. We nearly floated away. There was 30 cm of mud in the staff-rooms. The garden was completely destroyed. Rain descended from the mountains the whole day. Where on earth was it coming from? In Lüneburg recently, a tornado tore 12 big trees right out of the ground. Hope there isn’t another few months of that kind of stuff! All right, kids, wish us good weather for tomorrow. I would love to go out for a hike in the moors, which are blooming quite beautifully right now. Tomorrow it will be one year since we were with Fräulein Dudy on the Einemhof Moor. We found a lot of mushrooms there. – Two years ago we were on the Petersberg. Those are such nice memories.

Hope all’s well with you; this is my last greeting from Lüneburg.
Your Ilse.

Potsdam 2 Sept 1927
Dear Old class!

This book is beginning to look like a really serious thing, and yet it’s so much fun! –
Else and Elfridchen have their exams behind them? Congratulations. I wish I were that far along! We have to work hard now. Everything that we missed in our slow leisurely beginning must be caught up . In the lingerie section we are making jumpsuits, which we first shaped in muslin and then tried on and executed. You should have been there. It was a lot of laughter. You would have been bent double looking at all the extravagant forms that came out. Each of us ended up having to redo the cutting several times. Mine is a veritable dress-suit. As you can guess, it takes a lot of trying on and adjusting, which of course is true of all the things we do. And when we must finish a project by a certain deadline, it means renouncing the eight hours of sleep. Until now, we had a great time and will talk about it for a long time. Just think, after vacations we spent a whole week in Stuttgart. We visited the German Werkbund Exhibition “Housing ”. It was great. The exhibits were very interesting. Most beautiful were all the modern houses designed by the most important architects of the day. It is hard to imagine it if one hasn’t been there. It is fabulous: both the exterior and the interior layout are quite different from the things we are used to. Reinforced concrete makes an enormous difference in the things one can do. Aside from the exhibit, the trip itself was very beautiful. Stuttgart is a delightful city. Especially if it is the first trip to South Germany, Stuttgart makes a big impression. It is situated in a basin and is built on the surrounding hills. From our lodgings, we had a great view on the city. People in South Germany are much friendlier and more easy going than they are in our parts, especially the Berliners. – Only thing though, we never completely understood them- it was hilarious. For instance, the tram conductors would give us convoluted directions, explaining every move in detail, but we were completely awash, didn’t know a thing more after they were finished than when we first asked. On the way back, we spent a whole day in Heidelberg (1927 poster available), which was charming, although I must admit that I had expected to find it even more beautiful, based on stories I’d heard. In Stuttgart, the impression was much stronger and immediate. Still, Heidelberg is lovely. The weather was wonderful and we were able to enjoy everything at our leisure (the class teacher wasn’t feeling well, so we were unaccompanied). First, we climbed to the top of the Castle where we had a magnificent view onto the city and the Neckar. The castle itself is very romantic. It has so many corners, gates and turrets one could spend hours wandering around it. Then we went to Neckargmünd by way of the Kaiserstuhl. From the top of the Kaiserstuhl , we had a grand view, we could see the nearest mountain ranges, the Rhine in the distance, and we even thought we could make out the Cathedral of Strasbourg. Afterwards, we went for a swim and boating in the Neckar. It was very beautiful and we felt sad having to leave so soon. The return trip itself was a pleasure of a different sort, 22 hours in a 4th Class train-car! Now we sit in our old haunt. It’s been three weeks already since we came back to our pen, and instead of mountains we are looking at lakes. In fact, if you are interested in the look of the place here, I took a photograph and can send it along. Should you decide to come this way, you could see what to expect. It looks very beautiful from the outside. From inside, it is sometimes a different story. Be well, now.
Warm greetings
Your Hildegard Schulze.

Dear Annemarie, I’ll be glad to come to the Class Day! I will probably be at home then. I’m looking forward to it and thank you heartily.-

Harburg 18 September 1927 (my free Sunday)
My Dear Class!

I feel really bad as I start this Epistle, having overrun the prescribed deadline abysmally, even though I couldn’t even blame the horrible heat that afflicted Käthe in July in Stettin. At best, I could make up a story about the “radiant heat” of my beloved cooking stoves at Groß Hansdorf having been a bad influence on me. As you can see, I am back in the kitchen since the 1st of September. I’m glad to say that we all have learnt something in our practicum, about autonomy, independence and initiative at work. Carla and I both found that when we came back to the kitchen after a tour of duty in other parts of the house, we found the work hardly as unnerving and much less tense than initially was the case. Of course, there are still things which turn our faces green and blue with upset; making mistakes in front of apprentices , in particular, is terribly embarrassing. One consolation is that in those cases, we could see that the ‘crime’ appeared much more serious to us than it did to the rest of the world, including our superiors.

All in all, things are going very smoothly here in Gr-Hansdorf. It is hard to imagine where a whole half-year went. In October, I will take a rest from the year’s work, visit Hilde in Potsdam, and take other trips besides. After that, I shall start my internship in Sick and Infant Care at the Harburg. Hospital, which I’m looking forward to. Let us hope I will be allowed to do the kind of work that will really teach me curative work.

Finally, thanks, Annemarie, for the friendly invite. I’m looking forward to it. I hope it does happen.
Fond greetings to all
Your Margrete Schulz.

Lüneburg 20 September 1927
Dear All!

I just returned from town and found the book here. I was tremendously happy and will immediately add my scribbling.

I had been afraid the letter would go to Spandau and create some confusion. We moved. Partly because we should have had to pay rent for the 6 weeks of holidays, and also because. as of October 1, we will be living anyway on Kaiserstrasse, c/o Kolbe.

You are probably envious of my ”six weeks vacation”. Unfortunately they end on the 27th. We started wonderfully, spending the first 10 days wandering all over Rügen . There was a really nice crowd of us and we enjoyed the days very much even though the sun was shining. Kleines, (Käthe, Editor Ekkehart Klein notes: “gemeint is Mutter”, his own mother Käthe Brandes who had indeed reported acquiring a splendidly hideous bathrobe in Stettin) wouldn’t it have been a surprise if we had met you! Starting in Altefähr (Old Ferry), we traveled along the coast through Sellin, Binz, Saßnitz, and Königsstuhl. At first, we came to Hiddensee where we had planned to spend two days, but the bad weather drove us away immediately. Still Little One, we’d have been quite a sight, us and you with the fabulous bathrobe. For we were equipped with rucksacks and at night, we slept in the hay or straw, or else at the Youth Hostel. Not that we minded, we slept like the proverbial logs. It was really wonderful. In fact, all of you have had beautiful experiences. What do you think, shall we still get around to the Baltic Sea trip we had planned to take together? I secretly look forward to something like that. Just think, for Easter, after the exams, our School is going to Riegland near Obersdorf for ten days of snowshoeing. I wish I could go along… but the money is a problem! Let’s wait, there is still some time till then. And a lot of work to do in the meantime. The Light Athletics test is “Aus dein treuer Vater” ( meaning ???) Elfriedchen and I passed (so-so, not-great) Then before vacations we had to take the Rowing Exam. We had to be able to row 10km per hour, without a second to spare. I’m afraid I could not do it with the best will in the world. Therefore, I shall have to re-take it sometime in the next three weeks. Then there will be the other parts of the rowing test, although we aren’t quite sure what it consists in. Still and all, I think our job is easier than the interns’ or Hilde’s job. I can’t say often enough that for me this has been the best year. Unfortunately, the beautiful Spandau summer is over, but we have stored all the good masses of sun, and we are (soon it will be: we were) quite seriously tanned. I too have gained weight. 3 and a 1/2 pounds only, so I can’t compete with the others. On Monday, we build up steam again, with a new schedule.

I’ m looking forward to the Class Day and assume that I will be there. Nice of you to take it on again, Annemarie. Thank you very much – actually, I expect the letter to come through once more before Christmas!
Best greetings to everyone, and more joy.
Your Else Sporleder.

We helped Ilse pack for her departure to Düsseldorf, but she hasn’t started there yet, despite Luten’s prediction. She wrote to let me know she had roseola again.

Spandau 30 September ‘27
Dearest All!

Here we are back in Spandau, our muscles so stiff from all the rambling, we can barely get up the stairs! Yes that’s what holidays do to you, but still it was beautiful. I’m writing this with my hair dripping wet from our swimming session. Right now, we are going full tilt at practice diving; swallowing chlorinated water is the worst part of it, for it is alas! too cool now to be swimming outdoors. Our schedules have changed quite a bit; for one thing we now start at 8 instead of 7; (even so, Else and I have yet to hear more than the first half of the morning convocation! we may never learn it!) Then instead of light athletics, we play all kinds of games, plus there is school-gymnastics and preparation for the teacher’s certification.

Next week there will be another rowing test: the 10km run before the vacations was awful drudgery, we were exhausted. Else can still look forward to it, but that too shall pass. Tomorrow our classes will compete against each other, we’ll be playing handball , and I guarantee we’ll play hard. On Sunday, there will no doubt be a big to-do in Berlin; the two of us will probably manage to drive over to Plaue instead, because with the huge crowds, no one will notice our absence, and anyway we’ve been invited for the ride to Plaue. – We love our new room, it’s much bigger and cozier, but especially we have electric lights and so we don’t need to sit by the petrol-lamp to study all that theory (my hair stands on end when I think of all the theory we still have to learn!) So, dear All, time to stop for now. Annemarie, thanks for the invite, it will be so nice to be together again, what a lot we’ll have to tell!

A very warm greetings
Your Elfried Benecke.

Harburg, the 23 October ‘27

Dear class,

so it seems it’s our turn again, probably the last time before Christmas. Thanks for your invitation, Annemieze (sic), and thank your mother too. So, how many more times do you all want to deal with this junk. At least, chattering about all that stuff in person will be a good deal faster than having to write it out. I’m afraid that by now Käthe’s ”news” are ‘old camels’, and I’m not sure if she’ll even get the book where she is working now with her Pastor’s wife.

A lot is changing right now.

Well, come to think of it, not that much has changed here. The schedules have changed a bit; mostly we start later in the day. Light athletics has been cut back by half, for which we start a swimming course from November to Christmas with Mr. Huber, to which we all look forward.

Of course, it will still get worse. Things will get even more intense by Easter. On Fridays, before Swimming, we have Theory, starting at a quarter past eight. Tuesdays we’ll have children here for Student Teaching. I’m wondering how that will go. I hope that it won’t be as bad as it used to be at the Bremer or Mühlstrasse. There is tons of reading to do, it hurts to even think of it! Frightful.

During the vacations, we visited my grandparents in Lübeck. We were lucky with the weather. By now, it’s awful! I’d rather tell you about my summer trip when we meet at Christmas, but of course by then it will all be faded already. However, if I go into details now, the book will get full. It was heavenly. The whole trip was one shining celebration! Now I have the memories and many pictures. I’ll bring some to the classday. Besides Lyck (old postcard ill. available), we went to a bunch of other places in East Prussia: Rominten , Rudczanny (a tongue twister that one!) Königsberg, Cranz, Rauschen etc. On the way back, 8 days in Berlin. It wasn’t exactly restful, but it was really beautiful. Hard to imagine that we almost died of heat then.

Children, children, there’ll be so much to talk about! All the ones in practica will get cross-questioned. Gymnasts will compare muscle sizes, and we’ll do some arm-wrestling to show who’s the best. We are all beginning to have real heavy-athletic-muscle masses!

In September, our whole class, teachers included, went on an outing to Soltau. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go, but I saw the pictures. Please bring all your interesting photographs on the 28th of December. In September, we had a three-day course with the Danish teacher Niels Bukh , to get a sense of his methods. It was quite stimulating. For the past half year, I have had to stop my piano lessons, I hope to start again soon. Of course, I still play a lot for my own pleasure. This winter, I was lucky enough to hear Horowitz again. I had told you about him last year.

My little nephew grows in leaps and bounds. He already weights 14 1/2 pounds and looks round and trim. He is a real treasure, even though he just managed to spit on my dress in a very visible place. But that’s par for the course.

All right, time to stop. Take care of yourselves, you greening-hardworking-sporting- barncleaning-teaching-and-god-knows-what-elsing All, and make sure not to get into trouble before our (wipe your eyes now!) reunion.

Warm greetings from your
Gertrud Beyer
By the way, Annemarie, what’s this thing about saving paper? Surely, the book won’t go around after Christmas, or do you think it will continue? Still, I’m sure your heart jumps up in pleasure at the sight of my tiny, economical, scribbles? GB
Stettin, the 28th October 1927

Obedient as I am, I barely dare leave a space unused: “tee, hee” cackled the monster, fluffed its feathers and flew…

to a new page?!

A very beautiful day to all!

I have read the book at least three times with all due consciousness and respect, and am glad to establish that you all are as lively, pious, happy and fresh as ever, and that Annemarie is presumably getting a lot of mail these days. Thank you for the invitation, Annemarie.

Nothing earthshaking to report from here. Work is still fun, not yet boring. I’m afraid nothing here is “organic”; Hilde, my poor spirit will have to completely turn itself around to get ready for Potsdam . Right at the moment I’m in the middle of sewing pajamas for myself, actually have been doing a lot of sewing on my own account, for which I make about 20 Marks a month, nice deal no? (been doing it since July) On 1 November, I’ll start Tailoring. Dudys have already offered me Franz-Alcohol to strengthen my hands and rags to wrap my worn out fingers. I’ll leave this beautiful nest at Christmas, and shall start working at the Hansa Workshops in Hamburg on February 1st. I’m really looking forward to it.
OK, children, short and painless– can’t think of anything more.

Warmest greetings from
Käthe Brandes.

Hamburg 13 November,’27

My dear H.F.s all! (stands for Hohere Frauenschule.F. II.d.?)

It gave me great pleasure to hear from you all that you are contented in your spheres of action, and so I want to share my pleasure and thank you all kindly for keeping me abreast of your lives. Unfortunately, with all the good will in the world, I was unable to fulfill my duty to write within the assigned deadline! The school was namely in the midst of getting ready for a festival. Festivals are indispensable to throw light into the gray everyday! especially in our gray mousehole. Besides, Frl. Peitzner was celebrating 25 years of service! For the occasion, the whole College of teachers staged a walk and picnic in the Aula (outdoors meeting place) of our stately annex. Frl. Peitzner’s love for flowers and animals gave rise to the widest range of contributions. We even had a traffic policeman to provide the necessary orderliness. In the course of the evening, even I, an old Professor, caught the, “universal bird”. A frightfully tough bird it is, this ‘bird of shared madness, and I gave a small lecture on this bird the upupa pops (sic), and most urgently beg you not to allow this bird any entry into your brain! For once there, he follows fanatically the fixed ideas of the day and loses the wider perspective. From some reports, I got the impression that in many familiar places the Upupa is still flying around and with increasing idea, which makes me laugh inwardly. But, as I said already: protect yourself from this all too-common bird and protect the finer senses that allows you to hear the many vibrations of the ether, the growing of the grass and the music of multiplying bacteria!

Very soon, the Christmas Fair is coming, and we (i.e., my small class and myself) are in the midst of baking gingerbreads. Approximately 120 Father Christmases, riders, farmers’ wives etc. are already made and resplendent in all kinds of colors. This year, instead of the customary gingerbread house, there will be a gigantic Ammanite Mushroom. I often remember the years when you all were working with me so busily and indefatigably!

I too went to the Stuttgart Exposition and came out similarly impressed and excited! If I could, I would transform my apartment in this way. This all lies ahead of you, this chance of appropriating the new spirit of a housing-culture. Actually, we have visited here in Hamburg a few magnificent examples of housing-blocks realized by the architects that were represented at the fair. I was especially attracted to the Barmbeck (Laubenhaus) Arbor House. It is a horseshoe shaped brick building with several floors and about 112 two-and three-bedroom apartments. Each apartment is accessible from a leafy gangway, one per story, running the whole length of the building. There are three stairwells only, all opening directly onto those gangways. This eliminates the noise of children in the staircases, carelessness and quarrels about cleanup of the common areas. In the housing of the staircase, immediately adjacent to the hallway, there are garbage chutes sparing much effort and minimizing dirt. In the basement, the inhabitants have at their disposal many bathrooms, showers and laundries. The house provides bathrooms, showers, and laundry rooms . Tubs, centrifuge machines, washing machines are available to the tenants and even drying rooms, which makes it possible for the family’s laundry to be back on the shelf, dry and ready to use, a few hours after it was collected. On the ground floor, there are meeting rooms and children’s playrooms. Each story has a common roof-space with sports equipment and showers. The idea and the spirit presiding to the foundation of this building are truly the work of genius. In such a space, true community can be built.

But I realize that I have already taken up too much of your journal, and so will end this letter here, wishing you all good things, much joy and success!
Fond greetings,
Your Gertrud Rudtke.

Hamburg, 11/15/27
Dear Class!
Your epistles have given me a lot of pleasure; I had been impatiently waiting for the book. And so I‘ll sit down right away and add my grain of salt, even though I only got it yesterday. To save space, I am starting on the same page as Frl. Rudtke.

You all seem to be enjoying yourself and your work, the spice of life, the (ham! ham!??) (vroom! vroom! ) is there also. The main thing is that you are all healthy and aren’t losing your sense of humor. I am well also, and happy with my work. I must say, though, that it’s quite a pile of work I have! I now teach cooking three times a week, biology once, plus 2 hours of tailoring, 12 hours in all. As you can see I’ve made some progress. Monday 8-11 cooking class: the students are very nice; it‘s just 10 milliners. The girls are quiet and capable. Mondays 4-8, I teach Cooking Theory to my own class of 16 students. They are very trustworthy and I can do all kinds of things with them; they are all working class women from Haus Neuenburg (the cigarette factory) but you would hardly know it, they are doing quite well. Tuesdays 1-4 I teach Cooking to a very lively bunch, requiring a lot of management to prevent them from doing stupid things, but otherwise a nice class. The most difficult are working women from Neuenburg to whom I teach tailoring on Tuesdays. The girls are virtually uncontrollable and make life pretty difficult, especially because they get so agitated (25 students) They are also pretty restive, and talk back a lot. Aside from that, I audit classes at Haselbrook Street on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Saturdays, I teach 24 students. The way they are taught is similar to our student teaching, only less closely tied to a curriculum. The class is easy to teach they are children from Haselbrook Street. I also do gymnastics on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays at a club, in a team consisting entirely of seminarians from the Gymnastics Teachers’ Institute. There are about 8 of us in a special team. We often do the same things as the first team, so we give ourselves a real workout. Fridays, I go swimming. I passed my swimming test very well. There was no theory, all eight of us, men and women, were just let loose into the wet element. We had to be able to swim the breaststroke, a lap of backstroke, do a foot jump, a dive from the first level board (I did a backwards dive), diving for 6 rings or more, and diving and swimming underwater (I was able to remain underwater for the whole length of the pool– nice, no?), and finally water-rescue. A child was at the bottom of the pool holding on to a sandbag and we had to get him out and bring him back to shore. Everything went well.

I suddenly realize that it is already late: I have to be at Wandsbeck at 13h. Today there’s beer soup, baked herring and potato salad. Have a good appetite! (All the teachers have to cook the same menu to guarantee that all the girls learn the same things.

I guess my epistle is a regular elastic!!!!

A thousand greetings!
Your Dora Duker.

Dear Annemarie, many thanks for your friendly invitation. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it on the 28th, since I am going away for Christmas. If you were able to have it two days before Christmas, I would love to be there!

A thousand thanks in advance, your Dora.

(The writer of the next letter presumably didn’t like something about the next letter; she cut a leaf out of the book, and the letter starts in the middle.)

….I have already taken the risk of doing the head-dive and somersault. If you’ve never tried it, you don’t know a thing about the joys of the diving board. Sometimes you fall flat on your back, and sometimes on your face!!

I’m very happy to have followed Miss Rudtke’s advice not to try and audit courses on the side, for in the evening we are mostly quite tired, and it’s nice to be able to really sleep one’s full. The children are returning this afternoon. This will mean stepping up energetically and giving orders. I too will have the good luck of giving a test-lesson today.

How quickly the year went by. Four weeks from today it will be Christmas again. I’m looking forward to it seeing all of you again and thank you heartily, Annemarie, as well as your parents. Dear Annemarie, I also meant to tell you the on the 22d of December the Uhlenhorst Sports association celebrates its Christmas party, which I would hate to miss. In case you were to change the date of the get-together, I would like you to take this into consideration. Until then, be well all of you, and receive my fond greetings
Your Gertrud Frischgesell.

Lüneburg, Nov. 28, 1927
Dear Class,

After Grete and I shared the graduation feast for our Training, we each went our own way.
We enjoyed our vacations, and now, after 3 1/2 years, I am back at home.– unfortunately, two thirds of the time I’ll have here is already gone, and my thoughts are moving to the 1st of January when I shall leave Lüneburg for Bremen. I have wanderlust in my blood, and I know it feels as if I could barely stand it here. But this is not the case.

Unfortunately, fate did not bring me together with Käthe; but here I sit in a lingerie shop, working hard from 8:30 in the morning to 6:30 at night with an hour and a half for lunch. I love it; right now, I have an over shirt in my soft-again hands. Last Saturday I got to do tailoring for the first time and I took the pattern home. I am working hard, mostly by commission, although I do some things f-or the stock of the store which gives me the satisfaction of seeing my things in the shop window and showing them to other people there; this is one of the advantages of the small town, and the small store. – I am also proud of my 35 Mark wages which I collect every Thursday. This puts me on a level with the third year apprentices. Unfortunately, this will be over on the 1st; for I’m expected at the hospital.

Actually, for me this term is a time of rest. The work has not been stressful at all, and I have enough time to attend lectures, take classes in rhythmic gymnastics and even, guess what!: A 4-hour long dancing class. You may well envy me; I’m feeling great and enjoy to the hilt the whole Advent time. Last Sunday we baked brown ginger cookies, and next Saturday I’m going to the Bremerstrasse to look at the Christmas fair. Frl. Dudy wrote that she’d be there Saturday from 4 to 7 and Sunday from 10 to 7. I hope to tell you more at Christmas, and that you’ll all be there. Dear Annemarie, thank you for the invitation; I’ll be glad to come and just need to know the exact day and time.

Warm greetings
Carla v. Lauenstein.

Hamburg, the 4/12/27
Dear Class comrades!

The wonderful round robin book arrived here with some delay, although that didn’t take away any of the pleasure it is giving me. I am happy to see you are all doing so well, that you are still the same dear, old people. As for the Class Day, I kept the date of the 28th of December between 7 and 8: unfortunately, before Christmas wouldn’t work for my family, and I am pretty sure that you would have trouble attending also before the Holiday. Anyone who can’t come that day, please let me know right away.

In the meantime, things are well for me. Since 15 October, I am at the Crèche in Hamburg . The little things are just golden. I started in the station for the very small babies (4 weeks to 1/2 a year. At first, they can’t laugh, and they can barely move. Then all of a sudden the word goes out Little Hillmar has laughed, and everyone rushes to go see the little worm and try and make him smile. I especially delight in the stage when the little ones try to stand up and follow you with their eyes. They look really fresh like that. And they know us very well. They know exactly what they can do with one ‘auntie’ and what with another one. We all have our favorites, our little sons and daughters we call them. At feeding time, it’s always, “don’t take my son or daughter”. As long as we don’t spoil our darlings, we are free to do whatever we want. But woe be to the one who spoils a child; then there’s a huge to-do. The guilty ‘mother’ is dishonored. So far, this hasn’t happened to me. My little daughter is always very sweet and good. For the past few weeks, I have been unfaithful to my daughter. I’ve been assigned to another station. Here we have children who can already sit and even walk. These are our ‘big kids’. Here there is even more work; the older ones constantly make demands on us. “Auntie build, Sister Lepel paint, paint” etc. All of them keep coming up with new things. I like most the hours in the playpen. They are so wonderful when they can sit or stand for five minutes. Aside from small babies, I don’t have much to report. I’m in fact dead-tired.

Fond greetings from me and my mother and Good Bye!
Your Annemarie Lepel

Dear Gertrud,

Since you like to hear from us, I am enclosing this book with all our inscriptions. It will prove to you that we still are the same old happy/funny, fresh bunch of the Frauenschule. If you would like, and you happen to be in Hamburg on December 28, I would like to invite you to attend our class day. Please write if you can. I and all of the other members of the HF II D class would look forward to your presence. Please could you also be so kind as to send this book to Frl. Buesche. Unfortunately, I don’t have her address.

Annemarie Lepel.

Dear old Class Comrades,

I have enjoyed hearing from you, and hearing that you all are doing well. I came am back to this country two days ago, having been in Vienna where I saw many, many beautiful things. For the time being, I’ll stay here.

With fond greetings,
Your Gertrud Lorentzen.

Hamburg 14, December 27
Kloster-Allee 55
My dear HF II.d

Yesterday I came back from school dead tired, the weather had not exactly been inspiring; at first it snowed and then it rained (as usual in Hamburg!)– but I soon forgot my tiredness when I found this little book! You can’t believe how happy I was to hear from all of you, and you have not forgotten me! It is
especially comforting to find you all so satisfied, just like you used to be!

Reading your lines, I empathized with many things, with particular understanding for the ones who are doing internships in House Management (Home Economics), I had to laugh out loud, that like me a few of you had managed to gain weight –despite all the work–. The same thing happened to me also, so much so that I eventually got upset when the scales showed me a higher figure every time– but it didn’t’ last! I also am happy to hear of the beautiful trips some of you have taken. And all the things you saw and experienced with such gusto–I quite understand that, since I too like to travel and hike. In the summer, I went to Bretagne, in an old Corsaire town– very interesting– and then a few days in Paris – very impressive–! Just think of all the things you’ll do when you have your own money! In the fall, I went to Stuttgart with Frl. Rudtke. I am as enthusiastic as she is, and delighted in the golden autumn light; on the return trip I also visited Karlsruhe, Baden-Baden, Heidelberg and Darmstadt and Frankfurt, it was splendid! There was only a slightly bitter pill afterwards: I had to give a report on the exhibit, although this gave me an opportunity to really delve into the subject, which in itself gave me some pleasure. – Frl. Beyer’s trip to Eastern Prussia brought up many memories – I too made a field trip once to the unpronounceable Rudczanny (very, very long ago!) But I’d better tell you a few things about the school. The fair is over – there is barely time to breathe! Did you hear about our activities at the Housewives-Fair in October? (Poster available) There we demonstrated electrical appliances with our students, meaning that we cooked, roasted, baked, washed, ironed, cleaned produce, vacuumed, brewed coffee with electrical appliances all day long It wasn’t that simple, since we first needed to learn to use the appliances ourselves, but this completely new work gave us a lot of pleasure. To thank us, the 200 students and 20 students were invited to the Uhlenhorst Ferry house by the Bund of Hamburg Housewives– wonderful! Coffee, Cake, Whipped Cream on beautifully set tables, with all the trimmings, there were speeches, our praises were sung in every scale and mode- we all raised our proud heads!) Later we heard songs and great humoristic lectures, and at the end we all danced — I am sure all participants think fondly of these beautiful hours! Aside from that, everything in the school is as of old! Nice that you will all see each other at Christmas. I remember last year, how pleasant it was to be together– I still laugh at the memories of all the hard lessons and mishaps (derailings) which you described. This year, you will be coming from the most varied directions of the windrose, may it be a very happy reunion, and may the friendship- which connects shared joys and pains- bind you for many years to come. The older one gets, the more one treasures such friendships. I wish that the next year may unfold for all of you with as much pleasure and pride as the past one. I would be glad to hear further about your lives and activities.

Fond greetings to all from your Anni Büsche (teacher).

PS: Do you still all have your tresses? On the Stuttgart trip, I cut mine off– after the fall vacations, three more appeared with a little-boy cut: Frls. Rüdtke, Kühn and Oerter.

Blücher, 18 December 1927
Dear Sisters!

(Feudal address, almost suited for the leaders of a Women’s Movement)

I pick up my pen with stiff fingers, for it is bitter cold here; we are so swaddled in clothes that it is not a question of walking, more like “rolling” along. Here in the plains, winter really comes with a vengeance. My room is an ice-hole, 3 windows and outer walls; I went out just in time before I got frozen into my bed. I have a time of incredible work behind me, or more accurately, I stand right in the middle of it, since Christmas in the country is a time of enormous work. But it gives a lot of satisfaction. Five weeks ago, we were slaughtering: 20 geese at first; Frau Sch. did the slaughtering and I was holding them all, and to be quite honest, it was mighty stressful on the nerves; then we had to pluck them, there were feathers flying everywhere, and our hands and arms were shaking from the effort; then we had to get them ready for market. It was a real pleasure to see the things hanging, all lined up in a row. After the geese, it was the turn of the pigs; 3 pigs had to be sacrificed. I was there too, and pigs take at least twice as long to die as geese do. Then they were quartered; I got to dress the intestines, mix the sausage, stuff and tie sausage, cook blood-sausage, and everything that goes with the slaughtering. In the evening we’d end at 1 and drop into bed at 2. But I learnt a lot in the process. On Friday, we killed another two pigs, and again chickens, roosters, and geese. And we baked huge quantities of baked goods, not by the 1/2 pound but by the 30 pounds of flour. etc. for on Christmas Eve the farm-laborers all get 2 pounds of pfeffernüsse.

Kids, this time before Christmas is the most beautiful time, especially if the weather cooperates. Yesterday I wrapped Christmas presents; what a wonderful pleasure…

On Christmas, I will be at my parents. Hurrah! I am happy already. On Thursday, we decorate our gigantic tree, which we’ll have gotten from our woods, and on Friday, we prepare the table for the presents. So much to do still. So I better stop here. I am looking forward to our class day, as you all know.

Fondly
Your Helga Ritter.

Düsseldorf 10 January 1928
Dear Class!
I guess this little book of ours has rested long enough, I will set it in motion again, after all you didn’t hear from me personally on Christmas. The Lüneburg contingent no doubt told you that I was at home. I haven’t spoken to any of them since then. The time I had to spend at home was too tightly measured. I am really sorry that I didn’t get to see all of you. I hope you aren’t mad at me, but I guess that’s the way it goes when one is engaged. But it’s wonderful all the same. I spent really heavenly days in Lüneburg. It is very hard to get used to the daily grayness of daily life again. You may wonder what I am doing these days. – I work without pay in a very nice flower shop. I have been very lucky and learnt a lot. We only do first-class jobs. I take a lot of pleasure in it. It is hard to believe how precious each little flower becomes, when one spends the whole day around them. And then before Christmas, we were very busy, working every day till 10 or 12 PM. The same is true of special holidays, All Saints’ Day etc. Now of course it is very quiet in the shop– I am writing during my noon break, which is two hours long. Mornings I have to be here at 6, and usually stay till 7 in the evening. I also like my pension a lot. It is about a quarter of an hour from the store on the tramway, but I don’t mind that. On the contrary I’m always happy when I am far from the noisy city. It is very beautiful here. — Aside from the noise, I like Dusseldorf quite a bit. It is a big city quite modern with wonderful high-rise building and parks. Right across the street from our store, there is the Palace garden, which looks fairytale beautiful in the summer. Right in front of it, there is Jaegerhof Castle . – Yesterday I took a beautiful walk along the Rhine. Then I went to the Ehrenhof, where there are still a few really beautiful buildings left from the Gesolei . Düsseldorf also has very beautiful streets, wide and laid out on the square, so that it’s very easy to find one’s way. There are beautiful stores, much nicer than in Hamburg. – Anyway, you can see that I am very pleased to be here, especially because it is all so new to me. I have also visited Elberfeld and Barmen, and I want to go to Essen next. My fiancé will come for my birthday and the two of us may travel to Cologne together. I hope you are all doing as well as I am. The Düsseldorf air really suits me. I weigh 132 pounds, i.e., I have very nicely gained weight.
A thousand greetings to everybody.
Your, Ilse Schomaker

Potsdam, January 15, 1928
Dear All!

This time the book came to me at a somewhat inconvenient time even though I had been expecting it impatiently and it gave me a great deal of pleasure.
Unfortunately I can’t write anything much that’s new. I have so frightfully much to do that I have hardly any free time. and of course, we told each other almost everything there was to tell, so you all know how things stand for me. I often remember the Class Day, it was really nice. But now, its time
to give our book its due, and it’s clamoring for it, quite vigorously. Clearly, exams are approaching. Deadlines are looming, one gets rushed from one assignment to the next, and the uncompleted work is piled high in the drawers. With all this time is moving at vertiginous speed, and this quarter year (term) is barely long enough. Our next assignment is a pair of pajamas. We are starting on Tuesday. I am curious what we’ll produce. That should keep us busy all week. Last year at the same time, we were tortured by other things. Those were the days when egg protein, casein, and iron, lead and zinc were all mixed up with pancakes and winesauce. This has all slid so far into my unconscious that I could never bring it back up. Just to think of all the stuff one has to stuff oneself with for exams only to throw it off again! Luckily, the brain has the properties of an accordion. Mine is completely pumped out today, probably because I worked doggedly the whole day. So, that’s it for today. Hopefully I’ll have something more intelligent to put down on paper next time.

Warm greetings to you
Your Hildegard Schulze.

My dear Class of 1925-26

I often remember pleasant memories of the Seminary year with you. Last Saturday, while I was teaching, I was reminded very vividly of you, and lo ! and behold! I had barely returned home from school at 2:30, and Margarete Schulze appeared with the round-robin letter. So there is thought transmission after all. I read your news with great pleasure and interest, and can easily imagine you all in your spheres of activity. Before long, the beautiful years of learning apprenticeship will be over and you will be turning to the difficult years of life. It is not that easy at times, but with good will, one overcomes the greatest difficulties. Here many things have changed since the death of Fräulein Pfannenstiel; it came much too quickly, even though we all had wished for her to be delivered from her great suffering. Frl. Gruneberg has taken on the teacher training; for other subjects we have temporarily appointed women and men who are new to us.

Once again, we are in the midst of great exertions, because on February 20-21, there will be practical exams, this time with a double class of 28 students. By the second of March, it will all be over again. Good Fr. Liese is already busy polishing up for the Exam Committee all the things which were learnt at the cost of such toil.

Hoping all 12 of you will continue to be well, and find success and joy in your work!
Friendly greetings,
Your Karla Dudy.

Harburg, January 29, ’28
Dear Classmates!

Even though we told each other all our stories such a short while ago, I have not previously enjoyed receiving the book so much, I was beginning to miss it. I was especially excited to hear again lively, funny stories through the reports of our teachers. Speaking of the “divine Aula of the stately annex” (just one thought that springs to mind from their letters) Käthe Brandes and I recently attended an evening of entertainment there. The preentations were all contributed by one class of the Frauenschule, all very funny, and some quite charming. Unfortunately, there were few familiar faces in the audience. But, now that I march myself to work every day from 8:30 to 5:30, it is so pleasant to be able to attend such events. I enjoy having my evening to myself after the day’s labor and pains, which actually are not nearly as exhausting as the first practica had been. As you all know, until April 1, I shall be working as a seamstress for the Moerig Company in Hamburg, but you probably can’t imagine how much it is possible to forget in one and a half-year. At first I was awfully awkward with my sewing machine, but I have become accustomed to it, and now know its worst habits, for instance dropped stitches, as well as knowing what causes the problem and how to avoid it, so that I no longer need to call in a “mechanic for technical advice” the minute something goes wrong. All the other details you already know from Käthe and Carla’s reports earlier. There are 35 seamstresses in a relatively small space, sitting at electrical machines, which make a pretty sorry spectacle, although not as sorry as the buttonhole machine, which is an even worse racket. This said, I have never had any headaches here, as Käthe did. My biggest aggravation doing this work has to do with the poor lighting at my machine and with my bad eyes: Increasing farsightedness forced me to get stronger glasses so that now I can better see the stitches I must pick with a needle, and more accurately measure pleats that must be exactly 7.5 mm wide, not 8 mm. The work in this business is quite painfully exact, down to the fraction of a mm., which I can’t say enchants me altogether. What I have fabricated here so far isn’t all that interesting, not that it was complicated of course: it was very simple things at first, bed sheet seams etc. I am having a lot of fun with the baby shirts, which remind me very strongly of the work I did with the small babies at the hospital. All right, I have just finished one more set, e.g. a nightgown with and sleeves. I got quite interested in it. Actually, I have to tell you the last job I had at the hospital: as we were having dinner on New Year’s Eve, they brought us a very small baby – with lice! (That wasn’t the illness, just an added supplement!) Yes of course when the children arrive here covered with lice… which means cleaning them, it is enough at times to get one to stand on one’s head. Since we’d rather not stand on our heads, we de-lice the poor thing and cover somehow its lousy head with a cap. It was very interesting for me that on this last hour of work in the nursing activity, I had occasion to learn one more thing to do with nursing—something that you may get to know also, namely lice!

I now can describe a little more precisely my plans for the future. As you know, I had registered for the gymnastics training. There are many candidates, so it is by no means certain that I’ll even be accepted to take the entrance examination, for there are many more candidates than there are places. I do hope, though, that I have made one small step forward. For now, I must train vigorously. My muscles are getting stiff in one or another spot, but gymnastics is a lot of fun and the lessons are quite useful after almost 4 years of no gymnastics at all. I’d be deliriously happy if I passed the entrance exam right away and could go to Spandau.

Finally let me say “Gut Heil” to all of you sportswomen who are about to take final exams, for you will soon demonstrate your gymnastic arts in the exam, and come out of it as active sportswomen and teachers.
To all of you much joy in the hallowed and certainly beautiful years of learning, with fond greetings,
Your Margarete Schulze.

Spandau 17 February 1928
Dear All,

It’s about time for the book to stop decorating our Vertiko!. Time to send it on its travels again. I apologize for the delay, but recently we’ve had been buried in work up to our ears. On the 12th, we had our great winter pre-testing at the Town Opera in Charlottenburg. This means more than enough preparations. There were trials and rehearsals. All of which was much fun, but also took a lot of energy and even more time. But it certainly was beautiful. Once again, there was a demonstration of the History of Women’s Gymnastics. Maybe you’ll see us some day in the magazine or in the cinema, for yesterday someone was filming us. Our team presented gymnastics from the early turn of the century with bloomer pants and sailors’ blouses and some kind of ring splatted on top of our head. We were a real sight!? — Afterwards, the contemporary style looked particularly fine, the demlnstration of Bode-gymnastics (see above) and the equipment-assisted gymnastics. At the end, there was a folk dance of little men and women. We had all sewn matching dresses in bright colors, with 3 meter wide skirts. The men wore white sports shirts and black pants; it all looked quite elegant. Just standing backstage on such a huge stage was quite interesting, looking at all the sound boards for thunder, lightning etc. And then all the costumes. We had been assigned upstairs in the extras’ wardrobe. And the ballroom was delightful. We poked around everywhere. The funny thing was, that when we looked in the direction of the spectators, not a soul could we see but a big black hole! On Tuesday, the whole thing was repeated in a sports hall. But enough is enough. It’s no fun anymore, for now it’s exams. The practical curative gymnastics is finished. They had us crawl our way through two series of exercises. We just finished a Theory exam. There one sits down and learns and examines the Skeleton and the Muscleman front and back, and it looks totally different from one angle or the other when one has to give instant answers. It would be easy to skid off the rails quite spectacularly. I had to speak about extensor muscles, it went just fine. Elfriedchen had to talk about the pelvis and the form of the vertebrae. We still have to do the Orthopedic Teaching exam, and then the whole field will have been covered. The actual test for Gymnastics Teaching was held on Tuesday. It all went well, although the brats were unashamedly fresh, 3 classes in one hall, screaming their heads of. Week after next is the swimming test, everyone dives into the waves with complete abandon, and our hair never gets dry anymore. Etc. etc. Right now, it all still seems like an impossibly high mountain to scale. Yet in 4 weeks it will all be over. Too bad, for that will be the end of a beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful, year. I don’t even want to think of it. For then…? Then, life starts for good! If only we could know where we’ll have landed by Easter! I wish us all much luck in our job applications! Hopefully something will click! But most of all, be sure that the ski trip happens, for one thing make sure there’ll be snow! Right now there is none at all!
Time to conclude, for today at 4 we all want to go for a swim together in the sweet chlorine. Wish us luck.
Much fun and joy in all your labors, and a loud “Gut Heil” to the Hamburg Gymnasts.
Your Else Sporleder.

Spandau 17 February 28
My Dears!

This time, you’ll only get a very short hello from me, since Else has already told you all there is to say! We just returned from the Chlorinated Family Pool, it was terrible! Every time one dove, one risked hitting one or another bather splashing down below! Anyway, we keep enjoying the fun —the exam!!– Despite our fears, we remain joyful and of good heart and we certainly have enough variety, see the description above! The event at the City Opera was interesting, I tell you, one felt completely different on that huge stage, I hope you see us in the movies? Hope you aren’t frightened by our beauty, for the stuff on our head is a perfect match for our beautiful faces! Much luck with everything. Break a leg, alI you Hamburg women.

Fond greetings from your Elfriede Benecke.

Harburg 26 February ‘28
Dear Comrades,

Many thanks to the Spandau contingent for your wishes. I can’t wait for it all to be successfully concluded! You are almost finished, but we still have to go till Easter, work the whole vacation. On the 13th of April, we have the written test (Composition and 2 Themes out of Anatomy); on the 19th (probably) practical Test, then more of the same on the 23rd and 24th. Late April Swimming tests. So that by the 1st of May we can apply for a position. Hoping there is one to be had. Which of course is the burning issue for all of us. Starting at Easter, things will change drastically for most of us.

Meanwhile we still have Bode gymnastics, more useful in schools than Laban. Many of us found the performance of Laban–Movement Chorus at the Civius Busch building very beautiful. Next Wednesday, we will see a performance by Lopes** in Hanover, and in early March one by Dora Manzler** There is always something or other of that type happening in Hamburg, and we have to be there in the front row.

On Wednesdays, I often meet Frl. Rosler at the Lübecker Tor Swimming Pool. She comes with her students when we leave; and recently I also saw Frl. Dudy there, but had to run to the train so we didn’t get a chance to talk.

We all practice on the high bar and on the diving board. In order to learn how to teach those, I go every Saturday afternoon to the children’s section of our HTB (Harburg Sports Club). Many of us teach there and know it well by now. Strangely enough, a whole string of them is injured in some way right now, one really must be careful not to twist or sprain anything before exams.

At the Bremerstrasse, the exams are almost finished too. Gunda Haehnel keeps me posted. They’ll be done early March. Do you still remember how last year we are all nervous wrecks together? And by now most of what we learnt there, especially the Theory, has slipped deep into the unconscious. I can’t be the only one to whom this is happening, no?

All right, hoping all goes on well with seamstresses, animal husbandry, babies, flowers, sports, nursing etc. and best greetings from
Your Gertrud Beyer.

day and date to me unknown
if you ask_ my teeth beware!
(written sometime between 26 Feb, and 22 April ‘28)
Dear Little People,

I’m back in the old nest and I take the tram every morning — not to the Hansa Workshops as I had told you somewhere along the line, but to Mrs. Dietrich Hardorff’s, a crafts teacher in Neuenwall—. All of a sudden, the Hansa Workshops decided they didn’t want to take me for such a short period, even though they had promised to do so… and now they are in bankruptcy proceedings- now I don’t exactly feel Schadenfreude- But I would feel like laughing sardonically a bit, if the bankruptcy proceedings weren’t such a sad thing for Hamburg. So there go my thoughts of stealing design ideas for summer clothes, just idle talk, vanished delusion!

I am very happy in my new practicum. I work without a noon break from 8:30 to 7:30 (hard work for an old bag like me) with 3 colleagues and 3 apprentices, very nice Hamburger Derns (‘Hamburg Gals’). On May 17th I will be done and take a break for the whole summer, which I’m looking forward to enormously. Frau Diebitsch takes very good care of me and gets me out every day to Alster Lake for some fresh air. She is also the reason for my current enthusiasm. She is a very fine, lovable person, with endless funds of humor who never lets her flappers hang and has helped herself through the worst disasters and kids! the things that happen here, let me tell you! : whole dresses are scorched, silken blankets spotted with ink, embroideries torn or cut and everything gets covered by a mantel of love in the form of pretty butterflies, special flowers, rope-loops, so that no one would ever suspect what had happened. Hopefully some of her gift will rub off on me.

I could talk about her for hours, have no idea where to begin and where to end, so I’ll stop right away before I get started and will send the beloved book on its way. It’s been here too long already.

Fondly
Your Käthe Brandes.

Sunday 22 April 28/Noon Break
Dear Class!

Almost half a year since my last report, I have been in Bremen since the first of January. I’m at the Willehardhaus, which used to be the Sailors’ Hospital. My term in Nursing ended April 1. For two months, I interned at the children’s station, and last month I worked in the women’s section. Just Think! I wear a regular Sister’s uniform: skirts down to the floor, stiff collars and a white bonnet. It no longer seems comical to me, I’m feeling fine. I live with two other interns, one of whom is on night duty right now and therefore is staying away for four weeks. Nursing classes lies so far behind me that I can hardly report anything about it. When I was at the Children’s Station I switched assignments with two other Sisters: for a while I had the little ones up till 2-3, then girls under 15, then boys under 15. I liked working in all sections, but my favorite was the Young Boys, they are so touchingly thankful. One week I had to care for a 6-year-old who was very sick and eventually died. He was my first death!! I had the experience of more deaths in the Women’s section, but they did not touch me remotely as hard as the death of this boy for whom I had continuously cared. – For one week my job was to hold arms, legs or heads during surgery on our children; very interesting, I had enough time then to observe very carefully the doctor’s movements.

At the Women’s Station, I was in attendance on several cases of internal and surgical medicine. In the small rooms, there were two or three patients to a room; 16 on average in the larger wards.

For the time being I rarely have contacts with the patients; I work with a dietary counselor, who is now in Eppendorf for training. We worked together in the Dietary Kitchen. There, it is all about carbohydrates, egg protein and fat. Wonder of wonders, my Ragnar Berg and the Chemistry practicum are coming in very handy. We also do calorie counting. We principally deal with stomach, heart, kidney, diabetes diets and a weight loss diet for one man who at 315 pounds would belong in the freak show at the country fair. I draw on all the diets in my own meals and feel very healthy as a result. I cook sauces using 10g (2/3 oz) of flour and 10g of butter, weigh 12g (3/4 oz) of butter as Fatso’s daily ration, and 10g of potatoes for a diabetic. It’s a lot of fun. Recently we had Noodle Pudding six times in a row, made differently each time: salt-free, reduced salt, fat free, normal etc. I have gradually found my way around things and right now, I wish only we would have more to do. As independent hangers-on of the Big Kitchen, we are in a great situation, so much so that we are afraid the gods will take their revenge on us. Provisionally I intend to stay till July 1. What comes next, only the gods know; I don’t.—

I do hope that within another half year, I’ll see the book again, and am on tenterhooks about all the changes that will start at Easter.

Fond greetings to all of you
Your Carla Lauenstein.

Ascension Day 17 May 1928
Dear Class Sisters,

At long last, the book has returned to me. I was beginning to wonder if it had been lost. What I hear from all of you is very interesting; this book is actually my only source of information about you all. All in all, you seem to manage quite well, and I can’t complain either. I’m still in Wandsbeck and feel at home there, but it’s time for a change. My internship year is behind me thank God! It is hard to think of doing twice anything that boring. Every day it’s darning and repairing and attending to other small things; otherwise, occasionally writing something; that was the whole extent of the work. Only on Saturdays, when I was teaching, were things better. About two weeks ago, I passed the exam for admission to the Gymnastics Seminary and sports/gymnastics now keep me busy. A week ago, I went to the Bremerstrasse for information about the Technical (Business) Seminary being formed in Hamburg. Imagine my consternation when Rudtke came towards me with a Little Boy haircut. Ziewold and Echte have done the same, as have a long string of other teachers whose names I barely know. Yes, yes the Bremerstrasse is up to date! Unfortunately, the Technical Seminary won’t work for me, it will require three years of study, and I don’t have the money for that. On the day of the Gymnastics Evening, I went to Kranz on a field trip with the Wandsbeck Collegium; I have not laughed so much in a long time. The old teachers, who might be expected to be the most morose, were a real stitch when it came to telling jokes. The steamboat ride to Kranz was lovely. Then we hiked for about two hours on the Deitch, ate lunch in Schlemmer, hiked for another hour and took the steamboat back out of Wisch. I highly recommend this tour to anyone from Hamburg. Today is Ascension, there was to be another Tour, unfortunately it is raining. At the Gymnastics Seminar, they work us without a pause every day for 2 1/2 hours, on top of which there’s the swimming and club sports (we have to belong to some club!) You can imagine how demanding that is. And don’t forget the lessons in Theory. This said, we are all having fun, all’s going well again.
Rereading my epistle, I note that it’s pretty disorderly. But I trust you will be able to make some sense out of it.

Else and Elfriede’s big year is also at an end, and they are taking a breather. How did the exam(s) go? All right, I’ll stop.—

A triple, loud “Gutes Heil” to all
Your Dora Drüker.

Hamburg 14 June 28
Dear Class,

I got the book from Dora a week ago, with her apologies for having totally forgotten to mail it in the excitement of your visit.

You probably expect me to be in my job with all the requisite honors, but actually I postponed registering with the High School authorities, because there is a lot to do at home right now. Next week we are moving to Dassendorf, Post Office Aumühle, near the Saxony Woods; we’ll be in our own little house and are currently packing.

So exams are safely behind us, In case you are interested, here are the themes of the written part
1. Using the side-horse in Girls’ Gymnastics
2. What is the goal of Physical Education?
For anatomy, we could choose between Blood Circulation and Musculature of the Shoulder.

As you can see, it was really simple. Of course, the orals required a lot of cramming. In Anatomy, I had really prepared myself on the origin of various muscles, so of course I got something completely different. I had to speak about the skin, and it went fine. The Practicum also went well. First there was rope and pole climbing. And moving hand over hand in groups of two on the bars. We had practiced that a lot. There then followed side–vaulting, vaulting from a crouch, straddle vaults on the horse without any support, then exercises on the high bar. Another day it was light athletics, games and folk dancing. The practice teaching went well too, as a result of which we were excused from the Swimming-Teaching test. You can imagine our pleasure, so we just swam once more just for fun in our wet element.

This is it for today, for work is not a frog, it won’t hop away.

Fond Greetings
Your Gertrud Frischgesell.

Hamburg, 19 June 28
My dear band of gypsies,

Is this what you call obedience!? Almost everyone kept the book longer than expected to!! which means the book took one and a half year to go around; and there we are all waiting and waiting for news! And by the way I’ll have so much to write in that the letter will get longer and longer…

When we last met for the Christmas gathering in our house, I was still in the midst of the Nursery practicum. As you all know it was very nice, albeit hard work. Then I went and worked with Frau Leo in the tailoring atelier. I had figured I could start out tailoring right away, since I had already done the written requirements as part of my teacher training. But nothing doing, in the atelier one has to start from scratch. First, the little apprentices have to learn how to attach snap-buttons, and sew bias-cut pieces etc. Mind numbing! If anything, they are even more attached to small details than in the teachers’ seminar. The way it went was: “Mistress, I am done, may I undo it?” We had to work down to the 1/4 mm (1/64/inch). I imagine the ones working in the lingerie practicum are having the same experience.

Eventually I got nicer assignments. The most interesting was working on the special costumes for the great Artists’ Balls . Naturally, the least one could do was to use Crepe de Chine for everything. Money was no object, only taste mattered! Every now and then I ‘d try to imagine how on earth one could juxtapose on one’s body these conflicting colors, yet when the costume was finished it looked tasteful and so stylish you could die. After a term, I had enough of the tailoring and went off to visit my brother and sister-in-law. Those were joyful weeks in Gross-Ilsede. The small fry (girl and boy alike) is delightful. Little Irmtraut doesn’t give one a minute’s rest all day, from 6:30 in the morning till bedtime. She would come (early in the morning) and demand: “Ammahie up” She’d pull back the cover and was offended to death if I didn’t immediately jump up. The whole day was like that. The only rest we had was when she was asleep. But it was wonderful.

Right now, since the beginning of the Semester, I am studying at the University in Hamburg. Käthe Brandes, Friedel Sengers, and Ilse Timm are with me. We have been told that the new test regulations are definitely coming out in the fall. In case you are interested in my choice of subjects, I am taking Pedagogy, Psychology, Physics, Chemistry, Political Science, Business, ‘Jugendkunde’ (Adolescent and Young Adult Pedagogy) (Economics next Semester). Then of course there are the various internships and practica. As you see, it is a most interesting combination of courses. We all like it. The subjects were suggested to us by Professor Loose and by the Director of Pedagogical Seminars at the University. Frl. Konow and Frl. Knoerr are studying here also– we have often met them.

Day after tomorrow is a University Celebration of the Solstice at the Bismarck Rock near Friedrichsruh. All students’ associations and anyone else belonging to the Unität (Wandervogel confederation FOOTNOTE??) will be there. In the afternoon there will be an address by the Rector of the University at the Mausoleum; then as usual we’ll walk through the Castle Park and in the evening a Torch-march to the Bismarck Rock where there will be a big bonfire and singing. I’m sure it will be very festive .

Enough writing for today. Please one and all, try moving the book faster. Or else someone will get engaged and married and no one will know before the day of the wedding party!

I wish all of you as beautiful a life as Lüttje’s and mine, and greet you warmly
Your
Annemarie Lepel (stud.phil) (doesn’t do much!)

Hbg 24 June 28
Dear Congregation,

. . . how moving of me to use my free afternoon to sit down to scribble into this book. Annemarie brought it a few days ago, not weeks!! So kids, Blücher belongs to the past, too bad! Between manure and animal husbandry, it was a famous year; I recovered my health there; there was tons of work, it gave me pleasure, and we all got along famously. Last Sunday, they invited me to visit there. It was a splendid day.
On the 15th of April, I started my second practicum year; for the time being, I take care of babies: charming and exhausting, I’ll tell you. This, by the way, is the place where Annemarie had worked also.
Until the 1st of July, I had the smallest ones upstairs; then one month downstairs with the toddlers and a few days in the dairy kitchen. I could have eaten the little urchins; they are all so delightful. The smallest one is 13 days old, actually premature; a tiny little thing one can barely find in his bath. One becomes so secure with the children that their small size is no longer a problem. It becomes very difficult to let go of the little worms. After I finish my time at the nursery, I plan to take off for a few days of much-needed rest from the constant stress of working in an overheated environment. For the last 3/4 year, I shall dive into tailoring; Frl. Rudtke advised me to do it (by the way, she looks really good with the Young Boy Cut). I’ve also been recommended a practicum in my District. I expect my experience there will be the same as yours : nothing I learnt in the Seminar will be of any use. Afterwards I’ll go to the University to try and enrich my mind further. But that’s some distance away. Has anyone of you got a Little Boy haircut? I still have my (topknot? long plait rolled up) and am probably considered an antique by now… Really time to stop now!

To close, with jubilation. . . fondly
Helga Ritter. (Still the same scrawl . . . oh well!)

Lüneburg 20 July 28
Dear Class,

This little book had to travel a long time before it found me. I am happy to see it. Unfortunately, it came here at the time of our move, so you’ll have to wait a bit longer. We now live on Grapengießerstrasse, in a wonderful apartment. Moving is a lot of work, as you can well think. By now, things have become comfortable again. I’ll stay with my mother for the time being, and will help in my fiancé’s gardening business. If it weren’t so difficult to find an apartment, we would be married already, but it is very difficult. We will have to build our own house. With us, there’s always the problem that the house must serve as a place for business.–
I have just finished a few wonderful days. My friend, her mother, my fiancé and I took a weeklong bicycle tour along the Baltic Sea. The days were long and tiring, especially in the heat of the day, and they were wonderful. We followed the coastline all the way to Heiligenhafen. I often remembered the trip we ourselves took back then. It was beautiful and we came back so tanned that we looked like Negroes. We went swimming twice a day. – Time to get busy again. All the berries and cherries are ripe, I’ll have to make preserves etc. Hopefully, you are all well.
Best greetings to all,
Your Ilse Sporleder.

Zäckericker – Lose August 7 1928
Dear Old Class!

Today is my last day of vacation, and before the old grind starts again, I will hurry and send the book on its way. – As you can see, I am back in Zäckericker – Lose (a bit of a tongue-breaker that!), have been here four days already, the rest of my vacation was spent in Harburg. Tomorrow, we shall return to Potsdam. I’m not looking forward to it; I’m feeling very apprehensive about the coming exam. In about 6 weeks, I hope to be done with it. In October, I will probably do another practicum, this time in Hamburg. I’m looking forward to it. The cramming of the seminary will come to an end, and I am longing to be able to just sew up a storm again. Still we are all sorry that the class will disperse. We got along very well and had stuck together very nicely.–
Before vacations we took a little trip together. We went to Chemnitz to visit a factory that makes knitting-machines, and then went for two days in the Saxony Alps (Swiss Saxony) Switzerland. We were living at Burg Hohenstein. If ever you have a chance to do so, you must absolutely come go there. I have never seen such a nice Youth Hostel. It is in a lovely site and the installations are wonderful, and to top it all, the people there are so nice that one feels at home right away. We all would have loved to stay longer– Still have to practice my trumpet and do schoolwork, so I’ll end here.
In my next letter, I’ll tell you about the exam. Cross your fingers for me.

Greetings to all
Your Hildegard Schulze.

Harburg-Wbg, 22 August 1928
Dear Hamburg Class!

I have been home a few days, for 6 weeks of vacation. Some of you know that I have been in Spandau since Easter, as Else and Elfriedchen had been last year.
I ‘ m very happy to spend the year this way, it will be rich in experiences. In this half year, of which some you don’t know, because the book took so long to go the round, I have had so many experiences, so many beautiful experiences that I don’t even know where to start. It would resemble Else and Elfriede’s reports from their time here, for the work is the same. Right after Whitsun we spent a week in a Youth Hostel in Lagow near Frankfurt/Oder it was wonderful. Great life, great weather.

I had never known that the Mark area has so many lovely areas. The most beautiful were the divine lakes and woods, of which there is a whole lot, all of which wonderful to swim in. The next exceptional event in Spandau was the German Gymnastics Festival in Cologne. [poster available]We first took the train to Mainz, and from there we went by steamboat in radiant weather, 11 hours long. As you can imagine, just this descent of the Rhine would have been enough to make the whole trip worthwhile. You probably read about the Sports festival in the papers, and may have seen photographs. For me the highpoint of the festival was the procession, which lasted 5 hours. Everybody was so excited, the Cologne population as well as the participants of the festival. This was quite an experience of unity and joy in our being German. Of course the Germans from other countries and the gymnasts from the borderlands received an especially warm applause acclaim.– aside from that, it was great to get to see the Cathedral and the Press [Gutenberg’s Printing Shop?] The few days were filled to the brim with impressions and experiences, to be digested in retrospect, and upon which one can think a long time.

What with all the interruptions, we missed a lot of practice time, so the Light Athletics test had to be postponed (it was going to be held before vacation). The only test we had was the Rowing, and the 2-day Canoeing Expedition that was part of it. This was the experience of all experiences. There was a very strong windstorm during those days. As long as we were on land and on the Havel, it didn’t amount to much. But when we got to the first lake, the waves were so high and the wind so strong that we were hardly able to make it across with all our exertions. After a few hours, we did an emergency landing, for we couldn’t keep going like that. After the noon-pause, the water seemed to have become calmer, and so we went on, having upended our four-man boats; they had caught a lot of water. It was our bad luck to be in the oldest canoe, the one that actually goes by the name of “Little Old Lady”. We were able to transfer some of our luggage to another boat and off we went. Barely 100m from shore, we were hit again by wave after wave, so much so that we started getting frightened, although we had previously taken it with some humor. We soon realized that we could not go on and once again steered vigorously toward shore. Not very long– we were sitting with our feet in the standing water, but we kept going, then all of a sudden the boat lurched forward and we were sitting in water up to our hips. As you can well imagine, some of us got a bit distraught and it became very difficult to row with the paddles barely above the water level. Thank God, we soon got to land and were able to get out, pull the Little Old Lady to shore and save whatever luggage could be saved; it was actually floating towards us. The others saw us from a distance and joined us onshore. A few hours later, the lake was smooth as a mirror, completely innocent-looking, and we were able to get in again and make it to Raputh near Potsdam. On the return trip the next day, things got worse. The teams were changed, so that we were relieved of the Little Old Lady. The ones who took it, took no luggage at all. All went well until we reached the large Wannsee about halfway between Raputh and Spandau. There were no significant waves. Then – near the site of the previous day’s accident- we suddenly find two of our boats very close to each other and right up against the shore. Then we notice the team of one standing onshore, while the others are turning over their boat to drain it. We make it there with great difficulty, and they call out to tell us that the Little Old Lady has capsized! And oh dear me! there indeed the poor wreck is lying on shore at the feet of its aggrieved equipage. No way for us to get there all the way, because there were big rocks at some distance from the shore, one of which had hooked the Little Old Lady and destroyed it as they were trying to get closer to land, because the boat was filling with water, and they hoped to avoid a repeat of what had happened to us the previous day. Only things got even worse for them! A motorboat was sent over from Spandau and towed The Little Old Lady away.–

Afterwards we laughed about the whole thing, especially about the comical appearance of some of us, although at the time one hardly was tempted to laugh about it. Believe me, it is a frightening feeling to see the waves coming right at you, one after the other without a stop, and crashing into the boat , and not being able to do a thing about it. We were lucky that the accident happened near the shore, rather than in the middle of the lake.

Aside from that, summer life in Spandau was free and easy; I don’t think there’s a place on earth where there is so much singing. One is always outdoors, sometimes hardly spending an hour inside all day. We all sported great dark tans like Negroes. Although we looked forward to a rest, we were all sad that the beautiful Spandau summer had passed so quickly. One has to work a little, for after the holidays, we shall have a few oral exams.

Oh you grosser Groschen I’d better stop! Once again I can’t end, and there still is so much to recount from this beautiful half year, that still feel fills me completely.

I wish all of you much joy and send you warm greetings.

Your Margarete Schulze.

Im Herzen der Heide (n.d.)

Dear Hamburg ones,

O-Oh!! How long the book has stayed here, I’d rather not think about it. But just now there is such happy news that I must put pen to paper and report it to you. Elfriedchen has found a position: until now she had only been teaching a few hours at the Vocational School in Lüneburg. And I have been residing in Herzen der Heide since the 15th of June. Although it misses a few amenities, all in all, I am quite pleased here. I teach 17 gym classes and 11 handwork classes a week.
It is an interim appointment but for the time being, it allows me to organize my life here. Things start at 6:30 in the morning. I teach almost all the classes, the 5 primary classes, and then the 4th and 2d class. The upper class is not so nice, for public school students at that age are fairly disgruntled. Improbable as it may seem, I think I am still a little too close to the children who are not used to that. The little ones are charming; they really get into things, and give themselves over to them with their whole heart and soul. Occasionally I’m asked to substitute with the boys, you’d die laughing. They are quite different. All in all, I often feel a little ridiculous, prancing about in my professorial dignity. This is especially the case in the Faculty: there are 5 Colleagues between the ages of 59 and 28, a gap, and then there’s me, the spring chicken, all of 20 years old. But thank God that I am so young and still limber of spirit. And then there is all the visiting. They throw sidelong glances at me to try and figure me out; and there I am, Frl. Sporleder on her best behavior, sweetly smiling. Think of all the Coffees that bring together the entire female teacher-population in Soltau. There’s the Rector’s wife, and the Co-rector’s wife and all the teachers. It takes some getting used to. Then again, there are some very nice young colleagues with whom I do get along well.

Well you too will experience it all some day soon. And kids, earning money is a real pleasure. It’s the first of the month soon, hurray!, and then vacations. Which remain the most agreeable interruption. I wonder if we’ll get together this year again. I hope so. Meanwhile cross your fingers that I won’t get moldy this winter.
Best greetings to all of you
Your Else Sporleder.

Lüneburg 1 October 28
Dear All!

Jut so Annemarie won’t get too angry, I sit down obediently and write to you, for the book has been moving at a snail’s pace! Also, as Else announced to you: as of November 1, I’ll be teaching in Weferlingen, Province Saxony, near Braunschweig. I was there a few days ago; I had to pass a Gym-Teaching test– in the solemn presence of 7 gentlemen— and was chosen right then, one out of four girls. Yes, luck is needed. Hopefully I will adjust there; wait and drink tea! Weferlingen is small and cute — kind of rural, well I’ll see! Until now I had been busy at the local vocational school only 15 hours a week, teaching lingerie sewing and sick-care. The teaching was fun, although it wasn’t always easy with 15-16 year old girls, and there are a few specimens among them! But one gets used to everything, even having to put on a dignified air to go into a conference (I only participated in one so far!) And then, Earning Money! I’ll tell you, that’s a fine thing, one feels quite different when one is living off one’s own money—
Right now, Else also has her vacation, so we’ll spend a few beautiful days together in Lüneburg with the pleasant interruption of Else’s Cousin’s wedding in Plaue, great no!?— Better end here, for the book is getting full. Next report will come from Weferlingen.

“ that’s why I became a teacher, to go to school…” So, may all go well with you
Your Elfriede Benecke.

Harburg 26 October ‘28
Dear old class,

Attention! Here comes the third Technical Teacher in Office and Dignity! Most of you certainly know that on Easter I got my first position (an interim till Easter 1929). It was offered me the day after my exam, talk about luck! and it pleases me inordinately well. It is probably quite similar to what Else does, and to what Elfriede will do. I am employed in two schools, one is Public school 3 in Wilhelmsburg, Faehrstr., the other one is in Georgswerder, 1/4 of an hour from the Neddel on foot. I take the tram at the station near Faehrstr. , it’s a half-hour ride. In Georgswerder, I teach all the girls’ classes down to the 7th. For the time being, the classes are very small, so that I teach two or sometimes three classes combined. At Faehrstr. , I have Classes 1 and 2, for Gym, and classes 1-3 for Handwork, three days a week, 12 hours in all. I have 16 hours in all in Georgswerder (Monday, Wednesday, Friday). As you can see, I am fully employed. It is pretty tiring to teach 5 hours in a row, to stand, give orders, demonstrate exercises etc. One is totally exhausted by the end. It was quite difficult at first. But now that I have adjusted, it gets better. I know what kind of children I have in front of me, which makes it easier to manage them. I have some really great kids in there who give me a lot of pleasure. Exceptionally eager, clean and personable. The smallest ones are the most eager at times. But there are a few awful ones in the lot. And fresh! Else writes the same thing! And she should know! She has accumulated some experience by now. Still, dumb and uninterested is much worse than fresh, as far as I am concerned.

As said, I’m coming along. At first, they tried to get away with things, probably because I’m so young. But I think that even with all the camaraderie, the necessary respect is now present. In both Faculties, I am by far the youngest. One feels quite strange in the new worthiness at first, as if one were a different person.

In the beginning, teaching gym without a gym room (during the first term without any equipment at all) felt difficult. We have now received a whole lot of equipment, mostly play-equipment. Still no gym hall, but I have learnt to keep the children busy without it. In Georgsweder, we shall perhaps receive a room for the winter. Otherwise, we are always outdoors. For handwork, I was allowed to buy sewing machines for both schools (3 in one, 2 in the other). Until all the machines were operational, and all the children (130! of them) had work in their hands- oh dear!! I was close to despair.
Thank god, this is all a memory now. We are busy making slips, dresses, nightgowns, pillows, shoe bags. And it’s fun to get to know the kids well. On Thursday afternoon, I take part in a study group to get ready for the second test, which will allow me to get a permanent position.
I think I have told you everything interesting about my work. Which is probably what interests you the most anyway.

Shall we see each other at Christmas? That would be lovely!

Warm greetings from your
Gertrud Beyer.

Potsdam, November 28
Dear Annemarie, don’t be mad, the book has stayed here a little too long again.
Dear group!

You haven’t left me much room, but that’s OK.

Actually I could just copy Hilde’s letter of May 28 1927, for I’ve been sitting in ‘Potsdorf’ since the 11th of October in (Talk about a ‘dorf’/village ! The post office closes from 1-3 everyday, meaning that I had to walk back home with my unmailed 3 pound package) anyway I have inherited Hilda’s teacher, lunch-table, road to school, room with calendar, bootwax, written assignments, coffee beans, salt and sugar etc. and feel really happy(knock on wood!) There are still 17 of us in the class, all with Little Boy haircuts, and Oh joy! they all have beautiful voices and all love to sing!! I am of course the shortest, how else could it be? If Frl. Hennking wants to roll me out the door, she’ll be out of luck, since I don’t have much to spare in the width either (still thin!) We are working very hard here, oy! Please Paint ‘Fear and Gaiety’ in pastels on white paper and bring it to me to the Class meeting of December 17. For I can’t do it! And as for the Art History lectures, the man is supposed to be a good speaker? Forget it! No, dear Hilde, he stutters! “L-l-l-ook, Young ladies h-h-ow the a-a-a-rm and the ch-ch-cheek intersect”.

I was laughing so hard in the dark (lecture with slides) that I slid from my chair, for I was once again so tired that anything elevated flew right by me, and only those things ‘stuck’ and made an impression which were funny. And if I have to deal with complicated words like Parallelism, that’s it for me altogether. Recently the whole class went to Staaken near Berlin to look at the Zeppelin. Now that was something!! And besides, they were distributing all kinds of publicity gadgets, for instance a porcelain object that really was an advertisement. And so I reached out my hand to get one, and the man goes “not for children, not for children!” My class was of course totally delighted! What can a body do? And now to finish on a benevolent admonition from a greetings speech by our Frau Direktorin. She implored us to forget about engagements and other such jokes for this year (one of us had telegraphed the previous evening “Have become engaged and renounce Potsdam”) “Marriage, young ladies, is a condition which one takes, arranges on the side, the main thing is your profession!” So, children, remember to take care of this ‘on the side’.
Fondly
Käthe Brandes.

Lüneburg 3 December 1928
Hello,

in three weeks it is Christmas and then a few more days to our meeting, hopefully everybody is happily meeting again at Käthe’s. Good thing Käthe did not give us the date, so we can’t be mad at her for choosing the wrong date, nor can anyone tell me what to do.

I look back and see that another six months have passed since my last report, and I hardly know whether to continue where I stopped back then or to report on the most recent events. Right now, I am not at all satisfied with my Practicum. The artistic workshops that Annemarie and Käthe had described have changed for me into a small back room ; by the time the tailoring is done, there is hardly anything left of the soul of the human being doing the tailoring. I‘d rather not speak of it, so let’s pretend it’s April.

Until the first of July, I was in Bremen in the dietary kitchen of the hospital. The gods did not become envious and I spent my time there doing interesting work in a very pleasant circle of Sisters .

To become ‘socially active’, I spent four weeks tasting chocolate for free; better yet, I was paid 56 Pfennig an hour, 8 hours a day to do so. Until the 1st of August I was in a chocolate factory and moved between tables where chocolate was being wrapped, pralines coated and boxed. The workers were meant to give me as good as possible an understanding of the merchandise, so that I had a lot of fun mixed with the not-always-pleasant work, (we started at 4 in the morning on hot days, when the chocolate was literally running in our hands). Soon the workers became more trusting and when they learnt that I was interning to become a teacher, they told me about two teachers who had been there earlier, supposedly peppering them with unending questions like “how does cocoa grow? Where does it come from?”. It was hard not to laugh. They also wanted to know whether I wanted to join them on a Sunday jaunt with my “Cavalier”(they were trying to be very refined and used that word instead of ‘gentleman’ or ‘verkehr?’). Which really made me laugh.

The four weeks brought all kinds of interesting observations, not all of them beautiful– and when I worked later in the welfare offices, I learnt to know even better the misery of these circles. I worked for six weeks in the Youth services, and 4 weeks in the Health services; I helped with office work, filing and writing reports; got an overview of the long-term traffic and the questions of the public; also learnt how shamelessly people demand things, how people provide false information in order to get more, and still manage to curse the people providing the services. At the other end, there are the shy people who come hat in hand, and to whom one would like to give by the handful, for their misery is so innocent.

When I was working on the outside, I did school inspections. The little brats were too cute. One little one, when asked what father was doing answered proudly “High Mayor (Oberbürgermeister)” and when asked “which town?” complete silence followed. We had to laugh of course. The nurseries were very interesting. I ended up dealing with the widest range of families, sometimes with an assistant, sometimes alone.

Even though one becomes envious of salaried people, I must still say that our (unpaid) apprenticeships are most interesting. One more thing: I just got notice to appear in Potsdam on the 15th of December for a certification test. Kids, cross your fingers for me. Annemie, you can be happy if I fail. I just spoke to my mother; I would then go to Hamburg to study.

That’s it. The end. Best greetings
Carla v. Lauenstein.

Hamburg, 15 December 1928
Dear Classmates!

This book is wonderful, such a nice way to hear all kinds of things about each other. Of course, they are mostly old news, but it really doesn’t matter, it still is nice.

Actually, it hardly makes for me to write an entry, since we will be seeing each other at the Brandes soon and then I‘d be telling you things you already know. I don’t have much new or good to tell you. Only one thing: I have decided to remain a technical teacher for the time being. Things fell through in Hamburg with the formation. The curriculum has not yet been approved. If and when it will be is not clear. Besides, what it really is, is a test for Vocational Teachers. For the foreseeable future, there is no plan to train them in Hamburg, since there are so few people involved. I learnt all of this accidentally from one of the teachers here. The whole thing had always seemed kind of obscure anyway, since the schedules made no provisions for professional training, and the entire time was going to be taken up by political science and economics. Anyway, I do not want to become a Vocational Teacher, and so I shall wait until things become clearer, and take it from there. This means I will not go to Potsdam after Easter, since for the time being I’m in no condition to do any intensive learning. My nerves are in pretty bad shape right now, since I had a lot to deal with recently. So, I will be looking for a position as a technical teacher. Hopefully I’ll find something by Easter. By then, my nerves will be better again. Unfortunately, I have nothing more to report. Hopefully, when the book comes back in six months, I’ll have better things to report.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you!
Your Annemarie Lepel.

Hamburg Christmas 1928
Dear Class!

Finally the book found its way to my house, and I was doubly happy because I had begun to think it no longer was circulating. What should I tell you? We shall see each other in two days, and we can report much better face to face. But I do not want to be missing in the book, so here are a few things. I still have my position in Wandsbeck, only 8 hours actually. I had to give up the others, since I still attend the Gymnastics seminary. They are working us hard in the seminary! Until September all went well, then I broke my right elbow, and now, it’s December and my arm still isn’t straight. Nice story, no? At first, the pain was enough to drive me up the wall, but I had to keep teaching in Wandsbeck and did not get a single day off. Well I survived. God knows how the test will go for me after Easter.

Aside from that, I am doing well, as you know, weeds always prosper. I came away for Christmas and spent four days doing nothing at all, which was wonderful! You all seem to be doing really well. I am really envious of Grete. Annemarie, you must completely relax, and things will go better, don’t let things keep you down.

I also can report that just before Christmas I got the certificate of the “German Lifesaving Association, Berlin” Do you know about it? It is a swimming test.

We had to swim for one hour in any style, then 300 m. swimming with clothes and shoes, then get undressed in the water, dive 25 m to fetch a sandbag, perform various saving and releasing moves in the water, bring to land and resuscitate using two alternate methods. It was a great test, except for the one hour treading water, which was terribly boring. We were doing it in the small pool at the Kellinghusenstr. Pool, so it meant swimming around in circles for ever, not to mention that students kept swimming into the way. But I could have swum longer; I was not tired at all. All right, I think I have given you the whole mustard (der ganze Senf) Käthe will no doubt give you a better, revised edition.

Merry Christmas to all of you and a Happy Slide into the New Year.
Your Dora.

(n.d.)
Dear Class!

Here I am like a frozen little rabbit in the Saxony woods. The book has arrived! Reading it was a great joy.

Not much news, I’ve been helping out at my parents’ home. So as to avoid the complete shriveling of my pedagogical skills, I have been helping out as a volunteer in Handwork and Gymnastics. For Christmas, we put up a play, which was well liked by young and old.

I have submitted my papers to the school authorities but will have to wait, since there are no openings at this point. Hopefully something good will turn up.
Good luck to all of you for the new year!
Your Gertrud Frischgesell.

Hamburg 15 January 1929
To all teachers in Office and Dignity
and to all Dependent Parasites!

Kids, it is lovely that so many of us are earning money. I am afraid that I still belong among the “dependent parasites”: here I am, 22 years old, and my feet still under my father’s table, and unhappy. But the second Practicum year is ‘knorke’ (Hamburg slang for perfect). My lovely nursery-babies are now far in the past (hopefully in their little beds). It was great in the children’s home; the people, the babies, the work, everything was lovely, and it was really hard to leave the little urchins; with tears in my eyes (really) and a spotless reference letter I left the Nursery room. I want to return there one of these days, for I long to bathe and powder a diminutive little human being again. After the babies, I took 14 days off and then I took my pointed scissors, my needles of assorted sizes and my thimble and went to the top, but really top design house Joh. Boankens , Uhlenhorsterweg 3. It is all very feudal and 5 minutes from home. The first needle gets stuck into the cloth at 9 AM; I stop at 6:30, with half an hour lunch break. So children, I get to handle rags, well… dresses and gowns, actually; the spit dries in my mouth just looking at them, they are so elegant. And the man gets such high prices for them that your spit never returns. But who cares? I am learning a lot here; my women colleagues are very nice people also, although there is one bad apple. No it’s not me, look in another direction. The Director has very nice skin, the Boss is also a little piece of design who only cares for his fur coats, his suits etc. On Christmas, we had a great Christmas celebration and I received for my good services splendid suit material for a “tailor made.” The latter was finished today, costs an insane amount of money, and fits like a glove (So says the complimentary boss!) Much to do right now, its fun. Tired in the evening, yawning like a chained dog. They’ll have to build a metal rod into my back one of these days. This ends in March and then? Well kids, I guess one’s hide is as tough as a hippopotamus hide. I look forward to the decision of the Municipality, there has to be solution somewhere. End of January I shall visit Prof. Lohse again. I may well end up wearing down the benches of the University with Annemarie. I met little Lepel at Frau Vakes for the Director’s birthday party; we were happy that we could support each other through thick and thin. I too received an offer from Potsdam, but refused because my father told me to. The State of Hamburg can’t just put us out on the street (not in this ice and East wind!). I guess one could get married; that would be the ideal solution, but with Käthe telling us that marriage can only be a hobby on the side and the profession is our main business, then I guess I’ll postpone (marriage) and keep racking my brains. I would have liked to come on the 27th of December, but I really couldn’t. Will tell you why next time we meet. That I would have preferred to be “rangine” (like Elfriede) is probably clear.
So kids, warm greetings from your
Helga Ritter.

(n.d.)
My dear class!

At last, the book has arrived but just imagine, my ink was frozen. Not surprising in this gruesome cold. But don’t be mad at me. I have been very busy recently, besides which I was sick and then my sister was sick, and time just flew away. Unfortunately, I was unable to see you at the Class Day. There was an odd reason for that; and I would not have been in a happy mood. Right now, I have a hangover, having danced till 1 o’clock in the morning at a masked ball. It was great. Perhaps some of you have gone to one too. Of course, it was nowhere near as beautiful as the one last year in Cologne. This year, though, we heard the Cologne Carnival on the Radio. My fiancé gave me a radio for Christmas. We listen to the most beautiful music every evening, sitting together cozily. Nothing much else happens in this Siberian cold. We are taking a Dance class to learn modern dances. It is really neat. there are 16 couples, all young married couples or about to be married. Käthe, we have had no time to take care of your business. So dear children, make it through the winter.
Warm greetings
Your Ilse Schomaker.

Hamburg 27 February 1928
Dear All,

I was very pleased to have been allowed to look at the famous little book, and so– after a few years– to finally hear in such details about you and your doings. Continue! And receive my warmest greetings

Guess who??
Your classmate for one year
2 years a technical teacher
currently an intern and auditing student;
during vacations, sportswoman and mountain tourist
Sunday skier in the Harburg-Hills
recently sprained thumb

Oh, all this wasted space—a sign of the holiday mood. So: The End!

Harburg April 10 1929
Dear All!
When I wrote my latest report into this book, I was still agonizing about exams in Potsdam, and now the exam and everything surrounding it is almost forgotten. I have been at home since October, and go to Hamburg every day “to fulfill the requirements of the Practicum”.

First, I spent four months at Frau Diebitsch- Hardorff’s about whom Käthe had told you earlier. My experience there was as wonderful as hers, the work is fun and — what with various unexpected developments— sometimes even funny. It was especially nice for me that Elfried Seegers was doing her Practicum at the same time, and so we got to spend most of our time together. Two months ago, I had to leave that workplace and now I am pedaling myself into paralysis on a stiff sewing machine at Moehring & Co. A-B-C- Street. Due to the lack of space, I have not been able to move in an electrical machine, although I must say that my leg muscles are getting in good enough shape to talk to Soltau (the Phys.Ed. Seminary) soon. This said, I like sewing: are mainly making Summer dresses right now, not as elegant perhaps as those from Helga’s first class atelier, but still quite nice.

As for the appearance of such a workshop, it has been described repeatedly in this book: racket, confined air and dust are its main characteristics. But the people with whom one works are for the most part very agreeable, especially ready to help us newcomers, which makes work easier and more pleasant. When I am through with light clothing, I would like to do tailoring for a few more months, before returning to Potsdam in the fall. Actually we are about ready to start a (Frauenschule) ‘Branch’ there, for Carla, Annemarie and Grete [Hildegard’s sister] all went there two days go.–

Very warm greetings to all of you from
Your Hildegard Schulze.

Potsdam 12 April 1929
Dear Hamburg Class!

A few of you may be surprised to hear from Potsdorf [joking reference to the old Prussian capital as a ‘village’] again, or do you all know that since Easter Annemarie, Carla and I are attending the Home Economics Teachers’ Seminary there? Gradually, there are getting to be so many of us here that we should start a Hamburg Branch or an Association of former Hamburg Students. We were counting heads the other day and there were 9; in the Fall, Hilde will be the 10th. Of course the last three imports, meaning us, have not experienced much yet, since we’ve only been here 4 days, even though the first days maybe the most noteworthy. There isn’t much interesting to tell you yet. – Most amusing was Carla’s and my moving into our shared housing with a seemingly odd, “very educated Lady” as she describes herself, telling us in the first hour all about her personality, that she was an artist, but loves order and cleanliness above all, which we had noticed and actually matters to us also. As for her ‘artistry’, it consists in her giving piano lessons, except that she currently has no students. First, we had to finish setting up our room, which of course was not really cozy and inviting. But by now, we have managed to make it really comfortable and we feel more at ease. At school, things are still a bit slow. Lectures in Berlin only start on the 29th, so we have two more free days. Instruction will extend to four courses subjects, which are already familiar to us, aside from that we are expected to intern in the Potsdam Vocational School and apparently do some teaching there ourselves, things are not entirely clear yet.

Anyhow — we will teach somewhere, and in theory, several times a week, and not just student teaching. While we still have the time, we will be using it to go walking and enjoying the beauties of Potsdam, there are many interesting things to see. We only wish the weather were warmer, it is really cold. – When the book returns to us in Potsdam, Carla and Annemarie will be able to tell us more about our work.

Hoping everything keeps going well for you, that you are all happy and healthy, best greetings from the Potsdam contingent, especially
Your Grete Schulze.

We are not yet fully equipped, (meaning that I forgot my writing pen at home) which is why I write with an indelible marker. Sorry.

Soltau 15 April 1929
Dear Hamburgers All!

I’ve been at school 8 days already and I am completely in the whirl of things. My schedules have remained the same. I continue with the same classes with one extra class of Gymnastics with the boys in the 2d elementary class! For the first time, I got to experience the Entrance of the whole crowd into the school. What a mess: mothers, fathers, crying siblings and then the proud schoolchildren. The minute one entered into the mob scene, one ended up with a squirming, whining Something: “I have lost my knapsack”, “I don’t know where my class is.” Funny creatures.

I gave the book a little rest, now it’s time to get it over with. Because it has gotten to be June, and I just found the bookshelf where it had been resting, all nice and clean.

The strange creatures which I‘d mentioned back then have meanwhile gotten used to the school business, just as I have. On the 15th of June, I celebrated my first anniversary as a teacher. Just think of that. And all the things I learnt. For one, that Theory and Praxis are two, as different as heaven and earth, that the profession of the technical teacher gives much pleasure and joy, that I am wholly ungifted to be a “pedagogue”, that I would do everything possible not to turn into one of those bleating, petrified, perpetually dissatisfied, elderly old maids (there are three of them decorating our Faculty), and that I have managed to earn a nice little sum and therefore will be able to afford a sea trip during the summer vacation. When shall we all meet for our Baltic Sea trip? Hope you who are still in your practica will get it over with quickly so that you too can start reaching into the moneybag of the State. ¬

For the time being, my life is as healthy as one could possibly imagine. I am constantly outdoors in the playing field or the swimming pool. And it gives me such pleasure when one after the other my little urchins learn to keep afloat and do the first swimming strokes alone. The rest of the time, we are practicing for the Reich Youth Sports Competitions on August 10th. The festival in Soltau will combine the Youth Sports Competition with the Celebration of Constitution Day. Evenings, I go to the Gym Club for gymnastics and swimming, once a week I sing, so that I’m always busy. With all that, I have acquired a really wonderful tan, I’ll soon be able to compete with the ‘Spandauer Frack’.[dinner jacket]

So, I’ll send the book on its way as quickly as possible, for it might be Christmas before I see it again, if I were to put it back on the shelf.
So, hurry up and start saving for the Baltic Sea trip!
Cheerio and fond greetings
Your Else Sporleder.

Weferlingen (Pr. Sa) August 1929
Dear Hamburg Ones!

Today at last the book will go out on its travels again, having had a nice long rest here during the vacation. Things are hopping again and the nice free time – which Else and I spent together at the Baltic Sea- is gone; gone, too, the hard earned money —our first trip with our own money, divine, I can tell you! On the 1st of November, I will have been in Weferlingen one year. I have adjusted and like it here. I have 28 hours a week at the Public School, and also teach Handwork and Sports 5 hours a week at the Middle School. Overtime is paid extra, which is wonderful, but this pleasure is about to end for said Middle School is being hit by severe cutbacks. This means that I teach Handwork and Gymnastics in every class, from the little ones to the 6th class. They are really sweet, and it’s such a pleasure to race around with them on the sports field, which is in the middle of the woods. Of course one has to take some vigorous action at times, when 50 squirming little creatures are all over you. The little ones handed in proudly their finished ball nets; potholders come next. Everything goes into the cupboard and on Easter, there will be a big exhibit to which the kids are looking forward, when all their things will be admired. Early September, I and the Rector will take the first class hiking in the Harz mountains, which are within easy reach from here, and which for me are twice as beautiful in Winter when I go skiing there– I can ski in Weferlingen too.

Before the holiday, there was a big Children’s Festival; you should have seen it! We performed “The Wedding of Reinecke Fox” with 290 participants, all the children were dressed up as ducks, chickens, rabbits, dwarves, etc. and each group did some dancing. This was quite an exercise but everything went fine and gave a lot of pleasure. Now we are practicing for the National Youth Sports Competition, starting next week. The Faculty here is very nice, there are 2 teachers besides me, and we get along well. In my free time, I play tennis and go bicycle touring. There are many beautiful woods and on Saturday-Sunday, I often go to Magdeburg to visit my relatives for a change.
Enough for now, hope all is well with you and fond greetings from
Your Elfriede Benecke.

Hamburg 23 September ’29
Dear Old Seminary Class,

The first completely free afternoon since the book arrived here… I will use the day to get it moving again. I was very happy to hear from all of you and was particularly interested in Else and Elfriedchen’s reports , for I am experiencing very much the same things and it’s as if they were taking words out of my mouth. I too celebrated my first Anniversary, have learnt a lot, and can see, as Else described it, that there still is much that is wrong, not done well enough, that I still need to work harder, in other words that I’m not a good teacher yet. Yet I have the desire, the will and the ambition, and thank god I’m still young enough. But I am resolved not to allow myself to petrify, on the contrary the more peace, friendship and camaraderie on a foundation of healthy reason, the easier things will work themselves out, and the more I can do

For the time being, my relations with the children are good without any reservations, and I am particularly fond of the ones I have for a second year. My interim appointment as been renewed for a second year, after that, who knows what will happen? I stopped working at the Georgswerder school which was awkwardly located, and am instead at the (Common School) Sammelschule in Wbg. (Wilhelmsburg??) where I have the same number of hours. The children are just as good or bad as in other schools. As in other schools, there is no trace of a Gym. So I am a bit apprehensive about the coming winter. The summer of course was mostly wonderful. There was a lot of sun, even now in late summer, and we all have acquired a sporty-professional tan. In August, the national competitions went well, through no fault of my own, for whether children are gifted or not is what really determines the outcome and I can‘t do a thing about that.

I am very happy with the afternoon swimming lessons. The children who attend are particularly eager and nice, and it gives me great pleasure to enhance their skills and observe the visible progress from the first autonomous movements to free-swimming and eventually to diving.

Now that it is all behind me, I forget about all the hard work and stress which came from the temporary addition of 10 weekly hours of swimming. But of course, the extra income extracted from the State’s money bag was not a small thing either. It represented more than one month’s salary. Not bad, no? Some of it will go toward the purchase of a sewing machine.

And what about July, and vacation? I used my own money to go on a trip. Not a cruise on the Baltic yet (lazing around on a deck is nothing for young people, we’ll do that all together (wouldn’t that be great!) when we all earn enough, which of course will be a while from now at the rate things are going. Instead, I went to Bavaria: Garmisch! Children, that was beautiful! I could tell you for hours about it, postcards at hand. To see for the first time the mountains, the high, bare, cold cliffs, the whole landscape laid out down below is a powerful experience! And there is so much beauty in that area! I went everywhere, savored every glance, saw incredibly much, much beauty and brought it all back home. Weather almost always beautiful. The highpoint of the trip, between the many hikes and rock-climbing , swimming in mountain lakes, days in Innsbruck and Munich, a Folk Dance and Folk Dress festival, bus trips, the highpoint of all that was the day on the Zug Peak! Up in the cable car in 20 minutes, to the summit at 2964 m., all the way to the roof of the weather station, incredibly clear views, then –with a mountain guide– a brief, frighteningly wonderful rappelling climb to the East Peak. All of it incredibly beautiful, new, impressive, unforgettable! Then down in 8 hours of fast walking, at first with a guide, back to Garmisch.

Yes that was the thing! Where do I go for an encore?

I recently acquired a beautiful small camera and have experimented with it. If any picture in the lot might interest you, i.e. that could stand your critical look, I’ll stick it into the book. I also took pictures recently on the occasion of the Zeppelin visit in Hamburg, but I don’t think the pictures came- out. This too was wonderful: gorgeous weather, a good place to see things—standing on a rooftop, and the wonderful, sleek, gigantic, elegant airship, shimmering silver in the sun. The whole time it was over Hamburg one could see it quite clearly from the ground.– I take it the other girls in Hamburg saw it also. It was great, wasn’t it?

That is about it for the time being. I don’t want to waste your attention with small stuff, partly so as not to bore you, but also because there would be no end to it.

Hoping all is well with you, mostly that you are very healthy and thus, happy and cheerful, in the spirit that we were taught at the Seminary.
Warm greetings
Your Gertrud Beyer.

(n.d.)
Dear All,

Life is the hardest thing – it usually ends in death- and yet it is most interesting! Which means that for the time being it is all Work, Work and more Work. I curse in a very professional manner on the job, enjoy gallows humor on the side and yet at the bottom of my soul, I feel as well as ever possible.

I believe it is exactly a year since I wrote in this stimulating book. In the meantime, very little has changed and much has changed. I still feel good in my room– actually 50% better, since the Harburg Schulzes are now renting the room below mine. So that the Schulzes below me and I can exchange messages through the floor, and manage to understand each other more or less clearly humming on the pipes. Great installation!

And school? Well! After a very busy winter, and an incredibly beautiful summer, we are now plunging back into the work with Rage and Clenched Teeth. Exams coming at Easter. Please cross every available finger for us.

Please does anyone have a match?
I can’t keep my eyes open!
Therefore see myself forced
To End
Warm greetings to all!
Your Käthe Brandes.

Hamburg23, 27 December ‘29
Dear Others,

Thank God, the Book still exists! I had been having my doubts, justifiably so: it is one whole year since I last saw it. This said, even though I read it as soon as it arrived, I let Christmas go by before finding time myself to forward it. And still, I find it difficult to know what to write. As you know, I broke my arm at the Gymnastics Seminary, and this caused many difficulties, with the result that I spectacularly failed the exam. Since I was not able to start training again till January, I was unable to catch up for the lost 4 months by mid-March. I guess I am a really unlucky person. Since there now is no longer a Seminary, I went for private instruction and hope that this Easter I will at last pass the test. Things are like always in Wandsbeck. But I take little joy in it. There is so much lobbying against us technical teachers** on the part of the Gewerbelehrerinnen installed in their places. I have applied everywhere: Public School, Middle School, hopefully something will work out. I also would like to get trained for a different line of work. I am not willing to keep sitting in one spot, I am too young and immature for that.

I spent the holidays of this incomparably beautiful summer mostly on the Elbe, so that I returned to work with a deep suntan. After that, the year brought me little good. At Christmas, however, people remembered me with such love that a great part of the rest was compensated.

Aside from that, I spend my days in monotonous good health. I recently met Helga while walking. I was almost scared when I saw her. She had become very pale and skinny from the University work. She needs to work at getting her health back.

I can’t think of anything else, hopefully next year will bring something new. So, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Dora Duker.
Be so kind and cross your fingers so that we’ll get some snow, I would so like to see some. D.D.

January 30
Dear Ones,

It is about time for me to send along the book. Forgive the long delay, but there were so many lectures to attend this month that I was coming home late every day.

Since last Easter I too have acceded to the noble service, and am working at my old school, the “Technical High School Paulenstift”. It was pure coincidence that, at the time I applied, I met the Director among the officials there. And sure enough, it worked out, and by Easter, I was appointed as a substitute teacher there.

I still remember school enough so that I adjusted quickly to the work. I teach Handwork classes 10th class to OIII; I teach Gymnastics only up to 6th. My favorites are the little ones (9-8th class) How shiny their eyes are when they come to gymnastics, how eager their disposition. For Easter, we practiced small dances, like “Lieschen, was faellt dir ein, solch Gesicht zu machen?” (Little Lisa, why do you make this face?) I wish you could see their faces as they do it, some lusty, some grumpy, it is really delightful.
After Easter, I shall attend various classes for further education, so as to be able to take the second test. How about you “Technicals”? Are you all working?
Cordial greetings,
Your Gertrud Frischgesell.

20 February 1930
Dear H.F. Class!

We often remember the happy hours in Hamburg. We sure had a nice class. Helga you will get the book next. How are your studies going? Just think: you weren’t sure you’d ever receive this book again. Actually, it has been sitting in my house for a long time. I had no courage to write anything, for fear of immortalizing on paper the dark toads that inhabit my head. Now, the clouds are lifting a little. In 8 days, the lectures will end, which means two free days a week. Of course these two days are already fully scheduled, but right afterwards, it is Easter; and after that, the Easter vacation April 1 to May 1. We are counting the weeks and days. Annemarie and I spent the whole Sunday quietly working here. Annemarie was studying for her student teaching test, which is coming on Thursday. She is fairly exhausted and so I shall write in her name. Actually we are inseparable. About the school, our main field of experience right now, I’d rather not write anything. Not everything that shines is gold, our school least of all.

After a few struggles we made it to the semester holidays starting on April 1; but our exam, supposed to be held in July before the semester holidays, has been postponed till October. Despite all our efforts, the Ministerial decree could not be changed.

Aside from schoolwork, the old HF students seek variety through happy get-togethers. Yesterday, we celebrated Hilde Schulze’s birthday—We were delighted. Käthe Brandes found a dress that must be finished before the exam, and Grete Schulze had to forget her back which is torturing her for the past 8 days.

I shall go to the circus tomorrow to revive my sagging spirit. The Circus Sarasani is calling from its gigantic posters in the Termperhofer field.

Best wishes
Carla v. Lauenstein (and Annemarie Lepel),

Hbg. 4 March ’30
Dear Congregation,

Received yesterday, writing today.

Motto: “Be brief, consider those waiting after you” (public radio stations). Carla must have read my mind when she says she thinks I have given up on our ever meeting again. Whenever I read about the high salaries upon which trips will depend, my ears fall in discouragement as I think of the four semesters still ahead of me. Yes, children, being addressed as “stud.phil.” doesn’t quite cut it anymore for me. I have two semesters behind me. Student life is wonderful, a bit stressful because one spends one’s whole days dashing around the city without having time to rest. Only at the Hero’s Cave, (the Heldenkeller) — a refreshment room in the basement of the University– can one catch a few moments of rest drinking milk with a straw out of a baby-bottle. Young men and women hang on to it, as they regress into the suckling stage of life.

Saturday was the end of the Semester, but now the real cramming starts. I desperately need to convalesce, am as pale as Caraway Cheese (without the caraway), thin as a pine (102 pounds); no trace left of the chubby cheeks I had in Blücher. Three weeks of vacation, and during the second month I shall be appointed in the Youth Office of Social Work, in the observation station. Actually I would not really have needed to do it, since I already spent six months in a hospital. But the work interests me, in University jargon they call it the “ little school-helper service”; in the Fall, I’ll do the “big” school-helper service, meaning that they’ll hand us a class in the vocational school for which we shall be completely responsible without supervision. Each semester, we perform “practical educational exercises” + we teach in vocational schools + we do internships (last semester, I did an internship in business accounting and one in civics); next semester it will be natural sciences. The work is quite different from the Seminary. One knows how to get along with the kids, even though they are not much younger than we are. Yes, little ones, life is beautiful, very beautiful. It is wonderful that summer is approaching, that I’ll refresh my colors as I float on the water in a canoe. In two years, the exam is smiling at us, until then I’ll be laughing along. One needs to grow an enormous, very thick hide , or else it’s the nerves that get it; with everything we have to do it’s hard to even begin to describe it: we do something in every department: law, political economy (trade, agricultural and social politics) science of education, chemistry, physics (heehee , the monster smiled).

Still and all, we are joyfully looking the future in the eye !
Fondly yours
Helga Ritter stud.phil.

(My handwriting has become even more trembled, as a result of the constant scribbling in university, one completely forgets how to trace the little bumps that are supposed to be letters)

Lüneburg 18 March 30
As a Happy Wife, I greet you all, my old Seminary classmates

Your, Ilse Holzgrebe
Vivat! Vivat! Vivat!
The grieving survivors

Harburg 23 April 1930

First of all, Helga deserves a compliment. If the rest of us were only half as punctual as she is, the book wouldn’t need a whole year to go around. Unfortunately, I cannot excuse myself from this sermon.

As noted elsewhere, I have been since October in Potsdam, live there with Grete, acquired the first year the title of Fachgewerbeoberschulunterkandidatin (1st degree candidate for Technical Vocational Upper School) (and now am graduating to Oberkandidatin, relinquishing the dignity of unterkandidatin to Käthe who in the meantime has passed her exam. During this Candidate-Year, we get pedagogical training; we teach (12 hours a week) we have classes in Pedagogy, Method and Political Economy. The test includes a long original paper; I would like to write one about an economics subject, further details still in the hands of the gods. I am a bit apprehensive about the summer. Still it’s all a transition— as are the holidays, unfortunately. These too have come to an end; I’m leaving in two hours.

I have singular news for you, because we are all so proud about it. Since last week my family has a new nephew. Unfortunately, all we have seen so far are photographs because my sister lives in Eisenach. Hopefully we can visit them on Whitsunday.

In the fall, you can start crossing fingers again; hopefully this will be the last exam.

Fond greetings to all of you.
Your Hildegard Schulze.
Harburg 23 April 30
Dear Hamburg Seminar!

Since my last epistle, exactly one year has passed, the Potsdam year. One could say all kinds of things about it. But it is hard to give a brief, weighty and to some extent understandable judgment of the events and experiences of this year. Carla has already indicated that not everything is “golden” in our “state institution” . During this year we have gained in years and human knowledge, and maybe a little in professional experience, perhaps at the cost of a great deal of enthusiasm for the profession and idealism, courage and self-confidence. Just imagine, one is absolutely NOT satisfied with our class, given all the prerequisite training, one is experiencing one disappointment after another and naturally one isn’t withholding the low opinion being expressed about our class. You can easily imagine that we aren’t exactly encouraged or cheered up by these (virtually across the board) meager results of our hard work. It is inexplicable to us that one entire class, pieced together out of x perfect seminaries, should achieve so little! Frankly, it makes one afraid of entering the profession.

For the time being, I am enjoying my Easter holidays and my new dignity as an aunt, even though I have less right to be proud of that than of some school achievement. Muschi, the experienced aunt, will no doubt smile about my childish aunt’s pride.

When I return to Potsdam, we will be looking forward to the summer, which is particularly beautiful there. Hopefully, we shall have time to enjoy it. On May 25th you can all think of the Hamburg Branch in Potsdam: on that day, Fraulein Rudtke (!) will perhaps come and visit us from Berlin, where she will be attending a conference, and we will have ourselves a “Hamburg Day”. That would be nice, wouldn’t it?

Let me wish all of you much success and joy in the coming summer. With fond greetings
Yours truly, Grete Schulze.

Soltau 26 April 30
Dear Little People!

At last! I had completely given up on ever seeing the book again. And having started the new school year, as always with the best resolutions (the holidays are barely over!), this letter too will be written according to prescription.

Unlike the Potsdorf Candidates, to whom I submit my most humble and heartfelt compliments, I have not yet become a Handarbeitoberschul-unterturnlehrerin” (handwork college(lower)(under)gymnastics teacher)
however I still work here with the same enthusiasm in the heart of the moor.
To my great consternation, Herr Director has ordered me to also teach house economics, starting now. Else, Else, how shall you do it! I can barely remember anything. Hopefully, my weak mind will receive a sudden illumination at the required moment. Besides school, I spend a lot of time swimming these days, and I have earned the unpaid honor of being the Overseer of the “Ladies Section” and to prepare a District Sports Fest for this summer. Oh yes! all the things one gets to do in a small village on the heath. As for me, miserable individual that I am, I am counting the weeks till the next vacation, only six weeks to go! This is when I have the pleasure of taking 20 kids to the V.d.A. Congress in Salzburg.
(But that’s not all!) After that, we’ll tour Innsbruck, the Zug Peak, Partenkirchen, Oberammergau, Munich. I bet your spit dries off with envy! Muschi, you have already done that tour, no? Such a sunny youth!
I wish you over-and under-candidates and stud.phil. could send me some inspiration for the report I am supposed to write, out of your bounty of scientific lectures. The report is due in 10 days, if not ready the Director will kill me. These things, it seems, are necessary in order to attest our learned labors and make us eligible for the Second Degree Teaching Certificate. Which means sitting down for half a year and reporting about the problems of one’s line of work. My mind mostly shuts off from fearful respect. Now, don’t take it badly. You have no choice. I have read and reread your reports with pleasure and only wish we could meet again soon and it might be rewarding. For writing is only the half of it. Ilse, I take it, is the only one that did the “side-activity” of getting married, all the others are consecrated to their profession!? Careful Else!!!(others)

As ever your ‘technical’ teacher
Else Sporleder.
(My handwriting gets more beautiful all the time; I’m clearly getting older)

Weferlingen 9 May 30
Dear old Class!

I have taken great pleasure in reading all your reports, and you are doing well; so here it is my turn, having managed to remain here in the province of Saxony “be-crocheting”, “be-knitting” “be-gymnasing” and recently “be-cooking” children. Since last October I’ve been teaching home economics in the first class of the Volksschule, and it gives me more and more pleasure, even though I started out with very mixed feelings—thank God! one keeps learning, and one becomes more secure and less nervous in one’s work. On top of that I also teach orthopedic gymnastics—this leaves me with a few afternoons free, which I fill assiduously with Tennis and Bicycling! From my bachelorette room I have a wonderful view onto the woods – it is hard to remain indoors these days, early each morning I go with the children to the playing field— The Gym is far from ideal— but it is better than no gym at all, as Muschi knows, right? Else and I swap experiences every vacation (when necessary, we console each other for our failures) and we miss you in our circle of ‘technicals’. And then of course there are the two Hamburg ones.

I also am the director of a Women’s Sports Club- what a difference it makes to work with children or adults, I sometimes get into a real sweat! – I will stop here for today, and wish all of you my loved ones many good things and much joy.
Your Elfriede Benecke.

Harburg 8 September 1930
Dear Seminar Class!

My conscience is black as a raven, whenever I look at the date of Elfriede’s report. There is however a good reason for the book staying so long with me. When I received it, I resolved to wait until I had passed my Second Examination. Better keep my nose to the grindstone! (the books).

The Testing Commission came and then it didn’t — I had counted on it firmly sometime between Whitsun and Summer— after all, I had handed in my Big written composition and my application by February 15th.

And so, I went into the vacation with a heavy heart. But now at last, it has happened! on the 29th of August, I passed with honors, hurrah! The first few days after it I was almost delirious with happy relief. The waiting had been truly awful. Of course it all went well and was not, in retrospect, worth all my anxiety. Please take note, all of you who still have exams ahead of you! I am reading that Carla and Hilde are in for it. So now, within the next 2 and a half years I can get a firm appointment.

Now that the School Swim with Final Performance, the School Relay Swim and the Reich Youth Sports Competitions are all finished, I will at last have some peace of mind and free time for myself, to play the piano, go for walks etc.

Besides, I forgot to tell you that as of Easter, I have a post here in Harburg, at the Girls’ Volksschule. I am happy to be here, have already worked my way into it, and am happy and thankful about the great advantages of this position, over the one in Wilhelmsburg: most noticeably: a gym (new, no less) and only 10-15 minutes walk to work. The classes have 35-40 children, which is rather big. But I am just happy to be allowed to practice so soon after the exam.

This year, in July, I went to the Tyrol (Otztal, Achensee) I cannot describe the beauty I was able to experience in this magnificent nature. It is magic! You have to go there yourselves as soon as you can and hike, hike and look as much as your eyes can possibly absorb!

I wonder whether we will meet this year at Christmas. I hope so otherwise I fear we might become strangers to each other.

Fond greetings
Your Gertrud Beyer.

Harburg 13 October ’30
Dear Phantoms!

This beloved book has been here long enough. I imagine that in time, I will improve with age. I am tremendously happy that you all should be doing so well, and envy those who don’t have to take any more exams. Hilde, Grete, Annemarie and Carla just took one for a change. And Muschi is absolutely right in saying that in the end it is absolutely not worth all the anxiety and nervousness. But I guess there are people who have a special talent to drive themselves and others wild and I am afraid that these kinds of people seem to be over-represented in our old school. Don’t take this badly please!

I have yet to absorb completely that I am about to return to Potsdorf. The holidays were rich in work and stimulating. I ransacked libraries, world economy archives, employer and employee associations, periodicals, etc. accumulating references for my work. O children, one stands in front of the matter, like the ox before the mountain, and one has absolutely no idea of the height of it, and in the course of winter one will have so little time to deal with the materials as intensively as one needs to. Scientific research! let me laugh! not a trace of science here! It’s just a splash at the surface—a wrestling with expression!

And so, in this mood
(and with little time to spare before I must leave)
In great haste,
Your Käthe Brandes.

Heidehof 26 November 30
Dear Comrades!

When the book arrived here in late October, I was too tense to be able to write anything reasonable. Now, I have been for some time in Heidehof near Lübeck as Educator Director of Kitchen and Housekeeping. Yes, yes you heard right! I left Wandsbeck on April 1, because they got rid of 20 teachers, and could not then have dreamt any of this. Quite accidentally, I found an interim position in the kitchen of a children’s home. I liked it enormously, and against all expectations, I found it very easy to get along with the girls, so that by the end of my substitute appointment, I looked for a similar position.

I also spent eight weeks in the Hamburg orphanage, where I did a substitution running the kitchen, the house and the warehouse– strictly from a business point of view– In November I then got this position as Economics educator at the Heidenhof in Blankensee/Lübeck . By now, I have adjusted and things are running pretty smoothly. The girls are foster children, who almost all have some kind of emotional defect. A few of the girls are so fresh, unashamed and rebellious that one has to handle them quite severely. Many others come from abominable family situations yet are easy to direct. Generally speaking the interactions are difficult and take enormous amounts of patience and love. After the girls have stabilized for a while, they are placed by the Lübeck Youth Services.

At first, I quarreled with my kitchen group – 8 girls– every day and for long periods of time, they stole and ate on the sly and were totally unreliable in their work. Sometimes I climbed into bed completely discouraged, wondering what they would come up with the next day. Scolding has no point and makes them only more stubborn; one has to talk to them reasonably and not hesitate to punish. I have an intern helping me, whom I couldn’t do without. I must say however that I like it better in this kind of work than in a regular school. Reading your letters, I get the impression that you have remained on your original path. You also all seem to be doing as well as when we last met. At some point or other, I will have to pass some exam, God knows I pitied those who had to take them, when I had time on my hands. But these days, working from 6:30 till 9:30 I hardy have any, especially since one must still prepare some lessons at the end of the day. Thank God!, I can get some things done with my girls; they do listen to me at least.

I notice with some horror that my letter has turned into a big tangle –there was cabbage for lunch etc.– I could go on. It really would be very nice if we could meet again, so I solemnly invite you all to visit me the Sunday after Christmas, here at the Heidenhof near Blankensee. I hope that one or the other will read this book long enough before Christmas to help pass around the word. There is a big racket the kitchen again, I better run over there to investigate.
Therefore Tschuss.

Best greetings
Your Dora Duker.

Hamburg 12 December 30
Dear Class!
I have read your reports with great interest and have noticed that many a one has lost some good part of her enthusiasm. Is it surprising with all the ambient brawling? I pity Dora with all my soul, having to deal with uneducable girls.

I am still in my earlier school. I teach in the lower school: a squirming mass of 50 children for gymnastics. Only for handwork in the older classes do we have two teachers in charge. Actually, I had one 4th class of 40 very lively children that I taught all by myself. You can imagine that it wasn’t easy. The minute I entered the room, 10 hands would go up, and I didn’t know where to begin. Now I have been authorized to divide the classes. This makes things much easier, because now, I can pay attention to each student during the short time I have with them. I will not be a teacher much longer, having decided to devote myself to the most natural thing: I am thinking of getting engaged with my cousin on Christmas Day; who‘s next?

Merry Christmas to all!
Your Gertrud Frischgesell

Hbg. 17 December 30
Dear Good Souls,

I take the pen with the wish that this scribbling may at least be legible. It can hardly be called writing.

Considering Frischgesell’s Christmas plans, all I can say is: oh poor us! When o when will the most natural profession bloom for us also? Far from me, idle thought! I will attempt to speak about my conflicts without succumbing to the usual anger. I broke loose from the “small school-assistant service”; the work was not easy, all psychopaths ( I ask for pity too!) which I really didn’t need. During the summer vacation, the “big school-assistant” position appeared at the Uferstrasse, one of the most beautiful, most modern vocational schools in Hamburg. The work gave me pleasure; (although) I had to swallow the awful pill that Theory and Praxis turn their backs on each other. In the university they talk about the community of mind with the enemy (?); in the schools, it all goes under the table; oh! but please pay attention to the learner’s personalities. Anger is rising, I better remain silent. Of one thing I have become sure: either one is born to win the brats’ minds right away, without needing to mouth methodical platitudes, or else one is never successful at it. By some fluke I must have belonged to the former category, for when I left, they came to me with bouquets, which for children of the Barmbek Intermediary School, is quite a lot. Sporleder, I had to deal with the stupid report writing also; they are a cause of depression and all one learns is how to produce twaddle.

In one year I’ll be taking the exam; I wish I could build an annex to my brain; there are terrifying quantities of stuff! If only people could be really clear as to what they want! Now, they’ve fallen upon us suddenly with a ‘Vocational Institute’ ; and aren’t we lucky we now have 40 hours a week; practice is the main thing; and by the way, Rudtke has also got a Teaching position in the Vocational Institute. We are stuck with her again, right now we are painting and baking thick trumpets, Christmasmen and Eggwomen. And we have her for two practice sessions. And so it goes. We belong to the nomadic profession, for we can be found everywhere in Hamburg; with our usual good luck we ended with the pigs, meaning we got to hear some veterinary lecture at the slaughterhouse. The dying agony of the poor things is enough to pierce one’s Mark and Penny (pun on: something distressing pierces “my marrow (Mark) and Bone (Knochen)” ). We are turning into big bags of nerves held together by bones; dear hide where did you disappear? The one thing I have preserved is my humor; believe me, children, I’m still the same crazy nut and I feel a deep longing to be back with you, acting totally silly! The years in the Seminary were damn nice (verflucht schoen); I have never again been as carefree as back then; especially these days, with the grey specter crouching in the corner, sharpening its false teeth (allusion to the political situation).

Good God, Grete, you are so right when you say that our self-confidence has received some hard knocks.

Vacation starts on Saturday, filled to the gills with some big practice assignment; but I don’t care, I look forward to Christmas!

Wishing you all the same joy
Your Helga Ritter, stud.rer.pol.
(stud.rer.pol. I made this up to refer to Political Economy, my favorite subject; stud.phil. gives me a bellyache with the constant horrible methods and formalities etc.!)

Lüneburg 7 January 31
Dear Old Seminar Class!

Our dear book arrived to me a Christmas greeting. What a nice surprise, I was eager to read everything in it. But next time, dear Helga really should make an effort to write more distinctly. What use is it to us for her to write all these interesting things if we can’t make out her handwriting? Congratulations to everyone who passed yet one more exam. Hopefully they will soon find a position. Thank God I no longer have to worry about exams, but have plenty to do.

I am now a Teaching-Master, with 2 apprentices learning tree grafting from me. It gives a lot of pleasure to teach human children something. My profession is in any case very interesting and full of variety. I find it wonderful as a wife to be my husband’s professional collaborator. Aside from that, my husband and I have a very nice time together in the household also. Our private apartment is very close to our horticulture business. In the summer, it is quite lovely there with a view on the grounds of the spa. Maybe some summer you could all come and visit beautiful Lüneburg. Last Sunday Else and Elfriede came by; it was wonderful trading memories.

I wish you much happiness for the year 1931
Your Ilse Holzgrebe

Potsdam 11 January 31
You dear Hamburgers all!

This time the book came surprisingly early; the by now usual year’s pause is not over yet. If it were, I might be able to tell you better things. We are still sitting in the pressure cooker, and filled with anxiety about “our end”; but since we have just resolved to stop singing dirges which don’t make life easier anyway, I will keep it short. We (meaning Carla, Annemarie and I, who are preparing for the Spring session of the “scientific vocational school teacher” exam in Berlin) feel like Helga; her wish to build an annex to her brain is quite understandable, even though I’d prefer to “remodel” , i.e., to make an intelligent brain out of a stupid one. We all agree that we are getting systematically dumber all the time. And this agreement is the one consolation in our pain. It is about time for the endless war of nerves to stop, so that we can at long last try concretely how it all works out and to gradually do it as part of a profession. – By itself, life and learning in Berlin is wonderful. I doubt we’ll ever be in another city so interesting. At first though, I really hated this city, in which one encounters so much that is ugly, gloomy and repellent. But I gradually got used to it and learnt to look away from it, and focus instead on the interesting and stimulating things that one encounters at every step. In many ways, Berlin is superior to other big cities – even our beloved Hamburg– in so far as it offers more of everything (libraries, shops theaters, lectures etc. etc. ) One has the widest conceivable opportunities to make use of all that at reasonable prices. I’d rather not ponder too long that one doesn’t have enough time to really give oneself to it.

I am wondering whether you heard from us since our practical exam in September, and I realize that Annemarie and Carla were forgotten in the last round of letter-writing. Frischgesell, why didn’t you keep the right order? Confess!!

We still need to tell you from a unique practice teaching which we did in the North! of Berlin at the Women Workers’ School in Wedding. Great country! I can tell you.
And so I conclude my epistle.
Fond greetings to all
Your Grete Schulze.

Berlin 28 March 31
My dear Hamburg Class!

Carla, Gewerbeoberlehrerin für Hauswirtschaftliche Berufsschulen” (Upper-echelon-vocational-teacher for Home Economics Vocational Schools) introduces herself. My bags are packed, and here ends another stage of my path through life (lit. Werdegang = path of becoming). Annemarie and Grete Schulze took the exam with me; Käthe also has now finished in Potsdam. Actually , Grete, Käthe and I will return to Potsdam to take another course– job offerings are scarce; one has to learn more. We are looking forward to the summer in Potsdam.– A few days ago, I rented myself a nice room, the fourth in Potsdam so far.– Not much to report about last term. Grete wrote to you about our life. For Easter, we each sat buried in our particular books, only to establish once again that we really don’t need much of it. –

Time to go home for Easter.
Fond greetings
Carla von Lauenstein

Hamburg 10 April 1931
Dear old comrades,

What shall I write to you? In two hours, we are going to meet on the Class Day at Hilde and Grete’s house. There we’ll be able to sit back and quietly tell each other about all our worries and needs and evil deeds. Only too bad that Dora, Gertrud and Else can’t be there. So my particular greetings to the three of you.

May all go well with you and meanwhile think of the poor Gewerbeoberlehrerin
Annemarie L.

Hamburg-Langenhorn 30 June 31
So, my dear little people,

enough time elapsed since our class-day. Too bad that so few of you could come, especially that Lüneburg completely went missing. Too bad.

Shall I add to my last scribble? In the meantime I too am a fully accredited Gewerbelehrerin, have been practicing my art for the winter term at the Professional School in Harburg, then was unemployed from Easter to Pentecost and now as you can see from the heading, am in Langenhorn at the Housekeeping Home “Birkenhof” as a summer replacement. What do you think of that Annemarie? Actually you were supposed to have that job. I was astonished when I heard it. The world is too small. So I’ve been here 3 weeks, but have learnt and experienced a whole lot of things already. Just think, first they sent me to the kitchen, where 4 students had to prepare meals for all inmates. For practical purposes I have not held a cookpot in my hands since 1927, and all of a sudden I was teaching it! I stumbled around in the dark and had to get used to the great quantities. It is not that big a business: only 30 people. But enough for “beginners”. Still, I had fun doing a Cooking Practicum. – Now I am in the Sewing Room and have the students make all kinds of beautiful things. The students are for the most part feeble children who need to succeed at something, sent to us by the Hamburg Youth Services. Dora is most familiar with life in this kind of Home with its special challenges and joys. There is no question that the constant interaction with the girls is more stressful than teaching; on the other hand, dealing with much smaller numbers is a compensation. And there are many beautiful hours to be had together. The Birkenhof is very beautifully situated, with a big garden and playing field. We are often outdoors, love to play Voelkerball the most .I’ll be here till early September, after which something will be found, I hope. Time passes much, much faster than it used to. I guess it is a result of getting older. And I can think of many. many more things to catch up with, to read, to learn, to see etc. And I guess this too is an effect of age, and that ‘s the nice thing about aging. Blah, blah, blah!

Fond greetings to all of you
Your Hildegard Schulze

Hamburg Class Day
Dear Hamburg Class!

I have the duty to report to the absents and to transmit our fond greetings. Present were : the Schulzes, Käthe, Annemarie, Ilse Holzgrebe, Elfriedchen and I. It was very cozy ; we only regretted that you weren’t all here. instead, we read your greetings out loud. Muschi, it is hard to say strongly enough how much we liked your long, long letter. It arrived punctually at 8 in the morning. Best wishes of happiness from us for your wedding! we all agreed that you had made the best decision. These are the kinds of situations where hesitation makes one wish later one had taken a step. Elfriedchen and I are temporarily in our old places, for how long?? we both passed our exams, with honors, like you, Muschi! Aside from that, everything continues on its old tracks: we work out in sports clubs outside of school, we work with young people etc. this is probably the same with Dora, right? Many of us technical teachers are no longer in the running. Gertrud Frischgesell isn’t: she got married in the summer and is now Gertrud Martens. Best wishes of happiness, Gertrud. How about sending us a picture of the happy couple? Ilse Holzgrebe has agreed to do so already. We have decided anyway that for the next Class Day, everyone should bring their husband.

Now to the “professionals”. Carla has a position in Nordholz near Cuxhaven at a Red Cross Children’s Home. I think you are having it hard , little Carla! No Christmas and no New Year! Annemarie is at the Vocational School in Wandsbek. She still is the same old Annemarie, as slim as ever. As for the rest of us they are — unemployed. Resting on their laurels, they are, but have all agreed to be interrupted in their cooking if their tailoring talents can be employed in making wedding dresses . And you , Helga, you silent , faithless tomato , pay attention! There was some talk about action needing to be taken . They say “ it is easy to sleep in the harbor”. Supposedly you didn’t come because “he” is the harbor . You still have exams to do ? Poor beast ! Break a leg , dear Helga ! Whether we all shall be spared the awful new regulations , I wonder… Which of you still has her long hair ? On Class day , Grete and I were the only ones that still looked so prim . Everyone else appeared without. Even Hilde , who was always against cutting one’s hair !
I felt really weird.

So dear ones, a Happy New Year ! May you find a job, or a husband , whichever you prefer!
Please send the book around to the ones that were not in Lüneburg, i.e., Muschi , Gertrud Martens , Dora Duker , Helga Ritter , Carla . Then revert to the usual order .

Fond greetings.
Your Else Sporleder.

Volume II

Kassel 20 March 1932
My dear old Seminar Class!

The Gertrud Beyer who wrote to you last time around has now become a very happy Frau Gertrud Merzin. I will tell you everything about the wedding and about my wholly new life. I would have loved to be able to tell you this face to face at our Class Day on Christmas or Easter. I am especially disappointed that in the latter was postponed till after Easter making it impossible for me to attend since I had ended up visiting in Harburg a good 2 weeks— that was really, really too bad! I had so looked forward to it. —

Since my last writing, I had continued to teach, very happily so, until October 1931. Then we got married, having officially gotten engaged in April, although we had really been engaged for almost 4 years. In the end, I chose the right time to leave teaching, since it is probable that I would have been fired or would in any case have lost my good position in the cutbacks. Still, it was hard to leave. I had been particularly happy at the last school. The children write to me quite often: I am sending along a little sample. While I was there, I visited my old school and was greeted by a big hullabaloo!

After all the unrest of the times, our wedding was quite wonderful. The pictures came out quite well and are a sweet memento of it. If anyone visits me, she’ll get to see them all. Please remember to visit me when you come to Kassel! But please make sure that we still are there, just in case we have been transferred elsewhere. And if you do come, let me know ahead of time! Please don’t forget!

The wedding ceremony was performed by my father-in-law, who is a member of the Consistory in Kassel. It was a really beautiful ceremony. My piano teacher had taken care of the musical offerings, and my students sang a chorale. My little niece Inge and little Hans were very cute, scattering flower petals. Our radiant faces on the picture should make clear how beautiful its was. When the car left, we finally got a joyful Good Bye from all my waving students. — The intimate family gathering took place at home. And we took a brief but very nice honeymoon trip in golden sunlight, in the autumn-colored Harz Mountains. And now it is almost 6 months that we have been living in our small, furnished apartment whose owner has gone away for a 9-month trip That means we are living completely on our own, which is particularly pleasant in the kitchen. Except for our wonderful Ibach grand piano, which I play assiduously, and our radio with which we can hear Frankfurt, everything in the apartment belongs to our landlady, who has allowed us to use it all. For the time being, we cannot use our own furniture, which we had to put into storage. It would be too costly to move it. These days, young Court Assessors get transferred often, and (my husband) might even lose his job altogether. Let’s hope not! There is no lack of things to do. That includes me, since I have to keep our apartment clean (2 living rooms, bedroom and kitchen) and do the cooking, which after the first daunting weeks is going quite well, plus laundry, fire-making etc. But it will be Spring soon, and things will become a bit easier, anyway once the sun shines, everything gets easier.

So I’ll end here, wishing all of you the realization of your wishes, whether it be a job, or anything better you can think of; whatever it may be, I wish it for you, from the bottom of my heart. May all go well with you! I will be delighted to hear news from you.
Your Gertrud Merzin

May in the Saxony Woods
Dear Class!

As Else already told you, I too have been married since June, photograph included to prove it. Unfortunately, the camera moved, so I have a rather long nose and a double row of teeth, but I’m sure you still remember me enough to know that I’m not really as ‘biting’ as I look. I love being a housewife. You can’t believe how royal it feels to be the mistress of my household after the agitation of schoolwork. I don’t have that much to do, since we have a small apartment. We live at my parents’ place in rural isolation right on the edge of the Saxony woods; the two rooms and kitchen upstairs are our domain. When I look out my kitchen window, I see a beautiful romantic image, the dark pinewoods silhouetted in black against the lavender sunset. — While I clean my house, my husband is in Hamburg keeping children in line, and he comes home late in the afternoon, so I spend most of the day alone. Since I now have a lot of time, and feel a little lonely, I have devoted myself to the piano, and attend the Hamburg Conservatory twice a week. I have to work very hard for these lessons. At the moment, I am studying Chopin’s Waltzes, Polonaises and Preludes. We wish we could have a small living-room grand. When, oh when will this fondest wish of mine be realized? How lucky you are, Muschi!

We are thinking of taking a small trip next summer with our Hanomag , and intend to visit Lüneburg. Often in the evening, I find myself standing on the Geestharcher Hills– which we can reach in a 20 minute bicycle ride, and looking at the outstretched moors, especially the Lüneburg Moor. Have your ears been ringing in Lüneburg?

All right, you dear Lune-and Ham-burger ones, fond greetings
Your Gertrud Martens

22 August 1932
Dear All!

When I finally held this book in my hands and read my own last letter, I had to laugh. How much there lies between that letter and the present time! How much worrying and hoping and desiring since I was in Heidehof! After half a year in Heidehof, I literally collapsed from physical and emotional exhaustion. Aside from all the hard work, I was having some very difficult psychological problems, and I just keeled over. After a long time, I was able to start thinking of a job again, and just as I had gotten used to that, I burnt my foot, and came down with blood-poisoning. Now everything is healed, but I have a big scar to remind me of former splendor. And now, I am once again on the quest for work. Of course as you know, weeds are hard to kill, and so I expect to be back in the saddle soon. Cross your fingers for me. Meanwhile, I have a lot of time to work at my Psychology again: working my way through Pfister’s works , having more or less digested Adler. After that, it will be Freud’s turn, since I really don’t know much about his work.
Fond greetings,
Your re-invigorated Dora D.

Hamburg 16 December 1932
Dear Old Class,

I’ll try to write “in German,” for the groaning about my handwriting has stung me. I received this book when I was in the middle of my big paper; you all know the kinds of depression that brings up. Mid-October I passed my exam and came out with the title of Teaching-Assistant. It was a horrible time; my weight plummeted down to 102 pounds; I won’t even mention my nerves. Anyway, let’s forget about it. After 8 long years of study, we are now looking at the delightfully attractive prospect of “Voluntary Work Service” at 1 RM a day, not including travel costs etc. This really takes the cake!! So this is the first important thing I wanted to tell you.

Second item, Else thought she had heard a rumor about my getting married; well the rumor is true, I got engaged on the 6th of November. We expect to get married in May of this year. When that’s done, I too shall include my photograph into the book. This way you’ll be able to take a look at the Gerhard married couple. Hopefully, I won’t move for the photo the way Gertrud did; I’m afraid I have not become much calmer over the past year. I am sincerely happy to be spared the unpleasantness of the Voluntary Work Service, because I have a lot of things to do before May comes around. Time passes so quickly. In a few months we’ll have to start looking for a house, it’s going to be a difficult search; hopefully the rents will come down. But I don’t want to complain. These worries are really pretty bearable, if not precisely attractive. My days are filled from dawn to dusk, even though my fiancé is not around much. Right now, my mother is away on a trip, so I get to practice being on my own, and it’s not going to be an eternity till May.
So kids, time to close; I wish all of you a beautiful Christmas and much joy in the year ahead.

Helga Ritter

Hamburg 8 March 33
Dear old Hamburg comrades!

What a surprise to hold the book in my hands again this week. Helga, you had probably not realized what a great birthday present you were giving me! This time around I celebrated it all by myself, since all my siblings have left home, and my mother is away on a trip. Being unemployed and not having much to do, I was able to devote my whole time to each of your entries. It is a very powerful feeling to be looking at the anxieties of the ones that are still in the midst of exams; and then there is the often disappointing report from work, followed by the cheering of a happy newly married couple, etc. All my wishes for happiness to all the ones who have in the meantime gotten engaged or married, and to all the first babies that are on the way. I strongly suggest that husbands should be invited to attend the next Class Day. And congratulations to Helga who gets to be the first one to hear this news thanks to the book.

You probably want to hear a few things from me. No need to go much very far, the epistles seem to be getting shorter over time, and I notice that it is almost two years since I last wrote in here, when I was still a half-baked professional teacher. Together with a few others, I remained in Potsdam for another half year. The past half year was thoroughly enjoyable; there was a lot of variety, many trips (Hiddensee – Rugen), that (as Käthe knows) was our big experience, (Dresden, Saxony Alps) and the writing of the final big paper gave a lot of pleasure also. Together with very interesting work, we had a lot of free time. My last exam was at the end of September (I hope never to have to take another one) and was lucky enough to start on a job by the 1st of October. I was hired as the first Handwork Teacher in a Home Economics school: until now they had been run by Youth Leaders, but in order to qualify for a State subsidy they needed to be certified by the government, which required their having a regular vocational teacher. The students came from the Elementary and Middle School but also from the Lizeum. I had a group of young Saxons, all of whom had been sent by the owner of a mine at this own expense… My colleague who was a (trained) Youth-Leader leader had a mixed batch. All in all, we each had around 36-42 students. The numbers changed after Easter. The Home Economics school was attached to a Children’s Home. In the winter, they had approximately 125 children and as many as 600 in summer. The students did various jobs in the children’s home and the Youth Leader and I were responsible for the organization and assignments of the children and for balancing practical and theoretical teaching. As far as the practical running of the home was concerned, we also had the help of some employees.

By now, most of you know that it is not always fun in those homes. There were constant problems with the Youth Leaders, the employees, and disciplinary problems with the students. On top of that, we had to deal with male and female Arbeitsdienst Volunteers. Not surprisingly, we made a lot of beginners’ mistakes. One landmark was the first time I had to administer an examination. It went a lot better the second time. Summer was markedly nicer than winter. — The mudflats of the Baltic Sea, Cuxhaven, a boat trip to Helgoland with the whole group, a visit of the “Europa ” in the Wesermunde harbor made for some change. – I learnt a great deal there that I could never have learnt in any school.

Since November of last year, I have been unemployed. — People have pitied me, but to tell you the truth I don’t feel I need to be pitied, it has in fact been a very enjoyable time. Until January, I shared my sister’s student-room in Berlin, and I explored Berlin at leisure: museums, lectures, conferences, stores, theatres, and movies. I did everything in the cheapest way possible to make my savings last longer. And when those ran out, I allowed myself to be invited places. For the last three weeks, I have been in Hamburg. This means I shall be able to hand-carry the book to Annemarie. We don’t live very far from each other, and have already spent a lot of time together.

Starting on the 1st of April, I will be interning at the Lüneburg Frauenschule, because quite frankly I no longer believe that there is another job. After the things I have heard and seen, I am not at all attracted by the FAD (Frier Arbeits Dienst) since it is completely under political influence. How many enthusiastic Nazis are there among you? Who knows, maybe the new government will give us something to do?!

I would have liked to paste in a picture or two or a few letters from my students, but I don’t have anything right here that seems to fit. I can’t really put in my birthday greetings or the handkerchiefs they embroidered for me: that would be too bad: my last group sent me a little with a handkerchief-holder containing lovely embroidered handkerchiefs from each of six students, and each had added a note.

One business-note: the book seems to be coming to an end. When it is full, why don’t you send it to me! I will procure a new one. I think we all want to continue this connection, even if we live further apart and our letters are separated by longer gaps.

Greetings to all,
Your Carla v. Lauenstein

Easter Saturday 1933
Tuesday, 18 April ‘33

Dear Little People!

I had started writing the date, when the doorbell rang, and it was my darling visitor. — Now it is Tuesday. Between the two, there lies a big watershed: on Sunday, we were engaged, which meant opening our secret to the feared public. –

So, that was the introduction. I will now try and describe briefly my activities from 1931 to 1933. The last time I had the book was in 1931. You slowpokes should be ashamed of yourselves! We better mend our ways!!– Anyway, back in 1931, I was still riding high. Although things were getting pretty bad for those of us interested in teaching positions, I had the good luck of being able to teach throughout those two years. Granted, they were unpaid positions, but still it was something. At least I was spared the Arbeitsdienst. Lutten, Grete, Hilde on the other hand, oh my! you poor girls, how you slaved away! All I had to do was do my hours, and play the baroness afterwards. The income was the same.

Teaching was the source of much distress, and in the last quarter, it finally became the source of much joy. At first I was teaching 16-18 year olds, whose naughtiness caused me a lot of grief. I was at the end of my rope. Then I got classes teaching 18-25 year olds. That was great. A few words, a joke, and the girls obeyed and were even thankful that in this time of unemployment they were allowed to learn things. I taught tailoring and cooking/housekeeping to factory forewomen and maids. It was interesting how differently the two groups approached the materials that were being offered, and also how the two groups fought each other. I often had to mediate between them.

What I taught them was simple, ordinary cooking. No theory, no modern fuss!

Using that stuff my first year teaching had ended in total shipwreck. It went much better using the old methods. No crafted linens, no clothes in the Potsdam style . I was happy just to see a straight seam. Anyway, that style was completely adverse to them. Not that I could have convinced them otherwise, since I can’t say I like it much myself.–

Looking over the last two years, I can say that, despite all the annoyance and small moments of despair, they gave me a lot of pleasure. I have learnt more about the profession, of use for the profession itself and for life in general, than I had learnt in my seven years of training. I will happily give up teaching, but am glad that I did spend some time in the profession.

I will keep teaching till May; in June, we are getting married. We shall spend one more year in Hamburg, then go over (to America).

One more request, please hurry up and write in the book. I would love to see something of the book again before I cross the Atlantic. Please ?!!

Fond greetings to all of you from
your Annemarie L. and
Francis William Gerhart

Lüneburg, 24 May 1933
Dear All,

The first and last thing I want to tell you is how delighted I am with our small child. It was born on Easter Day, a sweet, healthy little girl. She says hello to all of you. My little Carita (we call her Rita) looks into the sunny world with her radiant eyes. We shall soon baptize her. Oh, it is wonderful. I could spend hours telling you about the little doll. Everyday she looks at me more lovingly and she has already started kicking her little legs quite vigorously. My Luten is a loving father and it is delightful to watch him with the child. Right now, she is in the garden; I can watch her from the window. Afternoons, I put the pram out in the nursery gardens and her father watches her while I go to town. I recovered very quickly; actually, it was all quite easy.

And now, my best wishes to all those who got engaged. Hurry up now so that at our next Class Day, you can bring your husbands, and maybe even a child or two. My little Rita will soon be available as a flower girl at weddings. My time is over, time to bathe the baby. – and nurse her also. I have a lot to do.–

Be well, and receive my fond greetings.
Your Ilse Holzgreber.

Eldenberg b. Waren (Mecklenburg)
13 October 1933
Dear All!

In a few hours, I shall be leaving Eldenburg where I spent one year and Grete one and a half-year. As we were packing to leave, the book suddenly appeared. We have behind us a beautiful time, rich in work. From October to the end of June, the house was used for the Arbeitsdienst. Many of you, I’m sure, have heard a little about it, or maybe even done it. During the winter, we were working for the Winter-Relief; afterwards, with an average of 40 girls here, we were combined with a men’s work-camp clearing land. It was nice for Grete and me to be together again. At the end of the Arbeitsdienst, the house became a convalescence home again, which is what it had been previously. We got to stay and help the housekeeper. Unfortunately, this is over too. – The landscape here is wonderful, and we just returned from one last good-bye walk. –

You know I think we should have another Class Day soon. The gaps between the written reports are getting frightfully long. When we are back in Harburg, we shall try to get a meeting on the tracks.

Fond greetings
Your Grete and Hilde Schulze.

Soltau, 5 November 33
Dear all of you!

At last, a little quiet time for writing! In this life, this is a rarity. At least for a “Technical” teacher in this land of pagans.– I am still here and navigate between school, gym and my apartment, mostly rushing, sometimes a little slower. Last summer stood under the sign of Stuttgart. All the work and effort to prepare for it were well worth it. The Sports-Fest was a real experience, crowned by the fact that the Soltau group had the good luck of performing in the 12th row away from Hitler. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find ourselves in the Film. For the time being, I am looking forward to a 14-day session at the Charlottenburg Art School and that’s during the school year!

Here’s to you, dear brides. My fondest wishes of happiness!! It was a wonderful surprise to have so many happy news in the book. That’s a little better than the unending reports about hard work and exam-anxiety. And in case you have married in the meantime, Heil and Sieg! (Health and Victory) And you Ilse, happy mother! Compared to you we are just little orphans. So, you bachelor-girls, get to it!

In this spirit, much happiness to all!
Your Else Sporleder

In the spirit of economy, we are stopping here so that Friedchen can write and the book will last until it gets back to Carla!

Weferlingen (Province of Saxony) January 1934
Dear All!

Obedient girl that I am, I am starting on the same page, the book is really coming to an end, and already there is so much in it, and this time especially, so much that is new and happy! My best wishes to the engaged and married people, there might be a few more by now? Ilse, I will come and look at your little Rita when I am in Lüneburg for Easter. – As you can see, I am still in provincial Saxony, please don’t forget to visit me, if any of you comes to Magdeburg or Braunschweig, no? Once you are there, I’m right around the corner and you will love this little nest, especially in the summer! And we have a lot of room, since I now have a whole floor. My mother has moved in with me, and we rejoice every day at being together, even though it was hard to leave Lüneburg, – There is more than enough work, as always. At the school, we are getting ready for a parents’ evening, in which we are supposed to give all kinds of ‘information’, which the “technicals” get to research; there is the sometimes exhausting sports in the Turnverein and more recently in the women’s team, but it is fun and that is the main thing that counts. A Sunday spent skiing in the Harz is really refreshing and invigorating. – Carla and Ilse can you guess whom I visited recently in Magdeburg? Hilde Schauer.She keeps house for her father who teaches music at the Gymnasium there. I am sure we will see more of each other. – Time to stop, or else Frau Gertrud Merzin will complain that Elfried used up too much space! I hope you all started the year well, and it will bring us all that we hope!
Heil Hitler!

Fondly
Your Elfriede Benecke.

27 January 1934
Dear old class! And to you dear Annemarie,
to you particularly much happiness “over the ocean”

This time there really was a lot of news, and happy news to boot; what a pleasure to read it! I had no idea about Annemarie and Ilse’s news, special congratulations to both of you, you all must send in many more pictures, to give us a better idea, for future class days will be increasingly hard to arrange. It’s all the better that we have this letter. It’s been two years since I last had it. Meanwhile, we moved to Berlin, after spending a nice time in Kassel (always in the same apartment, although shared with the landlady, with whom we got along famously), and it felt hard to say goodbye, especially to the beautiful nature there. Meanwhile – we got here on the 15th of October– we have completely adjusted here, feel at ease, and are even much, much happier than in Kassel, because now we have our own apartment with our own furniture, which had been in storage until now. Kids, it is great to be in one’s own home, especially such a nice one; it is hard to imagine until one has experienced it oneself. How glad I would be to have you all over for tea some afternoon, and show you everything! Anyone coming through Berlin please visit me! But let me know ahead of time– so I can give you the welcome you deserve! We live in a nice area a little out of town, in a new apartment building: an almost ideal 3 room apartment with heat and hot water, bathroom, kitchen and a spacious attic!

The windows face South and West and we have arranged all three rooms according to our own taste. So now everything is matched to the beautiful, new, furniture bought with our own wages (!) and the curtains which I sewed myself, the carefully chosen lamps etc. etc. In the living room, the biggest room, my husband has everything he needs for his work (desk, bookshelves, file cabinet, etc. Then there is a fine, practical couch with a table, armchair, reading lamp, and there is even room for the grand piano. In the dining room, I have my sewing machine near the window; the bedroom has all the usual stuff. Everything is so pretty. We are delighted.

Working is a great pleasure- not pure pleasure though, because everything is so expensive in Berlin. But of course, we are acquiring experience and learning how to do things more economically. We even manage to get some of the many beautiful things that Berlin offers in such quantity, and we better do that as long as we are young and footloose in the big capital city.

For New Year’s Eve, we had a nice time wandering around town– but it still is the nicest at home. We have had all kinds of visitors and everyone wants to come again. We are lucky that my husband only needs to go to town 3 or 4 days a week to sit in Court (the big Court at Alexanderplatz) the rest of the time he can work at home. This means I’m not alone too much. We are looking forward to spring and summer when we shall poke around in the countryside nearby. More than anywhere else, the real problem here is time and money.

Best greetings to all of you, including from my husband even though he doesn’t know you yet. Hoping everything is well!

Your Gertrud M.

The enclosed pictures are not really new, but I hope you don’t mind. The picture from Timmendorf at the Baltic Sea is from our first joint vacation, in August 1932.

Weimar, 4 February 1934
Dear old Seminary Class!

I am starting the second volume of our roundrobin letter with the wish that the book will travel as busily as the last one, and that we all will get as much enjoyment from it. I shall keep the first volume. Please let me know if you’d like to consult it, and I promise to make sure that it will be on hand at all our class days.

It is exactly one year since I last held the book in my hands. At that time, I was at home, unemployed. It was a while longer before I found a teaching occupation again. For about 4 weeks, I did ironing in a chemical dry-cleaning plant, standing at the ironing board, 12 hours a day, for 20 Pfennig an hour. I wanted to earn the money to go to the congress of the V.D.A. in Klagenfurt. – Unfortunately, there were political difficulties between Germany and Austria and the congress was held in Passau instead. I was attending as the leader of a group of 25 students from my Lizeum. I saw and experienced many beautiful things. At the end of the meeting, we went on a long hike through the Bavarian Woods, which are really wonderful and quite suited for long-distance hiking. On the way back, we stopped over in Regensburg, Nürnberg, and Rotenburg o. T–

After that, I did an internship of a few weeks at our old Frauenschule; played aunt to the children of various relatives and was seriously considering a career as ‘family aunt’. As a result of the political changes, I never made it into the Voluntary Work Service (FAD).

Then a sudden express letter called me to Weimar for a substitution. I ended up staying and have been attached since the 1st of August to a Home Economics School with boarding school, attached to a Nursing Home. Since October 1st, I have been joined by my friend the Youth leader from Norholz. We have 22 students, team-teach and oversee practical work and leisure time. – It gives us a lot of pleasure. We are getting students ready for examinations. One of them is planning to go to Potsdam after Easter, to our dear old State Business and Trade School. Two others want to go to Gross-Hansdorf for their Practicum. I showed them the pictures Hilde had pasted into our book, and anticipating your permission (let me know if you feel differently) I read them some passages from our practicum reports.

Käthe Brandes can most easily imagine how much I like being in Weimar, since she was there with me for the Schiller Week. Our school is situated above the Goethe Garden House in the wonderful park. – I f any one of you wants to come to Weimar for their honeymoon or vacation, you must absolutely visit me. (Yesterday my colleague had a class day here with her Abitur Class from Iena) What do you say, shall we have a Class Day in Weimar?!! or would it make more sense to pick a period when I shall be on vacation on Lüneburg!?. –

Every 8 –14 days, I go to the theatre or the opera, either trailed by a bunch of students or with a friend. We have the great advantage here that it is cheap and the quality high, and the distances are very short.

Right now, I am feeling so well, as you may have noted from my letter, that I am dreading the end of this beautiful time. Which will probably be Easter. I don’t know yet what will happen with the school after that. –

In keeping with this time of active engagement, I greet you all with “Heil Hitler”

Your Carla v. Lauenstein.

Hamburg 2 October 1934.

I’m afraid you will soon be annoyed again– my handwriting is as illegible as it used to be. That would be a first reason for annoyance; the second being that I held on to the book for too long. The reason for that being that my health has not been the greatest.

I’m not even sure where to start, for I have not had the book in my hands for the longest time. Carla, you old something or other! did you ever receive my postcard in which I asked that it be sent to me, or did you mess up? Please be so nice as to send it to me, because I would love to know what happened to everybody before February.

So now, I can start my story. Please forgive me if I write things you already know.

I have been married a year and a half. Just before that, I had passed my exam, and my nerves were not in the greatest shape. After a few days’ rest, we started apartment hunting–, a rather specialized pleasure. By evening, we’d be wiped out. At the last minute, we did find something. But, my heavens! it was in terrible condition, everything needed to be redone from A to Z– all of it with a deadline, which was my husband’s vacation time. It was a very stressful race against the clock– once again, my nerves started to act up. Then there was the wedding, then after 6 months, my husband went back to sea. Eventually, my nerves gave up altogether– I no longer could sleep at all, and no remedies helped at all for months. By winter there was not much left of me, even less by spring– all humor had evaporated. Then there were worries about my husband, who had a Rheumatism attack while at sea, and was repatriated to Germany for a prolonged treatment in a spa. We were together in Oeynhausen, and we both regained our health there. I am lucky that my husband has his health back and hope to be back on the tracks soon too. Cross your fingers for me, kids, but don’t think this brought me down. Thank God, I was born with some humor and sense of comedy. I try very hard to remain on top of things. But I will say that much: I have a terrible longing to be back together with all of you, to be really, really silly again and to carry on like bratty kids. Yesterday, I happened to run into the class newspaper. God, children, it was a great time. I have yet to cash in on any of the “talents” which I displayed at the time. –

If you have had the courage to decipher my epistle, you may well say “ Tja, Gackel (cackle?) (keep talking!?) , good luck never comes together”. Just as well, maybe, or else we’d all grow into the sky!

Fond greetings,
Your Helga Gerhard

PS I have enclosed a few pictures.

Lüneburg 14 Nov. 34
Dear Old Class!

At long last, I am ready to send our book into the world again. It probably won’t go much further before the end of the year. I’m afraid it took a very long rest in my house. In October we moved! Which of course meant a lot of work. But we are now in a more comfortable apartment with a lot more room. That part of the work is behind me, but I’m looking at much more. Business is thriving right now: the Day of the Dead is coming and we’ll have to do everything by then. We still have a lot of materials to make into wreaths etc. I have good help, but the best is my husband himself. I work from dawn to night, and enjoy doing so. My sweet child is staying with Oma– you can see her in the picture. That is the way she plays near my husband in the gardens. The baby has now turned into a real child. She can say almost everything and is already quite reasonable and well mannered. She is a very lovely child and is very attached to her Mommy. You can’t believe what a sweet feeling this is. To all of you who have married, I wish a beautiful, healthy child! – Hopefully, I can soon show her to you in person, I am very proud of her. Do you think we might get together around Christmas!? We hardly ever see each other. We need to refresh our old songs, before we forget them altogether.

Fondly, your
Ilse Holzgrebe, L. Holzgrebe and Rita

Harburg 2 December 1934
Dear old Class Comrades!

It is almost ten years since we sailed into the Seminary training! And despite the very different paths our lives have taken, there still is so much to connect us, as proven by the pleasure we all get when we receive this roundrobin letter. This time, the enjoyment is a little blunted by the fact that this new volume contains so few news yet. I am like Helga; I’m not quite sure where to start. Poor Helga, what a difficult time you have had. Fortunately, it seems to be a thing of the past. It is really not right for a young married couple to have so many worries. As for professional worries, by now they have been with us so long that they go without saying, and we have become used to them. Meaning of course, the problem of finding any kind of jobs in our profession. I think I wrote to you about the Arbeitsdienst, which is already more than year ago. Since last Fall, I am taken up with the classes for the unemployed set up by the Employment Office. There we re-train girls, mostly factory workers, into housemaids. You may be interested to know that my ‘foreman’ at the employment office is Ilse Hintze. Actually, the work in those courses is quite nice: it is unfortunate that we only have the girls for 6 weeks, and we cannot build up a real education on that basis. And of course there is the uncertainty whether after the courses are over, there will be another to teach. Nothing has been yet decided yet for the time after Christmas. But we must hope that by then something will have turned up in the way of work.– aside from that, I am active during the Summer, teaching the various professional training classes organized by the German Workers Front, which are now conducted in conjunction with the Hitlerjugend. Three nights a week, I teach stenography and typing! I would never have dreamed that ‘s what I would be doing by now. But for now, I’m grateful; that I am allowed to do that.– Yesterday, I went to a Christmas fair of the Women’s Chamber of Commerce in Hamburg and saw there representatives of the Bremerstrasse, including honey cakes indubitably manufactured by Rudtke; exactly the same Christmas men and

women, Eggwomen etc. the way we used to make them. It was like being in a time loop.–

Now please make sure to circulate the book quickly!

Fond greetings to all of you
Your Hildegard Schulze.

Harburg, Christmas 1934

Dear all from the Bremerstrasse!

Now that I have guarded the book a few weeks, I am finally coming home determined to write in it. Since Carla kidnapped the first volume, I have no idea what was said about whom when, nor when I wrote my last entry. I have a feeling that it must have been around the time of the Voluntary Work Service (H.A.D.) when Hilde and I worked together in Mecklenburg. In the year since then, many new things have happened. Last winter, after being at home for 3 months or so, I took a course in Eutin training for Landjahr Leadership. By now, you all know what the word ‘Landjahr’ means . By Easter I could have had a job in a ‘Landjahrheim’ (Landjahr Home), but decided instead to take on another job, inherited from Carla, as Trade School teacher in Nordholz, in the Home Economics school attached to the Red Cross Children’s Home. So I have been there since the first of April, together with Käthe Brandes and a third Trade School teacher whom the Lüneburg contingent know well: Erika Sehlmayer. The three of us are the “Faculty” and get along very well, with a great sense of ‘collegiality’. Unfortunately, the work itself is not all that rosy. You can well imagine that such a position in a boarding house is quite stressful; it takes nerves of steel to make it. The schoolwork proper is a lot of fun. It is actually the first time ever that I actually have a teaching job in the proper sense, however complicated by the boarding situation.

It would be so nice to hear from each other again. So Hilde and I were overjoyed to run unexpectedly into Gertrud Merzin with her husband on a Hamburg streetcar, and to be able to exchange news about all that’s happened since we last unpacked everything at our last meeting three and a half years ago! And then – at the local meeting of the NSLB (Association of National-Socialist Teachers) in Harburg, we ran into Else Sporleder. Else, weren’t we happy to meet again! I can imagine that a ‘real’ Class Day will be hard to arrange. Perhaps next year.

All my wishes for a good 1935!

Fondly , your Grete Schulze

Lüneburg 2 January 1935
Dear Little Ones from Hamburg!

I think I wrote into the book about exactly this time last year. What a pleasure to hear from the others again. Of course, this book gives only partial news. Too bad! Not that much has changed for me since last time. I am still at Soltau. Work is not diminished in the least by the addition of all kinds of side-activities. Sometimes, it is the teaching that turns into the hobby.

Stop! There is something new. I seem to remember that when I wrote last year, I was still a subtenant. Since Easter, I am now in my own little apartment with my own furniture. I cook for myself etc. It gets to be tiresome to live in rooms that don’t really look the way one would like, and to eat other people’s lunch. Since I was able to inherit all kinds of things from home that were just standing in an attic, things happened very quickly. Sometimes it is a bit of a rush to cook in the middle of the day. But all in all, it is much, much nicer. I even have a guestroom! So, you know what you have to do: come to Soltau! Married couples are welcome; there are two beds in the room!

Helga, what a story you have! And you Elfriedchen had the same kind of thing happen to you also. The rest of us have been spared so far, and I’m happy that the two of you have overcome the most difficult part. Hopefully, by the time this book returns to me, there will be only good news from the two of you.

Yes, we really must see each other in the course of this year. Just to be around each other, and to talk and talk. If we all want it, I am sure we can make it happen.

Until then, fond greetings and all good things for the new year.
Your Else Sporleder Kathe

Weferdingen 23 March 35
Dear all of you!

It is high time for this book to go on its wanderings again: we all take so much pleasure in it. But I just couldn’t bring myself to write: my health is improving very, very gradually. Before Christmas, I had to miss a lot of school— overwork had caused a weakness of the heart muscle, which was absolutely dreadful! Then after Christmas vacation, I resumed work, but still felt very happy to see the end of each day. Luckily, I am allowed to do sports again, and hopefully by the time summer comes, I’ll be allowed to swim, for over the past year, we have received a wonderful swimming-pool, which unfortunately is not very visible on the pictures I am enclosing. It lies in a lovely situation right up against the woods. Anyone coming towards Magdeburg or Braunschweig? I would just love it, if one of you were to appear out of nowhere! What’s up with the Class Day? I really do hope we get one together really soon, I think all of us feel very nostalgic for one, just the thought of being together and gabbing away! — Asides from that, everything is as it used to be here, my mother now lives with me, two years already. It is so much nicer to be in one’s own home, not the endless furnished apartments. There is a lot to do in the school, life can be very difficult at times with the much too big classes, but that is the same everywhere. Not to mention all the side-activities that are expected of a Technical Teacher in a small town; which of course one is happy to do, provided one has the health for it. – Else will be visiting me at Easter, we are looking forward to the meeting, and keep hoping to see all of you sometime soon!

All the best! fond greetings!
Your Elfriede Benecke.

26 March 1935
Dear old Seminary Class!

Yes, it is a great pleasure every time the Class Letter comes back. It would be very nice if everyone did as Hilde and Elfriedchen have done, attaching a picture or two every time they write. It makes the reports so much more lively, and it gives us a chance to get acquainted with husbands and children, or the professional surroundings of a person.

In my last letter, I had raved about Berlin (since it was the last letter in the first volume, no one actually read it) so I’ll do it again. Most of you have been here, so there is no point in talking about Berlin in general. We have lived here a year and a half, and are extremely happy; for one thing, we feel very lucky that we get to spend so much time together (my husband mostly works from home, since they have no room at the tribunal), and then of course there is the lovely apartment. Oh yes, to have one’s own space– Else is right about that– We have three gigantic rooms, in which the un shines all day, and a bath and kitchen. The house is a new apartment building on a wide street, stores right in front of the door, the Town Park 5 minutes away, streetcar connections very good (which is very important here). Then there is heat and hot water provided by the building, which makes it all very comfortable for the housewife! Obviously I do everything by myself, laundry included. Dear Frl. Liese would never have allowed that! Do you remember, kids? “I pair of cami-knickers = 3 hours of ironing!”) Actually, I am well covered and I am glad that there isn’t always as much to do as there is right now, at this time of thorough cleaning; thorough’ the way they taught us at the Bremerstrasse! I still find time for tailoring, piano playing and many other nice things. We have found a very attractive circle of friends, and spend many happy hours with them. Every now and then, we go to the concert or the theater– far too often, the state of our purse does not allow it, but it’s all right. It is possible to have many beautiful experiences without spending a lot of money, especially here in Berlin. Enough of that, I don’t want to bore you.

Last summer, we had especially beautiful vacations. Immediately after visiting the very impressive Festspiel in Oberammergau, we spent the whole of August at the Konigssee near Bergdesgarden; there, way up in a simple peasant house with wonderful splendid people, we enjoyed the rest and relaxation, the clean air, wonderful nature and uninterrupted sun. It was good! If any one of you ever is looking for very simple, very close to nature (and cheap) vacations, I highly recommend this. — The year before, we spent Easter vacation In Dresden, with Betti Reise– those of you who went to Harburg know her. She too lives here now and we spend time together often. We would like to return to our holiday-paradise this summer again, but that will mean seriously saving money.

Meanwhile, with all the visitors, there is a lot of variety– everybody comes to Berlin sooner or later. We have no time to get bored, sometimes the opposite. Having the couch means we can host one person, which is very pleasant. You can see from the picture how the so-called ‘comfy’ corner of the living room looks. See the desk on the left, where my husband works and on the right near the second window (in the dining room) the grand piano. I wish I could show you everything! There would be room to have a meeting here. How about you all come for tea some day? – please, anyone who comes to Berlin, announce yourself for a little hour of talking, no? –

Best greetings to all of you, and wishing you everything good and beautiful, and as much happiness as possible.
Your Gertrud Merzin.

Opladen 1 September 1935
O, you!

Here I am, hanging with my feet in mid-air, without the slightest idea whether you have any idea how my life is going! Remarkably, I have not been able to get any clearer about things from March to September (all right, all right, no point in swearing!!) all of this, because someone, one of you bandits, has devoured the first book!

O, you!

My life is crazy, agitated, enervating. I will try to give you a brief summary for busy readers.

You know everything about Nordholz from Grete Schulze. She isn’t exactly soft-spoken– but one hardly can be– wouldn’t you agree Carla??!

But I expect you are much too refined for this! In case the words “ intrigue”, or “women’s dealings” are not yet clear to you, just come and sample things here- the scales will fall off your eyes!!! All right, off we go!

Around Easter, I was overcome with a sweet Taterata, because a job had been offered in Lubeck (a position? as a ‘candidate’ for 1000 RM a month, which should be enough for anyone to starve on!!) Still I caught this straw in the wind, unfortunately I found that I was sitting between two chairs, which wasn’t very nice of either of the chairs! But the grasshoppers in Lubeck
a) had gone to a lot of trouble to find a teacher,
b) unfortunately remembered to check whether the job was allowed by the budget—which turned out to be absolutely impossible!– So there!!

Over the course of the following 6 weeks, I allowed my sweet old mother to restore and renovate my inner and outer being, while I kept myself busy with the nice little game of writing applications and collecting rejection slips, which, given the costs involved, seemed like a rather unpleasant game.–

And suddenly I was in Soest i. W. once again at the Trade School as a ‘full-time adjunct’ (I know you won’t believe it, but there is such a thing!)

4 years after completing my training, I had my first real job in a real school!!

I can tell you!! wild excitement!!

My heart was beating fast like a horse!! (which of course had in the meanwhile turned into a most distinguished thoroughbred?)

Soest, wonderful, very old city!!

Students nice– faculty nice (and me the only woman among a crowd of men- but the men aren’t biting!!) Lodgers even nicer– and me relentlessly happy! fairytale conditions!

unfortunately, life is not a fairy tale, and therefore none of this is true any longer.

Because you see, the board of supervisors cannot possibly appoint me to Soest, because I, with my Professional Trade Teacher degree am far too refined, and lack the requisite state-stamp to certify that I can reach the psyche of the Volk/ masses, notwithstanding the fact that I have spent the last four years with said Volk/masses, in Arbeitsdienst, classes for the unemployed, and training camps for leadership training!

O, you!

Had I only some talents to despair, – I would do so now– but I lack those–—
Thank God!
And on this note, fond Fondlies etc. I am
your Käthe Brandes.

22 Sept. 35
Dear others!

I was very happy that you are all still around. It must be a good two years, if not longer, since I heard from all of you, had become very skeptical about the prospect of ever hearing from you again. Which would have been very sad. In the meantime, I have been the heroine of a colorful novel, almost Courtsmahler. The last time, I saw Käthe, we were both at the Employment Office, a little before my marriage. During that one and a half-painful year of marriage, my Dieter was born, and now I am separated from my husband (3/4-year) and about to get a final divorce. Great no? yes, yes, those things do happen! and so I am again looking for a job. As you know, one can take a lot of hardship when one has to, much more than one thought possible, especially when one has at one’s side a sweet, lovely blond curly-head. Dieter will be 15 month tomorrow, and took yesterday his first independent steps into the world. Ilse Holzgrebe knows how that is. The child is beautiful as a picture, although all mothers think their child is a pretty as a picture, no? I don’t have a photograph right now and will paste one in next time.

I am now in good health again, having been ill for a while after my husband left me on Christmas. Have seen neither hair nor hide of him since then. Case closed. I live a pretty solitary life, and would be tremendously happy to see you all. Would love to be surprised by one of you. If possible, let me know ahead of time. I will not stay much longer at Wandsb. Chaussee, the apartment is much too big and expensive for me, and I am now on the lookout for a very small 2 room: I hope that by October I will have moved. But don’t let that disturb you, nothing gets me fazed these days, one gets to have an elephant-skin, things bounces off it. And if it weren’t for my heaven-high optimism, you would have been sending funeral wreaths a long time ago.

So, that’s it for today. Or maybe you’ll be interested in hearing that I am learning shorthand and typing, or any way I am tapping away, and hoping to get a job as a stenographer, for there is nothing a simple technical teacher can do in Hbg. Absolutely nothing, Zilch. And with the divorce and the child, it is hard for me to move elsewhere.

So, fond greetings from
Dora and Dieter Rothenstein.

( just in case you wondered whether my husband was Jewish, because of the name: he wasn’t—actually, he was ‘pure Aryan’)

One last time!
The Saxony woods 25 October 35
Dear Class Comrades!

So, our book is still alive and wandering. Great! I had given up on it. Dear Carla, sorry I did not respect the order last time, I meant well; my mother who had things to do in Hamburg, offered to hand-carry it there. But this time, I will always send it to you.

How agitated the life of the professionals is! I only wish I could get some rest, and find something lasting, and if that is impossible, I’d rather steer myself into the quiet harbor of marriage. Just think how happy our Gertrud Merzin is in her home. From what I heard recently about our sports comrade Elfriede Niekrenz, we can congratulate her too for the birth of a little daughter. Anybody know what she will be named?

For me, the solitary life in my hermitage in the Saxony woods is coming to an end. I think back to these years with great thankfulness. I owe them a chance to work seriously at t my music, and having had to renounce to the costly expenses of theater, concerts and other expenses, I have been able to build myself a lovely home of my own. It is awaiting me in the beautiful village of Bergedorf, in a sunny location. I am happy to leave this solitary location which got to be depressing, in the fall especially. and to be living among other people again. Bergedorf -in this respect– is a good transition, combining nature and culture in nice proportions. I will enclose a picture next time, when the windows have curtains on them. and the garden is set out. Our home has two living rooms, a bedroom and guestroom, kitchen and bath, and is appointed with all the trimmings. The most up-to-date conquests of technology, central heating, electric stove and warm water accumulator are my silent servants. And to ensure that my physical health will be provided for, despite all the comforts, there is a garden for invigorating outdoor-work.

Bad Salzburg. Eschenallee 7. (n.d.)
Dear All!

I am hanging my head in shame, for the much clamored-for first volume is with me, I just found it unpacking my things. But I am much too happy to dwell with my shame too long and will instead tell you about myself.

The book arrived a few days ago and my husband and I read the news, and he shared my pleasure most heartily.

Weimar is forgotten, where barely 2 short weeks after sending off the book I was given notice. Forgotten also the fact that, for one and a half year, I was business director of the Women’s Technical and Training Association. I had thrown myself into this with all my strength. We were giving cooking and housekeeping classes, and I administered three kindergartens that were connected with a seminary. I was working in the newly started Mothers School in Bremen; my friend from Weimar became the principal in the Mothers’ School. For half a year we organized two week housekeeping exhibitions under the aegis of the state and Home Economics section of the Women’s organization of the National Socialist party. It was a very interesting time, and I liked being in Bremen. My position gave me a lot of autonomy, since I was only reporting to a board of directors; I was well paid; but all this is forgotten, before the infinite happiness that I have found now.

We are now installed in a 3-room apartment in a 2-family house. Looking out the window I can see the Hochwald and Sattelwald, and in the distance I see the Riesengebirge (Mountains of the Giants) and the Schneekoppe (Snow. Until now, we have only gone hiking in the immediate areas nearby in the Waldenburg Mountains. Sundays, we have at our disposal snow-covered fields in radiant sunlight.

Winter is luring us into the Siebengebirge for skiing: this is one sport I never managed to learn despite my 7 and 1/2 years of sports-training; but my husband is a ski teacher (not his main profession) and so I hope to learn it at last.

To all of you: whoever comes in this direction (railroad line Berlin-Breslau) is invited here most warmly. We have a guest bed, happy to receive visitors.

I am adding the announcement of our engagement and the notices of thanks after the wedding; picture not yet available; perhaps next time, hopefully, the book will circulate faster.

What else shall I tell you? I am delirious with happiness and bliss, glad to be able to use in my own home the skills I learnt in the Frauenschule, happy that my husband has been able to enjoy Saphirtorte, and sandcookies, that my laundry was fluttering in the sunlight yesterday- Throw away all the teachers’ stuff, and what remains is just another normal, happy young woman. Looking at Muschi’s pictures, all I can say is that my husband and I look as radiant as you and your husband.

And I am very glad to be able to work in my own home, on a small scale.

Wishing you all happiness and good luck.
Your Carla Overlach v. Lauenstein.

Hamburg, 7 January 1936
Dear Old Class,

Since I am the first one to write in this new book in this new year, let me wish you all a fresh beginning in your work, and many successes. The book should have left long ago. but it reached me at a very eventful time, details below. Hence the delay. Thank God, I can say that it was actually a wonderful event; – but a painful and necessary one, which at long last brought the sun back into my husband’s life, and in mine. In my last letter, I had told you quite happily that my husband was finally cured. But there was a terrifying relapse, and it then came out that, for the past 6 years, my husband had been getting the wrong treatment. In February of 1935, Professor Sudeck (?) identified the source of his suffering; a dangerous operation would be needed, followed by a long convalescence, very slow and gradual, but convalescence nonetheless. As you can probably understand there was not much of me left by then. But I gradually started going uphill. Two painful years lay behind us, but now the sun came out. After my husband was better and could return to work, he was promoted to Captain. We were blissfully happy, for such an appointment at this age, at a time when shipping is not doing very well, is a very rare.

The second reason for the delay was that on Nov. 10 1935, our son was born. He is a Sunday child. He just couldn’t bear to wait, and came out 7 weeks early; the sweet little thing weighed barely 5 1/2 pounds, although after three weeks he was up to 8 pounds and 340 g. I am enclosing two pictures, he is all there, for the last seven weeks. Although he is a ‘bottle-child’, we hope he will continue to thrive. And I make an effort to recuperate. He came out through a cesarean, which has its own difficulties—but everything is forgotten the minute I feel him in my arms. I can only tell Ilse that I wish this happiness to everybody. Our boy is called Joern and is our greatest joy. In February, Wilms will come home and see his son at long last. You won’t believe me if I say my husband has not seen the child yet. He has been out at sea several months already, but at long last, the time for their reunion has arrived. I had a few pictures, which I was able to send to him in Brazil, so that he would have some idea of the child. Isn’t it hard? When he gets home, Joern may already be walking. There is something indescribable about the happiness of seeing the gradual development of a pitiful helpless infant. I better stop; I cannot sit too long. – I have been told to lie down frequently. Just what I need, kids! And when shall we meet again? it would be divine. If one of you comes in this direction, don’t forget to visit me; and so would Joern to whom I will tell one day, when he is old enough to understand what a beautiful, beautiful time we had together at the Seminary. Carla, I would like to give my best wishes to you and your husband,

Fond greetings to all of you
Helga Gerhard and Little Joern

Lüneburg 6 February 36
Dear old class!

A lot has happened for several students in our class. Many have found happiness in marriage, and I would like to wish them the kind of happiness you only encounter in books. Congratulations to the new mothers. Dear Helga, your boy is charming. You won’t have time to be bored. You will barely have time until your dear husband returns. Dear Muschi, good luck with your daughter. Our own family is about to get bigger. My little Rita is already a hard working little girl. She plays all day in the garden. When Mom and Dad work, she works too with her playthings. She is our sunshine. Singing and dancing all day, and in great mettle. Mom must tell her stories, then she listens carefully and keeps asking for more. She is almost 3 years old and quite independent. One could watch her the whole day, she is so charming when she ‘works’. – Work has started again here: spring is near and gardeners must be ready for it. Yesterday afternoon we were replanting tomatoes. We have great plans for this year. Next time I write in this book let I may already be sitting on top our new plantations, but I can’t go it details now. I don’t want to hog the space I am going to bring this over personally to Hilde.

Fond greetings to each of you
Your Ilse Holzgrebe + Luten + Rita

For the time being, Harburg, 10 April 36
Your dear “Hamburg” ones!

As a result of the Class Day, the book got stuck at my house longer than intended. For those who were not there last Monday, here is brief summary. We met in Harburg, eight of us total (Benecke, Brandes, Duker, Ritter, Schomaker, Schulze, Schulze, Sporleder) and we took a little walk in the Harburg Town Park before having a nice coffee together with a lot of animated talking. It seemed we would never stop telling stories, and it was really nice, wasn’t it? We thought much about the ones who weren’t there, your ears must have been ringing? The most beautiful of it was that we didn’t find each other changed at all (even though we all 9 years older already. since we know each other as well as in the past. The old camels were brought up, new stuff recounted, husbands and children (in Photo form) passed around. We decided to repeat this meeting every year at Easter, and I, as the newly named secretary, shall remind you in time! Proposals and wishes will be welcome.–

And now a few things about myself. As you may all have heard in the meantime, I have at long last been offered a solid position at the three-year Frauenschule in Lüneburg; a position for which I had started applying four years ago! That it really happened in the end, I really owe to Carla; for she kept informing me about prospects, and reminding me to the Director, even when I had forgotten about my application. I have been there since July 1st 35, after a brief time in the Trade School in Lehrte. The work in the two schools is completely different. I had to really make a big shift. It is when one works that one notices what a beginner one is. We are only happy that at long last we are really in the teaching business, Grete for the past year at the Bittersfeld Frauenschule and Kathe about to begin in Remscheid at another three-year school. Since these schools all are attached to Lyzeums, we also get to teach Lyzeum upper classes. With their years of practice, Else and Elfriedchen are way beyond us in that. But the hours with the younger ones, especially the sixth class, give me much pleasure. All in all, we should be satisfied with the way things have been developing. The Frauenschule had always been our goal. And it must be to the credit of the current time that these schools are again given more consideration and are being built up.–

This time around, the letter will skip the normal order and will be sent right away to Annemarie, for she has not had it in a very long time.

Dear Annemarie, we think that you will be really interested in all our reports, despite the great distances. And we really would like to hear from you. Hopefully the book will reach you. Such a transatlantic trip still feels a little remarkable. I am sure you think differently about it. Special greetings go to you alone, Annemarie, but all others get our greetings too.

Fondly,
Your Hildegard Schulze.

New York 10 May 1936
Dear Old Friends in the Fatherland,

I cannot tell you how happy I was to receive the book. I had given up hope to ever see it again. And it was especially pleasant that you remembered to send me a post card from the Class Day. How I would have liked to be with you. If it was impossible this time, I do hope that I will make it to one of the future ones. Of course, you may decide to all sail West and come and spend Easter during the Summer vacations!

I don’t know when I last held the good book in my hands. I think it was still in Germany. How strange the sound of this “still in Germany”. This seems to be so far behind me, so, so far. We have been here two and a half years already, and I have had time to adjust to America.

Where shall I start? There is so infinitely much that fell upon me. I need time to sort my thoughts.

During our first year, we lived near Philadelphia. It was for me a year of learning and unlearning German Ideas. I learnt English, attended university and tried to build my life. I was quite successful. Everybody who came into contact with me was very kind. They reminded me very much of the good old comfortable Hamburg breed: incredibly conservative. I liked them and I soon developed a nice circle of friends.

Then our beginning happiness was destroyed when we had to move to New York. In New York, there is no such thing as leisure, no time to quietly look at things. Every one runs, races, tries to make money. There is absolutely no time to nurture friendships. Mostly husband and wife work outside, even so they don’t really need it, and they work so hard at such a hectic pace during the daytime, that they are exhausted in the evening and can only be entertained by theatre, variety shows. They themselves cannot be the carriers / providers of the entertainment. It is very difficult to find the interesting, intellectually minded people. Only now are we beginning to find some like-minded people, and to get a little ‘comfortable in New York. I do hope we don’t have to move to yet another city, but stay here instead and manage to establish some roots in this New York of which people say that one can earn money here, but not live here. About Philadelphia, they say the opposite. “ Earning money” means getting enormously rich, preferably overnight. This idea is what drives millions of people in America, even though about 40% of the population need help of some sort or other.

Our life at home is half German, half American. This is the case for the language. During the week, we speak English, German on weekends, so that we don’t forget the language. During the week, I have my little household, read much and have my comfortable life. Our little dog, a fresh little Dackel sometimes disagrees with me about what ‘comfort’ means. When I want to rest and read, she insists on playing. And she mostly wins. – During my free time, I again went to the university and have heard readings by contemporary English and American writers, very, very interesting. I will do that next winter again.

On weekends, Saturday and Sunday are free, and we get out of New York. It is too hot here. Often we leave already on Friday sometimes even before dinner and we drive into the blue space. When we get tired, we eat and look for a resting-place. In small towns, private individuals rent out their guesthouse for bed and breakfast. Which is considerably cheaper than a hotel. Hotel bills dig a big hole into people’s pockets if one is underway every week.

I have seen a great deal on these trips. I know the East of America better than I know Germany. I must say, a car is nice, it really gets one places fast. This summer we are having the pleasure of my mother’s visit. We are looking forward to showing her everything. She does not yet know how we are installed here, knows our household only from pictures! we are happy, that it is possible at last to see her again and have her with us. This was worth giving up our trip to Germany to help her get acquainted with a new land, not to mention the pleasure of seeing her children again. And now I think I better stop, or else my letter will get long and boring.

I often think of you, that all of you are in the position you had sought and looked for. Dora, I expect that in the meantime you too shall have found some light and happiness. Your little boy will help you in this I’m sure, and will help you forget all the sadness you have experienced.

The pictures are famous. I want many, many more. And all the sweet children’s pictures! Fond wishes for those who will become mothers before the book comes back into my hands.

Happy Congratulations to the teachers, hopefully there will be fewer of them as they get married in their turn with husbands and little children!
Your Annemarie

Bittersfeld, Auenstr. 16, 8 October 36
Dear All!

Let me make a clean breast of it right away: the reason for the letter having taken 5 months to continue on its way has nothing to do with the great distance between America and Europe. Annemarie “as always”! was punctuality personified! The letter has now been here long enough. Today is the first day of Fall vacation, and since the end of the vacation comes right after, I decided to start writing today, to avoid any further delays.

Dear Annemarie, your turn first. I am sure everybody was most interested by the detailed descriptions you give us. I am especially pleased with the fresh and satisfied mood that they convey. I hope you and your mother will have a beautiful summer together in your new home. And we all look forward to the day you join us at a Class Day!

As for you, dear Muschi, special greetings go to you. A very, very heartfelt greeting and wishes for happiness on the occasion of your baby son’s birth, who in the meantime is probably turning into a ‘son’ I am sending you the book first, breaking with order, (since you are the one who has the nicest novelties to report as far as I know), in which everybody will take pleasure. (Then you should send it to Else Sp., yes?)

Compared to the pretty things which you brides and mothers are reporting, I must say that the endless professional drone is beginning to be boring to me. Thank God, we all seem to be doing all right now in the job area, even working not too far from our original wishes. True, work is itself a source of much pleasure and beauty. But the truth is that there isn’t always something new to report. For me, the latest events since the Class Day have included a more or less rained out trip to the sea (Sylt) during the summer vacations, then some wonderful days in Berlin– nothing special there! Then to Schoena near the Saxon Alps for hiking tours with the class I teach this year at the Frauenschule. There were actually several nice interruptions this summer. The Olympiads of course were quite something (Hilde and I were there at the inaugural session and then to watch Dietrich Eckart-Buhne do gymnastics, and also saw some of the horseriding and swimming. The city of Berlin alone was worth the trip, having become in every corner nook and cranny a most remarkable Festival city. You can of course find details in the newspapers.

(In the meantime, I am trying to write on the train home, hence the shaky writing!)

I am quite happy with my current work. I teach at the Frauenschule attached to the Bittersfeld Lyzeum. The Frauenschule was reorganized two years ago, and I had helped in that. All the installation and experimenting were quite interesting; two years later, everything is well oiled and runs smoothly. Unlike last year’s students, this year’s are very nice, so open that it’s possible to develop a nice comradely relationship with them, especially since the practicum year, which they all did on a farm in a very pretty area. At the Lyzeum, I also teach a few hours of sports.

I stay with my sister who lives in the same town, and she has three children who give me much pleasure.

The train is just shaking too much. I’d better stop.

I wish all of you (married, mothers, and neither-nor) all the best in everything.
Cordially yours, Your Grete Schulze

5 March ’36
Dear All!

What a wonderful thing this book is! It gives a lot of pleasure, and the longer it circulates, the more interesting it gets, and all the more fond of it I become. Thank all of you for your reports. I find it especially nice that you, Dear Annemarie, have written in such detail; of course, you have the most “material”. I only would like to ask you: please send more pictures!!! I hope that by now you have had many more pleasant and cheerful experiences, and that the sad impressions in some of your news have taken a turn for the good. This is my fondest wish.

THE great experience that I want to tell you about today, is our child. It is hard to find the words to express how happy we are. One’s own child is such a beautiful experience—it is difficult to describe it, and there is no way to picture it for oneself ahead of time– one really must make the experience personally. The little one is our sunshine, everything turns around him, and there is everyday the bliss over the small living miracle that for the past 1/2 year he has been lying in his little basket laughing and chatting and crooning and screaming in delight and going Da-Da or Heh and Da.. We wish we were able to stand by its side constantly. rejoicing over each small progress in its life, the daily developments, and the charming play with hands and feet, the radiance appearing the moment it sees its parents– it is just too beautiful! Naturally our little Günther is a charming child- which mother would not find her child the most charming of all?! I guess that is the way it must be. In any case, he is round, and rosy and happy and everybody tells us he is a friendly child.

The baby was born on the 9th of May, birthday of his Merzin grandfather. Those who have been through it know that it’s exactly a free gift (at least when it’s not entirely according to rule) but that it is a lot of work, and that the time after the birth isn’t exactly a bed of roses either. But it is worth it in heaps! especially when Baby does well. He weighed 6 1/2 pounds at birth, and is now 14 1/2pounds. I mostly nurse him still, but he is beginning to get fruit, vegetables and cereal. Little by little the household will get back on its rails. I wonder, Ilse, whether you will have the same experiences the second time around? But everything will be fine. I am looking forward to your second announcement. Best wishes in advance! And the same for Carla’s wedding.

On October 11, we had the baptism, with all our close relatives and best friends, a nice little celebration, and the little one was a model of good manners…–
For a little while now, my husband has joined the Consistory at the Reich Office for Religious Affairs. As before, his job is a legal one, and, no, he has nothing to do with the collection of Church taxes! many people have asked us about that!! He now spends more time away from home, and so it is nice to have a little stand-in at home.

What else? The Olympiad was magnificent, a great festival! Taken as a whole, everything was wonderful, and all the more so at the Olympic site itself. I’m not about to forget my impressions: the gigantic stadium with the speaking-chorus and the excited crowds of people, the enormous, wonderful open-air stage, the swimming stadium!! We partook of as much as we had the energy for. Once we spent a whole day there: we went out very early in the morning with our pram and the child’s things in a little suitcase, which I deposited somewhere near the stadium to return to at mealtimes.

Given the circumstances a trip was impossible this year. But we hope that next summer we will go with our little darling to some unpretentious beach on the sea, where we won’t be disturbed. In the summer of 1935, we returned to our paradise at the Koenigssee, which I described in my last letter. It was as nice as the first time and we made many wonderful hikes.

Just think: one day we ran into Schulzes on some beach at the sea! do you remember it too?
Once again, my report is getting longer than anyone else’s so I’ll conclude. Hoping to see you soon!

a thousand greetings to all, including husbands and dear children from my husband, little Günterlein and
your very happy Gertrud M.

Soltau and Weferlingen, Summer 1937
Dear all of You!

What shall we write? the two inseparables have done the smartest thing that could be done this summer: we got engaged!

All those who have been there know what a wonderful time that is. And for the rest of you, don’t wait to copy us! I hope that by the time the book comes to us again, we will have started our homes and will be able to chat with all the other happy ones, and rejoice over the next engagement. Today it is your turn to be happy for us!

Two Happy Ones:

Else and Elfriedchen

Elfried Beneke Else Sporleder
Walter Carl Heinrich Bottcher

July 1937 August 1937

Duisburg 16 October 37
Schweizerstr. 47

Dear Class!

actually, I’m writing out of turn, but I wanted to add a related picture to Muschi’s.

Kathe Brandes is spending the weekend here. We had intended to go immediately to Dusseldorf to the exhibit “Creative Volk” for the last day of the exposition and enjoy the lighted fountains and fireworks. The exhibition we had actually visited during the summer. It is quite outstanding. Once, my husband and I went there with a child’s pram. Kthe liked the story and so I propose it for your imitation.— If one wants to spend a beautiful Sunday with one’s husband and there’s no one there to watch the child, one just should take it along, if need be in the pram and with a little suitcase for the necessaries. As a result of instructions from the state, streetcar conductors are very nice to mothers and children, and make it very easy for mothers to get around with their child. There is a special entrance for them at the exposition. It was little more difficult to find a place to park the child. Finally, I found something a house in the Schlageter neighborhood: there was a house with a child’s pram just like mine and so my son was taken in for the day by a very nice young couple. Like Muschi, I appeared every three hours and my son behaved beautifully so much so that they asked me to bring him along next time I came.

Günther was born in Duisburg on the 12th of February, and is now 8 months old, a regular ‘boy’. My laundrywoman says he is “Ein lecker Kind” (cute enough to eat) and in the Schwarzwald, they’d say “E feschter Karal” (A strong bloke) My husband and I are still debating from whom he got his sunny nature. I agree that the blond curls come from my husband… Red cheeks, blue eyes, shape of head and nose are still contested. But the strong little body is perfect even though he didn’t get it from nursing, but rather from the buttermilk that I fed the very small, slightly premature little thing.

Just a few more things: Salzbrunn with its winter, its ideal summer, its entertainments including Tennis, Dancing, Swimming and Hiking in the Giant Mountains (Riesengebirge) its interesting work in the Economics section is all far behind me. One day, my husband got tired of his job. He gave notice, and we looked allover for something new to do. We looked toward Ethiopia, Spain seemed possible. and then it came down to the Demag in Duisburg. We have been here almost a year, using that is offered and within our reach.

We spend a beautiful vacation in the Black Forest, where we gathered forces for the Duisburg fog and rainy weather.

Käthe is urging me to stop. Günther ’s diaper is on. We have to go.–
Fond greetings to all
Your Carla.

Remscheid 22 October ‘37

So, what shall the three last ones tell you? What shall we do, husbandless, fiancéless and childless?! If worst comes to worst, one can of course borrow children! as does yours. They belong to me on Sundays sometimes, the rest of the time to my sister, the actual mother. Thank God, the brat has inherited my temperament, and he keeps his mother on her toes, which gives me no end of inner satisfaction! And what does the useful aunt do? Not only does she change diapers and bathe, but she bundles him up just so, and takes him for walks, strolls, keeps the child busy, helps him go potty, puts all the rooms back in order, sews for the brat (with or without a teacher’s degree!) makes presents and is always happy to look after him when dads and moms want to go for walks which young couples need to do! So it is now my turn to exercise all these virtues in uttermost seriousness!

But that is only one side of my life: the other side is called “profession”! And I still do it with some excitement! You who turned your backs on it will not believe your ears, but I still like doing it! After Soest, I landed in Remscheid, only the 6th position in my still young life. As the song goes, “we are gypsies, roaming through the world” and life serves us a new plate every day, sometimes more, sometimes less, higgedly-piggedly, but in the end always so arranged that one enjoys it and can say Amen to it. The most curious thing of all is human beings and over the past year, I have met a lot of them in the raw.

When this Easter came along and I was NOT packing my bags to move, it felt quite strange, and in the long run something’s bound to go wrong: after all, I am not married with Remscheid! Remscheid is like all famous cities: it is very ugly in the midst of beautiful surroundings. It is built on seven hills like Rome, and cities like Cologne, Dusseldorf and Essen etc. are our — ! ?? Hoho! the people who live on mountains are stubborn, ponderous, earthbound and as they grow older incredibly ‘material’. My sweet young ones at 16-18 are still a fairly passable race, until they start feeling like bad luck on one’s footsoles, thanks to their resemblance with the inherited mass! And then we have the Rhinelanders nearby!! As for the Easterners, to be served on a step-ladder. Still and all, this is a nice profession! Since all human beings are by nature Eve’s monkeys (and we are monkeys by profession, stamped with the state’s seal) there is something to be done with them on that basis. Program for the Unterprima (11th grade): Crafts: beach shoes, belts, bags, bowls, plates; and then, beach boxes , long or short; then: beach robes and jackets; then the grey everyday in the form of kids’ trousers for the Winter Relief ; then dresses, and to top it all embroidery! Their enthusiasm, unfortunately fed on beer, pursues me all the way to my home and they have wheedled three extra hours out of me, so that I now teach 20 hours a week, which accounts for my thin 94 pounds figure!

The Oberprima (12th Grade) on the other hand is sober, and interested in science and the Obersekunda (10th grade) is in the sign of the child see attached image.

This was the serious part of life. Now for entertainment!

Since Remscheid lies at 370 m above sea level and since the clouds are continually stuck at that level (typically ‘remscheider-ish’) we see it through fog and rain half of the year, which is hard on us sunnier natures and so last Easter my child’s soul yearned for a clear, blue sky, and sun! sun! sun! Just to be sure I wouldn’t miss it, I got myself aboard a ship and went from Bremerhaven steadily West and South to Lisbon and Madrid and then Africa to Casablanca! and I loved it! The further south we came, the warmer the sun, the more intense the colors, the more handsome the people and the dirtier too ! In the most elegant café of Lisbon the cigarette ashes were piling up on tables and floors for there were no ashtrays and the little tidbits that we got for ourselves were covered with a thin layer of dust and flies-legs (but they tasted so good!!) The best hotels down there are the Bremer Lloyds Ships, which represent the epitome of luxury when it comes to cleanliness! So one has to look away from the dirt, but there is nothing more beautiful than to be utterly alone, wandering through a strange city whose language one doesn’t understand and whose rhythm is completely different from that of our cities.–

Excuse me noble ladies! Have I made too heavy a demand on your patience!? It’s just that I had to compensate for two turns!! since I was lucky enough to get a hold of the first volume of this rich books, I had to establish that between my last entry and the previous one, there had elapsed 5 years! O Muschi, o Muschi! (Note: “Muschi” Beyer/Merzin) what did I do to deserve this? why did you do this to me? and since my news service at home was not functioning too well either, I only learnt about the birth of your brat after he was half-grown! Despite all this, fondest wishes! and to you to, Ilse! And when shall we be introduced to them? So far, I only have held Carla’ s baby.
And Else and Elfriedchen Heil und Sieg for the double marriage? when did it happen?? And are you getting better, you naughty ones! If the book again gets stuck at your houses, I will personally tan your skins!

Fond fondlies!
Your Käthe Brandes

Hamburg 16 12 37
dear Class comrades!

The book has been here long enough. I really must write in it. It was a tremendous joy to receive it again, especially since I can at long last report something happy.

At last, things started looking up. Since April, I have a job, 23 hours a week, and if my income is small, it is sufficient to live on. I now give Handwork lessons in 4 Schools in the Hamburg district, which means a lot of travel (all on bicycle) but it is fun. I am officially divorced as of October, with all faults to my husband. I now have a pretty 2 1/2-room apartment and as you can guess, feel very happy. When I leave for work in the morning, I take my Dieter to y mother, luckily she’s only three minutes away and he stays there till the afternoon.

Right now, he lies in bed with a fever, nothing dangerous– probably a sore throat, but childhood fevers go very high at the drop of a hat and he is the joy and pride of his Mom and Dad.

Dad?! Yes, Daddy! surprised? We are getting married at Easter and I will then take the name Dora Timm. We will remain in this apartment. I am as happy as can be. I met my husband at the time of my greatest loneliness, and he is totally spoiling me. As far as Dieter is concerned, all he knows is that my fiancé is his Pappi, and an outsider wouldn’t know the difference. Things really came out for the best.

“When God creates the rabbit, he creates the grass”.– I intend to remain professionally active after I marry, although I will eventually become a Hausfrau. Until now, I had always been a kind of ‘hybrid’. So you know the most important.

Last summer I took a wonderful trip to the to Miltenberg. I came back with a whole album of photographs. In the Summer of ’38, we are off on a vacation as a threesome, to some place beautiful. One more thing to look forward to!
If anyone visits me, (please let me know ahead of time)

My deepest wishes for happiness to all brides and young mothers, and fond greetings to everyone else

Your, Dora

I completely forgot, the most wonderful thing is, that my fiancé is adopting my son, he won’t know anything different than that he is called Dieter Timm. He already calls himself that.

Best wishes for Christmas
Your Dora.

Springtime in Bergerdorf
Dear comrades!

I decided to leave out the date, so as not to get you mad at me. It is really difficult to part from the dear book, there is always something to read in it and the sweet little ones are so wonderful, sweet smiles. Also, very belated congratulations to the young mothers Helga and Carla, and to Elfriedchen and Else upon their engagement.

The house next to ours is now inhabited, and gives us much pleasure. There is always things to do, it is hard to believe, but that of course if the charm of life; if we had everything, we would get e bored and disgusted

The last two years I have had a very calm, introspective life. In a few weeks, my husband is taking his exam to become a teacher of the speech-handicapped and deaf-mutes. Which, here as elsewhere, is a very demanding one. Hopefully, he will be done soon, so that we can enjoy the summer in beautiful nature, and catch up in droves for everything we had to miss the past two years.

Fondest greetings from
your Gertrud Martens.

Hanover 22 May 38
Moltkeplatz 6 III
Dear Class!

How nice to hold the book in my hands again and I read with great pleasure the news; you sound happier and more joyful all the time. I am happiest for the two of you, Dora and Helga, who have had a particularly hard time. –

Life in Duisburg ended soon after I made my last entry. Günther had whooping cough and I went with him to Lüneburg for several weeks. The change of air worked although winter found him with a tendency to catch colds. In February, the poor little thing had to have abdominal surgery. Since then, he has developed wonderfully. He is running around like a weasel and is turning into a little man that requires a pretty strong grip.

His Duisburg job no longer corresponded to my husband ‘s expectations and so we looked for another line of work for him. – Since mid January 38, we are in Hanover. “Looking for an apartment in Hanover was a funny venture. It is indescribable how impossibly apartments are built or remodeled. Unquestionably, there is a lot to be done in the area of apartment design. Like Gertrud Martens, we are looking forward to having our own home. But we are not there yet. – With a great deal of luck, we found an apartment that could pass inspection, and we are felling at ease in it. As of this Spring, we also have a small garden for the children. I say children, because my sister lives 10 minutes away. We rent the garden jointly and its 4 child-inhabitants are full of joyful life. On sunny days, we take meals out there, warmed up on a camping stove and eaten outdoors. – We rarely have the satisfaction of having our men with us, and when they are, it is a special holiday!– My husband belongs to the corporation of steel and metal workers and spends a lot of time visiting businesses. I find it fascinating to listen to his reports about his job. When we get our own car, I plan to do the trips with him, and that is the object of our striving.

Fond greetings to all
your Carla
13 June 38
I did not send the letter right away, and so can share with you the happy announcement of the birth of a second boy on Whitmonday. I am feeling great; have already been getting up and the little one is doing well.

Scarsdale 20 November 1938

Dear loved ones in the German homeland!

This book always makes me homesick, even though I always look forward to seeing it. It has been another two and a half year since my last letter and I still have not made it back. Still I hope that the day of our trip to Germany is not too far.

So, you‘ll ask, how come I didn’t take the trip? what is the reason? Or rather the reasons? Mary and Margreta! Our little ones! Mary has now been promoted to big sister. She is 2 and 1/4 years, healthy, strong and full of exuberant life. She is constantly in motion from morning till night, has to take everything into her hands, and must do everything by herself. If we don’t allow her to do so, she protests vigorously. For instance, she must take her own milk out of the refrigerator, pour it into a pot and put it onto the stove. She would love to strike the matches too, and this is currently our big fighting point! Everyday, everyday! For the most part, actually, this little independent person is right. She rarely attempts to do anything she can’t do. But why waste my time speaking about that ‘problem’ most of you have your own children, you all go through the same things day after day.

Our little one, our “Baby Kar” as Mary says [literally Baby Pram] is 5 1/2 months old. She is completely the opposite of Mary. She is quiet, peaceful and entranced by her old sister. It is precious to observe how fascinated she is by everything Mary does. I am quite accessory, I am just someone that puts things into her mouth whereas Mary laughs and is boisterous and makes mischief, and this calls for laughter and squalling. I have a feeling that a year from now the two will be inseparable.

For the past year, we have been living in a suburb of New York. The suburb is 50 km from New York. Francis takes the train into town and back every day, one of thousands of New Yorkers, business people who subject themselves to this ‘pleasantness’ every day, so as to enable their children to grow up in the green, away from skyscrapers.

Scarsdale is a beautiful little town of villas. Everybody has his small or big house in a small or large garden. We are among those who have a small house. Aside from the commute, we are very pleased to be living here. The children prosper. They have a little of nature and learn to appreciate it. Birds, squirrels are particularly interesting here. They are so tame that they virtually eat out of our hand. Mary is particularly pleased with squirrels. She stands on the veranda, feeding them nuts. One after the other, they come down the trunk, until we have a whole family sitting on the veranda steps. Of course, we can only feed them when Putzi, our dachshund, is not around. The dog is too annoyed by the fresh squirrels, and chases them around, although she has yet to catch one.

In the Summer of 1937, we made a beautiful and very interesting trip. We drove West in our car for several days to visit Francis’ birthplace. He was born in the “Midwest” of the United States, as far from New York as Hamburg is from Constantinople. Driving very comfortably, with planned side-trips, it took us four days. A car really does allow one to cover the miles. The interesting part of the trip was the following: we followed the same route as the pioneers did in their covered wagons through the last century. In Francis’ case, the Germans and English landed on the coast, stayed there for one generation, the next generation moved 300 miles west and made a life for themselves there; the next generation in turn continued West, until finally Francis was born in the Midwest. We look for the places where Francis’ ancestors had lived, tried to find some descendants, with more or less success. In this way, we learnt American history and family history on our holiday trip. I learnt many things, which I would have learnt as a ten-year old had I lived in America. One side trip took us to the Ford factory and museum in Detroit. This is typically American. A museum may occupy an area of a few square kilometers. They buy a house that has some kind of connection with American history; it is taken apart or loaded as a whole on a railroad wagon and transplanted into the museum. In this way, we were able to see there, a stationmaster’s house of the first American railroad station, the house in which Lincoln went to school, etc. The most interesting thing is that everything is laid out on an enormous scale: money is no object. Every mood of Henry Ford’s is followed; whatever interests him personally, he gets. There are old ploughs, old eating implements, modern lamps. It is a veritable treasure trove for anyone half-interested. Everything is there, and everything is under the motto of America.

Chicago I also found very interesting in its grime, and its railroad that crosses the city without any warning sings or signs. If one is careless, it is very easy to get hit by the train.

I found Niagara Falls disappointing. The artificial waterfalls are actually much more majestic than the natural ones.

This year of course, there was no trip. Margreta was born in the middle of summer, and that kept us at home. But we have no regrets.

And now I’ll close with congratulations to all young mothers and little sons and daughters. The wishes are a bit stale, but just as sincere. All the best to Else and Friedchen, assuming/hoping they are married in the meantime.

Fond greetings to all you old class comrades and many happy times in the coming year, until the book next crosses the big water.
Your Annemarie Lepel Gerhart.

Brunsbuttelkoog, 11 January 39
Dear old class,

It is exactly three years since I last saw the book, which arouses so many beautiful memories. We just returned from our vacation, so my first task will be to tell us what happened to us. You’ll be happy to hear that since October 37, we are living in Brunsbuttelkoog near the Kaiser-Wilhelm Canal, for Willms has taken a position on land. We are thankful everyday to be together at last, and enjoying together the growth of our boy.
Wills is often absent for 24 hours, which is like nothing compared to the previous months-long separations. Aside from that, we are now the owners of a beautiful house with a garden, which allows John to spend a lot of time outdoors. We really enjoyed last summer on our lawn– even though it was a short summer. I have enclosed a photograph of our house ) As a former city dweller I am having to get used to the quiet of the countryside– but the beauty is more than compensating for it. For our wild boy, the house with its garden is like Heaven. Right this moment he is racing around me. I wonder if his little legs will ever stop moving. People keep clamoring for pictures, so I will make a beginning and stick a few into the book. You will se how our young one has developed. He is our joy and sunshine in all our darkest hours. The latter have not spared us. My mother is much better again, and we are happy to be able to have her with us. My fondest wish for all of you is that you may never have to suffer at seeing another, beloved person in pain, and not be able to do anything about it. When I received the Roundrobin letter it got me thinking at the unburdened years of training– how wonderful they were! I so wish we could get back together. Are we still meeting at Easter? if it takes place in Hamburg, I would be able to make it. Hilde, you are the organizer, do remember me. I am so happy to hear that you are all well. Best wishes to you Elfriede and Else.– I imagine that by now you have changed your name. Good luck for the babies, to all the happy mothers. Please, do stick in pictures, so that we will get to know all of them. We really must meet soon

To all of you, fondly,
Helga Gerhard.

Ebstorf 8 may 1939
Dear friends all!

10 years already that I am married, the family takes all my free time. I hesitate to tell you that the arrival of our little book was my birthday present. Our Nursery garden has been moved to Ebstorf, 5 Lüneburg. We also have a small farm on the side. My work is very diverse. In the morning, I must take care of the animals. Then I put Little Rita on her way to school. Then it’s to the cooking stove. Then it’s on to the nursery where I help my husband Luten. Afternoons I go into town for errands. But I am just as happy to stay home. Right now, we have a lot to do in a hurry. I enjoy planting and sowing.

My greatest joy every day is my sweet little boy, Jürgen. He is a very likable child, hard to describe, one really must experience him. He is almost 3 years old. His little sister mothers him and guards him like the apple of her eye. The two of them are a really delightful team. – At this time of year, and particularly here in Ebstorf, the world is very beautiful. My ducks are swimming on the water, they are charming little things that I am raising.

And so we live in happiness in Ebstorf with plants, flowers and animals.
Most heartfelt greetings.
Ilse and Family.

Dear Old Class,

I believe it is 12 years already since we graduated from the Handwork Seminar in Hamburg. How time passes and how many experiences the years have brought! Most of you have your own households and have children of your own. A few of us, myself included, have our joy in other people’s children, for not everybody can have that happiness This book accidentally came to me. I ran into Hilde Schulze at an exhibition in Hamburg. I didn’t recognize her at first, then we started talking and it all came back. To tell you the truth, that year was the best for me also. Many things have changed at the Bremerstrasse also. We are already having the second Director since Frau Oakes (?) left. Many colleagues have gone into retirement, many new teachers come in. There comes a point where one hardly sees each other at school. There is hardly anytime to meet after classes. We each have our complement of other things to do.–

The book has given me much pleasure; it makes for such a complete change of perspective. How happy and satisfied most of you seem in your writing! I do hope I can meet all of you some time. If any of you come to Hamburg, you will always be welcome at my familiar address: Am Elizabethgeholz 14 Tel. 262191.

Greetings to all and much happiness and luck, from
Your old Class Mother
May 26, 1939 Karla Dudy.

Bittersfeld 24 June 39
Auenstrasse 16,

Dear Comrades from Hamburg!

The book always brings the same pleasure! It is particularly pleasant that the ambiant mood of all the reports is one of satisfaction and happiness. there is no doubt that in the 12 years elapsed since we left Hamburg, many interesting things have happened for most members of our class. I am most delighted by your reports and the photographs of you and your children (between all of you quite a numerous lot – all the photographs are charming, one could fall in love with each of the little brats. Please go on!

I have nothing new to report. It must be the first time in all these years that I still have the same address and occupation in two successive reports, in this case five years apart. On the whole, I am doing well in Bittersfeld. In the meantime our school has become a (Full School) (Vollanstalt). At Easter 1940, we will administer our first Abitur (we are called the High School for Girls, Home Economics) The work has become somewhat more varied than in the early ears. For the past year, we have a beautiful new building to which rooms for practical work will be added soon. For the time being, we are hosted by other schools for those activities.

Right now, I am busy making plans for my holiday, and look forward to the trip Hilde and I intend to take, to Salzburg and the Wolfgangsee.

Something particularly nice has been happening in the last few months: Elfriedchen lives n Worlitz (Anhalt) and I visit her every now and then on Sundays. I happen to be here today and so Elfriede will take the book after me and then it will be on to the regular succession. – I hope you will be satisfied with this somewhat cursory report. I hope you will all remain happy as ever.

All the best till next time. Fondly, your
Grete Schulze

Worlitz July 39
Dear All,

I was especially happy when Grete brought this book with her; we sat down right away and proceeded to look at all the pictures and enjoy the reports! It is really nice to have Grete visit here every now and then, I am looking forward to her next visit, for then we shall be able to rhapsodize together about the Wolfgangsee, where she is going for her holiday, and where I spent my honeymoon last year. Yes, it has been a whole year of marriage, and how quickly time has passed! Our wedding took place in Lüneburg, in our old beautiful St John’s Church. It was a double wedding, for my brother was also getting married and you can well imagine how festive it all was. And just think, Inge Holzgrebe’s little Rita scattered flowers for us and did it in very lovely fashion, it is too bad that you only get to see a little bit of her on the picture! I have been a Hausfrau for the past year and enjoy it enormously, have not the slightest nostalgia for the teaching life. We are very happy in our nice small apartment in a new building, with a nice garden on the side.

Worlitz is well known for its unique parks, which receives thousands of visitors during the summer. It is really worth the trip with its castles, and lakes and beautiful parks, if anyone of you ever goes to Dessau, don’t forget to make a detour and come here (30 minutes by train ride) In the summer there are many things to do and I often have visitors. It is also nice that Dessau is so close, especially in Winter, because we now have a beautiful new Theatre, which we enjoy at every opportunity. – Right now, I am in the middle of getting ready for a holiday trip to Norway. Do you remember Fräulein Rudtke’s exciting tales from her trip there?

Be well all of you, all the best to all mothers and children. I do wonder if we are going to meet ever again? If not earlier, at least when you Dear Annemarie manage to cross the ocean and come to Germany, for which we all keep our fingers crossed!

Once again, fond greetings to all of you, your Elfriede Carl.

Lüneburg 5 November 39
Dear All!

Else is here today, and she will have to take with her the book that has been lying here since the end of August! With all the tension of recent events , I have not found any energy to write in the book. Don’t hold it against me, if I keep things short today. I was really happy with all your stories, and the descriptions and pictures of the children! And Else will soon join the ranks with her own child. I am doing well here in Lüneburg, not much has changed in my life. I look forward to the occasional meetings with one or the other from our Hamburg circle. I often see Else. Elfriedchen was in Lüneburg during the summer. I visited Ilse a few times in Ebstorf, and I recently met Carla in Hanover. Now that Käthe is in Uelzen we naturally get together every now and then at the end of the week. It would be nice if could all get together again. But first we shall have to wait and see how things develop politically. Let us hope goes well. Do many of you have husbands in the army?

I wish all the best from the bottom of my heart
Your Hildegard Schulze.

Soltau 11 September 40
Dear Old Class!

The dear nice book has spent long enough here. I have been reproved already for my neglect by Hilde, Grete and Kathe. I had been so happy to receive it last year, and then I wanted to hold on to it ‘just a little longer’. One should never do that, for it is easy, too easy, to forget about it! I stuck pictures in right away, the ones of our boy are already quite old! But we must follow orders!

Elfriedchen gave such a nice report about her wedding in which I was included with my trusted husband (of which you can see a little piece on the photograph) At that point, we were in great need of a n apartment but started out in my own bachelorette’s quarters. At first, things went quite well and we are all the happier now to have found a “suitable” apartment. Some of you already know it, for the others I am including a photograph. We have been here two years already. Meanwhile our Ulrich is 1 year and 5 months old. I followed with great interest the lovely accounts about your children. And all of you write so blissfully about the little tumbling beings (‘Purzelwesen’ corresponding to the Italian Putti), the way mothers are wont to do. There just is no way of anticipating this ahead of time. My little guy was born n April 7, 1939, and gave me a very easy time of it. He weighted exactly 6 3/4 pounds and measured 51 cm. He has thrived, and I was able to nurse him for a full 10 months, of course with the addition of vegetable and fruit meals. In the meantime, he has gained a lot of weight, and despite the terrible summer he looks nicely tanned and red-cheeked. He took his time deciding to walk, until he was 1 and 1/4 year when he took his first steps, but then he didn’t do much more, it was so much faster crawling, but a month later he was racing everywhere from one day to the next. Now there’s no stopping him! This really is a golden age! He imitates everything, a veritable echo. And the impulse to do things is hardly to be limited. Of course, you other mothers know all that. From what I’ve heard, by the time this book comes out there will be another addition! Carla, you busy woman, you already have 3 boys, Elfriedchen (I can tell, can’t I?) has a little Hans Jürgen since July. And who knows what else has happened while the book was going from stage-post to stage-post. I wish all the best to you and all your offspring and look forward to the next reports.– Whose husbands are at war, I wonder? I had to give up my husband in February He was beginning to feel really awkward about his continued civilian status. For a while, I heard of him in a series of barracks. This was very nice for we were able to visit ever y four weeks on Sunday. Unfortunately, I have lost track of him since July. He is in Belgium and hopes fondly not to be sent to England! What can I say? I guess we have to be courageous like all the many, many other women and hope that this frightful war will soon come to an end. Things are getting really hot these days, it is hard to conceive how the English expect us to respond to their nasty tactics. Those are of course hard to conceive with one’s German heart. – We in our small town of Soltau have never had a bombing alarm although we hear every night the hum of enemy airplanes and the shooting of the anti-aircraft positions from surrounding troops and munitions factories. I do hope all of you have been preserved from harm too. If nothing else, for the children’s sake, what a pity!

I think I better stop. Or else the book will get full before the end of the war and paper is soooo rare!. Otherwise I could go on and on. So I will hope that by the next time, this book will only have happy news, the war is long forgotten and maybe even our three ‘holdouts (Hilde Grete and Kathe will have news for us!

Greetings from your Else Bottcher

Uelzen 8 January 1941
My very dear ones!

I know I have kept it to myself too long, but now I can’t any more since Else has ordered me to produce some news!

All right then: I was married 5 days ago! Happy infinitely!
No time! Tomorrow my husband must return to Krakow!

Best greetings
Your Käthe Klein, nee Brandes
Best wishes Richard Klein

Now, don’t think the book left on the 8th. Actually, here it sits, and it is the 12th. In the meantime, I am brokenhearted from the goodbyes and here I stand with the debris of my broken heart and a terrible cough (whooping cough (not really!) which has been making the rounds among adults in the area. in the Heia.[??] I am counting the days till our next leave and try to imagine how it is possible to enjoy one’s honeymoon on the installment plan. In our case, the best we can expect will be counted in days, but if these days are all as precious as the ones just past, I will consider myself content. C’est la guerre!

Four years ago, when I last had this dear book, I was still in Remscheid, but turned my back on it for good half a year later to come to Uelzen. Children, there is nothing like small towns! They are really healthy and spare one’s nerves, especially for people like me whose nerves tend to crumble to dust at the slightest provocation. I think that if I were to spend 6 years teaching in a big city, people could sweep my bones up. And all the energy one saves living in a small place can then be applied to the job. The nice thing about Remscheid was its closeness to Cologne (where my sister is) and to Soest (where my husband then was). In those days, we got to know thoroughly the whole region between Soest and Remscheid through wonderful weekend trips, especially the mountain areas, which is really beautiful!

Now my painter-husband is so excited by the landscape here, that we intend to stay put here for a while, and I am happy with that because I love this land too. Where else could we live in such beautiful surroundings? For the past 2 1/2 years, I have had a picture pretty little apartment in a nice little one-family house near the Ilmenau. Hilde, Else and Carla all know it: I’m not bragging, am I? We jump over the fence and lie down to sunbathe. School 5 minutes away. Boat on the Ilmenau to be borrowed from my landlords anytime I want it. What more could a heart want? And I feel so lucky to have this little apartment with everything I need. For how else would I be able to get it now? If only this frightful war would end!

We should meet some time at Wilsede at the Heidemuseum (Museum of the Moor), no Friedchen? as we did in the summer of 39 when my painter- man and I thoroughly enjoyed the moors. And then I had to listen to Else and her husband’s worried inquiries: wasn’t it too lonely on the moor for me? etc. And I sheepishly agreed with them and found the greatest circumlocutions, until I finally realized that the rascals had themselves spent four weeks at the Heidemuseum right after we had been there, and had of course looked at the guest book. Tja,Klumbumbus, san de Amerikaner, as Klumbumbus jem entdeckt hew, nu helpt dat woll nix mehr– nu sind wi alle jo entdeckt! Well,Clumbumbus, the Americans said as Clumbumbus had discovered them, no helping it now– we’ve all been discovered – which is what it was, just that it took me a while to wise up to it.

Tschuss, dear ones, my eyes are frozen; I better cover them up.
Käthe Klein.

February 1941
Dear Ones All!

What joy to receive this book after four and a half year, having almost given up hope, assuming the book had died! And all of you seem happy and contented, Dora’ s dark times have turned for the better, how wonderful! If only this evil war were over, lifting the heavy burden that rests on us — how happy we would be then. Actually, until now, I only had to give up my husband for 4 months last summer, and in this, I only had to suffer what lies in store for everyone else. But the future does look frightening, with the possibility of a new separation. Another fear is what will happen with the bombing attacks. Until now, things had remained occasionally unpleasant. But Berlin will certainly remain a choice target. Before Christmas, little Günther and I went away for a few weeks to be able to sleep again in peace. I will try to do it again soon. I would much rather stay here, for there just isn’t anything like home anywhere. But perhaps we will soon see more clearly into the future, and will be able once again to enjoy our happiness— We are well, very well. For the past two years, we have been in a larger, wonderful apartment in Neuwestend, nor very far from the Olympic Stadium, 4 1/2 rooms, sunny, warm, roomy, well appointed in every respect; we feel very comfortable here, and have been able to enjoy the circle of our friends in it. In the meantime , our Günther is almost 5 years old, and is a daily source of happiness and pride, he is our sunshine, and all of you who are parents understand just what I mean. He is a slender child, doesn’t like to eat much, despite all my efforts, is outwardly lively and learns quickly, sings often with great pleasure, is delighted and loving, physically strong, vigorous and tenacious. Some people think he is his father’s spitting image, others that he looks exactly like me. He has dark brown eyes, as an infant he had the most beautiful chestnut curls, although they have given way to a boy’s haircut. Since he is 3 and 1/2, he goes to a kindergarten in the neighborhood, which has a very good influence on him.

On July 29, 1939, a beloved little brother, Gerhard, was born to us, and we were boundlessly happy. The child was strong (7 pounds) and seemed healthy, just like Günther as a baby. Unfortunately, it had been a very difficult birth, as the first one had been, still, the first few weeks, everything went well and the child was thriving. Gradually, we had to acknowledge to our immense sadness, that the child had suffered a grave injury at birth. There followed horrible months. We had to bring him to the Charité Hospital where the best doctor took care of him– I will never forget this day.He stayed there almost 3/4 of a year, everything cure was attempted, in vain. He even had surgery– and survived it thanks to his otherwise strong constitution. Since they couldn’t do anything more for him in the hospital, and we could not take care of him at home, I was forced to bring him to a special home soon after his first birthday. What this means for a mother is impossible to describe. Having reached the limit of my own strength, I went to the sea for 2 months with Günther (my husband had been called up in the meantime); there, I was able to gain some perspective from the terrible pain, and returned to life. In October, my husband was allowed to come home, and so at least the three of us were together. We actually have relatively comforting news about our little problem child. He is cared for very lovingly and attentively, and we have recently begun to think that we may not need to give up all our hope for the child!

I now greet you all and your families very very warmly, and send my husband’s greetings, together with many wishes for happiness and joy.
Your Gertrud Merzin

I do hope we will soon get together again– if not in the flesh, then at least by way of this book. So, don’t wait to long, and include photographs.

Bramfeld 30 June 41
Dear All!

After a very long time, the book found its way to me again, and I can’t say how happy I am. Two days earlier, I had told my husband that the Classbook was probably dead and gone. But speak of the devil. . . sure enough, the book arrived. I read it immediately and then once again in the evening. And then a fairly long time elapsed until today. In the meantime, we came heret to our little summer home to recuperate, intending to stay for the whole summer. It is too bad I can’t send you a few roses, everything is in bloom. I am also busy harvesting strawberries, which are doing really well in my garden. And there is nothing better than air and sun for the children. As of September 15 1940, there is a little Rüdiger here, a strong little fellow of 8 pounds who is doing splendidly. 2 weeks before Whitsun he had bronchial fever –from the bomb shelters of course– and we had to be separated for 5 weeks. While in the hospital he got chickenpox. He is back with us for two weeks and we are very happy about it, he is already nicely tanned with round cheeks. It is so delightful to have such a small being nearby, who laughs, and babbles and jubilates when “maman” comes. Our big Dieter who is 7 years old no longer belongs entirely to his mother. He is a lively, wide-awake boy and is out with his playmates all day. We only see him at mealtimes. Since he only starts school in the fall, he can still devote all his time to play. I enclosed a picture of my young ones; it was taken on our balcony at Easter. As of Easter 1939, I am just a Hausfrau, having given up my teaching, and it is a thousand times nicer this way. Can you hear? Rüdiger is calling his maman from the garden, he suddenly felt lonesome. I’d better run over before he climbs out of the pram.

Actually while he was at the hospital his little legs turned to rubber, he was standing stronger prior to his illness; but as you know a strong will is half the work, and when I leave him alone he cries murder. Not that I don’t do it anyway. Last night, we had some wild shooting here, and when the heavy flak artillery rumbles, everything is shaking, for the anti-aircraft battery is very close.

I hope everything will soon end, and we can again sleep soundly at night; actually, I’d happily give up real coffee forever if that were the price of peace. Just a minute, I need to put down my little bouncing doll. At first, he was writing along with me, but now he decided to pull my hair for a change, which I won’t tolerate. Yes, yes, children! I would be very happy to show him to you. We are happy that so far, our daddy has not been conscripted, so at least he can see his children in the evening and on Sundays

Mid-July

More time has passed, and still the book is sitting here. There is always work for a housewife, especially at preserves time. I have finished putting away most of my peas, just a few more jars left for tomorrow. Meanwhile, the photographs have been developed, so you’ll have something to look at. It is very cool and rainy today, but I always have found that in the city the rain feels wetter than when one is out in the green, even Dieter doesn’t let it disturb him.

Both children are asleep; it is pretty late, Papa has gone to bed also, and Mutti is tired. So good night to all of you my loved ones, perhaps a good star will grant us the happiness of a get-together in person, children included. I wish us all much sunshine and everything good, especially to Annemarie on the other side of the Big Pond.

Many fond greetings from
Your Dora and Allies

December 41
My dears!

The book must start moving again. I have spent enough time reading it and studying all the baby-pictures.

Since the beginning of March., I am at the beautiful Tegernsee, working in the KLV as camp-helper with a group whom my man had taught here. Sewing and darning for approximately 50 children was no small matter, but I sought out the older children and divided them into darning classes, which made the work manageable. The reward was mountain-hikes, so that they ascended all the mountains that circle the lake.
[http://www.travelbrochuregraphics.com/Germany_Pages/Germany_14/Tegenrsee.htm].

On the south shore, there is a 9th century monastery. The old monks really had a knack for finding the most beautiful sites for their monasteries. In 1850, after repeated destruction in x… wars, the monastery came into the possession of some Bavarian Duke. The castle church is a pearl of the Baroque style, and we had uplifting experiences there of Christmas Vigils and High Holiday services. For the time being, I am recovering from an abscess at the Tegernsee hospital, to make sure it doesn’t return. In a few days, I will be heading for home.

this will have been a beautiful time here in this incomparably majestic landscape. I was reminded of the landscapes one sees in the background of medieval pictures like the Mona Lisa or in the works of Altdorfer; looking at it is a daily delight. Here one does not feel the war, the alpine lake lies still at the foot of its mountains. I am happy to be allowed to spend so long in this paradisiacal place .

May the terrible war end soon, so that you will be reunited with your husbands and children happily. This is my fond wish as I bid you good bye
Your Gertrud Martens

Uelzen 16 April 42
My dears!

I’m jumping the line. I just wanted to introduce you to my small son. Voila! His name is Ulrich! His was a complicated birth, following a caesarian , but one wouldn’t know it, quite the opposite. I am continuing my teaching. I bought myself a little house last summer nearby, small-format -you know– pocket-size; still, it has a lawn and a patio and the little master of the house is standing outside in the sun and my heart is beating with joy I am soooo happy! Uli is thriving according to rule, he has a vigorous temperament and gave his own baptismal speech. When his uncle the minister baptized him he grabbed his finger and didn’t let go, the boy next to him had to content himself with the other hand for the ministerial blessing. And then he reached for the Bible and when he had succeeded in swiping it aside, he purred happily. After the holy ceremony was over, he said loud and clear “hapuff” with a little shower to boot. That’s him.

And our father still doesn’t know his son, nor the house, and soon he won’t know me anymore, if things continue the way this way. He has been gone 13 months now, in the East with no leaves in sight. I guess it really is as our Helga used to say—if things went any better, the trees would grow as high as the sky!

Fond greetings
Your Kathe Klein.

Soltau June 48

Dear old Hamburger!

So the book has re-emerged from the depths—how easy it would have been to forget its very existence. I was hugely happy when I received it recently here in Lüneburg. Leafed thorough it and read it again and again, but eventually it must go on its way. You others will be happy too, right?

I wonder how you are all doing; the evil war has shaken everything loose and I can’t think of any family that was spared. In our little Soltau, things were not too unpleasant. The only bombs, which fell 8 days before the Occupation, bombed our street out of existence, and with my children and my mother I crept around for one and a half year with some acquaintances. We were so happy that the children came out of the rubble safe and healthy. 12 people died in the neighbors’ house, and our Ulrich had been playing there until just a little time before the bomb hit. Hartwig, who was then 6 months old, fared well too, I had just put him down for his afternoon nap and so he was with me; we were about to race down to the basement when the basement steps disappeared. Afterwards I found a big roof tile in his pram in the garden. Considering it when things quieted down, the damage to the furniture seemed not half bad, for we were measuring with a different yardstick, and now that we sit again in a house (rebuilt with much help from our landlord), it feels downright cozy. It feels positively royal to have one’s own living room and bedroom; in the children’s room, we have a little 11 year old girl as a boarder; most important I have a kitchen all to myself. Compared with what happened to others, it is truly a reason for happiness and thankfulness. True, Carla? you must cope and still, when I met you too briefly in Lüneburg , you managed to keep your head high come what may,. And Elfriedchen, who must start from scratch, having abandoned everything to the Russians.

My husband was returned to me already on the 25th of September; it makes it a lot easier to have another person. He was able to keep his job so that now we muddle back to some kind of ‘normality.’ Besides, my husband’s siblings have been so touching and decent; they supplied us with calories throughout the years, which greatly lightened my load. Everybody has his “lawn” again. Right now, it is time for the bilberries and then it will be one thing or another till the end of summer. We are all healthy, especially our Hartwig who will be 4 in August and bursts with health. Elfriedchen’s husband once called him a wandering little ham! His will is similarly strong so that he leads me by the nose. Ulrich is 9 years old, much softer and easier to manage. He is a little thinker and dreamer and is already quite reasonable. His interests? Cars and the roaring noise of their different models (which his poor silly mother won’t ever learn) Unfortunately I lost my camera, which means I have a very small selection of pictures!

So, you now have the large strokes, I better stop to leave room for others. I would find really beautiful if we could find each other again. Maybe it will be possible after we reestablish a contact through the book. Who knows, many a one may be living much closer than I realize? We Lüneburgers, Käthe in Uelzen and Grete passed each other a few times in the dark without realizing it. That our dear Ilse is dead, most of you may not know. Hilde was the last one to be with her, and may be able to write us more about it. I imagine that with her deft and hard-working , responsible, being she wore herself out for her family. Do you remember how fast she used to be when we made lingerie, whenever she needed to re-open a crooked seam and redo it? How happy her last report sounded.

I hope you will all make it through the certainly difficult times ahead and won’t have too many sad news to report. Greetings to your husbands and children (how many are there now?) and do enjoy, as I did, the dear book!

Grete, just one last fond wish, that you can return to your profession! And that you, Kathe Lutjes, will soon get a sign of life from your husband! I don’t know anything about the rest of you!

Your ever-faithful Else Bottcher(I put the photographs in an envelope to save space.

Lüneburg 29 June 1948
Dear Old Seminary Class!

You will all have the same experience I and Else had. It is impossible to tear away from the dear old book; it is so great a pleasure to hold it in one’s hands after such a long time, and sofar with mostly good news. It has been 9 years since I last wrote in it , and that’s probably true of most of the rest of you. If all of us were to recount in the detail what happened during those years, there would not be enough room in the book. Too much has happened, and I can only hope that most of you have remained healthy with husbands and children. Thank God! that is the case for me. In the Spring of 46, after many months of uncertainty, I was reunited with my husband who arranged to be released nearby when he was let out of the prisoners’ camps.– After the Collapse, I had to abandon everything to flee with my mother who luckily was staying with me then, and with our boy. We fled to some relatives in Magdeburg, and I worked in a wood factory as a carpenter’s apprentice for my uncle. Thus I earned some money and was able to receive a food-card for workers, which was so important. From Magdeburg I ‘fought” to get my things back, and I was successful in saving some clothing and get it a here. Another piece of great luck was that my mother’s apartment in our dear, old relatively intact Lüneburg was still standing and the old home thus become our new one. My husband was able to resume his business and so we all have good reasons to thank our fate for remaining alive. Our 8-year-old Hansjürgen gives us much joy, he is tall and strong for his age. He loves it when he can go with his mother and visit Tante Else in Soltau at the end of the week , which happens fairly often. It is hard to say who is the happiest, the mothers or the children. When we are with Tante Else, it is almost like in peacetime, everything is so pretty despite all the shortages. In my mother’s apartment we are all piled on top of each other, but I imagine it is the same with most of you. It is very nice that we occasionally meet with Carla and Hilde, and with Grete and Kathe. Hopefully, this precious book will reestablish the contact with all the others.

Greetings to husbands and children, with many good wishes for the future, that it may be easier for us than the past has been.
Elfriede Carl.

(The following is a letter from Gertrud Merzin to be read to the participants at the Class Day of 1949, in Uelzen, which she was unable to attend)

5 April 1949
My dear,
Helga, Dora, Gertrud,
Carla, Else, Elfriedchen
Hilde, Grete Kathe !

I am greeting you all from the bottom of my heart from afar, and celebrate a happy reunion after 22 years. What a long time! and how fast it raced by! What a fullness of experience has rolled over us, with everything that happened in each family.

I would only too much like to listen to all the life-stories, to hear about all the different fates in detail. Please share things with me, even when you write only briefly. What do you say? Should we start a new Class-Letter going, or is the old one still around somewhere, so that its current guardian can bring it to light? If at all possible, don’t forget the photographs! maybe even using a professional photographer. Or just send me whatever photographs you have at hand, as I do here.

Are you finished all the storytelling over coffee and dinner? Here I now come, the faithless one, who can’t give you all the reasons why I didn’t make it. I do want you to know that now as before I feel closely connected with you, and would love to sit among you all.

In April 1941, I put the Letter into the mail, having written from Schreiberhau where I had gone with our older son Gunther for 2 months to escape the bombing in Berlin (which compared to later attacks was hardly worth mentioning). Anyway: Our little Gottfried was on his way. He was born in Berlin on the 11 of June, small and healthy after an easy birth; after the great pain of our second boy (who as a result of an unsuccessful forceps delivery had suffered an incurable injury), he was a heavenly consolation and sunshine. This child really has an exceptionally happy disposition, is lovable, considerate, a delicate little guy whom everyone loves to see. When he was 3 months old, my husband was drafted and was sent as Captain-Lieutenant in the Staff of the Navy Group South near Sofia. He stayed there for two years, returned via Southern Russia (Crimea) the whole Balkans, Greece! Crete, Rhodes etc. Afterwards he was sent with a Navy job in Vienna in the reserves, stayed there till March 45, arrived finally to Schleswig Holstein after many adventures, and thus was lucky enough to be a prisoner of the English. He was a POW for 9 months, and on the 4th of August 45, we got our father back, somewhat trembly from starvation, but otherwise safe and sound.– All this reads like a n easy, harmless story but there were many dangerous precipices along the way.

I stayed in the Berlin apartment with the children until August 1943. Then came Goebbel’s call to evacuate. I spent a week packing many pieces of luggage, as long as I had packing supplies, and then we left our home “till Christmas”, as the neighbors consoled each other, but I felt miserable. We learnt to realize how miserable one is when one doesn’t belong anywhere and must depend on the kindness of one’s fellow human beings. We went in the direction of Vienna, which was still considered the “bomb shelter of the German Reich” and where my Husband had just started to work there, and was himself in the process of finding his footing. What we experienced there with lodgings was unbelievable – the landlady is still called The Witch by us– so that we didn’t fell like staying (it is lucky in retrospect that staying was made difficult to us!) and after a week, we fled further to the house of some helpful friends in Ulm. Then 3 weeks more with sack and baggage to Bad Wildungen where, through my father in law, we were offered 2 mansards in the vicarage, hoping to be able to stay there till the end of the wear. Which is what happened. It is a wonderful area, from our windows we could see far into the land, the rooms were modest but nice—only the ministers were awful. Ah, what an unhappy situation it is to be uprooted having to ask and beg, losing all sense of self-consciousness. Who am I? Who are the others? They have everything, don’t understand, and are cold, loveless, make life difficult.

I am sure there are many among you who have had the same experience. Luckily, one forgets evil quickly. The most important thing was, though, that the children made it through relatively peaceful and healthy, they never had to go through a bombing. Of course, we often fled to bomb shelters in the middle of the night, but it could have been much worse. Then came the collapse, Wildum was occupied by the Americans, the vicarage was not requisitioned and everything we had feared was spared us.

After my husband returned, things gradually improved. Of course the tight space was awful and very stressing; after all the travels, after my any trips trying to find a job again, my husband chanced upon his old office in January 46. It had been evacuated from Berlin by way of Stollberg-Göttingen, but was just being reconstituted. Later a job opened up in Berlin “East”. Our (“West”) remains in Gmünd for the time being. After that, he had to go through all kinds of difficulties, as expected, and after he managed to find an apartment (luckily, Gmünd had been untouched) we were able to follow him in May 46: all our sacks and packs on a LKW truck, 15 hours of being shaken in a cold May night—anyway – those were the days! Only then did we start getting really hungry until we found our footing and were able to locate a few sources of food. Apartment: very beautiful (without sun, though) we are alone there; delightful landscape. Gmünd beautiful old city (used to be 20 000 inh., now chockfull with refugees) we like it here. In February 47, we then had our post-war baby, our Hans-Christian, who is a delight.

We are very happy and thankful about this new treasure. The brothers have very good fraternal relations, although they are each different. The smallest one is the most youthful. The older one is very much like his father in disposition, has like him an ability to understand quickly , and is one of the best students in his class. Gottfried has received the most of my musical talents. On Christmas, the two of us made music together, piano and flute, with great pleasure.

At first we didn’t have much, borrowed or found things. We are beginning to buy things for ourselves. Our furniture in Berlin was left intact by the bombs, even though a lot happened in that area, but we can’t get a hold of them, because of the problems of zone-borders. Besides, some people have gotten a hold of them who are not willing to let go of them and have actually sold, exchanged or disposed of much of it. Most unpleasant! But it would be unthinkable to mourn over them. I was there once in April 48, was even able to get into the apartment through a go-between, the main part of the objects was there—it felt very strange. Here were the things I had earned with my own money, my beautiful piano was still there, yet everything had become foreign, and especially –unobtainable!- except for a small selection of books which had not seemed worth bringing along when we were evacuated and which I now felt grateful to be allowed to take with me. I am telling you all this as a curiosity, I actually have no feelings about it.

So, with this shamelessly long letter, I have managed to hold forth the longest, and I hope you will excuse me. It is 1 in the morning, and I really must stop. But I do say : hear you soon! and see you soon! a thousand thanks to Kathe for retying the threads of our togetherness. Many greetings to all of you and any family members

Your Gertrud and Family

7 April 49
My Dear ones!

The preparations for the Class day are finished—Class Day 1949! Children, when was the last one? Hard to calculate! In any case, the last exam in Hamburg was in1927! 22 years ago! And we owe much respect to our little book– that it survived all these years- even when it seemed at times that it had vanished_ that it was witness to so much worrying and need, and has happily returned! actually for 6 years – 42 to 48- it was kept in hiding with Carla. And since the book actually was Carla’s child, this is understandable and it was good this way!

Those 6 years [German expression: did not remain hanging in our clothes] affected us deeply. But we are gaining some perspective and get some strength to finish dealing with them- or wrestle to regain strength ! For me the war is still unfinished. Since March 45, I have been waiting to hear from my husband. For the first time recently, I was able to make a connection with his former unit and hope to learn something about this fate at last, and still don’t know what is easier: the uncertainty or a sad certainty. Perhaps I am a coward, and yet would like to be brave. But I have two young boys and that makes life worthwhile! I will introduce them to you! A tall, very tender Ulrich, 7 1/2 years old and a small very stable Ekkehart 5 1/2 years old. Uli paints and dreams, unfortunately also in school ( Attention: 3 (out of 20) and the rest of the grades so-so!) Ekkehart is the reality man and a tremendous worker, who also paints passionately sometimes and quite beautifully– he has a very strong and is not afraid of strong colors! by comparison, Uli’s paintings are amazingly tender and inward!!

Yes, and in the meantime I am still a schoolmarm Thank God! For how else should there be smoke in the chimney? And I still get as much pleasure out of it as I did in the past- and I can do it confidently knowing that at home there rule our good Oma and Opa who lost everything in the Hamburg bombing of 44. My house was kept standing because it stands on very soft malleable soil, it is however roofless and partly wall-less, but still repairable! and we have a keephold for the whole family!

So, my dear ones, on the day after tomorrow, we shall see each other face to face. However, I expect everyone to contribute whatever they know about Frischgesell from whom I have not received a firm answer, and about Muschi who unfortunately had to decline, although it almost worked out! But she sent us a package today for all of us! With flour, sugar, margarine, apples, real coffee and little appetizers for the evening meal! Vivat Muschi! Vivat! Vivat! But she will still have to catch up !!

And for Annemarie!! If only the way were not so long! How much we’d like to see you Annemarie!
godd night, dearies!
your Kathe Klein

Hamburg, 22 April 49
Class day 9 April 49!

As I write these lines, the class day of 49, which we expected with such yearning, is already part of the past. But it was divine. It started at Käthe’s charming little house in Uelzen and was quite wonderful. Käthe had prepared everything with much love and attention, so it had to be successful. Unfortunately, there were only 7 of us there: Grete, Hilde, Carla, Else, Elfriedchen and I appeared despite storm and bad weather. It was a wonderful reunion, I am sure that the ears of the absent ones must have rung very loud. A silent thought for Ilse , who is no longer on this earth. She certainly thought too little of herself and too much of others. So now she can rest from all her labors. We hope Helga will soon see her mother in good health and that things will proceed well otherwise, also for Muschi. Many, many thanks, Muschi for all the help, we thought of you with our cheeks bulging and our hearts full. Gertrud (Frischgesell) you really could have left your husband alone, I am sure he could have survived without you, and you would have been richer by a few carefree hours. Kids, kids, how we talked! Käthe- I’m sure your parents’ heads must have been humming through the next day. By the time everybody had told about their life, the whole afternoon was spent over coffee and cake, then dinner, accompanied by speeches! The Lüneburgers have often met in the meantime, but I had not seen any of them since 1937. I must say, though, none of them has changed much, those were the familiar faces we remembered clearly. I hope that it will now be possible to make the class day a yearly affair and it would be wonderful if our Annemarie were able to come and join us! Annemarie, did you feel all the way to America how strongly we were thinking of you? We most certainly have not forgotten you.

For those who were not there, a few lines from me personally, to complete the circle. The book was in my hands last in 1941, 8 long years have elapsed, which left a deep imprint in all our lives. But for myself I can say that I made it through without any damage worth mentioning. In July 1942, our Reinhard was born, our third child, and things are lively here; for they are healthy, strong children who play their way through life loud and happily. There is always a lot of noise and a lot of holes in stockings and clothing, especially Reinhard who has a wonderful talent to shrink everything. He is about to start school and I expect much good for our unruly foal. Dieter is 15 and so tall that he calls me “Little Mother”. Rüdiger, 9 is the smart, reasonable one. It is a lot of fun to live with such big children, to experience their growing and ripening into men. Easter is coming and they’ll start going wild in the garden, which we still have. We still have everything: our apartment, our furniture; everything is there; we had the great luck never to get bombed, and the two of us, my husband and I treasure that luck. My husband was also lucky enough not to have to go to the front. And now we shall try to get over the easy spots with skill and elegance, as my husband puts it, meaning to make it through this difficult, expensive time. For of course, there are still many things we‘d like to get and it isn’t easy with such a large household. Carla will understand it. So my life is running in peaceful, simple ways, the time of storm and tempest is over. Or at least we’d better hope so, at our ages, 41 years old. And now I shall end, the book still must go to Gertrud Frischgesell, for her turn.

To all, fondest greetings and wishes
Your Dora Timm

Bergedorf 1950
Dear Old Class!

Almost half a decade between my last report and this one. – Like Dora, I made it through the war and the postwar period easily. Bergedorf was miraculously spared. In September 45, my husband returned from Norway and returned to his job right away. In his absence, I had to have 3 surgical operations, all successful. Our house is full of people temporarily lodged here, which means that we have a lot of entertainment and an endless stream of friends. During the war, I helped out in as a teacher in a Girls’ Common School (3rd grade).

During the scrounging time (Hamsterzeit) also called hunger time, I got us green herrings in Cuxhaven, and met Frl. Rudtke on board ship. She was on a field trip with her students. We sat together on the deck; she listened with great interest to my fishing story, and to all the different ways to preserving herring: salted, roasted, and marinated. We were her first Seminary class, she told me. Unfortunately, she lost everything in the bombing, her beautiful harmonium, all her clothing etc. She now lives on Elbschaussee in the Donnerschlag (?) Despite it all she looked quite youthful. Do you remember our Friedel Seegers? She works at the Vocational school here. Sometimes I see her walking by on her way to the stadium. Her figure is more youthful than that of her students, so slim is she and so elastic her step. She lives with her married sister. Liselotte Peters is married and teaches in a Vocational school. That’s about it for news.

Things are well for me. I can’t complain of not having enough to do. Quite the opposite, there are always weeds in the garden and you know about all the rest better than I do.

With fond greetings
Your Gertrud Martens

Brunsbuttelkoog 1 August 51
My dear ones,

It’s been a while that this books should have ben on the move, but I didn’t have the courage to send it off. In the last few years, destiny has made great demands upon me. The hardest blow of all was that of losing my husband after a very happy marriage. It was frightful to see someone suffering as he did without being able to help. During the war years, we had the happiness of being able to remain together. Our son was thriving and has become a delicate young man full of tricks and eccentricity (Could he have it from me? Knowing this has often led me to close an eye!) He is pulled out into the world, he must know it, like his Vati and like his ancestors on my side, and so for the past few months he has been out at sea, wants to become a captain. It was not easy for me to let him go through with this wish, since it means seeing little of my Joern. I have no photographs of us right now; the film is not finished in which you would see him at 1,80 m next to his mother. Now I have to take care of my own little mother. Her nerve-ailment has abated somewhat- but it still is enough so that she cannot be left alone– I would need someone to replace me. Still, do write to me when the next Class Day comes along. I would do everything in my power to be there. Despite everything, I can still be happy and relaxed; I wish I had more opportunities to prove it. A stupid operation set me back quite a bit during the last year; it resulted in my being laid up several months. It was awful but was overcome- I had no choice but to remember my loved ones and clench my teeth. Time passes awfully fast, especially when one is a single woman dealing with the daily business (being a house owner these days is no bed of roses! The state demands everything) And of course we are advancing in giant steps toward 50! An uncomfortable number and hard to believe! But my white hair is proof of it!

My dear ones, do you enjoy your vacations or have you had to go back into training! There are so many questions– but it is impossible to ask them and see the answer at the same time. There is a lot that remains unsaid between the lines. It is hard to summarize years in a few sentences– I hope you understand me why I kept the book so lang. Be well, dear ones, may we see each other in the coming year.

Fondly
Helga Gerhard

Ilse would have been next in line, Fond thoughts of her. I send the book to our Hildegard.

Lüneburg 27 June 52
Dear Old Class Community!

The last time I wrote in this book was in 1939! The 13 years since then, with all that they contained, feel like a very long time. And yet, if I have to report about my life now, everything seems to have stayed on the rails for me, despite all the interruptions of war, illness, and other family occurrences. For many of you, there were burdensome changes, I think especially of those who lost a loved relative. From others, possessions, lodging and professions were all taken away and they had to start out from the beginning. It is nice to hear of those new beginnings that were successful.

I live in Lüneburg still; In 1939 I had not been here long and was not acclimated. I now am fully at home here. In 1944, my parents had to give up their apartment in Harburg, and since then, we have been living together in a small apartment. Grete often visits us here. After the Collapse, she lost her position in Bittersfeld; now she has been for some time teaching in a Vocational and Technical school. Unfortunately, my work at the local Oberschule is not very satisfying any more, to the extent that the Home Economics section has been eliminated.–
Dear Annemarie, if you receive this book, you will feel how life has changed for us in Germany and what it brought to each individual. I always was interested in hearing about your letters to Käthe .It would be nice to have you write in this book again sometime.

Fond greetings to all
Your Hildegard Schulze

Lüneburg 2 July 52
Feldstr. 28
visiting my mother,

To my own astonishment, I have established that my last entry dates from 38. The book was then sent to you, Annemarie, in America and now it has come to that point again; I shall send you this so-precious book. On the 28th of June 52, we had a little gathering before the Class Day. Elfriedchen Beneke celebrated her birthday, with Käthe Klein and the two Schulzes, and I received the book to send it to Annemarie; but I kept intending to write this or that and then send the book to America. During the war years, the book lay in my hands, for it would have been too risky to send it and since the last Class Day the book has been in Uelzen, dear Annemarie, ‘on the way to you’. – I now ask you to return the book for our next Class Day. On The 28th of June, we tried to decide whether to meet in Lüneburg or Uelzen. I shall let you know what was decided.

Aside from Gertrud Martens, whom I wanted to visit one of these days in Bergedorf, I have met everyone else or been in written contact with them. So just a little about what happened to me:

In 1938, my life was on a rising incline. In 1939, we got our own car. My husband liked his job. For a while things went on as usual for us. In 1941, Rolf was born, in 1942, our fourth son Gerhard. My husband was drafted, put in the reserves, called up again in 1943, returned from Crimea in1944 in one of the last ships, was assigned to Lindau in the Harz. I attempted to keep the household going. It is not easy to take four children in one’s arm and rush down the stairs to the bomb shelter. After the first great bombing, I asked to be evacuated to Lüneburg with the four children. 1943: the eldest started in school, the 2d, 3rd and 4th started school in Lüneburg. I spent the years of the war with my sister, her 5 children and my mother. I learnt what it means to work with foreign helpers After the war was lost, I had a Dutch woman, a Russian woman and my sister a Polish woman helping in the household; I learned what it feels like when the bombs are falling and one lies over the children to protect them as the house above is being destroyed. It is incredible what women can do to take care of a family, when the state is no longer able to care for the people. I was granted the happiness to survive, to see my husband return in good health safe and sound, after many months of waiting. – For our family, the hardest years were those after 1946. We lost our apartment when the English occupation troops took over our house on Volgerstrasse. The house remains uninhabitable by us for the foreseeable future. – My husband lost his job without any compensation; our accounts were blocked. For 3 1/2 years, I lived in a Ladies’ Institution with 4 children; the 5th child was born. I have had a lot of help. I must especially thank Annemarie whose packages helped feed and especially clothe us. We are still wearing our clothes with the English and American labels. Annemarie, I will forever be thankful. –

Just as unexpectedly as my husband was sacked from his job, he was suddenly reinstated, after the Currency Reform of course. We got used to being human beings again, whose horizons went beyond the immediate need for food. First came clothing, then the apartment, then schooling for the children. The income of a bureaucrat employee hardly covers 50&% of the needs nowadays. There is no way for the 20% increase in salary to catch up with the doubling and tripling of the cost of living; still we are looking onward and upward.– My three oldest ones went to Konstanz with a holiday organization; I am happily digging in our little Lüneburg garden with the two younger ones. As of last Whitsun, my husband has a car again and I hope to accompany him the next time he goes on a business trip to Wiesbaden. So, that’s it for 1952. In 1939, I took the first trip with my husband and my son Günther, then 2 1/2, the one and only trip before the war; life continues. It is like a dream, may it keep going onward and upward.

Carla

Scarsdale N.Y. USA
1 September 1952

Warmest Greetings to All.

How nice that after all the long years – 14 years– you still remember me with such friendliness. I have looked at the book often, always with much pleasure. Unfortunately since many of the photographs had not been pasted in and therefore got lost. All I found were babies and young women. And yet, we are all 10-14 years older. Perhaps you can still find a way to send me the photographs, I would love it.

I keep re-reading the book and wondering what to write. What seems most interesting to you? So I shall start with the narrow circle. The war did not affect us personally. Francis was too old (over 38 and a father) there were small inconveniences: things like rationing of fat, sugar and meat. The rationing of gasoline and motor oil was unpleasant. There was not enough available to do things with the car. We live 83 km from the nearest bread and meat store, 8 km from a department in the next town. Everything had to be done on bicycle. It was very good for the leg muscles, since the landscape is up and down like Thuringia. There are no buses or trams here. A car is really a necessary means of transportation. –

The most worrisome part of the war was that it made it impossible to go to Germany. In 1938-39, we had made great plans for the following year. The plans could not be realized and will not be so for the foreseeable future. The factors were the war, n and now it is inflation and the cost of travel. Then it was me and two baby girls, now two unenthusiastic teenagers–Backfische to whom the world belongs–and my own little self. Francis would only be able to come for a very short visit. Also, these are most expensive years. Mary is in the Unterprima, Greta in the Obersekunda. In 2 or 3years, we will have two girls in College, for professional training. And that costs a lot of money, no matter what the country. Mary is now 16, tall, slender; she has my figure as you may remember it from the Seminary. She has reddish blond hair, the colors of milk and blood. She is interested in scientific medicine. She says she would like to be a doctor. Good, we say, while thinking that there will be a lot of water flowing down the mountain before her studies are finished (9 years of College and University) Her other interests: Sports, Dance, Swimming, not to forget “the other sex”. During the summer, she had her first ‘paid position’. She traveled with some friends into the mountains and watched one of my friends’ small children. Apparently, she acquitted herself well. Aside from that, she is quiet, ripe for her age, independent.

Greta is 14, the complete opposite of Mary. She is almost as tall as Mary, but a brunette and rounded. She is enthusiastic, overflowing with enthusiasm, sunny. All love her, and she loves everybody. A little too much of a good thing, since school too often comes last. She is artistically gifted, writes very well (her father’s inheritance: he feeds his family by writing!), she draws, she acts. She has compassion for others. For the time being she is excited about two professions: writer or psychologist. Which shall I be? Well, first I have to do my Algebra, or else, I won’t pass into the next grade, she sighs, and works well for the school– until a new idea appears. So professional plans are still in the dark. Dance, work in a home for children are other interests.

Francis and I are getting grayer and grayer. We worry about our waistlines. We have not changed much. Our hobby is our garden. It blooms and blooms from the first forsythia in April to the late Chrysanthemums, in late December. The garden is about 1 Morgen big (Note: Morgen (lit. morning) is a land measure; local variations between .6 and .9 acre). There should be room for vegetables. But that’s no fun. Flowers are what we like. We did have a vegetable garden during the war, though.

Perhaps you’d like to hear about my day? It is quite different from yours, I think. Up at 7:30-8. Breakfast. Francis goes to the railroad station at 7:45 with a friend or neighbor. The railroad station is 2 1/2-3 km from our home. The train ride to the city is 40 minutes. In NY City, his office is very close to the railroad station. He usually comes home around 6:30. The girls go to school at 8, a 3-31/2 km walk. They take their breakfast along, or buy a warm or cold lunch at the school cafeteria. The school has a dietitian and several helpers. They prepare outstanding meals for the children. The children have 40 minutes to eat in the dining hall. They eat in three shifts, for the school is too big. School goes till 3. Then there are sports or Drama Club or French Club or A Cappella Singing or Girl Scouts (like the Bund der Mädchen Wandervogel) until 4:30-5. Around 6, they are back at home. Around 7, we eat, a warm lunch. It is the main meal of the Americans. For about 6 months of the years, it is too hot to eat in the middle of the day. After “dinner”, they do homework for 2 or 3 hours. Lights out by 10 at the latest. Friday evening and weekends are date days. They go to the movies, ”henparties” (all-girls groups) dancing in various houses. There is only school 5 days of the week. Saturday is for Sports, housework and voluntary work. Sunday belongs to the family and the Church organizations.

What do I do when there is no one in the house all day? It is taken for granted that the house, laundry, clothing and garden are pristine. This work goes without saying, even though it is a lot of work. The houses are big, and made for a housewife with a maid or two. Nowadays nobody can afford help. One works a bit faster, to leave time for the various external activities. That means work in the Church, the Women’s organization, the Girl-or Boy Scouts, the Parent Teacher Association, the Red Cross, a Hospital or special clinics (poliotherapy etc.). Two days of the week there are lectures to attend. Politics, Literature, Music, Home Economics. Every woman in Scarsdale has to do at least two of those things if she wants to be respected by her friends. On the whole, one is away from home 2 or 2 1/2 days of the week, working for one or another organization. I have a group of girl scouts (16 year olds) and work in the church and in a pediatric hospital. Perhaps you can imagine my life if you think of life in Germany around 1900-1910. The kind of life our mothers led.

So one lives, works, gets stressed for 10 months of the year. July and August are months of rest. It is too hot. Average temperature 30 degrees C. During the heat wave, the temperature sometimes rises to 35-40 degrees. It is impossible to do anything; one vegetates. Luckily the heat waves last only 5-8 days and the ‘normal’ 30 degrees for 2 3- days.

1 February 1953
I interrupted my writing for 4 months. A few more things.

I have a proposal to make. When the new book starts, please inscribe the birthdates of your children. It makes it easier to understand what you write.
Our girls were born in 1936 and 1938. Mary Sept. 1936, Greta 1938, both in Scarsdale, a suburb of New York City.
I hope things will be better than during the last 14 years. This is my fond wish. But please don’t wait another 14 years to send the book my way.

Fond greetings
Your Annemarie Gerhart

PS: My mother and I would be very pleased if you could send her the book. She will read it and promptly forward it. Frau A. Lepel Rotbuchenstieg 7 Hamburg 39.

Hannover 9 May 1953
Dear Ones far and near,

The last time I had the book in my hands was twelve years ago. What a long timespan! How many events and destinies are hidden in those twelve years! It was with great interest that I let all the reports wash over me. “We came out alive,” we can all say, including Käthe. But now, 1953, we have solid ground under our feet again. And all of us live in West Germany! How much that means! For whenever one receives letters from East Germany, one is left with a sense of pressure that weights one down for days. And any help one may provide is barely as much use as a drop of water on hot stone! My last report came from beautiful Swabia, from Southern Germany, where the living is always a little easier, where one is always a little on vacation. After beautiful, content-rich years, we said goodbye, not very happily, and have now lived in Hannover again for 3 years. The biggest plus in the equation is our wonderful spacious apartment. The house had been destroyed and was rebuilt. So for the first 2 years, we had to deal with all kinds of “new building illnesses.” [ Note how this is meant? specific illnesses connected with new houses? or things going wrong with the house itself- kinks to be worked out?] But this is now forgotten and everyday we rejoice in being at home. Right across the street, are the Herrenhauser Gardens where we often go walking. My husband has returned to his old job, forcing him to travel a lot. Given his state of health (circulatory problems) it would be better for him to lead a quieter life. The children are healthy and cheerful and are doing well in school and elsewhere (e.g. Music) for which we are quite thankful. Our eldest turned 17 recently and is in the Unterprima (12th Class out of 13) It looks like he will build his professional life around Mathematics and Natural Sciences. Gottfried, who turns 12 in June, entered the Quarta. Both boys attend the same school as Carla’s four sons. Carla and I met each other again for the time at a meeting of the Parent-Teacher Council in Hannover and our two couples are happy to get together every now and then. — Our little Swabian-boy, Hans-Christian, just entered primary school and finds it delightful, for right now. Things are relatively good with our sick child. Given appropriate care, he feels subjectively well and learns a few things also (for instance, he is musically gifted) but he will never be healthy and will never be able to take care of himself. From a financial point of view, this is a big burden. It is like supporting a student for the rest of life- 12 months of the year. Which is not simple.

Now summer is at the door and we are looking at a few plans, which is a pleasure in itself.
The book has been here one and a half months. If everyone keeps it that long, it should be one a half year till I see it next!

Greetings to all of you, with assorted husbands and children!
Your Gertrud Merzin

10 May 1953
Just a little hello from a get together with Käthe and Gertrud and her husband. Here everything is the same

Günther b. ’37 confirmed ’52 ’53 10th Class
Knud b. ’38 confirmed ’53 ’53 9th Class
Rolf b. ’40 to be conf. ’54 ’53 8th Class
Gerd b. ’42 ’53 5th

Günther plays the violin and the viola. Knud plays piano. Gerd plays the cello. No one has any thoughts about a profession yet.

Warm greetings Carla.

Uelzen 24 August 53
Ever Economical Friends!

I have already had the new Class Book (received three months ago from little Carla together with the 2d volume) but here there is still just enough space for a small report by someone 1m54 tall!

I am establishing that the faithful book has slowly made its way to me, Muschi, over 4 years … who was it who had confidently calculated 1 and 1/2 years per round! I myself am guilty too (May to August); I guess we are getting old and find it more and more difficult to separate ourselves from this scribble with all its past happy times! As for me, it accompanied me through my vacation, well lodged in bursting suitcases.

And what about the last 4 years? They were damn complicated! They brought us the final certainty that we no longer have a Vati–5 long years after the Collapse- during which we waited with all our might!

But life goes on, with a vengeance. For 4 years I worked two jobs(?) to help support an old retired colleague for whom there was no pension, and established in the process that work is the best anaesthetic– but not more than that. And in the last year. . .
(Note at this spot, in the transition to the third volume a page was lost; it continues with the end of a sentence)

… my humble self!

I send you fond greetings and am sending the book to Frau Lepel.

Your Käthe Klein.

VOLUME III

Hamburg 20 October 53
Dear All,

It is astounding how much vitality a thought can have! This book was last here four and a half years ago, at which point I did not believe I would ever see it again. Thus, my pleasure was all the greater when it surfaced yet again.

I abandoned everything else to sit down right away and read the book. Some of us have really been tossed around by fate, but I believe that by now everybody has reached quieter waters. At least, no one is in really bad shape, even though we may bear our burdens on the whole life goes on.

Little has changed in the Timm household. The children are getting big and Mutti old. (Papa also!) Dieter is a long 1m80 and finished his studies 1 1/2 year ago He is already earning a nice little salary. Rüdiger is in High School and wants to take the Business Abitur to follow in his father’s footsteps. The youngest, Reinhard, is still in primary school.

For the past two and a half years, Mom has been going back to school also, meaning that I have been given a job as technical teacher in a remedial school. When someone gets sick, I sometimes also have to take whole classes. To my great surprise, I found it very easy to get used to the school routine. I teach home economics, handwork and all sports. For the time being, I am substituting for a sick colleague in the 5th class. The work is fun, the children not as difficult as I thought they might be, and the Faculty is nice. It was very helpful that I still had vivid memories from my year in the special school. I have a very hard working helper at home, an 18-year-old former student. It means I really don’t have to do anything at home and can be there just for Pappi in the evening. We have redone our apartment in a very nice way and took a few vacation trips to the North Sea. Next year we want to go to the Baltic Sea. I am already looking forward to it. How nice to be able to live life in a slightly more expansive and easygoing way! I would hate to do without my job now, and actually, you’d barely know I have a profession for I am always at home for lunch with the children. I hope I continue like this for many more years.

So that’s about it. I will send the whole package on its way, on to Gertrud Martens.

Blessed and heartfelt greetings from
your Dora Timm

I add my greetings to those of my wife. I am always happy and interested when I read your books, even though I don’t have the background on the report writers. By the way, can you notice in anyway that my wife is in a “remedial school” as she puts it?
Karl Timm

Bergedorf 1954
Dear Ones!

I was interested in reading about the joys and pains of your current fate. Reading about the brightly checkered courses of your lives gave me a lot to think about; it almost felt like a Krenzesschau*(ed. note no. 41). I felt thankful for the insight that my own fate has actually been a really easy one. We are glad to have regained our house by buying it back so that now it is fully ours again. We are making all kinds of remodeling plans and I hope to receive you all there some day.

We live very retired lives, paying a lot of attention to our health, for my husband’s stressful occupations as a specialty teacher and passionate bookworm do become a bit too much at times and he is constantly fighting a nervous illness. But being able to afford a Volkswagen has meant that we can always exchange the narrow bounds of the house for the wide expanses of nature and its eternal beauty and thus relieve to some extent his neurosis.

And now a little personal item. Aside from my duties in the household, I have become active as a singer. I am also very interested in Ancient History, and in the absence of a photograph, I drew a little self-portrait. I still wear my hair in a knot and parted in the middle and due to my solid peaceful way of life give an impression of relaxed health

With fondest greetings to all Your Gertrud Martens.

PS while the book is still with me, I would like to make a little note: the Volkswagen has been sold. For it turned out that driving is itself stressful and not a way to recuperate. Traffic has become so intense that one wants to stay as far as possible from it. Beautiful walks are the best after all. Again, warm greetings

your Gertrud

15 May 1955
Lüneburg Class Day

I am bringing the Round robin Letter, although I really should have sent it first to Annemarie. I don’t have much to report. I still have children at home and have my hands full with the household. The children are no problem in school. Yesterday, there was a big celebration at the school. Günther played the viola in the orchestra; he gets much pleasure from his musical activities and is now the leader of the Evangelical Youth association at our church. Uta doesn’t like going to school much; she’d rather be outdoors. In Hannover, we miss the fresh air; the children have hardly any free time. So we compensate for it on Sundays and during vacations. Last summer, my husband, I, and the three older ones spent 3 weeks in the Black Forest at a ski-hut that is run by the university of Karlsruhe. It was a wonderful time. Last Christmas, all five children and we spent three weeks in the Harz. Günther has two more years to go till the Abitur, so we have a little longer till we need to worry about professional choices.

Carla Overlach Hannover Mendelssohnstr.31

Uelzen, 6 August 55
Here were sit at Käthe’s, chattering along and drinking wine

Dora Timm, Else Bottcher.
Grete Schulze, Helga Gerhard,
Käthe Klein, Annemarie Gerhart,
Hilde Schulz, Carla Overlach

and, coming on the 7th, Gertrud Merzin

Class Day 6 July 1959

We–unfortunately not all of us– met on Saturday the 6th of June, at Dora’s nice house, which we could admire. Due to rain, the planned walk had to be shortened; Dora gets our heartfelt thanks.

Sunday morning the Lüneburg ers and Else were received at the train by the Hamburgers. We wanted to see Hamburg reconstructed. New thoroughfares, new neighborhoods, a look down to the Elbe from the DJH a path along the Michel through the Holstenwallanlagen to Planten and Bloomen provided nice impressions. There followed a lunch followed by a ramble through the flowering splendor of Planten and Bloomen.

Around 16 hour, we had coffee at my house, where –to our great joy– Fräulein Buesche and Fräulein Dudy made an appearance.

Present were Elfriedchen, Gertrud Martens, Gertrud Merzin, Carla, Helga, Hilde, Grete, Else, Dora.
Käthe and Annemarie were missing.

Hamburg Risen 25 June 59
My dear Former Ones ,

what a nice surprise when Frau Carla Overlach called me and came to visit.

Our lively conversation brought back to me the time when we were working together on your education, and your faces and names were absolutely familiar. I read with the deepest interest the report of your fates, and rejoiced particularly in the courage with which you bore your fate and turned back to life in a spirit of affirmation.

I, too, lost everything during the war and lived for 10 years with my mother and my niece in Blankenese in one, actually very pretty, room. Then I was able to manage and, with the help of the savings bank, build a small house in Rissen, surrounded by a beautiful woodsy garden with many flowers, some of them rare, a cat, and many visits from grand- nephews and nieces and many other small and big foster children providing their share of work, help and entertainment. Four years ago, I took a wonderful trip to Caracas, in Venezuela, where I had been invited by my nephew and foster son. For the trip there and back we took a freighter, had a huge storm at sea, saw flying fish swept over the deck as if intended as a birthday present, together with a beautiful bouquet of Gladiolas and carnations ordered c/o Fleuropa -Haiti.

The 6-month stay in Caracas left me with grand impressions of a subtropical landscape and the mentality of the South American people. I have several hundred color slides to keep my memories fresh. There would be much to tell about the completely modern city of Caracas, the abundance of blooming bushes and trees that bloom almost year-round with almost unbelievable luminosity., but without any smell. Or about the majestic mountain ranges and 1000-meter deep valleys and precipices, the virgin forest, some of it declared protected natural environment, and in the twilight, the most amazing flowers glowing red, leather-hard and enormously large surrounded by butterflies with glass-like wings. I see again the great marketplaces in the harbors of Honduras, Cuba, Haiti, where everything is spread out on the ground, side by side with turtles tied up ready to sell, towers of hats and thousands of flies buzzing over the food, – in many cases one goes through the markets holding one’s nose – and then there were the Indian women some of them with huge black, red or green pompoms, the size of a child’s head, on their sandals. and these same Indian women could be seen later driving home in brightly painted, big cars. I got to meet many very nice people with whom I kept in touch and some of whom I have seen since.

So I can only say that after all the hardships that the war brought to me and my kin, my life is back on balance again, and I am happy and content.
Gertrud Rüdtke.

Hamburg-Wandsbeck 5 July 1959

How happy I was to be invited to the Class Day by Frau Overlach. I had not seen anyone for 33 years and it was not always easy to recognize people, but despite it, the old camaraderie was soon back. Many memories were revived, we thought of the class trips we took together. The time at the old Bremerstrasse School was unquestionably a beautiful, unburdened time. as Fräulein Rudtke wrote already, most of us shared the same fate, were bombed out etc. Each of us had to find herself a new “home”. On July 1st, I ended my time in schools, although my retirement starts officially on October 1st, since I still have to take one class through the final exam.

I look forward to retirement, but there will be plenty to do and I don’t expect to be bored. – A friend with whom I have lived 25 years has taken care of everything for me for the past last few years (cooking, housework etc.) I will be happy to pitch in for that work now.

I hope you will keep in touch with me. Best Greetings to all
Your Carla Dudy.

Hamburg 8 July 1959
My dear First Students at the Frauenschule

Summer vacations are starting. As always at this time of year, I am filled with plans and expectations, mixed with a little sadness- these are the last ‘summer vacations’ I’ll have, for at the end of year I am reaching the age-limit! Yes, it has come to that. I find it hard to understand myself, but time cannot be stopped! 35 years ago, you were my first class at the Frauenschule, and for that reason perhaps I remember you like no other class. You will understand how much I enjoyed the reunion and how good it felt to know that you not forgotten me either. I had the pleasure to meet the Schulze sisters and Frau Klein a few years ago. At that time I had heard a few things about the fate of several of your circle– at that time we were all still under the impression of all the hardship that lay right behind us. It is a blessing that meanwhile many wounds have scarred over, although they never completely disappear. But “Time is the human being’s angel”. In any case, it shows its pretty side now, since it seems as if all of you have mastered life.

It was too bad that Gertrud Lorentzen couldn’t be there. We have developed a long friendship, which I was able to experience in the most touching way during the war years and the immediate postwar. My mother died while you were still my students- I remember vividly the Holy Night at Gertrud Lorentzen’s, with her friends and siblings. It has become a fond tradition.

If I look back at the past years, I see all the hardship that this time brought to everybody in greater or lesser degrees, yet I also see all the beauty, the helpfulness that I experienced from so may sides, the first meeting with my brother, who had spent the war in Berlin with his wife. I went over the “green border” and finally was able to stand in front of him again. Thinking back to this incident now, it is clear to me that the outer circumstances are not the things that give life its worth, but rather the effort one does to find goodness in one’s life situation— I feel that when I step back it is always the first thing that comes to me . I make an effort to look at my life in this light, and am thankful to destiny, that I was able to remain so happy and content.

Traveling was always my great passion– this allowed me to see and experience many beautiful things. A year ago, I spent two weeks in Iceland, those were wonderful days. In the next few days, I am heading north again.

It would please me very much to retain the connection that was established through Frau Overlach. With fond wishes to all for a good continuation.
your Anni Buesche

I am adding a photograph taken a year ago in Badenweiler; on my way back from Iceland I went there.

Hannover 28 August 1959
Dear Ones!

After years of rest, the roundrobin letter has started a new round after the successful, beautiful meeting at Carla’s. I hope the round won’t drag out too much! It was too nice to meet again after all those years. Our reunion was especially enriched by the presence of Frau [sic] Dudy and Frau [sic ] Buesche. Many memories were stirred up. There was much talk of children; some of whom are getting to the point of getting married themselves! (Helga and Annemarie’s) But I don’t want to take over another person’s chance to tell about her family. Please include photographs, it is much more vivid. I am making a start and include a photograph from last year’s summer vacation which we took together as a family, one week anyway. The older the children get, the rarer it becomes for the whole family to be together at once. This year, we, the parents went to a spa in Gastein to take care of our rheumatism and for general refreshment. The two students were at the North Sea. Günther passed his exam in February, took a small break and embarked on a doctorate, and is starting his internship as a Junior Barrister (all this in Goettingen). We still live in the same apartment in Hannover – 9 years already, the longest we ever were in one apartment. We like it here.

Best greetings to all from
Gertrud (Muschi)

Luneburg, 17 September 1959
Dear Ones!

A few weeks ago we saw and heard about each other. Thus there isn’t much to report from Grete and mself. We were very happy about Fraulein Buesche’s presence at the Class Day and are equally happy reading their and Frau Rudtke’s reports. Those who read the round robin next will feel the now so long ago time at Bremerstrasse coming alive, together with the image of our teachers to whom we wish a joyful retirement.

Today’s greetings turn especially to you, dear Annemarie. Hopefully, it will arrive in time for your birthday for which I send warm greetings. We take a warm interest in you and your dauaghter’s fate and also wish all the best for your older daughter’s new stage in life.

With fond greetings to all
Your Hilda Schulze and grete Schulze.

Scarsdale 25 October 1959
Dear All,

I was happy to receive the little package in my mailbox. Thank you for remembering me. I would have loved to be attending your Class reunion, but this year it was absolutely impossible (2 weeks before Mary’s wedding) I had made plans for Margreta and myself to go to Germany last Fall. But the money was used for other purposes- happy ones. But now I have to save again and hope to be able to write definitely soon when I shall come. I would not want to miss the next Class Day!

As you all know, Mary was married last June. She is very happy – as is appropriate– and Margreta and I also. We are almost as much in love with Larry as Mary is. He is a fine, intelligent young man, 23 years old with a sense of humor and a rascally smile. He teaches History and Geography. Mary and Larry live two hours away by car. They have a pretty apartment, which Mary– my scientific Mary– keeps like a treasure box. And of all of a sudden she has learnt to cook very well!! Yes, the things love changes. It is very nice to observe it. Aside from her new house duties and cooking, Mary has a job as a lab assistant in a hospital and attends university classes two nights a week, taking Lab Chemistry. In May-June she intends to take another examination to be become a Medical Lab Assistant. She can’t let go of the sciences. In fact, I must tell the truth, Mary and Larry are planning to return to university next year, so that Larry can do his American D.Phil. The American Doctorate is harder than the German one; it is more like a Dr. habil. It takes 3-5 years to complete depending on whether one has a job as a tutor at the university. So Mary’s current work has a purpose. She wants to work with Larry until he gets his doctorate. He can become a full professor at a university. That is Larry’s goal; without the doctorate, he would remain a High School teacher. So, those are the plans of the young pair. We shall see. They are also planning to have children. Of course, when one is young, one can do anything.

My Margreta has great ideas also. She is in San Francisco, about 5000 km from here .She already knew New York, the East and she wanted to see new things. In August she finished her college exams and has graduated (If she wants more education, she will have to work for it, is the American idea) So right now, Margreta works in a store and hope that in the Fall of 1960 she can return to university and eventually teach English and Classical literature. Of course, those plans too can be ditched. Margreta is 21, Mary 23.

My current plans are quite skimpy, so that I can spend several weeks in the summer on the road. I know the East and the Midwest well. The West, with the Rocky Mountains, Geysers, American desert, Indian lands etc. I only know from books. Now I would like to get to know it and eventually connect with Margreta in San Francisco– And then I shall save for the European trip.

What do I do with my time? I am learning to type, “speedreading.” The latter is quite interesting. It is a new way to read, professionally for professional journals. One is supposed to get from 200 words/minute to 800 words / minute. I hope I am successful. I still have my volunteer work at the church and am program director of an Adult Forum. Every Sunday morning someone else gives a lecture on Religion and Education. The interesting part about it is that I get to read the books ahead of time and must keep the discussion going. Oh, and I do some substitute teaching.

Mary’s wedding was very pretty. She was married in a very modern church. Very sober and very powerful. Afterwards there was a reception in the garden. There were many friends. The weather was wonderful, sun, a breeze, not too hot. We couldn’t not have picked a more beautiful day. It was only darkened by the fact that Francis was not there. He would have been so proud of his Mary and his new son.

In August, I went south to Virginia. Larry’s parents live there. His father is an architect and under his guidance a whole small town was rebuilt in the 18th century authentic style. Williamsburg, Virginia was the first settlement of the Americans when they were still ruled by the British Crown. Several of the houses were still standing; many more were remodeled, added-to, left to go to ruin. . . Rockefeller gave money to reconstruct the original little town. Stones were removed from the site and analyzed, the bricks were analyzed and new ones made using 18th century techniques. The ground around the houses was excavated to see what kind of crockery; glassware etc. had been used. 10, 15, 20 m down, they found pieces, and the houses were built on the basis of these excavations. Now they are little treasure boxes and naturally a tourist attraction. Guides wear 18th century costumes, made from cloth that was woven on 18th century looms and printed using 18th century presses. It is a sight to see. I had seen Williamsburg earlier, but under the guidance of Lawrence Kocher, Sr. it was a real delight. The restaurants cook only 18th century dishes, the waiters are in costumes. It could be a bit much if one were to live there year-round-–Kochers do it– but as a tourist, I found it charming.

As usual, my letter is the longest. Let me just say that I was particularly happy about the contributions by our ‘erstwhile’ (teachers) all the best, to all, all, all.
Please send the book to Gertrud Lorentzen after you all have written in it, and to Elfried Seegers. Whatever happened to Irmgard v. Hasselstein?

With happy thoughts
Your Annemarie Gerhart

Annemarie sent me the book, for she knows how interested I am in all of you and in your lives. The memory of the twelve young girls came back to my mind. I wish you all the best for the future. The book is going to Frau Helga Gerhard.

Alwine Lepel 8 November 59

Hamburg 15 February 60
Dear All,

my turn,– quite belatedly; please don’t hold it against me, but during the time I had the Classletter with me, things happened that took up a lot of my time and energy. My honored mother (verehrte Mutter) – she had lived with me 29 years died at the end of last year, on the 30th of December. Despite her nervous illness, she had gotten to be 84 years old. Suddenly being left alone is not simple, but I’ll work out the “state of deep exhaustion” (doctor’s verdict); I’m looking at several weeks at a spa, and a complete change of air. All those years, I never got to do that– I had no one to replace me. – So, on to nice things. My son gives me a lot of pleasure. He works with great energy at his difficult profession. In 1959, he had attended the Seafarers’ School (Schifferschule) in Elsfleeth/Weser (where he had gotten his A5), and got his Captain’s Patent A6 with an honorable mention in November. After a short while he was approached by a shipping office to go abroad as 1st Officer on board ship. My daughter-in-law and I have already heard from him; he is quite excited. It will be a while before we see each other; it is a good thing that my daughter-in-law Helma – like me– is connected with the seafaring profession through several generations. The children’s home it at Helma’ s parents’ house in Elsfleeth, – they are very dear people. base is at Helma’s Parental home in Elsfleeth – Here in Hamburg I am almost everyday at my brother’s and sister-in-law; we are only 10 minutes apart. They are great buddies. Tomorrow I shall bring the book to Carla. She wants to send it on. We see each other quite often and are always happy together. Laughing is a divine activity– I never managed to unlearn it, and I hope you didn’t either, dearies!? (Unfortunately, I have no pictures; all I’d have is one of my offspring – 1m,82.)

Fondly
Yours truly, Helga G.

24 March 60
a beautiful day to all of you!

From Helga the book went to Carla and then to me. So I’ll tell you a little of all that has happened in my peaceful life. – Since my last report in 1953, a few things have happened which may be worth retelling.

Out trips to the North Sea were wonderful, I still remember them as beautiful, lightfilled events. I love the sea more than anything else, and although in our old age we have looked for recreation further south, the big water remains the most beautiful.

When I look back to the last years, I must say, that they carried us upward and we are thankful that we had our health. In 1955, we could afford a car, which we still have, and in 1956, we were able to move into a new little house, which we still inhabit. We are very happy here and have set up everything with a lot of love; some of you have seen it at the last Class Day. Carla and I are a little closer to each other, not just because Carla has moved to Hbg. Since January 1960 we have a bridge club with two other acquaintances, and it is a lot of fun, I hope Carla does too. The work at the school goes on, the difficulties are the same, because we still don’t have our own school. There is talk of something getting built next summer, but I am a skeptic by nature and believe it when I see it. At Easter I will take over my own 6th Class with 32 students, I am beginning to look forward to it. I’m sure it will cost me a few nervous breakdowns, but who cares, it is still fun. My husband still works with the same company, and our boys have become tall and strong. Dieter has worked for quite a while as a decorator and upholsterer and has his livelihood. In October, Rüdiger finished his training as TV installer and wants to become a radio operator. As of Easter, Reinhard has completed his second training as a carpenter; this too will end at Easter. After that, we are not sure what he will do. But all three have become strong guys, good decent people. Thank God, we gave them a lot of care and attention.

Generally speaking, I am impatiently waiting for Spring and warmth; the last few days have been quite nice.

So here you have all the news and the book continues on its way to Carla. We’ll see each other at our Bridge game. Unfortunately I have no photographs but will catch-up later.– When is the next Class Day?

Fondest greetings
Your Dora

Lüneburg 11 June 60
Dear All!

Day before yesterday, we spoke a lot about you, for we almost had a Class Day: Hilde, Grete and Käthe were together at my house and we heard that Annemarie was about to appear! Wouldn’t that be nice, that would certainly be an occasion for a reunion.– Nothing new from me. As before, I teach 16 hours of handwork at the Wilhelm Raabe School, my old place. The work is satisfying and I am working things out very well next to the housework. – Our Hansjürgen is also a big, strong boy and hopes to get his Abitur at Easter.

Tomorrow we have a nice plan: my whole family is invited to at Else’s in Soltau for an asparagus meal! I’ll take the book along.

Until next time, fond greetings
Your Elfriede C.

Soltau 23 June 60
Dear All!

How nice that the book is back on the tracks! and even nicer that in the past year everything has begun to look up and we are looking at the prospect of seeing Annemarie again! Annemarie long happy report was most interesting and the pictures were charming! Muschi has spoiled us with her nice image! And we must thank Carla especially, that she has reconnected with Fräulein Buesche and Dudy. Most of you will know by now, that I-we have taken root in Soltau and live in our own house now- it’s been 4 years. We find a lovely building site right t the edge of our little town yet close enough to the center! We still have wind and sun in abundance for a few more years, although our tress and bushes do their best! When Annemarie was here, she visited our building site! Meanwhile our eldest son– Ulrich– has finished school, has finished his military service and has started his studies in Tubingen. He wants to become a philologist. He definitely has picked a History class, the rest is still on a trial basis, we’ll be surprised! Our second son Hartwig is in the 10th class and right now he is lazing his way through the summer! I guess that’s the age! But the seriousness of life catches up soon enough! in any case, he isn’t worrying us and as Dora says of her boys, we gave him a lot of care and attention. Judging by your reports, we can all be more or less thankful with our fate! Helga is so pleased with her son! I am sure the pain of your mother’s loss will soon fade and your happy nature will take over? I guess that in the course of life, each of us has to swallow hard at times. The main thing is not allowing it to overcome us. We all want to be as young and happy as ever when we meet next, right! I’m already looking forward to it. Best wishes to you, husbands and children etc.

your Else Bottcher
Again no appropriate pictures, but I will get to it, so as to catch up next time!

Hamburg 22 August 60
Dear Class!

leafing through the book, I notice that according to my last report and my family goes back to 1955. I have stayed personally in touch with most people in the Class and so they know how things have changed for us; but still, for the sake of good order I will write some of it down in this book.

In the Fall of 1958, we found a suitable apartment for us on Jordanstrasse 53 in Hamburg. Prior to that, we had gone through some very choppy weather, for my husband was already working in Hamburg. I had a so-called weekend marriage. In 1957, Günther did his Abitur, then joined his father in Hamburg and studies theology ever since; in 1959, he went to Heidelberg. In August 69, we went to England at first to learn the language and starting in October, for a year’s residence as a divinity student at the Mount in Edinburgh; he spent one year in the army (as a pioneer) was discharged with the rank of Fahnenjunker, did a half-year practicum and –since the Fall of 1959 Knud studies Mechanical Engineering in Karlsruhe.

In 1959, Rolf, now faraway from home, did his Abitur in Hannover and joined the Army (Infantry). Unfortunately this was his bad luck year. Following complicated knee surgery, he had to leave the army and now studies Law in Hamburg since December 1959. Uta and Gerd came to Hamburg with us in the Fall of 58. Both had a difficult time getting adjusted to the change of schools, especially Uta; she is very young for her class, and then she started her Confirmation classes. Meanwhile she had turned 14 was confirmed Easter 1960. The two ‘little’ ones, as I still say occasionally, which Gerd doesn’t appreciate, being 1m,93 have at last conquered Hamburg together. Leaving Hannover was hard for all of us. It was easier for my husband, because his work had taken him to Hamburg on part-time basis ever since 1938. At first the new job meant a lot more work; but two years later, everything is working out well and we are now happy at last.

Uta goes to the Lerchenfeld Gymnasium in the 9th class. It is Annemarie and Gertrud Lorentzen’s old school, and we celebrated with them the great school jubilee. Gerd is in the 12th class at the Johanneum.

I am still a Hausfrau and Mother.
Your Carla.

Hamburg 30 August 60
ClassDay 1960 in Hamburg

present:
Annemarie Gerhart, Helga Gerhard, Gertrud Lorentzen, Dora Timm, Gertrud Martens, Gertrud Merzin, Else Bottcher, Hilde and Grete Schulze, Elfriedchen Carl, Käthe Klein and Carla Overlach.

We all met between 9:30 and 10 at the Hamburg Main Station, did not let the rain bother us and walked as a group to the entrance of the Fairgrounds, where Gertrud Lorentzen surprised us with Fräulein Buesche. Gertrud who was know as an official on the site of the “Lefa” Food Exhibition, was to be our guide. Thanks to her, we not only got in free, but we also spent precious hours trying things out and getting an insight into the work of procuring our food through local and foreign trade between small businesses. Happy, if tired, we ended up on the Terrace by the Sea in Planten and Bloomen to eat potato salad and sausages. Some of us yearned for a brief rest, closing eyes and mouth, and putting their feet up. Since it was still raining, Jordanstrasse 53, seemed a better place to do so.

At 16 hours, we reconvened full of enthusiasm. – Coffee revived our spirits and the happy conversations meant that time was only passing too quickly. – In the evening, Annemarie showed us slides from America; unfortunately most people had left. – For the next meeting, Gertrud Martens has volunteered; she would like to take us to the Bergedorf Observatory. Proposed date late August early September 1961 (27.8 3.9)

See you! Carla

Bergedorf 24 September 1961

Unfortunately, I could not attend our last meeting, since I had to take the cure in Bad Homburg- but I hope that things will work out on the 24th of September at Gertrud Martens.

Here is a short overview of the last 35 years:

When we separated at that time, I had started my training as a technical teacher and was doing substitution as a sports teacher at the Paulsenstift School, then at Lerchenfeld and in the Emilie Wustenfeld School. Holidays were spent – appropriately for a Sports teacher– either mountain climbing or skiing.

When the opportunity arose to get the training as Crafts Teacher in Hamburg, I went for it. After many practica, studies and exams, I worked at the Bremerstrasse. The next year, I was at Wallstr. –our old school– which for me was very conveniently close to stadium, indoor gym and swimming pool. I have the best memories of that time.

The catastrophe of 1943 ended all that. My mother and I were taken in by my sister in Lohbrugge– I started commuting to Altona (Vocational Women’s School). I was lucky to be taken up soon after by the Vocational school in Bfg. I was active for several years in that rural area; besides local primary schools, the Agricultural Continued Education school was doing its work therein one or two rooms. It was very pleasant work with the farm girls, and one really was one’s own mistress out there.– Eventually, we were separated from the agricultural sections and in the last years I taught at the Bgd. Vocational school.

The 25 years I spent teaching passed much too quickly. In 1957, I unfortunately had to resign due to a chronic liver condition. Running from doctor to doctor and constantly taking cures is not to my taste– but what doesn’t one do in order to remain on the rails, more or less.

I gave my small apartment to my nephew when he got married at Christmas. Since then, I am living with my sister again; now that her son has gone, there is room for me.

I am sure you are asking: What does she do all day? Is she retired? Actually, my days are so full it is hard to imagine how I managed to fit school in ‘on the side’.

Enough about me,– I am looking forward tremendously to our meeting and now pass along the book, which has stayed here too long already.

Apologies from your Elfriede Seegers.

Apology accepted.
Uelzen 14 October 62

O dear book, I will never dare squeeze you to my heart after this misfortune!!

and I hurry up to thank Gertrud Martens for all her efforts organizing a successful reunion. Thanks for spiritual and material pleasures, for divine rest in her garden of thick, soft, lounge chairs, surrounded by well-filled plum baskets. How did you pay the bill!

Thanked may you be
by all the old ladies!

I look forward to the next meeting
Your Käthe Klein

20 October 1962 at Else-Sporleder-Bottecher
Once again, I am in your dear circle. How wonder-wonderful that after 35-38-39 years we are still together in our old friendship. A greeting to the absent comrades.
Annemarie Gerhart

We are sitting together cozily, and the stories won’t end. We are especially happy to have Annemarie among us.
Fondly Elfriede Carl

Grete took Hilde, Elfriedchen and me to Else in her white VW. The hour-long car ride was spent chattering away; in Else’s house, further themes needed to be discussed.– Heartfelt thanks to Elfriede for her hospitality in her house which I learnt to know today.
Carla Overlach

Greetings from a beautiful Autumn day
Your Helga Gerhard

Our day here is drawing to an end. Hopefully those who didn’t come here will soon get our greetings through this book.
Your Hildegard Schulze

I am joining the others with fond greetings to the absents. The reunion and talking was a great joy. See you soon.
Your Grete Schulze

In the meantime, the book has camped here. But Dora, who had to jump in at the last minute for her job, should get our greetings for Advent.

I was really happy that our meeting finally came together. I had the impression with advancing age it is getting more difficult! During her 2-week stay in Germany, Annemarie made it possible to visit in Soltau. Helga was not afraid of the fatigue. I am particularly happy that she came with courage and strength and so completed our circle. Muschi wants to invite us to her place in 1963: great! I am enclosing her dear letter, so that Dora, Gertrud and Friedel can read it! Dora, you will forward the book right?

I just notice that our Käthe never signed, even though she was there, but Annemarie was her guest in Uelzen and she had left earlier. She definitely sends her greetings.

Happy trip to our book. May it only receive good news from all of us and come punctually to our Hannover meeting!

Your Else Bottcher.
Soltau Autumn 1962

(Note Letter from Gertrud Merzin to Else Bottcher)
8 November 62
Dearest Else!

Just think, I have to call it off after all! Isn’t it a pity? I am very sad about it and found it very hard to come to that decision. Just this Sunday the 21 October, visitors from elsewhere have announced themselves here: I can neither change their plan nor absent myself. I tossed it back and forth, thought I might come later. Please excuse my absence! And please greet everybody. Could you consider perhaps coming to Hannover next time? It has been two and a half years now that we have our spacious apartment, in which a reunion would be easily possible. After that, our lease expires and we will have a much smaller apartment.

So far, things are well here. On the parents’ side, physical complaints are making their appearance, as is to be expected at our age, and as is surely the case with you. no need to go on about it.

Our young couple found a 2 room apartment after looking for a long time, and will now marry as quickly as possible. The marriage will be in November on a Saturday, perhaps the 17th in Almenhorst, where Christiane’s parents are living. Christiane is a professional librarian and works here in the local municipal bookstore. Günther has meanwhile passed his Law exam and only needs another year to prepare for the Assessor’s exam.

Gottfried studies Physics in Heidelberg, and spends his vacations at home. He starts the 6th semester at the end of the month. In August, he spent time in England and Scotland, partly by invitation, and partly traveling on his own on foot and by bus.

Hans Christian has grown quite a bit, and is as tall as his older brother, in the 10th class. For the wedding, the young ones are studying a Haydn Piano Trio.

We spent summer vacations in Badenweiler, enjoying sun and warmth that we had so sorely missed the previous year at the North Sea.

Please send me a card with all your signatures. I will be thinking of you. Greetings to you and your family!
Your Muschi

21 June 63
Dear All!

The book spent time here also. Almost half a year! I beg you a thousand times for your apologies! When one is working, there is always a chance of something coming in the way. Meanwhile, we had our Silver Wedding at Easter, and I am glad it’s behind me. It was actually a lovely celebration, although to make it more comfortable we spent half of it at the Timmermann restaurant in the woods “Wohldorfer Schleuse” (Wohldorf Lock). This way I didn’t have to make any preparations. Lovely! And now, I really belong to the old folks.

Otherwise, things are well. We are looking forward to holidays, which we will spend in the Kohlgrub
My husband will be able to take the baths and I will relax. It is in a lovely site at the foot of the Alps, near Oberammergau.

Our boys are now grown men and we are secretly very proud of them. Dieter,29, lives sat home. Rüdiger, 23 lives in the Army, currently in Morvenich (Duren) and says he is an electronician. He tests radars and that kind of stuff in airplanes. Reinhard, 21, is in Bern since November 62 doing his Civil Service there. He wanted to see something of the world before starting his Architecture studies. He found it so agreeable that he has no intention of going further on his trip travel on.????? So our household has shrunk. Since October 63, I finally have managed to get one of my students as a household help, so that I almost feel that I am lazing around. When I get home from school, everything is clear, clean and put away, and I sit down at a set table. It is great… and now, without any twinges of guilt, I have time to do things for myself and to think without hurrying (Old ladies should take care of themselves).

If there is a reunion this year, I would like to attend, but it would only be possible after October, for in early September we have our Sportsfest; and in the second half of September there is class trip. So, dearies, do you think you could manage it?

Time to stop, Waltraut just brought me my coffee; sometimes it is tea.

Fond greetings from my husband, who always reads this book attentively.
A thousand greetings
Dora

Lüneburg 7 July 63
Vogelstr. 32
Dear ones,

I notice that I ended my report in 1960 with the words “we are all very happy here”.

I received the book on the 4th of July 63. – First of all, I must thank all those who have helped me in words and deeds over the last year. It showed me how much a friendship can mean; a friendship that arose in our youth and has been more or less visible over the years; yet in this year I have really experienced it and for this I must thank all of you. – Gertrud Lorentzen is included in the “you”.

On the 3d of July 1962, my husband died unexpectedly. My sons immediately returned, Gunther from Cambridge, Rolf from Goettingen. I had wanted to stay in Hamburg another 3-5 years to finish the education of the younger ones. I had 4 children at home. Knud had to stay in Karlsruhe studying mechanical engineering. During the year, various events forced me to move to Lüneburg on very short notice; and here I am, since the 5th of March 63.– Uta attends the 11th class at the Wilhelm Raabe school. Gerd lives here and commutes to his economics studies in Hamburg. Rolf studies in Hamburg, Knud is still in Karlsruhe and Gunther studies theology in Heidelberg. In order to help with tuition costs, I have rented out 3 rooms during the school year; this way they are empty during vacations when the children come home.

I am not quite ready yet to let myself rest; I am growing in my new circle of duties. – Film club, Women’s circle, Evangelical Women’s association, Knights of St. John- (Knights of Jerusalem), F.D.P.-CDU, Red Cross, Bund of the Former (??) all these concepts acquire a content because I know the people involved. In a small town Living in a small town is really different.– I will become one with my hometown again, and I hope that for Uta and Gerd, Lüneburg will become a hometown. The 3 older ones will find themselves a homeland elsewhere. They rarely visit here, work for their finals and are beginning to create their own circles.

Carla Overlach.

Class Meeting 20 October1963 Hannover, Alleestr. 36

A sunny Autumn day. Friendly hospitality at Muschi’s. Here we are sitting together:

Hilde Schulze, Else Bottcher,
Dora Timm, Grete Schulze,
Carla Overlach, Elfriede Carl,
Käthe Klein, Gertrud Merzin.
Nice get together in splendid autumn weather– from lunch to leisurely walk in the park, to coffee, music making, chinwagging, showing, admiring and reading until the evening meal. The hours flew much too fast. Annemarie and Elfriede Seegers were represented through their letters. I must thank all those who were physically present for coming, not shying away from the expense of time, and strength and money (Dora had the longest and most expensive trip!)

To a near reunion , hopefully next year!
Your Muschi

Hamburg 18 December 63
Dear Trudel,

You should get the book before the year-ends. I got it on November 20th from Fraulein Buesche; too bad that you couldn’t be there. We had a few very happy hours. It must have been nice. Apparently, you had a very nice time at Muschi’s too. I could only hear about it, having had to cancel at the last minute. My health just refused to cooperate. In the course of the beautiful autumn afternoon, I went for a walk near the Alster, thought of the meeting in Hannover and repressed a tear or two. But I will make it through these stupid years. I just had a great joy: by airmail, Christmas greetings from my son. You may think it is a bit early, but that’s the way it is with seafarers. He sent it from New York, now is on some wild trip‚ he has been given a large round of duties as a Captain and doesn’t always know where the next stop will be. My daughter-in-law did go on one wonderful trip with him. I was happy hearing all about it.–

To all of you a beautiful Christmas and a joyful and healthy New Year.
Your Helga

Bergedorf 4 March 64
My dear ones!

Ten years ago, I wrote for the last time in this book. Meanwhile we met a few times, including in 1961 at my place.

All kinds of things have happened, we are getting older, the young ones have grown and become independent. We had to say goodbye to some, but the ones remaining have taken on the burden and done what needed to be done, and we can all be satisfied.

A few small things from me. I live peacefully with my husband in our house and garden in Bergedorf. During the good season, we makes wonderful trip in the mountains (lately to Zermatt in Switzerland) and at the North Sea (Westerland).
We also do a lot of hiking (1961, a hike in the Dolomites going from hut to hut, through the Rose Garden , Marmolada and Cortina- unforgettable!) belong to the Alpine Club and art associations and participate eagerly in everything interesting and beautiful offered in our town of Hamburg. I keep devoting time to my music— which gives me many happy hours.

I wish all of you with husbands and children all the best for the future and look forward to a meeting.
Your Gertrud Martens

Currently Bad Neunahr 13 May
Dear Ones,

I had to bring the book here, to ensure that it would finally get on its way.

From my lines to Muschi of October 63 (included in Muschi’s envelope –two pp. back) (Copy of the book comes after this report) you can judge of my condition this year. Over a period of 8 months, with only short interruptions, I was in various hospitals; it was too much, and I was sick and tired of it. In the end, the planned surgery that was to take place in Eppendorf did not happen, although the date had already been set. In the Assistant Surgeon’s words “ This is not a big operation, it is a gigantic one” and the risk was just too big. I was pretty far gone; weighed less than 90 pounds. So they decided to fight the illness with tablets, transfusions, egg white shots and infusions. By Christmas I was finally able to live at home again. The procedures also had a favorable effect on my Ascitis (water retention) and I was getting to the point of being able to do a few things. The three staircases at home in Lohbrugge were hard to manage. So in February-March I went over to my nephew’s house for 4 weeks , near Bremen, Unfortunately, my diabetes reappeared there, and I had to start taking action so as not to land myself back in the hospital. So I decided to come here. It is special spa for sugar-liver-stomach and gallbladder illnesses, and I hope it will work toward my recovery.

How much I would like to attend one of our reunions again.
Fondly your Elfriede Seegers

(Letter from Elfriede Seegers to Gertrud Merzin)
Bergedorf 14 October 63
Dear Gertrud,

the day of your meeting is coming closer and it is time that I write a few lines for you and your family, and thank for your dear invitation. As you can see I am still in the Hospital and there is no chance at all of my coming. Of course, I will be thinking very hard of you all. It was so nice, to be together with you after so many years.

Some of you may know that since 1954 I have been suffering with a serious liver disease. In 1957, I had to give up teaching; it was a difficult decision; but there was no choice. All the things I had planned to do with my pension! But the first thing I had to do was to fight my old illness. I spent a lot of time in spas, for cures some of which were really horse-cures; over the last year in Bremen I saw a healing practitioner who attacked the problem with acupuncture (an old Chinese procedure with needles and crazy shots) But gradually, things were getting worse, almost imperceptibly at first. Last spring I spent one quarter of year at St. Mary’s Hospital where they did everything they could think of to find out what the actual source of the problem was. Various tests of liver function suggested that the liver was not the primary source, but the spleen. So I had to add a sugar-diet and insulin shots on top of my gallbladder diet. Which is awful when, like me, one has liked eating cakes and sweets. Anyway, x-rays revealed an early thrombosis in the spleen-liver area, which was the cause of some of the worst symptoms like the water retention.

Last winter was passable; but after a flu in the Spring I was unable to recover, 6 weeks in the hospital, and repeated draining brought some relief. Early May, I saw my nephew again after 5 years in Australia. At the end of May, they had to drain 10 liters of water, this time in the Bgd. Bethesda Hospital that was built 10 years ago. After 3 weeks, they drained more than 10 liters again. In the meantime, I had at least been able to attend the wedding of my third nephew on Whitsun Monday, the baptism of the grandniece of my oldest nephew and the grandnephew of my second oldest nephews. The latter was celebrated in very beautiful weather, so that the ceremony was partly performed outdoors in the garden. I enjoyed it very much and include some photographs that had been sent me. All in all I have spent half a year in the hospital. They are trying tablets, shots, but the water just won’t stay away. The doctors here suggested a stay in Eppendorf, perhaps surgery would help. The doctors at St Mary’s were against it. This can’t go on! I don’t have your addresses here; if one of you is in Eppendorf I would enjoy a visit; I am expecting to be sent home , but just in case, ask at the gate tel 712628. It is easier told than written. Please send me the special stamps again; I save them for my boys.

Continued 16 October

In the meantime I had a consultation in Eppendorf; they will take me there in 10 or 14 days. The surgery they are planning is a big operation, so remember me!

Hopefully I didn’t bore you with this awful medical report’ don’t let it spoil things for you. I am going to the next stage full of trust and hope.

The photographs show mostly the Harder family; but I have lived there so long that I really belong there. I helped bring up the boys; especially during the war (when my brother-in-law was in the army), and during the difficult postwar years when we had been bombed out and came here for refuge. Excuse the many mistakes and corrections; I was repeatedly interrupted.

Greetings to all of you on October 20th, and special Greetings to you

your Elfriede Seegers.

Here the book ends–

My mother Käthe Klein did not send it further.
I have no explanation for that.

I found the book early in 1996, when I was dismantling her household.
Ekkehard Klein..