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The first episode in our blog series: “Memories from the Life of Walter Frankenstein”

Walter Frankenstein in a baby carriage at the age of 7 ½ months, Flatow, February 1925; Jewish Museum Berlin, gift of Leonie and Walter Frankenstein

When I look at the picture of the infant in his baby carriage, it’s difficult for me to believe that it’s the same person who sat across from me just a few weeks ago in Stockholm at the age of nearly ninety-three years. It’s even harder for me to imagine the eventful life that lay between these two moments, which was shaped by a variety of sudden and in some cases tragic developments, as well as bold new starts.

I’m referring to the life of Walter Frankenstein, who donated more than 1,100 photographs to the Jewish Museum Berlin. Photos that depict his entire life from the earliest days of his childhood into old age. The picture of the baby carriage is the oldest photo among them. It shows Walter in February 1925 at the age of 7-1/2 months on a sidewalk in his hometown of Flatow (today known as Złotów), where he was born on June 30, 1924. His father, Max Frankenstein, owned a country shop and an inn there, which he had inherited from the parents of his first wife, Emma Frankenstein. After Emma died of sepsis in 1917, he married Walter’s mother, Martha Frankenstein née Fein.

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The first entry in the series “Memories from the Life of Walter Frankenstein”

Walter Frankenstein with Anna Rosemann and Theresia Ziehe in Stockholm, 2017, Photo: Theresia Ziehe

I first had the pleasure of meeting Walter and Leonie Frankenstein in Stockholm in 2008. Back then, our meeting and the couple’s heartfelt partnership left a lasting impression on me. After 66 years of marriage, the Frankensteins still radiated love and a deeply held respect for each other. The author Klaus Hillenbrand, who tells the Frankenstein’s life story in Nicht mit uns (Not with Us), sums up this impression at the end of his book with a question he asks the couple: “Does ideal love exist?” Leonie looks at Walter. And Walter looks at Leonie. And then they give the shortest possible answer, as if speaking from one mouth: “Yes!”

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Festival of Roman film in Berlin

The first Roma film festival AKE DIKHEA? will take place in Berlin from October 19th to 22nd. The films in the festival focus on the life of Roma in Europe –and surprisingly, have a lot to say about European society as a whole.
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