Ferdinand Withdraws from the Harsh Realities of Postwar Germany

Before the end of WWII, perhaps in 1944, Ferdinand purchased a larger house in Rhinow, Brandenburg, to secure it as a retirement home. The former hotel, which the now 65 year-old Ferdinand remodeled for private residential use, was located at Dorfstraße 58. Here the entire Ferdinand Klopp family experienced the end of war and a new beginning. The family at that time also included their daughters and sons-in-law, who had returned from the war and POW camps.

Rhinow Town Church – Photo Credit: wikipedia.org

The invasion forces of the Red Army declared the building as a Soviet command post. Family documents and photos were permanently lost during the ‘liberation’. The Polish language skills of mother Rosalie, who had been speaking German for the past 50 years and is being described as kind-hearted, hospitable woman, kept her daughters out of harm’s way from the Soviet soldateska notorious for raping girls and women of all ages during and after the end of WWII.

When for property owners life became more and more unbearable in the GDR, embittered Ferdinand began to give away his furniture, farm animals and estates to the people in Rhinow. He transferred title of his house at Dorfstraße 58 to his daughter Margarete Rocke and her two children.

River Havel at Lake Wannsee – Photo Credit: wikipedia.org

Given to cynicism, he withdrew from the harsh reality of life under the Communist regime and moved with his wife into a little cottage with a flower garden back into the village Strodehne near Rhinow. There he lived for another year, during which time he indulged in his angling passion at the River Havel. On July 17, 1952 his wife found him dead lying in her flower beds. At the age of 73 he had suffered a fatal heart attack.

Descendants:

1.  Margarethe
2. Charlotte
3. Gertrud
4. Victoria Luise
5. Meta
6. Rosel