Month: March 2016

Venice: Come Hell or Acqua Alta (Part Two)

/ Peter Klopp / 2 Comments

This is a great story accompanied by some amazing photos on the city of Venice. I decided to reblog it, because in our own family we had similar experiences. In a situation, by which we normally would be shocked, we break out in fits of laughter instead. Eventually even the victim begins to see the funny side of it. Enjoy!

travelsandtomes's avatarTravels and Tomes: One Expat's Amblings and Ramblings

Alternately entitled:  Making a Splash in Venice

To recap from Part One:  “First, the water came up to meet us. . .

. . . and then we went down to meet the water.  Or, at least, my husband did.”

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Before we traveled to Venice, we did a little research.  We knew enough to ask about the acqua alta, to ask if we should pack high boots.  Not to worry, we were told by our hotelier, this is not likely to be a problem while you are here.  And, truly, there was no problem with the acqua alta– it came, it saw, it retreated quickly without particularly hampering our plans or wetting our socks.  Our hotelier did not steer us wrong.  He wasn’t counting, however, on my particular family’s foibles.

And that is a long and perplexing list of foibles. . . so before explaining our second…

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Friedrich Wilhelm Ferdinand Klopp (1879-1952) – Part V

/ Peter Klopp / 7 Comments

Mother Emma and Ferdinand

Klopp Family Tree

Chart I – II

In 1923 Ferdinand acquired the inn “At Recreation” (Zur Erholung) in Hainrode near Sangerhausen. Connected to and supporting operation of the inn was a small farm. Here mother Emma, often traveling from place to place, found a reliable stop-over and return station. She was very thankful to her son for support and encouragement. Ferdinand’s daughters had fond memories of the idyllic hours, when Grandma talked about the olden days and taught them how to dance.

Sangerhausen in the Harz Mountains - Photo Credit: wikipedia.org

Sangerhausen in the Harz Mountains – Photo Credit: wikipedia.org

Ferdinand sent the older daughters for their education to a boarding school in Magdeburg, while the youngest daughters Meta and Rosel to the Berlin Lette-House for their trade diploma. There Ferdinand’s sister Anna had already received her education  around the turn of the century.

Ferdinand Klopp

Ferdinand Klopp

Ferdinand sold the inn in Hainrode in 1930 and acquired a private house in Bad Saarow-Pieskow at Lake Scharmützel. Perhaps in conjunction with his sister Jula’s auctioning off of her hotel, Ferdinand abandoned his property again in 1930. He moved with his wife Rosalie and his two daughters – the other 4 were already on their own – to St. Andreasberg in the Harz Mountains. There he managed for three years the “Hotel at the City Park” (Hotel zum Stadtpark). The property was destroyed in a bombing raid. Already in 1939 the family had moved to Nordhausen.  The author of the Klopp Family Chronicles, my distant cousin Eberhard, reported that the daughters Meta and Rosel refused to answer questions as to how their father managed to pay for their upkeep and how he had spent the years during the Nazi era.