Aunt Anna’s Neglected Gravesite
At the end of the 1950s, after giving up the house in Söcking, Bavaria, Anna von Waldenfels moved to Freiburg/Breisgau close to her sister Meta Mülbert, who lived at Maria-Theresiastraße 4. Her husband Vincenz had passed away in 1958. Anna at first rented an apartment at number 7 across the street.
In the summer of 1959, while on a bike tour through Germany with my friend Rainer Schüler, I visited both aunts, who add moved together at No. 4. I remember Aunt Anna quite well, a feisty old lady filled with an unbroken spirit and a fervour, which revealed strong nationalistic overtones. She spoke to us young men of sacrifices to be rendered in blood and honour to put Germany back on her feet again. Obviously, her heart and mind were still dreaming of an era that no longer existed. These bizarre ideas of a past imperialistic Nazi-Germany, having brought nothing but extreme suffering and total destruction to many nations under its control, were completely foreign to us growing up in democratic West Germany.
At about the same year she met for the last time her granddaughter, the then 23-year old Carola von Waldenfels (born in 1932 at Lagowitz). She had most likely made a farewell visit and proceeded from there to travel as a photographer to California, USA. The two widows maintained contact with Ernst Klopp (my father), who had remarried and lived with his new wife Erna Klopp (née Krämer) in Michelbach near Schotten.
Once a resolute, energetic lady, always leaving the impression of a governess, now suffered from bladder incontinence, which considerably restricted her mobility and physical activities. At 82, she died of cancer on 3 November 1969 in Freiburg/Breisgau. The two families Georg von Waldenfels from Haren/Ems and Meta Mülbert provided on 7 November 1967 a final resting place for Anna on her beloved husband’s side in the Starnberg forest cemetery. Her son had arranged the transfer of his mother’s remains to Söcking, but he did not deem it necessary to take care of the completion by adding a cross for his mother. Fate’s irony is that her gravesite remained nameless just as the one of her eldest brother Friedrich Klopp (1875 – 1946) in Gardelegen in the former German Democratic Republic. “Sic transit gloria mundi.”
The Peter and Gertrud Klopp Family 
Yes, that is exactly what gloria mundi does …
That was an interesting report of strange times, a piece of history! Thank you for sharing this story!
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Thank you, Birgit! I will turn to Albert Schweitzer again to put this story behind me.
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How very sad for Anna. I guess Georg stayed true to character. Did fate ever catch up with him?
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Not really, he got very rich in post-war Germany selling textile products to the new West German Army. He died of a heart attack in the early 1980s. If you want to call this fate catching up with Georg, I don’t know …
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Sounds like he escaped what he was due….
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Excellent
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My brothers resting place is near michelbach, quite far away.
I only once have been There.
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Your poor aunt, not to even have a proper marker! Thanks for sharing this story, Peter! Your first-hand accounts of people who lived through that terrible war are fascinating.
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Fascinating times and fascinating lives. Thank you for sharing Peter.
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You are welcome, Ankur.
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Herzlichen Dank für diese mitreißende Darstellung der Waldenfels’schen-Klopp’schen Familiengeschichte! Ich bin darauf gestoßen, weil ich mich als Stadtarchivar von Staufen im Breisgau für Georg von Waldenfels (gest. 1981) interessiere. Waldenfels erwarb in den 1960er Jahren Teile einer in Konkurs gegangenen Textilfabrik in Staufen, nutzte diese jedoch wohl nicht mehr für die Fabrikation, sondern suchte sie bald einer Wohnbebauung zuzuführen. In Staufen wurde immer kolportiert, dass er Verbindungen ins Verteidigungsministerium gehabt habe, und es ihm daher in der Folgezeit erfolgreich gelungen sei, den Bau von Bundeswehrwohnungen nach Staufen zu ziehen. Nun lese ich oben Ihren Hinweis, dass seine Fabrik im Emsland für die Bundeswehr Stoffe lieferte. Wissen Sie dazu vielleicht noch mehr?
Herzlichen Dank! – Jörg Martin
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Vielen Dank für den ausführlichen Kommentar! In der Tat habe ich noch mehr Informationen über Georg von Waldenfels. Doch würde es den Rahmen meiner Familienforschung sprengen, all das zu übersetzen und zu veröffentlichen. Ich bin aber bereit, Ihnen eine Kopie aus der Familienchronik zu schicken, falls Sie mir Ihre Email Adresse schicken würden.
Herzliche Grüße! Peter Klopp
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Oh, das wäre ja fantastisch. Meine E-Mail-Adresse lautet ganz einfach: Martin ad staufen.de . Vielen Dank schon im Voraus!
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In ein paar Minuten schicke ich Ihnen vier jpg Bildern von den kopierten Seiten. Es freut mich, dass unsere Klopp Familien Chronik auch ausserhalb der Familie Interesse findet.
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