Ruth Weinmann's Early Years in Germany, 1930-1934

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Bertha and Ruth initially stayed with her parents, Friedrich and Marie Louise Boettcher, in their apartment at 35 Klosder Strasse in Eisleben, but soon visited both the Weinmann and Boettcher relatives.  Most of the Boettchers lived nearby, but it took roughly three hours by train to got to Wolfen to visit the Weinmanns as the train stooped at every little town and you had to change trains in Halle.

Bertha enjoyed being back home so much that she decided that she wanted to stay.  She wrote to Andreas and tried to get him to move back to Germany, but he was convinced that his future was in the United States and urged her to return to Detroit. 

Eventually Bertha cashed in her return ticket to the United States and took an apartment in the same building where her parents lived (the house was divided into three apartments).  She had worked as a stenographer before moving to the United States, so she took a job as a secretary to a local attorney named Rohaus.

Ruth Weinmann in her grandparents' garden in Wolfen, Germany  Ruth Weinmann with her grandparents Andreas and Ida Weinmann in Wolfen, Germany  Ruth Weinmann
Ruth in her Weinmann grandparents' garden in Wolfen, Germany, June 1, 1930; Ruth with her grandparents, Andreas Weinmann and Ida Vogel Weinmann, in Wolfen, June 22, 1930; Ruth in her baby carriage in Wolfen, November 1930

Ruth Weinmann in the snow at Wolfen, Germany  Bertha and Ruth Weinmann in the snow at Wolfen, Germany  Ruth and Bertha Weinmann with Reinhard Schietzsch at Wolfen, Germany
Three photographs taken in the snow at Wolfen, Germany, November 1930: Ruth; Bertha and Ruth; Ruth and Bertha with a boy who may be Reinhard Schietzsch (Ruth's cousin)

Ruth and Bertha Weinmann with unknown girl   Anna Weinmann Wolf, Ida Vogel Weinmann, Bertha Boettcher Weinmann, and Ruth Weinmann   Ruth Weinmann in Eisleben, Germany  
Ruth and Bertha with an unknown girl, 1931; Anna Weinmann Wolf (Ruth's aunt), Ida Vogel Weinmann (her grandmother), Ruth and Bertha in Wolfen, Germany, 1931; Ruth in Eisleben, Germany, June 28, 1931;

Ruth Weinmann in Eisleben, Germany, with her grandfather Friedrich Boettcher   Ruth Weinmann   Ruth Weinmann in Eisleben, Germany, with the Catholic Church in the background
Ruth in Eisleben, Germany, with her grandfather Friedrich Boettcher, June 28, 1931; Ruth, September 1931; Ruth in front of the Catholic church in Eisleben (three doors from where her Boettcher grandparents lived), September 1931)

Bertha and Ruth Weinmann  Buth Weinmann, an unknown girl, and Bertha Boettcher Weinmann  Ruth Weinmann, 1932
Bertha and Ruth, 1932; Ruth, her cousin Johanna May, and Bertha, 1932; Bertha, 1932

 Johannna Weinmann Schietzsch with sons Rudy and Reinhard  Ruth Weinmann  Ruth Weinmann
Ruth's aunt Johanna Weinmann Schietzsch and her cousins Rudolph and Reinhard, 1932; two photos of Ruth, 1932

Ruth Weinmann with Friedrich Boettcher and Marie Schoenherr Boettcher  Ruth Weinmann with Friedrich Boettcher and unknown persons  Ruth Weinmann
Ruth with her grandparents Friedrich Boettcher and Marie Schoenherr Boettcher;  Ruth with her grandfather Boettcher and unknown persons; Ruth, 1932

Andreas Weinmann, Ida Vogel Weinmann, Anna Weinmann Wolf, and Peter Wolf in front of the Weinman home in Wolfen, Germany  Andreas Weinmann and his prize-winning dahlias  Lora, the Weinmann family's parrot
Ruth's grandparents Andreas and Ida Weinmann with their daughter Anna and her husband Peter Wolf in Andreas' flower garden at his home in Wolfen, Germany (his parrot Lora is on her perch to the left of them), 1932; Andreas with some of his prize-winning dahlias, 1932;  the Weinmann's parrot Lora, who did not like Ruth

 Ruth Weinmann  Ruth Weinmann  Ruth Weinmann
Three photographs of Ruth in July 1932

Ruth Weinmann and her grandmother Marie Louise Schoenherr Boettcher  Ruth Weinmann  Ruth Weinmann
Three photographs of Ruth in July 1932 - the first shows her with her grandmother Marie Louise Schoenherr Boettcher

Ruth Weinmann  Ruth and Bertha Weinmann
Ruth in front of the Catholic church in Eisleben, Germany, 1933;  Ruth and Bertha, 1933

Ruth Weinmann  Ruth Weinmann  Ruth Weinmann
Ruth, 1934

Chapters

 Ruth Weinmann Munsell oral history interview
concerning her life in Germany, 1930-1947