"You are a war criminal and I do not ever want to see you again!' Rolf to his estranged communist father after the 1953 East German uprising against communism.
Chapter III - The Family
This chapter outlines the family structure which ultimately would end in Germany when Dieter's mother died. He, as the last living member, now carries on the line in the United States with his two children and three granddaughters.
Rolf has documents tracing his mother's side of the family back to 1820. Nazi era documents going back to the 16th century to prove Aryan purity were lost during the war.
Rolf has documents tracing his mother's side of the family back to 1820. Nazi era documents going back to the 16th century to prove Aryan purity were lost during the war.
Franz Grothe - Composer, Conductor and Television Personality
The dominent father figure in Rolf's life. Their relationship was very close and Rolf spent most of his free time in Bad Wiessee. After his graduation and subsequent love affair with Karin the two of them would virtually live at Franz' house. Although strongly opposed to Rolf's plans, he had respect for Rolf's quest for independence and desire to explore the world. He did everything in his power to keep the two of them together and offered them lifetime security, a house and a car.
On September 16, 1982 Franz was conducting the Cologne Symphony Orchestra, something he loved to do. He collapsed and died two days later.
In 1978 German Television put on a big show for Franz' 70th birthday party. In the following video excerpt from that show Franz is on the piano playing one of his most famous compositions 'Illusion', a hauntingly beautiful song.
Franz had been associated with the long running TV series "Zum Blauen Bock" since it started in 1957. The following video was shot shortly before his death
Kirsten and Franz at their Berlin Apartment
The picture apparently was taken sometime late 1938/early 1939, shortly after their marriage. They bought a house in Schlachtensee shortly after.
Kirsten Heiberg - Official UFA Picture
Kirsten at the height of her German movie career. She was a versatile performer and aside from acting sang and danced her way through a number of films. She attempted a comeback in Norway after the war but never really reached the stardom she had in Germany.
Rosie and Fritz at Lake Zurich with baby lion - 1955
The following story outlines the political upheavals in East Germany which directly resulted in the final split between Rolf and his Father. Their relationship had never been close, but when Rolf found out he was a communist he cut all ties.
June 17, 1953 - Again there are Russian Tanks in the Streets of Berlin
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Cobblestones against Soviet Raw Power
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Millions took to the Streets in East Germany's major Cities to no avail - They would be oppressed for another 36 Years
Accompanied by the first movement of Schostakovich 11th Symphony this video shows some of the brave demonstrations of the oppressed East Germans on June 17th, 1953. Two days later their attempts to gain freedom was crushed by Russian Tanks. It would be over 36 years before Germany was re-united as a free member of the European Union.
Rosie as a young actress
Rolf's mother was on stage from the time she turned 15 years old. She was trained at a well known school and was proficient in dancing, including Ballet. By the time she turned 20 she was a movie star. It came as a natural progress with the whole family being in the limelight. Her mother and 2 of her aunts were famous opera singers. Her older sister was an actress, so was Hilde. Rolf's father was a movie poducer and Franz by that time already was the dominent force in Germany for writing movie scores and leading a Symphony orchestra.
Rolf was expected to follow those footsteps, received early training on the grand piano and in Ballet, but fought all the way. It was an early indication of the fierce independence he would display for the rest of his life. His only exposure was his appearance in a Richard Widmark movie, filmed in Berlin, which Rolf actually enjoyed. Franz put a stop to it as he did not want him to get involved in acting.
Rolf was expected to follow those footsteps, received early training on the grand piano and in Ballet, but fought all the way. It was an early indication of the fierce independence he would display for the rest of his life. His only exposure was his appearance in a Richard Widmark movie, filmed in Berlin, which Rolf actually enjoyed. Franz put a stop to it as he did not want him to get involved in acting.
Rosie on Stage in Berlin
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Rosie on the Bodensee
Rosie spent her early school years living by this beautiful lake in southwestern Germany.
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Rosie on Location for 'Reited fuer Deutschland"
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Rosie Studio Picture
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Rosie's first marriage to Herbert - 1940
The short-lived marriage was doomed from the beginning. Rosie was barely nineteen years old, a star and wealthy. Her career came to a sudden halt; and because of the war never really took off again.
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Rosie's second marriage
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Fritz and Franz on Matterhorn Strasse
When Franz came to Berlin he would spend most of his time in Schlachtensee but always sleep in a hotel until he replaced the old mansion. He would have a suite in the new building, which Rolf almost moved into after he left Texas in 1994. His mother told him to come back, as the house was almost empty. Rolf could live very nicely in Schlachtensee without any housing or car expenses.
The pictures of Rosie and her with Rolf's Cingo were taken by Rolf in 1955. Rosie and Fritz in 1946.
Cingo did not really want to do this, but would obey any command from Rolf completely. Only Karin later on would be totally accepted by the dog, who stopped eating when Rolf left Berlin and had to be put down.
Bertha Grothe - Franz' Mother 1957
Bertha was an eccentric woman. Like her sister Rita she was very small of stature. She also had been an opera singer in her youth. Bertha was an alcoholic and would drink rum with sugar cubes all day long. At night she would generally go to a local pub and treat everyone for drinks. Franz paid all her expenses but she never once went to his house in Bad Wiessee. Here she is pictured with Rolf's 'Cingo' and Rolf's mother's Spitz 'Candy'. |
A beautiful Album
Rolf has a dedicated copy of this. The album contains some of the most beautiful semi classical music he had written. |
Oma Rita - New Years Eve 1953
In the big country kitchen across the hall from Rolf's apartment. It was traditional to melt little lead figurines in a spoon over gas and throw them into cold water where they would turn into strange looking sculptures.The next day a fortune teller would come and read the future for everyone from these figures.
Christmas 1955
Fritz lighting a Cigarette on the candles on the tree. As a tradition the tree always had real candles on it which were lit Christmas Eve for present exchange at midnight, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Years Eve, and St. Nicholas Day (January 6) for the last time. The tree would be removed the following day. That procedure was followed by Rolfs mother until her death. There never would be electric candles. At the Isolde Strasse apartment with it's high ceilings the trees in the later years were huge with 144 candles on it that took a couple of hours to light.
The Henchel Clan gathers in the mid-30ties
Rita and Bertha in the back. The officer in uniform was killed in action during the Polish campaign in 1939.
Album Cover for 2001 90th Birthday Release
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Franz as Conductor of the Cologne Symphony Orchestra
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Franz with "Foofle" in 1952
There is a fascinating history to this picture - Rolf took it on Franz' terrace along with some others. This one was send to his former wife with a birthday greeting and found by someone doing research on Kirsten Heiberg in Trondheim, Norway in 2011 and send back to Rolf - almost 60 years later!
Breakfast on the Terrace - The Jaegerwinkel
Franz and Rolf with 'Foofle'
Rolf's Children in the United States
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Rolf's Children and Grand Children
Elizabeth at Greenwood Lake - 1981
Franz with 'Foofle'
Franz on his Terrace
When Rolf was at the Jaegerwinkel, the two of them generally had breakfast together, before Franz went to his study to work. |
Kenzie with Zeekie
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Franz with his mother, Bertha, in Berlin
The two of them were not very close and Franz spent very little time with her during his frequent visits to Berlin
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The Tangled Family Tree
In his later years Dieter made an effort to establish his family history based on what information was available to him from pictures and records he obtained after his mother’s death, internet searches; and to some degree his memory.
On his father’s side there ware his grand parents, Oma and Opa Probst with whom Rolf was very close. Sometime after the war they had disowned their only surviving son, Herbert, because of his political views. Their other son had been killed during the Russian campaign.
Their only Daughter, Hide, became an actress and had a daughter out of wedlock with an American Army officer® Dieter was very close to Daniela and the two always joked around that they would get married when they got older. The two of them would spend a lot of time together in Friedersdorf until the place was confiscated by the East German government. In the late sixties she married a Hawaiian, who produced ski lifts and Dieter lost all contact with her.
There is no documented information or pictures available from that side of the family to trace further back. Both those children had taken stage names. Herbert as Schmidt-Maris; and Hilde as Landsberger.
Rose-Maria Schroeder, Dieter’s mother, became Rosemarie Schmidt-Maris upon her marriage. She dropped the name Maris after her divorce. Her son’s official birth name was Rolf-Dieter Schmidt-Maris. He went through his early school years with that name. He dropped the name ‘Maris’ after the Berlin uprising in 1953, when Dieter became aware of his father’s communist political leanings. It was a total break and Dieter would never see his father again. When internet family tracing became available, Rolf found out that his father had become a prominent producer of B-Movies well into his eighties. There is no recorded death information and Herbert would now be 92 years old. There were no other children.
When Rosie married Fritz in 1947, she became Rosemarie Koelven. Dieter at the age of sixteen had the choice to add that name to his, but refused to do so. There were no children produced in that marriage.
Fritz was born and raised in the Rheinland of Dutch parents and married a German actress in 1939, producing one son, who was estranged to the family and at the age of 16 joined the merchant marines as a cook. Dieter met him once in 1956, which was also the only time Fritz saw him. The last Dieter heard of him was that he was living in Brazil, being married to a woman from Rio.
Dieter’s grand mother’s name also was a stage name. The direct family name is Rita Henchel, which she had dropped when she became a prominent opera singer in the 1920’s.
Rita had one other child, a daughter by the name of Sylvia Schroeder, who became an actress and in 1936 went to Spain to join Franco’s civil war effort, She was never heard from again
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Dieter’s great grand parents, the Hentchel’s had three daughters aside from Rita.
Bertha Hentchel became Bertha Grothe when she achieved stardom as an opera singer after the turn of the century. She had one son, Franz Grothe, who went on to become a famous child musician and later Germany’s most famous and prolific movie music composer, He also led the Cologne Radio Symphony and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra until his death in 1982. He had one daughter out of wedlock.
Marie Hentchel became Marie Dehmel when she became famous as an operatic actress and produced one son, Willy Dehmel, who reached stardom as the lyricist for most of Franz’ compositions; and his conversion of foreign movie lyrics into German. There were no children.
Hanna Hentchell was the only one to keep her family name, even after she got married. Her husband was killed in the War and she never remarried. She lived in Rostock, which became part of East Germany and was only rarely able to get permission to travel to Berlin to visit her sisters. There were no children.
With the death of Dieter’s mother there are no surviving relatives left in Germany.
Rosie - The Mother of the War Child
Rosie was born right after the first world war and grew up in the Rhineland, which was under Belgian occupation. A bitter civil war lasted for years, making it almost impossible to move around outside until she was about 6 years old. Her mother was an opera singer under contract to the Duisburg state opera. Just before the Nazi take-over they moved to Berlin. Rosie was forced to join the Hitler Youth. About at that time she decided she wanted to become an actress. After her mother put her through actress school for a year, she became a child star, acted in many movies and was on stage in Berlin.
She quickly became very wealthy, moved into a large apartment in a swanky neighborhood in Wilmersdorf; and developed a large circle of friends.
She started to have an active sex life with actors and German Army officers. Rosie met one of the producers at the Babelsberg studios; with whom she had a relationship, resulting in an unwanted pregnancy, putting a halt to her career.
The child was born six months after the war started, shortly after that Rosie got divorced.
Dieter hardly ever saw his mother and she was a virtual stranger when he was returned to her after the war had ended.
She did not resume her career, as the movie industry took a long time to recover, however did spot appearances in various movies and doubled up for Swedish actress May Zetterling. The two of them looked like twins.
In 1945 she had met a German Tank Commander who would become Dieter’s stepfather. During the chaos of the battle for Berlin he deserted and Rosie hid him at her apartment.
Their marriage would last until his death in 1984, although Rosie continued to have numerous affairs over the years. So did Fritz. Dieter never got to be close to him and grew up pretty much devoid of any family life.
Living in post war Berlin was rough. Black Market activity blossomed and Fritz was a master in dealing with that, although he did not speak a word of English. His toy store a few blocks away from Isolde Strasse acted as a front where cigarettes, nylon stockings and other contraband was traded. German money was worthless and US Dollars were not available. The occupation troops had printed vouchers. Rosie acted as the front for most of those dealings. They did manage to get sufficient food now through PX facilities. That all stopped when Berlin was blockaded by the Russians in their efforts to get the allies out and starve the population.
Rosie and Fritz would sometimes walk to West Germany, about 250 Miles round trip, and carry some essentials back. If they would have been caught by the East Germans. If caught they would have been shot or thrown in Jail. The Border was not yet fortified and mined.
In a monumental logistical feat, the allies managed to supply the two million West Berliner’s with sufficient minimum supplies through an airlift that lasted ten months until the Blockade was lifted.
Rosie was close to total exhaustion. She wanted to get out of the apartment and move to the suburbs. Franz had a house in Schlachtensee that had been taken over by the US Army and he suggested that they find something nearby, close by the lake.
In exchange for having his mother living with them he would cover all expenses. They found a big stately mansion, typical for the area, with sufficient space for everyone and a large yard. There were 4 floors with a total of twenty two large rooms, six bath rooms, laundry room, basement, pantries, wine cellars and a bomb shelter. Dieter was to live on the ground level, away from everyone else.
Rosie was happy with the house. It was secluded and satisfied her need for luxury. They would lavishly entertain, particularly with higher level American officers from the base in Dahlem, not far away. There was a never ending supply of young women from the Berlin University, also in the vicinity. Dieter was too young to take advantage, but his fantasizing certainly started to get into high gear.
It was under those free-wheeling conditions that Rosie let her son do whatever he wanted to do. The early signs of recovery and prosperity were beginning to show in the city. Rosie now had a luxury car and would begin to travel with Fritz to Switzerland and Italy, spending a lot of time at Franz‘ lake house in Lugano. Dieter was left alone.
There came a time when Richard Widmark starred with May Zetterling in a movie called ‘A Prize of Gold’, filmed in Berlin, produced by Mark Robson. Dieter played a German Orphan and was on the set for almost a month, getting to like Widmark very much. The shots of him are mostly of running around the ruins and playing with other kids. The most memorable scene is of him with Zetterling on the steps of the ramp to a plane in Tempelhof, leaving for London. The two of them spent a lot of time exploring Berlin.
Rosie had a very intense affair with the producer, Mark Robson, which became news worthy in Germany and the UK. Fritz did not really complain as he had a tendency to hang around with teenage girls, some of them as young as sixteen.
When Dieter came to Switzerland during the casino years, she became aware of the fact that he was quickly maturing and that he was fiercely independent. She indirectly encouraged his infatuation with a young girl by the name of Gisela, who was the wife of a Croupier working for Fritz. She wanted him to enjoy the first realization of his sexuality and was happy when she found out that the two of them had become close.
She knew that Dieter liked business school and that he had a never ending supply of girlfriends. When he hung his goals on the wall of his living room, she thought that it was just something he had done to impress the girls. Rosie never questioned him about it. When he came to Lugano with Karin about four years later to tell them that he had filed for a US visa, she was totally taken aback by his actions.
She had thought that he had found some stability with his girlfriend, Karin, and simply could not understand what he was doing. That evening shook an already distant relationship to the core. Karin and Dieter left that night, very upset by Rosie’s reaction.
It would be six months before she saw them again. Rosie tried to build some bridges with her son, asking him how he could possibly leave Karin. It did not work, he just exploded.
Rosie now began to realize that she did not understand the intensity of his emotions; and the complexity of his relationship with Karin. She did not know what to do.
By the time she decided to reach out, it was too late. Karin had broken with him, he had isolated himself and appeared to be ready to leave Germany.
When he did, it was with a chilly good bye. There would be little communication with him during the first five years. She was not aware of the difficulties that he had getting established. In the beginning of 1967 she send a message with Uncle Willy who was coming to New York on business. She essentially wanted to put to rest the past. Rolf had gotten married, his wife being largely unaware of what had transpired in Germany prior to his leaving. He was ready to make peace, however, was afraid of his own feelings. Karin was still very much on his mind, the city was encircled by a wall and the cold war was at its peak. As Rolf always had a tendency to do, he had blocked everything from his mind, that he did not want to deal with at the time. Now that things looked a little better, it perhaps was time to come to terms with himself.
He decided that he would have to face reality and see what happened. So he took his wife for a two week visit. They went to visit the wall, but could not go through it as Rolf was still traveling on a German passport. They had dinner out a couple of times and spent most of the time in the guest apartment and with Rosie and Fritz.
Rosie initiated some discussions as to his leaving and he tried to honestly answer her questions. The fact was that he was not sure anymore. Karin was everywhere, he was terrified at the thought of seeing her. The old mansion was gone, along with some of the memories. He was not close to accomplishing his goals, which he thought would ultimately justify what he had done. He did not want to admit it, but he thought he was facing defeat, making Karin’s and his sacrifices meaningless.
He did tell his mother a little about his relationship with Karin and tried to explain to her why leaving her had almost destroyed him. Rolf still found it very difficult to talk about Karin. It would be another twelve years before he told her the rest of the story, after he had returned from Brazil. He thought that he would feel at peace now that he had accomplished what he had set out to do, in his mind justifying her sacrifice. That was not to be.
When he left, he thought that most, but not all, of the wounds had been healed. The rest would come later.
It slowly did, along with Rolf’s realization that a lot of what had happened was out of his mother’s control. He did tell her that the most damaging thing she had ever said to him was that he had been a mistake and had been unwanted. At the age of 10 it was difficult to understand. Time had ultimately also healed those wounds.
Living alone in the big house in Schlachtensee, she was content with her circle of friends. When she died in 1996 she had lived a rich life and like her son had enjoyed its experiences with an open mind. Like her son, she had also lost her childhood to the aftermath of a war; and her young adult life to the inferno of the Second World War.
She never had any regrets about what she had done, nor did her son.
It was perhaps appropriate that with her death the last member of the family living in Germany had gone. The line now continues with Rolf’s two children and his three grandchildren in the United States.
Fritz - The Stepfather
Born on August 17, 1911, Fritz was 3 years old at the outbreak of World War I. By the time he reached adolescence Germany was in political and economic chaos, followed by the Great Depression and ultimately the rise of National Socialism.
As a result of these conditions there were only limited opportunities available for a young man to have a career. When Hitler came to power and the military build-up began Fritz volunteered to go to military school in Koenigsberg, East Prussia. The grueling discipline and political orientation would never leave him.
He rapidly rose through the ranks and toward the end of World War II was a tank commander. He was assigned in the outskirts of Berlin as the Russians were rapidly closing in and encircled the city. His tanks were short of fuel and Fritz began to realize that any further resistance was futile. He decided to defect along with a few of the other officers. They changed into civilian clothing they stole from abandoned homes and faded away. If caught by the remaining SS troops they would have been executed on the spot.
Fritz had a relationship with an actress who had an apartment in central Berlin, which he had never been at. He decided to go there and ask her to hide him. They had met during one of her trips to the front to entertain the troops. Rosie was a young woman who had been married and had a son five years old, who was living with his grandparents. There were no means to communicate with her so he started to move toward that area. As he could not be seen during the day, he cautiously made it to the apartment two nights later.
Knocking on the door in the middle of the night, she let him in and immediately told him that he could stay. There was a large closet in the hallway with a secret spring door to a small storage area that would pass a basic search of the premises. It was April 20, 1945; two weeks from the end of the huge battle for Berlin. Nobody ever came to search the premises and they survived. Fritz stayed hidden during the early occupation period by the Russians. When the Americans came to take control of the western side of Berlin along with the British and French, he surrendered to the Americans. He was released about four weeks later and moved in with Rosie.
They got married in 1947 with Franz being the official witness. The stormy marriage lasted until Fritz died in 1982. Both Rosie and Fritz had numerous extramarital affairs but in later years settled into a comfortable lifestyle with the support of Franz.
As Fritz had never been trained to perform any civilian work, it was difficult to phase him into the main stream of the new German society.
He did prove himself to be amazingly adapt to adjust to the prevailing circumstances, was heavily involved in post war black market dealings with Americans and was the first civilian in Berlin to get authorization to drive a car. He did not speak a word of English and had to put aside his deep seated dislike of Americans to be successful in his dealings and avoid being caught by the authorities.
When these sources dried up because of currency reform and stricter controls he started a number of business ventures, most of them proving themselves as failures. In the mid-fifties he came up with skill based gambling casinos, which circumvented German and Swiss laws about gambling being restricted to designated Spas, he was for the first time successful.
His relationship with Dieter was cool. Dieter did not take well to the autocratic demeanor Fritz displayed most of the time, nor did he ever submit himself to the discipline Fritz tried to install. In general he just ignored him.
Their relationship went into a total deep freeze after their Lugano discussions. Fritz still harbored a dislike of anything American, although over the years he had utilized his contacts with them to his own benefit. It was not until the mid-seventies, when his health started to decline that he started to mellow in his outlook.
Born on August 17, 1911, Fritz was 3 years old at the outbreak of World War I. By the time he reached adolescence Germany was in political and economic chaos, followed by the Great Depression and ultimately the rise of National Socialism.
As a result of these conditions there were only limited opportunities available for a young man to have a career. When Hitler came to power and the military build-up began Fritz volunteered to go to military school in Koenigsberg, East Prussia. The grueling discipline and political orientation would never leave him.
He rapidly rose through the ranks and toward the end of World War II was a tank commander. He was assigned in the outskirts of Berlin as the Russians were rapidly closing in and encircled the city. His tanks were short of fuel and Fritz began to realize that any further resistance was futile. He decided to defect along with a few of the other officers. They changed into civilian clothing they stole from abandoned homes and faded away. If caught by the remaining SS troops they would have been executed on the spot.
Fritz had a relationship with an actress who had an apartment in central Berlin, which he had never been at. He decided to go there and ask her to hide him. They had met during one of her trips to the front to entertain the troops. Rosie was a young woman who had been married and had a son five years old, who was living with his grandparents. There were no means to communicate with her so he started to move toward that area. As he could not be seen during the day, he cautiously made it to the apartment two nights later.
Knocking on the door in the middle of the night, she let him in and immediately told him that he could stay. There was a large closet in the hallway with a secret spring door to a small storage area that would pass a basic search of the premises. It was April 20, 1945; two weeks from the end of the huge battle for Berlin. Nobody ever came to search the premises and they survived. Fritz stayed hidden during the early occupation period by the Russians. When the Americans came to take control of the western side of Berlin along with the British and French, he surrendered to the Americans. He was released about four weeks later and moved in with Rosie.
They got married in 1947 with Franz being the official witness. The stormy marriage lasted until Fritz died in 1982. Both Rosie and Fritz had numerous extramarital affairs but in later years settled into a comfortable lifestyle with the support of Franz.
As Fritz had never been trained to perform any civilian work, it was difficult to phase him into the main stream of the new German society.
He did prove himself to be amazingly adapt to adjust to the prevailing circumstances, was heavily involved in post war black market dealings with Americans and was the first civilian in Berlin to get authorization to drive a car. He did not speak a word of English and had to put aside his deep seated dislike of Americans to be successful in his dealings and avoid being caught by the authorities.
When these sources dried up because of currency reform and stricter controls he started a number of business ventures, most of them proving themselves as failures. In the mid-fifties he came up with skill based gambling casinos, which circumvented German and Swiss laws about gambling being restricted to designated Spas, he was for the first time successful.
His relationship with Dieter was cool. Dieter did not take well to the autocratic demeanor Fritz displayed most of the time, nor did he ever submit himself to the discipline Fritz tried to install. In general he just ignored him.
Their relationship went into a total deep freeze after their Lugano discussions. Fritz still harbored a dislike of anything American, although over the years he had utilized his contacts with them to his own benefit. It was not until the mid-seventies, when his health started to decline that he started to mellow in his outlook.