1909

Every March, starting with my uncle Ernst in 1889, my grandparents hauled their offspring off to a photographer in Vienna, for a family portrait. The last one of these pictures was taken in 1912. The photographs are kept in a beautiful album, held by a metal clasp, one of my prize possessions. Ernst was born in 1888, my father Robert, in 1889, and Franz in 1898.

 

The attached picture, taken in 1909 (100 years ago), shows my father, my grandmother Hermine, Ernst, and Franz.

 

My grandmother, my father, and my uncle Franz, all emigrated to Shanghai 1938/39 (though not together), while Ernst moved to Wisconsin. My grandmother died in Shanghai, my father in Vienna, Franz in Marin County, California, and Ernst in Wisconsin.

 

And no, I did not take this picture!