Ilona Cole, Guest Author, Story 143

Wiesbaden, a Beautiful City of Spas

After graduating from the University in 1948 I had an offer to model for a Furrier, located in Frankfurt/Germany. Later, as the city of Darmstadt was being rebuilt, they opened a store there. My city of Darmstadt was destroyed by a bombing raid 9-11-1944. I accepted this job offer, it was mainly weekends when we had to travel and give a show of all the new styles, different pieces and different furs.

I joined the group, and we showed the newest models of fur to an excited audience. The city of Wiesbaden was the place we mostly had to travel to. It was a bus ride of only one hour. The “Kur Hotel”, Spa Hotel was the venue for most of our style shows. They had, in a large auditorium, a stage where we would show the most beautiful creations in fur.

Sometimes we would model at the “Kur Kasino” (Casino) in Wiesbaden. It was a striking, stately building of gilded marble with large columns by the entry. We had a stage inside in a large room with several beautiful chandeliers, red velvet upholstery on the chairs for our audience, and music in the background. After the show we would be allowed, as guests, to enter the casino to watch, or if we were brave enough to play a game.

Formal attire was required when entering the Casino. Several times when we entered, I would see this gentil old lady, I would sit beside her. She was well groomed, well dressed, and she held a little beaded purse on her lap, open. Inside was a big roll of money. She was always at the same table, roulette. She was by herself, she would not engage in any conversation, her eyes were fixed on the game.

I wondered if she was a widow gambling her husband’s fortune away, or she was a self-sufficient, self-assured woman all her life and this money is her savings and now her recreation or hobby. In order to gamble there, one’s finances would be checked, and one would be thoroughly vetted, before joining this club. We were only allowed to join for the evening of a show, just as a courtesy.

This all came to a stop when I met a wonderful young American at the place of my job, American Armed Forces Headquarters, General Eisenhower’s Supreme Allied Command Headquarters in Frankfurt. I was secretary to the Communication officer. I did not want to spend my weekends modeling any longer, if I could spend them with Hal.

We developed a wonderful friendship, fell in love and Hal put in the paperwork to the State Department for permission to get married. We married in November 1953. My Hal’s time in the Army was ending in December and he had to leave to come back to Seattle, Washington, his home. I kept on working, waiting for my visa and entry permit to join my husband Hal in my new country at the end of February 1954. I became a United States citizen in 1957.

My Hal and I visited my sister Friedl and her family during the Christmas season of 1963 for seven weeks. During that time, I visited the new fur salon they had opened in Darmstadt. I had designed a garment for myself of fur and wanted, first, to greet my former friend and employer and order this garment to be custom made. It was to be of black Russian Broadtail in the style of a bloused sweater with V-neck and long sleeves. Both trimmed in black leather. I took my design to the store and ordered it.

While we were visiting for seven weeks, this garment could be custom made. The sweater was full and bloused, to wear over a sweater or a nice silk blouse. I had, in dark green, a beautiful wool gabardine skirt, with a slit in the back with French pleats showing. It will make a striking and elegant ensemble. Our seven weeks stretched over Advent time, Christmas and New Year. We had a wonderful time and my Hal got to know well my dear sister Friedl, her husband Georg and their two little boys, Joachim and the younger one, Rainald, called Kiki.

We travelled to the Burgundy region and the Champagne area of France. We visited other Cities in Germany, Wiesbaden, a beautiful place and Frankfurt. We saw for a day mama’s younger sister Katja in the idyllic Odenwald (Ode to a forest) and Aunt Lilli with her sister Anita and her brother Georg. They lived together in a beautifully furnished flat in Darmstadt. Their brother Georg had an antique shop and dealt in beautiful antiques, furniture, old grandfather clocks, beautiful inlaid wood desks, chests in rare wood, exquisite chairs, tables with onyx tops or wood inlays, sterling silver items, antique monogrammed sterling silver pieces and crystal vases. Some beautiful Asian art, silk screens, small furnishings and ornate pottery. Anything to furnish a gorgeous home.

It was a warm and wonderful vacation for my Hal, my dear Friedl and her lovely family and for me. A time in our lives we will always cherish and remember. It was a tremendous help for me, to get over my homesickness for my beloved Mouse, my dearest sister, my Friedl.