Frederika’s Birthday Party
Picture below: Friedl at 16
My dear mama, Mrs. Nietsche, and our governess Mrs. Kramer were all together planning a big party for my lovely sister Friedl, I called her my mouse when I was tender with her. It was her seventeenth birthday.
The foyer featured the grand piano and a most awesome Chinese screen in Chinese red lacquer, carved with gold and black figures and scenes, standing behind the piano, cutting off the view from the side entrance, kitchen, and guest bathroom doors.
In the center was a large, round table with an onyx top, holding a beautiful Lalique vessel filled with seasonal flowers. The floor was highly polished wood, inlayed toward the center forming a star. This was the place, always decorated first. It was the entry into this lovely home. The home of two sisters Friedl and Ilona.
White fragrant lilac in two floor vases, inserted, a branch of large orchid blossoms in white with a touch of green. On the center table, a Lalique vessel held some more of these breathtaking white orchid stems. A large chandelier coming down in the center glistening, the light and atmosphere in this space was calming. The space around the table was for the young people coming to the celebration to dance. Mrs. Kramer or mama will play the piano.
The dining room table had also been decorated with white lilac and the same orchids on a white organdy tablecloth with a rose-colored underlay. The beautiful Meissen China looked lovely on that. Everything looked festive.
The two ladies, mama and Mrs. Nietsche, departed into the kitchen to create magic, the food. A variety of “melt in your mouth” tarts and some vol-au-vents (puff pastry pockets) filled with cheese and spinach and some with lobster and a gruyere cheese crème or shrimp in a white wine crème. Little quiches with pear and blue cheese or jambo (French ham) and Swiss Emmenthaler cheese. A large bowl with pear, blue cheese and chopped pecans, fresh dill and fresh parsley salad. A tray with freshly baked, small brioche rolls, served with sweet butter.
The first guests started to arrive. Some lady friends of Friedl’s, Liesl the lady we went with on our escapade to the Odenwald (Ode to a Forrest) and a wonderful swimming facility and on the way home we dared and snitched cherries fresh of the trees and got sick. Irmgard, the good friend of Friedl’s who always goes to the opera with Friedl, now both have season tickets for a box. Two young men, Philip, and David along with another friend of Friedl’s, Eva arrived. Philip, her brother and David, Philip’s friend.
Two more young ladies from finishing school came a little late. Margot and Anna, living in Bensheim by the Berg Strasse, that beautiful “mountain road” that runs along and through a fertile valley with orchards of peach, cherry, and plum trees, all the way to the old and beautiful city of Heidelberg. The two ladies came by streetcar and walked the rest of the way.
Now, the festivities can begin! I went upstairs to my room to study and do my homework. The beautiful piano music though kept me from doing my schoolwork, so I sat on my window seat, looked out on to the beautiful garden and the fountain, still dressed in their winter mode, and listened to the mesmerizing music. Mrs. Nietsche and my mama brought up a tray for me, laden with a variety of tarts and a wonderful vol-au-vent and mama had a plate with a piece of her delectable “Torte Sorano”. The base of this torte is many layers of almond meringue with layers of praline crème in between. Powdered sugar on top and topped with edible flowers, dipped in egg whites, sugar and dried. A symphony!
I sat with my “Bearly” my Steiff bear and enjoyed the music, the satisfying food and this dessert! The homework was right now not on my mind.
That evening after Friedl’s party and all her guests had gone, our conversation around the dinner table was about the Birthday Party. Friedl was one young, happy lady. I was incredibly happy for my dearest sister.
This was 1942 and our future would only hold heartache and sorrow. Enjoying this day, this precious moment of happiness was well earned and well received.
Happy birthday my dearest beloved Friedl!
I love this beautiful picture of 16-year-old Friedl–and so enjoyed hearing all the wonderful details about this very special birthday part–the room, the flowers, the incredible food made with love for Friedl’s special day. I know these memories became very precious to both Friedl and Ilona after the war began and their lives changed so drastically and tragically. I am glad we readers get to re-live this precious memory and special day through Ilona’s recounting of that day and all its delights. Marcie
Such a festive story, filled with the beautiful details of years gone by. I love the descriptions of the flowers, the home, the window seat. Ilona enjoying the party taking place below. Perhaps dreaming of when she would be old enough to have dancing with her friends at her own birthday party. Oh how wonderful it would have been if these days had never interrupted by history’s mistakes. Memories remain to speak of another world, a world full of music, beauty, and lovely families that offered nothing but a way of loving and living that spoke deeply and forever Even now…