The ultimate a part of historian Alan Roberts’ look into love letters despatched from Skipton PoW Otto Goerg to his girlfriend. Did they ever reunite after his launch?
Instances had been altering. Skipton prisoner of conflict and businessman Otto Goerg has been corresponding for nearly two years together with his younger sweetheart Lizzie. She lives in modern Charlottenburg, quickly to turn out to be a part of Berlin, whereas Otto lives in a small village referred to as Tiefenstein in part of Germany which is certainly off the crushed observe.
Issues haven’t at all times run easily, however they are going to quickly be reunited. Gone had been the censorship and the flimsy paper letters kinds, Otto can now write at size on correct notepaper. These letters are so necessary. A couple of small gadgets have been recovered from the location of the camp and are on show in Craven Museum. The German officers did publish their ‘official’ memoir ‘Kriegsgefangen in Skipton’, however these letters include the innermost ideas of only one officer.
Three letters survive from the final month earlier than Otto’s launch.
26 September: To my nice pleasure I obtained a loving letter from you yesterday and one other one as we speak. Many thanks and kisses in return. What horrible accident has befallen my clumsy toddler? You nearly chopped you thumb off!
4 weeks have passed by because the Versailles Peace settlement was signed… In the previous couple of days we have now been instructed that we should look ahead to German ships. However when will these arrive?
6 October: Final 12 months issues had been bleak on the letter writing entrance. I’ve written to you extra usually than you wrote to me – 3 times every week! You noticed what occurred final month if you obtained an avalanche of six letters directly. You tried to reply them multi functional go. Sadly neither of us has the slightest affect on the postal service. If we may it could be so much higher.
So you might have given up on studying languages. You need me to behave as your trainer. I’m not in any respect suited to educating. I don’t assume two individuals as a lot in love as we’re can efficiently interact in this sort of boring research. Significantly Treasure you must return to your research. You might nonetheless use your languages now and again even in a spot at the back of past like Tiefenstein. International consumers will arrive identical to they did earlier than the conflict, and a few previous prospects will anticipate extra hospitality.
Right here at Skipton we’re solely getting half of our regular provides of sure meals due to the [rail] strike and we’re getting no coal for heating. Your second parcel has not arrived.
19 October 1919: Otto shall be launched from Skipton in a couple of week’s time. That is his final surviving letter.
Your letters arrived yesterday and as we speak, he writes. I’m additionally delighted that my small present happy you a lot.
Otto is affected by self doubt. You write that you’ve turn out to be fairly a girl. Your images have been telling me that for a while. Are you aware Treasure that you’re too subtle for me and for Tiefenstein. I’m half peasant, or else a younger man from the nation, or as Berliners [like yourself] would say a rustic bumpkin. Will I like your cheerful manner? Pay attention Dummy, that’s half and parcel of the little Lizzie who captured my coronary heart. You’ll be shocked to see what a cantankerous and socially inept bachelor I’ve turn out to be…
And eventually the plans: we may meet up in Düsseldorf and we’d not want a journey allow. We may spend two days collectively. It’s not a very stunning metropolis. In [British] occupied Cologne I might not be capable of transfer about freely in my [German] uniform.
Otto and Lizzie had been married in Berlin in December 1920. Otto’s father Carl had handed the household jewelry enterprise to his two sons Otto and Walter. In the meantime Carl (often called Jörg the Canine) focused on his ardour for breeding hounds.
An commercial from the Nineteen Twenties reveals the agency of ‘Carl Goerg’ dealing in treasured and semi-precious stones. An additional advert additionally gives earrings, and bracelets produced within the agency’s personal workshops. A receipt lists silver rings set with topazes, amethysts, artificial rubies, lapis lazuli, agate and amber. A poster displaying some elegant designs was produced for the Hannover Commerce Honest within the early Fifties.
Lizzie and Otto had been married for 45 years. Their solely baby Marleen-Dagmar was born in 1932 and later emigrated to the USA.
Otto’s letters replicate occasions in each Britain and in Germany. A number of results of captivity on the younger males held at Skipton turn out to be evident. Otto suffers from temper swings, turns into bored, experiences durations of melancholy, and is illiberal. Otto is revealed as a flawed, however earnest particular person. Not like diary entries these letters are designed to be learn, however solely by Lizzie. We’re given a particular perception into one Skipton prisoner’s non-public life. There’s a unusual mixture of the confessional and the mundane. Otto should hold the connection alive regardless of the vagaries of the postal system. The lack of awareness about Otto and Lizzie earlier than and after the conflict makes the letters and their story of Otto’s captivity and romance much more compelling.
