Clairette Schuller

On the second floor of my grandparents' house in Barmen there was a balcony, and that's my mother, Clairette Schuller, on that balcony. The balcony overlooked the yard of a church, because their house was near a church. This church obstructed the view to the street a little bit, there was a street behind the church, and I saw marches on that street several times. This was already the Hitlerjugend, only I didn't know. The picture was taken in 1912, I wasn?t even born at that time. My mother must have been born around 1890. She was born in Pest. I don't really know anything about her childhood, because either it wasn't a topic, or I don't remember hearing anything about it. At that time it was in fashion in the family to give the children French names, that's why she was called Clairette. If anyone talked about my mother in the family they always referred to her as Clairette. I don't think that anyone had French origin, but at that time a little bit snobbish child rearing was in fashion. My mother was very beautiful and very strict and I adored her. I adored her unconditionally. Otherwise she must have been a playful young girl, she put on my grandmother's stage costumes - at that time it was customary that not the theater provided the costumes, but the soloists had to bring their own costumes, and my mother took a liking to them and put on my grandmother's costumes.

Photos from this interviewee