May, 2008
A Blog from Berlin in the 1930’s – the letters of a young English music student studying in Berlin to her fiancé back in the UK.
The Berlin Letters are from Marianna Hopkinson, grand-daughter of Alexander Siemens and encapsulate the mood in Germany in the 1930’s, “I had often thought it would be romantic to live abroad, starve in a garret and study music….”. So starts Marianna’s account of her life in Berlin where she studies the flute.
These evocative and humorous letters, with their pithy observations and comment, illustrate the reality of life in the heart of German society as Marianna lived through the rise of the Third Reich and witnessed at first hand Hitler’s power and influence. They are a personal chronicle of one of the most challenging times in European history.
The first of many ‘stories’ of our times we hope to publish in panderjam.
Letter 32 - "sensations in an aeroplane"
Letter 31 - "trees are vain"
Letter 30 – “ the piano as a cheese safe”
Letter 29 – “so that is what Luther worked for!”
Letter 28 2nd May 1933
Letter 27 1st May 1933
Letter 26 26th April 1933
Letter 25 23rd April 1933
Letter 24 Mid April 1933
Letter 23 8th April 1933
Letter 22 5th April 1933
Letter 21 26th March 1933
Letter 20 23rd March 1933 Berlin-Charlottenburg
Letter 19 March 13 ’33 – Berlin-Charlottenburg
Letter 18 Feb 15th 1933 - listening in to Hitler
Letter 16/17 Jan 21st and Feb 1st 1933
Letter 15 Oct 10th 1932 – Berlin-Charlottenburg
Letter 14 Oct 1st 1932 Berlin Charlottenburg
Letter 13 June 17th 1932 Berlin-Charlottenburg
Letter 12 May 20th 1932 Berlin-Charlottenburg
Letter 11 April 28th 1932 Berlin – Charlottenburg
Letter 10
Letter 9
Letter 8
Letter 7
Letter 6 18th January 1932 click here
Letters 4&5 29 December 1931 Potsdam click here
Letter 3 Early December 1931 Potsdam click here
Letter 2 Late October 1931 Potsdam click here
Letter 1 Early October 1931 Potsdam click here
OVERTURE - 1931 click here
Marianna Woolley's Biography
My father, Bertram Hopkinson and my mother Mariana decided to have a baker’s dozen of boys. They started with two girls. Pause for thought. Then on May 17th a wet Sunday, I am told – I arrived Lina Marianna: after me there were four more girls – and that was the last of the baker’s dozen of boys.
My father was killed in a flying accident at the end of August 1918.
I intended to be an engineer – indeed I was very good at maths - but instead decided I would learn the flute and be a musician. A lot of trouble with my mother who wanted me to be a nursery governess and look after her. But I was obstinate and went to the Royal Academy of Music in London for three years and then the Hochshule fur Musik in Berlin for two years. Came home to be married in 1933 to Russell Woolley then prospective Headmaster of Scarborough College later in life ordained, and spent the rest of my life having my own way! And bringing up my own seven children and the children of people billeted on us. I acquired lots of glorious grand children and right now I collect great grandchildren as other people collect stamps.
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