Konrad and Alexandra (pdf) - Rolf Gross

could only be done secretly in private houses, which is what they had done in remote
Elisabethtal under cover of the wedding.
Otto sent an answer by regular mail, telling her of Annika’s sudden death and that he
had met Katharina, my mother, and had moved to Breslau. He must have asked Alexandra for
her spiritual support of his wish to marry Katharina, because a letter by Alexandra carried by a
Georgian wrestler on his way to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin begins with a blessing.
I take you and Katharina into my arms and wish you the happiness you lost. I tried to
see Katharina, but her images are overlaid with those of the Bavarian Katharina. I cannot
see her clearly. But tell your Katharina that I loved the other very much and maybe there
are more parallels between the two than I can fathom. The Bavarian Katharina was an
eminently practical woman with a great, imperturbable sense of reality and her own place
in it. Such a woman would be good for you, my would-be poet.
Did Alexandra guess that the reason for her inability to see my mother was, at least in
part, caused by my mother’s life-long intense repudiation of Alexandra? Alexandra’s
characterization of my mother was surprisingly accurate. I can only assume that Katharina
Weisshuber once fit Alexandra’s description, the Katharina Dahl whom I had met had little in
common with my mother. And yes, in a way my father was a would-be poet, although, to my
knowledge, he had never written a single poem.
In 1936, during the Great Purges, Beria rose to political prominence in Georgia as
Stalin’s henchman. He mercilessly liquidated the last remaining Mensheviks, among them
Tamara. She vanished in the Gulag and never returned.
Tamri has left us. At this time Asmat is living with Deda, who has moved into a small
apartment in town. Deda is in poor health, I don’t have much hope that she will live much
longer. Asmat cares for her in the most touching way. Asmat is intelligent and inherited the
independent spirit of her mother. She has been selected for a special elite school, and
unless we come up with a better idea, will soon go her own way.
Asmat, the gifted orphan of a "misguided" revolutionary, had been selected for a special
Party school. It would open a good career for her in the party hierarchy, but remove her
completely from her foster-parents’ influence. A standard trick of many ideological dictators.
Alexandra was looking for ways to save her from this fate.
By 1939 the worst purges were over. Cowed, the Georgians kept their heads down. Yet
undaunted Alexandra had successfully slipped Schulenburg her letter—her last.
I have good news for you. Your sister has found a man whom we all like. We hope to
celebrate their wedding before the end of the year. He is a young physician who is an
intern at the hospital. I am very happy that she will take her own life in her hands. My soft,
pliable Georgian girl has lived too long under my charge.
Inexplicably, Alexandra did not mention Sophia’s husband’s name, apparently because
she hoped to describe Sophia’s wedding in a future letter. That letter was never written. Once
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