Dorothy Anker Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Dorothy Anker, June 26, 1979, Springfield, Illinois.
Josephine Saner, Interviewer.
Q This is Josephiac Saner for Sangamon Stare University iatemiewing
Mrs. Dorothy Anker, who with her late husband Hans Anker, came to
Springfield in 1940 and established me of Springfield's more successful
photographic studios. Mrs. Anker, or Dororhy, if I nay call you that,
since you came to Springfield and were nut horn here, I would like to go
into what Z know is a very interesting background in your life, going
back to Germany to the business that your family had there and to some
of the interesting ancestors that you told me about. 1 thiak I will
begin though by asking you where you were born.
A. I was born in Koenigsberg in Preussen.
Q, Now is that today part of Germany or not?
A. No, since the Potsdam Agreement, It became the Russian city of
Kaliningrad .
Q. Oh, it has a different name then.
A, Yes.
Q.
And when were you born?
A. I was born, even the date?
Q. Yes. Of course.
A. June 23, 1913.
Q. And your family had lived there for several generations?
A. No, my parents had come. My father was born in Leipzig.
Q. That is East Germany now, I s it not?
A. Yes, And my mother was born in Halberstadt.
Q. Is that over In West Germany?
A. No, it's just on the border of East Germany also.
. Is it near Leipzig?
A. It's not too far from Leipzig . Wile Leipzig bel~nged to the
kingdom of Saxonia during the time my father was born, Halberstadt
belonged to Prussia.
Q. I see. h d then how did they happen ro come to Koenigsberg?
Dorothy Anker Memoir -- Archives, University of Illinois at Springfield