Klaus Bung's cousins: The Schmid [without t] clan

Erika Faßbender had an elder sister, Hildegard Faßbender.  She was born in Berlin-Schöneberg on 3 October 1909, Roman Catholic, and died on 7 March 1939 of meningitis (Gehirnhautentzündung), aged 29.  She was a medical doctor.

She married Friedrich August Schmid (1906-1976) (called Friedrich Schmid by all and sundry and Onkel Fritz [Uncle Fritz] by the Bungs).  He was Roman Catholic, a Bavarian (which accounts for the accent of his two sons) and became a medical doctor in due course. 

The mariage took place in Berlin-Schöneberg on 12 May 1934.  Friedrich August Schmid was born in Munich on 23 August 1906. After the death of Hildegard Schmid he remarried in 1940. He died in Munich on 26 February 1976.

Friedrich August Schmid and Hildegard Schmid had two sons

-    Karl Friedrich Martin Schmid (called "Fritz Schmid" by friends and family and "Friedrich Schmid" others), born in 1935

-    Hans Otto Albert Schmid (called Hans Schmid), born in 1936.

Karl Friedrich Martin Schmid ("Fritz Schmid"), was born on 18 February 1935 in Berlin-Südende (the Faßbender residence in Mittelstraße 8-9), Roman Catholic.  He was four years old when his mother died.  In due course his father married again (1940), there was friction with his stepmother and, through a combination of causes, Fritz's childhood was not as happy as he would have liked and his school career not as successful as his father would have liked.

When Klaus Bung left his parental home in Duisburg, at Altenbrucher Damm 47, in 1954 (to go to Berlin and later to Innsbruck and London), Fritz Schmid took over his quarters ("the empty quarter") and joined the Bung family for 18 months, in an environment conducive to make up for the educational omissions of the past and lay the foundations of his future career. 

During this time Fritz came to know closely the Bung household as it then was (Hubertus and Erika Bung and Paula Faßbender, and his cousins Hildegard, Ina and Britta, who were still at home).  He laid the foundations of his professional career which suddenly took off. 

He briefly described some of his experiences in the Duisburg household to Klaus Bung over the phone in May 2000:

One of his first experiences in Duisburg was a bus excursion where he joined his cousin Hildegard Bung, who was then studying at the Höhere Handelsschule (College of Commerce) which had arranged this as a school outing.  He was very popular with the students on this trip, mostly girls, because already then he had an inexhaustible supply of funny stories.  So he had the whole bus laughing non-stop for two hours.  His younger cousin Ina Bung (now Ina Sinclair) also supplied him with company from her pool of friends.  His social needs were thus taken care off.  (He spotted his now wife, Karin, some years later during anatomy classes at Munich University.  It was not her anatomy, though, that was being studied, Fritz hastens to add.)

While in Duisburg he did heavy manual labour during the day in the foundry at Eisenwerk Wanheim, where Hubertus Bung was head of the law department and had got him this job.  Fritz worked the morning shift, which started at 6 a.m., and he set out half an hour earlier by bicycle when it was still dark.  The paths were rough and covered with slags (Schlacke) and once he fell ("da bin ich auf die Fresse geflogen") and smashed up his kisser.  That was very embarrassing for him because eight days later was the annual ball of the Alpenverein (Alpine Club), a big event in the social calendar of Duisburg at which the tiny upper crust of Duisburg (a large working class town) assembled.  In the evening he attended an intensive course preparing for entrance into the College of Engineering (Ingenieurschule). 

He had to take this route to higher education because he had failed to complete (by three years) the normal secondary school course leading to the Abiturium, which entitles to university entrance.  The Ingineurschulen (Colleges of Engineering) give high level technical qualifications but they are below that of a university diploma.  Fritz did have a Maschinen-Schlosser (mechanic's) qualification in his pocket. He also had worked for a while in a "Konstruktionsbüro" (technical drawing office).

He obtained his engineering qualifications in Duisburg and then made up for the abiturium which he had missed.  He prepared privately for this examination and covered the usual three-year syllabus in one year.

Now, at last, he was entitled to go to university (1960).  The rest is history.

Fritz Schmid remembers Mütter (Paula Faßbender) (his grandmother and Klaus Bung's) during his Duisburg years.  She tried to keep out of everybody's way and withdraw to her little room on the ground floor, to make herself invisible, because she thought old people would be in the way of young ones.  "Never have I seen such a kind, self-effacing and yet energetic woman.  You always had to stop her doing perilous things.  Once I 'caught' her trying to tie up some plants at the gutter of the two-story house.  She had piled up tables and chairs to climb up there.  She was a great improviser.  She was 79 at the time.  Now I know how domestic accidents occur.  --  Once a badminton racket was broken, and she repaired it with odd pieces of wire."

Fritz Schmid is now university professor of oral and maxillo-facial surgery in Hanover.  He has one doctorate in general medicine and another in dental medicine.  He can draw and paint well, and this skill has helped him in his career as a plastic surgeon.

On of Fritz's childhood memories: Their house in Munich had been destroyed during a bombing raid.  So they moved to the house of the stepmother's parents in Dresden.  This was like jumping from the frying pan into the fire, for in Dresden Fritz (just five days before his tenth birthday) experienced and survived the great allied bombing raid on Dresden of 13 February 1945 (famous or infamous depending on one's point of view).  That raid was so notorious that details can be found in all history books covering that war.  Or search the Internet under "13 February 1945", where one will find a debate on the question whether the bombing of Dresden was justifiable.  The raid has helped to inspire Kurt Vonnegut's novel "Slaughterhouse-Five" (1972).  The following summary of the facts was taken from the Internet.

During the Second World War both the Allies and the Axis powers destroyed not only military targets but also railways, docks, factories and landmarks. This inevitably meant killing civilians. Before long, bombing civilians themselves in the belief that it would destroy morale and the will to fight, was seen as a legitimate and necessary policy.

The first raids on civilian targets came at the end of the Battle of Britain (1940). German bombers changed from bombing airfields to bombing the streets and houses of British cities. One of the most remembered air-raids was on the city of Coventry on 15 November 1940. Much of the city and its cathedral was destroyed and 568 people killed. Civilians in London, Liverpool, Belfast, Clydeside and many other cities and towns had to endure ferocious bombing by the Germans throughout 1940-1942 and again in 1944-1945. At first Britain hit back by bombing German factories and docks but it was much easier to bomb whole areas completely.

Dresden was an ancient city which had not been touched by air-raids. In early 1945 German troops were passing through Dresden to fight the USSR which was advancing from the Eastern Front. The USSR wanted the British and Americans to make a bombing raid on Dresden to halt the German troops. But, Dresden was also filled with refugees escaping from the Russian army. For the most part Dresden was an undefended city. It had no anti-air craft guns. The fate of Dresden was sealed.

At about 9pm on 13 February 1945, 805 British planes dropped 2690 tonnes of bombs on Dresden. Soon the city was an inferno. The next morning 600 American planes bombed the city again, and again on the 15 February. Dresden burned for 7 days. Only 8 Allied planes were shot down. No one knows how many people died but estimates put the death toll at between 25,000 and 135,000.

When the extent of the damage became known, there were uneasy murmurings in Britain. Had someone gone too far? Even Churchill began to wonder if the bombing policy ought to be reviewed. 

Fritz Schmid married on 2 September 1965 in Munich (Blutenburg).  The spouse was Karin Maria Magdalena Enderle (called Karin Schmid).  She was born on 19 October 1941, Protestant.  She is a Doctor of Psychotherapy and a psychoanalyst.

Fritz and Karin Schmid have three daughters:

-     Martina Schmid, born 17 March 1966 in Munich, married Francisco Ventura in Mexico City on 17 November 1995, had a son, Emiliano, born in London on 19 November 1993, and is now divorced.  She and her son now live in London.  She is a graphic designer.

-     Catrin Schmid was born in Erlangen (Bavaria) on 5 December 1968, married Amin El Gendi (from Egypt) in Hanover on 28 December 1998. They have a daughter Karla, born in Dessau on 17 April 1999.  They now live in Dessau.  Catrin is an anthropologist.

-     Kristina Schmid, born on 24 August 1974 in Hanover, is about to finish her medical studies in Munich.

Hans Otto Albert Schmid (called Hans Schmid), Fritz Schmid's younger brother, was born in Berlin on 19 August 1936. He studied electrical engineering and economics, became a computer expert and spent much of his career in leading positions working for Siemens in Munich and their branches elsewhere. He is now retired and lives in Munich. He married Gertrud Dietlinde Teichmann (called Dietlinde Schmid) in Munich on 26 April 1962.  She was born in Düsseldorf on 9 June 1937.  Hans and Dietlinde Schmid had two children Anke Friederike Schmid and Jan Christof Schmid.

Anke Friederike Schmid (called Anke Fischer) was born in Munich on 6 March 1963.  She is a gynaecologist (Frauenärztin) and obstetrician (Geburtshelferin). She married Dr Gottfried Fischer, specialist for internal diseases, in Munich on 26 September 1992.  He was born in Stuttgart on 8 June 1963.  They have three children:

-     Chiara Fischer, born on 19 August 1993 in Munich

-     Florentin Fischer, born on 5 October 1995 in Munich

-     Lilith Fischer, born on 15 February 1997 in Munich

The family now lives in Munich.

An explanation of Anke Fischer's lack of title is required for non-German readers: In Germany when you study medicine (which gives you the right to practise medicine, like a "doctor", meaning a medically fully qualified person) you become an "Arzt" (male doctor) or an "Ärztin" (female doctor).  But that does not confer on you the right to use the title "Dr. med." (Doctor of Medicine).  For that title you have to do an additional piece of research.  She is therefore a "doctor" in the English sense of the word (not merely a midwife) but does not carry the German title "Dr".  She may in due course decide to do this work and obtain the title.

Dr Dr Jan Christof (called Christof Schmid), was born in Munich on 22 September 1964.  He is an oral and maxillo-facial surgeon (like his uncle Fritz Schmid).  He has two doctorates, one in general medicine and the other in dental medicine.  He married cardiologist Dr Susanne Schnaack in Munich on 12 October 1996.  She was born in Staaken on 3 April 1964.  They have one child: Julius Schmid, born in Munich on 8 January 1998.  The family lives in Munich.