Europe - 2025 - Memories + New Experiences

April 28, 2025

(Menachem) Imanuel Marx - 06/29/1918-11/13/6 - Residence from Birth - 1927

Youngest Son of Moses Marx (1885-1973) - my Grandfather

Moses Marx - Merchant - 11 Helmstederstrasse, Wilmersdorf, Berlin

In talking with several people passing by, I learned that most of the buildings on my father's bloack and nearby had been built around 1900. There was damage from World War II bombing, and most of them had been repaired. I couldn't tell with 100% certainty that the house my father lived in was (not) rebuilt (some from their doors clearly were over 100 years old), but it seems likely it is the original building, probably with the apartments made into smaller units that I imagine my grandfather's residence would have been (he was wealthy prior to the end of World War I).

Plaque - re: Albert Einstein

Talking with several people walking in my father's birthplace neighborhood, I learned that about 2 1/2 blocks from where my father lived from his birth in 1918, (I'm guessing) until emigrating to Cincinnati in 1927, was the residence of Albert Einstein from 1917 (recruited from Zurich) until the end of 1932 - when on a trip to the U.S. - he saw the upcoming rise of Hitler, and never came back. The apartment building was destroyed by allied bombing, but the plague is at the location of the newer building in German and English.

glistening glass- residence - our home 1962-3 - Zurich

3rd Residential Level - 4th Floor (was elevator) - attic above

The View - and this is from street level - we were the 4th floor of the building

The Cog Railway - down from our Home

I remember clearly, our first day heading to the private British School across the street from Lake Zurich. My brother Dan, a fifth grader, and I a sixth grader. I spoke in my "best" German, and the conductor responded in excellent English. 2025 - in - the rebuilt, modernized train - driverless - ticketing in Zurich is all presuming one will purchase a ticket at the stop one gets on, assuming one doesn't have a pass.

We took the 10 tram to Bellevue, switched to the 3 or 4 (as I remember them, now appear to be 2 or 4) several stops, and then walked to our school. We had transit passes, which allowed unlimited travel. We could go anywhere we wanted to in Zurich through transit and walking, as long as we were home before it got dark.

This trip - had two meaningful things related to my past! Zurich was the only happy year of my childhood! It was a year when our father was with us two children weekends and holiday times - when we traveled. We played card games on the train rides. Unlike - at home in Indiana, Dad wasn't focused mostly on his work as a math professor.

We had a lot of vacations. Six weeks - starting in March - three weeks in Italy, a Zim boat from Naples to Haifa. For Dad, his first time seeing most of his relatives he'd "left" in 1927 when he left Berlin for the U.S.

It was the year his cancer was in remission, the most wonderful year of his life (probably) along with a fun year for Dan and I.

Berlin - my first visit - to my father's birthplace and where he lived until he was nine.

I am a deeply emotional person! My feelings - the tears - tell me - that I have a lot of work to go through now as I approach age 74.