Carl died peacefully at home in Greenwich, CT on April 26th 2022. He was 99 years old. A much loved husband, father, brother, grandfather and father-in-law. Carl’s twin brother Fred died in February and his sister Marianne some years earlier.
Carl was born into a German-Jewish family on November 30, 1922 in Aachen, Germany. His mother was a school teacher. His father owned a textile factory.
During the time of Kristallnacht in Nazi Germany Carl’s father was put in a concentration camp in Oranienburg near Berlin. In one of the ironies of that terrible time the arresting officer, the local Chief of Police, was wearing a suit given to him by Carl’s father. After two weeks he was released from the concentration camp after Carl’s mother bribed an official. The family still has the discharge paper from the concentration camp. The family escaped to Holland where they lived for about a year. In 1940 they came to New York City aboard the Dutch liner Volendaam.
Prior to Carl’s escape, his uncle had bought a chicken farm in Vineland, New Jersey with the proceeds from a Picasso painting smuggled out of Germany. The name of the painting and its eventual destination has been lost to history. On weekends Carl would help out on his uncle’s farm.
Carl got a job as an office boy in NYC doing typing and filing. He was proficient in German, French, Dutch and some English. He was drafted into the US Army in 1942 which prevented him from completing high school. His typing ability landed him an assignment in the Headquarters section of the 10th Army Corps. He was stationed in New Guinea, the Philippines and Hiroshima, Japan. He attained the rank of Staff Sergeant and served in the Army Reserves for three years.
After the war, with the GI Bill, Carl applied to Temple University. He majored in Marketing and studied French, graduating magna cum laude.
In 1957, he married Ursula Schopke also from Aachen Germany, and they raised two boys and two girls and now have five grandchildren.
He worked most of his career as a wholesaler of consumer products and sundries serving privately owned convenience stores.
Carl resided in Cos Cob for 49 years. Later on in his life you could find him swimming laps at the YMCA or enjoying the waters off of Tod’s Point. He found pleasure in attending the Retired Men’s Association of Greenwich (RMA). He and his wife, Ursula were tremendous explorers and have visited over 30 countries on every corner of the globe.
He is remembered by his family as a kind, caring and practical man who was never happier than in the company of his family and reading business, history and politics. His was a life of adventure. He lives on in his children and grandchildren.
