Tag Archives: Anicuta Belau

From Munich to Edinburgh: the Story of Jewish-German Refugee, Neurologist and Father, Dr Ernst Levin

This resource gives an insight into the life of Jewish-German neurologist Dr. Ernst Levin, who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s and emigrated to Edinburgh with his wife Anicuta and their daughter Annekathrin. His personal collection was donated to Lothian Health Services Archive (LHSA) to supplement Ernst’s existing medical archive and it contains much correspondence between family and friends, dating as far back as the 1870s, as well as passports, photographs, sketchbooks, and various other personal artefacts. The following content hopes to emphasise the value of archiving personal histories as an insight into particular moments in history.

Ernst’s private correspondence gives an extraordinary insight into the life of a Jewish refugee forced to flee Germany under Hitler’s Nazi regime. This collection is in dialogue with other projects on Jewish history across the University of Edinburgh and the UK: academic Hannah Holtschneider, lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, heads the ‘Jewish Lives’ project which is a similar project of much broader scope.

Ernst was born in 1887 to wealthy Jewish parents Willy and Natalie Levin, great patrons of the arts in Berlin. His parents were friends with famous composer Richard Strauss, in whom Ernst maintained a great interest for the entirety of his life. Ernst’s brother Walter Levin, who tragically took his own life in 1923 after severe paralysis from contracting Polio, had emigrated to Israel in 1910. Their sister Trude later married Oskar Treidel, the man on whose farm Walter had worked on. As a result, the Treidel-Levins created a link for the family to Israel.

After studying medicine in Berlin, Ernst moved to Munich in the 1910s and served in the First World War on the French front line, marrying Bucharest-born Anicuta Belau in 1917. The couple moved in the artistic circles of the Weimar Republic, maintaining friendships and correspondence with prominent artists and composers, among them the painter Max Unold and his wife Grete. Ernst had to flee Berlin when Hitler rose to power and re-established his family in Edinburgh in the 1930s, working with prominent neurosurgeon Norman Dott. In 1940, Ernst was interned at a camp in Douglas, on the Isle of Man, as he acquired the status of ‘enemy alien’ when the war escalated into its critical stages. Anicuta and Annekathrin were displaced, along with other alien women, to Glasgow, as they could no longer reside within twenty miles of Scotland’s east coast.

Their daughter, Annekathrin Levin, was in her late teens when she arrived in Edinburgh to start a new life. Correspondence between her and her parents indicates that the family maintained a bilingual home life. Annekathrin travelled during her youth, around Europe and to Israel. She had a career in Occupational Therapy, an emerging discipline at the time, and worked at the Birmingham Accident Hopsital, from which she sent photos and letters that survive in the collection. She returned to Edinburgh in her late 40s, buying a cottage in Colinton so that Ernst might move in to her bungalow when his health deteriorated, and began working as a secretary and translator at Edinburgh-based electrical engineering firm, Ferranti’s. In later life, Ernst recovered his mother’s property in Cologne and organised the family’s inheritance, also being paid compensation by the Association for Jewish Refugees. He stayed in Edinburgh until he died, maintaining regular correspondence with the branches of his family which had settled in Israel.

 

ABOUT

My name is Kimyana Scherer and I’m currently an intern working with Lothian Health Services Archive (LHSA) as part of the Employ.Ed scheme run by the University of Edinburgh Careers Service: http://www.ed.ac.uk/careers/looking-for-work/internships/employed/employed-on-campus. My role involves cataloguing and scoping the recently donated personal collection of Jewish-German neurologist Ernst Levin, who emigrated to Edinburgh in 1936 following some years of working in the city with neurosurgeon Norman Dott. LHSA look after local National Health Service records of historical value, cataloguing and preserving them so that they are accessible to the public upon request. To find out more, visit our frequently updated blog.

Through these posts I hope to provide a greater insight into the story of Ernst, Anicuta, Annekathrin and their loved ones. These personal narratives each create a small window into historically crucial moments in time: arguably, the most valuable function of the personal archive is to preserve the ‘humanity’ in history, which might otherwise be lost in the process of artefact selection and preservation based on the apparent ‘importance’ of the subject being studied.

I hope you enjoy!

The Love Story of Ernst and Anicuta: A Complex Marriage

As he wrote in later life, Ernst Levin believed that emigration saved his marriage, and that he and his wife had “Hitler to thank for keeping the family together”. Ernst’s marriage to Anicuta Belau in 1917 was undoubtedly a strong match, but inevitably the two forceful characters frequently clashed and the relationship was rocky, with a period of separation prior to 1936, despite their young daughter Annekathrin. Correspondence gives an insight into the course of the couple’s lives.

Ernst Levin was born in 1887 in Berlin to Willy and Natalie Levin. He studied medicine and went on to become a prominent neurologist, marrying Anicuta Belau in 1917, whilst serving in the First World War. The pair settled in Munich where they moved in artistic, bohemian circles, becoming friends with the painter Max Unold whom Ernst had met as a youth in 1906. After a spell of separation, Ernst and Anicuta emigrated to Edinburgh together with their daughter Annekathrin in 1936.

Anicuta Belau, born 1886 in Bucharest, Romania, also came from a wealthy family. She studied art in Utrecht, and the collection contains some of her sketchbooks and loose drawings. Anicuta had a taste for fashion and many photographs of her in exotic costume dress exist, probably stemming from the couple’s ‘wild’ years within the art scene of 1930s Munich.

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Letter from Willy Levin to Ernst, his son, on his marriage to Anicuta in 1917:

The Levins were a prominent and wealthy Jewish family in Berlin, Ernst’s father Willy being a businessman with several confectionery factories and a patron of the arts in his free time. You can read more about the Levins’ lavish lifestyle in the post dedicated to Ernst’s family. Romanian-born Anicuta is described as ‘Aryan and Catholic’ by Elias Auerbach, who refused Ernst permission to emigrate to Palestine on this basis. There may have been tension amongst the Levin family at the idea of Ernst marrying out of the Jewish community, as indicated by the below letter.

12th October 1917

“I am very sad, that I haven’t heard anything from you since the wedding. Instead of being especially grateful to me over my approval of your marriage, I have the bitter feeling that now, after having reached your goal, you are playing the victim. Apparently you also wrote to Walter Kantorowicz on this matter, complaining bitterly about our cold treatment of your wife. But that was our agreement, son. I gave you my consent and promised you to create as good a relationship as possible between our family and your wife. It is understandable that this can’t happen overnight. Your wife appears just as strange to us, completely foreign outside and in, as we do to her. Your mother was very kind to her in Munich, we ate together … I think this should surely be enough for the moment. I also don’t think your wife complains about us, or has any reason to.”

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Feldpost Letters

Ernst Levin served as a medic during the First World War, later winning a medal of honour for his bravery at the battle of the Somme. He clearly rallied and worked efficiently under pressure and in unpleasant war-time conditions, as evidenced by his later enthusiastic contribution to the medical unit of his internment camp on the Isle of Man, 1940.

During the course of the war from 1914-1918, Ernst and Anicuta kept up regular correspondence through the war-time postal service or ‘Feldpost’. The script is dated to the point of illegibility, but examples are shown below:

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Letter from Willy Levin in Bad Kissingen to Anicuta during WW1, whilst Ernst served at the front

22nd May 1918

“I have heard from Ernst recently, but am not very happy over his unhappy tone. What he has to endure must be endured by all those in the field and even us at home are not exactly lying on a bed of roses. I wrote to mother [Natalie], that if somehow possible she should send Ernst some honey etc., which might improve his mood. There isn’t any chocolate anymore, and I assume you will send him something nice too. But don’t spend too much … I’ve heard from Ernst that you want to go on a health retreat … I would like to hear from you in Aibling [spa town]. I hear that in Munich, one can buy all kinds of things. Could you also please watch to make sure you aren’t as undernourished as when I last saw you – with this you are only hurting yourself”

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Letter from Anicuta’s friend, writer Reinhard Koester (alias Karl Kinndt) with whom Anicuta had corresponded with regularly since the early 1910s, advising her on her separation:

Ernst and Anicuta underwent a lengthy period of separation prior to their emigration to the United Kingdom, as confirmed by Ernst’s regretful reflections on the impact this had in later life. He claims in a letter to a friend that “Hitler kept the family together”, and that the separation left an “indelible mark” on Annekathrin and Anicuta. Below is a letter from a friend in Munich advising Anicuta on how she should behave in her present circumstance.

 

26th March 1932:

“I think it’s very sensible that you have rented your own small apartment, assuming that Levin has officially given his consent. If you can then just live for your child and stay in Munich after all, instead of being alone in Dachau, then hopefully you will become calmer. I think, the calmer you are and the less you fight against him and her [the third party], the more you leave them alone, the more likely it is that he will tire of her and truly return to you, if that is even still possible. If he can sense that you are willing to let him have his woman but in return want the child, he might come to his senses … and the more unrestrained those two can be together, the more they will fight with each other. You just have to tell yourself one thing every day: if you ever get back together, then everything that has happened has to be forgotten and erased. After all, you share some of the blame! … just be happy, that your Annekathrin has turned out well … despite having lived through all this conflict at such an early age. What’s the use of a ‘nice upbringing’ nowadays anyway? Then afterwards the disappointment is just far greater. Make her a girl who will go into life with clear and open eyes, knowing that she has to shape her own path. Then maybe she might later be happy, that she didn’t have such a ‘nice upbringing’, when life gives her more than she expected. It was the other way round for you – and for me too”

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Letter advising his younger friend

In a letter to a friend, Ernst expresses regret over his and Anicuta’s lengthy separation, particularly in regards to the impact it had on his wife and child in the following years.

6th May 1956

“I am today writing to you rather reluctantly. It was unavoidable that I learned from Annekathrin about your recent – and I do hope – transient separation. It was sad news.

You will understand that I am diffident about writing as I do not wish to give you the impression that I want to intrude in such an utterly private and intimate matter unasked.

… You probably know – or have guessed – that my wife and I have gone to the ordeal of a long separation prior to our emigration when Annekathrin was about [child of recipient’s] own age. We have to thank Hitler for keeping the family together, but still, this separation has left a mark on my wife and on Annekathrin indelibly, and I myself am still blaming myself for what I did especially to Annekathrin during the most impressionable years of her childhood when she had no father and no family home.

Please … don’t misunderstand me. I say all these things only to make you feel that I understand and that I am no stranger to your problems. Believe me, I have no wish to intrude or interfere, but if you feel I could be of any help to you and [recpient’s wife], by listening, without judging or taking sides, I will try as hard as I can. – If you can absent yourself from your work for a few days you can live with me in the flat at any time.

With kind regards,

Your old friend”

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Hand-written note in shaky script by Ernst towards the end of his life

Ernst and Anicuta’s marriage, though clearly an affectionate and mutually supportive one, had its ups and downs. Below is a note scrawled by Ernst on the subject of marriage and ‘Bohemian women’, perhaps referring to his wife Anicuta.

“I often wished to marry an English woman of English education, and for that I would risk occasional indigestion. I do not wish to marry a house-wife, as Bohemian women are. Also I will not hide from you that it is good to have money, as our exchange has lowered, I think that physical affection is not a basis for marriage.”

Between countries: the well-travelled Passports of Ernst and Anicuta

 

As refugees fleeing the mounting danger of a progressively more anti-Semitic Germany, Ernst and Anicuta considered many different options as a new home. Ernst explains that he was refused emigration to Palestine because of his ‘Arian [sic.] and Catholic’ wife (see post on ‘The Levins and Israel‘). He probably decided to settle in Scotland because of his work with neurosurgeon Norman Dott, which had begun as early as 1934. Below are the couple’s passports, the last of which are British, demonstrating their naturalisation to British citizenship. Nazi insignia is clearly visible on the passports from the Third Reich, and multiple stamps for renewed ‘landing permission’ indicate the logistical difficulties of gaining rights to settle permanently in Britain.

Ernst’s German passport 1929:

(1) Inner cover stamped ‘INVALID’. Lines ‘accompanied by wife by the name of ….’ Crossed out, marked as accompanied by one child. Nationality: Bavarian.

(2) Stamped 4th January 1929 by Munich police. Section for details of wife not filled out. Place of Birth: Berlin, DOB: 8th (May?) 1887, Place of residence: Edinburgh, Build: tall, Face: oval, Eye colour: brown, Hair colour: black, Distinctive features: none. Child’s name: Anna Katharina, Age: ‘Levin’ (last name crosses into column), Gender: 10.8.1919 (DOB in gender column).

(3) Valid in: Germany and abroad. Expires 4th January 1934. Signed by ‘Vogl’.

(4) French Consulate Munich visa stamped 10th April 1930. Duration of stay 15 days. Swiss border stamped 28th April 1930 (Geneva – ?). Swiss stamp 27th June 1931 entry at Martinsbruck.

(5) Three stamps at Brennero (Northern Italy).

(6) Stamp of ‘Aliens Registration Office’, Metropolitan Police at Bow Street Station, London, 12th December 1933 daybook. Permission to stay longer in UK until 20th January 1934, granted by Under Secretary of State Home Office 12/12/33.

(7) Permission from Munich police to travel out of Germany ‘with the exception of the border crossings to Austria’, valid until November 1933, stamped 23rd September 1933.

(8) Stamp (in English): ‘Leave to land granted at Harwich this day on condition that the holder does not enter any employment paid or unpaid while in the United Kingdom’ (handwritten): ‘and does not remain in the United Kingdom longer than ONE MONTH’. Stamp of Immigration Officer Harwich 20th October 1933.

 

Ernst’s German passport 1939:

(1) Glued to inside cover is list of responsibilities of German citizens whilst abroad from February 1938. Lines ‘accompanied by wife by the name of ……. And …. Number of children’ have been crossed out. Nationality: ‘German Reich’.

(2) Stamped with Nazi stamp 7th March 1939. Section for details of wife not filled out. Personal description as above. Section for children crossed out. Valid until 7th March 1940.

(3) Stamped by German Consulate Glasgow. Three passport stamps amounting to 14 shillings (8, 5 and 1 shilling) acquired a visa at the Foreign Office, London on 18th August 1939 valid until March 1940.

4) Visa for entry (in French), stamped French Consulate Glasgow. Entry 1st November 1939, valid for single visit of six weeks. Reason for travel stated as ‘(?) of health’. 75 Francs paid.

 

 

 

Anicuta’s German passport 1936:

(1) Name filled out as ‘Anna Levin’. Child accompaniment section crossed out. Stamped by Munich police 2nd December 1936. Personal details – Occupation: wife, Place of birth: Bucharest, DOB: 18.2.1886, Place of residence: Munich, Build: average, Face: oval, Eyes: grey/green, Hair: dark blonde.

(2) Munich Central Train Station stamp 16th December 1936, exchanged money.

(3) Stamp ‘Permitted to land at Harwich on 17/12/36 on condition that the holder does not remain in the United Kingdom longer than ONE MONTH’.

(4) Stamp for border cross on 4th August 1939 at Basel, Switzerland. Entry 20th December 1937 at Kaldenkirchen. Edinburgh City Police Alien Department stamp 18th March 1938.

(5) Foreign Office London 21st July 1939, visa for 12 months. Immigration officer stamp Newhaven 18th September 1939.

(6) French visa from Glasgow Consulate, 24th August 1939 for holiday.

 

 

British Passports of Ernst and Anicuta, issued 1956 and renewed 1966.

 

Integration

 

Annekathrin Levin was seventeen years old when she moved to Edinburgh with her parents. The bilingual nature of her life is evidenced in correspondence with her parents, often in English to her father Ernst, but also sometimes written in a mixture of both English and German. Whilst Ernst integrated into the Edinburgh medical community, Annekathrin enjoyed much freedom and travelled around the UK and Europe.

The Association for Jewish Refugees (in Britain) was founded in 1941 to help the settling and integration of displaced Jews and still exists today.

Ernst was in regular contact with the Association for Jewish Refugees in regards to the repayment of his war-time Jewish tax compensation and the tracing of family members.

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Letter from Annekathrin’s friend, K. G. Hyder

 

15th February 1937:

“Dear Miss Levin … It was a nice sun-shiny day yesterday, and I not feeling inclined very much in my books, preferred walking outside. I passed my afternoon, up the Arthur seat hills behind Hollyrood [sic.] Palace … I seem to have started my work seriously for my ensuing terminal exam: but at any rate I shall be very much pleased to spare an evening for you at the coming Cosmo Dance on the 19th … I had quite a nice time in the last International gathering and had to pleasure to hear German songs and music. I liked the tunes very though the language was strange to me”

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Annekathrin, like her mother Anicuta, was inclined to art and sketching, with notable examples in her notebooks and sketchbooks.

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Efforts to contact missing acquaintances and friends

UNRRA, The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, was established by the Allies in November 1943. It helped displaced persons and refugees reunite with their friends and family following the chaos of the Second World War, which left much of Europe’s population uprooted and without a secure home.

This public information film, ‘In the Wake of the Armies’, produced in 1944, explains the purpose of UNRRA.

26th July 1946:

From No.1 Tracing Bureau – Austria.

Enquiring after Dr Levin, ‘about 60’, physician, British but former German nationality, ‘possible source of information’ detailed as “he is teaching at the University of Edinburgh”.

Enquirer: Josef Badel in Vienna, an Austrian friend. Message reads “very anxious for news of welfare and whereabouts”.

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Letter from colleague Norman Dott vouching for Ernst’s legitimacy

Norman Dott, an Edinburgh-based internationally-renowned neurosurgeon, invited Ernst to work with him in his department as early as 1934 – he may have been the reason that the family relocated to Edinburgh specifically, as Ernst worked at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. Dott went on to vouch for Ernst throughout the persecution and interment of ‘aliens’ during the Second World War, supporting the family personally, as evidenced by Annekathrin’s interactions with Dott regarding her and Anicuta’s displacement to Glasgow, and ejection from the family home (see ‘Internment’ post). To have such a prominent figure petition for your value to science and society would have been incredibly helpful to Ernst.

 

13th August 1935:

“This is to certify that Dr. Ernst Levin, formerly of the Poliklink, Munich, has been employed by me during the last year in the capacity of assistant in my department of Neurological Surgery at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, and in other associated hospitals which I visit. His duties have included the investigation and recording of neurological patients’ cases and assistance at operations upon them. Dr. Levin is in receipt of a grant from the Academic Assistance Council to enable him to carry on this work. In addition Dr. Levin has undertaken under my direction, research work involving analysis of certain groups of neurosurgical cases and in respect of this work he is in receipt of a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.

Dr. Levin attended the International Neurological Congress in London with me from 29th July to 3rd August and on 4th August he left London for Germany with my knowledge and consent. My understanding with Dr. Levin is that he is to have six weeks’ holiday and he is due to return to his work in my department in Edinburgh on 16th September.”

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Letter on Ernst’s pleasure at a Burns Night dinner and integration into Scottish culture

In the below letter, Ernst emotionally expresses his gratitude to a friend for inviting their family to a Burns Night supper. He describes Scotland as his ‘adopted home’.

27th January 1955

“It is only today that I find the time and leisure to thank you and your wife once more for having invited us all to the Burns Supper and to your hospitable house.

We have enjoyed it all hughely[sic.]: the traditional food and drink, the good company, the speech, the recitations, the songs and the toasts, not least your own, but most of all the spirit of friendship for the strangers in your midst.

I want you to know that we all consider your invitation to share with you your national celebration a great honour and distinction, signifying to us acceptance in the land of our adoption. This is no small matter for people who have lost their country they loved, and we are deeply grateful for making us feel at home with you.

Scotland has been good to us and we all feel very happy here. This goes for Annekathrin especially and for the Ross family especially who from the very start has treated her as a member of the family with the result that feels to belong. Believe me that we two old birds feel very comforted in that knowledge.”

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Annekathrin’s career in Occupational Therapy

 

Although she gave up this career path before the age of fifty, Annekathrin Levin pursued the fledgling movement for Occupational Therapy in its early stages. Her father mentions in later letters that working for seven years with physically and mentally disabled children had worn her down, leading to her decision to return to Edinburgh to work as a secretary and translator at ‘Ferranti’s’ and buy a cottage in Colinton in south west Edinburgh. There is much correspondence between Annekathrin and her parents whilst she was working at Birmingham Accident Hospital in their new Occupational Therapy department. She was active around the time that the National Health Service was introduced in the United Kingdom in 1948. In her letters, she records some of the anxiety amidst the medical staff regarding this drastic change and fears for new structuring and administration of hospitals.

 

Wunderkammer

Parts of this collection are a veritable Wunderkammer or ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’. Within Ernst Levin’s collections, as is the case with the personal files of any individual, there are items which completely defy any attempt at explanation. There are also objects which are absolutely fascinating, though not perhaps of obvious value for use in historical research. They represent an example of material culture, in that they passed through family hands and are a collection of things curated by the individual which demonstrate their taste. Below are some examples of the miscellaneous treasures to be found amidst the carnage of an uncatalogued personal archive, this one being donated to Lothian Health Services Archive housed in twenty old boxes.

Magazine clipping circa 1920s of two male rowers kissing. This clipping is an exact outline of the photograph shown below but also the reverse side, which shows fashionably dressed women. There is uncertainty as to which image the clipping was extracted for, but Anicuta was certainly of liberal inclination.

 

 

Anicuta as a young girl in Communion dress for the Catholic ceremony. The decadence of her clothing demonstrates a considerable degree of wealth.

 

The family Belau pose for a photograph in Bucharest around 1900. Anicuta’s father Paul was an architect and designer: postcards sent from him in Buenos Aires and Cuba suggest that he was often abroad.

 

Anicuta and her artist friends often illustrated their correspondence to each other, producing vibrant letters with doodles covering the pages.

 

Anicuta was the owner of infinite tiny notebooks and pocket calendars, some expensively bound in adorned material.

An invitation to the wedding of Laura and Paul Belau, Anicuta’s parents, in 1885.

Anicuta’s sketches: she attended art school in Utrecht during the 1910s.

 Anicuta’s coloured drawings of stylish women: she maintained an ardent interest in fashion.

 

Birth certificate of one of Anicuta’s siblings, in Romanian.

Japanese-style fabric-covered box containing an extensive series of original love poetry, typed and hand-written. Sent from a man who may have been Anicuta’s sweetheart prior to marriage, between 1904 and 1906.

 

The report card of Anicuta Belau from her high school in Bucharest: she is graded for various subjects in French, Italian and German.

Pages from an Art Nouveau magazine:

First page depicts an art nouveau illustration and a poem called ‘Maerchentraum’ (Fairy-tale dream):

 

‘The midday sun was burning hot…

I was resting in the forest

And dreamt in the shade of the trees

A foolish fairy-tale dream:

 

I, a shepherd boy

Lay alone …

Around me the silent moor

And above me the blue sky

 

Then some kind God lead

You proudly to me

And with quivering lips

You quietly kissed my mouth

You were the King’s daughter

Who fell in love with the shepherd boy –

You were in my foolish dream

My young, happy bride ..

 

I dreamed: they were together

The shepherd and the Princess

O world – what fairy-tales you have

That have never been written down .. !

– Ernst Staus’

The other is entitled ‘Weisst Du Noch’ (Do you remember):

 

 

‘Do you remember? Sunshine

Shone on the trees –

 Sizzling summer air

The heavy scent of Acacia –

Across the wide world

Delightful dreams.

Do you still remember?

The song of the skylarks

Over the plants –

Joyful youthful air…’

 

 

 

Set of Anicuta’s intricate tiny pocket calendars, 1936-38.

 

 

 

 

Paul Belau’s military pass: Anicuta’s father Paul Belau was an architect and designer who spent a lot of time in Buenos Aires, also co-designing a building in Havana, Cuba: https://structurae.net/persons/paul-belau. His military pass is in German, dated 1877. The family was of German origin but relocated to Bucharest, Romania, where Anicuta spent her youth.

 

Postcard to Anicuta Belau in Bucharest, 29th April 1904, with colourful three-dimensional fan detail.