Ingrid Helps Uncle Fritz

By Seung Geel Hong

A 14-year-old German girl goes to work for her great-uncle at his portrait studio during her summer break in the summer of 1937.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9781008932913

Book preview

Ingrid Helps Uncle Fritz

By Hong, Seung Geel (홍승길)

First Edition

By Hong, Seung Geel (홍승길)

© 2020 by Hong, Seung Geel (홍승길)

All rights reserved

ISBN: 978-1-008-93291-3

Disclaimer

The following story was inspired by true experiences; but the names of persons, organizations, and locations were changed to protect the privacy of everyone involved. Therefore, any similarity between any of the names in this story to any known individual, whether living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Hong, Seung Geel (홍승길)

Introduction

The year 1937 was a special year for the United States, for Germany, and for Ingrid Lang.

In the United States, it was the beginning of The Recession Within the Great Depression, which would last from May of 1937 to June of 1938. According to one estimate, the unemployment rate (which had declined to 14%) would re-climb to 20% during the 13-month recession.  (The Great Depression would last from 1929 – 1939+.)

Germany, on the other hand, already had gone through its worst years of the Great Depression.  Adolf Hitler had become the new chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933; and the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) had managed to lower the unemployed workforce of six million in early 1933 (30% +) to one million by 1937. And the unemployment rate was still declining.  Therefore, in Germany, although the people had lost much of their freedom and they had to work longer hours, most of the German workers felt fortunate to be working.

As for Ingrid Lang, 1937 would be the year that would introduce her to photography.

Time of Hyperinflation

Ingrid Lang was born on March 12, 1923; she was born at home on a Monday at 3:30 in the morning.  And it so happened that she was born in the year of hyperinflation.  The following event is one of