I met my grandfather when I was very young, as a baby and a toddler. He died in 1986 and I remember getting the phone call. My parents came up to me and said, we have something to tell you. Something sad happened, I turned to them and said ” Opa passed away right??!” they looked at me and said yes. Tell me how I knew that as we lived in NJ and they lived in Berlin, Germany. It was just a feeling that I had and knew.

Most of my memories of them, just like any european family was in the kitchen. I would be in the high chair in the kitchen and they would give me juice or water with my food…when I was finished I would put my hands up and say ” ALLE ALLE BABY ” if that was what german toddlers did, I dont know, but I know that is what I did. I really dont remember much of anything but do remember a boat ride I took with my dad and my grandfather as he wanted me to ” remember him ” and the trip we went on.

Richard and Erna on the balcony of the Sodener Strasse in Berlin, Germany

The only other thing I can really remember is him working on his shoes in the kitchen. He Knew how to repair them as well as binding books and had a metal type object he would use in the kitchen of course, kind of like an angel or something a blacksmith might use to pound metal in place to make a weapon. If thast what it was I have no idea, but that is what I remember. I remember that they were always a happy family, not like the other set of german grandparents I had who were always arguing or the : nothing I did, nothing I said and nothing I wore ” was ever good enough for them.

I know they lived on the Sodener Strasse and that was right around the corner from where my mom grew up ( the Seidel family on the Rudolf-Mosse Strasse ) in the Wilmersdorfer area of Berlin. My dad told me that the family was bombed out 4 times, but the only other recorded address that I know of is the one my dad was born at in the Derrflinger Strasse in Berlin- Wilmersdorf area.

Richard and my grandmother Erna Martha Hedwig Hohenhaus1899–1978

had 3 children

Gerda Böhme 1922–2013

Erika Hertha Boehme 1926–2006

Dietmar Wolfgang Gerhard Boehme1940– ( my father )

I dont remember much but remember sitting on the top of the ship ( kind of like a steamer ) where you could just see the sights from what was like a balcony with benches , if that makes sense, I dont know but that is what I remember.

I do know from stories that my grandfather went by Richard and not by Adolf. That he was a Prokurist and he also either managed, ran or owned a Moebel Transportier Company. This was a company that was located at the Berliner Haupt Bahnhof called something else at the time.

Looking back at the notes I have white writing this … I see one here on the side of my notebook that says …

Just talked to dad .. he said that he was in there German Army in World War 1… he does not know what rank or whatever he was.. do you know by chance?? … I heard that he was not in World War2 because he had around 1000 people that worked under him in being a Prokurist … and that during the war they used his “ trucks “ for other things .. what my dad said was NOTHING about what it was used for .. Im assuming supplies etc… he helped in world war 2 to build airplanes

Spediteur meint, er ist im Transportwesen, evtl. LKW gewesen. Prokurist bedeutet, dass er Prokura hatte, was bedeutet, dass er in der Führungsebene beschäftigt war und Unterschriftsberechtigt war, also auf der Entscheidungsebene.

When Richard Böhme was born on January 14, 1899, his father, Gottlieb, was 25 and his mother, Auguste, was 27. He married Erna Martha Hedwig Hohenhaus in Berlin, Germany. They had three children in 18 years. He died on February 5, 1986, in Wilmersdorf, Germany, at the age of 87.

with all my research I am not sure if this is correct but this is the only record I can assume with the research I have done where my grandfather was recorded in the army … I would love to research or have help in that