He went by his middle name Bruno. Carl is spelt with a ‘C’ in the original birth record but with a ‘K’ later in life.
His memoirs cover his life until the time of his marriage.
He nearly died around 1921 or so, with pneumonia and kidney infection, but pulled through; they thought this was the flu but this may in fact have been TB instead of flu.

Bruno Franke’s Memoirs dated November 16, 1949
Translated by Wolfgang and Rosy Franke

“Foreword

You want me to write my ‘memoirs’? I’d like to put quotation marks around this word, since memoirs come from famous people. I feel some kind of hesitation. Yes, in my modest life, I think I can use this expression only in a limited way. However, it shall be!

Dedicated to my children and grandchildren!

In the little town of Laucha a. U. about the year 1830 or so, the master weaver Gottlieb Franke, and his wife from Heldrungen, moved to Laucha, in the upper Krautgasse, after he had bought a small house with a beautiful garden and some adjacent meadow. He brought with him two looms (Webstühle) and two journeymen, as well as the equipment for a small dye-house (Tuchfärberei). So my grandparents signed their names in the churchbook of Laucha. From this marriage came as its first child my Aunt Therese. Later she became the wife of the butchermaster Rössler whose son in 1939 was the pensioned Royal Prussian Oberrentmeister a.D. in Weimar and the daughter, as a widow of the deceased mayor (Bürgermeister) Thiele of Laucha, who also spent their last years in Weimar, where I later visited them once more.

My father (Karl) was born on the fourth of November 1837. He had to go through a strict apprenticeship in his father’s business. Already as a small pupil he had to work every day after school to fill the spools for the journeymen for a whole day’s work. But that didn’t prevent him from getting into close contact with Nature, and he kept this forever. Out of his experiences much has come over to me concerning the world of birds and so on. Grandfather was very tough. Aunt Therese told me that the journeymen complained when the spools were not ready on time and grandpa pulled on the pants of the rascal and spanked him on his bottom with a steel stick taken from the spool frame, but soon the mechanical weaving system had less and less business because of the mechanization of that business. Even the dyeing was not profitable anymore.

After the death of the grandparents, he married the daughter of the mill owner Peter, in Saubach near Bibra. From this marriage three children remained alive. I, as the youngest of them, am now going to report to you something about myself. My father in the meantime had switched from his work into some gardening and beekeeping. Only in the winter he did some work for friends. In July 1881 my mother died, when I was not quite four years old. My father did not marry again. A day help looked after the household. Therefore, as the youngest child, I grew up almost without mother, which means there were shortcomings which came to the fore in later life. Already in the first school years I had to help my father a lot in beekeeping. I did not like that, because there were off and on bee-stingings for me. I can not remember the first one, unlike in Wolfgang’s life. He wrote on one of his first postcards from the Klodramühle near Berga at the river Elster, that the “first bee of his life” had stung him.
In the winter I had to help my father with new ventures in weaving. This resulted in a legal fight with my homeroom teacher Zeymer, who was the principal. That in turn showed up in my school report. I wanted to become a mechanic, but my father had different plans. He persuaded me to enter the textile field, which would enable me to found such a business. He thought he could help me with his knowledge of this matter. That was short-sighted, because he knew my interest in technical things. So, I was put into a textile shop business with a fine tailors shop. I worked there without much interest, but I satisfied the owner. However on my free Sundays’ I worked with a nice apprentice in the workshop of his master and constructed little steam engines with oscillating cylinders. I had seen such a toy at a school comrade’s home. This was the result of many Sundays work, and my father shook his head, when he heard about it. When we were finished with it, the master happened to come in. The kettle was too small compared with the cylinder, so that when we had enough pressure, we had to open the whistle. Then the vehicle did its job. Now the master’s interest was awakened. In this shop they had a powerful air pump, which took over the task of steam. Now the thing raced like mad. All this fixed in me my determination that after my apprenticeship I do my duty as a soldier. There I would would use my technical interests.
1896, 19 years old, I volunteered at the Imperial Navy. I served until 1898 on the ships S.M.S. “Sachsen” and S.M.S. “Deutschland”. With the “Sachsen” I drove through the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, and with the “Deutschland” , with Admiral Prinz Heinrich aboard.

Here I must squeeze something in, an important happening in my life:
In Laucha I have a clear remembrance of the theater club called Thalia, which was founded by my father, Carl Scheibe senior and Friedrich von Kanetzki, after they together bought the stage properties of a university fraternity in Jena. They included spears, halberds, (hellebarden),many historical uniforms and other clothing for city and country folk. Yes, there were tuxedos (Fracks), and skirts in all possible colours and vests with shiny buttons, gaiters, stockings and so on. Even old drums and horns for night watchmen. In sheer admiration I have often as a young boy gone with my father into that chamber with stage props, to admire the old weapons. For decades, supported by clubs, they played everything possible, especially comedies and dramas. In the beginning, before my time, they even performed Die Räuber (Schiller) with Karl Schwab as Karl and my father as Franz . Many plays had to be repeated. I remember the Luther festival and the Gustav Adolf festival. When the last one was on, I was 14 years old. They were looking for a suitable representative of Leubelfink, a page for the Prince. This page had to be very young and with youthful enthusiasm during the tumult of the battle he had to shout from the window to the audience and explain the happenings of the battle to the audience. They almost picked me because I had been declamation specialist, but my father advised against it because I was too small, he said. Then he remembered there was an apprentice in town who had a very fine voice, and could handle the role suitably. How I envied him, when he in the middle of the battle noise shouted, “Hei, how do the bullets fly “. and so on. I didn’t read the script myself so I really didn’t know what these things were.

From the year 1899 on, I remember playing the following roles: the lieutenant Bodo in the play “Die Kinder der Exzellenz”, Erich von Atringen in “Else von Erlenhof”, Learl in “Jägerblut”, I forgot this role in “Großstadtluft” and others, but I can’t remember them, since I was also playing roles in the Gymnastics Club. Finally quite an experience for me was Diogenes Redivicus. At that time this was a modern production with very beautiful music accompaniment which was performed with virtuosity by a postal inspector. A wonderful wig with a flowing mane, a genuine two meter high crutch from a shepherd, as well as an old-fashioned large lantern - A huge success! Later when I was a member of a theater club in Bibra, I had to repeat this performance several times. By themselves these are unimportant things, but memorable.

I wanted, as my brother had done years ago, enter into the service of the Norddeutscher-Lloyd. With a good-sounding letter of recommendation I presented myself in the summer of 1901 to the top engineer at the waterfront in Bremerhaven. He hired me immediately. For almost a year from then on I moved with my tools on board and off board on Lloyd steamers of all sizes. I had to look after the maintenance of their electrical installations. This was necessary in order to be taken into the electro-machine service. On the fifth of July 1902 I was placed as an electrician on the Imperial Postal Steamer (12,000 tons ), “Prinzessin Irene”. My seaman’s heart rejoiced. I almost embraced the messenger who brought me that order on the speed steamer “Kronprinz Wilhelm”. Now I was to see Japan. I had seen Shanghai before when I was in the Imperial Navy. But from there we went to Nagasaki and Yokohama. That first voyage ended the first of November 1902. But already one week later we went out once more, over Antwerp - Gibraltar - Genoa - Naples - the straits of Messina - Port Said - -Suez - Aden - Colombo - Singapore - Hong Kong - Shanghai - Nagasaki - Kobe - Yokohama, into the realm of the Mikado. I will never forget our entrance into the strait of Schimonoseki with the passing on the portside of thousands of lights at Nagasaki. It was eight o’clock in the evening when I came from my watch. I observed the flickering lights like glowworms of untold numbers on small islands, between which the ship had to wind itself. It was like in a fairy tale. On a passage in the daytime I remember somewhere lovely pictures like once when we passed the coast of the Riviera toward Genoa, and that was when we were with the “Hohenzollern”. It was a Sunday when we brought the ship without passengers to Genoa. So, back to Schimonoseki. Soon the passage widens and soon we reach Kobe and from there soon Yokohama. Rest time (Liegezeit) one week. It is not my intention to write great descriptions about Japan. The photograph and the film nowadays look after that quite well. I’m only going to report to you, that after the first arrival at Yokohama with some comrades we drove to Tokyo on bicycles which were bought in the United States. However at the next voyage we drove with a little railroad train which glimmered with brass. It was delivered by the British. In Tokyo I took myself entirely alone, because no one wanted to come with me, a rikshaw which drove me the long way to Kamakura. There I saw the huge copper daibutsch, a picture of God. It stands in a lovely little forest with a garden restaurant., where you were able to drink real German beer which was as inexpensive there as at home, A smart German brewmaster was the reason.

The second voyage was finished on the third of March 1903. Arriving in Bremerhaven I got sick with shingles, so that I had to leave the “Prinzessin Irene”. They put me into the St. Joseph hospital in Bremerhaven. But already on the eighteenth of April I had a new enrolment ( Anmusterung) on the Lloyd steamer “Hohenzollern”, which at that time was ashore in Stettin for repairs. From there without passengers we went through the Kaiser Wilhelm Kanal to Genoa, where the Norddeutscher Lloyd operated a branch line to New York. Everything worked as I wished. Now I was going to make the acquaintance of the land of unlimited opportunity. Enormous was the impression on me as a newcomer, of the Statue of Liberty which appeared through the fog. And soon the huge skyscrapers at the Hudson. I was a young enterprising man and my nerves were pitched to a high point. I went first ashore in New York at the end of August, and we had tropical heat. In those days it was customary to walk about in pants and shirt with your jacket over the arm in the parks. Those that knew their way went to the beaches and drank a lot of lemonade. One week later we went back to Italy through the Azores, Gibraltar, Naples, Genoa. In Naples I was ashore only a few hours because there we all had to go on watch. In Naples I could only enjoy the beautiful entrance past the Vesuvius, and on starboard the Stromboli. The pictures which were offered in the harbour district were at that time very primitive and showed great poverty. That was interesting but not beautiful. I remember the sticky pavement in the streets, children begging, grownups picking up cigar stubs, sunburned people in the better part of ‘la bella Napoli”. I didn’t have much time for that.

In Genoa it was different. We always stayed there for a week. There the harbour quarter was clean. I still remember the city, the gallery Marzini as well as excursions to Nervi and a visit to the Campo Santo and so on. There was a nice little cafe whose owner was a pretty Swiss lady, where you could have a good Muskato and Marsala. with lovely zither music. In spite of all that I was soon pulled over to the United States of America and I asked for my release in New York in order to stay there. I still had my seaman’s passport. Therefore I could be officially released. The first week I lived in a boarding house on 14th street ($2 a day including meals ). It was very well kept, but of course too expensive over a long time. Therefore I soon moved into an Austrian family on Avenue A. I knew that all immigrants known as “ Greenhorns” made the mistake of always looking for a better job and so used up their cash and then couldn’t help working as street cleaners for a start. I too wanted at all costs immediate work in my specialty. But after you read an advertisement in the Advertiser, you always find applicants of all kinds. In those days employers in industry and trade were not interested in your papers from Germany. So, of all the applicants they took the ones who spoke the best English. Therefore, before I was totally without money, I grasped a position at a German businessman’s restaurant. I was employed as a waiter because it did not require any special talent. Work time - from 10 a.m to 3 pm. After that a ‘prima’ dinner with dessert (Konditor- Schlemmmerei ). I only received $1.50 a day cash. My room cost only $2 a week. The headwaiter liked me very much and once I heard him say to a lady at the counter “How do you like the new waiter?” she replied “He is all right”. When you are young you are often unappreciative and rough towards well-meaning people. And so it happened after four weeks in this service I quit because I was offered $2.50 a day in a funiture factory. There I had to put the final touches on the parts of the furniture so that they fit together. After three weeks a big order was finished and we were asked to make a break of one week. That didn’t fit my restless spirit because I had already taken over the typical sentence “Time is money” (original written in English). Therefore I followed the advice from an acquaintance in the boarding house Mr. Burns, who was visiting his son there to go with him to Chicago. So I packed all my things and drove on a coastal ship of the South Domino Line to Norfolk. From there on an excellent Pullman train through East and West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio through Cincinnati to Chicago. With the business card of Mr. Burns I visited the business of a piano dealer, talked to the chief, who was already prepared for my coming and he came in person to the station and directed me to Park Ridge where Mr. Burns had two houses. The family of the housemaster was thoroughly prepared for my visit and therefore treated me heartily. There I spent my weekends in the winter 1903 - 04. Mr. Burns was the piano tuner at this firm, and had a postal box in Chicago from which he picked up daily mostly private orders. I drove with him every Saturday to Park Ridge and back with him on Monday morning. My solid appearance (perhaps in those days I was, as one says a good looking fellow). At Lotti’s place there stands a photograph of me from the Norddeutsche Lloyd. That photograph also stood in Park Ridge on the piano of his daughter Mae, and if she is still alive it is there maybe still today. Unfortunately I couldn’t make up my mind for a marriage out of calculation, even when Mr. Burns talked about his plans. He wanted to purchase a large empty factory building at the edge of the city into which his son and I could move . Only later it became clear to me that the boss of the firm Moran and Hasting (factory for lamps on Washington St.) where I worked, almost daily talked to me about something which even to my coworkers looked suspicious . Since I visited almost daily the ‘evening school’ I made good progress in the English language. I forgot to tell you that before the last work in Chicago I mostly worked as an electrician.

In May 1904 the world exhibition started in St. Louis. Therefore I visited it at the end of my stay in America. I rented a room for one week in a hotel inside the Exhibition. This huge Exhibition was not quite finished. Even Germany was represented strongly, Hagenbeck with an enormous animal show ( among other things juggling sea lions and so on ). One could not digest thoroughly all this in one week.

Therefore I went back to Chicago in order to say goodbye to family Burns with the promise to come back perhaps in a few years. On the way back to New York I chose the detour over Niagara in order to see the Falls. This wonder of nature is something enormous. Still days afterwards one thought one could hear the thundering of the waterfall.

In New York I went aboard the “Friedrich der Große” of the Norddeutsche Lloyd. But this time as a passenger. It was a beautiful smooth voyage that I have rarely experienced. Sun and sea air made me brown like a mulatto, about which one was astonished at home. At home my brother waited for me to take over his business. Later I sometimes have regretted that instead of agreeing with him I hadn’t asked him to join me in America. But looking at it, it has all gone really well.

What made me leave America? My brother’s intention to sell the business made my father ask me repeatedly to come back. Also my brother in a letter made the suggestion that I take over that business. We took inventory and made a contract. So my brother went once more to Norddeutscher Lloyd and sailed on the “Schleswig” for some time in the Mediterranean Sea. As a result of the establishment of electrical connections even Laucha received electricity. I obtained in spite of the opposition of the Leipzig firm H. and E. which tried to secure for themselves the concession to install all electrical connections. These people were able to bulldoze the administration of Laucha that I had to buy all the material from them. At first this happened too. Until a year later the representatives of great firms told me that the town administration and the big firm were legally not entitled to make conditions of this kind. I went along but bought the main portion of the material in Leipzig, Hannover, and other great industries.

The business grew vigorously, but through a vicious trick this firm tried to suppress me in the following way: we made with every customer who wanted electricity whether he liked it or not roughly the same cost suggestion. H. and E. now went to these customers who had agreed with my very low costs so that I had to continue the work with some loss of income because my customers always pointed out the lower offer by H. and E. The final settlement was for about 19,000 marks, but afterwards I had to pay about 10% for shipment and packing material which came to 1900 marks extra. I was advised to dare a court trial. But I lost the court trial for the reason that I should have taken the material from Laucha. This and some other losses made the business unprofitable. When my brother quit the seafaring I handed the business back to him, including the branch which I had established in Bad Bibra. These six years of independent work in my home brought to me besides beautiful social moments many bitter moments as well. It was often a fight against difficulties.
My father died in the meantime at the age of 73.

Since I could not make up my mind sbout a marriage I packed my stuff. And now began until the outbreak of the war in 1914 four fertile years in Berlin.

Since I could not intensively devote myself to writing, I decided to emigrate to Brazil. But the outbreak of the war prevented that. But in the meantime I got engaged. After the wartime civil ceremony at the city hall in Laucha, I departed on the next day to Kiel. My young wife remained for some time in the family of my brother, and then she drove to her family in Dortmund. At that time I was 37 when I borded the fast train from Naumburg to Kiel. The waves of enthusiasm went high, only the older people expressed worries. From the dining car like in a kaleidoscope you could see the harvest in the country. White and colourful head scarves fluttered in the glow of the sun, but you could not see many men because they had been drafted two weeks ago for an exercise in the army They were now on their way to their garrisons. My own age group was already listed in the navy. Out of that was now made a new formation, the first construction division. I belonged to it for five months, infantry service and shipbuilding watch, and so on.

Something else now about my Berlin stay. The year 1910 was the beginning of improved film making. Among others the Mesters - Projektions - Gesellschaft were looking for film ideas. On the side I got interested in this matter and I wrote three short comedies, sold them to Mesters for between 20 and 50 marks apiece. As a result of that I was allowed to observe their work method in making films. At a break in the play I came to sit beside Henny Porten (at that time 15 year old) and also other players. We chatted. Henny had two beautiful braids. She had to play a small Fräulein in a castle. In the background you could see through an open window the beautiful landscape of the Rhine. Her admiring fan came by in a boat and waved his hand greeting her and saying goodbye. After that the director Stark came to me and said “ Do you know beside whom you sat there before?” I looked at him with surprise. “That is the famous youth actor from the Trianontheater. Her father is also engaged there. About eight years later I was astonished to see her as a famous movie actress in the cinema in Kiel. Writing film ideas lasted only one year because soon they attempted to get works of poets. In the winter of 1910 - 1911 I now became a frequent visitor of the Deutschtes Theater, Lessingtheater, Schillertheater and in case I read a promising review, I even went to the smaller Musentemples. In Berlin I was always impressed by: Faust, Torgato Tasso, Turandot, Emilia Galotti, Hamlet, Otello, King Lear, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Kaufmann von Venedig, Romeo und Julia, Viel Lärm um Nichts, Penthesilea, Judith, Natan der Weise, Die Weber, Die Versunkene Glocke. Besides a few operas *) I saw almost all operettas and also the premiere of Wagner’s Parsifal in the Charlottenburger Opernhaus. I also saw a piece by Grillparzer, I believe “Weh dem der Lügt”, and sparkling comedies by the Englishman Oscar Wilde.

*) Fidelio, Tiefland, Martha, Carmen, Zar und Zimmermann, Zigeunerbaron.

More I can’t remember at the moment.

In December of 1914 volunteer specialists for the shipyards and so on were sought. I decided to apply at the Imperial Mining Depot at Friedrichsort near Kiel, from where at the end of the war I was released because of demobilization. I had asked my wife and both children to come to Kiel. Here we had - beside my work in the service - started a amall electrical installation business, because otherwise I would not have received a dwelling. Since I had a lot of night work, this business started out very well. Because of the small children we had to employ day help. When after the revolution Kiel was abandoned by a lot of people, we had to sell our business. We had some savings. At the end of March 1919 I even sold all the inventory and we moved to Stellau near Wrist, where I purchased a small house. For Mutti it was too lonesome there, and she persuaded me to sell this place again. I have awfully regretted this because of the coming inflation. All the money got lost. But this turnaround got me into the municipal service in Kiel. That became the foundation of my pension. The details of the further development are probably well remembered at least partially by Wolfgang and Lotte.

Kiel, the 16th of November 1949 your Opapa


Epilogue

I have only touched on my childhood briefly, because it didn't seem important to me, and still there is so much of which I often like to think. Like Wolfgang I had as a boy at first similar gifts, besides drawing, which could also have been directed positively. If it had been correctly supported in school, I would perhaps have become "somebody" in the family Franke. Through distractions again and again energies were used too late, and always new tasks in the interest of the family had to be tackled almost soldierly. This includes also my work with patents, of which the last ones kept me for two long years in a letter exchange with the Reich's patent office. The war broke out in 1939. It proved at last that the problem of dissolving noise was not considered important by any nation. In the meantime I took great interest in night school (engineering college in Kiel - Professor Krohn) because I had to take over the measuring of electro-motors. Two years later they discontinued the measuring workshop. Therefore I entered office service in the statistics department. I had to work extensively with planimeter and slide ruler. I had to do daily, monthly and yearly statistics and graphs for the electricity production and consumption
for the city of Kiel. I did that from 1930 to 1945.

At the age of 67 I was, at the end of the war, pensioned. That was for 34 years of service. But last year ten of those years were cut out for us pensioners. (the Social Democrat Party ordered it.) - so that my pension dropped down from 74% to 60%.

For Lotti : Zusatz
In order not to make this too voluminous, I have at first left out much. In agreement with Wolfgang I think I have to tell you why I decided so late to get married. Everything practical I recognized. Since I had to whiz about on my motorbike in order to supervise my employees. Even poets have not talked much about their unfortunate loves. In the summer at Charlottenburg (1910)
have I written small stories about such things, after a friend sent me the UNSTRUT-ZEITUNG with the news of his marriage. After that I started writing my play "JAMES AND JENNY". Writing, Reading and Theater-going kept me very busy. But I did not neglect my work at Siemens. I worked some overtime, wearing the proper clothing for seeing "Emilia Galotti". About 1913 I decided that my writing could at the most much later support me.

But I was restless. Why did I not stay in America? Now I got interested in the subtropical South America. I had read a small booklet by Ihring about "Brazil, a country of the future". I now read many books like that. I joined the Brazilian colonist club. I became an expert on their cause and reported my findings at the meetings. The Government in Sao Paolo supported immigration of Germans. Naturally I wasn't suitable for felling huge trees in the Jungles, but I could teach
school and breed mules and donkeys.

In the cafeteria at Siemens I made the acquaintance of Mr. Borg, the son of a friend in Erfurt. One Sunday I sat in the Zoo-Garten on a bench, when Mr. Borg saw me there. He sat down and told me that he had an appointment with his bride for tonight in the Tents. I told him about Brazil. He was immediately enthusiastic and said he would come with me, if his bride would come too. I told him that only families could become colonists for 50 hectares of jungle. All paid from Amsterdam.
So the three of us listened to a concert in the Tents. We three were in total agreement. What was missing was number four, my wife. We walked up the Berlinerstrasse. I suddenly said: "Look out! I am going to talk to the first girl that we meet and ask her whether she wants to drink a cup of coffee. As we were still laughing about that suggestion, some people came out from a small cinema, among them a young girl in a blue costume. We walked a little faster so that I was next to her. I raised my hat:
"Fräulein, would you like to have a cup of coffee with us?"
She looked from one to the other.
Borg's bride said, "Don't be afraid, I'm with you."
Everybody laughed, we introduced each other. Then went into the Schlossplatz Cafe.
"Ich trinke gern Ice Mocca" she says answering my question.
After the waiter served, I said solemnly,
"Fräulein Weber, we have invited you in order to ask you, whether you want to emigrate with us to Brazil."
Astonished and helpless the nineteen year old looks around. Borg's bride says again: "Don't be afraid, I'm with you."
Now we decided, that the two ladies should think about it. After one week we would meet again.
From then on we went together to the Colonists meetings. Borg said we made a good impression there.
Soon after we had all our papers together. We were to start the trip in Amsterdam. But....
Since Borg was ten years older than I, he was drafted to an exercise‚ three weeks before the war started. Now it was my turn to act. But no, on August 2nd I was drafted to become a soldier too.”