Photo Albums & Flohmärkte
I showed up a bit early at my favorite Flohmarkt and my buddy Charlie wasn't there yet. I don't think Charlie is his real name, as he's a 70ish year old German man, but when we started chatting, that's the name he gave me. Charlie's been sick lately, so I was a bit worried as I walked around some of the other stalls.
One thing that's not clear to me is how often these various stalls get new merchandise. After being a regular at this Flohmarkt for a couple years, I don't think it happens very often. Then again that could be a result of my looking only for a few specific things - old papers, the more obscure the better, and old photographs. A lot of tourists are also interested in old photographs and those tend to wind up in the more popular Flohmärkte where they can command higher prices.
After a lap, Charlie turned up and we chatted for a few minutes. He pretty much always asks after my wife, doubtless because she's both friendlier and speaks better German than I do. Charlie's doing okay, but isn't as talkative as usual, so I let him be and asked if I could take a few pictures as I walked around.
Charlie's stall doesn't have a theme, as best as I can tell. At this particular Flohmarkt there are a couple record sellers, a few clothing vendors, a rug stall, several people selling kitchen and bath hardware, and then a couple guys like Charlie who just sell "stuff." I’m all about “stuff”.
Even though I’m doubtful that Charlie gets in a lot of new stock, I did find two small photo albums I’d not seen before (the large folder and the black notebook are from a different stall). Charlie and I haggled a bit, he did mention that they’re made of genuine leather, and we settled on a fair price. I can’t imagine haggling very aggressively with Charlie, as I’m certain he’s living only on retirement income plus whatever this stall brings in - but on the other hand I’m still unemployed, and don’t have money to burn.
The two albums definitely belonged to the same family, as familiar faces crop up in each. Only a few have any sort of writing on the back, and what’s there is lovely, but hard to read. Still, two photographs are dated “1940”, and they certainly look WW2 era. One album is inscribed with “Amelia Märtin, Lampersdorf 10, Kreis Meißen”. Meißen is a small town not far from Dresden, in Saxony. Several of the photographs are stamped with the name of the photography store where they were presumably developed and printed - Foto Wugk, in Wilsdruff, one town over from Meißen.
A quick internet search shows that Foto Wugk was in business until 2014, and the building, now a Thai massage parlour, still has the original sign.
I don’t know how the photo albums got to Berlin. I’ve done more sleuthing based on some of the other names and details in the images but haven’t found out anything else about the family. Is this how people become private investigators? Or how they go down internet ratholes and wind up believing in lizards who control world governments?
I suppose only time will tell.