Silver toasting cups were traditional at German weddings
Wedding of Gerhard and Ilse
The wedding had of necessity to be a subdued affair. The family records include no wedding photographs.
Ilse carried a small bouquet of sweet peas. There was a smallish wedding breakfast; some thirty wedding guests attended.
Rosa was cordial but not especially welcoming to her new daughter-in-law. The hostility was low level, and it was entirely mutual.
The two witnesses to the marriage were Ilse's mother and Alfred Lewi. Gerhard's non-Jewish uncle, the father of Annie.
Alfred stood as witness to the wedding despite some ill feeling in the family over a comment he was thought to have said to his mother, who was Catholic. Supposedly, he took her to task for having married a Jew.
Of course, Alfred had done exactly the same when he married his cousin Fränze. And, of course, he and Fränze would both meet their end in a Nazi concentration camp.
Following their wedding, Ilse moved in to the apartment in the Schlossstrasse with Gerhard, while his mother moved out to Dahlem to make way for the newlyweds.
