Gertrud Rother

The photo shows Gertrud Rother.

But it says “Fr. Bendorf” on the glassine sleeve of the glass negative? Why? And how do we know that this could be Gertrud Rother?

A woman from Leipzig learned about the archive through an announcement in the newspaper “Leipziger Volkszeitung” in 2025. She had kept a paper print of this photograph as a memento of the woman in the picture, whom she knew as Gertrud Rother. Rother was like a godmother to the woman during her childhood in the 1950s and 60s in Salzgitter and a long-time friend as well as neighbor of her mother’s.

Back then, Ms. Rother was unmarried and childless. She had moved from Leipzig to Salzgitter with her mother and worked there as an executive secretary. She is believed to have been born between 1910 and 1915 and died relatively early in the 1960s. We cannot explain why the woman in the photograph was known under the name “Rother” and not “Bendorf”.

Gertrud Rother is said to have always dressed elegantly, as her portrait confirms. She is said to have carried herself with confidence and taken pride in her work. Her young neighbor remembers her as a well-read and educated woman, who helped her with her homework and played a formative role in her young life.