Researching Knötel book

Knötel was a famous German soldier-artist active in the mid-20th century. He painted soldiers of all nations and time periods and took great pains to accurately depict every detail of these soldiers uniforms and weaponry. Knötel’s artistic realism was grounded in his own military experience, he was a wounded veteran from WWI.  

The most interesting experience I had writing the Knötel book was a 2008 meeting with Anita Tauber, Knotel’s daughter and only child in Copenhagen.

During our visit Tauber explained that towards the end of WWII she joined the German army as a cartographer. When the war concluded she was in a section of Berlin that was allocated to the Soviets but currently occupied by American troops. As the Americans prepared to relocate to their assigned sector they arranged for Tauber’s transfer to the British sector. This transfer had a positive and lasting impact on her life.  

As she relayed this story, I looked over her shoulder at the many family pictures on her bookcase of vacations, pets, children, and grandchildren. It struck me that none of those pictures might have ever existed if she stayed in the Soviet sector. The Americans were not required to relocate Tauber, but did it because it was the right thing to do. I was proud that those young American troops, in the late Spring of 1945, had the foresight, kindness, and desire to help this young German woman which dramatically changed the arc of her life. I felt my trip to Copenhagen was worth it just to hear this uplifting story.