Anatol Gotfryd

For Danuta, whose great passion is nature, the interactions between the way the spaces function is important to her, that is to say, how the inside and the outside work together. For several years she visited parks in England so that she could recreate an English garden in Berlin. She believes that garden art is about making outdoor areas look attractive in every season. Danuta Gotfryd was awarded a medal by the monument preservation authority for this true-to-style conservation work. The architect Günter Mader published pictures of this garden in his book about 20th century garden and landscape architecture in Germany. “When one is in a foreign country, one must own a piece of one’s own land and property in order to feel at home. That creates a connection with the world”, acknowledges Danuta Gotfryd.

In the long years of emigration, the Gotfryds never lost their connection to Poland or to the Polish language. They liked to welcome Polish intellectuals, including Zbigniew Herbert, who lived with them with his wife. A warm friendship bound them to Stanisław Mrożek, whom they also visited in Poland. Stanisław Lem, Władysław Bartoszewski, Ryszard Kapuściński and Roman Opałka stayed in their home. In 1994, Anatol Gotfryd organised an exhibition of Opałka’s works in the National Gallery Berlin.

The Polish dentists ran their legendary practice until 2000. When Tolek, which Anatol Gotfryd’s friends still call him today, retired, he set himself a new goal. He wanted to stop all the people he met throughout his life from being forgotten. So the dentist became an author and has now published two successful autobiographical books. In his books he reveals for the first time how he escaped with his life during the Nazi persecutions. To that point, he had not wanted to talk about it, “…because there is something degrading and intimate about the fact of being persecuted (...)”.[7] His literary soirées in Berlin attract swarms of readers, friends and patients.

Despite living in Berlin for 60 years, Anatol Gotfryd still speaks perfect Polish, even though he prefers to write his books in German. He says that he brought the penchant for foreign languages with him from Galicia and adds: “As a child, I easily learnt a few languages – Polish, Ukrainian and Yiddish. At home, my parents sometimes spoke German. I soaked up my language skills with my mother’s milk. Multiculturalism shaped me.” The Gotfryds also found a multicultural, cosmopolitan world in Berlin, which certainly made integration and life in a foreign country easier. Sometimes Anatol still feels a longing for the “far-off, Polish Galicia”, but he decided never to return because the world, as he remembers it, is no longer there. However, he has discovered the feel of his childhood in Liguria in Italy, where he spends six months each year with his wife.

Danuta and Anatol Gotfryd have been married for over 60 years. “We are completely different. I think with my stomach, but Danka thinks with her head. But everyone who knows us, thinks that it's the other way round.”[8] And when you ask them about the recipe for a successful marriage, they say that it is based on trust, freedom and individualism. And because they always have different opinions, they never get bored. Anatol brings his wife a cup of tea in bed every morning and reads to her from books. Both agree that art and literature have always been their parallel worlds.

Monika Sędzierska