The town of Göttingen was completely unprepared for Elinor. Her time there was reminiscent of the days she spent being turned away from soda counters in Arizona. She was in a hostile environment. As an American, and a black American at that, her presence was an immediate reminder of the failed German empire and of a world that was forever changed.

Kristina Brandner, Charlotte’s oldest daughter, was living with Karl and Margarete when Frederick, Elinor, and Stephen arrived. She was almost ten years old and fascinated with Elinor, the first black woman she had ever seen. Because she attended schools in the British zone, she could speak English.

Kristina was raised similarly to Frederick and Charlotte. The war had not softened anything about Margarete or Karl’s reserved temperament toward children. Even after the devastation of World War II, there was a coldness that remained in the Albert household. Instead of being the grandchild that everyone doted on, Kristina wasn’t showered with kisses, hugs, and compliments. She experienced the same loneliness growing up as her mother and Frederick had.

“My grandparents were very strict. I had to learn good manners, discipline. They weren’t open-minded,” said Kristina.

When Elinor arrived, the dynamic in the house immediately shifted. For one, “Frika” was finally home, and Margarete was thrilled to have her favorite child back. To see him fawn over Elinor was difficult for her to watch, though. She was jealous of the attention Frederick gave his wife, and the fact that she was black made it even worse.

Elinor’s race was an undeniable issue for Margarete. She couldn’t grasp that she and a black woman were on equal footing. Kristina remembered Margarete saying that as a German woman, she couldn’t relate to Elinor, because her only familiarity with blacks came from photos of Africans in books wearing tribal garb. “That’s all my grandmother knew.”

The lingering effects of German nationalism were very present in the Albert household. To Margarete, Elinor belonged to a foreign race. Kristina also attributed Margarete’s discomfort with Elinor to Hitler’s ban on foreign newspapers, which had made it illegal to provide information about other countries to German citizens. Margarete knew nothing at all about African Americans. Knowing Elinor couldn’t understand her, Margarete constantly asked Kristina, “How come Frika couldn’t marry someone white?”20

If Elinor thought she would bond with her new mother-in-law, she was mistaken. There wasn’t anything Elinor could do right in Margarete’s eyes. Kristina remembered how her grandmother acted: “She wanted to tell Elinor how to do everything and what not to do.” The admonishments came in the form of shouting, which hurt Elinor deeply, but she was living in Margarete’s house, so she had no choice but to deal with the frequent screaming, which was, of course, in German. “Elinor suffered a lot. I saw the fights,” said Kristina.