Born in 1957 in Worms, Germany, Ulrike Smith’s immigration story is filled with mystery and discovery. She is a petite, stylish woman with dark eyes and olive complexion. I sensed when I sat down with her that I was about to hear a very interesting life story.

Ulrike never knew her father or anything about him until recently. She was born to a single mother who worked hard. Her mother’s Uncle Phillip and his wife Maria took care of her during the week. Her grandmother, Charlotte, took care of her on weekends.

When she was six years old, her mother married a United States serviceman (G.I.) and they moved to Newport, New Hampshire, leaving Ulrike with her grandmother, who became her legal guardian. At the age of 10, Ulrike and her grandmother flew to the U.S. to visit. Ulrike now had a half-sister.

The following year, she flew by herself for a six-week visit. She recalls that her mother was the only person she could speak German with. Less than a year later, escorted by her mother, stepfather, and half-sister, Ulrike immigrated and began a new life in Newport. Her grandmother told her that she had wanted to go to the U.S., but that was not really Ulrike’s wish. She remembers that she brought along only a few suitcases.

Ulrike was given a small, yellow German-English translation dictionary and when she got off the airplane in Boston, she was told that she would no longer be speaking German. At age 12, starting school in a new town, with a new language and culture, was difficult. Ulrike remembers that the school librarian was assigned to help her.

Mrs. Young was kind and taught her a lot. She remembers being ahead of the other kids in math but struggled with the language and different culture. Ulrike was teased by her classmates if she wore an outfit twice in one week. 

She thought the American children were less disciplined and more indulgent. For example, in Germany, if she was given a candy bar, she would make it last a week!

Four days after arriving in the US, she was legally adopted by her stepfather and received a Certificate of Citizenship. Her mother told her that she was no longer a citizen of Germany but that was not really the case. Forty years later, Ulrike finally was able to gather all of the information needed to confirm that she still was a German citizen. 

It took another seven years and persistence to file all of the paperwork with the German authorities and she now has the evidence to be considered a dual citizen. She proudly holds her two passports for me to see.

Ulrike was always aware that she looked different from the fair, blue-eyed Germans in the family, and she wondered about her father. It was a subject her mother did not wish to share, in order to protect her. Her grandmother did have his name and his last address. Now, an adult and still emotionally attached to her German heritage, Ulrike wanted to know. 

In 2012, she found a German website called “StayFriends.com” and posted a message. Five minutes later she heard from a childhood sweetheart. They arranged for him to come to the U.S. and they kept a trans-Atlantic relationship for several years. He was willing to help her find her father.

They flew to Cologne, Germany, her father’s last known address and sought help from the city clerk. The city clerk found no record of Georg Reinhardt, his real name, or Kohler, his registered name.

She posted on a “find missing family” German FaceBook page and was contacted by a German television station who offered to find her father if she was willing to come on the show and allow the story to unfold as they created it, broadcasting it live. Ulrike agreed to participate.

In 2017, Ulrike flew alone back to Germany. With a television crew filming, she was brought to a grave where, for the first time, she discovered that her father had died 20 years earlier, in 1997, at the age of 69. Ulrike was filled with emotion.

The crew then arranged for her to meet a woman, living in a high-rise apartment building, that turned out to be her father’s first wife. They had one son two years younger than Ulrike whom she also met. They were both warm and welcoming towards Ulrike and for the first time, Ulrike was shown a photo of her father — very handsome, with dark gentle eyes and olive complexion.

His story continued to unfold as Ulrike discovered that her father often spoke of his daughter who moved to the United States. This marriage lasted only a few years. His second wife and lifelong partner, whom he was with for 40 years, was 81 at the time that Ulrike met her.

Georg Reinhardt was a Sinti, according to a civic organization for Gypsies in Germany. There are two branches of German Gypsy — Roma and Sinti, Sinti being the more traditional, conservative, and secretive due to fear of ethnic cleansing and a history of persecution. During World War II, the Nazis persecuted thousands of Roma and Sinti. According to Holocaust Encyclopedia, some 23,000 Roma and Sinti were deported to Auschwitz (encyclopedia.ushmm.org), and other sources say that up to 500,000 were murdered. 

Ulrike’s aunt, Philomena Franz, Georg’s sister, spent time in a concentration camp and in later years worked tirelessly to bring awareness to what had happened. She was a well-known author and public speaker, who received two prestigious awards for her work, The Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon, in 1995, and was named “Woman of Europe 2001” by the European Movement Germany. 

Ulrike adds, “[Philomena Franz] was a most fascinating woman and passed away at 100 years old on December 28, 2022. My father looked just like her! Sadly, I was only able to speak with her on the phone several times.”

Georg Reinhardt was a descendant of a long line of musicians. He played the guitar and violin. His father was an exceptional violin maker. His grandmother’s father was Johannes Haag, a cellist. His band played for King Wilhelm (1859-1941). The Johannes Haag Musical Band won the 1906 Golden Rose Award, a prestigious international competition. 

Interestingly, Ulrike discovered that her father drove BMWs, which is Ulrike’s choice of vehicle! In addition, 10 years before she learned about the musical history of her father’s side of the family, she woke up one morning and decided to purchase a violin! She is still learning to play it.

I asked Ulrike about her life-long connection with two countries and if she feels at home in both. She responded, “You never really feel like you belong where you came from or you really belong where you are. I feel like that. I don’t really feel like I belong to either place. 

“I think other immigrants feel like this too. I love going to Germany, but I really don’t feel that I belong there, or here, for that matter, but I love the culture of Germany and miss it immensely.”

When asked how she feels now that she knows who her father was, she replied, “I think it’s inherent in human nature to want to know where you came from and I am ecstatic that after 60 years, I finally know what my father looked like and who he was. I am proud to call myself a Sinteza (a female Sinti).”

Ulrike graduated from Newport High School in 1975. She went on to become a banker with Sugar River, Mascoma, and Franklin Savings Banks. She also worked for the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund. She has a daughter living in New London, her half-sister lives in Newport, and her mother lives in Franklin. 

Ulrike recently retired; she enjoys baking delicious confections and taking photos of animals. She lives with her 13-year-old Golden Retriever and faithful friend, Sam. She volunteers for the Content Committee of the Beacon.