Leopold could not walk fast anymore; looking at this old man you would wonder how he could walk at all. He didn’t really walk, but rather he and his 2 canes defied gravity; somehow making his way haltingly, along the busy street. He was a fixture the locals recognized and his route was the same every day. He got off the tram at Dorotheenstraße, hobbled a block to the Splendid Hotel and then stood there silently for a few minutes, before hobbling back.
And though his body was decrepit, his memory was not; in fact, it held many images imprisoned in his mind, just waiting to be released … and the Splendid Hotel held the key.
There was Marta and Barnhard immortalized in stone, now holding up the plinth above the front door. They were such a wonderful couple. He remembers when they entered his studio to model for the sculpture. The didn’t know each other when they first arrived, but somehow, they developed a deep connection standing still and holding the same but reflected pose. Leopold remembers when they took their first posing break and went into the back room; he is pretty certain they cemented their new relationship by intimately intertwining… They both had a satisfied glow that he was able to capture in stone. They became inseparable after that.
And there on the third floor is Rachel, Bridget and Hendrik. He did each one of them separately. Adele was a beautiful model but she never could hold a pose for more than a minute, and she was always talking about some boy friend or other… He was definitely in his prime when he sculpted her, but she really drove him crazy. He really had to discipline himself when she was modeling… but after, as they relaxed and drank white wine in his studio, he found she really understood what he wanted to do, both artistically and physically… Yes she was a wonderful muse and a more wonderful lover. She was Jewish and though he was able to hide her, unfortunately he couldn’t protect her…
He is not sure who turned her in; it could have been Hendrik. That young man did have an inflated sense of self worth, unfortunately he also didn’t survive the war.
Bridget was his last model. She didn’t have the flare Rachel did, but she was kind, patient and generous. She stayed with him while he finished all the other carvings for the building and even went to the grand opening… She met an army general at the party, and they had 2 boys together… he never knew if she married him; but he heard that the general died in the war. Soon after the opening he was drafted into the army … and those are memories he didn’t want to let out; rather he turned and hobbled back to the tram stop.
Author’s Note: I found this wonderful building while walking the streets of Berlin. It was built in 1904, but in my story, I had it built just before WW2, (facts should not interfere with a good fictional story).
A new old building. Splendid Hotel was and still is risque.