My mother has a painting that has been passed down through her friend's family for the last 80 years, which was painted for and gifted to the friend's great grandfather (a minister) by Karl Ficker, a German man who was held in a prisoner camp in the United States during the war in the 1940's.

All we have is his name and address from that time, as provided in the attached photo. We have been unsuccessful in being able to determine if he has any family or descendants with whom we might share this small bit of his story with (or where they may be located.) Being located in the USA ourselves, it is more of a challenge in terms of accessing any possible records that may exist in Germany.

Is there any person or group that may be able to help with a task like this?

by rabidrabbitaz

5 comments

  2. Oh god it’s really hard to not make any immature jokes …but I really hope you get the information you’re after.

  3. Wild. I grew up just 13 Houses away but in way later times and be not related to him. But the name says me something. I think to start a good research is to contact the “KUNSTSAMMLUNGEN ZWICKAU Max-Pechstein-Museum” under [https://www.kunstsammlungen-zwickau.de/](https://www.kunstsammlungen-zwickau.de/) they eventually know more.

  4. You can ask at the city archives in Zwickau whether they still have resident registration data. Or at the [Kreisarchiv](https://www.landkreis-zwickau.de/detail?type=VB&id=3611&type=VB&id=3611) for East German registration data. If you can traci down his birthplace and birthdate, you can maybe find his place and date of death for the original death certificate. Maybe there is a death note containing information about descendants.

    Or you can send an enquiry to the DR1 department of the Bundesdesarchiv: https://www.bundesarchiv.de/das-bundesarchiv/standorte/berlin-tegel/

  5. You got some good advice. I just want to add that sometimes people with such kind of explicit names ( the name litterally means “Fu**er” ) have them changed. There are only a few reasons when name changes are allowed in Germany. This name is an example. Usually, in such cases, the Standesamt adds a letter or two to make the name harmless. So, in addition to “Ficker,” try looking for similar names such as ” Fricker.”

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