Olson Burke-Sullivan Funeral And Cremation Center

Obituary Detail

July 27, 1934 January 08, 2021
July 27, 1934 -- January 08, 2021

Margarete Wohlfahrt, Age:86

Margarete Wohlfahrt - Age 86 - passed away unexpectedly in her sleep on Friday, January 8, 2021. Beloved wife to Eberhard Wohlfahrt who preceded her in death in 2015; loving mother to Beate (Donald), the late Eric (Debra), Andrew, and Jeffrey; doting grandmother to Lee, Christopher, and Cody and great-grandmother to Alec and Cassandra; caring sister to Hans, Helma, and Ilse-Barbara; also survived by many nieces and nephews.

Daughter. Sister. Granddaughter. Niece. Cousin. German. Survivor. Wife. Mother. Housewife. Immigrant. Loved soccer, especially her hometown team: Schalke04. Neighbor. Friend. Loyal. Sister-in-law. Loved reading mysteries stories and spy novels filled with intrigue. Employee. Home owner. Aunt. Loved to sing out loud. Mother-in-Law. Loved doing crossword puzzles. American citizen. A lady. Loved her family. Loved to write and always wanted to write her life story. Voter. Tourist. Sentimental. Pragmatic. Loved.

Born in the summer of 1934, Margarete was a child during World War II in Gelsenkirchen, an industrial coal-mining town, in the state of North Rhine Westphalia, Germany. She and her family survived several allied bombings and relocations, for safety reasons, during the war. However, the one that she remembered most clearly and talked about most often occurred on November 6, 1944 when Hell on Earth rained down on her town. Her family survived in a bomb shelter but, during the long hours of that bombing raid, she was sure she would die at the age of 10. She was 14 at the end of the war.

In 1953, she met the love of her life and soul-mate, Eberhard Wohlfahrt, a tailor, who was a refugee from Silesia, Germany. They married in early 1954.

In the autumn of 1956, the Soviet Russian military invaded Hungary.
Deciding that they could not live through another World War or near an antagonistic Soviet Russia, Eberhard and Margarete decided immediately that they needed to emigrate to the United States of America. In February, 1957, Eberhard and Margarete, along with their toddler daughter and baby son, boarded a refurbished military transport ship, USS General W.C. Langfitt, filled with other immigrants and landing in New York City on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1957.

Eberhard and Margarete lived in Chicago since arriving in the U.S.A. Their life was, for the most part, pretty normal for a little middle class family, blessed with two more sons a few years later. They enjoyed the company of the friends they made and, often in those early years, even vacationed with some to one of their favorite places, Devil's Lake State Park in Wisconsin. During their retirement years, they managed to see more of the U.S.A. on long car trips and many National Parks: Arizona, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, South Dakota, Tennessee, Wyoming, and all the place in between there and Illinois.

In April, 2008, Eberhard and Margarete took the Oath of Citizenship of the U.S.A., a proud and emotional day.

Eberhard died on April 1st, 2015 and now, since the 8th of January, 2021, they have been reunited.

They are missed.

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the
faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." - 2 Timothy
4:7-8