IN MEMORIAM by Shelly Schoeneshoefer and Carol Harbers
A numbness that takes time to comprehend. She was with us, and then she was not.
And yet— she is still so very much with us. Carol Battenfeld gave more than five decades of herself to this club, and that kind of devotion doesn’ t simply disappear. It lives in every friendship she fostered, every event she shaped, every member she welcomed.
Carol grew up in Ithaca, New York, and studied art at Penn State University. She had a longing to see the world, and with characteristic practicality, found her way there— joining the US State Department, which brought her to Jeddah, Cairo, and Beirut before she arrived in Hamburg in 1966. By then she was someone who had learned to move through the world with curiosity and openness, and those qualities never left her.
When Carol married her beloved German husband, Helmut, in 1968, she was obliged to give up her position with the US Consulate. She immediately joined the AWCH and quickly found what she later described as her“ safe island”— a community of friendship, humor, and mutual support. After several years in Berlin, where their son was born, she returned to Hamburg in 1977 and rejoined the club immediately, remaining a devoted member for the rest of her life. Later moves to Cottbus after the fall of the Berlin Wall or a“ Probeleben” back in Ithaca, NY, after Helmut’ s retirement did not stop her from renewing her membership.
Carol also served the club in many leadership roles, including secretary( 1977), vice president( 1978 – 79), and president( 1980). Her favorite position was FAWCO representative( 1983 – 1986), which led to her serving on the FAWCO board for a total of eight years, as secretary and second vicepresident, from 1987 to 1997.
For Carol, the AWCH was more than an organization— it was family. She valued the friendships she made, many of which lasted decades, and loved the camaraderie of people who shared her experiences and understood her humor. Her husband once remarked that if the AWCH had not existed, he would have had to invent it— a tribute to how central the club was to her life.
Carol remained active and connected to the AWCH until the very end. During the final months of her life, shortened by cancer, a small team of members kept vigil— proof, if any was needed, of the friendships she had built and kept throughout her fifty years in the club.
We will miss her joyous spirit and wit, and her boundless energy and dedication. The club she loved so well is richer for everything she gave it— and so are all of us who knew her, whether for decades or just a little while.
Carol contributed enormously to AWCH life. For more than a decade, she edited the Foods page of the newsletter, testing and adapting American recipes for German kitchens and introducing members to German dishes. She edited and contributed to Bloom Where You Are Planted and helped update Hamburg in Your Pocket, practical guides for expatriates.
Carol with Queen Sofia in Madrid at FAWCO Meeting 1987
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