enate von
Koenigsloew, a long and faithful member of the
Edmonton Monthly Meeting, Religious
Society of
Friends, died on January 20, 2003 in Edmonton. A Memorial Meeting for Worship to
celebrate her
life was held on January 31, 2003.
Renate von
Koenigsloew, née Emma Renate Blunck, was born
on April 20, 1918 in Hamburg, Germany.
She and her twin
brother were the youngest of five children of the well-established Blunck
family. Her father, a
prominent lawyer
in Hamburg, was for a brief period of time Minister of Justice in the Weimar
Republic, the
democratic
government of Germany in the 1920s.
Renate entered
the nursing profession, receiving her education as a pediatric nurse in Jena,
where she met
her husband,
Erich, a physician. They were married on November 25, 1939 in Hamburg.
During World War
II, Renate lived near Hamburg, an area that was heavily bombed. There she raised
five
children, all born
during the war period or shortly thereafter. She continued to live in the
neighborhood of
Hamburg until 1960
when she and four of her children immigrated to Canada, where they joined her
husband
and their son who
had come to Canada earlier. The family settled in Edmonton.
One of Renate’s
passions was music, and this always played a very important role in her life.
Renate
had a good voice
and enjoyed singing. While she lived in Germany, she sang in a church choir.
When she
moved to Edmonton,
she joined the Richard Eaton Singers and became an active member of the Chamber
Music Society. She
missed Germany, and her participation in musical activities helped her overcome
her initial
homesickness. She
served on the board of the Chamber Music Society and for twenty years was the
historian
for the Society.
Renate also played a major role in bringing to Edmonton the Suzuki program of
music
education for
young children.
A very determined
and energetic woman, Renate, also undertook to further her education. She
obtained
a Bachelor of Arts
degree and then a Master of Arts degree in Germanic Languages from the
University of
Alberta and taught
in the German department until she retired.
Renate had
another passionate concern - the need for peace in our world. She was raised in
the Lutheran
Church and, during
the Nazi period in Germany, she joined with those who, in 1934, formed the
Confessing
Church, of which
Martin Niemoeller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer were leaders. This was the centre of
German
Protestant
resistance to the Nazi regime. In the second half of the sixties, she started
attending worship
meetings of the
Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Edmonton, and she joined the Society
in 1969. She
contributed much
to the Edmonton Monthly Meeting of the Society, serving as treasurer, then
librarian and
in 1983, 1984 and
1985 as Clerk. Renate and her husband were members of the Physicians Against
Nuclear
War, and with
another member of the Edmonton Meeting, she worked with the international Beyond
War
movement Until
the time of her second massive stroke in the early 1990s, she attended Meetings
for Worship
faithfully. After
her move to a long term care facility, members of the Edmonton Monthly Meeting
met with
her for worship
in the afternoon of the first Sunday of each month..
Renate was an
individual who had a strong faith in God, and her service to others and her
peace work were
based on this
faith in the in-dwelling spirit of God in her life. While we mourn the loss of
our friend, Renate,
we can all be
truly thankful that we were able to share in her life. As well as many friends,
Renate leaves her five
children, eight
grandchildren and one great-grandchild. j