Barbara T. Sunde was born on March 15, 1939, in an ethnic German enclave near Pecs, Hungary. She was the only child of Stefan and Josefa Amrein, long-term Swabian settlers called Volksdeutsche, who settled outside of the German national borders. Her tranquil, idyllic childhood was shattered by the outbreak of World War II when Hungary joined Germany in an invasion of the Soviet Union. Her father was required to enter the Hungarian army, was later captured near Stalingrad and returned severely ill with typhus after the war. As the Soviet forces turned the tide of the war and entered Hungary, her mother along with many ethnic Germans was sent to a Russian labor camp for several years. Barbara was taken in by her grandmother and did not know the fate of her parents for several years. The occupying Russians embarked upon an ethnic cleansing of Hungary and forced many Germans to leave their ancestral Hungarian homes and become refugees in the newly divided Germany.
And so, Barbara’s grandmother loaded up the horse and wagon for the long trek from Hungary through Austria to Germany.
Armed guards refused them entry at the Austrian border but Barbara’s fearless, feisty grandmother shouted out at the astonished soldiers: “Shoot us, if you want, you heroes.”
Then she cracked the whip and the overloaded horse and wagon bolted over the border before the probably amused guards could react.
Ruins accompanied the little family as they entered a war-torn, unwelcoming Germany crowded with half-starved refugees. Finding relatives to stay with in southern Germany, Barbara’s indomitable grandmother as usual took control and did what she could for her now skinny, sickly grandchild.
Barbara’s father and mother separately were later able to return from horrific ordeals in Russian prison camps. The Black Market in Frankfurt and country vegetables barely sustained the little family for a time, but opportunity came when a grateful Texas doctor agreed to sponsor them in America. His son had been shot down over Germany and was spared captivity by two German girls who fed and sheltered him.
Barbara and her parents first went to Texas “with only a suitcase” and then to Cleveland, Ohio. Her parents, half broken by the war, found work, prospered modestly and bought a house. They pinched pennies to assure that their daughter got a good education. Barbara was a stellar student who entered the graduate program at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Having successfully completed her course work for the Ph.D. she answered the beckoning call to teach German at a far-flung university in South Dakota. At SDSU she met and married Carl Sunde, also a German professor, on June 19,1971.
How to describe Barbara? She was employed as a model for several Cleveland department stores. Stylish in dress, she was vivacious and somewhat exotic--especially in South Dakota. She charmed many students and staff alike with her musical accent, open smile, unabashed laughter and teasing, colorful personality. Her high intelligence, teaching skill and cordial accessibility made her a favorite for girl students looking for a role model. She was unique and flamboyant, a bird of paradise on the South Dakota plains.
But she was not to be trifled with. The long years of wartime deprivation and loneliness gave her an inner core of strength. She was an articulate woman with opinions she could very capably defend.
Any insult or inappropriate remark could be met by a creatively stinging response never to be forgotten by the person who uttered it.
She loved German literature, especially Thomas Mann, Nietzsche, Lou Salome and Rilke. Although not a churchgoer, one of her favorite scriptures was the Sermon on the Mount. A favorite German quotation was from Rainer Maria Rilke:
Rose, o reiner Widerspruch...
(Rose, o pure contradiction)
Left to mourn her passing are her devoted husband Carl, Carmen and Bill Wolfram, Bill Wolfram jr, Ward Wolfram and Jill Hill. Generations of students will remember her with affection and respect.
