A Toast to a Hamburg Family in Malibu....

p.s.  If the subjects of this blog knew that I was writing this they would all blush in protest…a few might even vomit at the attention being drawn to them…but, the story of all great works of art need to be told:

 I never thought one way or another about things German.  I've stepped foot in the country a couple of times and thought it was beautiful, and had read of it's many cultural distinctions and the richness of it's people, but I wasn't ready to write an Opera about the place.  They started and lost two World Wars…no small footnote.

 Malibu, June, 2014.... my view of all things German has been upgraded considerably…..primarily because of one family in Malibu…..They come from Hamburg, Germany but are now firmly entrenched in Malibu following a 7 year stay in Cape Town, South Africa. Hipster mother, Netti (maiden name Wunsche), told me that one of the main reasons they left South Africa was because the disparity between how the white and black people lived took it’s toll. It was “disturbing”. But, that is another European quality, or so it seems, that they aren’t the slightest bit afraid to take up their roots and plant themselves in a totally different garden…thousands of miles away.

They live the kind of lives that most of us would want to live…with just as much substance as style, and an ideology that abhors stagnation.

Netti and Mattias Bode are the parents of (3) of the most delightful and gorgeous children who ever took a breath of life. Their oldest daughter, Ava, has a golden spirit that is like nothing else I have seen. It’s sublime. The two youngest children, Helena and Alexis, always have blonde smiles on their faces. Remember their names for future reference so that you can say that you knew them "when".

 This will embarrass her to no end, but Netti has a natural beauty and refinement that I might compare to Ingrid Bergman (another European)…..Netti has a sister, who lives in Los Angeles,  and a brother who lives still in Germany….I know them both, and, like Netti, they leave an impression on you. Katja is the funniest…and perhaps the most gregarious of the three (so much personality)….Tomas, the lone brother, attended college in the U.S., just like his sisters, and he is immediately likable..…upon a handshake you will want to grab two glasses of wine and and sit down with him and just listen to him talk..for as long as he wants.  He won’t bore you, I can assure you….they all leave a mark on you, but with humility, they aren’t the kind to draw attention to themselves…none of them. Every one of them is very successful in what they have done personally and professionally….you just want to be around these (3) Wunsches…The matriach of the Wunsches, Leonora, was born in Holland but now lives in a small town in Switzerland, where my daughter is visiting right now….I don’t know if she is planning on writing a book on parenting but if she is I want a signed copy.  At 72, she is supposedly the best tennis player of the Wunsche group.

Mattias Bode, the father, and only non Wunsche of the group, is from Hamburg as well. Ian Fleming didn’t have Germans in mind when he created James Bond, 007, but if he had, he might have used Mattias Bode for the role. I won’t go into detail but Mattias has an extraordinary knack for getting involved in successful endeavors. He has “the gift”. If you emptied out his bank accounts and took away all of his assets, in a year or two he would be right back on top of the pyramid (with charm), wearing a scarf and removing the cork on a bottle of Dom Perignon.

Netti and Mattias seem very much in love….it would appear they have a beautiful balance, at once independent and free, but always ending up in each others company.

This family doesn’t sit around, they go to Art museums on the weekends and teach their kids how to sail….and swing a tennis racket. They embrace the world, a philosophy that many Americans can learn from. There is no mistaking their German granite, but they are not content to be exclusively German.

I can’t say that a group of family members has impressed me much more than has this group. To a man, every last one of them will stand up if you enter a room they are sitting in….how is that for politeness, almost elegance.  They will inspire even the mildly observant….

Just delightful!

 They say German is not a romance language, but after hearing the Bode/Wunsche’s "speak"…I beg to differ. Everything about that family is romantic….let’s enjoy them while they are here…..before they hear distant trumpets from a different garden.

For now, they are ours to treasure.

 Wunderbar!

Interesting Hamburg Facts:

Hamburg is a major transport hub and is one of the most affluent cities in Europe.

It is the second largest city in Germany and the eighth largest city in the European Union.

located on the Elbe River which feeds into the North Sea…Hamburg is on the northern tip of Germany, just below Denmark

Hamburg ranks regularly in the top 20 most livable cities in the world…

Hamburg was pummeled by a series of Allied Air Raids in World War II suffering over 42,000 civilian deaths…over 1 million were evacuated.