Anatol Gotfryd

In 1959, Anatol Gotfryd became an assistant in the dental clinic at the Free University in Berlin where his run of good fortune continued. As a lecturer he was, in fact, a civil servant. However, when it transpired that foreigners were not allowed to have this status, Gotfryd was awarded German citizenship because the administrative act that had appointed him could not be revoked. This meant that just two years after he arrived in Berlin, he officially became a German civil servant.

At that time, a Pole with Jewish heritage was an exception at Berlin University and this aroused the interest of the University lecturers. Only a few years had passed since the end of the war in which some of the lecturers had served in Hitler’s army, and this did not make contact with colleagues any easier. Anatol Gotfryd commented on this in the interview he gave in March 2011 to Agnieszka Drotkiewicz for the magazine “Dwutygodnik”: “With them, I felt a bit like an animal that had only recently been hunted. I found it difficult to interact and to have cordial relations with the older colleagues so I kept a certain distance.”[6]

In 1962, the Gotfryds opened their own dental practice. Their decision to work for themselves was forced on them by the new regulations in the American clinic which ruled that only members of the military were allowed to work there and, unlike previously, this also applied to their relatives. The newly established private practice now gave them the opportunity to build up a patient base. The practice was situated in Lehniner Platz, just a few metres from the exclusive and vibrant boulevard Kurfürstendamm. Elegant boutiques, cinemas, clubs and restaurants, and later even the famous “Schaubühne” were all in the immediate vicinity.

Initially, the Gotfryds mainly treated Americans until their patient list began to fill up with artists. One of their first patients was Samuel Beckett. Anatol Gotfryd devoted his second memoir, “Der Himmel über Westberlin. Meine Freunde, die Künstler und andere Patienten”, [“The sky over West Berlin. My friends, the artists and other patients”], which was published in 2017 by Quintus , to his friends, patients and artists. It contains many anecdotes from the Berlin art scene. The Gotfryds treated many famous people, including Günter Grass, Nena, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, George Tabori, Peter Zadek, Marika Rökk, Rebecca Horn, Markus Lüpertz, Katharina Thalbach, Harald Juhnke and many others.

The Gotfryds set up a room in their practice as a small lounge for their friends to come for an espresso and a chat. During these visits, their friends often did drawings, read newspapers or leafed through the catalogues that were lying around. The practice also had a guestbook in which they left entries and sketches, which were often true works of art. This has become a testimony to the era documenting 40 years of Berlin culture. The book includes mementos of many famous people, such as Marina Abramović, Heinz Otterson, Daniel Buren, Allan Kaprow, Rebecca Horn, Roman Opalka, Zbigniew Herbert, Gotthard Graubner, Gerd Rohling, Maria Lassnig, Heinz Trökes, Franz Gertsch, Sławomir Mrożek and Jurek Becker.