German doctor Fritz Remmler continued his animal farm activities in Canada

Helsingin Sanomat contacted son of 1930s menagerie owner

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By Kristiina Markkanen
     
      "I believe my father left his heart in Finland, because that is where all his closest friends were", says Ingmar Remmler, 80, contacted in Canada by Helsingin Sanomat.
      Remmler's father, the German Dr. Friedrich Wilhelm "Fritz" Remmler , maintained a curious menagerie and animal park in Finland's Kainuu Province in the 1930s, and was also suspected of having been a spy in the service of Nazi Germany.
      Helsingin Sanomat reported on the strange case of Dr. Remmler and his collection of wild creatures on April 20th (see last week's International Edition article linked below), and the story clearly piqued readers' interest and prompted requests to find out exactly what had happened to the mysterious animal-trainer in his later life.
     
At the end of hostilities between Finland and the Soviet Union in September 1944, German forces stationed here were to be driven out of Finland through Lapland.
      Fritz Remmler, his son Orvar, and his brother Hans left the country along with German troops, crossing into Norway.
      Remmler's wife Impi and his younger son Ingmar were interned along with other German civilians in Finland, but were able to escape back to Germany.
      The family's paths separated. The three men were placed in camps in Norway and later in Germany. However, after a couple of years they found one another again through the assistance of zoo-owner Carl Hagenbeck , and settled in Hamburg.
      Only Ingmar's sister Hilde remained behind in Finland. She had married a Finn.
     
"Life in war-ravaged Germany was grim, so I got the idea that I might try to hitch a ride on a merchant ship to see my sister in Finland", recalls Ingmar of a stowaway tale that also found its way into the files of Finland's then Security Police, ValPo.
      "On the evening of December 5th, 1947, I crept into the coal bunker of a ship named the Najade. I had a couple of bottles of water with me, and some bread. I got spotted and caught by the crew, but I was treated in a friendly fashion, and I was even able to work my passage a bit on the ship."
      "Because of the mines in the Baltic and the Gulf of Finland, we could only travel by daylight. The trip to Turku must have taken about five days. The ship's master had naturally wired ahead that he had a stowaway on board, but when we docked and there were no police officers waiting on the quay, a member of the crew told me to make myself scarce."
      Ingmar eventually went voluntarily to report to the police in the belief that he might be allowed to remain in Finland.
     
"The first place I found myself was in the ValPo cells in Kasarmikatu. I spent Christmas and New Year in Katajanokka Prison. And then one night my cell-door was opened and I was taken - without a word being spoken - to the docks and put on a ship that was sailing that night. It turned out that the vessel was heading for England, and in the end I wound up in the hands of the British troops in Kiel in Germany."
      "In the meantime, my father had also got out of the camp he was in, and the whole family were able to move to Canada."
     
The Remmlers established a farm not far from Niagara Falls, on which they also had a lot of animals, just as had been the case in Kainuu in the 1930s.
      There was a tame black bear called Tiny, a cheetah called Suzie, trained eagles and falcons, geese, squirrels, foxes, coyotes, and rottweiler dogs.
      Fritz Remmler, scripted, directed, and shot a number of films even into his eighties, often with his son Ingmar.
      He enjoyed some success behind the camera, too. The children's short Kuunsilmä ("The Moon Eye") took a prize at the first Tampere Film Festival in 1970.
     
Fritz Remmler never returned to Finland after his move to Canada, but according to his son he often expressed a longing for the place. In his later years he wrote his memoirs in German, sections of which Ingmar sent on to Helsingin Sanomat.
      Remmler was a good writer, and he even referred to himself as an author.
      Among the excerpts sent to the paper was this attractive description of his first days and weeks on the farm known as Suvenniemi, close to the town of Kajaani:
      "The bear cubs were playing with the children in the yard, and the wolf cubs were in the kitchen eating. I loved them all, and above all else I loved my eagles. What I had been looking for in my life, the wild and all its creatures, was now gathered around me. I felt a huge sense of satisfaction at it all."
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 27.4.2009
     

More on this subject:
 "My father was not a spy"
 BACKGROUND: The story of a German-Finnish family

Previously in HS International Edition:
  The curious case of Dr. Remmler´s pre-war menagerie (21.4.2009)

KRISTIINA MARKKANEN / Helsingin Sanomat
kristiina.markkanen@hs.fi