Chapter 25Midsummer in Chicago can be brutally hot and humid, so when Katharina and I were invited to spend a week at Lake Geneva, just north of the Illinois state line, we were happy to accept.
The invitation came from Bernhard Breisacher, a former business partner of Katharina’s late father and one of the leading figures in Chicago’s German-American community. I had never met the man, but Katharina knew him well.
“Bernhard Breisacher was the uncle I never had,” Katharina said. “In fact, Manfred and I always called him Uncle Bernie when we were growing up.”
Breisacher was a man in his early eighties who owned property all over Chicago and who was active in the Germania Club, Chicago’s oldest ethnic and social club, founded in 1865 by immigrants from Germany. The club, located at 108 W.
