Rudolf Holke
Rudolf Holke, 84, Donostia-San Sebastián, Basque Country:
He swims far out to sea. This Saturday morning in April, the water is still chilly. When I take his photograph back on the beach, he introduces himself in German: »Rudolf, angenehm« – »nice to meet you.« He tells me he goes swimming in the sea every day. »In summer I swim with the club from the island to here – 1 150 metres in 34 minutes. I am always one of the last, but the others are all younger than me.« He has already swum that stretch 18 times. But now he is very much looking forward to a warm shower at Club Náutico. A storm is brewing, he says, but of course he doesn't mind waiting if I want to set up my light for a portrait.
Rudolf is a long-standing member of RCNSS, the Real Club Náutico de San Sebastián, with its venerable building on the promenade that only members can access. His grandfather emigrated from Germany to Spain, and Rudolf was born here. His father founded a large factory and was German consul, but they had to flee the Spanish Civil War in 1936, »when the Reds came«. His father was one of the last to be evacuated, in a German warship. After the end of the Spanish Civil War, the family returned, his father as a businessman and consul, young Rudolf as member of the foreign Hitler Youth. They stayed in the Basque country, Rudolf studied and married – »not a Basque woman, a Spaniard,« he says. And now they have five children, four grandchildren and a great-grandchild. Having moved back and forth between Germany and San Sebastián for work reasons, they have now been retired here for some time. »I actually feel German, because of my German blood, my German ancestry.« And the children? »They're neither German nor Spanish. I always that say they're Europeans.«