Annmarie Burger was born in 1913 and was a resident of Bavaria at least until 1953, the date of the correspondence in this collection. Apparently highly educated, Burger befriended Mary Polly Kneeland Wisner Renne, the wife of Montana State College President Roland Renne, and became her "pen pal," exchanging letters with Polly from 1951 to 1953. At that time Polly and her husband were living in the Philippines where Roland Renne worked on assignment for the federal government.
The Burger Letters are typed transcriptions prepared from the originals by Dr. Robert G. Dunbar, a history professor at Montana State University. The letters are remarkably detailed, giving a picture of the social conditions of postwar Germany as well as the writer's memories of her activities as a girl and involvement with German youth organizations. Her descriptions of life during the Weimar era, the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party, and political issues are particularly insightful.
This collection is open for research.
Typed transcriptions of original letters composed by Annmarie Burger were prepared by Dr. Robert G. Dunbar of Montana State University and donated by him to MSU in 1978. The original letters were likely in the possession of Polly Renne or her descendants, and their present location is unknown.
This collection was processed 2013 December 31