1949 Aenne Burda took over a small run-down publishing company with 48 employees, located in nearby Lahr.
As a child, little Anna already knew exactly what she wanted!
Such fairy stories seldom come true in real life: the rise of a girl like Aenne Burda from working-class origins who becomes a world-famous business woman and fashion icon. However, it wasn’t a fairy god-mother who waved her magic wand to provide this breath-taking career out of nothing. It was Aenne Burda herself, her own hard work, determination and ambition.
"That’s what I want!" was an expression that showed her sense of purpose even as a child, and what Aenne wanted was usually what she got!
She was born as Anna Magdalene Lemminger on 28 July 1909 in Offenburg in the South-West German province of Baden, as the daughter of a train locomotive driver. She later admitted "I certainly wasn’t a nice child".
She did not regard her mother, a quiet and good-natured housewife, as a role-model. Indeed, exactly the opposite: a humble home and hearth didn’t interest Anna in the slightest but she loved her father "madly".
She was always quite frank about the fact that she wanted to be "something better", even on the occasion of her First Holy Communion in 1919. Anna wanted to arrive at the church in a horse-drawn carriage like the rich children. Her parents refused the extra expense but, with the neighbouring baker’s daughter, she managed to scrape together enough money to arrive in style.
At the age of 17 she decided to cut her wonderful long black hair. "All the other girls had braided pigtails and I had a short bob cut". She also changed her name to "Aenne" - after the heroine of her favourite song "Annchen von Tharau" – so that everyone in Offenburg would immediately recognize her own unique name when it was mentioned.
Without any higher exam certificates, Aenne left her convent high school at the age of 17 and became a cashier at the Offenburg electricity company. Part of her work included demanding the payment of debts by Burda, the local printing and publishing company, where she caught the eye of the owner’s son, Dr. Franz Burda.
He was enchanted by her at first sight. "She was the most beautiful girl in the whole of Offenburg", he declared decades later. They married on 9 July 1931 and Aenne Burda bore him three sons: Franz (1932), Frieder (1936) and Hubert (1940). It wasn’t until 1949 that the career doors opened for this already 40-year-old power woman: her husband finally gave her an almost bankrupt printing and publishing company located in nearby Lahr. Aenne Burda rolled up her sleeves and said: "Miracles can be made to happen!"
1918
Lemminger family photo: her father Franz was a locomotive driver, mother Maria was a housewife, brother Eugen was four years older, sister Wilhelmine two years younger than Anna Magdalena (at right), who was already planning a great future for herself.
1918
First Holy Communion: Anna Magdalene wanted to arrive by horse taxi like the rich children, her parents refused but that determined 10-year-old still managed to get her own way
1926
At the age of 17 Anna had her beautiful long black hair cut and proudly wore it in a bob – at a time when most other girls were still satisfied with braided hair in old-fashioned plaits. Anna always wanted to stand out in a crowd!
1928
Anna altered her name to Aenne as a reminiscence to her favourite
folk song Aennchen von Thorau. She often said "I could listen to
that song all day long", and when she did so, even otherwise
unsentimental Aenne Burda sometimes wept a few tears.
1928
Aenne (at left, with short hair) and her sister Wilhelmine (two years younger) were both real "Daddy’s Girls": their beloved father called them "Tschan" (Aenne) and "Tschin" (Wilhelmine)
1931
She was looking for a man to lay the world at her feet - and found him
in Dr. Franz Burda, a book printer. They were soul-mates because they
were both ambitious and reaching for the top. The couple got engaged
at Easter 1930 and were married in Offenburg on 9 July 1931.
1942
A mother and her sons. Frieder, Hubert, Franz. Aenne Burda loved
her children with all her heart and enjoyed being at home with them.
However, she also insisted on being freed from housework and
mothering duties (she called them "forced labour”). Very early on,
she demanded a nanny and a maid. "I liked cooking and did it well",
she said, “but I absolutely hated making beds and cleaning."
That’s the way she was – honest and straightforward!
1943
Three splendid sons - Aenna Burda’s boys: Franz (11), Frieder (7) and Hubert (3). She admits she "very much wanted to have children" and she was particularly enthusiastic about her youngest son who was a real Sonny Boy. “I believe I never got angry with Hubert”, she recalled.
1948
Brilliantly beautiful Aenne Burda, although she declares that she was never really aware of her attractiveness, saying "When I was a young girl, I thought I was ugly because my mother Maria called me a "horrible crab. I just didn’t want to believe it when other people said I was good-looking."
1949
Aenne Burda’s first big step towards making her dreams come true, when she took over a small run-down publishing company with 48 employees, located in nearby Lahr. "The offices were in a small kind of old pub saloon," she said, but she knew that her ambitious drive and energy would turn it into something great!
