Gabriele Carmen Felicitas (Rosenhain) Hammerstein

Gabriele Hammerstein, nèe Rosenhain, died peacefully at her home on June 10, 2018. She was 94. Born in East Germany in 1923, Ms. Hammerstein spent her childhood in Schwerin, a city in Mecklenburg, Germany. In 1936, she was sent to the US to live with her uncle, Felix Rosenhain in Forest Hills, NY. The rest of her family followed in 1936, and the family moved to Jackson Heights, Queens, where her mother set up a medical practice. The family lived in the back rooms of the apartment, and her mother saw patients in the front. After graduating from high school, Ms. Hammerstein, attended New York University for a year. She and also attended classes at the Academy of Dramatic Arts. She was active in the USO during World War II and was a civilian employee of the American High Commission in Frankfurt, Germany, from 1950 to 1953. Before 1962, she was performing performed as a Wagnerian soprano in East German opera houses. While in East Germany, she became involved in producing fake documents for Soviet intelligence. She was arrested in East Berlin on Jan. 2, 1962, and held for interrogation until August of that year when she was tried. She was sentenced after a one‐day trial to six years’ imprisonment as a spy. She served 27 months in East German and Russian prisons. Her family appealed her imprisonment, and clemency was granted in March of 1964, when she was released to her mother, Gertrud Rosenhain, and returned to the United States. Two US airmen were also freed as part of a prisoner exchange with the Soviet Union. After her return to the US, Ms. Hammerstein wrote several articles about her imprisonment, then compiled them into a book, which was ghostwritten by Mike McGrady. It was never published. During the 1970’s and 80’s, Ms. Hammerstein occasionally worked as an interpreter. She lived with and cared for her mother after her mother was incapacitated by a stroke. After the death of her mother in 1983, Ms. Hammerstein continued to reside in the Jackson Heights apartment that had housed the family since they settled in the US. She filed numerous lawsuits to retrieve family property seized by the Nazis. In 2014, Ms. Hammerstein slipped on the sidewalk and broke her hip. After her surgery, she struggled to maintain her health, but never regained her former level of activity. Her circulation continued to decline, and she was admitted into the hospital for infection in December of 2017. She spent two months in a rehabilitation center, and returned to her apartment in February of 2017, where she died surrounded by her belongings and artifacts from her life and her family. She is survived by her sister’s children: Eric, Helen, Miriam and Alice Nightengale. Her sister, Beatrice Nightengale and brother, Helmut Rosenhain, predecease her.