Don and Stefi (Berger) Anderson, 1994

Don and Stefi pose on their 25th wedding anniversary in 2019

A high school basketball injury might have prevented the first marriage between Eutin and Lawrence, except for an insistent coach.   Don Anderson, a KU student, was a student of Frank Baron at the Summer Language Institute in Eutin in 1988.  During his stay in Eutin, Don spent time with Eutin’s TS Riemann basketball club.  Stefi Berger, a member of the girls’ team, had not met Don, though, due to an injury and a hospital stay.  Three days before the KU students were to return to Lawrence, Eutin held a farewell party for the delegation.  Stefi’s coach insisted that Stefi attend the party, and providence provided a marriage that recently celebrated 26 years.  

A three-year long distance courtship was sustained by letters, long distance phone calls, and occasional meetings.  “My parents insisted that I use the phone booth, because I would just keep talking” Stefi recently explained.  “At that time, I received a 50 Mark monthly allowance.  One minute of long distance cost 5 Marks.  So I would drop in five Mark pieces.  After ten minutes, it would just go click and the call was over; and my monthly allowance was gone!”  They saw more of each other as Don later studied three years in Germany on scholarships.

“Mostly, we just wrote letters and went about our lives,“ Don said. “ Letters would take 4-10 days.  There were no complications of today’s social media.” 

Both Don and Stefi had strong interests in each other’s cultures.  Stefi mused, “I think we were open enough…we expected there to be differences, so it wasn’t really an obstacle.”

Stefi and Don became engaged in 1992 while Don was a student at the Christian Albrechts Universität in Kiel and were married in 1994 in the Church of St. Michael in downtown Eutin; the same church where Stefi’s parents were married.  Now, the couple is blessed with two children ages 14 and 16, both of whom are very conversant in German.

Stefi teaches 6th grade science and math, and Don is an Associate Dean and professor of German at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan.  And Stefi has fully recovered from her injury.