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Princess Irmingard of Bavaria

1923–2010

Born
29 May 1923, Berchtesgaden
Country of birth
Germany
Died
23 Oct 2010, Leutstetten
facts
8
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

A life in time

  1. Born · Berchtesgaden

    Birth, Berchtesgaden

  2. Child born: Prince Luitpold of Bavaria

    Birth, Schloss Leutstetten

  3. Child born: Maria Prinzessin von Bayern

    Birth

  4. Child born: Philippa Prinzessin von Bayern

    Birth

  5. Died · Leutstetten

    Death, Leutstetten

What was it like?

The world around Berchtesgaden, 1923: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Princess was born around the same time as Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Charles Bukowski, and Marilyn Monroe.

Born around the same time

  • Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

    1926 · French official and politician (1926–2020)

  • Charles Bukowski

    1920 · German-American writer (1920–1994)

  • Marilyn Monroe

    1926 · American actress and model (1926–1962)

  • Fidel Castro

    1926 · Cuban politician, author and revolutionary (1926–2016)

  • Federico Fellini

    1920 · Italian filmmaker (1920–1993)

  • Alfredo Di Stéfano

    1926 · Argentine-Spanish association football player (1926–2014)

Fashion

End of the Corset Era

The traditional corset went completely out of fashion in the 1920s, replaced by a straight silhouette that did not emphasize the waist.

The Bubikopf Hairstyle for Women

Women in the 1920s adopted the Bubikopf, a short bobbed haircut inspired by men's styles, to symbolize equality and modernity.

Music

Improvised jazz instruments

Early jazz bands often lacked professional equipment, so they created rhythm using everyday objects like bells, tin cans, brooms, jugs, and automobile horns.

Popular singing and songs

Singing was a popular pastime, with groups like the Comedian Harmonists rising to fame and children frequently singing songs like Three Chinese with the Double Bass.

Getting around
Around 1925–1928

Travelers could ride in 4th class

Until 1928, travelers could ride in the 4th class, which was the cheapest option, though it offered few wooden benches and forced most passengers to stand.

Around 1925–1933

Rural goods transport by horse carriages

Despite the growth of automobiles and trucks, horse-drawn carriages remained the dominant method for transporting goods in rural areas.

Daily life
Around 1926–1931

Manual Housework and Modern Kitchens

Working-class households often lacked running warm water, requiring labor-intensive dishwashing using two basins, soda instead of soap, and drying by hand. In contrast, revolutionary designs like the Frankfurt kitchen introduced gas or electric stoves and hot water heaters to modernize and rationalize housework.

Around 1925–1933

Modern Apartments with Running Water

New public housing apartments offered improved living conditions with central heating, built-in kitchens, and private bathrooms featuring hot and cold running water. Such modern units were rare and highly sought after, with some families waiting years on urgent priority lists to secure them.

Food

Survival diets and rural sourcing

During times of severe inflation and food shortages, families often relied on potatoes and legumes, as meat, eggs, and butter became luxury items that disappeared from many tables. Many city dwellers engaged in so-called hamster trips to the countryside to obtain food directly from farmers when supplies in shops were scarce.

Daily shopping and dishwashing routines

Because food could not be kept fresh without refrigerators, working-class housewives shopped daily for small amounts, spending at least an hour each day comparing prices. Dishes were washed in two basins pulled from under the kitchen table, using soda instead of soap and drying them with care, as there was no running warm water.

Prices and wages

Daily wages during hyperinflation

During the hyperinflation of 1923, money lost value so quickly that workers were paid daily instead of weekly and had to spend their wages immediately. Some workers had to carry their pay home in baskets or wheelbarrows.

Around 1932–1932

Worker family budget in 1932

In 1932, a worker in a Berlin transformer factory took home 109.56 Reichsmarks monthly. After paying for rent and household supplies, the family had only 38 Pfennigs per person per day for food and drink.

Work
Around 1925–1933

Memorable Factory Work Facts

Factory tasks often relied on team piecework where productivity quotas were strictly enforced, and breakfast breaks were sometimes staggered so machines would not stop running. Workers in textile factories sometimes operated a neighboring worker's machine during their own designated break times to ensure continuous output.

Around 1925–1933

The Reality of the Working Day

Although an eight-hour day was a major victory in 1918, it was frequently violated; some workers reported days starting at 7:00 a.m. and ending at 5:00 p.m., while others worked until 7:30 p.m. or 8:00 p.m. Shifts were common, and factory work often continued on Saturdays, with some employees working every other Saturday.

News and letters
Around 1925–1929

Rapid newspaper delivery in Berlin

In the 1920s, Berliners were amazed to receive morning newspapers like the Vossische Zeitung just four hours after publication, thanks to rapid transport by cars from airports.

Fast urban delivery via pneumatic tubes

In Berlin, the pneumatic tube system (Rohrpost) transported messages through underground pipes at speeds of 40 to 50 kilometers per hour, promising delivery within one hour of posting.

During their lifetime

  1. 1923

    Currency restabilization fueled economic recovery by 1927

    Following the restabilization of the currency in late 1923, Germany secured 800 million gold marks in foreign loans by 1927, which helped industrial production return to 1913 levels.

  2. 1933

    Car ownership grew slowly between 1933 and 1938

    Motorization remained limited in the 1930s, as the number of cars grew from 0.5 million in 1933 to 1.3 million in 1938, yet there were still only 19 cars for every 1,000 inhabitants.

  3. 1961

    Berlin Wall separates nation in 1961

    The construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 ended free movement from East Germany and created a death strip that separated families for decades.

  4. 1992

    Record asylum applications in 1992

    In 1992, the number of asylum seekers in the Federal Republic reached a record high of over 438,000, following the collapse of the Eastern bloc.

Family

Parents

Spouses

Children

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.