Johnson, Brunhilde Anne Rika, “Johnson, Brunhilde (Interview transcript and video), 2017,” Digital Collections, accessed March 15, 2025, https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/document/45551.
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Johnson, Brunhilde (Interview transcript and video), 2017
Bruni Johnson was born on April 17th, 1937 in Berlin, Germany. As a young child, Bruni was sent to work on her aunt and uncle's farm out in the country during the early years of the Second World War. In 1945, she returned to Berlin and experienced several Allied bombing campaigns. After the war, the Russians marched into Berlin and Bruni's family's home was converted into a temporary hospital for the wounded Russian soldiers. Her family lived in what became West Berlin after the Berlin Wall was built and, upon graduating high school, Bruni went to England to learn English and then went to France to learn French. She later went on to college and became a translator before marrying an American soldier on August 13th, 1961. The couple then moved to the United States in 1962 to start a family together.