We highly recommend the book Christa Janetzky“Een kwestie van mengen en roeren. Familiekroniek van een Haagse Chemicus” (“A matter of mixing and stirring. Family chronicle of a Hague chemist”). A fascinating family chronicle in a beautifully designed book, illustrated with many photos, which speak for themselves.

The book – at a price of 25 euros – is distributed by the author, Ms Christa Janetzky. Contact: christa.janetzky@xs4all.nl

SUMMARY

Over the years, they had six children, all of whom were given both the Prussian and the Silesian nationality. With the intervention of Bismarck, the suffix of the surname ‘-ski’ was replaced by ‘-zky’. One of the six children was Franz Janetzky, grandfather of the author, who immigrated to the Netherlands as a furrier in 1912 and who in 1921, started his own flourishing business in The Hague.

In the book, ‘Mengen en roeren, familiekroniek van een Haagse Chemicus”, Christa Janetzky provides an historic perspective of Franz’ life. His travels through Europe began in 1900, and as a young furrier he was deeply encouraged by the changes in the fashion industry owing to both the new fur types introduced by the Canadian Hudson’s Bay in London and the invention of the fur stitching machine.

The emphasis of the book lies on the family and career of Dody Janetzky, the eldest son of Franz, who studied chemistry and obtained his doctorate in Delft in 1943. Christa narrates with humour what it was like to live with a chemist as a father – from his often hilarious experiments in the kitchen making perfumes and creams to his innovative development of bringing different kinds of plastic objects onto the market after the Second World War had ended. Her father’s life played against the background of changing political and economic circumstances, during and after both World Wars. The disastrous consequences for many of his family members left behind were devastating when new borders were introduced between Germany and Poland and they had to seek a new life elsewhere in Europe.