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Obituary: Ellen Kate Sprogø-Topelmann

Ellen Kate Sprogø-Topelmann passed away peacefully on August 1st, surrounded by her husband Karsten, daughter Lisa and son Lars. For 90 years she lived a beautiful, full and happy life.

Born in Hamburg, Germany, on April 29th, 1926, Ellen was part of a big family that often had to struggle to make ends meet. She lived through the ravages of WWII during her teens in Germany and the hardships she endured formed her resilience. In 1953, Ellen decided to move to America for a better life, always an optimist and always believing in the future. In Chicago, she met her husband, Karsten Topelmann, and the two like-minded artists married in 1959. Their three children were born in Chicago: Tanja born in 1961, an aspiring artist who sadly passed in 1983, Lars born in 1963 a photographer in Portland, Oregon and Lisa born in 1965, an Art Historian, Curator and Teacher in Adelaide, Australia.

Summer holidays were always spent in beautiful Door County where it was their dream to one day open a gallery. Ellen’s determination, optimism and hard work made this dream come true and the family risked leaving Chicago to live full time in Ephraim. Many challenges faced Ellen and the family, but she was always positive and resolute. These were some of her many attributes that her family and friends so greatly admired.

In the summer of 1972, Ellen and Karsten opened the Hanseatic Art Gallery, taking the name from Ellen’s birth city of Hamburg, which was part of the Hanseatic Trading League in Medieval Europe. They both painted and filled the gallery with their artwork. Over the many years, Ellen loved meeting people and asking about their lives. She was known to remember every one of her customers and their acquisitions and could always relay their life story to them when they came back the next summer. She particularly enjoyed asking every couple how they met and enjoyed hearing people’s ‘love story’. She could in fact tell you how every one of her friends had met their significant other, right down to the last detail. She also loved to play ‘matchmaker’. Friends will remember her words of wisdom and her wonderful ability to recall stories, events and old German songs in her endearing German accent.

During the cold Door County winters, she travelled the world with Karsten and for almost 20 years they lived and painted for several months a year in her beloved town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany and on the Island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Spain. Many dear friends were made in these various destinations, but Ellen’s heart remained in Ephraim. This was her favorite place in the whole world and she admiringly referred to it as the ‘pearl of the Peninsula’. In 2000, Ellen and Karsten returned year round to their beautiful house in ‘Our Village’, as they lovingly called Ephraim and which she also used as a title for one of her most famous acrylic paintings.

Ellen’s paintings have graced the covers of numerous books and magazines. In addition, she and Karsten are featured in this year’s Door Peninsula Arts Guide. Her artwork will live on in the homes and hearts of so many who have visited the gallery and who have acquired her works over the past 44 years. In her ‘little people’ paintings of old world Europe, she expressed joy and memories of happy times.
Ellen is survived by her loving husband of 56 years, Karsten Topelmann, her daughter Lisa (husband Mark Weder, sons Elliott and Miles) and son Lars (wife Monique McClean and sons Karsten and Finn), brothers Uwe Sprogø and Hansel Sprogø.

Honoring Ellen’s wishes, a family ceremony will be held at a later date. The family requests that instead of flowers or donations that friends simply let memories of Ellen warm their hearts and to not cry because she is gone, but to smile because she was here.

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