Irmgard Langacker

Irmgard (“Irmi”) Sieker was the second of four daughters of Karl-Heinz Sieker and Liselotte Sieker, née Marquard. She was born in the family’s new house in the Southeast corner of Berlin. Irmi had many vivid memories of the horrors of the war years, especially of the bombings, the lack of food, and the Russian occupation. The entire family came close to death more than once, but somehow they survived. After the Russians confiscated their house they had to squeeze into a tiny apartment in East Berlin. A few years later they relocated to West Berlin. They made the move on the morning of a political holiday to reduce the chances of arrest.

In 1958 Irmi married Hans Mueller, a German who had worked as a translator for the American army. They did not want to remain in Germany because of its history. Because of Hans’ army connection Irmi was allowed to emigrate to the U.S. as a GI bride. Irmi and Hans first settled in New York City, where they both worked full time while studying at Hunter College. Irmi continued her studies started at the Free University in Berlin, earning her B.A. in 1961. She became an American citizen in 1963. Irmi and Hans were awarded Woodrow Wilson Fellowships to pursue graduate studies. They chose to do so at the University of California at Berkeley, Irmi in German Literature and Hans in Sociology, so they packed their belongings into a VW minibus and drove across the country.

The five years that Irmi and Hans spent in Berkeley brought them great happiness and great sorrow. Three days after Christmas 1966 Irmi gave birth to identical twin girls, Hendrika and Stephany. Tragically, Stephany had a heart defect and died a month later. Those years were also somewhat tumultuous because of the ongoing Free Speech Movement there. However, they stuck to their studies and Teaching Assistant duties, completing their Ph.D. course work and exams in 1968. Irmi was offered teaching positions in German and literature at ten colleges, but decided instead to concentrate on being a mother and on writing her dissertation, which she completed on a play by Schiller a few years later.

After spending two years in Göttingen, Germany, Irmi and Hans moved to Swarthmore, where Hans had been offered a teaching position. Irmi started teaching French and then German in the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District, where she remained for 27 years. She enthusiastically taught many classes and was active sponsoring the German club. She was known affectionately by her students as “Frau Mueller”, and later as “Frau Langacker”. For a time she had to commute daily between two high schools despite having a broken foot. She led a number of student exchange visits with her alma mater in Berlin, taking students to Germany and arranging for the return visits to the U.S. Irmi was an expert in testing materials, publishing in German textbooks and working for the Educational Testing Service. She retired in 1999, but continued tutoring German until the start of the pandemic.

After her divorce from Hans, Irmi was a single mother for a number of years. She met Paul Langacker in 1982, and they were married the following year. They lived happily in Wallingford for 40 years, including a sabbatical year in Germany, and then moved to White Horse Village in 2023. Irmi enjoyed cooking, with her German recipes for sauerbraten and rouladen especially memorable. They also enjoyed travel, hiking, and classical music, including matinee performances at the Metropolitan Opera. Irmi and Paul jointly wrote a series of puppet plays, which they performed at birthday parties, continuing a tradition Irmi had started for Hendrika’s birthdays. At White Horse Irmi was involved in the singing group, the bocce league, and the “Tales” magazine, where she published stories about her German upbringing. In 2024 Irmi and Paul joined Hendrika and her husband Chris Layton for a joint 41st and 31st anniversary cruise on the Great Lakes.

Irmi is survived by Paul, Hendrika, Chris, granddaughters, Elise and Quinn Layton, and her sister, Mechthild in Berlin. She is predeceased by Stephany, a grandson, Ben who died of leukemia at age four, and sisters, Hiltrud and Gerlinde.

Irmi was loved by everyone who knew her and will be greatly missed. There will be a memorial service at White Horse later this summer.