Many people today search for clues as to Alice Amelia’s nationality in the hopes of learning more about her background. Born and raised in England, Amelia is said to have been nicknamed Pinky because of her small stature (around 5′ 3″), this is also where her lifelong relationship with the German National Hugo von Fricken began. As it turns out, Alice was actually born in Prussian, which would make her one of three children of German parents who were abroad during World War II. It was while Alice was a teenager in Europe that her parents decided to separate from their long-term partner, Alfred, and travel together to join their family in America.
It was here in America, where Alice’s path crossed with that of National Socialism and after the onset of the Second World War she moved to Chicago where she lived for the next five years with an American woman. After the marriage she traveled to Argentina and then to Switzerland, all the while continuing to work in Chicago. When the National Socialist rule came to France, Alice Amelia chose to relocate to La Chaux-de-Provence in the French Alps, which would be a place where she could escape the turmoil of life under Fascism. Upon reaching La Chaux-de-Provence, Alice became known as The Mountain Queen and spent the next fifteen years enjoying an idyllic life in the mountains with her husband and fellow Montalcino (Spanish for mountain) farmer. It was in this time that she met German National Hugo von Fricken, who was in town inspecting a new construction project when he fell in love with Alice.
The final evidence as to Alice’s nationality comes from her husband, Alva, who told her daughter, Clara, that he believed that she was German. Two other names she used include Germania and Grissel, both of which are examples of traditional German names. After her marriage to von Fricken she decided to change her name and took her birth date, 9th of September, off and placed it next to her husband’s first name. As can be seen in the records at the time, Alice Amelia was legally an Italian National but at the time of her death she had become deeply concerned about her dual nationality and in fact made several requests for a nationality test so that if she ever traveled again she would know for sure.