Annett was born on September 11, 1936, and grew up with her parents Halfdan Wolf (Halfdan Theodor Wilhelm Wolf) and Amory Wolf (Else Vibeke Amory Wolf). The bond with her father was strong, so he is the one she most often refers to when talking about her parents or childhood. “An unusually strong bond,” she said herself in an interview with Berlingske Tidende in 1977.
Annett with her father, Halfdan Wolf, c. 1940
The war years were a trial for the family as the Gestapo was after Annett’s parents, because Annett’s father threw the Gestapo agents out of his wine shop, saying that he “would rather pour the wine into Copenhagen Harbor” than give it to the Germans. This episode particularly shaped the last part of the war, when Annett stayed with her grandparents on Gefionsgade, while her own parents were in hiding – her father somewhere unknown, her mother on Bogø.
At her grandparents’ home, Carl Nielsen’s classical works were played, and Annett particularly recalls the readings of Charles Dickens aloud and the atmosphere in the book “Great Expectations.” According to Annett, these readings planted the seed for her interest in telling stories. (Wolf, 2005). After the war, her parents had to rebuild their business, while Annett was cared for by her aunt and various nannies. The language at home was a mix of Danish, French, and English, as there were often business visitors. There was also time for cultural experiences, like attending Frank Sinatra’s performance at K.B. Hallen in 1953. When Annett was a bit older, Halfdan pushed for her to join his company – he had inherited it from his father, and it was understood that one day Annett would take over the company “Louis Wolf.”
This meant that Annett had to learn about the world of wine and spirits, and her first stop was a stay in Scotland in 1952, where she was apprenticed at the company MacDonald and Muir Ltd. and lodged with a local host family. At MacDonald and Muir Ltd, she worked in their laboratory four days a week, where she had to learn to taste the differences between the many types of whisky, and her stay ended with a test. Although Annett was homesick and had thought that now she would go back to the familiar surroundings of safe Copenhagen, she once again had to be sent off on new adventures – this time in Spain with the family dynasty González Byass, who were responsible for producing Tio Pepe sherry. At the end of her stay in Spain, Annett was to spend a couple of weeks in Portugal – more specifically in Lisbon, where she would get acquainted with port wines. After returning from Spain, it was “no more coddling” and Annett was told that she had to start at her father’s company the next day at 9 a.m.
Halfdan had been appointed honorary consul for Lebanon because of his work in the international business world and therefore needed some help, mainly because of his own travel activities – and Annett was supposed to help him with that. The first task was to fetch approval papers and stamps in Bonn – then a host of various tasks, which were soon replaced by a wish to go to Cambridge to study English literature. Annett knew very well that it wasn’t the wine industry that attracted her, but she still didn’t have the courage to confront her father. (Wolf, 2005). She was allowed to go to Cambridge – but on the condition that she took a year’s apprenticeship at d’Angleterre – the big hotel located at Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. Before that, Annett managed to work as an assistant during the big tattoo, the “British Military Tattoo,” at Rosenborg Exercise Field when the British Exhibition was held in Copenhagen from September 30 to October 13, 1955.
It was a show that required months of planning in advance. It was the first time that the big military show was held outside of the UK. In 1956, Annett started at d’Angleterre, the finest hotel in Copenhagen, where during her time she experienced various areas of hotel operations, such as working at the reception, as a maid, as an assistant housekeeper, and during the summer months as the housekeeper. She also spent some time in the kitchen, where the practical work involved peeling 8-10 kilos of shrimp by hand. Annett herself says it was a very educational stay – also on a purely personal level, where she learned a lot from the hotel’s guests about people’s behavior, both the good and the not-so-good. Annett also learned, during her time as housekeeper, that even Copenhagen’s finest hotel has its budget limits, as the hotel’s flower bill was quintupled when Annett decided to replace the bouquets with long-stemmed red roses for the suites – it only happened once, but it looked beautiful.
In 1956, she went to Cambridge in England, where Annett studied English literature and theatre history. There, she came across Shakespeare’s works and spent her time in England watching as many English performances as she could get near. She became popular in study circles, both because she could drink and smoke – and because of the regular deliveries of sherry and port that were sent to her address every month. During this stay, she got acquainted with William Shakespeare; a piece about Lady Macbeth became the focal point of Annett’s final assignment, but Oscar Wilde’s works also got under her skin – so much so that it would come back to her later in life. Besides the literary and theatre side of things, she also used her time in Cambridge to take singing lessons, although it never developed into anything more serious, or for that matter public, than singing within the walls.
She returned to Copenhagen after spending six months in England, where Halfdan tried to see if he could get her a job somewhere through his contacts. However, Annett wanted to try finding a job herself, so she applied to various airlines and ended up getting a job in KLM’s booking department, where she sold tickets and at the same time took a secretarial course. Halfdan, however, continued to influence her, hoping that one day she would have enough experience to join her father’s business, Louis Wolf, which was a distributor of wine and spirits. She had to give in to Halfdan’s persuasion and ended up taking study trips to Spain, Portugal, Scotland, and France to learn more about wine and how grapes are grown, processed, and bottled. After returning home, her mother, Amory, thought it would be a good idea to supplement with a domestic school, but Halfdan instead suggested a hotel management course – and that’s what happened. What does a 21-year-old virgin know about love?
Party c. 1958 at hotel d’Danglettere in Copenhagen
It became the start of the conflict with her parents, who, for once, agreed that the man she had met was not right for her. She had met Jørgen through a mutual acquaintance. He was a photographer, but it was their shared interest in motorsports that really struck a chord with Annett – they got married at Copenhagen City Hall in April 1958. Annett moved to Sweden with Jørgen because of his job, but spending the days in a hotel without a job in a small northern Swedish town was hardly exciting. Things didn’t get any better when, after just a few weeks, she started to get the sneaking suspicion that she was pregnant, which a visit to the doctor confirmed. The pregnancy was not without complications, and she developed preeclampsia to such an extent that Annett had to remain bedridden, hospitalized in Copenhagen for several months. However, it ended well, and their daughter – who was also named Annett – was born on January 31, 1959. (Wolf, 2005).
The marriage didn’t last, and the divorce was partly a result of the long thinking break the hospitalization gave and, not least, Jørgen Sperling’s lack of commitment.