Erika Schmieder

Visitation for Erika (Durler) Schmieder, 90, will be held from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM, with a Prayer Service at 7:00 PM, Friday, March 14, 2025, at Ahlgrim Family Funeral Home, 201 N. Northwest Hwy, Palatine, IL. Burial will be private.

Erika was born on September 22, 1934, in Germany to Ernst and Wilhelmina (nee Wiesendorfer) Durler. She died Sunday, March 9, 2025, at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights.

After growing up a farmer’s daughter in Hochemmingen, Germany, Erika started her trip around the world in 1953 at age 19 with a stop in Chicago to raise her family. She loved to travel and made it as far as Alaska and Hawaii. When she first arrived in Chicago she was an Au pair for 2 young boys and then worked for the James Hume family where she was treated more like a daughter. After her marriage to Erich Schmieder in 1956, Erika worked as a seamstress for Blum’s Vogue in Chicago sewing fashionable gowns for the Chicago elite. Erika and Erich started their family in 1959. She loved nothing more than to spend time with family and friends, travel, garden, cook and enjoy the outdoors. Her faith was her mainstay in life.

Survivors include her 3 daughters, Ingrid Weihe (Ken) of Elgin, Linda Schmieder of Palatine and Rita Schmieder of Streamwood; grandsons, Jeffrey Weihe (Amanda) and Andrew Weihe (Shanyn) both of Elgin; a great-grandson Jonathan Weihe; a sister, Sieglinde Münk of Hochemmingen, Germany; and many nieces and nephews.

Erika was preceded in death by her husband, Erich; her parents; her step-father, Hugo Geiger; older brother, Fred Durler; older sister, Klara Hug, and an infant sister.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the American Diabetes Association.