Ostpreussen Karte
You may also want to refer to the German memoirs of my mother
Margarete Goertz (1900 - 1996)
here entitled " Life of a Country Lady in East Prussia, Two Parts" Aus dem Leben einer Gutsfrau Ostpreussens I
Aus dem Leben einer Gutsfrau Ostpreussens II
as well as the account of her early years entitled 'I am a Prussian':
Margarete Goertz: Ich bin ein Preusse
** 1928
December 3: I, Adalbert Emanuel Goertz was born on this day in Langenau, Kreis Rosenberg in West Prussia; son of Domänenpächter (i.e. lessee of a state owned farm) Paul Gerhard Goertz (1887-1945) and of his second wife Margarete (Schukat) Goertz (1900-1996), Lutheran.
Our family background is published in the Goertz-Stammfolge
(Deutsches Geschlechterbuch, vol.133, Starke-Verlag Limburg 1964, p.268). Check here
My house of birth, the estate mansion, was burned down in 1945 by arsonist guerillas. By 1945 it was owned by the Hindenburg family of neighboring Neudeck. Paul von Hindenburg was German Reich president (1925-1934).
** 1930
February 3: My sister Ida ("Bibi") Goertz is born in Langenau.
Father Paul Gerhard Goertz purchases estate of Powarben,Kreis Königsberg, Samland, East Prussia from bankrupt repossession (Bruhn family). Powarben remains and is my childhood home until the Russians invade East Prussia in January 1945. I have fond memories of Powarben, the large and modern mansion, the big trees in the park, the hof pond with ducks and geese in the summer, the ice skating in winter, the blacksmith making iron horse shoes and wagon wheels at his blowing furnace at the Hofschmiede, the Kleinbahn Königsberg-Schaaksvitte (Samlandbahn) going by the park three times roundtrip each day. Storks clapping on the bell tower on the Speicher (granary) roof. Fräulein Elisabeth Frank(1889-1982) is hired as Kinderfräulein. We children call her Fafank (baby talk),the best nanny you could have.
Gutshaus in Powarben, Drawing
Gutshaus in Powarben, 1943
Gutshaus Powarben, Kreis Samland, Ostseite. 2000 only a pile of rubble left.
Paul Gerhard & Margarete Goertz, Powarben, East Prussia. (1943)
** 1931
June 14. Brother Hans Goertz drowns in Pregel river as he canoes with brother Fritz. I remember his grave only at nearby Görken cemetery.
** 1932
December 3: I remember my fourth birthday in Powarben, Jagdzimmer. Little wooden sheep, horses, cows, fences, stable, four candles on my table.What else can a future Rittergutsbesitzer wish for? Papa's Jagdzimmer has antlers mounted on the wall from Langenau, a Gewehrschrank (hunting rifles), black-and-white engravings of hunting scenes,a grand piano("Flügel") for Mama. Years later a huge Kachelofen is installed in the corner by an expert mason . The globus always fascinates me. Germany looks so small on it. When I ask Mama later, how she reads that music for the piano, she takes me and teaches me my first lesson. Sorry I asked.
** 1934
May 14. Brother Peter Goertz is born in Powarben.(He died of Hodgekin's disease in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada on July 1,1992).
Adalbert,Ida, 1934.
Weihnachten 1934 in Powarben: Papa, Mama, Peter, Ida, Adalbert.
December 24, Christmas eve. Oma Johanne (Pichler) Schukat from Gowarten, Onkel Siegfried ("Siechel") Schukat are with us in Powarben.
Christmas in Powarben with Oma Schukat,Onkel Siegfried.December 31.Sylvester in Powarben, playing games with Papa, family, and Fafank "im Sylvesterbogen" at the round table in the Esszimmer corner beside the Christmas tree. All is decorated, everybody dressed up in funny costume.
celebrating Sylvester 1934: Papa, left; Fafank, right.
** 1935
Easter. I enter Volksschule (elem.school) in Molsehnen, a one-room school. Lehrer Korbjuhn lives in the same building, southside. First day is remembered by the big Schultüte filled with sweets, goodies. We walk to school 1 km south every day on Kleinbahn rail tracks. School buses are unknown and unnecessary.
Paul Gerhard Goertz, Adalbert, Ida (Powarben, NW corner of Park).
June 22: Brother Johann (Jan) Goertz is born in Powarben.
The summer vacation is spent at Schwetz, Kreis Graudenz. Schwetz has no electric power yet, is remembered by candle light, kerosene lamps, no radio, meter thick wall of basement vault, eels from Ossa river in bath tub, Schwedenschanze mountain west of hof, Rosswerk waterpump, swimming in lake.
** 1936
A new 2-story school(half house) with 2 class rooms is built in Molsehnen. First four grades are taught in the lower class room. We get new Lehrer Moslener as Lehrer Korbjuhn retires. The second half of school will never be added. The summer vacation (July-August) is spent in Powarben as shown by the family pictures.
Our family in Powarben, 1936.
** 1937
August 12: Sister Eva is married at the Königsberg Schlosskirche to dentist Feo Berkhemer,D.D.
During summer we spend vacation in Brösen near Danzig at the beach and stay in Danzig-Langfuhr, Ostseestr.68, with Tante Lieschen, Papa's only sister.
** 1938
Easter. I transfer to Schön-Schule in Königsberg,corner of Mitteltragheim and Wallring. I am put up at Pension Betty and Hedwig Milewski(Mother and daughter team) at Paulstr.5, close to the magnificent white Regierung building at Mittel-Tragheim. This 4th grade of Volksschule is to prepare me better for the sexta of the gymnasium next year.Molsehnen is not adequate,my parents feel.
We spend summer vacation(July-August) at Ostseebad Cranz on the beach. Carriage takes us to a Pension where we stay close to the beach with
Papa, Mama, Adalbert, Ida, Peter, Jan, Fafank are on the family photo.
In Königsberg I have to join Jungvolk Pimpfe. I often avoid Dienst
by going home for weekends.
Picnic in Powarben, 1938.
Peter, Jan.
Papa, Mama 1938.
Papa, Mama, 1938 (Ostseebad Cranz).
Am Strand in Cranz.
WWII and Heimat lost
** 1939
In the summer Mama takes up horseback riding with "Wiener Blut" which threw her off once leaving her in the field as the horse headed home for the stable. Search party found Mama. She had a few bruises,was roughed up. Frisur suffered.
September 1: War starts in Poland which causes a few weeks of anxiety in far-off Ostpreussen. Papa is drafted for a few weeks to Forst Fritzen, Samland,then discharged as u.k.(unabkömmlich) since his presence on his farms is regarded as vital to the war economy (Erzeugungsschlacht). Schwetz, Kreis Graudenz and Westpreussen (korridor) is reoccupied by Germany. We all rejoice for the reunion.
Entrance exam (Sextaprüfung) at Friedrichs-Kollegium (Collegium Fredercianum) in Königsberg,Jägerhof 9, the same "Collegium Fredericianum" where Immanuel Kant was a student much earlier. I fear mostly Deutsch and its grammar, but do o.k. in dictation test,thus being spared the oral part (I spell SCHUPO correctly, the only word in doubt). In Rechnen I have to take the oral, pass.My school walk takes me across Schlossteichbrücke, passing Stadthalle or Weissgerberstrasse (where window shopping is tempting).
Adalbert als Gymnasiast, 1942.
Friedrichs-Kolleg, Königsberg i.Pr.
Wandelhalle
Aula (auditorium) with organ, all perished in the two August 1944 air raids
with historic downtown of Königsberg.
Prof.Bruno Schumacher, letzter Direktor des Friedrichs-Kollegs.
Friedrichs-Kollegium, Click hier
Wikipedia
In winter I take the Elektrische. Weekends I go by Kleinbahn from Königstor home to Powarben, passing Kalthof, Devau, Mandeln, Neuhausen-Tiergarten, Prawten, Konradswalde, Molsehnen. Train ride takes 90 minutes. Sometimes I go by "Grossbahn" from Nordbahnhof via Maraunenhof, Quednau, Kleinheide to Trausitten or Konradswalde where our Kutscher Zink or Reuter and horse carriage ("Parkwagen") or sled picks me up at the Bahnhof.One winter evening, the sled skids over on icy road near Görken, burying us under Fuss-Sack,luggage.
** 1941
Transfer to Walter and Helene Albutat in Pension(room and board) at Wilhelmstr.3a, eastern part of Königsberg. This new Pension is located between gymnasium Friedrichs-Kollegium raid "sirene" on their roof top. Herr Albutat works as a clerk for Haffuferbahn. Daughter Ursula Albutat attends Albertus-University (studying Jura) and tutors me in Latin,Greek when necessary (It is!). . So far the war has hardly affected us here in East Prussia. It is Jan's 6th birthday.
** 1942
October 5: Brother Otto Goertz killed in Russia. His birthday: 25 April 1923.
My parents decide that I daily commute to school from Powarben. Although Königsberg has not been hit by air raids, this may change. I take the daily bus from Königstor (driver is Herr Wolf from Postnicken) rather than the Kleinbahn because bus takes only 30 minutes each way, passing air port Devau, Mandeln, Neuhausen-Tiergarten, Trausitten, Knöppelsdorf, Görken.
Now I have to attend Jungvolk Dienst at Tarpienen school yard each Saturday.
** 1943
January 11.Brother Günther Goertz killed in Russia.His birthday: 14 August 1920.
In the spring I go to Elbing on weekends for baptismal instruction with Pastor Lic.theol.Emil Händiges (who married my parents in 1927).
On April 18 I am baptised in the Elbing Mennonite church. I never found out why my parents did not associate with the closer Königsberg Mennonite church.
** 1944
February 7. Brother Fritz Goertz killed in Russia. His birthday: 7 June 1916.
I spend summer vacation in Eichmedien, and find Wehrmacht, antiaircraft units combat ready there. While cultivating ("egge") on a field with two horses, I notice a plane overhead and antiaircraft guns shooting. Little clouds of bursts puff at the sky close to the plane. Seconds later shrapnels hiss down and thud the ground around me throwing up dust: The war is edging up on us. I am 15 now.
July: I get my letter of conscription for antiaircraft duty (Heimatflak as LH - Luftwaffenhelfer, some feel "last hope" for Germany.)
July 20. Attempt on Hitler's life fails at Wolfsschanze, a few miles from us Eichmedien near Rastenburg. Many are depressed by failure and the approaching furies of war. Partisanen (guerilla) activities in East Prussian forests around Eichmedien. Unit moves to Heide-Maulen, 4.schwere Flakabteilung 217.Flak training with 88mm-guns I train as vertical angle(Höhe) gun operator, follow indicator direction on automatic dial. Luftpostnummer L50661, Luftgau Postamt Königsberg.
August 26: British airforce attacks Königsberg at night with 200 planes, violating Swedish neutrality. I assist by carrying flak ammunition. Our training has just begun, we are not ready for flak combat yet. Our flak unit gets credit for 2.5 planes shot down. Residential targets hit, sparing military barracks. About 200000 Königsbergers lose home and property. City, Friedrichs-Kollegium (with my Zeichenkasten), historic buildings, churches burn out and are in ruins.
August 29: I spend Wochenendurlaub (weekend furlough) in Powarben. British attack again with 600 planes, residential targets only. We watch 20 km away, helplessly.
Adalbert Goertz, Flakhelfer LH, 1944.August-December.We get flak training. Our unit at Heide-Maulen (a few miles southwest of Königsberg near Frisches Haff lagoon) has 6 flak guns placed in hexagonal position which gets firing instruction over head phones. We have regular gymnasium classes with our teachers, interrupted by occasional air alarms (genuine or drills). Our six flak guns are named Anton-Berta-Caesar-Dora-Emil-Friedrich.
On December 3, 1944 I turn 16 years of age.
** 1945
January 11. I start taking notes of daily events in my old pocket calendar. My last home Urlaub (furlough) begins. I take the Kleinbahn and go to Powarben. Since my parents are in Eichmedien, they call and want me to join them there.
January 13: I take the Kleinbahn train for Königsberg and Rastenburg and Eichmedien.
January 15: Fafank calls from Powarben that Oma Johanne Schukat is dead.
January 16: We all leave for Powarben. The family is together.
January 19: Oma Schukat is buried at the Schaaken Evangelisch church cemetery.
January 21: Onkel Siegfried and Tante Inge Schukat,Tante Ella depart west.
January 22: Tante Anna Schukat and Bibi try to get train to Schwetz, fail.
January 25: (Cf.General Otto Lasch:So fiel Königsberg,München 1959,maps,photos)
All roads are congested with refugees from the East on their wagon treks. All our stables and barns are full of refugee horses and families. All our rooms are full of refugees and Wehrmacht officers resting. The Russian front draws closer with guns rumbling and smoke signs on the horizon. Powarben prepares for the inevitable: Leaving home. We wait for the official signal of departure from the NS party which never comes. They have fled themselves and failed to give us the phone call.Since my Urlaub(furlough) ends on January 26, I decide to take the Kleinbahn at 6 p.m.,the last ever. I take my photo album (which I lost in Mecklenburg),6x9 box camera,say goodbye. The last Kleinbahn takes me from Powarben to Königsberg. Train passes roads congested with horse-drawn wagon treks which cannot move in the snow.
Refugees everywhere.
The Red Army is coming.
Hardly any Wehrmacht vehicles. No private motor vehicles allowed. No gas for them. I am relieved that I am able to bypass this misery so quickly to the safe haven of Königsberg which braces herself to be a fortress in ruins. I decide to spend the night at Herbartstr.1, with Frau Wullich, mother of Klaus. She is delighted to see me, asks about her Klaus. I have to tell her that I have not seen him for two weeks, may see him tomorrow.
January 26. Furlough ends today. I return to Flak unit at Heide-Maulen. Atmosphere is tense. I am told that Russians have sent low flying planes. There is a real threat of being cut off from Königsberg.
January 29: Stellungswechsel (site change) of one third of battery ordered to Waldgarten, Northwestern suburb of Königsberg after dusk. This inludes me, but not Klaus, and Flak guns Anton, Berta ,Emil. Flak guns Caesar, Dora and Friedrich as well as the FuMG (Funkmessgerät) radar unit remain on site in Heide-Maulen.
January 30:Inactive day at Waldgarten. We stay at private house whose owners have fled. Only Berta,Emil got out, Anton lost somewhere in the blizzard. Sgt.Wachtmeister Prutsch takes off to Ponarth to locate Anton, orders me to stay with Berta, Emil.
February 1: Russian tank threat at Ratshof-Waldgarten, no flak gun ready for combat since they all are dismounted at the road side.Liebe hit by bullet from low flying Russian plane. I attempt to follow Sgt.Prutsch to locate Anton and deliver message that food supply is low. I am handed food supplies at the stock exchange building and am told to walk back to Waldgarten. It is dusk. I am dead tired. I take (organisiere) an abandoned kiddy sled from the road side, load supplies. I know I cannot walk back that night. What to do?
** 1945
February 1:I decide to digress to Frau Wullich for a good night's sleep. She is so glad to see me. What can I tell her about Klaus? Where is he? I tell her that we got separated when changing sites, that he stayed behind, that the Russians cut them off from Königsberg. The hot bath is heaven.
February 2: A sunny cool day, I load my sled with the supplies and pull it past Nordbahnhof, see hanged soldiers labeled Verräter (traitor). I am glad that they did not find me that night at Frau Wullich, I could have been a Verräter myself, during those crazy times. They are glad at Berta-Emil in Waldgarten to see me and the food supplies.
February 3: Bibi's 15th birthday. Was she and the rest of the family able to leave Powarben safely? Where would they all be? No point in brooding over it. Days are quiet except for occasional low plane and artillery attacks. You hear it coming and fall flat on your belly to hide, a humbling experience.
February 6: Rumor has it that the rest of cutoff battery walked across ice of Frische Haff to Pillau harbor, leaving flak and equipment behind without a shot. Later I learn from Klaus that this was true. The flak unit chief, a Königsberg butcher, to be court-martialed for this, commits suicide. He pulls a hand granade, clings to it,was a fine gentleman whose decision to withdraw saves the life of Klaus and the other boys that we are.
February 7 - 18. Again Stellungswechsel (site change) ordered for Berta and Emil. We move to city dump South of Hauptbahnhof. There the rest of various flak units are combined to a new unit 4./644 (o.v.) gemischte. Days are generally quiet, sunny, cold. Western front at Ponarth calm. Rumor has it that own troops have freed Heide-Maulen, old site of battery.
February 18: All Kanoniere born 1928 transferred to Waisenhaus at Sackheimer Tor (Onkel Siegfried's former orphan school, he tells me later).
February 20 - 22, Königsberg firmly under siege now. Panzerfaust (bazooka) training. We march to harbor through downtown rubble past the Royal Castle ruins, embark civilian refugees into barges which are to go down the Pregel river under the protection of night. They are mostly women and children, no males allowed on board. Pregel river is the only escape route to Baltic Sea now.
February 23: Movie "Es fing so harmlos an", starring Johannes Heesters, Theo Lingen. Just the right comedy show that we need now.
Febrary 24: Night furlough with Frau Wullich. I cannot tell much about Klaus.
February 26 Night furlough with Frau Wullich. Goodbye next morning.
February 28.We march to harbor through downtown in rubble,pass castle ruin and embark ourselves, 1928 year boys with other refugee civilians on a coal boat KOHOLYT. We leave Königsberg harbor after dark, see artillery shells hit the ice of Frisches Haff, too far to be dangerous. We pass Pillau harbor into Danziger Bucht (Bay of Danzig) of Baltic Sea.
Dr.Bruno Schumacher, last director of our Friedrichs-Kollegium school, on board.
March 2-11:We arrive and disembark at Gotenhafen harbor(Gdynia), are placed at Schule 7, Albert-Forster-Str.108b, Gotenhafen. We help disembark Königsberg refugees. I write postcard to Tante Lieschen Meyer (Papa's sister) to tell that I am safe and alive, giving my address. Boy commits suicide in bunk bed.
** 1945
March 9: Tante Lieschen shows up at school, embraces me. I am surprised that she is able to find me in this Völkergewirr (turmoil). She gives news that family made it from Powarben through Gotenhafen, heading west for Pommern and the Reich. Papa, however, had to remain.We never see him again.
March 11: Tante Lieschen returns from Langfuhr, brings good food, Eingemachtes from Schwetz (Kreis Graudenz). Will we ever see our beloved Schwetz again?
March 11-15: We embark from Gotenhafen on a Lazarettschiff (hospital ship) loaded with wounded from the Kurland front and with civilian refugees. The Geleitzug (convoy) passes the Pommern coast line. We observe a battle ship pounding the coast. We assist the wounded lying on the floor on straw. I am assigned to a young lieutenant who lost his two legs. He asks me to shift him over from left to right. I lift him under his back as gently as I can between my legs, but he cries in pain to let him go again. We wait in the fog for hours suspecting submarines to be in the area. Rumor has it that we are headed for Denmark.
March 15. We anchor off Swinemünde in anticipation. In the afternoon our 1928 group disembarks to small boats which take us across the Stettiner Haff to a train which leaves for Anklam.
March 16: Demmin.
March 17: Malchin, Güstrow.
March 18-23: We arrive at Parchim as "guests" in a WE-boot camp (Wehrertüchtigungslager). SS people try to persuade us to join the WaffenSS, but find no takers.The rest gets order to join the RAD at Neustadt-Glewe on March 30 (Reichsarbeitsdienst). (see Hans-Dietrich Nicolaisen:Die Flakhelfer, Frankfurt 1985,p.210-212). The RAD was established in 1935 to combat unemployment, similar to the CCC in the USA.
March 24-28: We get one week of furlough. I ask for ticket to Wittenberg-Lutherstadt (Onkel Siegfried Schukat) hoping to find Mama and family since she had planned to find refuge there, if the Russians invade. I arrive, but they have no word from Mama or on her whereabouts. I get sick after these exhausting weeks, but am ok otherwise. We observe many enemy bomber planes overhead (Fliegeralarm) which pass and leave on the route to Dresden(?) or Leipzig(?).
March 29: At 18:15 the train leaves Wittenberg for Jüterbog. I arrive on March 30, 18:00 at Neustadt-Glewe. Address:Arbeitsmann(AM) Adalbert Goertz, RAD Abt.7/62, Neustadt-Glewe, Wehrmachts-Einsatz.
March 31: Boot training camp under Oberfeldmeister Yost, Haupttruppführer Lessing, Vormann Landgraf, Feldmeister Alisch. Mama's 45th birthday.
April 6: Königsberg surrenders according to Wehrmachtsbericht.
April 12: 50 men (boys?) are trained for possible combat.Ofm.Zimmermann.
April 17: Onkel Siegfried Schukat,birthday. I wrote him on the 13th.
April 18: New Abteilungs-Führer Oberfeldmeister Kaulisch.
April 19: Spitfire planes show up over camp. We must look like prisoners in our light-colored Drillich outfits from above. They circle and depart without firing a shot.
April 20: We practise sharpshooting on targets with Karabiner 98K.
April 22: Russians at the outer fortress belt of Berlin (Wehrmachtsbericht).
April 27: Abteilung gets order to leave Neustadt. We leave at dusk. Forest.
April 28: Stern-Buchholz. We move at night through woods, sleep during days.
April 29: Schwerin-Grevesmühlen. We carry German,French,Italian rifles.
April 30: Arrive at Grevesmühlen,RAD-Lager. Each one has 2 bullets to spare.
May 2: March on at night through forests to Schlutup.
May 3: Arrive at Eutin, Beutinerhof. Rest in barn.
** 1945
May 4: Tommy is in Eutin. We are discharged, throw rifles into hof pond. We try to find civilian clothing, get rid of RAD uniforms. Everybody for and on his own now. We wait for British to claim us. We play low profile, stay and hide in hof barn. Someone has battery radio to keep in touch with world outside hof barn. Most boys leave, if they know where to go to friends or relatives. We East Prussians have no place to go home to.
May 8: VE day. War is over, at least on paper. Ask for farm job at Beutiner Hof. We are six of us who decide to stay here. This is Germany's hour zero.
May 14: Brother Peter's birthday. I wonder where he may be now.
May 20: Claus "Piexer" Grabowski's birthday.
June 28: I fall from ladder picking apples, break left ankle. End up in Kreiskrankenhaus Eutin, hospital. Like Schwester Ursel there.
July 2:"Nurmi" contacts Flüchtlings-Zentrale Lübeck, no trace of relatives.
July 4:"Nurmi" fractures upper thigh, ends up in hosptital,too.
July 20: Papa's birthday today. Where may he be? I dont know yet that he is dead.
July 25: Discharged from Kreiskrankenhaus Eutin. It was like vacation.
August 21: Japan surrenders. We all watch weekly movies. I note movie titles in my diary.
September 6: Klaus' birthday. Where might he be now?
October 29: Hundertmark's birthday.
November 5: Exciting letter arrives from Willi Grohnert,Lübeck: He writes, "Trek left Powarben Jan.26,16:00.Konradswalde burned by Russians. Families on wagon trek were Jüsche, Gehrau, Zink, Springer, Ehlert, Wagner, Rauschning, Petersen, Samland, Grohnert,Geduhn,Dunker,Alex,Schedwill,Franz(last seen by Hirsig at Hela),Ölsner,Wiese,Münsterberg. Russians were 3km from Powarben. No HKL (Hauptkampflinie) front line. Wehrmacht retreating.All Powarben residents are able to leave. Trek goes via Trömpau, Schaaken, Powunden, Rudau, Grünhoff, towards Thierenberg,Germau. Russians surprise trek in Tenkitten near Germau at night of Febr.12,1945. Trek is plundered by Russians. Horses taken away. Stay 24 hours among Russians. Each one has to surrender jewelry and watches. German counter offensive on Febr.15. Russians return old horses, tell them to go home to Powarben. Trek continues to Gr.Thierenberg,Heiligen-Kreuz, Rauschen. Papa ordered to join Volkssturm in Rauschen. Mama finds our attorney (Rechtsanwalt) Kröhnert. Trek continues to Nodems near Palmnicken, spends 12 weeks resting in Samland. All belongings are gone from trek, plundered." Mama, I conclude, must have continued to Gotenhafen with family where Tante Lieschen Meyer in Danzig visits them on route to Pommern (see March 9,1945). From Mama's memoir book (written 1979), I get a different sequence of events: Trek goes via Schaaken, Grünhoff to Rauschen. Russians catch up with them at Lengniethen or Laugnicken(she writes:Lengnicken), probably on February 1,1945. She accompanies Papa to Rauschen where he has to join the Memeler Volkssturm (a paramilitary last guard)on February 7, 1945 with my village teacher Moslener of Molsehnen. She leaves trek, takes train to Neukuhren, gets boat UNDINE to Pillau, gets a freighter to Gotenhafen where they all land on February 11,1945. Wilhelm Storost-Vydunas (1868-1953), a friend of my grandfather Julius Schukat and Lithuanian savant from Tilsit has been staying with us in Powarben since 1944 and joins our family as a refugee. He is particularly helpful in talking to the invading Russians as they attempt to look out for girls whom they may want to abuse.
Student Years in West Germany
** 1946
January 25: Receive letter from Mama via Onkel Siegfried Schukat.All are well. Address: 4 Arnsberg, Pommern, Post Sydow, Kreis Schlawe, bei Baumann.
January 30 - February 9: Kreiskrankenhaus Eutin.
March 10: Movie "Der Mann mit Grundsaätzen", starring Hans Söhnker.
March 15: First letter from Klaus Wullich, Stuttgart-S, Mohringer Str.95a.
March 17: Movie "Das Recht auf Liebe", starring Victor Stahl, Magda Schneider.
April 17: Onkel Siegfried "Siechel" Schukat's birthday.
May 27: Start another farm job at Gut Rachut.
June 3: Klaus Wullich visits me from Stuttgart.
July 6: Cable from Mama, Sylt island: Flüchtlingslager Rantum, Block I, Zimmer 78 (Former barracks). All are well.
September 25 - November 20: I work at Heimstätten-Bau GmbH, Malente,a building contractor. We commute daily to clear rubble in Kiel. There are lots of bricks to be recycled in Germany.
October 5: Interview with Pastor von Scheven,Malente, for possible acceptance at boarding school (Internat). He gives me Knaur's Lexikon A-Z, which will be my cherished companion during the forthcoming school years.
November 26: Strandallee 44 at Internat Timmendorfer Strand near Lübeck. Mama is able to place me in an Oberschule boarding school. For some reason I am much more eager to learn and pay attention in school now than I had been willing back home in the Friedrichs-Kollegium gymnasium at Königsberg, East Prussia.The hard times at Beutiner Hof on the farm with Rübenverziehen (sugar beet weeding) and Miststreuen (manure spreading) must have taught me something which nobody else before had been able to teach me by admonition and good words. At age 18 now, I decide that farming, brick recycling is not for me.
December 5: Letter from Tante Lieschen Meyer, Flüchtlingslager Hasselo per Veggerloese, Schwedenbaracke 60, Denmark.
** 1947
June 7 to 1950, February: Transfer to Oberschule St.Peter-Ording, another Lutheran boarding school, with Dieter Pütter, Kurt Knorr.
Outstanding teachers: Dr.Oskar Haffer(Biologie), StA Ruhle(Latin,Greek), Dr.Venzlaff(English,French), StA Dünnweber (Physik), Frl.Arndt (Erdkunde),StR Lohmann (Math),Dr.Hanna Link (Deutsch). This school and the periodical KOSMOS (Stuttgart) which I had subscribed to since 1946 stimulate my interest in the natural sciences. My steady companion:Knaur's one volume Lexikon A-Z from Pastor von Scheven.
** 1948
June: Currency reform. Over weekend money is declared void and nul. A new currency is issued, everybody receives 40 new deutsche mark (DM). All old money bills are worthless, savings accounts before 1940 get 20% of amount in new currency, the remaining 80% are lost. Only mortgages fare better. This results in change of economy: Black market disappears. Shops fill with merchandise, new money buys goods which before never seem to exist. Mama appeared to have seen this coming. Since her old money could not purchase anything, she got rid of it by having pictures taken of all of us in a Westerland/Sylt photo studio.
** 1950
February 11: Graduation (Abitur) in St.Peter-Ording.
Lehrerkollegium.
Stehend, v.l.n.r:Ewerts,Pauls,Lochmann,Ruhle,Dünnweber,Duggen;
Sitzend:Frl.Kandid,Frl.Möller,Dr.Ventzlaff,Dr.Oskar Haffer,??,Frl.Arndt.
Abiturklasse.
Stehend v.l.n.r.:J.v.Bonin, A.Goertz, P.Rudek, Pauly, Krüger;
Sitzend: Richter, Christa Faltin, G.Dose, Susanne Vogel, Dieter Pütter.
Spring, March 10 - August 9: After Abitur graduation, I take a job as Erzieher-tutor at the boarding school (Gr.Waisenhaus) in Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Bavaria, an orphanage for Oberschule students run by the Lutheran church. Besides tutoring, I study the bird and plant life of the Bavarian limestone Oberpfalz. An attempt to get a scholarship at Göttingen University fails. I remember the interview with Prof.Robert Pohl, the experimentalist. The Waisenhaus director is a jovial Lutheran Pfarrer Martin Grunwald from East Prussia whose fatherly table round at supper time we enjoy very much.
August 1950 - July 1951: Upland College, California: This is a new and overwhelming experience. Especially,the warm Christian atmosphere of the Brethren-in-Christ people is new and heart warming. Classified as a Junior, I study Human Anatomy & Physiology, American History, Internal Combustion Engines, Intermediate Piano, Sociology I,Spanish II;Entomology,Ornithology,Systematic Botany, Driver's Ed., Calculus and Adv.Engineering Math (at Chaffey College) and Missionary Radio (at Pacific Bible College,Azusa CA).
Christmas 1950 I spend at a Navajo mission near Farmington, New Mexico, summer 1951 on a farm near Abilene,Kansas. Favorite teacher is Ms.Anna Leatherman(biology,ornitholgy,entomology). I enjoy the field trips in Southern California with Austin Heise, Darrel Dawes.
Junior Student at Upland College, 1951
** 1951
August-October. Returned to Germany, I visit Mama at Rantum, Sylt island, and go to Frankfurt/Main to apply at Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe University as a physics student. To earn some money I work as a supply clerk with the US forces in the former IG-Farben complex. The reason for picking Frankfurt is that the Land of Hessen at this time is the sole Bundesland (run by a SPD government) who offers free university education to residents. Click to Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung A large city also offers better side jobs than a small town like Marburg. The location of a local Mennonite church and Mennonite Central Committee headquarters at Vogtstr.44 are also important factors of attraction.
On the Frankfurt University cf. Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität
Klaus Bethge, Horst Klein:"Physiker und Astronomen in Frankfurt",
herausgegeben im Auftrag des Fachbereichs Physik, Metzner-Verlag, ISBN 3-472-00031-7
Uni courses: 1. Fachsemester - winter 1951/52