1944 to 1960 - childhood and youth

From 1944 to 1960 - childhood and youth

On the 23rd of November 1943 my parents married.

My father as a soldier was posted to Gotha / Thuringia and my mother followed him in autumn 1944.

On the 8th of January 1945 I was born there.

When the Russian army invaded Gotha in summer 1945, my parents escaped. While my father was taken prisoner by the Americans, my mother reached her home town (Kamen, Westphalia) with me in August 1945.

My first event far from home (about 10 km) were some days at my grandparents' in Kamen (Northrhine-Westphalia, Germany), when I not yet went to school.

In 1951 I had my first day at school:

A couple of years later, in 1955, I needed a rest cure at the seaside.
I went to the Northsea island Juist by train for 6 weeks.
It was a wonderful time. I enjoyed it to be far from home!

In 1957 cycle tour and camping

It was during the summer holidays when my parents started a cycle tour with me.
We took a train from Bönen (Kreis Unna, Westphalia) to Nienburg / Weser.

From there we cycled about 20 km to a camping ground in Rethem / Aller.

The next day it rained but we had to go across the Lüneburger Heide (Lüneburg Heath) to Hamburg.

The night before we reached Hamburg we had an overnight stay on the camping ground in Heber (Kreis Soltau, Lower Saxony) in the middle of the heath.

The 4th, 5th and 6th night we spent on the camping ground in Hamburg-Stellingen near Hagenbeck's zoo (a famous one).

In the morning of the 7th day we started the return trip and in the afternoon we arrived at Verden / Aller.

There we spent the night on a boat of the youth hostel.

The next morning brought us a bad surprise - a neverending heavy rain.

So we took a train to return home.
Nevertheless I enjoyed this cycle tour with my parents.

In 1958 I participated in a school trip (outing).
We hiked across the Teutoburger Wald - 5 days from youth hostel to youth hostel.

The weather was fair to middling, but we had a lot of joy.

In 1959 I left school and started an apprenticeship in a restaurant to become a cook.

After 10 days I finished it, because I didn't like the 60 hours a week.

Then I decided to become a merchant.

In 1960 I took a train to Hansestadt Bremen in order to visit my female penfriend.
I had to take my younger brother with me, unfortunately.
We spent our nights in our tent on the camp ground in Bremen-Lankenau.

[Because of the expansion of the Bremen port this camp ground had to disappear.]

Weser (river)


2020-06-13