A GIRL’S LIFE IN GERMANY BETWEEN TWO WORLD WARS

Hugo Ernst Kaeufer One Woman’s Exemplary Life Preface A woman has written down the story of her life, recalling it in old age not to become famous in literary circles, but to share herself with her grandsons while she still had time, to speak of her thoughts and actions during difficult years. She did well: before her death in 2003 she completed a report that reaches far beyond family boundaries, but which in many ways could serve as a vicarious biography of the whole generation of the sociologically and politically turbulent times between 1930 and 1960. The author, Anni Sperling, was born in 1924 in the mid-size city of Witten on the Ruhr River, the daughter of a railroad employee. Her surroundings were characterized by Catholicism where everything was somehow connected to St. Mary: St. Mary’s Kindergarten, St. Mary’s School, St. Mary’s Hospital, St. Mary’s Church. Her father was very strict – his life had been marked by the death of two wives and many other fateful experiences – therefore, he did not permit his daughter much freedom. The family lived in an apartment house where the walls had ears; and even as a child Anni was very aware of the many daily worries and hardships of a far from well-to-do family. With the perspective of age, the author paints a picture of a childhood and youth which falls short of childlike innocence and carefree youth. Her mother dies shortly after her birth and she finds herself in the care of her stepmother’s family in the small village of Holzhausen near Hoexter. Here she finds a real home. But by school-age she is returned to her father and step-mother in Witten, an unfamiliar town, to unfamiliar people who from now on are to be her family. The transfer from village to city, between a real home and the new habitation prove to be a traumatic burden. A Nazi lives in the same building who harasses his fellow residents with terrible threats: “I am going to destroy this black brood (Catholics) one of these days!” School days under the sign of the swastika are filled with clever slogans, endless parades and hypocritical attempts at egalitarianism. Then there is the barbaric war, instigated by the Nazis, which intrudes into families and cities when brothers are drafted and bombs start raining down on cities, including her hometown of Witten at the end of 1944 and the beginning of 1945. “Death was like a huge dark shadow across our generation.” Food rations and purchase vouchers for other necessities define life: there are permits for mourning clothes for the funeral of two brothers to exhibit “proud sorrow” at their “heroes’ deaths”. Once in a while there are breaks in this bleak existence with stays in the country where there is at least enough to eat. However, more and more time is spent in bunkers as air raids increase and life is overshadowed by the deaths of relatives and friends in the neighborhood. She experiences unspeakable grief when the father of her best friend, Anni Schmitz, is beaten to death by marauding Russian POWs after the arrival of the American troops. The post-war years are marked by physical and emotional hardships. The future looks uncertain and bleak. She is dismissed from the Volksbank (People’s Bank) in order to make room for returning soldiers. She finds new work in the offices of a construction company. She has to search for new living quarters. But most of all, her life is touched by the year-long uncertainty over her third brother’s fate. Then, finally, there is hope on the horizon when she meets her future husband, Siegmund Craemer, the “Bettelstudent” (beggarly student – after the opera the Student Prince), but here, too, she encounters family problems because she is Catholic and he is Protestant. In subsequent years they both work in the Palatinate as directors of a home for youths made homeless by the war. Despite difficult beginnings and with exemplary commitment they lead these youths into trades and careers, in short, life. After a new engagement in another home in Bad Duerkheim, she steadfastly and selflessly supports her husband in establishing a foundation for the “Support of Mentally Challenged Persons.” Today this organization is home to more than 500 people and workplace for more than 190 fellow employees. The above framework of remembrances can only hint at the multitude of life experiences, the ups and downs of daily trials and tribulations. The short chapters told in simple and engaging language fit together in a rich mosaic of biography and world events. “History from below (history from the bottom up)” depicts the exemplary life of a woman who walked an extraordinary path. Her story should be made available to a greater public than just an intimate circle of readers. Students, for instance, could study the events of those times and perhaps learn to understand them better. Many valuable photographs accompany the text. In many of the pictures of this autobiographical chronicle, I rediscovered my own childhood and youth in the cities of Annen and Witten.