Part 75: Long Shadows Of War The postwar admonition ‘Never again should a German pick up a rifle’ had long been smoke and mirrors. The danger was enormous that a mistake or a false alarm could turn all of Europe into an atomic desert in minutes.
Part 74: Balancing Responsibility With Musical Dreams With a completely furnished new apartment, a brand-new Trabant and a wife who had the household, child, and work under control, it was not difficult to be a caring husband.
Part 73: The Joys And Challenges Of Starting A Family In the summer of 1959, Marga and I went on our usual camping vacation, this time to the Schwielowsee near Potsdam.
Part 72: Lightness Came With Sputnik In the middle of this labor-intensive period, a steady beep sounded from space in October 1957 that made humanity sit up and take notice. Without prior notice, the Russians had launched the first satellite, Sputnik 1, into orbit.
Part 71: From Jawa To New Apartment In the first night we were shivering with cold, sleep was out of the question. But we were lucky. In the immediate vicinity, two workers were dismantling a children’s holiday camp.
Part 70: Adventures On Two Wheels Marga’s parents lived in the simplest of circumstances. A small house, a toilet in the yard, a pig in the barn, a few chickens, and a well-tended garden next door.
Part 69: Meeting My Future Wife A good year before that time, my little sister, unnoticed by me, had long since grown up, gotten married and was expecting a baby. Where was the young couple going to live?
Part 68: Weekend Rides With Weekend Mechanics The life of our classic cars was short. New post-war models livened up the streets. Suhl, a town world-famous for its hunting rifle production, had been producing small numbers of the touring AWO since 1950, and more recently a very shapely sporty model.
Part 67: Earning Notoriety On Two Wheels I could get along with my new work colleagues, but I was particularly attracted to one, who was called Gustl. He was a few years older than me.
Part 66: I Find My Own Way A good three years had passed since I spontaneously dropped out of school. I could be quite satisfied with my professional development. But my parents saw things differently.
