Part 59: Bird Of Paradise In A Chemical Plant The sixth post-war summer had grown weary, and the great vacations were coming to an end. Curious and full of expectation, I set off for my new school.
Part 58: Traces Of The Past Finally, the tractor with the furniture truck drove up. There was not too much to pack. Mother and Hannchen climbed into the front of the trailer’s glass pulpit with a furniture carrier.
Part 57: Farewell To Country Life Now the time had finally come. Almost all the good friends had left the village long ago: the acquaintances from the theater group of the first hour, Joseph with his Silesian family and Hilde from Berlin.
Part 56: First Love And Broken Dreams A change had taken place in Ms. Opitz. Her brittleness gave way to warm-hearted care, without slackening her usual sense of duty.
Part 55: The Challenges Of Rural Football Despite the recommendations and advice from the central assembly, the development of a joyful socialist youth life proved to be extraordinarily difficult. Everything was lacking.
Part 54: A Stormy Bike Ride Through The Night The school year flowed by without any noteworthy events. In early summer, I occasionally treated myself to a few relaxing swimming lessons with a few classmates in the well-maintained municipal saltwater pool.
Part 53: The Birth Of A Musical Passion In the fifth year after the war, living conditions had improved somewhat. In the cities, too, no one had to starve anymore, but food rations on stamps were still very modest.
Part 52: The Affair With Odysseus When I proudly started the new school year on my bike at the beginning of September, the fruit tenant had already set up his stand at the point of the field path where he could keep an eye on as many trees as possible.
Part 51: A School Year Full Of Experiences I made good progress in class, but sometimes I had trouble with math. If I didn’t understand something, I ran to the dormitory with my classmates and did my homework there. In the community, I was able to close the gaps in my knowledge.
Part 50: A Daring Operation And A Brush With Death A few days later, when I came home from school, there was great excitement in the house. Änne lay in bed burning with fever. The children were crying and standing helplessly in front of their mother’s bedside. I suspected what had happened. Hilde had performed an abortion despite the considerable risk. Probably the fetus had …