Ch 8-2 First an Engagement Then the Wedding

The Klemm family had the tavern and a prosperous farm ensuring them a good position in the community. But come hunting season their two sons (my father and his older brother Alfred) were used by the nobility as beaters to rouse the game birds out of the bush. It all sounds a bit Victorian-like, but this was Germany in the late 1920’s prior to Hitler coming to power. Onkle Alfred ended up with a bit of buckshot in the ass from a slightly out of aim, or likely drunk, hunter. They were country boys; they were not allowed to hunt, a privilege reserved solely for the aristocracy. It hasn’t changed much in present day Germany. Instead of aristocrats it’s wealthy industrialists, politicians and foreign dignitaries. They no longer use peasants for beaters; they use the game warden to drive deer to their nice stands. The game warden also has to check the stands so they don't get too drunk and fall out.

Redetzki's Celebrate 

In the summer of 1943 there was an engagement celebration at the Redetzki house. There are 2 photos of the celebration. The doorway is barely visible as the family presses in for a photo.  A chestnut tree is next to the house. Kaulitzki, the Burgermeister, attended the engagement celebration. They even hired a woman to do the cooking, Frau Alborzies, who lived down the road. Erna Schmakat, a work colleague, also came for the fete. My father plays with a little blonde girl; she is the out-of-wedlock daughter of a maid over at Brandt’s house. Peculiar is how much this child looks very much like me at that age. It’s uncanny, as if I’m seeing myself with my father standing there in uniform holding my hand, but it’s not me.

1943 Engagement

In another photo the young couple sits on Dad's motorcycle. The white stucco house is in the background, a fence and one window visible. These many years later this random photo captures the sense of the joy felt at that moment. Mom made the dress she wears of material Dad sent her from Riga, in Latvia, when his unit was there. He used to send packages home to his sister from places the troops went. Once he met my mother his sister knew he was serious about this girl when she no longer received fabric and chocolates from his various posts. She told my mother this on a visit to Groß Sodehnen. I try to picture him shopping and picking out fabric for the women in his life. It’s odd when I think how I always had to buy his gifts to her for birthday, anniversary and Christmas. He never wanted to go along and his standard gift suggestion was nightgown. It is a bit extraordinary to think of him shopping, as a soldier, but first a young man. It seems bizarre to think of soldiers moving through foreign countries and they would go shopping; so they are just moving thru, not at war and stores are open I’m sure they didn’t do much shopping once they were moving through Russia to Stalingrad.

There is a later photo of my mother and father on a bench in a park next to the Sudermann Memorial in Heydekrug. There she is, stretched long on the bench, with her head on her shoulder. As always, she is dressed very chic in a black and white stripped sweater. He is in full uniform. They gaze at each other with the eyes of those in love, fully enjoying the moment.

In all the photos I now notice how very fashion conscious mother was. As I think back on it, she really was always well dressed even in later years. It is just that mainly I saw her most often working in the house and garden dressed casually. Not until the 70’s is there a photo of her in pants – not counting a mid 50’s photo where she wears capris (a pair given her by Americans and remade to fit).  I look closely at the old photos and see platform shoes and two-toned shoes, items she purchased when visiting a cousin in Konigsberg or on a day trip to Memel, the two nearest big cities. As an adult I now appreciate just how fashionable she was. For years those people looked old-fashioned which was equated with ‘not stylish’; how could old stuff be stylish.

For the first time I realize this is a woman who takes pride in how she looks. As an immigrant in America that meant remaking clothes people gave her when there wasn’t money to buy anything. It elicited tart remarks from some American relations about those Germans getting new clothes (the implication being we paid their passage and look what they do).  Also she sewed all the clothing for her daughters, as that was the only way they could have new dresses Christmas and Easter. She earned money doing laundry for tenants in the apartment building we lived in. Nights she stayed up late to fashion herself a new garment for a special occasion while we watched television; my father had to keep calling her to come to bed. We missed telling her she looked nice nor did we realize how important it was to her to look good. 

Then all of a sudden, when she was in her 60’s she told us “I hate sewing and I don’t want to sew any more.”  She actually started buying her clothes and even went so far as to splurge on a Coach purse – I was amazed. But she looked great.

They married in early spring the year after their engagement. Somehow they managed to find a camera and even some film and took photos of their wedding. It was April 5, 1944. The photos are small, black and white with wavy edges. We see the couple, she in a wedding dress, he in uniform. There they stand on the dirt in front of that barn, where the year before they posed with the horse and their friends. Visible is the stucco wall of the house and a bit of roof edge. The stucco needs repair as large sections have fallen off. It was the end of the war, materials were scare. The trees in the background are bare and stark looking as it is early spring.  

Not long ago Ruth sent us a old photo of herself, Oma and Opa and some of their neighbors. Ruth still

Alborzies Anniversary

has contact with some of her school friends from back then, including one of the very few Germans that stayed in Heydekrug through the war’s aftermath to the current day. There in the group is Greta Alborzies with her very long pigtails. Behind her stands Frau Schull. Interesting story about Frau Schull - it was bad enough that she beat her own children but she also beat the Polish girl who worked for her. She beat her severely. Well, when the Russians came, the Polish girl had a good talk with them. Perhaps she knew Russian, or maybe they could speak Polish. They were told of the awful beatings she received at the hands of Frau Schull. The Russians beat Frau Schull to death.

Looking behind the Redetzki house, just before the stream, I see where they placed the electrical pole. It was a big event for them in 1939. Imagine workman coming in to place these tall poles across the fields and then stringing a wire between them to bring electricity. It was a milestone not easily forgotten and the placing of this pole provided an unexpected opportunity later for her family.The line weaves an erratic path across these fields maybe following old field boundaries. Those can’t possibly be the original posts? How could they have survived bombs and artillery of the invasion and all the ensuing chaos?

That electric post played an important role in the Redetzki family destiny. They befreinded one of the workers on the project who stayed in their house. His name was Troelsch and he came from Sachsen province near the Czechoslovakian border. His family back home faced food shortages so he appreciated the gifts of food Redetzkis made to him. People sensed the war might turn and things get harder. They were well aware of East Prussia's dangerous location in relation to Russia. Troelsch told them if they needed to leave they should look him up in Neumark. And six years later they did just that.