CHAPTER 1
Book 1
My Parents and Childhood
As a child, I received a postcard-sized photo from somewhere of my mother in traditional Bavarian dress. Because of this, I know that she was a pretty woman and, like me, attached to her homeland.
I never knew my dear parents, so I could never know where I came from. I do not know what genes and diseases I could have inherited from my mother and father.
Unfortunately, my mother died of pneumonia when she was thirty-six. Oddly enough, her mother had also died at thirty-six, in 1913, while on the lake in Waging. My grandmother was born on December 31, 1876, in Eberting, part of the community of Friedolfing, and went to Waging in 1903, where she married Ludwig Hüttinger. In July 2004, I went to the Waging registry office and held the marriage certificate from May 29, 1903. The parents of my grandparents, my great-grandparents, were also listed on the certificate, Simon and Helene Strasser. Both were already dead by the time my grandmother married. When I calculate it, they were at least twenty years old at the birth of my grandmother in 1876, so I know that my family tree reaches back to 1850.
My mother gave word of her departure to Heufeld from Bad Aibling on February 2, 1927. (Because Heufeld was later combined with Bruckmühl, I still have not had an answer from the registry.) She married again after a divorce, changed her name to Diepold, and had more children. I managed to find that information out from neighbors and acquaintances. My foster mother searched for information for a year to no avail; she was never able to meet my mother herself. So far I have not been able to find out where she last lived and died.
My existence began when my mother gave birth. I saw the original birth certificate in Tittmoning.
My mother, Genofeva Strasser, was born in Tittmoning in house number seventy on January 26, 1896, at six in the afternoon. Hebamme Franziska Spitzauer was the witness.
An additional notice from February 21, 1896, in Tittmoning: After a statement from the kingly county court of Tittmoning on February 20, 1896, the protocol of the above court names and acknowledges the unwed elderly Bräuknecht Georg Schwangler of Watzing as father of the child known as Genofeva, together with the guardian Kammacher Konrad Bayer Jr.
There are a number of documents saying the same sort of thing. The records reveal that the mother of my mother, my grandmother, was also named Genoveva Strasser and was in service to Kammacher Konrad Bayer. My grandmother was born on December 31, 1876, in Ebering in Fridolfing.
My mother was employed by Peter Wildgruber, a shoemaker in Bernau who was named my godparent on August 9, 1919. In 1995 I went to Bernau and got to know Peter Wildgruber's daughter, and I asked her if she had found any information from the baptism. She told me that she didn't have any information. She only knew that her father was married in 1919. Peter Wildgruber was my mother's unofficial caregiver, and my mother was given lodging in Bernau.
My mother's husband, Mr. Eugen Steiert, was military. They married during the war, in 1916. They were living separately at that time. My mother was a waitress. Her home address was 24 Rosenheimer Street, Kolbermoor. She worked with quite a few people, and among them was probably my father. My whole life I have asked myself what kind of man he was. How did he look? She took the secret to her grave.
To understand that, one must understand the turbulent times back then. The time of my conception was fall, 1918. The First World War was lost and over. At the large railway junction in Rosenheim, many troops were being discharged, deloused, and disbanded between Kolbermoor and Rosenheim. There was a large marshaling yard with a repair shop called Sanierung. Over the years the area had developed a bad reputation because all kinds of vermin stayed there. Our parents warned us about the area, but we kids from the Karolinen levels sometimes made patrols of the area anyway, to see what was different about it. It was a gathering place for people who did not want to or could not pay rent. Some lived in arranged railway cars. Sometimes we found thrown-away or destroyed military weapons. After World War II, the area was built into an industrial park.
The regent prince was in flight before the revolution. The communist government council fought against the white freedom corps that wanted to save us from the communists. Many innocent people were stood up against the wall and shot. Most of the soldiers had no future or goals, and some were wounded. After my mother's husband, Eugen Steiert, was dismissed from his position as corporal, he needed to find a new path.
After my mother found out, to her horror, that she was pregnant, she tried to hide her situation. She continued her work as a waitress. This was, of course, done where no one knew her. Apparently she tried some extreme measures to get out of her situation. (A friendly dentist surmised this fifty years later in Bayreuth. The strong poison that should have ended the pregnancy deformed the roof of my mouth.) As an embryo, I had already had to fight for my life. After the secret abortion failed, she chose Bernau as the village for the secret birth.
(This year, 2005, I am going to investigate further why the town of Kolbermoor absorbed the cost of caring for me. I have a handwritten note dated 1921 in my possession, which states that the baker, Spiegel, took custody of me. There may also be records in Kolbermoor of the school costs and books that the community paid for.)
My Birth Certificate from Bernau on the Chiem Lake
Before the undersigned registrar appeared today the midwife Katharina Eggers, a resident of house number 80, Bernau, showed that a child was born on Friday, August 8, 1919, at four fifteen in the morning to the housekeeper Genoveva Steiert, born Strasser, wife to Rosenheim's living mechanic, Eugen Steiert, both of the Catholic religion and living in house 4½, Bernau. The child was male and was called Hermann.
The midwife, Katharina Eggers, was in attendance.
Representing the registrar
Engelländer 2.Mayor
Added on December 24, 1921
The following report is a message from the district court of Bad Aibling. The final verdict of the Traunstein district court on February 21, 1921, has determined that the child born Hermann Steiert on August 8, 1919, was an illegitimate child of Genoveva Steiert, born Strasser, and is therefore named Hermann Strasser.
Bernau, December 14, 1921
The Registrar
J. W. Engelländer
Just one day after my birth I was given the name Hermann. My godfather was the shoemaker Peter Wildgruber. I wonder where they got the name Hermann, such a rare name in Bavaria? Is that a reference to my father?
Later my foster mother, who I called Mama, tried to the best of her ability to shed some light onto my dark past. When she found out that my mother received 4,000 Reichsmarks in hush money, she was convinced that I must be descended from a famous person. At the time, a person could buy a house with 4,000 Reichsmarks. Whoever could spend that much money for the sake of his reputation must have been a politician or a famous person.
While she was investigating, Mama also found out that my mother asked that I be given to the mortuary woman right after I was born, a solitary woman who washed bodies and was shunned by the world. It was hard to tell by this that she had a foster child. My mother wanted to be relieved of me as soon as possible. There could have been worse possibilities for getting rid of me. From this I conclude that she must have been a good person.
My mother wanted to be relieved of me as soon as possible with the hope that she could still save her marriage with Eugen Steiert. After she got rid of me, she moved to an unknown place. Sometime later she must have had some remorse, because according to a document she later brought me to a Munich children's home. She had to pay 130 Reichsmarks per month there. At the time, that was a lot of money. At the time a person earned around 200 Reichsmarks in pay.
From Munich I was brought as a foster child to the large family of the carpenter Hageneder on 24 Rosenheim Street. I had my first memories of life there. This was where I got too little to eat and got sand. They were small discs with the taste of nuts. After Mrs. Hagender found out that her brother wasn't my father, she didn't want to have me anymore.
So the community of Kolbermoor gave me to another large family that lived in a house near a railway embankment. The wife got up in the early mornings and would deliver the newspapers, despite the fact that she had six children. The community paid 130 DM in foster money for me. I have one memory of that house: On St. Nicolas Day, holy St. Nicolas came with his servant, rattling chains, carrying a bag with the foot of a bad kid sticking out of it. The living room was full of kids; when he read our sins to us from a big book, I hid under the table. I was happy that he was gracious and gave every kid a gingerbread St. Nicolas cookie at the end. It turned out the kid in the sack was a scarecrow.
In the winter of 1923, my future foster mother found me at the railway embankment tobogganing. She told me later that I was half-naked, had lost a stocking, and had a strong cold. Snot ran down from my nose. That shocked her so much that she went right to the community to apply to be my foster mother. She didn't have any kids of her own, and she had a huge wish to have me as her child. When I came to the Warter family, I was four years old. It was 1923.
The Warters had married in 1919, the year I was born. Childless, they lived in a beautiful farmhouse on the Huberberg on the outskirts of the town of Kolbermoor. The house belonged to Papa's oldest brother; they had a two-room apartment with a balcony. We had a beautiful view of the mountains from the balcony. Papa's brother was a farmer and a brilliant innovator. He could carve and paint portraits and pictures, and he was a specialist at processing fruit trees. He was one of the first people who had shot at hail clouds with homemade rockets. He was very well-rounded.
After Mama brought me into the home, I was generally brought back to speed. In the bathtub I was scrubbed and deloused from head to toe; my hair was cut and combed in a pageboy style. After that I was dressed in knee pants, a sweater, long stockings, and new shoes. Mama was very relieved with my new look and took me to get photographed to record this new start in my life. (See photo.)
Mama's sixty-year-old mother, Grandmother Grabmeyer from Munich, was with the Warters. She came on holidays and important days to visit and always brought presents from the big city. Mama's youngest brother, Peter, a journeyman working as a carpenter, had traveled all over Germany by foot for work and had had many adventures. He told me a lot about it.
Papa had a good position in the Kolbermoor in the farming business of Meyer. He ran the carpentry shop there. It was a secure position, and he was never unemployed because of it. In his free time he built bee houses, bee boxes, and honeycombs. He loved his bees very much. We had two bee houses with forty-five types in no time. That meant a lot of work. I had to beat a stick on an empty watering can whenever the bees swarmed and gathered around the exit slits. The bees had to think that there was a storm so that they would all stay in the beehive. Unfortunately they always stung me when I did this.
Oma Grabmeyer
A memory: it's a couple of days before Christmas in 1923. This is the first Christmas party that I've completely retained in my memory. Grandmother is coming to visit and is bringing a suitcase full of presents. The whole house smells like cookies. A Christmas tree is standing undecorated on the balcony, waiting to be picked up by the Christ child. At some point I said that there was no Christ child. That was a problem. Claiming something like that is a sin, and if you don't believe, then nothing can be brought to you. Of course, that convinced me that it's better to believe and get a few things. Three school-aged daughters of Papa's brother were in the house; they told me that the Christ child would come directly to me this time. On Christmas Eve Mama's brother Peter came. It was a surprise. We hadn't heard anything from him in over a year. The tension was immense.
After we ate, someone tapped on the front door. I opened the doors, and the Christ child stood right in front of me as an angel. It wore white clothing and a glistening tiara and leaves. In the background were two more angels. This sight was so overwhelming that I became completely speechless. When the Christ child said to me, "I've heard that you don't believe in me," I couldn't say anything. I just stuttered, "But, but, but," nodding my head. My knees became completely weak.
It also should be mentioned that this was a time of inflation, and one could hardly buy anything due to the devaluation of money. Christmas was a royal gift and a big sacrifice for my foster parents. That was the first time I had the comforting feeling that they liked me. Also, the girls in the house had put me in their hearts and wanted to spoil me. I especially loved the pastries they brought me with difficulty. Out of love, Mama almost made only my favorite foods, which meant I often had a conflict, because I was invited to eat first with the girls. I couldn't say no to that. Then I went to eat with Mama. Because of that she soon named me "Dampfnudeln Michai." She offered me wonderful foods like pancakes-Schmarrn, dampfnudeln, rohrnudeln, apfelstrudel, etc. I had to be very hungry beforehand and then was in paradise.
Unfortunately due to inflation, the beautiful time did not last long. The money had no worth anymore, and many people had to limit themselves.
In 1925 unemployment climbed still higher. The political dispute became more aggressive. There would be fighting in the middle of the town. Kolbermoor was a purely industrial town. The main employer was the cotton factory AG, which was also imperiled by the vortex of the economic recession. Because of the density of the workforce, they were especially susceptible to the slogans of the communists.
The town of Kolbermoor was founded around a spinning factory in 1873. There was a canal built then from Bad Aibling to Rosenheim to provide electricity. The water was derived from the Mangfall. The wild Mangfall was cultivated, and Kolbermoor was built on the former floodplain. Around a thousand workers were requested from Upper Bavaria, Lower Bavaria, Tirol, and Italy for the construction, to build and do the excavation. In its time, it was the greatest building site in Bayern. The hundred-meter construction, with many apartments, is one of the most famous. It also owned the houses to the right and left of the Mangfall, the preschool, and a girls' and boys' schoolhouse, all built in a wilderness. Wilderness indeed, because the Mangfall went over the riverbanks twice a year and flooded large areas. When the riverbanks were raised and the path of the river was straightened, the overrun areas could dry.
Because there was no building machinery in that time, the excavators had only picks and shovels to work with. Many of the workers then settled in Kolbermoor. Later came a brickworks and a gate industry. Because of that, the citizens of Kolbermoor were more colorful and international.
Back to the Warter family: the living conditions got continually worse. The home of Papa's brother burned one night, and we had to be saved by the fire department with ladders. The community built a new adjacent apartment for us. Unfortunately, the rent was double the previous level. That meant more slimming down and more frugal economic activity. The community had at that point not yet built two large, eight-family Karolienen-height homes. Those buildings were meant for officials, teachers, and craftsmen.
A hill lay between Kolbermoor and Rosenheim; one had a wonderful view from there. The panorama went from the Tegernseet Mountains, Wendelstein, Wilder Kaiser, Heuberg, and Hochriess to the Kampen Wall. In the adjacent forest there was much wildlife, mostly deer and rabbits. From the window one could observe them grazing.
The new apartment had four rooms; the rent was unspeakably expensive. It exceeded the household budget. Therefore Mama determined to take on more foster children. The first were Franzl and Eugen Petzenhauser. Their mothers were sisters and had the children when they were unmarried. The children were in the way of their life plans and were therefore given into our care.
Franzl went to the public elementary school in Kolbermoor and then studied at the post office and became an offcial. He supervised the relay of assets of the circle Aibling and Rosenheim until his retirement. Eugen also went to the public elementary school in Kolbermoor and was a successful farmer in Weichselbaum, at Schonstett.
