Königsberg – a place where I am partially rooted in, where my mother and her siblings were born. I suppose it was sometime in the beginning of the 60s when a little tin, in which a few memorabilia of Königsberg were kept, arose my curiosity. The war had long been over an its tracks in East Brandenburg, where we were living in the meantime, covered. My grandparents did not like to talk about their former home very much. They had not yet overcome the trauma of the war, their home had been destroyed and was out of reach. It still hurt and I did not want to hurt them.
They accompanied me without any bitterness about it but with a lot of love through my childhood. Without them I would have become a different person. They are living on in my memory and a  granite block of stone should not be the only thing reminding of them.
In the summer of 1944 my grandmother and the children Gerhard, 14 years old, Anneliese and Doris, then 11 and 5 years old, had already left the city because the war was coming back. My grandfather was at the east front and it was probably due to him, anticipating that the front would not stop before Königsberg, that they left the city. Gerhard returned to Königsberg after the summer holidays. At the end of August 1944 he saw the city burning and survived. Miraculously the northern Roßgarten was spared.
Now in June 2003 as I write this, only Doris the pet of the family is available as a „source of information“. She was 4-5 years old when she experienced Königsberg, I was 9-10 when I first asked about it. So unfortunately it is not much what from you can get an idea of those days. But it is definitely worthwhile trying.
The Schlossteich played a recurring role in the memories of my grandparents. It attracted many people and especially the walk around the Schlossteich with the children enjoyed great popularity and was never boring. People could go boating, feed the ducks and swans and cool off in summer. The Cascades on the northern end always impressed the children. It is true that the Baltic sea was not far away but it still was a little journey by tram or bus and/or train. If you were living in the Kuplitzer Street 6a (map 1934, M-5) like my grandparents you had a water plot as it where. Only a few steps to the Hinterroßgarten, past the Städtische Krankenhaus (city hospital) and you were there already – hardly 200 meters to walk. If you kept to the left at the hospital and went along the Roßgarten you could reach the Oberteich with its public baths in just a few minutes. There at the northern end of the Roßgarten you could also find the Roßgärter Tor. So why heading for a place far away ... the water was warmer anyway. And in the winter? The same way, only you did not pack a swimsuit but ice skates.
People used to shop in „Tänzers Kolonialwaren“ (Tänzer's colonial goods). For many other errands they had to go to the centre of the city. The easiest way was by tram (line 1 to main station) when  you got on at Roßgarten.
A visit to the zoological gardens in Mittelhufen and the trees cut as round as a ball on the Schlossallee are still well-remembered.
Altogether you can imagine Königsberg as a green city, with a green environment. The Pregel with the island in the middle of the city, the Schlossteich and Oberteich round off the picture of an atmosphere worth living.
However Königsberg also always was a military post, which reflected in the enormous amount of barracks and the constant presence of military at the place. People however were used to it. In the very neighbourhood were the Roßgarten- Kronprinz- and Kurassier barracks This fact and even more the two nearby hospitals let the residents clearly feel the beginning of the war even though it went away at first.
At the end of August 1944 it stroke the city with catastrophic consequences. Like Dresden, Hamburg and Cologne Königsberg was razed to the ground by bomb attacks within two nights only. After the war the now Russian Kalingrad was not able and not supposed to remind of the ancient Königsberg. A historic rebuilding was not done and today's visitors can only guess what  Königsberg once looked like.

Let us now turn to the main characters of this story. 

Driving from Königsberg in the direction of Lablau/Tilsit by car or bus you came to Konradswalde after around 15 kilometres. This is the place where Anne Glaubach was born on the 15^th December 1903. We do not know much about her childhood and her parents. She had two younger siblings: Johanna (Hanne) and a brother. She worked in a local guest house where she met Georg Fehrke at the end of the 20s. Georg came from Königsberg where he was born on the 14^th October 1900. He did not have the best start in life. He was the result of an infidelity of a lady from a reputable house and was immediately given into a foster family. There he grew up with his younger stepbrother Ernst. By the time he got to know Anna he already had had a little daughter Hertha, whose mother had died aborning. The two took a fancy to each other and got closer. Very close. Anna became pregnant. On the 13^th February 1930 Gerhard saw the light of day. Not a desirable situation for Anna in those days. They got married in the same year and moved to Königsberg in the Kuplitzer Street 6a. From now on Anna solely cared for the children and Georg always knew how to provide for his family. He was reinforcement maker by profession but at the end of the 20s the building industry  was in decline. He had to eke out a living. Suddenly the number of persons he had to provide for had doubled. He found a job as a docker at the harbour – a job very much in demand as now and then somewhere a bag of coffee fell down and burst open or a box of tropical fruits. Anna did not have to go to Tänzer's shop very often anymore since Georg brought coffee, oranges and bananas. Things that otherwise people hardly could afford. They were doing well and Georg earned good money.
Georg's passion were animals. It seemed as if he could speak their tongue. I can remember many situations in the rural Brandenburg when grandpa was concerned with animals, as a shepherd for example. His favourites however were dogs. There were many dogs that bit and even such that would only let their owner come close – he opened the kennel and went in as if they were friends, what they were indeed as he came out again. It was unbelievable. Maybe somewhere else he would have become a dog whisperer.
Back to Königsberg: Finally Georg became a Schweizer (in those days a common name for someone who looks after and milks cows) on a nearby estate and there was sufficient milk for the children and from time to time a roast beef. In 1931, the 04^th March, Anneliese who destiny chose as my mother, was mentioned documentarily for the first time and after a longer rest Doris was born on 3^rd February 1939. All children were born between the 3^rd February and the 4^th March which again proves the special meaning of the merry month of May, of which obviously was made use.
The Fehrke family led a normal Königsbergian life, though they belonged to the ones who watched the political development in Germany during the 30s with great unease. Not later than 1939 the consequences of this development were noticeable first and most intensively in the far east of Germany.
Georg was called up for the armed forces in 1942. In Wilhelmshaven he got a training and spent the year 1943 in Vienna – he belonged to the reserve. In 1944 he finally was sent to the east front, near Krasnodar, where he soon was taken prisoner. Still he was quite lucky, as most members of the family. Only the younger brother of my grandmother, whose name I have not found out yet, died in the war.
The rest of the story is told quickly. Anna and the children got to Cunnersdorf in the summer of 1944, 30 km north of Dresden, where Doris still is living today. She became a pioneer conductor and worked in a textiles factory and finally had been in charge of the coordination of the cultural work of Großenhain and its environment, until she retired a few years ago. Gerhard got to the Volkssturm with his entire class at the age of 15 when Königsberg was attacked. He was one out of two who survived. He saw Russian tanks coming through the Roßgärter Tor, then a shell splinter hit his head. Comrades somehow dragged him to Pillau. From there he took the last ship to Denmark. After staying in different camps he went back to his family in the early summer of 1947 and  continued schooling in September. He studied metallurgy in Freiberg and belonged for many years to the management of the state combine for refining brown coal „Schwarze Pumpe“ in different positions. He died in 2001 yet before I started this project.
Their half sister Hertha early went to her uncle Ernst in Hamburg, who was the captain of a ship. She emigrated to the United States where her trace got lost in Chicago, for which however nobody has searched yet.
Anneliese chose a career in administration. Her road led her to the small village Dammendorf where she became the mayor in 1953 one of the youngest of the GDR. She stayed mayor until her death in 1986. In Dammendorf refugees were placed as well. One family of them the Pischels had come from Nieder Tillendorf in Schlesien and Horst, born in 1934 had put an eye on the pretty blonde from the north. I owe my existence to him, which began there in 1954.
Anna's sister Hanne lived in Nordhausen (Thuringia) after the war, which until now is all I know about her.

Anna and Georg. Georg had survived war and imprisonment as well and got to Cunnersdorf in 1947. His knowledge as a Schweizer was much in demand since first of all the supply with food had to be guaranteed. So the family was doing well even in the hard times, at least they did not have to suffer from hunger. The buildup of the Wismut AG and the opportunity to earn money connected with it, made him move to Thuringia in 1949. He achieved the Obersteiger. Anna and the children stayed in Saxony, since she and Georg did not want them to move around again. Thanks to the advancing brown coal industry in South Brandenburg especially in Lauchhammer, Georg had the chance to move closer to his family. The children in the meantime had began to stand on their own two feet. Anna and Georg moved to Lauchhammer as soon as the first houses in a new industrial housing estate had been finished. They had a nice little flat and Anna began to miss children around her.
Anneliese who was quite busy and did not yet have an appropriate housing, however, liked the idea of giving the little Harro in affectionate care, at least for a short period of time. It turned into six years in the end.
1961 in the year of my school enrolment, the families were reunited. A three generation household in Dammendorf with the advantage that the children, brother Rainer had become able to walk in the meantime, had the kindergarten at home.

I will always bear in mind that you were always there for me – thank you dear grandma, thank you dear grandpa.

These are the traces of a Königsbergian family.
Anna (15.12.1903 - 30.09.1986) und Georg Fehrke (14.10.1900 - 25.02.1987)
and their children

Anna and Georg would have liked to see their city again. They never learned what has become of it – except that after the war it was called Kaliningrad and was military prohibited zone. Maybe it is better this way, as in their memory it was a very beautiful city. 

Thank you Doris and dear aunt Gisela for your indispensable support. 

This is a biography that finally had to be written down and that is to be continued. There are still undeveloped sources and maybe contemporary witnesses or their descendants, whose stories could be connected with this story and can help to close gaps. Do not hesitate as time is running.

Harro Pischel, July 2003

Translated by my daughter Marlen in January 2007.