February

Hartmut:

I was born on a Tuesday 19 April 1932. My parents were very happy, and my dad was very proud that I was a boy. Then it was still regarded as something special, when the first-born child was a boy. Boys were supposed to carry on the family name and tradition. I was given the names Hartmut Fritz Ernst, the middle names after my father and grandfather as it was tradition in my family.

Mutti was happy too. She had an easy birth. I was born in the Martin-Luther  Krankenhaus in Berlin-Schmargendorf. On the day when Mutti was released from hospital, Vati picked her up. He had bought a beautiful grey pram, and it was my first journey across Berlin on a lovely late April spring day. The trees were all in flower, and the air was scented with the perfumes of spring, lilac and apple blossoms, tulips and jasmine. The birds were singing, blackbirds, starlings, sang their joyous songs and tended their nests.  

I was pampered and had a great time. Every four hours, Mutti fed me. I grew up on mother’s milk, and was weaned after one year. This was quite unusual then. Bottle-feeding was the vogue. 

I do not remember many things from those days. My earliest memory goes back when I might have been just a little over two years old. Mutti was pushing the pram towards home. Siegtraut, my little baby sister was inside the pram, I had a seat on top of the pram from where I could see the world. Why I remember this moment? I do not know. 

I also remember, that my parents frequently visited friends, And on these visits, in the evening, when I had become tired, I was put in a bed or in a pram, and I can still hear the distant voices in the room next door. It was such a peaceful atmosphere.