Tag Archives: family history

Katharina’s Story: Chapter 9 – After the Air Raids – Summer’s End

I did not know at the time how dangerous it was to listen to the BBC… Kalthof. We are back, having moved in with Opa and Oma – August and Hedwig – after our apartment in Königsberg was destroyed. I am in fourth grade, again attending Falkschule as I did in the second grade whileContinue reading “Katharina’s Story: Chapter 9 – After the Air Raids – Summer’s End”

Katharina’s Story: Chapter 8 – The Bombing of Königsberg : August 1944

The noise was deafening. I covered my ears with my hands, but they were still ringing. Then I heard it again. The incredibly loud bang seemed to repeat itself again and again, a resounding echo under the bridge, finally fading away. Papa was talking to Mutti, but I could only see their lips moving. IContinue reading “Katharina’s Story: Chapter 8 – The Bombing of Königsberg : August 1944”

Katharina’s Story: Chapter 7 – A Child’s Wartime Christmas

In late 1942, Katharina’s family lived at Luisenallee, in Königsberg, and it was in this year that Walter Podack was conscripted into military service with Hitler’s German Army. Katharina, the eldest child and now nearly eight years old, knows only that Papa has gone to war. It happened matter-of-factly, like another day off to work,Continue reading “Katharina’s Story: Chapter 7 – A Child’s Wartime Christmas”

Katharina’s Story Chapter 6 Omi and Opi – the Eberhardts

Marie Eberhardt Katharina and I have been for a quick, brisk walk on this November morning, and now sit in warm comfort together on her plush burgundy sofa. She has a box of photos open on her lap. As she shares them with me, slowly extracting one after the other, she pauses for some timeContinue reading “Katharina’s Story Chapter 6 Omi and Opi – the Eberhardts”

Katharina’s Story – Chapter 5

Summer on the Baltic Sea It is an uncharacteristically hot day in October when I arrive at Katharina’s home in the Salt Lake Valley. Apropos to her industriousness, Katharina is preparing to make home-made ice cream in her old-fashioned ice cream churner. Already, she has whisked the sugar and eggs with the freshly-scraped vanilla beanContinue reading “Katharina’s Story – Chapter 5”

Chapter 4 — Mutti and Papa’s Early Years

Nora and Walter Nora’s plan was to become a teacher, instructing girls at a Lyceum (girls’ high school) in mathematics and physical education. She had already earned her teaching certificate at Albertus University in Königsberg but turned down an offer for a position in favor of accepting Walter’s marriage proposal. *** Katharina sits at herContinue reading “Chapter 4 — Mutti and Papa’s Early Years”

Chapter 3 – The Podack Women in Conflict

…Nora became familiar with her mother-in-law’s shape; sort of a hollowed back, wide hips, sloping shoulders and the forever corseted middle… Hedwig Clara Hedwig Packhäuser was born early in 1890, on a farm in Pravten, a rural village to the North and East of Königsberg, that capital of East Prussia. She was probably the second-bornContinue reading “Chapter 3 – The Podack Women in Conflict”

Katharina: Chapter 2 Königsberg, East Prussia

Founded in the 13th century by Teutonic Knights bringing Christianity to the “pagans,” Prussia was once a dominion reigned by kings. And with access to the Baltic Sea through the Frisches Haff, the ice-free port of Königsberg was important to the shipping trade of the region. It also held cultural significance as a town ofContinue reading “Katharina: Chapter 2 Königsberg, East Prussia”

The Story of Katharina

Introducing Katharina: a unique woman. In many ways, she lives inside me, because her story has become my story. We have known each other a lifetime, and together have uncovered each our own pathways of life. Sometimes together, that is, and sometimes very much apart. This process comes with the realization that I am thisContinue reading “The Story of Katharina”