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  My name is Gerhard Walter. I was born 15 October 1929 in Stuttgart .

My parents came from Russia to Stuttgart six years before. My father was born in the Ukraine in a small village Waldorf, close to the peninsula Crimea , and as a consequence of the revolution, they fled from Russia during the civil war. The three-year adventurous escape succeeded, he arrived in Germany healthy and lucky.

My mother was actually originated from East Prussia . At the beginning of the First World War, the Russians occupied East Prussia and my mother's family got into their hands. My grandfather was arrested .The grandmother with seven children was driven out of the house, shipped into a cattle truck, and brought into the Ural. This happened under the regime of the Tsar!

The torments of this odyssey took eight long years until the family, which the grandfather met again at the Red Cross, could return to Germany .

At a meeting, of the VDR (Association of the Russian-Germans) my parents became acquainted with each other and then got married in 1926. As the result of this combination, - me.

My personal resume is quickly told. I was educated very early to be independent and my parents had always worked despite high unemployment. I was a “key child,” as one today would say, “I am being cared for by someone's grandmother”.

I was liberally educated without the stereotypical beating. Normally, a stick to the hand was the best means of education.

I was good in learning and at the age of ten years, I advanced to further education. My parents had a minimal education, because in the German villages in Russia , the school children learned reading writing, and that was all. The school attendance was also in the winter, because of this; my parents were not so good at teaching me. Everything I had to gain by myself. Additionally, I had to work helping my parents, because they opened a restaurant in 1936 and had no time to take care of me. On the contrary, I was a small boy and had the support of them in their business.

The war destroyed everything, our house, the restaurant, the school (everything was demolished). It was amazing that my father came from captivity back home soon after the end of World War II

I continued the school up to the final examination and created in spite of the “dream note” in mathematics, a smooth five! A brother of my father was a veterinarian surgeon, and I wanted also to be in this profession, however, it must be at least three years waiting time up to the beginning of the study. Therefore I visited for one year hotel management school in Munich in order to be able to finance my further studies. Unfortunately, it was unsuccessful. We had a hotel in Stuttgart , unexpected, my mother became seriously ill and finally I came back into the family enterprise... My father died in 1969.Thereafter, I met my future wife in 1970. This is the best women I could ever hope for. We married in 1972, unfortunately, we haven't had children, but we have had such a lucky family life.

In 1994, in order to deal with the boringness of my retirement,

Until 1975 I was the only one of the family Walter here in Germany , but now the situation has changed. Now came more and more family members back home to Germany from Russia , to resettlement. They are well integrated here and I am very proud of them. In the first line for them I want to provide a history of our family with a “family tree”. I received by some lucky circumstances so much interesting materials and documents from the archives in Russia for my project, so that instead of a work of perhaps 40 pages it became a stately book with nearly 400 pages. I present it in this web- site. I am also proud of the fact that in the age of 70, I created it by self with only my own computer knowledge which allows me to manufacture this book without any help assistance to the printing level.

We created together with some like – minded people „the historical research association of the Germans from Russia registered association” in Nuremberg , under the leadership of Anton Bosch, a well-known researcher of the Russian-Germans history.

( www.HFDR.de )

Gerhard Walter

 

 

 © 2006 Gerhard Walter