Growing Up, part 8

A German Youth

Grown up in Germany in the 1960s and 1970s

   While my mother was a true Nazi in every aspect of her life there was a counter movement among the leftist youth in post-war West Germany. They perceived the denazification as a failure and ineffective; former Nazi held posts in government and economy. Radicals regarded the conservative media as biased including all of the most influential mass-circulation tabloid newspapers. What started with a fire in a department store to protest against the Vietnam war developed into the 'Red Army Faction' (German: Rote Armee Fraktion), a far-left militant organisation founded in 1970. The Red Army Faction engaged in a series of bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, bank robberies and shoot-out with police over the course of  the following three decades.
   My family was opposed to anything else than political right, especially my mother was against anything foreign, even if it might be English or American, if it might be protests against any war, jeans, t-shirts, sneakers, long hair and even chewing gums were signs of the 'sinking moral' in Germany and strongly opposed.
   During my primary school school I did not much care about the political situation in Germany, did not know what is the difference between 'left' or 'right' and had no idea about terrorism. Until today I do not understand the logic of terrorism. Killing innocent people to justify your cause against the status quo? At that time I just tried to figure out how to come through the day and how to avoid to upset my mother and the severe consequences. My elder sisters of course had different opinions.
   My stepsister lived with us but was not really a part of the family. My mother tried to separate her 2nd husband and her daughter with her first husband, mostly successful. This sister had only a very basic school education and, like all of us, had a vocational education. This means that you have to learn on the job, part time in a company (to get working experience), part time in a trade, craft or technical school (to get an education). My stepsister made the mistake to learn 'Freight Forwarding Clerk' in the same transport company; she worked in the office and my father driving the truck.

Wedding photo of my step-sister

   It was also a time when I first-hand witnessed my mother's violent attempted to kill her by choking her with her bare hands while pushing her violently into the bathtub. The reason was an opened pack of cigarettes which my mother discovered in her bag. 
   Not surprisingly that much later she moved out. She invited us to her marriage which gave a very strange 'picture' of a family. A stepfather she had never close contact if any at all, a very violent mother, her own father who never had any contact to her at all and her four half-sisters and and half-brothers who still 'had' to stay in the family until they come of age.

(to be continued)