village life

Every picture tells a story, season 3, picture 9:

During the second world war, young mother Ruth (the botanist we saw here) and her little boy moved in with her parents in Königsberg. When it became clear that the city might not be safe, she moved west to the village of Hahnenbach, where her aunt Johanna had built the house we've seen earlier. In fact, she made this move twice, first in July 1941, but soon after that her brother died and she was called back to help in her father's factory at Königsberg, gave birth to her daughter there, and then moved west again in August 1943. That back-and-forth doesn't change much of the story, as both moves were uneventful and in good time. Considerable amounts of furniture safely arrived in the west. Her aunt's health and alleged need of support served as an excuse, as fleeing East Prussia wasn't really allowed.

So from the city of Königsberg they arrived to village life, glimpses of which we see here:

That's Ruth walking behind the wagon with her son by her side, as he looks quite young still, this may have been as early as the autumn of 1943.

The Hahnenbach fire brigade conducting an exercise by the eponymous river.

And Old Lina (Carolina Weirich, 1871-1951), from the village inn run by several generations of her family (Weirich / Giloy). If I have my ducks lined up correctly, Lina was a second cousin of Ruth's mother and of her aunt Johanna, who came to the village because of this family connection.

Should anybody have any answers to some of the many questions I am raising in this series, please leave a comment here (I'll need to vet it, so it may take a few days before it goes public) or contact me at michaelgrr [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk

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Season 3 so far:

1. family holiday
2. play time
3. fashion show
4. bakery to butcher's shop
5. the Hamborn brotherhood
6. all grown up
7. sisters in the snow
8. the last holiday
9. village life

The Mastodon thread for season 3 is here.

You can find Season 2 entries in this thread on Mastodon (complete now!) or via the list at the bottom of the last entry of the season (and also at the bottom of the first entry of this season).

The twitter thread for season 1 is still here. Alternatively, visit the last instalment and find the numbered list of entries at the bottom.