In June 1948 my Mother immigrated to Canada, my brother who had already been in Canada 10 years had arranged her immigration. In July 1948 the inflation for West Germany had occurred. Over night all people were set equal. The old money currency was taken in and everyone was given 60 Deutschmark of new currency. It didn't matter if people had 1000 Marks, more or less or no money. Landowners and Factories had lost nothing. A few days before the change the stores were empty. The day after the change the stores were full of articles that were not available before. In February 1949 my sister and brother in-law immigrated also to Canada, my brother had arranged the trip. After they moved of the Henschel Works to Kassel and I became unemployed. In May of 1949 I got work in my trade in Frankfurt, I worked there for ½ a year, and wasn't able find an apartment and I also had problems at work. The locals didn't want any strangers and so I went back to Wanfried. I didn't find any work till April 1952 when we had finally decided to immigrate. My wife worked in a printing shop. I worked in February and March 1952 for a few weeks for a company and laid water line and did road construction. I put a lot of effort to find work at the Coop Association but had no success. I was told; if I could find 200 members I would be able to get a job. I had 400 members and still no job. So we decided it was time to immigrate.
In April 1952 we were permitted to immigrate, my sister and brother borrowed us the money for the trip to Canada. When we arrived in Canada we owed $1200.00 for our trip. On April 5, 1952 we left Wanfried, it was just Easter. In Bremen we had to go through all the formalities and controls as well as searches again. We had done all of this previously in October 1951 but our Immigration was delayed till April 1952. All the things, which we did have we sold before immigrating and we had said goodbye to our friends. Then we ventured the big trip into the unknown. In Bremen we were put on the ship Beaverbrae, it was Easter Saturday as we left Bremen. The trip took 11 days except for a few small incidents the trip went well over the ocean. Through the Armel Canal the Sea was calm, but as we came to Atlantic Ocean there was high sea. The children were seasick for 8 days and I was seasick for a couple of days. 2 days before we reached Canada we were pushing ice and we were all a little scared, but when we came into the golf of St. Laurence things had calmed down and we landed in the city of Quebec. We went through a control again and everything went well. Only a few boxes had broken which we were able to fix again after the check. We boarded the train; there were 900 passengers on the ship who were all organized according to their destination. We were going to
Beaverlodge,
the Northwest sector of Alberta where my sister lived. My Mother died before our arrival in November 1951. The train trip took 10 days. The train went from Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary, Edmonton and then
Beaverlodge.
On the trip we were astounded and amazed of the many forests and the huge trip we had made across Canada. We had wondered what was ahead of us.
In Beaverlodge my sister picked us up at the train station
and some people had welcomed us. Though one thing I immediately noticed there was no class distinction.
The next day people brought us food to eat. The doctor brought us potatoes and some others brought us meat.
My wife was somewhat disappointed of Canada. This is how I had imagined it; everything was very primitive in
Canada compared to Europe. We were never so poor in our lives, as in the beginning of our arrival to Canada.
We still had to pay the trips back and make a new beginning. I wasn't able to get work right away I had to wait
2 months before I got anything. My daughter was able to get a job working in the household of the doctors and my
son went to school in Beaverlodge.
He was placed in the grade 7, and after 2 months was put into grade 9. So he was able to learn English
quickly. My wife worked in the hospital in Beaverlodge and I was able to get work on a construction site
where we laid waterlines. We were able to rent a small house.
When we were finished laying the water line, the foreman asked me if I would like to go to Calgary with him, this was in September 1952. I went with two others to Calgary. The man who drove with us was from Beaverlodge. He had a car and it happened to be a model Ford 1927. We were able to drive only forty miles per hour and it took us 4 days before we arrived in Calgary. The first time we stopped in Grande Prairie, then Edmonton and Innisfal. Everywhere when we came to a town we stopped at the Beer Parlors. As we arrived to Carstairs we popped both front tires. Luckily a repair shop was close by where we could buy 2 new tires. We then arrived in Calgary during the evening, and the next day we started work in Strathmore where we laid some more waterlines. There I met a German fellow and we became friends. He worked for the same company. I associated myself with him because my English was not the best, and his English was good. As we were finished in Strathmore we were taken to Carstairs, where we also laid water lines.
Afterwards he was laid off. I gave him my address in Beaverlodge. He drove there and got a job with a farmer. I then was transferred from Carstairs to Penhold where we laid the water line. Penhold was a new town close to the airport. My daughter worked in Red Deer in the household for the doctor who had transferred from Beaverlodge. One week before Christmas we were finished in Penhold and I drove back to Beaverlodge, where we had our first Christmas in Canada. After Christmas I went and worked with my brother in a bush camp. I worked there as a cook for a few weeks. It was March when we were finished, and my brother went bankrupt with the bush camp. I worked 3 months for nothing. He wasn't able to pay me. I went back to Beaverlodge and was able to work for a man for a few weeks he picked me up from the house every day. We cleaned the pipeline at a gas station. After Easter I went with my friend to Edmonton who I meet in Strathmore. We went to Edmonton where we worked two months for a carpenter. One day we separated and were on different construction sites. I didn't write the address down where we were living and I couldn't speak English either. It took me quite a few hours before I found the spot where our room was; my friend was already waiting for me.
My brother got me a job at a sawmill in Dawson Creek BC. There I worked until the spring of 1954. We rented a house in Dawson Creek and moved from Beaverlodge. I liked it in Dawson Creek; there were many German people there. Though it was a mistake to go there because I didn't learn any English. I took a few correspondence courses in upholstery and got a diploma for it. We finally were able to pay off the rest of our trip. My wife worked cleaning homes and so we finally got a little ahead. My son went to high school in Dawson Creek. In March 1954 I was unemployed and was able to get unemployment insurance.
In April 1954 my daughter’s fiancée came to Dawson Creek and visited us. They took us to Red Deer, and had already rented us a suite. When we arrived in Red Deer the sign on the side of the road, read population 10,000. My son in-law and my daughter had some friends in Red Deer. They had helped us the first while, I was also unemployed here and we didn't even like it in Red Deer, even though the people in our house were very nice. I found work after 2 months as a carpenter's helper and was able to meet people, then after another 2 months I was able to get work at the Gas Company. I was laid off shortly before Christmas. In the spring of 1955 I got a job at the provincial training school. I was required to go to lectures, where I wasn't able to understand a word the first few years. My daughter also worked there until she got married. My son came from Dawson Creek to Red Deer. He went to grade 12 in Red Deer. I took English courses by night and was able to make headways that way; it helped me a lot. My wage at the Provincial Training School was very low, I got $150.00 a month and $25.00 bonus because we worked 7 days and got 1 off. My son also worked there in his school holidays. After 2 years we were able to get 1½ days off in the week and the wage increased to $200.00 per month. In 1957 we bought a house in Red Deer, the address is 4739 50 St. Red Deer. After working 6 years at the PTS I went to the Deer home, where I stayed until I was 65 years of age. It was April 1969 when I was pensioned and received old age pension. My son went to university for 4 years; he got his degree in Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering in May 1961, we were very proud of him. He got married in Winnipeg in 1964. My brother Max was visiting us at that time from Czechoslovakia. He was also at the wedding. We bought a car in 1962, and so we drove to Winnipeg. We had seen apart of this big beautiful country. My brother liked the trip as well. We went to the Rocky Mountains and after visited my sister in Beaverlodge where he stayed until his departure. In 1966 my daughter in-law was killed in an accident and we went to Winnipeg to her funeral. In the summer 1967 we took a trip to Jasper, Golden Revelstoke, Kamloops, Hope, Vancouver, Victoria and back via Penticton, Nelson, and Fairmont Hot Springs. Banff and Calgary and so we were able to see a part of this huge country.
In the summer of 1970 we were 4 ½ months in Europe. We were also in Czechoslovakia in our house, which was for us an unforgettable experience. We flew on the evening of June 16, 1970 and we were in continuous daylight. We went over Greenland, Ireland, England and then to Amsterdam, Holland and arrived at 12:00 our time. The weather was beautiful. At 1:30 we flew further with D airlines to Frankfurt, which took one hour before we arrived and there we stayed over night. We had some luggage put into storage, and then the next day we went with the bus to Wiesbaden, there we stayed 3 nights in a Hotel. We seen part of Wiesbaden and then I went to the Dresdener Bank. I had money in an account from my German old age pension, which I used for our trip. At 7:00 Saturday June 20 we took the train to Frankfurt, and then a taxi to the airport and flew to Prague with Lufthansa Airlines. We had to go through customs where we were required to exchange some money. My brother and his friend picked us up at the airport. We went via Thersienstadt to Stein Schonau, and we arrived in the afternoon. We stayed 20 days and seen many old places which we knew of. We were very disappointed over the condition of which the cities and towns were in. We were in Reichenberg and visited some old friends, and in or hometown in Nieder Preschkau. A lot had change. The houses and everything was run down. After coming back after 30 years the road to home was totally different, as we had remembered it. We were in Tetschen Bodenbach where everything seemed strange. On day we went with relatives to Heida Birgstein on the Hermits Rock and then drove after to Wansdorf. Then via Kreibiz and Hazel to my brother's house, it was a nice drive, which reminded me of my youth. On the July 10 we went to Bodenbach with the train and we had said goodbye to my brother and sister in-law and we had said "adieu" to our old home. We were kind of glad that we able to leave this country which was once so beautiful. It was once a beautiful part of the earth and we wanted to keep it the way we had remembered it in our youth. The condition it was in now wasn't even recognizable anymore. We were then able to see what the people of Czechoslovakia did, and how nice, it, once used to be at home.
We had no problems at the checkpoint boarder crossing. In Dresden we exchanged our money and then went on to Zwickau and after to Wertlau. There we visited a friend. On the trip we noticed, that around the houses and gardens everything was much greener and nicer. The areas were looked after much more than in Czechoslovakia. In East Germany nobody had bothered us, in the contrary people were very friendly. In Wertlau we arrived one day early, so we stayed in a Hotel, where there was a lot to be desired. The following day we looked for our friend in Wertlau and stayed a few days with him. We were required to register at the district office and to stay within a 30-km area. We then went to Neubukov, district Wismar, where my cousin was, we also stayed a week with her and were taken in with a welcome. We went with her to the East Sea. We were again required to register and inform the district office of our arrival and departure where I was starting to get disgusted. My cousin from Stralsund also visited us for a day and we were very happy to see him.
After 6 days we continued on and went to Bad Doberan and Herrnburg. There we were required to go through the border controls again, which went well. From there we went to Hamburg, and we went on a trip on the Europa Express to Frankfurt. We stayed 4 days in a Hotel, which was very clean comparing to the east block. After we visited Josef a brother of my wife in Massenheim. The next day we went to Hamm and wanted to visit another brother Adolf who wasn't home, but the nephew Erwin welcomed us. He drove us the next day to Wuppertal where we met our sister in-law Steffi. We then took a 2 month ticket for the Europa Express. We were then able to travel a through Western Europe, including boats on the Rhine River and all the lakes. In Wuppertal we stayed 2 days, a relative of my wife brought us back to the train station. We went back to Masssenheim. The next day we went to Bebera Hersfeld. We met a cousin and some friends from Fuellerdorfel and Nieder Preschkau. Everyone had welcomed us and all were happy to see us once again. After we went on to Rosenberg-Sulzbach where Ernl a niece of my wife lived. We had a nice stay, we stayed with her a week. Then we went to Munich and visited some other relatives, with them we went to Zillertal in Austria, there we met some relatives who were also on Holidays. On the return they showed us Munich and the Hofbrauhaus and the Olympic Place. After a week we went on to Innsbruck, we were in the Alps on a cogwheel train, and on our return we seen the Europa Bridge. In Innsbruck there were various churches and museums from Andreas Hofer. From Innsbruck we went on to Ramsbach where we visited friends of my brother Max.
After a few days we went to Italy over the Europa Pass to Venice. We had some nice days but the heat was unbearable. In Tyrol it was the opposite it was cool, and seen a lot. We went with a boat on the Adriatic Sea and decide to go also on a Gondola boat and didn't regret taking this trip. From Venice we went the Pisa. We first wanted to go to Rome but the heat was too much for us. We didn't like Pisa too much. We seen the leaning tower and then continued on to Genova and Monaco. Monte Carlo was very beautiful. We saw the harbor by night and the palace as well as the museums and aquariums. We also went into the Casinos where my wife liked watching the people gamble. We were one week in Monaco. From there we went to Milano where we stayed a night. We continued onto Bern and Zurich, which was a nice trip. In Zurich we stayed a few days and we went on Lake Zurich. Then on to Schaffhausen where we seen the Rhine Falls. We were in Konstanz on the Boden Lake where we took a boat trip. We then went to Ulm where we stayed for a few days. We climbed to the top of the Dome of Ulm and looked also at many museums. From there we went through the Schwabisch Alm to Freiburg Black Forest. The trip to Schwaben on the Donau River was nice. We went with the cable car on Feldberg, the highest mountain in the Black Forest. Also in Freiburg we saw many attractions. It was a nice relaxing spot and the people were very friendly. We then went back to Wiesbaden and the next day we went with the boat on the Rhine River to Konigswinter there we stayed over night and went on the next day to Frankfurt. There we took a Hotel room for a week and we arranged our return flight, where we had to wait 2 weeks till we could fly. We got our suitcase from my wife's brother in Massenheim. They were able to store it their place during our trip. The women where we rented our room drove us to Massenheim and picked us up again. We also visited 2 nieces of my wife, Edith and Margrit and also her sister Emma. We stayed with them for a week until our departure. We were able to se a part of Frankfurt.
With Trans World Airlines 755 jet we flew back. We had a long wait in London. Everywhere in the Airports we were checked for weapons and dynamite. From London we went to Philadelphia USA and there we went through customs. From there we went on to Pittsburgh. Our son, his wife and Joanne picked us up. We stayed with them for one week. Frank showed us many things around Pittsburgh and we went also to the Indian Caverns, which was very interesting. In October we continued on to Cleveland where we transferred and flew to Toronto where we had a long wait. We were glad to be in Canada again. That evening we arrived in Calgary at 9:00 and it was snowing a lot. The next day Alex, Max's brother and Erika drove us back to Red Deer. It was nice to go on the trip but it was nice to return home.
LIFES DESTINATION
Life brings many nice hours
But also the harm is not spared,
which encounters you
on all your paths and in every hour.
So don't forget the hours that have passed
and keep the nice times in your mind.
Then the destination in life will become easier.
Do without with what you do not have.
Then you will have luck with the bitterest moments
And after difficult sorrowed hours
life's hard burdens will become easier.
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