Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- Translator's Preface
- Dedication
- Black German
- White Mother, Black Father
- Our Roots in Cameroon
- My Father's Story
- The Human Menagerie
- School
- The Reichstag is Burning
- Circus Child
- The Death of My Father
- Berlin-Karlshorst
- Undesirable
- As an “Ethiopian” in Sweden
- On My Knees in Gratitude
- The Lord is My Shepherd
- The Nuremberg Laws
- War Begins
- Hotel Excelsior
- Munich
- Hotel Alhambra
- Cinecittà
- Münchhausen
- Thoughts Are Free
- Forced Laborer
- New Quarters
- Air Raid
- Fear, Nothing but Fear
- Aryans
- A Miracle
- Liberated! Liberated?
- The Russians
- Dosvidanya
- Victors and Non-Victors
- Mixed Feelings
- Lessons in Democracy
- Displaced Person
- A Fateful Meeting
- An Excursion
- A New Family
- Butzbach
- Disasters Big and Small
- A Job with the US Army
- A Meeting with Some “Countrymen”
- Show Business
- Reunion with My Brother and Sister
- Workless
- Theater
- Radio
- Television
- Hard Times
- In the Sanatorium
- A Poisoned Atmosphere
- An Opportunity at Last
- The Decolonization of Africa
- Studying in Paris
- A New Beginning
- The Afrika-Bulletin
- Terra Incognita
- African Relations
- In My Father's Homeland
- Officer of the Federal Intelligence Service
- A New Afro-German Community
- Experiences
- Light and Dark
- Homestory Deutschland
- A Journey to the (Still) GDR
- Back to the Theater
- Loss and Renewal
- Last Roles
- Reflecting on My Life
- Thanks
- Explanatory Notes
- Chronology of Historical Events
- Further Reading in English
Berlin-Karlshorst
from Black German
- Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- Translator's Preface
- Dedication
- Black German
- White Mother, Black Father
- Our Roots in Cameroon
- My Father's Story
- The Human Menagerie
- School
- The Reichstag is Burning
- Circus Child
- The Death of My Father
- Berlin-Karlshorst
- Undesirable
- As an “Ethiopian” in Sweden
- On My Knees in Gratitude
- The Lord is My Shepherd
- The Nuremberg Laws
- War Begins
- Hotel Excelsior
- Munich
- Hotel Alhambra
- Cinecittà
- Münchhausen
- Thoughts Are Free
- Forced Laborer
- New Quarters
- Air Raid
- Fear, Nothing but Fear
- Aryans
- A Miracle
- Liberated! Liberated?
- The Russians
- Dosvidanya
- Victors and Non-Victors
- Mixed Feelings
- Lessons in Democracy
- Displaced Person
- A Fateful Meeting
- An Excursion
- A New Family
- Butzbach
- Disasters Big and Small
- A Job with the US Army
- A Meeting with Some “Countrymen”
- Show Business
- Reunion with My Brother and Sister
- Workless
- Theater
- Radio
- Television
- Hard Times
- In the Sanatorium
- A Poisoned Atmosphere
- An Opportunity at Last
- The Decolonization of Africa
- Studying in Paris
- A New Beginning
- The Afrika-Bulletin
- Terra Incognita
- African Relations
- In My Father's Homeland
- Officer of the Federal Intelligence Service
- A New Afro-German Community
- Experiences
- Light and Dark
- Homestory Deutschland
- A Journey to the (Still) GDR
- Back to the Theater
- Loss and Renewal
- Last Roles
- Reflecting on My Life
- Thanks
- Explanatory Notes
- Chronology of Historical Events
- Further Reading in English
Summary
I was now nine years old. I was still reading everything I could get my hands on, even the reports and announcements in the Swiss newspapers about Germany – now calling itself “new” and “the Third Reich”. Most of the reports were critical or downright negative. Especially about the behavior of the assault squads of the SA, who were terrorizing their opponents. I now pictured my homeland Germany as a land of fear and horror. But when we returned to Germany in the autumn of 1934 at the end of our summer tour, my first impression was completely different. There was no more violence in the streets, no endless lines of people waiting at the State Employment Offices. I was utterly surprised: on the surface it was a peaceful new home, which at first seemed to me anything but hostile. Quiet and order prevailed. I would learn later that that was deceptive, and that in fact it was the quiet of the graveyard.
I would have loved to stay with the Knie Circus in friendly Switzerland, where I had made a lot of friends among the circus children and didn't have to go to school. But the ben Ahmeds wouldn't agree. They explained that the Youth Welfare Bureau wanted to see us back in one piece, and that there was nothing to be afraid of. Life in the new Germany was wonderful and everything would be fine.
And Berlin really did look transformed to me. The main reason for that was that we no longer lived in Prenzlauer Berg, but in the more respectable Karlshorst, deep in Berlin's southeastern suburbs.6 Land was being cleared for development there, and plots could be bought for low prices. The ben Ahmeds had seized the opportunity in 1931–32 and built themselves a villa that contained three apartments.
On the ground floor there lived Erich Walzer with his wife, Käthe; one of Aunt Martha's brothers, Erich worked for the National Bank and had been badly wounded in the First World War. At first their daughter lived there too, until she married and moved out.
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- Black GermanAn Afro-German Life in the Twentieth Century By Theodor Michael, pp. 41 - 44Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2017