The first years of youth

Alexander, a boy from a middle-class background, was born in 1929. His father Karl, born on October 4, 1895 in Hamburg, was a handsome man with a proud bearing that made him appear taller than he actually was. His look was friendly and good-natured, and he wore a well-trimmed and well-groomed, narrow moustache above his broad, beautifully drawn lips. His light brown hair was parted on the left and combed flat to the right. His mother Dora, born on 01.02.1896, came from the countryside, from Buchholz in the district of Harburg. She spoke Low German, but was fluent in High German, which she first learned at school. Dora had a petite figure, dark, slightly wavy hair and was not particularly tall. As I could see from the photos of her, her facial expression was somewhat melancholy. Dora gave birth to her sons Malte and Alexander, her second son, on August 28, 1929 in Hamburg Harburg-Wilhelmsburg in the Maria Hilf clinic. Alexander was a boy who could already walk at the age of ten months, as his mother told him. She also told him again and again how they played tag together and how he could run under the living room table without hitting his head once, he was so small. He still remembered the games with his mother, but he must have been older then."Oh, I can still remember her laughing today, we had a lot of fun together," he told me. As a little boy, Alexander had great difficulty speaking. When he started at the age of two, he could barely get the words he wanted to say right. The first word that came out of his mouth was"tschasch", which is why he was nicknamed Tschaschi. He was called this by all his family membersduring his childhood and later by his friends too. Today he is no longer Tschaschi, but his speech impediment is still with him. I don't mean that he stutters or doesn't speak fluently. Rather, it shows how profoundly and persistently this speech impediment affects him. I just noticed that he is one of those people who easily lose the thread of a conversation when they are interrupted. Unfortunately, most people don't have the patience to listen and don't let these people finish. Especially when Alexander is nervous or excited, his speech impediments become apparent. He simply needs more time to express himself. In addition, he tends to speak quietly and softly. This makes it difficult for him to assert himself like others who have a resolute voice.

Father Karl, a dominant man, was a captain on a long voyage in 1931, which was the job title at the time, today we would say captain on merchant ships. These ships, on which he worked, sailed between Hamburg, Chile, Japan and Hamburg. His mother, Alexander and his brother Malte were often left to their own devices because of their father's job. Mother Dora had a lot of responsibility and work to do with the two boys. She was a very hard-working woman and had the household well under control. She was also largely responsible for their upbringing, which she managed extremely well. The boys were always admonished to be orderly, because what a boy doesn't learn, a boy never learns. They must become independent, my boys, she often said when father was at home . She sewed the two boys' clothes herself to save a bit of money here and