Family Stories

Work / Projects / Family Stories

With this work, I want to conserve the experiences and family stories of my grandparents' youth in the post-World War II era in Cologne, Germany. This area was heavily affected by the liberation of the allies and had to struggle with rebuilding the city. Despite these circumstances, my family was able to develop a positive future for my grandparents, but also for myself. For me, it is important that these stories, the tragedy, the hard, but also the beautiful moments won't be forgotten. Therefore, I asked my grandparents to write down their experiences. Both choose a different approach and focus on partly different timelines and parts of their lives. Based on their writings and photographs they provided to me, I created these to books for my family.

Erinnerungen

My grandfather focuses in his writings about the family setup he grew up in Cologne and how they were affected by the development of the war as the front line came closer and closer. These stories shed light on the social relationships that hold the society together in times of crisis, describe how schools and small grocery stores still fulfill their service, how the kids of the town play in abandoned battlefields left behind after the war and how the American troops liberated the small town he was to this time. A collection of experience of inestimable value during circumstances that are unthinkable today in modern Germany.

(65 Pages / A5 vertical)

Ursulas Geschichten

Unlike in my grandfather's book, "Ursulas Geschichten" themes the rebuild of normality and how she, as a young and optimistic lady, made her way through youth and young adulthood. Her work features stories of vacation with her best friend, life-lasting values such as the importance of a strong bond within the family, studying as a woman in the late 50s / early 60s while raising a child, and finally becoming a pharmacist. Definitely a fun and wholesome little book to read that leaves a lot of respect for her achievements in a back then heavily men-dominated world - even heavier than today.

(45 Pages / A5 horizontal)