The German family

- Yg. 1932, No. 38 -

In autumn 1917 Krause was with a reserve regiment on the western front and was waiting longingly but with some certainty for an early vacation because he had signed, albeit with a heavy heart, two hundred marks war loan, the well-known "bulletproof paper". That killed two birds with one stone; first: vacation battered, second: made a secure reserve for the vocational training of his 13 year old son Karl. Old Krause, his father, was now sitting at home behind the stove, laboring from the ailments caused by age and the war diet. Sometimes, when it was too bad, he sought consolation at the thought that his son had received the EKII. But it was a weak one. Because, as I said, you were already in the autumn of 1917. The 13-year-old Karl, on the other hand, experienced at the same time the ever new miracle of patriotic commitment. His class and the teacher were used to “ensure food” on the estate of an East Elbian junker harvesting the potatoes, which the latter then mostly processed into schnapps and thus the most reliable means of driving national enthusiasm. Pastor Schulze went in and out of Krausen's house with a beautiful naturalness, revitalizing the flagging patriotic elasticity through forced hopes for heaven.

In the fall of 1918, Krausens was certain that on the one hand the sums invested in the well-known vendor-proof papers were as good as lost, on the other hand one still had strong hopes for the home, often ventilated in the trench, and could, if one wanted, to hear socialism clearly marching. In the house, Pastor Schulze still went out with a beautiful matter-of-factness and in the uncertainty of the days of upheaval pointed up with doubly justified seriousness. He had no objection to the Republic, since she was not there yet.

In the fall of 1925, Grandfather Krause, robbed of his savings in an exciting and radical way, dozed off between anger and renunciation towards his imminent end. Father Krause was busy making comparisons between the “thanks from the fatherland” and the pension cuts that we just mentioned. He got no further.

Karl, now a 21-year-old, had become politically alert and had now come to Adolf Hitler's movement, for which reason he baptized his infant Adolf, who had been begotten and born too early in view of the uncertain times. Pastor Schulze went out in the house and scolded in worthy subordinate clauses with increasing success on the Republic.

In the fall of 1930, Grandfather Krause died of old age and the injustice of the times. Father Krause indulged in bitter expressions about the "system" with which he was able to skillfully combine his indignation at the recent pension cuts. Karl was unemployed and began to dwell a little on Adolf Hitler's peckish dealings. His son Adolf, on the other hand, visibly shot up and showed not only righteous features but also those of unadulterated Aryan race. Pastor Schulze, lost in thought, painted swastikas on the table on each of his visits.

In the fall of 1932, Krause's father brooded over the apparently insoluble question of what a subsistence level actually was. He learned to recognize the degree of national renewal from the pace at which it was pushed down ever further. Karl saw how even liberal-minded citizens were promising themselves good from the jagged cut of the labor service, and on the spur of the moment he went to a labor camp. At the same time his son Adolf was found worthy of being accepted into the Hitler Youth; he was looking forward to soon being employed on some Junker's estate to “secure food”. Pastor Schulze swam naturally in Hitler's waters.

Autumn 1933: Krausens' poor burial, Karl receives an award for services on the labor front, Adolf is used in the potato harvest, Schulze holds field services. Parade marches, schnapps, enthusiasm for war, safe papers, vacation, home ownership, pension reduction, labor service, poor funeral ...

1932, 38 anonymous