Writing

Walter Panknin (1898 – 1977) and His Family – Ch5 Part 10

/ Peter Klopp / 15 Comments

Early Childhood Education at Home

Biene contributed this post.

When we turned four years old, my father started teaching us on weekends.  He had a large world map, which covered a wall in his study. He introduced us to geography. We had to point to and name all the continents, major countries, capitals, rivers, mountain ranges and oceans.

We had to draw maps and were rewarded with pennies if they were accurate. Papa explained the solar system to us and allowed us to colour his beautiful pen drawings for the ballads he had written. At bedtime, he would read books of the great explorers and inventors of the past or other historical events.  I loved cuddling close to my father on the bench of the big tile stove and listen to the great stories of mankind. 

Hiking – From the left: little Walter, Gertrud (Biene), Walter and Elisabeth Panknin

I learned to read before I even went to school and have always been a voracious reader from then on. I was six years old when I read my first novel. My mom had the book sitting on her night table. It was a gift from my father, who loved historical novels. Whenever I had the opportunity. I secretly read this big book which intrigued me. It introduced me to an exciting world far beyond my years. To this day, it is my favourite novel. The author is Hervey Allen, and the title is “Anthony Adverse.”  It was translated into German. 

Elisabeth Panknin, the twins and their sister Elsbeth

Although religious practices were tolerated under the new regime, they were not being encouraged. My mother had been strictly brought up in the catholic faith by her guardians.  However, my father was protestant.  Shortly after our birth, even before my dad had a chance to meet us, she had us baptized in the protestant faith out of respect for my father. My mother was always a firm believer in the Christian faith and instilled this faith in me. For her, the differences among the various religious denominations were not of great importance. She believed in a personal relationship with God and salvation through Jesus Christ. She would always encourage us to pray and believe in the power of God’s love.

We were introduced to the word of God by an interdenominational Christian group that read bible stories to preschool children. They must have sown seeds falling on fertile ground. To this day, I have never lost my faith in the goodness and truth of God’s word and the miracle of Christ’s promise of salvation.

Natural Splendour of the Arrow Lakes

/ Peter Klopp / 14 Comments

Wednesday’s Photos

Experimental Video of a Fall Picture

Adding motion to a still picture is an effective way to add interest to your slide show. This is known as the Ken Burns effect and can be accomplished by using the crop and zoom tool in a video editor. Recently, I learned a more advanced technique that is making use of the so-called keyframes. They allow you to gain more precise control over the motion within a given time. In addition, the keyframes also let you change the opacity and quite a few other interesting functions, such as colour, rotation, scale etc. Ideally, you start out with a high resolution image. The above photo I used for this experiment lacks the clarity, which is very noticeable after I more than doubled its magnification in the process. Playing the short video will give a good idea of what I was trying to accomplish.

Natural Splendour of the Arrow Lakes

/ Peter Klopp / 31 Comments

Wednesday’s Photos

Hoping for a Happy and Rewarding 2022

A challenging year lies behind us. First, a severe drought, devastating wildfires, evacuation of thousands of people, then one downpour after another, causing widespread flooding and destruction of crucial BC highways, hit our beautiful province of British Columbia. Finally in December, when everyone was preparing for a blessed and joyful Christmas Season, snow storms stopped normal traffic, and an arctic chill plunged the coastal regions into the deep freeze. Then there was Covid-19 creating unprecedented hardships in the entire world. Considering the impact of all these horrible calamities, my wife’s broken leg seems almost like a trivial event. However, it brought unexpected challenges to our personal lives. At first, Biene has been completely immobile. Our son Michael brought her a rented ‘scooter’ for Christmas. Now, she is happy to be able to move around the house with relative ease. The latest x-rays indicate that her broken bone is healing well. The air-cast is doing its job.

New Year’s Eve

A heartfelt thank-you goes out to all my followers who expressed their feelings of compassion and concern for my wife’s health and well-being. It is also my hope that you all will understand my silence in the blogging sphere. A most challenging time lies behind us. Still, I am hopeful and cautiously optimistic for the year to turn out to be happy and prosperous for all of us.

Walter Panknin (1898 – 1977) and His Family – Ch5 Part 9

/ Peter Klopp / 7 Comments

The Anemic Yet Picky Eater

Biene contributed this post.

After their failed attempt to flee to the West, my freedom-loving parents had to survive in a totalitarian state. The communist regime had curtailed many of their freedoms. For example, my parents could not visit their friends and relatives on the other side of Germany and the rest of the world.
Before the war, my Dad had transferred to the police force in Gotha. Now, under communist rule, he could no longer keep his position as a police officer. Miraculously, one of my Dad’s old friends, a dentist, remembered that my father had worked as a dental technician in the past. He offered him a job to work in his dental laboratory.
Food supplies were very short for several years after the war, especially in the East. I remember my Dad taking us to small villages in the surrounding area. He would try to trade in his high-quality police boots, belts, leather gloves and other valuable clothing for precious food like flour, butter, eggs and cheese. I will never forget the tasty delight of a freshly baked heart-shaped waffle a kind farmer’s wife handed me on a chilly fall day. It was still warm and tasted heavenly!! I never had one before.

Biene and her Twin Brother Walter

Our diet mainly consisted of porridge, root vegetables, bread, molasses and some butter or other fat. There were strict government food rations. Since I was underweight and slightly anemic, a concerned doctor prescribed extra rations for me. But I was also a picky eater. It upset my Dad tremendously when I refused to eat or left something on the plate. He had experienced extreme hunger as a POW. My mother ended up feeding us children separately to keep him calm.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

/ Peter Klopp / 25 Comments

Last Post in 2021

As in previous years, I am taking a break from blogging during the holidays. My wife broke her leg on one of our walks down at the golf course and needs all my attention. I won’t be able to read and comment on your posts for the next little while. Sorry!

I would like to take this occasion to thank all my followers for their posts, kind comments and likes. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. During this time of the year, all people are yearning for peace. Let the light of love shine and bring hope for a better world. I selected a few photos of recent capture to present the theme of lights that are presently decorating our home. God bless you all.

Walter Panknin (1898 – 1977) and His Family Ch5 Part 8

/ Peter Klopp / 15 Comments

Failed Attempt to Escape

Biene contributed this post.

My brother and I were three years old when my mom made the first attempt to escape with us to the West. Fences, ditches and surveillance towers did not yet fortify the newly established borders between the divided Germanys. Heavily armed border guards patrolled the unmarked dividing line between the East and the West. My mom planned to cross the densely forested border at a remote village with my sister and us two. Once safely across, my sister would take us by train to relatives in the West while my mother would return home to escape with my Dad via Berlin to the West to rejoin us later. At that time, the East German regime had not yet built the wall, and it was still possible to escape from the eastern part of the city to the West by the subway system, which still joined the two parts of Berlin.

Early Border between East and West – Infants Reaching out across a Fence – Photo: DW

The memories of that night are etched in my memory forever. My mom and my sister struggled to push our twin stroller over a rugged forest path at the approach of the night. When the going was getting too rough, my mother allowed us to walk a short distance ahead of them. My brother and I didn’t like being cooped up in the stroller for too long. We started to run and chase each other around a bend of the narrow path when a gigantic figure with a gun stepped out of the dense bush and blocked our way. We all stood motionless for a long moment until my mother and sister came around the path.  My sister started to scream with fright, but my mother stayed calm. She tried to explain that we had lost our way, but she could not fool the guard. He told my mother that he would walk the other way pretending he never met us, on condition that she immediately returned to the village. If she refused to comply, he would have to shoot, as were his strict orders. If he showed mercy, his own life was at stake. He did show some pity by giving my mother directions to a house nearby. There we would find the porch door unlocked and spend the night under a roof.  “There will be shooting tonight,” were his last words. 

East German Border Guard with Dog Photo: DW

Once again, we experienced the unexpected mercy of an enemy soldier. We spent the night huddled in the corner of a spacious porch. My sister broke down, crying hysterically. We had never heard her cry before, and it scared us more than the sounds of shots fired in the distance. Part of my sister’s breakdown was that she experienced the first stages of pregnancy still unknown to her.A few months later, she married her long-time boyfriend, and soon after, our first nephew was born. Thus, my brother and I became uncle and aunt at the tender age of four.