Chapter 2 of the P. and G. Klopp Story

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Chapter 2

The Plan

A goal without a plan is just a wish.  Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

One day while cleaning up the closet in our spare bedroom, I came across half a dozen boxes overflowing with photos, documents and letters. Although some items, especially those bundled together and secured with elastic bands, were in a fairly recognizable chronological order, most were in a state of extreme disarray. Having endeavored to bring order to chaotic situations throughout my thirty years of teaching, I immediately felt the need to peruse, sort, and arrange this long forgotten wealth of family information. A formidable task lay before me. What could I do, when I had already filled my waking hours with must-do activities? To prioritize is the name of the game. Oh, how I hate this word, even though it is derived from my beloved ancient language Latin! Something ‘prior’ is something that comes before else. It became obvious to me that sorting hundreds, if not thousands, of pictures and papers would be very time-consuming and would be strictly an indoor activity for the long, dreary winter months, when my only outdoor jobs would be splitting and stacking firewood, shovelling snow and knocking off sheets of ice off the roof.

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Mateo and Our Family Reunion

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Mateo Klopp (Chart I – V)

Mateo, our 15-year-old grandson, arrived with his family from Montreal at the end of July in 2014 and spent two weeks mostly camping at Taite Creek Camp Site on our beautiful Arrow Lake.

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Mateo Posing with Azure and Eméline

He has grown into an amicable young man. Of course, grandparents notice changes much more, especially when they don’t see their grandchildren very often. Mateo impressed us with his kind, caring and loving manner, with which he interacted with all family members, in particular with his two little half-sisters Azure and Eméline.

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Mateo, Stefan and Lisa playing ‘Ticket To Ride’

Great-grandmother Erika Klopp would have been delighted to see Mateo’s passion for card and board games. All he needs to learn to play now is the Kegler-Klopp favorite card game ‘Doppelkopf’! In my mind I already see the approving nods from his ancestors of Pomerania, Gutfelde and Watzenborn, if he were to take up this traditional family past time.

On a warm, sunny day his uncles Robert, Tony, Michael and Stefan, his aunts or aunts-to-be Angie and Lisa, a camping buddy from the next site, and two dogs set out with Mateo on an exploratory expedition in boats and canoes to find the elusive hot springs 10 km downriver at Octopus Creek. After hours of rowing and paddling they arrived at the mouth of the creek, where a scene of total devastation presented itself to their astonished eyes. Heavy spring rains and melt waters in previous years had completely destroyed this remote campground. Trees torn down by the flood were piled up in an almost impenetrable jumble of logs and debris.

Despite the obstacles the adventurers decided to climb up in search of the hot springs by following the creek upstream. But after a few hours of strenuous scrambling over and under fallen trees, which  were straddling precariously over the canyon walls, they gave up. Caution had prevailed in the face of danger and potential disaster. Although Mateo felt very tired being the youngest in the group, he was happy and cheerful, when they returned at our camp site.

Family August 2014

The P. and G. Klopp Family – August 2014

Right now he is back in Montreal studying hard to get good grades in Math, Science and Computer Programming. It seems he has found a concrete goal for his future career in life. He will most likely follow in the footsteps of his godfather Stefan. Biene and I are very proud of you, Mateo!

To all Users of Our Family Tree Project

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Regarding Comments

Please note that WordPress.com, whose services I am using for hosting this blog, does not allow links and other connections to the web in your comments. This is – the way I understand it – done strictly for security reasons. In other words, only text messages are allowed in the comments. However, you can always email me additional material, such as photos and links, which in turn I may publish on your behalf.

For example, on the previous post, I received a comment from a user in Germany with a link to the following picture of the restored Frauenkirche in Dresden.

Restored Frauenkirche in Dresden

Restored Frauenkirche in Dresden

Uwe and Anke Schubert

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A Miraculous Escape (Chart II – IV)

 

Contributed by Anke Schubert

Uwe’s mother originally comes from Breslau (now a Polish town by the name of Wroclaw). She was just six years old, when she had to flee with her family from the advancing Red Army. Somehow the family with four children managed to reach Dresden. But she does not remember much about it.

On February 12th, 1945, they were left stranded at the Central Railway Station and the trains were not moving anywhere. The father, who had been a governmental councilor in Breslau and also in charge of transportation, for some reason had on his key chain a square-headed key. To get his family out of the overcrowded railway station, he took the family to an empty locked train car that had been moved some distance from the station.By means of this square-headed key he opened one of those locked cars, and his family could finally find some rest. Shortly after, the ’empty’ car was moved to another location so that it would be protected from the impending bombing raids (How many people could have been taken and saved!)

And so it came to pass that during the night that followed the family could escape the devastating aerial attack. The train was parked on a sidetrack near Chemnitz in Waldheim, where the family then stayed.

Dresden after the Devastating Bombing Raids

Dresden after the Devastating Bombing Raids

The Incredible Story of the Fall of the Iron Curtain

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The Dieter and Edda Barge Report (Chart II a – IV)

Contributed be Dieter Barge

Bruno Kegler

Bruno Kegler 1901 – 1940

Edda’s grandparents on her mother’s side of the family were Bruno and Johanna Kegler. We called Johanna Hanna. She was a kindhearted woman. She too had to endure many hardships. Truly she had earned her last beautiful years together with her mother and Aunt Maria at Tulpen Street in Gießen. Her maiden name was Engel (Angel in English).

One of her cousins was Erich Engel, who lived after the war with his wife Berty in Hanover and served in the courts as Attorney General. For many years Erich immersed himself in family research and of course also explored the ancestry of the Keglers. Edda and I maintained an active correspondence with the Engels. So it comes as no surprise that Erich had also written much about our family. Unfortunately he passed away a few years before Gemany’s reunification. Thus, we never met in person. On the occasion of our first visit to the ‘West’ – I believe it was in 1987, I got to know his wife Berty. We had dinner with her together with Jürgen and Inge Kegler. Out of this emerged a long friendship with her. She passed away at the age of 94.

On November 9th, 1989, the Berlin Wall had come down. Günter Schabowski, the Regime’s spokesman made the fateful announcement that East Germans would be allowed to cross the border. When asked how soon, not being completely informed he replied, “As far as I know, effective immediately.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQiriTompdY

On the same evening tens of thousands of GDR citizens were in West Berlin, and on Saturday November 11th, 1989 our family traveled to Berty’s place in Hanover. We started out at six in the morning and arrived in Hanover at 8 p.m. From the moment we entered the autobahn, we slowly drove in the notorious stop-go pattern of a horrendous traffic jam. We will never forget this trip! Today you can cover the distance in an hour and a half.

Rejoicing at the Border
Border Crossing at Helmstedt

There was rejoicing everywhere. Right after the border crossing at Marienborn there was even a party going on. Berty looked at us. She had no idea that we were coming and said, “… and I have nothing at all to eat for you!”

On Sunday on our return trip there were a hundred people standing on every overpass waving at the Trabis and Wartburgs (East German cars). Later on I often went to the ‘Four Border Point’, where Berty lived, and helped a little in her apartment, whenever there was something to do. Often we had a couple of Jever beers and Doornkaat schnaps. Together we also went to Wilhelmshaven, where Erich came from. His father was employed there as senior foreman at the shipyard.

Back to Erich, he had put together about six thick volumes of more than 1000 pages, of which we have a copy. The huge family had several Engel-Reunions, besides others also the one in Weipoldtshausen at Jürgen and Inge Kegler’s. In volume five, Erich recounts a little story of a reunion in 1973 at Tulpen Street in Gießen. Jürgen and his 6-year old son Michael dropped in to see us. Michael looked at the backs of all the participants and said to his dad (Recall that the name Engel means Angel in English), “These are not angels at all. I looked at them very closely. They have no wings!”

Kegler Family Reunion in Hungary

Kegler Family Reunion in Hungary

Walter Panknin – Chart III – III

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Walter Panknin

Biene and Walter with Model Boat

Biene and Walter with Model Boat 1959

 

On my first post of many more to follow on my late brother-in-law Walter, I would like to highlight just one of the many fascinating hobbies that he passionately pursued  through his entire life. When he was ten years old he received as a gift a simple model construction kit with dozens of tiny parts and an instruction manual on how to build the ship. It was a humble beginning. But when he presented the finished project to his parents, he was filled with the proud feeling of having accomplished a piece of craftsmanship. It was not only the beginning of a passion for model boats and airplanes, but it also set the course for his future career as a successful engineer. When after their flight from East Germany to the West and a long wait in a refugee camp, his father and mother were finally able to find a small apartment in the city of Velbert. There Walter continued to build bigger, more elaborate and more complicated models from a Mississippi sternwheeler, a French warship, a Roman trireme, all the way up to his the masterpiece, the great American sailing ship. The lesson we parents can all learn from Walter’s amazing hobby is that  we should attempt to awaken talents and interest in our children at an early age. For once developed the resulting hobbies will help enrich their lives and the lives they come into contact with.

Sternwheeler
Roman Trireme
French Warship
American Sailing Ship