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| April 2004 Newsletter |
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My Island in the Sun! - Maria Mühlbauer |
Im Frühjahr 1994 ging einer meiner größten Wünsche
in Erfüllung – ich ging nach Malta um dort zu leben und
zu arbeiten. Das erste Mal kam ich nach Malta durch einen, wie man so sagt, „Zufall“. Ich buchte einen 1-wöchingen Urlaub auf Empfehlung eines Reiseveranstalters. Direkt nach Ankunft auf Malta spät nachts wusste ich sofort tief in meinem Herzen: hier ist meine Heimat. Unnötig zu sagen, dass ich eine wundervolle Woche genoss und sofort nach meiner Heimreise schrieb ich an den „Deutsch-Maltesischen Zirkel“ und fragte an, ob mir der Zirkel eine Brieffreundin vermitteln könnte. Schon kurze Zeit später erhielt ich einen Brief von Doreen, die mir über sich, Ihre Familie und Ihr Leben auf Malta berichtete und wir starteten einen regen Austausch von Informationen, und so fand ich meine erste Freundin auf Malta. Was für eine starke und wertvolle Freundschaft sich daraus entwickelte konnte ich zu dieser Zeit noch nicht ahnen. Allerdings wurde mir schon kurze Zeit später Doreen´s Gastfreundschaft und die Ihrer Familie zuteil, als ich nämlich meinen zweiten Urlaub auf Malta verbrachte und von Ihr herzlich betreut wurde. Es folgten noch einige Urlaube in denen ich nicht weiter nur eine „Touristin“ war, sondern ein Mitglied der Familie und Doreen war nicht mehr nur eine Brieffreundin, sondern sie wurde für mich eine weitere Schwester. Vom ersten Augenblick verstanden wir uns „auf Anhieb“ und so teilte ich Ihr eines Tages mit, dass ich gerne auf Malta leben und arbeiten möchte. Ihre Worte höre ich noch heute, als hätte sie es gerade erst gestern gesagt: das ist zwar nicht einfach, aber auch nicht unmöglich!
Und was soll ich sagen: innerhalb von 3 Monaten beendete ich mein „altes“ Leben in Deutschland und fing mein „neues“ Leben in Malta an. Insgesamt verbrachte ich fast 5 meiner schönsten Lebensjahre auf meinem „Island in the Sun“. Zuerst arbeitete ich im Hotel als Gästebetreuerin und später als Reiseleiterin. In diesen Jahren fand ich außer Doreen und ihrem Ehemann noch einige weitere liebe und herzensgute Freunde, die mir geholfen haben, mit Rat und Tat zur Seite standen, mit mir lachten und mich betreuten, wenn es mir einmal nicht so gut ging. Mit ihnen stehe ich auch weiterhin in Kontakt und ihre Freundschaft für mich eines der wertvollsten Geschenke in meinem Leben. Von meinen Freunden lernte ich, dass das Wort „Freundschaft“ keine leere Phrase ist, sondern ein Fundament, dass einen durch das Leben trägt. Hier und heute spreche ich ihnen allen aus tiefstem Herzen meinen Dank und meine Liebe aus. Mein Dank und meine Liebe gehen aber auch an meine geliebte Insel und ihre Bewohner für eine wunderbare Zeit, die ich mit vielen glücklichen Erinnerungen verbinde. Ich war eine Ausländerin, eine “Germaniza”, als ich kam, und war eine „Maltija“ als ich ging. Grazzi hafna ghal kollox!
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| MALTESE HOTELIERS, TRAVEL AGENTS AND TOURIST OPERATORS HOSTED IN BERLIN |
 Maltese
Ambassador to Germany, H.E. Mr. William C. Spiteri, hosted a Reception
at his residence in Zehlendorf to the Maltese travel trade on the
occasion of the Annual International Tourism Exhibition (ITB). This
reception has become an annual tradition. The Embassy of Malta in
Berlin took the opportunity to thank the Hotel and travel trade for
the magnificent support they have invariably given to the Embassy,
providing exciting gift vouchers, which then the Embassy utilizes
in its tourist promotional activities. Last year, 35 Hoteliers (as
well as some English Language Schools) collaborated with the Embassy
by providing one-week stays for two persons in Malta.
The Embassy participated in 15 events, in and around Berlin, and also in Hanover, Stuttgart, Cologne, Mainz and Hamburg. During these promotional activities tourist and information stands were prepared and lots of tourist literature and hotel brochures were distributed to German potential visitors to Malta. The Malta Tourism Authority and Air Malta in Frankfurt also collaborated with and supported the Embassy in its activities. About
120 guests attended the very delightful reception. The distinguished
guests included Malta Tourism Authority’s former Chairman,
Dr. and Mrs. Grech, the shadow Minister of Tourism, Mr. Karmenu
Vella, Malta’s Honorary Consul General in Baden-Württemberg,
Prof. Viktor Dulger and Mrs. Dulger, Mr. Aage Dünhaupt of Lufthansa
Technik, Dr. Michael Theim, President of the Dorint Hotel and Resort,
Mr. Thomas Wachs, Member of the Board of the Maritim Pro Arte, Mr.
Christian Windfuhr, CEO of Maritim Hotel, as well as Representatives
from FTI Frosch Touristik and other tour operators, people from
Marketing, Advertising and PR and, of course, leading Hotels in
Malta, and a representative of the Gozo Tourism Authority. In the
course of the evening, Maltese wine and Maltese delicacies (including
“qassatat tal-ispinaci”, and “torta ta’l-irkotta”)
were served. |
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| Dr.
phil. Günter Jacobs Part I – My life in Germany until the end World War II Interviewed by Ingrid B. Kidder |
 Since
1990 students and visitors of the German-Maltese Circle know Dr. phil.
Günter Jacobs. He is part of the ‘establishment’
and holds his conversation class on a voluntary basis every Wednesday
evening, without fail. We thought it would be interesting to hear
more about his background, and obviously, what made him come to Malta.
His answers to my questions about his life sounded more like a novel, a very detailed one, rather than a simple sequence of events. Our conversation covered the childhood years in pre-war Germany, then the war, the post-war years in the Russian Zone (the former East German provinces occupied by the Russian Military Forces), and finally his settled life in Frankfurt/Main. He was born in peaceful times in the tiny village of Beestland near Stralsund in Vorpommern (Western Pomerania, then part of Prussia). His father was the teacher of the one-class village school, where some 50-60 children of all eight compulsory school years were taught simultaneously. And his mother was the ‘Handarbeitslehrerin’ teaching the children the crafts of knitting, crocheting and sewing, highly valued at those times. The family lived in an extension to the schoolhouse, built in red bricks, which also had a garden. They tilled their fields and owned pigs, goats and a cow, with geese, ducks and chickens running about. – A beautiful and tranquil childhood for young Günter Jacobs and his younger brother.
By the end of the war on May 8th, 1945, his immediate family was one of the very, very few, where every member had survived; the men were released from the prison camps – or were lucky to be able to escape. His father returned to the village in 1946. Dr. Jacobs remembers that in those chaotic times the food supply in the British Camp for the German Prisoners of War was rather scarce, a reason, he thinks, for them not to watch the fences too closely… Like many others, one night he crept through the fence and kept on walking until he found a farm in the village of Horst in Schleswig-Holstein. The people were happy to see young German men, as there were hardly any left in the village. They gave them food in return for work. However, young Günter longed for his parents and brother, to whom he had no contact, his ancestral village now being situated deep in the Russian Military Zone.
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Mehr
brauchte ich nicht zu hören. Von dem Tag an stand für
mich fest: ich schaffe das! Ich komme nach Malta! Wieder kam mir
einer der berühmten „Zufälle“ in Form von
Doreen´s Ehemann zur Hilfe, der seine Ohren nach einem Job
für mich aufhielt und letztendlich durch seine vielen guten
Beziehungen auch eine Stelle in einem Hotel für mich fand.
Glaubt mir, es gibt Engel. Sie erscheinen einem nicht immer unbedingt
in himmlischer Gestalt mit Flügeln, sondern im irdischen Leben
oftmals in irdischer Gestalt. Und ich habe sogar das große
Glück, zwei davon meine Freunde nennen zu dürfen.
Many
of our members follow German language courses at the German-Maltese
Circle. For 15 German students and their two teachers from the Louise-Otto-Peters-Schule
in Wiesloch (near Heidelberg), the Circle was the place where they
studied Maltese! Well, their wish was to get at least an idea of
what the Maltese language sounds like, where it comes from, what
media exist in Maltese, and ... recipes in Maltese. The students
attended various sessions at the Circle where our President, Mr.
Albert Friggieri, first gave them an introductory lecture about
the Maltese language. Then one of our teachers, Mr. Robert Bonnici,
taught them basic Maltese expressions from everyday life. The students,
who were living with host families during their stay in Malta, could
then practice with these families the phrases and words that they
had learned at the Circle. The students and their teachers, Herr
Dr. Kronemeyer and Frau Gina Schneck, came to Malta on an EU-assisted
Comenius project. 
However,
this idyllic life came to an abrupt end with the outbreak of World
War II, when the flames of destruction reached every corner of Central
and Eastern Europe. During the last phases of the war, the then
fifteen-year old Günter was drafted first to the Reichsarbeitsdienst
(National Labour Service of the Reich), then into the National Army.
It was his luck to be transferred to an instruction camp situated
at the border to Schleswig-Holstein, i.e. further west, where the
nearby British troops had already landed from the North Sea and
were pressing towards the East. Within a very short time his group
was taken as prisoners of war by the British, while back home his
father, who had been sent to fight in the East, had been taken prisoner
of war by the Russian forces.
Remember,
by then Germany was divided into four clearly defined military zones,
i.e. American, British, French and Russian. The border of the Russian
Zone, running more or less North-South through Germany, became the
most difficult to cross. Yet, just the same, people started leaving
the East and pouring into the West in their thousands. In 1945 our
brave young lad together with a companion of same fate set out in
the opposite direction - for home in the East; they crossed the
Grüne Grenze (the ‘green frontier’), i.e. the forests
where there were no watchtowers and fortifications yet, –
those came later. Nevertheless they were caught by Russian Military
Personnel on the other side. These soldiers made it clear beyond
any doubt, that they wanted to see some type of identification of
the youngsters, who were still clad in their worn-out, two-year
old uniforms. Dr. Jacobs thinks that sometimes ignorance as far
as knowledge of languages is concerned can be a life saving bliss
for someone. The only printed piece of paper they possessed was
a receipt of some sort, obviously written in German, which the Cyrillic-trained
border guard could not decipher, and not admitting his ignorance,
let them go. Günter Jacobs reached his village, the old country
school and his family. Despite all dire need and hardship, there
was great happiness when – after also his father had returned
as the last Heimkehrer (repatriated prisoner of war) - the family
re-united after such a long time and so many terrible experiences.