{"id":1436,"date":"2023-06-25T10:12:11","date_gmt":"2023-06-25T08:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grenztuerme-erleben.de\/contemporary-witness-franz-juergen-lehmkuhl\/"},"modified":"2023-06-30T09:23:02","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T07:23:02","slug":"contemporary-witness-franz-juergen-lehmkuhl","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.grenztuerme-erleben.de\/en\/contemporary-witness-franz-juergen-lehmkuhl\/","title":{"rendered":"Contemporary witness Franz-J\u00fcrgen Lehmkuhl"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"gb-container gb-container-cb9e8db1 zeugen-header\">\n<div class=\"gb-container gb-container-07510c5f\">\n\n<h1 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-44b29400 gb-headline-text\">Contemporary witness Franz-J\u00fcrgen Lehmkuhl <\/h1>\r\n\n\n<div class=\"gb-grid-wrapper gb-grid-wrapper-2c2e9606\">\n<div class=\"gb-grid-column gb-grid-column-4ced763a\"><div class=\"gb-container gb-container-4ced763a\">\n\n<h3 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-733d03bd gb-headline-text\">Sunny and shady sides in the GDR protective strip<\/h3>\r\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.grenztuerme-erleben.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/franz-juergen-lehmkuhl.jpg\" alt=\"Franz-J&#xFC;rgen Lehmkuhl \" class=\"wp-image-880\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.grenztuerme-erleben.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/franz-juergen-lehmkuhl.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.grenztuerme-erleben.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/franz-juergen-lehmkuhl-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.grenztuerme-erleben.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/franz-juergen-lehmkuhl-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>born on 16.09.1951 in Konau<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"gb-grid-column gb-grid-column-86f31af2\"><div class=\"gb-container gb-container-86f31af2\">\n\n<h2 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-0060fd77 gb-headline-text\">Childhood in the protective strip of the border<\/h2>\r\n<h4>German audio file &#8211; Please scroll down for the English text version<\/h4>\r\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.grenztuerme-erleben.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/lehmkuhl-kindheit-grenze.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-3fe0abad gb-headline-text\">The border fortification<\/h2>\r\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.grenztuerme-erleben.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/lehmkuhl-grenzbefestigung.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-f0cb112a gb-headline-text\">Escape thoughts<\/h2>\r\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.grenztuerme-erleben.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/lehmkuhl-fluchtgedanken.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-4ec1e71f gb-headline-text\">The turning point<\/h2>\r\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.grenztuerme-erleben.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/lehmkuhl-wendezeit.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"gb-container gb-container-1a037f98 zeugen-text\">\n<div class=\"gb-container gb-container-a8fb1c35\">\n<div class=\"gb-grid-wrapper gb-grid-wrapper-e0db4f7b\">\n<div class=\"gb-grid-column gb-grid-column-b6ccd66e\"><div class=\"gb-container gb-container-b6ccd66e\"><div class=\"gb-inside-container\">\n\n<h2 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-578f5e77 gb-headline-text\">Childhood in the protective strip of the border<\/h2>\r\n\n\n\n<p>We had an excellent childhood. My sister and I, we grew up with my parents on the farm. My parents had run a very functional farm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chronologically, we got a car in 1957, I had a motorbike at 16 and a riding horse at 14, and my parents always made sure we were well off, that was the sunny side of our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The shadow was the other, of course we have experienced that a child&#8217;s leg, for example, we once came home sometime after the official curfew of my father&#8217;s friends and were stopped right in front of our yard and then were not allowed to enter our property and then my father got very angry and then told the organ: &#8220;And the children come to bed, they don&#8217;t stay here sitting in the car!&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My parents then had to stand in front of the courtyard from 11 a.m. until 5 a.m. waiting to be allowed into the house, but in between, my mother was allowed to put us to bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that is actually how it has always developed. The border was not as it was generally imagined. The border grew very, very slowly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we went to school, we weren&#8217;t allowed to say that my parents didn&#8217;t watch &#8220;aktuelle Kamera&#8221;, but the &#8220;Tagesschau&#8221;.When we went to confirmation classes, we weren&#8217;t necessarily allowed to talk about it.I was baptised, I was confirmed and I am still in church today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was a constant conversation, we always had to make sure that nothing was said about West German television.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There were people everywhere, for whom I even have understanding today, who walked around in front of the windows and obeyed. Those were the ones who fell for the things of socialism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-5d4f0e79 gb-headline-text\">The border fortification<\/h2>\r\n\n\n\n<p>But the next fence was built along the dunes, with three big rolls of wire, and yes, that wasn&#8217;t so scary for us.<br\/>It was still easy to crawl through, and that&#8217;s what we did as children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the gates &#8211; I had to herd cows with my sisters and we brought in hay there and I bathed in the Elbe there, although it was forbidden &#8220;who knows how&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My mother wasn&#8217;t always so afraid. For example, as children we were put on the hay cart because my grandparents from the west, on the west side of the Elbe, were standing so that they could see us. We were held up on the hay cart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Als wir dann junge Leute waren und wir hatten im Hochsommer Hochwasser in der Elbe, da hat mein Vater gesagt, \u201edu Jung\u2026\u201c\u2013 ich fuhr dann schon mit dem Moped \u2013 \u201e\u2026du kannst dann mal um die Hochwasserzonen rum hinter dem Stacheldraht und musst du noch mal das Heu umkehren\u201c, weil die das Nachmittags einfahren wollten.<br\/>Und dann hat doch ein Soldat auf mich Warnsch\u00fcsse abgegeben, wie ich durchs Wasser gegangen bin. Das hat mich schon gepr\u00e4gt!<br\/>Wenn das neben Ihnen mit dem Maschinengewehr pl\u00e4tschert, ich war sehr brav dann.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"gb-grid-column gb-grid-column-dee9d535\"><div class=\"gb-container gb-container-dee9d535\"><div class=\"gb-inside-container\">\n\n<h2 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-45ead001 gb-headline-text\">Thoughts of escape<\/h2>\r\n\n\n\n<p>A stark memory from my life in 1960, when the first LPG was introduced,<br\/>my parents had been given a new Wartburg 311 of its time and were allowed to use it to visit my grandparents in Uelzen and had already packed everything that was considered valuables at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My parents then swam at night through the Elbe from the West to the East and wanted to catch up with us children because they did not want to submit to the regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I can still remember well as a boy &#8211; I was nine years old &#8211; that my grandfather used to shout in the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And so that was a very dramatic night and my parents then swam back to the west without having achieved anything and then officially came here again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-b7041cd7 gb-headline-text\">The turning point<\/h2>\r\n\n\n\n<p>At that time, the border and travel situation was a bit more relaxed and we always said we&#8217;ll see how it goes: We&#8217;ll do it. We plan it and that&#8217;s it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then in the summer, I visited my parents in the border area on my motorbike, as I often do, and I was in the parlour and then Schalck-Golodkowski said those special words on the news that the borders were open and travel was free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course I couldn&#8217;t do anything with it, I couldn&#8217;t imagine it either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We then drove to the West as usual with the Trabant for my birthday and had some great experiences: Shortly after Hamburg, someone with an Audi parked behind us at a rest stop &#8211; I&#8217;ll never forget it &#8211; and gave me 100 DM saying &#8220;Do you want to drive back?&#8221;. I say &#8220;Of course, I have my children at home and I have my life at home&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I hadn&#8217;t yet understood what was coming.He gave me the 100 marks and got into the car and drove on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then we went to acquaintances we had met about balloon friendships, which existed in GDR times because we mainly had a west wind, and in the West, in order to get in touch with the East, they let balloons fly with the address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br\/><br\/><\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gb-shapes\"><div class=\"gb-shape gb-shape-1\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 1200 360\" preserveAspectRatio=\"none\"><path d=\"M1200 360H0V0l1200 348z\"\/><\/svg><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Contemporary witness Franz-J\u00fcrgen Lehmkuhl<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1436","page","type-page","status-publish"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - 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