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Gretal and Paul get married.
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Paul Dieter (father) gets job at bank (Sparkasse).
It was a huge deal for him to get a good job after 7 years of unemployment. This also allowed him and his wife to leave the farm they were living on. -
Marga is born
Marga is born in Worms, Germany -
World War 2 begins.
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Her father leaves to serve in German army.
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British Airraides start in Germany
Towns were bombed and families had to stay in bomb shelters in the basement of their house for extended periods of time. -
Gisbert (brother) starts visiting Deutsches Jungvolk meetings.
These were the Hitler youth meetings for boys from the ages 10-14. -
Father comes home, unexpected, from war
This is the first time Marga sees him and is able to remember it. His visit lasted 3 days. -
Marga's Father goes missing.
They have no information on whether he is alive or not and if so, where he is. -
Gretal (mother) is arrested by Gestapo for speaking out against Nazi party.
She was turned in by her own son for not letting him go to the metings or where his new shoes to the pre-Hitler youth meetings/trainging. She was imprisoned for 3 days. -
Marga's house is bombed and Worms is evacuated.
Marga's family went to her grandparent's farm in Beindersheim, Germany-13 miles away from Worms. They remained there for 3 months. This same day her family finds out from the Red Cross that her father is in a POW camp in Arizona. -
German Defeat
War ends. -
Gisbert (brother) remains in Beindersheim.
The rest of family moves back to Worms. -
Americans liberate parts of Germany.
The Americans liberated Worms. Their tanks lined the streets. They were seen as dangerous, especially to women. Marga and her mother were not allowed out of the house for two months. -
Americans leave.
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French occupation begins.
All people had to learn French. Marga recalls their culture being very heavily influenced by the French. -
Marga gets to go to school.
The school consisted of 50 girls. They only got to go to school for two hours in the morning because they had to share the bulding. Prior to going to school, Marga and her mother worked on the farm in order to have food. Her time on the farm were crucial to her development of an appreciation for nature, which is present in her life to this day. -
Marga learns to read.
Marga remembers marveling at learning to read. She describes it as "walking through a magical door". -
Stores started to open again.
Although everything was homemade, they could start buying things that they couldn't get during the war. -
Paul comes home after being away for 8 years.
Marga was home alone when he came home before his schedueled arrival. When the doorbell rang she looked out the window and saw a man she didn't recognize. She told him to go away because she had been told not to open the door to strangers. He told her to open the door and told her that he was her father. This was the first time she had seen her father since she was 3. -
German currency reform happens.
All Marga's family's money is worth virtually nothing. The 100 marks she recieved for her first communion were only worth 10 marks now. Gretal anticipated the currency change and spent most of their money prior to the reform. -
The family moves to Lampertheim, Germany
Paul gets a job at the bank again, but is transferred to Lampertheim. Marga had to go to a new school for which she had to travel a long way on public transportation/walking. This is when she met her best friend Lilo, who continues to be friends with Marga today. Marga participated in track as well. Marga went to this school for 6 years. -
Marga leaves for London to work as an au pair.
She was in Kensington for 9 months. She then lived in France for 6 months following her time in London. -
Marga came to the United States.
She was pregnant with Catherine and got married to Robert McCormick in Germany, She had to come to the United States even though she wanted to travel more.
