Billmann-Berlin, Berlin-Zehlendorf, 1950s           German

 

 

Memories (maps, photos, videos ...) :

 

Re: the post-war period.

' On April 22, 1945, the 1st Ukrainian Front under Marshal Konev prepared to overcome the Teltow Canal in a broad front. After the failure of a first attack in the area of Lichterfelde, the first bridgehead was won on April 24, 1945 (1) at the Fritz-Schweitzer-Bridge, and the Soviet tanks reached Zehlendorf Sued at noon. ' ( https://www.berlin.de/ba-steglitz-zehlendorf/ueber-den-bezirk/historisches/artikel.14440.php, January 2023 ).
On the back side of the property at Ladiusstrasse 5, where the Billmanns lived around 1949-53, according to recollection, there was a fallow area with an abandoned trench system.
And during kindergarten walks, there were many pits in the Heinrich-Laehr-Park that meanwhile were covered with leaves. (2)
All children were forbidden by parents and kindergarten teachers to play there.

In 1952 the external border (West Berlin - GDR) was closed.
Until then, people from Zehlendorf could buy something in Teltow, for example a wooden toy bus for the Billmann children, and only had border controls on the Knesebeck bridge *.

 

Where did they come from?

 

____
(1)
- Joerg Volker Dietrich, Kinder der Goerzbahn, 2020, p. 6, https://books.google.de/books?id=lwPtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA6&hl=de&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Berlin
(2)
Kindergarten (in hospital & rest home): early 1950s, then closed
(3)
https://m.facebook.com/stadtpirmasens/photos/dem-tanzlehrer-leonhard-billmann-war-es-noch-1937-geradezu-peinlich-dass-man-ihn/948201048573207/:
- Correction (also for Internet users without a Facebook account) : https://www.mozart-hat-den-blues.de/Pirmasens.jpg (screenshot)

 

 

German - Mozart has the blues