Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall

At a party meeting, Opa gives unconvincing approval of the Wall. At school, he is compelled to teach party propaganda. Manni becomes a teacher, while Kai is drafted into the National People’s Army for an 18-month tour. Heidi’s sisters, Helga and Tutti, take Jugendweihe and join the Free German Youth. Kai excels in training and is made a border guard at the Berlin Wall, upsetting Oma and Opa as this is a high-risk role. 

In October, the Cuban Missile Crisis brings the world to the brink of nuclear war. By mid-1962, over 20 people have been killed trying to cross into the West. The Stasi expands its informant program, using blackmail and bribery to ensure compliance. In Kansas, Hanna reads a TIME magazine article about hopelessness in East Germany but chooses to believe her family is managing.

Heidi, aged 14, takes Jugendweihe without enthusiasm and joins the Free German Youth. The family gathers to celebrate Opa’s birthday, which coincides with East Germany’s Day of the Teacher. The family reminisces about happier times, temporarily lifting Opa’s spirits. 

After high-profile escapes, the GDR regime orders border guards not to hesitate to use firearms, even on women and children. In June 1963, President Kennedy visits Berlin and delivers a celebrated speech expressing solidarity with the whole city. Heidi longs to contact Hanna to share family news, including the death of their brother Klemens from cancer, but Oma tells her not to write. Opa’s frustrations boil over, and he openly ridicules the regime and tells a joke about Ulbricht. The authorities summon Opa and confront him with a letter of complaint he has written to Ulbricht. He is dismissed as headmaster, officially denounced, and expelled from the Communist Party. As punishment, Opa, Oma, and Heidi are banished to the remote hamlet of Klein Apenburg.

In Klein Apenburg, Opa is withdrawn and despondent but Oma puts on a brave face, telling them the family will get through this together. Oma takes charge, setting up the house, starting a garden, and nursing Opa. The family lives in poverty on a meager pension with no running water. Heidi bikes or walks a long distance to school in Apenburg.

Heidi comes to idolize Hanna for her courage and resolves to model her character after her sister. Heavy winter snows force Heidi to drop out of high school. After nearly a year, Opa slowly begins to recover. When Heidi is 18, Oma tells Heidi to leave Klein Apenburg and make a life for herself. She trains as a stenographer but is repeatedly rejected for jobs because she is not a Communist Party member and has relatives in the West. Heidi returns home, but she and Opa argue. Oma reassures Heidi, telling her to do what she thinks is right. Heidi writes a short, vague letter to Hanna, which passes censorship.

In 1968, Warsaw Pact troops crush the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia. In 1969, the United States lands a man on the moon. The East German leadership launches a massive state-sponsored sports program to gain international respect.

The narrator’s happy American childhood is described; her father Eddie has retired from the army and, by the late 1960s, she has four siblings. In the East, Heidi meets Reinhard, a non-party-member soldier, at a dance hall. They fall in love and marry, moving in with Reinhard’s parents in Stollberg. Heidi finds a secretarial job. Reinhard, unable to become an engineer, works as a field electrician. After a two-year wait, they are assigned a small apartment in a new prefab building. They put a down payment on a Czechoslovakian Skoda car, which has a 15-year waiting list for non-party members. In the United States, Hanna and Eddie buy a new Ford station wagon and a large house. Both Hanna and Heidi learn they are pregnant.

In winter 1970, Heidi gives birth to her daughter, Cordula. Hanna knits baby clothes and sends them with photos of her six children to East Germany, although some of the items are stolen en route. The family in the East is fascinated by the photos but Heidi feels melancholic, knowing she will likely never meet her nieces and nephews. In Klein Apenburg, Opa dotes on his granddaughter Cordula, who brings him great joy. Family gatherings in Klein Apenburg are happy, bustling events. Opa’s garden bench becomes known as “Opa’s resting place,” a special spot for the grandchildren (184).

Oma is diagnosed with diabetes aged 67. A package of grapefruits sent by Hanna never arrives. In late 1972, a shared telephone is installed in Oma and Opa’s house. Hanna receives a letter from Tiele with numbers on the envelope flap, which she suspects is a phone number. In the summer of 1973, Hanna attempts to call her mother for the first time in 15 years. After an hour of repeated attempts, the call connects to Oma. Overcome with emotion, they remain on the line in silence until Oma says they miss her so much. The line goes dead, and Hanna cannot reconnect.

The East German state sports program expands, with scouts recruiting children as young as six. Erich Honecker becomes the new leader of East Germany. He introduces consumer socialism, making more goods available to the population, though quality is often poor. Heidi and Reinhard acquire a rudimentary refrigerator and washing machine. Heidi and Reinhard accept their modest life and maintain their quiet resistance by not joining the party. The narrative describes the secret, luxurious life of the party elite in the guarded Wandlitz Forest Settlement. 

Oma and Opa turn 70 and are told they can emigrate as pensioners, but they refuse, fearing they would not be allowed to return to see their family. Hanna also avoids traveling to East Germany, fearing she might be prevented from leaving. Heidi and Reinhard have a second daughter, Mari. Manni visits Kai and finds him bedridden. Kai, now 34, is dying from a rare blood disorder, believed to be from chemical exposure during his work at the Peenemünde rocket facility after leaving the army.